My Reading List

Filed under: Office, Web services, Microsoft, web 2.0, Web

It looks like Microsoft is finally prepared to launch its answer to Google Docs, Zoho Office, and ThinkFree Office. About a year after launching Office Live Workspace, which is really just a service for people to store and share documents created using desktop apps, Microsoft has announced plans to go ahead with true web-based versions of MS Office applications including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

The Office Web applications will reportedly be stripped down versions of the desktop apps. And it looks like Microsoft will offer at least two tiers of service, with an ad-supported version and a subscription based option for business customers.

The next version of Microsoft Office for the desktop will include the ability to synchronize documents over the web for access on the go. So Microsoft clearly expects customers to continue paying for the offline version of Office. Somehow I suspect the company will also set aside at least a few special features that are only available in the desktop version.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Microsoft to launch web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Reader skarhead187 has submitted several desktops to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell pool, and the thing that always stands out most—aside from a great eye for minimalism—is that despite using popular dock application ObjectDock, most of his desktops don't show any icons or branding. Keep reading for a look at a few more of skarhead187's desktops and to hear why he likes "genderless, organic desktops":

Windows needs a global menu; OS X has it, Ubuntu has the option. I like Ubuntu's bookended desktop and also its warm and organic interface. I think the futuristic interfaces of Vista and OSX are cheesy and will seem even more cheesy throughout time. I also hate the branding of operating systems (of course I understand it). I want my machine to just work and communicate the information I need with me without overwhelming me. This is my attempt to make a genderless organic desktop. I understand it looks similar to my other desktops, but that is why I've named the set Desktop Evolution.

Using Windows Vista Home Premium, Rainmeter, ObjectDock, and custom Transblack theme.

Most of the rest of skarhead187's desktops follow the same philosophy, and a couple even offer tutorials of their own.

Juke Box

I'm using Desktop Media 1.7 to display any connected drives to my computer. It vanishes when I pull it out and I have it set to ignore my external HD and IPod. I really wish Windows automatically mounted drives like Ubuntu or OSX but you can't always get what you want. One thing that really annoys me about icons is icon text but there is a way of getting rid of it without using any other programs that eat up precious memory.

I'm also using Pidgin here because I cannot get Miranda to sign in or retrieve any of my buddy lists (I would prefer it because its skinnable).

Dirt-Wood Vista

TransblackBoot

Looking good, skarhead187!

Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms): GIMP, the free, open-source graphics editor, has come out with a 2.6 version, and it's put some significant changes into the editor's interface and back-end operations. New to this version are support for 32 bits per color channel and a new GEGL-based backend (turned on and off in the preferences), polygonal and sectional selection with the Free Select Tool, better handling of windows, toolbars, docked tools, and menus, and a "brush dynamics" sub-menu that gives creators serious control over their pixel-pushing tools. Those are just a few of the many changes in this release. GIMP 2.6 is a free download for Windows, Mac, or Linux platforms, though it's only (officially) available as source code at the moment. Read on for help installing GIMP 2.6 on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

Installing GIMP 2.6

• Ubuntu Linux: If you're comfortable adding third-party sources to your respositories, one helpful user has built a custom source for both Hardy Heron (8.04) and those testing the alpha of 8.10. You can also grab pre-compiled packages from GetDeb.net (also available as one ZIPed up file), put them together, head there in a terminal and run a sudo dpkg -i * command on them.
• Windows: GimpUsers.com points us to a SourceForge-hosted Windows installer for 2.6.
• Other Linux systems/Mac OS X: For the moment, you're stuck with compiling from source, or a lot of Google/forum hunting. Ready to take the source code plunge? Refer to Webmonkey's guide to compiling.

The changes in 2.6 are welcome to many long-time users and, most likely, anyone held back from adopting the free editor because of technical restrictions. What most of us are seriously looking forward to, however, is the serious user interface overhaul promised for future editions.

Let's hear from our GIMP, and Photoshop, users: What must-have feature is still missing from the open-source editor? What would you do differently if you were in charge of interface design? Share your gripes and glad-hands in the commments.

Cat-lover Alan couldn't stand the stink of the litter box in the garage, so he built in a bathroom fan that vents out the side of the house. To smarten up the system, his Mac mini automates the whole business so it's not running continuously:

In front of the litter box sits a motion detector. When the detector "sees" the cat, it tells the computer to start a timer. After 5 minutes (hopefully enough time for the cat, unless he's reading), the fan kicks on and vents the box for 15 minutes. That's just about enough time to take care of any major business that occurred.

