Looking briefly at LibreOffice 4.2

I had tried earlier downloading the LibreOffice 4.2 executable and due to unnecessary bundled programs downloading at the same time, I had given up looking at LibreOffice. You can read about my previous attempt here.
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/01/get-this-free-open-source-office-suite.html

The following download URL however gets you the needed files without bringing in bundled programs.
http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/4.2.0/win/x86/LibreOffice_4.2.0_Win_x86.msi

It installs without any problem (Windows 7, x64 bit laptop here). You can start up LibreOffice by just double clicking the icon on your desktop after installation.

This is the screen that gets displayed when you launch the program. The file displayed is the last file open with this program.

This is quite similar to OpenOffice 4.0.1 from Apache.

I had a look at Math Formula in LibreOffice. Here is a basic screen showing the various possibilities.

Just insert (drag and drop) the place holders for the formulae (in this case a*b=24) and the display shows the  formula and the pane below shows how you would write a formula directly using this interface. You can do either way.

Here is more things you can do (Examples) with Math function

If you cannot find what you want you can look for extensions such as the one shown here,

I had a look at some of the other programs. While looking at Impress Presentation program in LibreOffice 4.2 and the program worked more or less the same way as Microsoft Power Point. Trying to open a Power Point file using LibreOffice 4.2 and Apache's Openoffice 4.0.1 displayed some differences, 

Original Using Microsoft Power Point 2010

Using Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1

Using LibreOffice 4.2

Satya Nadella takes the steering wheel

The first Indian born person to be at the top of a high profile company. Welcome to Satya the CEO of Microsoft.

Here is a brief sketch about Satya Nadella. Wall Street is debating as i post this whether he can make a difference.

He may not be too well known but there is a very good chance he will steer the company to profitability. He has grown up with the company and he should be knowing the company inside out. It is time for Microsoft investors to look forward.

Cloud-based PC and Mobile Device Management with Windows Intune gets an update

Windows Intune manages PC's and Mobile devices from the cloud and an update is coming soon. The Windows Intune web based admininstration console in the cloud can manage the PC's and mobile devices and includes all of these:

• Windows,
• Windows RT,
• Windows Phone 8,
• Apple iOS,
• Mac OS, and
• Android devices.

In an earlier avatar Windows Intune also needed System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, but according to the following:

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/01/29/microsoft-to-roll-out-windows-intune-update-next-week.aspx

Windows intune now is stand alone. Review this quote is from the above site,
"In addition to our unified deployment mode and integration with System Center Configuration Manager, Windows Intune can now stand alone as a cloud-only MDM solution," Anderson wrote in a blog post. "This is a big win for organizations that want a cloud-only management solutions [sic] to manage both their mobile devices and PC's."
"
The main benefits are (taken from this source: http://www.microsoft.com/sam/en/us/intune.aspx),

• Track hardware and software inventory to efficiently manage your assets, licenses, and compliance.
• Manage updates. Centrally manage the deployment of the Microsoft updates and service packs that you select to all your devices from the Windows Intune console—freeing up your IT staff from routine management tasks.
• Protect devices from malware.  Help safeguard your devices from the latest threats with centralized protection built on the award-winning Microsoft Malware Protection Engine and using the same trusted technologies as Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Proactively monitor devices. Receive alerts on updates and threats so that you can proactively identify and resolve problems with your devices—before they impact users and your business.
• Provide remote assistance. Resolve device issues, regardless of where you or your users are located, with remote assistance.
• Set security policies. Centrally manage update, firewall, and malware protection settings across all of your devices, even on remote machines outside the corporate

Click  on the video to get a feeling for what all Windows Intune can do,

Roslyn and Visual Studio

Roslyn with the last public preview released in September 2012 is described as, Microsoft's 'compiler as service' project (new language object models for code generation, analysis, and refactoring, and the upcoming support for scripting and interactive use of C# and Visual Basic). It appears Roslyn is being used internally by Microsoft and is in the process of being 'solidified'.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/csharpfaq/archive/2013/12/16/throwing-the-big-switch-on-roslyn-matt-gertz-vs-managed-languages-development-manager.aspx

Rosalyn will create APIs for the compiler which is no longer a blackbox  - the Visual Basic and C# compilers being written in C# instead of C++.

Presently the only version of Visual Studio you can use with 'Roslyn' is Visual Studio 2012. The September 2012 CTP can be downloaded here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34685 - get this file:

RoslynSetup.exe (10.8 MB)

The CTP supports all of the following:

• You can use the VS Project templates to get started with the RoslynAPIs and build new VS Extensions
• Provides assemblies that you can add to your project
• C# interactive window 
• C# Script File Editing Support

This image is an example of interactive C# taken from,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/roslyn.aspx

Read about script support here:
http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2011/11/16/the-roslyn-scripting-api.aspx

I look forward to the next update.

I bought the <$50.00 UbiSlate 7Ci Tablet

I just unpacked my UbiSlate 7Ci tablet. I switched on and the 'android' logo came up rather quickly. It can be used for communications if you have a WIFI available. Getting on to WiFi was also easy, what was not easy is the WEP password which is rather long (not the fault of Ubi). It has quite a few built-in apps and more can be downloaded. It also has a port for extra memory. It is charged by a USB cable powered by the mains energy (110V). It has two browsers, Chrome and Ubi proprietary and both worked well.

Previous post here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-tablet-under-50-can-you-believe.html

More details here:
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-bought-50-ubislate-from-datawind.html