Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Insect legs

Insects such as water striders are able to walk effortlessly on water because of the fact that their legs are super hydrophobic.

Now, scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at Japan's Riken Institute are one step closer to discovering what makes the structure of these legs so unique.

In nature, organisms such as caterpillars, water striders and the lotus achieve super hydrophobia through a two-level structure - a hydrophobic waxy surface made super hydrophobic by the addition of microscopic hair-like structures: these structures may be covered by even smaller hairs, greatly increasing the surface area of the organism and making it impossible for water droplets to stick.

Turbines come to Kansas

German industrial giant Siemens announced this week that it intends to build a new production facility for wind turbines in the state of Kansas.

Initially, 400 new jobs are expected to be created in the plant, which will be located in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Construction of the 300,000-square-foot nacelle production facility is scheduled to begin in August 2009.

A nacelle is mounted on top of the tower and supports the rotor.

Incredible bulk

Materials researchers at the Materials Research Institute at Penn State University have reported the highest known breakdown strength for a bulk glass ever measured.

Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines how much energy can be stored in an insulating material before it fails and begins to conduct electricity.

A bulk glass with high breakdown strength and high dielectric constant would make an ideal candidate for the next generation of high-energy density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles, as well as other portable and pulsed power applications.

Sensory spin-out

Cambridge CMOS Sensors Limited (CCMOS) – a spin-out from Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering – has licensed technology from Warwick University that, it claims, will allow it to develop gas sensors that offer a significant improvement over those currently in use in portable instrumentation.

First off, the sensors under development will be able to operate at high temperatures of up to 500oC, while consuming very low power – below 30mW. They will alsohave a fast thermal response time – this will be in the millisecond range as opposed to the seconds range that current state-of-the-art products offer.

Hogenkamp cruises to Salsomaggiore title

Richel Hogenkamp from the Netherlands claimed her first ITF Junior Circuit crown at the Grade 2 International Tournament of Salsomaggiore last week. The third seed had been losing finalist on three occasions since first appearing on the Junior Circuit in October 2006, but never looked like faltering in Italy, as she picked up her maiden title without dropping a set.

With top seed Lesley Kerkhove (NED) and second seed Valeriya Savinykh (RUS) both eliminated in the first round, the path was clear for Hogenkamp to make an impact. After opening convincingly with a 75 60 win over Despina Papamichail (GRE), she then went on be beat Irina Khromacheva (RUS) 62 61 and Valentyna Ivakhnenko (UKR) 63 60 to book her spot in the last four, where she had the advantage of being the only remaining seeded player. By this stage a clear favourite for the title, Hogenkamp eased past Zsofia Miko (HUN) 62 62 to set up a final match against Slovenian Nastja Kolar.

North/Central America Final Qualifying in Boca Raton

At the North/Central America & Caribbean final qualifying event for the World Junior Tennis Competition and Junior Davis Cup & Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, in Boca Raton, USA, the following team qualified for the Finals in the Czech Republic and Mexico:

Qualifying for the finals in the Czech Republic:

WJTC Boys

1. United States
2. Mexico

WJTC Girls

1. Canada
2. United States

Inventor: SSL not to blame for security woes

At the RSA Conference last month in San Francisco, Taher Elgamal was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award--only the third recipient of the award since its inception in 2004.

Red tape keeps Conficker on medical devices

WASHINGTON--The Conficker Internet virus has infected important computerized medical devices, but governmental red tape interfered with their repair, an organizer of an anti-virus working group told Congress on Friday.

Rodney Joffe, one of the founders of an unofficial organization known as the Conficker Working Group, said that government regulations prevented hospital staff from carrying out the repairs.

Joffe, who also is the senior vice president for the telecom clearinghouse Neustar, told a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that over the last three weeks, he and another Conficker researcher identified at least 300 critical medical devices from a single manufacturer that have been infected with the computer virus.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

British sea power

Government plans to scope out English and Welsh waters for their potential to host wave and tidal energy devices is seen as long overdue by some in the marine energy sector.

The scheme was announced by Lord Philip Hunt, the minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on 30 April at the British Wind Energy conference in Bath.

‘The marine energy sector has reached a pivotal stage with more and more devices ready to go into the water,' he said. ‘The screening exercise in English and Welsh waters is a significant step forward in our plans to harness the power of our seas and secure a renewable and low carbon energy supply.'

British sea power

Government plans to scope out English and Welsh waters for their potential to host wave and tidal energy devices is seen as long overdue by some in the marine energy sector.

The scheme was announced by Lord Philip Hunt, the minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on 30 April at the British Wind Energy conference in Bath.

‘The marine energy sector has reached a pivotal stage with more and more devices ready to go into the water,' he said. ‘The screening exercise in English and Welsh waters is a significant step forward in our plans to harness the power of our seas and secure a renewable and low carbon energy supply.'

British sea power

Government plans to scope out English and Welsh waters for their potential to host wave and tidal energy devices is seen as long overdue by some in the marine energy sector.

The scheme was announced by Lord Philip Hunt, the minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on 30 April at the British Wind Energy conference in Bath.

‘The marine energy sector has reached a pivotal stage with more and more devices ready to go into the water,' he said. ‘The screening exercise in English and Welsh waters is a significant step forward in our plans to harness the power of our seas and secure a renewable and low carbon energy supply.'