The public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now ready for testing. This beta release is made available to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.org, but is not recommended for production use at this stage. If you are a regular user of OpenOffice.org, here’s a great opportunity to help make the next release the best ever.

What’s new in OpenOffice.org 3.0?

The most immediately visible change to OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the new “Start Centre”, new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. A closer look shows that 3.0 has a myriad of new features. Notable Calc improvements include a new solver component; support for spreadsheet collaboration through workbook sharing; and an increase to 1024 columns per sheet. Writer has an improved notes feature and displays of multiple pages while editing. There are numerous Chart enhancements, and an improved crop feature in Draw and Impress.

Behind the scenes, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will support the upcoming OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, and is capable of opening files created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.). This is in addition to read and write support for the MS-Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.).

OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X without X11, with the look and feel of any other Aqua application. It introduces partial VBA support to this platform. In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications.

More info here: http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/featurelistbeta.html

Very few people bother to read the end user license agreements as they are, to be honest, quite boring. But then again you might discover restrictions and limitations you never thought would be covered (lawyers are clever bastards). A friend of mine tipped me off about the following from Mac:

THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Furthermore:

You may not use or otherwise export or reexport the Apple Software except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Apple Software was obtained. In particular, but without limitation, the Apple Software may not be exported or re-exported (a) into any U.S. embargoed countries or (b) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Department of Commerce Denied Person’s List or Entity List. By using the Apple Software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in any such country or on any such list. You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

So now you know! This is why terrorists use PC’s?! [ source 1, source 2 ]

Please feel free to share if you’ve found similar (or funnier) license agreements from other companies.

The recently released GTA 4 looks like it’s going to beat all previous sales records. The title sold a record 609,000 copies on its first day of release, generating an estimated £24.4m ($48.5m). The previous record holder was GTA: San Andreas, which sold 501,000 copies in 24 hours in October 2004.

Here’s a little preview for those of you that haven’t tried it yet:

Also, in case you feel like speeding things up a little the Liberty city map may be of help.

Did you think SPAM was a new phenomenon? Think again!

The first 400

The first spammer submitted 400 messages on 4th May 1978 to DEC-users - an early version of what we today call a PC (Personal Computer). The message was sent using ARPANET, the Internet’s ancestor.

Numbers are slightly up…

Since then SPAM has skyrocketed. Recent studies suggest that between 80 to 85 percent of all emails are SPAM. That would equal approximately 100 billion emails a day!

Most of it is caught by more or less intelligent SPAM filters. But for some reason we are still receiving special offers on Viagra, Cialis and letters from our “new” solicitor in Nigeria.

Religious traditions are diverse and sometimes as bizarre as they can get. A village in Solapur, Maharashtra, has a dangerous tradition of throwing newborns from a height of 15 meters onto a sheet, which is held by devotees.

The infants are thrown off the roof of the Baba Sheikh Umar Saheb Dargah in Musti village in Solapur. This is a 500 year old tradition practiced by couples who are blessed with a child after taking a vow at the dargah. The devotees also believe that this ritual is good for the health of the child.