Previously, on the "Tech In Me":
There are some bakeries that allow you to send personalized messages, to be placed in your birthday cake, by e-mail. A lady in NY found this idea very appealing and ordered a birthday cake over email. But as it turned out, the result was not the expected:
The problem seems to be have been caused by the fact that she used Microsoft Outlook to send her email but Wegman’s email system failed to recognize the proprietary HTML tags of Outlook and caused this oddly-looking cake.
But the funniest part is the explanation of the bakery's employee: "we just cut and paste from the email to the program we use for printing the edible images, we are usually in such a hurry that we really don’t have time to check. and if we do the customers yell at us for bothering them."
Source: Digital Inspiration
Previously, on "The Tech In Me":
Ok, no need to do a big fuzz about it, but I just would like to remind you that this blog celebrates today, two years of providing the best info on the tech world. I would like to thank all of the faithful readers that follow the blog through the RSS feed, and also to all of those that find the blog cool enough so as to provide comments on the posts. I'm always glad to hear from you and I seriously hope that you can provide any suggestions that will allow me to improve the blog and its posts.
And what's the best way to celebrate this journey than to remind some of the best moments? Check out here some of the posts that I think are worth a second visit:
So, Microsoft has decided to ditch Seinfeld and the all idea of "Microsoft and the future" and went on to adopt a new approach in their marketing campaign, where they focus on the idea that there are a lot of PCs out there and that, in spite of the stereotype created by the "I'm a PC" guy from the Mac ads, they can achieve great things. See the ad for yourself:
Even though the ad itself was made on a Mac, I still think it is better than the previous approach of placing Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld on a "higher level of the society" that is trying to "connect with the simple people".
However, it is still not there... because they show all these people but they still don't say why do they use Windows and not other operating systems. Maybe they use it because they have to, maybe it's because they don't know the alternatives, or maybe they are in fact not happy with using Windows but are too afraid to switch to Linux or Mac. And most of all, they don't show how all those people react when they get a BSOD and loose their work :-)
Source: The Mac Newbie
The first version was no fun, this one is better:
Source: bit.ate (in Portuguese)
As I posted before, Seinfeld was being recruited by Microsoft to be a part of the new marketing campaign to try and take down the negativity brought by years of those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads. And even though Jerry Seinfeld was once part of one of Apple's "Think Different" ads, he accepted the offer from Microsoft (after all it was $10M, who wouldn't?) and crossed to the "dark side".
The following video seems to be the first ad of the new Microsoft's marketing wave. However, this feels more like a teaser, since nothing much is divulged. Basically, Seinfeld assists Bill Gates in buying some nice shoes at affordable prices (like if any of them needs it) and in exchange gets a glimpse of the future at Microsoft...See for yourself!
I sure hope there's more to it than this, because I don't quite see how this is going to change people's perception of Windows. It is basically trying to create a hype for the upcoming Microsoft technology (Windows 7?) in a attempt to divert people's attention from the failure that was Vista.
Let's wait... for now! :-)
Can someone explain me how this one slipped through: Microsoft has not only filed for, but actually received a patent that essentially amounts to Page Up / Page Down functionality.
And it's not even the 1st of April...
Source: Engadget
CNET's "The Open Road" blog has come up with a diagram that shows an interesting behaviour in web search regarding operating systems (Blue = Microsoft; Red = Linux; Orange = Apple) for the last 90 days:
In case you're wondering, the A mark corresponds to the day when iPhone 3G went on sale and the B mark corresponds to the day when iPhone 3G was announced. But the interesting behaviour is not related to iPhone 3G. It's that noticeable valley-shaped lines for Microsoft and Linux (Blue and Red lines, respectively). And before you ask, those valleys correspond to weekends.
So, what does this means? Well, this is somehow speculative, but it seems that Microsoft and Linux users only "deal" with their operating systems during the week, when they are working, i.e., when they "have to". On the other hand, if you look at the orange line (corresponding to Apple-related searches), you'll see that this is stronger during weekends, exactly when people tend to do things they "want to", instead of the things they "have to" do.
Bottom line... it looks like Apple has figured out how to make us "want to" use our computers, by making it simple, fun and intuitive.
Source: The Mac Newbie
Previously, on "The Tech In Me":
It turns out that Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads (hiring Seinfeld to the next Windows Vista's marketing campaign) has already been debunked by an old Apple's "Think Different" ad (I saw it here):
Source: The Mac Newbie
Everybody knows that Apple has been doing a great job with the "Get a Mac" ads (by the way, there a few new ones that you should have a look at). They're funny and entertaining, but most of all, they show how Mac can be a real (and better) alternative to PCs, especially those with Windows Vista.
But Microsoft is getting tired of this marketing domination and has decided to bring out the big guns. The new marketing campaign, which will star Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, is said to be based on the idea of "Windows, Not Walls," stressing the need to "break down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting." Basically, Microsoft will try to change the public's negative opinion of Windows Vista, for which the Apple's "Get a Mac" ads have made a large contribution :-)
Well, let's wait and see...
Source: The Mac Newbie
With the diversity of operating systems and web browsers that we have today, it is very difficult to create a website that will look nice in every computer out there. And instead of annoying your (still unenlighted) IE-user friend with URLs that he has to test and report to you, why not use a web service like browsershots.org?
Browsershots makes screenshots of your website in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service that allows you to submit your Web address, which will be added to the set of websites to visit. After a number of distributed computers have opened your Web site in their browser, they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server. You can then have a look at them and make the necessary changes in your web site (if any).
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Ctrl + Alt + Arrow key shortcut rotates the display in 90 degree increments.Previously, on the "Tech In Me":
That's right, the problems with Office 2008 Service Pack 1 are not over. I'm now starting to notice some strange behaviours on my Mac whilst operating with Office 2008 apps:
It seems that the fan issue (running at 6000 rpm after the installation of SP1) that I reported two days ago, was just a coincidence. Yesterday I installed Office 2008 SP1 on my Mac and the CPU fans have run under 4000 rpm since then. So, what caused that sudden change in the fans' behaviour on this first install run? Well, that is yet to be determined.
Microsoft has recently released the Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1, which apparently fixes some of the issues that this Microsoft product presents on the Macintosh platform. However, my experience with it, hasn't been particularly interesting:
Am I the only one that finds it strange that Office 2007 fails to comply with the new ISO Office Open XML Standard, which was ironically "imposed" to be accepted as a standard by Microsoft?
