Office 2007 Hack

Found a hack for Office 2007 that actually worked.

It invovles altering a file called Proof.XML which can be done only if you have ownership of the file. The blog goes on about a circuitous and cumbersome way to "take ownership". Here's a simpler way to do it: find the file, right click on it, choose Properties, then Security Tab. Select your username, go to the Advanced pane and check all boxes under Allow. Voila! The file is yours to do with as you please.

Impressions on the First Conan

This was one show I literally couldn't wait to watch. I actually thought of calling a friend on the East Coast this morning to get a play-by-play. But he probably has two jobs and was too tired. Or maybe still at work on his third. So I ended up reading the (rave) reviews, which just upped the anticipation even more. Anyway, it's 11 and its finally here!

1. Music for the first bit: Cheap Trick's "Surrender" which happens to have "Philippines" in the lyrics. Very auspicious. For us.
2. Hey, it's the Late Night theme. Good move. My heart actually skipped a beat hearing "And I'm Andy Richter!"
3. Quick string dance drives audience wild. Pretty relaxed monologue. Andy -- at the podium -- better turn down the yuk-yuks the next shows. We don't need a white pudgy Kevin Eubanks.
4. The set is too blue.
5. Silly enough but the Universal Tram Tour not quite doing it for me. Was that a Pinoy in front of the line in green?
6. Not feeling the Taurus bit at all. Shot of the floor stick shift (!) was the most interesting part, all of 0.8 seconds.
7. Will Ferrel not trying too hard, which is good. "Forget Twitter, I'm on the cb!"
8. Glad to report Pearl Jam is still with it. Overall intensity is somewhat muted though. Maybe because the set is too blue.
10. Hey! Will Ferrel's still on his chair. Warm, raucous applause for Andy, Max and PJ drowns the already unrecognizable closing theme.

Went quite smoothly for a first show. Pretty good but not quite the mind-blowing experience I set myself up for. Thanks to the kind critics for the heightened expectations.

Conan was every bit the seasoned talk show host and kept his word that he would be his same silly self at Tonight as he was on Late Night. It's obvious he and his writers did their homework to manage a well-staged debut with just enough material to announce their takeover and showcase what's in store for the next thousands of nights. Promises to be a good run.

PS. When the house band is way cooler than the host, that poor guy's in trouble. I'm talking about The Roots and Jimmy Fallon. Can't believe he started his monologue with "Happy Monday everyone!"

CD/DVD Drive Gone after Vista SP2 install. WTF?!

A major download (300MB+) and install of Vista Service Pack 2 left my cd/dvd drive undetectable by Windows Explorer, Nero, Roxio and other programs. Heck it wouldn't even appear in Device Manager. For all intents and purposes, the drive was gone.

I Googled and found two fixes from Microsoft. I did both but immediately after each try, nothing seemed to happen. I gave up, shut down and went to bed. When I booted up this morning ready to search for a new fix I did a quick check and, lo and behold, my cd/dvd drive was there in Windows Explorer and Device Manager. I burned a dvd using Nero and it's been fine ever since. Vista continues to mistify...

If you find yourself in the same boat, here are the fixes. Like I said, I don't know exactly which one of them actually did the trick.

1. Article ID: 314060 - Last Review: April 7, 2009 - Revision: 6.0 "Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs", and

2. CD or DVD drive cannot read or write media. [Fix It] MicrosoftAutomated Troubleshooting Services 1.0

No. 2 won't work on FireFox (surprise!) so be ready to dig up your IE.

First Impressions on the First Fallon

Some thoughts while watching Jimmy Fallon take over Late Night:

- A cold open with Conan. Gee, no one saw that coming.

- Conan used to keep an eye glued to the cue card and it was distracting as heck. Fallon glued two.

- A brisk monologue gets some laughs: "I hate when my dad gets drunk", MicroSoft store people freezing, better economy in Iraq.

- The Roots! Can a house band be any wickeder? How can you go wrong with a band whose members include a full-time percussionist, a drummer with a tall fro, an MC named Tariq and a token white guy. Questions come up though: How long will they last? Can they keep their edge while treading the mainstream? Can white people ever learn to clap to the reggae, or to any beat for that matter? Slow-jam the news - hope to see more of that.

- "Lick it for 10." Nice name for a segment. It uhm, rolls off the tongue. Nothing great. Drew my interest only because the last contestant from Union, New Jersey was most likely Pinoy.

- First Guest: Robert de Niro doing a sort of meta interview. Won't be bothered with questions but would gladly do impressions and tape a skit.

- Second Guest: Justin Timberlake shows us once again how his image gets in the way of his funny.

- The Killer Musical Guest: Van Morrison with a hundred-piece band doing Sweet Thing from Astral Weeks.

- Last impression: for all its claim to newness and innovation, this incarnation of the Late Show stubbornly sticks to some tired Tonight Show staples: guests-for-the-week announcements, the first guest sitting in with the second interview and looking like the most redundant thing in the planet while managing to up the awkward factor ten fold, and all the night's guests in a group hug onstage at the end even if there's a hundred-piece band in the way.