Out of respect for the neighbors, he added a dryer sheet on the vent to mitigate the outgoing fumes. How do you automate litter box stink management? Let us know in the comments. For more like this, check out our top 10 home automation projects.

Windows only: Experience the popular ribbon user interface from Micorosft Office 2007 in your free, light text editor with Notepad 2008. Notepad 2008 most closely resembles the lightweight WordPad with the ability for users to change font sizes to format their text, but with the added options to customize the display of your text editor with one of three different appearances. The ribbon interface displays all features of Notepad 2008 onscreen so that no menus are needed. Notepad 2008 is a free download for Windows only.

With or without the cooperation of television networks, your favorite TV shows have moved to the internet in a big way. On Tuesday we asked you to share the best sites to stream TV, and now we're back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a breakdown of the best places on the web to find and watch the shows you love on-demand from the convenience of your browser.

Hulu

Hulu streams high-resolution, ad-supported videos of both television shows and movies. More specifically, the site distributes content by NBC-Universal, Fox, and a handful of their subsidiaries. Popular shows hosted by Hulu include The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Battlestar Galactica, The Simpsons, The Office, and Saturday Night Live. The biggest complaint leveled against Hulu is its US-only restrictions, though many of you are using previously mentioned Hotspot Shield to access Hulu from outside the US. Hulu isn't entirely US-only, though—the first show Hulu made available to the world at large was Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, with Lifehacker favorite Felicia Day.

SurfTheChannel

SurfTheChannel aggregates video from all over the internet—including sites like YouTube, MetaCafe, and Hulu (along with much more obscure sites)—then makes all of those videos available through a simple, searchable interface. It's not always pretty, but the selection is huge. The downside: According to the STC homepage, the site will shut down on October 1st.

SideReel

SideReel is a video aggregation site similar to SurfTheChannel, providing links to streaming video from all over the internet. It's an attractive site, but if you're there to find video it can be difficult to navigate to begin with. If video is what you're looking for, just navigate to the Links section of a show's page and click on the episode you want.

Straight from the Source

Apart from the sites dedicated to streaming content, more and more networks are building their own on-site tools for streaming content from the source. For example, the big three networks all have streaming sites: the ABC Full Episode Player, the NBC Video Library, and CBS Video. If you missed a show you're dying to catch online, be sure to check the web site of the network it aired on to see if it's available.

BBC iPlayer

The BBC iPlayer streams content from up to 250 programs from the British Broadcasting Corporation. BBC iPlayer restricts streaming to the UK-only, but like Hulu, setting up a proxy with an application like previously mentioned Hotspot Shield has worked for many people looking to get around these restrictions.

---

You've seen the best options, so now it's time to vote for your favorite.
Which is the Best Site to Stream TV?
( surveys)
The internet is an excellent new frontier for keeping up with the TV shows you love, but it's certainly not the only way new technology is making it easier to watch TV. For more, check out six ways to catch your favorite TV shows. Whether or not your favorite site made the list, let's hear more about it in the comments.

The popular open-source media center application Xbox Media Center (XBMC) has rolled out the first beta release of XMBC Atlantis, which brings XBMC to all platforms. That means XBMC now runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, the original Xbox, and even your thumb drive or live CD. Despite its beta status, this release brings XBMC even closer to cross-platform bliss—including iTunes and iPhoto integration for XBMC on your Mac. The new release also boasts a killer new HD skin, so keep reading for a closer look.

XBMC is free, works on all platforms. This release is currently in beta, so you may see some bugs. That said, so far it's been running like a champ on my machines. If you give the new XBMC beta a try, let's hear how you're liking it in the comments.

Find out what countries your family name is most common in with Public Profiler's World Names search and map. Enter your last name and you'll get back a world map with the countries where your name is most common colored in. Unsurprisingly, my last name has the highest frequency per million people in Italy, Argentina (where there are many Italians), then the U.S. Public Profiler will also list top regions (for my name, Vermont first, then New York) and most common forenames (for my name, Lucia, then Paola, then James). As this MetaFilter user points out, this is a great name research tool to use along with the NameVoyager.

Hurricane Ike is intensifying dramatically. The central pressure has dropped 11 mb in just four hours, and stood at 947 mb at 7 pm EDT. The latest Hurricane Hunter data show that the pressure is continuing to fall at a rapid pace. The winds have not caught up yet to the pressure fall, and remain at Catgeroy 2 strength. The satellite presentation of the hurricane has improved markedly, as Ike has walled off the dry air that was bothering it, and has built a solid eye...<br /><a href="http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1079&tstamp=200809">Read More</a>

Google says it's bringing history online, one newspaper at a time with a new initiative to digitize millions of newspapers—like this article from the 1969 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the moon landing.