About 3-4 months ago, I was stucked up in a a helpless situation. I needed to get some word document printed out by the next day. I got the document from my friend but when I saw the extension of it, I knew I was in big trouble. Its extension was .docx, which could only be opened on office 2007. But I had office 2003. I looked up on google, but couldn`t find a solution. I couldn`t do the job in time and hence became pretty much pissed off. I spent some time after that on finding a workaround and then when I found the solution, I couldn`t help it but say WTF. Microsoft itself had developed a patch for it. But I never got that result on google. All I got were cheap softwares claiming to convert to .doc but never worked. So I just wanted to share that link so that you people don’t have to fool around.
Link for patch
General
2003, 2007, docx, files, microsoft, open, word
If you are planning on making a personal home theater system, or just want to know about the buzzing term “blu-ray”, then check out this awesome guide created by tech2 people.
Also, if you want to clear some misconceptions in purchasing TV’s or DVD players, then check out these articles:
Part one
Part two
Gadgets & Gizmos
As many of know already, the windows 7 beta is directly downloadable for free from the microsoft site. This free download is available only for a limited period. This beta aims to pinpoint the bugs and technical issues which developers might have overlooked and to get the feedback from customers earlier than its official release. The only downside is that it expires on Aug 1st 2009 after which your PC will be rendered useless unless and until you purchase the official release or install a prior windows before expiry. Though there was some news that a team of hackers have created a patch to avoid expiration, I would recommend not taking any chances and use this beta only on a machine you do not need to use regularly as in case you don’t like the product, your pc may get useless after the expiry date.
More details on wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_beta
Download : Windows 7 Beta
General
I just finished up Dead Space, a survival horror video game. It was a nice journey comprising many dismemberment of limbs, chopping off heads, stomping the groin area, and shooting some yellow jellies (Play the game to know about yellow jelly belly!!). The amount of blood and violence incorporated in the game could satisfy hearts of every gore lover. There was nothing like seeing the fountain of blood pouring out and hearing the cries of necromorphs when you strategically dismembered their limbs. The gameplay mechanics rocked. You never got frustrated with camera controls or stuck up in between objects while running. A great story with twists and turns of its own with awesome ending (although you feel it resembles Event Horizon), combined with over the top visuals, and scary sounds makes Dead Space the complete package.
The only complaint I have is that it was more of a shoot em up and blast your way through kind of game. It had nothing to do with the survival horror genre. You never got horrified as enemy spawn points were very much predictable, and as I never got short of ammo, there was no question of my survival. Hell, I was sympathizing and mourning for a fallen necromorph when I killed him by dismembering all of his four limbs and then stomping his groin several times.
Having played a last few survival horror games like resident evil 4, silent hill, etc. and now this one, I feel the survival horror genre has come to an end. Still, I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to see the resurrection of survival horror genre with resident evil 5.
Games
I was always curious to know how does this internet thingy works but never got the time to read about it. Now during the setting up of this site, I came to know about it and just wanted to share this piece of knowledge. So, here it goes :
As you all know every computer has an IP address associated with it. The sites you see on the net are actually stored on a computer called server. There are millions of them spread across the globe. Each server also has an IP address associated with it.
When you type a site`s name (URL’s like www.google.com) in the address bar, the web browser actually directs you to the server`s IP address. Just imagine how difficult it would have been if you would have to remember the IP address of every site!! Anyways, you must be asking how does browser converts URL to the IP address of the site? The answer lies in DOMAIN NAME SERVERS (DNS). It`s in reality a computer (Server, actually) where URL`s are mapped to their corresponding IP addresses.
Now the strange thing is that there is a file on your computer also called HOSTS file which does this and associates the commonly visited site`s URL with its IP address. Now, there are millions of DNS servers all around the world. And all these actually communicate with each other whenever necessary.
For example, when you visit a website, the browser first checks the hosts file on your computer to locate the site`s IP address. If it is not found then it asks the preferred DNS server which you must have encountered during the setting up of your internet from your ISP. When this DNS server also do not have the information, then it asks another DNS server for the information. In this way, DNS’s keep asking further until a match is found. When the proper IP address is found, it sends it back to your browser.
Obviously, it will take more time to open a website if IP address is found after many requests. Well, the good thing is all DNS servers that were part of this chain of requests automatically store the new information of that site so that next time you visit the same site, it automatically fetches you the corresponding IP address and thus reduces considerable time in opening the website.
Web