Best to wait for the dust to settle before making any verdict. In the meantime, let's enjoy the circus.

Letterman: Game On!

Dave's been in the news a lot lately.

Last week, Rod Blagojevich came over and Dave demonstrated how a killer talk show interview is done by quickly making minced meat of the guy.

Then the crew of Flight 1549 had some laughs with Dave and were given their well-deserved star wattage.

And just last night, Joaquin Phoenix joined a distinguished list of WTF?! guests (Crispin Glover, Farrah Fawcett) with his own brand of I-desperately-need-help guest appearance.

My latest favorite Dave news came out today: U2 will be Letterman's house band for the whole week of March 2 to 6.

Dave's way of saying "Sayonara Jay!"?

Because They Can

Finally, somebody's caught on with an idea I had watching my very first 3D movie, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow II.

Hong Kong to Produce 'World's First 3D Sex Movie'.

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Pare Ko, Magasin, Superproxy all in one day

Today October 25, 2008 will go down The Annals of Pinoy Rock as the day those three songs (sorely missed on 08.30.08) were played live with at least one Ehead onstage, albeit 8 hours and 10 kilometers apart.

Around 10pm tonight in Makati, Raimund Marasigan strapped on "an original RJ wood guitar" and with Ramon Jacinto (lead guitar and back-up vocals), Zach Lucero (drums), Nino Avenido (bass), and Aia de Leon (back-up vocals) gave the SuperSessions crowd (especially RJ himself) the chance to scream "'Tang Ina!" at the top of their lungs. RJ liked the scatological trip so much he made them sing the verse again a capella just for kicks.

Raimund segued to Magasin which was no more polished but had less fumbles and miscues. I think that's the best that can be said of that performance.

On the other hand, earlier in the afternoon in QC Ely Buendia made his post-Reunion debut on Eat Bulaga first with Pupil then with Francis Magalona who was making his own comeback since taking leave for Leukemia a few months ago. Needless to say they blew the roof off just being there and, when Hardware Syndrome hit off the Superproxy riff . . . well, just watch.





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DZRJ SuperSession 25 October 2008

If you're a regular DZRJ listener (100.3 RJFM or 105.9 RJUR), you probably have the radio ads coming out of your ears by now. And you're probably excited for Saturday as much for the gig as for the end of the hard-sell.

I was on the phone this morning with a friend who's well-connected with the event and I got some juicy inside info:

• Young virtuoso and RJ guitar academy alum Daniel Crisologo has the honor of playing the National Anthem
• At one point in the concert there will be 13 axes ripping away onstage.
• Drummers include Zach Lucero, Wendel Garcia, and a really gorgeous, bitchin' beaut who's said to have once had Gary Perez so smitten and heartbroken, he's gone straight to rehab.
• Speaking of drummers, the late great Bosyo Fortuno will be represented by his widow Emee in the roster.
• Raimund Marasigan (who preferred being billed as "of Sandwich, Pedicab and Cambio" rather than Eraserheads) utterly refused to sing "Pare Ko" at first but couldn't bear to hear RJ murder the song so he's stepping up to the plate. I think that's worth the price of admission right there. See rehearsal video here (be warned: it's awful).
• Buddy Zabala and Jett Pangan will not be there because of a schedule conflict resulting from a sponsor conflict. At first, they couldn't do the gig because a rival of a product they endorse was a sponsor. When everything was cleared for them to play, they had already been booked for an out-of-town gig.
• Another no-show: Jun Lopito, due to a logistical snafu.
• Ely Buendia would have been there had the organizers been able to afford his P60,000 asking price.
• Arnel Pineda might be around, but he will not sing due to contract restrictions.
  
• All action will be staged on a truck that's been wheeled in the venue to get the feel of those parking lot gigs of old.
• Lastly, headliner Pepe Smith has been sequestered this early to make sure he'll be there come Saturday, able to play or at least be in an upright position.

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Getting Your Facts Straight

Little Boy (watching TV): Tatay, look it's The Leaning Tower of Pizza!
(I take a look and it really was a tower made of pizzas piled high.)
Me: You know, the real thing is called The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Not 'pizza'.
LB: That's its name? The Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Me: Yes.
LB: What was it called before it leaned?
Me: Uhm...
LB: The Straight Tower of Pisa?
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The Great $1B Google Mix-up of 2008

Three things I got after reading this.

1. A good laugh,
2. That German shameful pride thing, and
3. Miami Sound Machine looping in my head.

Algorithm is gonna get you,
'gorithm is gonna get you,
'gorithm is gonna get you,
Algorithm is gonna get you . . . to-night!

Oweyo weh!
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Disco Next You Notice

MYX has been playing Pupil's "Disconnection Notice" in heavy rotation these days along with the (thre)e-heads post-concertus interruptus interview. Empirical data: of the 10 or 12 times I surfed through last weekend, I saw the interview three times and Pupil twice. This channel knows the iron is hot.

