Office 2010 Beta, The Project, Star Trek, ChromOS, and Keyboards.

Office 2010 beta is free for all! it's good til October 2010 and it's fully featured. No concrete progress on The Project. Star Trek was awesome. The ChromeOS. Microsoft scores with this keyboard. ALL THIS BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW!!!

It expires October 2010 so you have almost a whole year to get sucked in, then they JACK UP THE PRICE. If you have been using 2007, it's a slight graphical update. They have removed the Office Start Button, using the ribbon and instituting a file tab. So far I am enjoying using it. If you are coming over from Office 2003 or XP, have fun cause a lot has changed. You can get it here. They have a 2 versions, Pro and Pro Plus (plus includes a few other programs) and each have the option of 32 bit and 64 bit.

I'm heading out to Utah to visit the family. I am looking forward to it and hoping to getting some free time to relax. Might provide some time to get more story and song done. I have been fitting it in, in between office-work and home-work. My guitar skills are severely lacking, and I think, in order to do this right I need to invest some time getting it all back in line. I didn't post anything about the project on Friday and apologize for not following through on that, but the fact is, nothing is done and it would be pre-alpha crap at best. There are a lot of things I want to do, but it is getting focused (finally) and hopefully I'll have something to share after Thanksgiving weekend.

Finally saw Star Trek last night. Man, this is one for the theater. Very good film. I was expecting a lot and I got it. I'm no Trekkie. I have never seen a Star Trek film, although I have seen many episodes of Star Trek:The Next Generation. I vaguely follow the, I guess you would say, the fan base mythology. For example, when the red shirt got in with Kirk and Zulu and were dropped, I knew he wasn't coming back. The only surprise, I guess, was that he was smoked as fast as he was. Only it wasn't a surprise. It was one of the many throw backs to the Original Star Trek t show and movies. And it worked perfectly. JJ Abrams integrated enough Star Trek lore into this movie while making it perfectly relatable to anyone who hasn't seen any Star Trek movie or TV show. It had a good story, good actors, and good effects. If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed.

4 out of 5 stars.

Oh, and this company, Google, released a beta of their OS (chrome os). You can download the image and load it in Virtual Box or VMWare. It's pretty much the Chrome browser sitting on top of a linux kernal. At least that's what it appears to me. It ran pretty slow and eventually crashed in Virtual Box, so I don't know what to think of it. I see what they are trying to do and their philosophy, that soon everything will be on the net, supports this move. But it seems to bare bones. The footprint doesn't even seem that small, as the images themselves run around 300M zipped (700-800 unzipped), but it could be that the virtual hard drives in which they reside are relatively empty. It's curious, and I'm wondering were it will lead.

And lastly, if you are looking for a Wireless Keyboard, I can throw my recommendation towards the Microsoft 3000 it's a great keyboard, that boasts (and as far as I'm concerned, sustains) a 40ft. range. At my request, my wife picked it up for me at Target for $30. It is the best (for the value) wireless keyboard I have ever used. Check it out, if you are in the market. It makes a great HTPC keyboard.