Microsoft Office 2010 Review

Just tried my hands on the latest Office 2010 beta. Yes, Microsoft has improved! Three things that I found better than Office 2007:

1. It actually loads faster. Yeah, it does! It took less than three seconds for my files to open up in Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

2. A handy little tool called Insert Screenshot, allows you to clip out pieces of a screenshot from any application, and directly insert it into your doc or ppt. Sure, the Snipping tool of Vista/7 can do the job, but this does it better and faster.

3. Powerpoint simply rocks!! The transition effects in Powerpoint are just super-cool. Of course most of the effects have been blatantly inspired by Apple's Keynote, but what the heck.. Windows users couldn't use Keynote anyway. So all those cool transition effects actually make your slideshows look very sleek. My favourites are the Vortex - each slide kinda explodes to reveal the next slide, and Gallery - each slides moves like an image in a picture album - see it to understand it!)

I haven't used Outlook yet, but from what I read on the net, it does a nice little job of bunching emails into conversations, just like Gmail. So I think that's a major improvement too.

So, is Office 2010 worth the upgrade? I'd say yes, for the increase in speed, handy little tweaks and the snazzy transition effects in Powerpoint. Microsoft has delivered, finally!

Who the heck is Confucius?

Search for Confucius on Google, and you'll find that he was some Chinese wise guy who lived a few thousand years ago, and who loved giving advice. Serious advice, that is. (By the way, that is the one thing in this world that everyone wants to give rather than receive - ADVICE!).

But the Confucius who gives advice on my facebook profile, on my gtalk status, or on my other blog, is not a person. He is an idea, a way of thinking, a facet of life. A force that is unseen, yet pervades the air all around us. An entity without a face, a being without a form. He transcends all man-made barriers, and strips the truth down to its birthday suit. He is Uninhibited, Unrestricted, Uncensored.

He thrives on word play, and absolutely loves making statements that can be interpreted in more than one way. Some people think that Confucius says things that are, shall we say, below the socially accepted standards of decency. But mind you - Confucius has never, ever made any comment that is overtly obscene. He merely speaks in double entendres, statements which may have a meaning other than what is obvious. In short, you need to have a perverted mind to understand the naughty side of Confucius's advice, and hence the allegation of Confucius's quotes being obscene do not stand ground.

Confucius looks all around himself for inspiration, which sometimes does include the internet too ;) However, the biggest inspiration is real life, and you would notice that Confucius usually says things that reflect the latest happenings all around us. Be it Diwali, or New Year, or getting a job, Confucius always has the first word. And the final say, as well.

Lastly, Confucius just loves the appreciation that he gets from all quarters, and would like to express his deepest gratitude to all those who egg him on. It is what pushes him to keep spreading his type of knowledge all around.