Anvil Publishing on the other hand seems to be oblivious to the heat. I called to ask if they have any plans of running another print (printing another run?) of Fruitcake the book which has been out of print for ages. They said they're still "studying how to repackage it." Why they need to repackage it, who knows. These people should take a page from Sony BMG who lost no time re-issuing the entire eheads catalogue right after reunion rumors started to build up. Good news for people who could only afford cassettes in the 90s. Plus, the cds are actually cheaper now than they were then. I bought me a few copies of Fruitcake to send to friends and family who have since bailed out of Pinas. Yep, those in the First World will be getting digital Fruitcake for Christmas from the Third World.

Speaking of disconnection, I called my cable company to tell them I haven't received any bill from them since March. Turns out they've disconnected me since April. That's according to their records, they tell me. This was news to me and I thought, What?! You disconnected me without notice?! But then I thought, If that's what you think you've done, who am I to tell you otherwise.

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Words fail. Pictures to the rescue.

ode to eraserheads

Tonight our
hearts raced
and after one
all but gave out
in the end
quietly broke.

Be well.

Eraserheads Live Blog : No More Second Set

Ely had to be rushed to the hospital. Physical and emotional stress too much to handle says his sister onstage. It was too good to be true too good to last. We walk home like zombies.

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Eraserheads Live Blog: Intermission

20 min break. Alapaap opened and Lightyears closed this set. Another long one coming by all indications. Two songs from Fruitcake already. Not bad for a Christmas album.

Massive crowd. Dont know how it is from the back tho.

Raimund has green hair and working the crowd. Buddy playing straight as a whistle but managed to egg the crowd on in one song. Markus is noisy as hell. Ely is keeping it together.

Meanwhile, the crowd behind me chants "GROUP HUG!!!" every chance it gets. Fantastic night.

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Eraserheads: 20:08 at the venue

Pretty good crowd. Stoked as anything. Color bars flash on the screen and they go wild. Jay Contreras had cam time and promptly gave 2 fingers.

Now the screen is counting down from 10 mins to showtime.

In 6mins 19secs all hell breaks loose.

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Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Eraserheads: The Reunion Live Blog Test

It looks like there are only two types of people in Metro Manila right now: those headed to The Fort for the eheads concert and those in prison.

Ha-Ha-Have you heard?

"I'm glad they invented emoticons, otherwise I wouldn't know what my dad was thinking" – Kerry Godliman

"What do you say to your adopted African child if you want them to eat up their dinner? 'There are people starving in Africa right now, like your parents'" – Tom Stade

"Politicians are like God. No one believes in them, they haven't done anything for ages, and they give jobs to their immediate family" – Andy Zaltzman

"The Scots invented hypnosis, chloroform and the hypodermic syringe. Wouldn't it just be easier to talk to a woman?" – Stephen Brown

"Whenever I see a man with a beard, moustache and glasses, I think, 'There's a man who has taken every precaution to avoid people doodling on photographs of him" – Carey Marx

Read the other 45 in The 50 best jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe.

And then . . . The wisdom of Ricky:

* Pol Pot – he rounded up anybody he thought was intellectual and had them executed. And how he decided if someone was intellectual or not was whether they wore glasses. If they're that clever, take them off when they see him coming!

* Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

* Avoid employing unlucky people – throw half of the CVs in the bin without reading them.

* If you treat people with love and respect, they will never guess you're trying to get them sacked.

* If work was so good, the rich would have kept more of it for themselves.

* If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.

Gervais's latest gig is a movie called "The Men at the Pru", a "cross between The Office and Mad Men." Should have called it "The Office Mad Men" then. Save us the trouble of thinking.

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David Byrne and Brian Eno II

The first collaboration of Bryne and Eno in almost 30 years has produced "Everyting That Happens Will Happen Today", an album out today August 18 exclusively through the website. Their first and only other effort, 1981's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" was so groundbreaking and way ahead of its time that it sounds very much in harmony with today's computer-driven music. You know, like it was recorded just 30 weeks ago. From my first listen, the new CD pomises to be as cutting edge and satisfying as the first, perhaps even more so as there are actual songs in this one.




Click 'PLAY' for a stream of the whole album. Something to tide us over until "Here Lies Love" drops.


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"EMPTY CONDOM PACKET & A PHOTO OF 'THE TART'S' KNICKERS"

The No.1 song on Billboard's Country Chart? Could be, but not exactly.

Proof of Aussie husband's adultery on sale in eBay

An Australian woman has taken revenge on her cheating husband by putting a photograph of his lover's underpants up for sale on the auction site eBay.

In the listing the woman says she is selling a picture of a pair of lacy black knickers and an empty condom wrapper "size small" found in her bed after her husband had an affair with another woman.




Click on undies to get the skinny. Or place a bid. Go eBay!
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Dave Letterman's Summer Toys 2008

Said main guest David Duchovny after this segment, "I can only hope that this goes as well for me as it went for the toy lady. Dave, if you can do for the X-Files movie what you just did for that woman, I will be forever in your debt."

Part 1


Part 2