Free Republic

(Bo (woof) In Commentary: We all wonder at times what owners do when they leave the house for nine hours out of the day, only to come back stressed and mentally drained. What are they doing, and why are they doing it? It’s called work and this week you may be lucky enough to find out what goes on. (Take Your Dog to Work Day is June 20, which leaves you little more than a week to convince your boss to let you spread a little interspecies cheer - not to mention dog hair - around the office. If you...

A bullied office worker has been awarded £5,000 after her boss raised his right buttock from his chair and broke wind in her direction. Humiliated mother-of-three Theresa Bailey, 43, was the only woman on a sales team where "laddish" behaviour made her life a misery, and continued despite complains to senior managers.

No recession expected this year: Congressional Budget OfficeWed Jan 23, 2008 12:35pm EST By Richard Cowan and Donna Smith WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The slowing U.S. economy is unlikely to sink into an election-year recession and an economic rebound could begin as early as next year as housing and financial market turmoil fades, the Congressional Budget Office forecast on Wednesday. In the meantime, the U.S. budget deficit will grow to $219 billion this year, up from the $163 billion registered last year, according to a CBO report submitted to Congress. But that forecast by Congress' nonpartisan budget analyst does not include...

From customers to congressmen, the removal of dozens of photos of U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan – many of them with relatives who use the Paso Robles Post Office, where the pictures had been on display for years behind the counter – inspired outrage Friday.

The joystick has brought Ben Stiller nothing but sorrow. Industry expectations for "The Heartbreak Kid," the date movie that re-teamed him with the Farrelly brothers (the duo who made him a megastar in "There's Something About Mary"), called for a $20 million to $25 million opening for the film. Instead, "Kid," which cost north of $60 million to make, managed only $14 million in the U.S. and Canada -- heartbreaking, indeed.

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. is unveiling a Web component for its desktop-based Office programs that lets computer users store, share and comment on documents, but the software maker did not go so far as to let people create new files from scratch online. Microsoft Office Live Workspace, as the free Web site is called, isn't quite live. Starting Monday, users can sign up to be part of an early "beta" test of the service. A number of those users will be able to start using the service at some point this year, Microsoft said. Office Live Workspace will give users...

Microsoft’s next version of its small-business/home productivity suite, due imminently, will be free and ad-funded. Microsoft Works 9.0 — which will be the new product’s name, if Microsoft opts to stick with its current nomenclature — might also debut at some point as Microsoft-hosted low-end productivity service, as many have been speculating. A hosted version of Works would give Microsoft a head-to-head competitor with Google Docs & Spreadsheets and other consumer- and small-business focused services, analysts have said. For the time being, however, the new version of Works will be ad-funded, according to Satya Nadella, the newly minted Corporate Vice...

Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You By VAUHINI VARA July 30, 2007; Page R1 Admit it: For many of us, our work computer is a home away from home. It seems only fair, since our home computer is typically an office away from the office. So in between typing up reports and poring over spreadsheets, we use our office PCs to keep up with our lives. We do birthday shopping, check out funny clips on YouTube and catch up with friends by email or instant message. And often it's just easier to accomplish certain tasks using consumer technology...

Microsoft is making Office 2007 its default productivity suite for system builders, less than five months after the suite's full-scale launch. Say Goodbye to Office 2003 Microsoft will stop supplying (http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2007/06/18/3384613.aspx) OEM Microsoft Office 2003 from June 30, Microsoft exec Eric Ligman wrote yesterday on the company's blog for small businesses. The declaration means that Microsoft partners without inventory of Office 2003 must ship Office 2007 from July onwards. Microsoft is making a heavy push for Office 2007 and seems to be now using OEM partners in the vanguard for driving sales. Previous editions of Office have sold relatively slowly...

Launching the Microsoft Office 2007 system alongside Vista might have been a brilliant idea after all: Office 2007, the first version of Office to ship alongside a Windows version since 1995, is off to a strong start, with sales in its first week double that of previous Office versions during the same time period. According to NPD Group, Office sales rose 98 percent during Office 2007's launch week, with retail sales more than doubling. These numbers represent almost twice as many sales as were made during Office 2003's launch week, NPD said. "With almost zero advertising and marketing until the...

CHICAGO - Office nappers now have the perfect excuse: New research shows that a little midday snooze seems to reduce the risk of fatal heart problems, especially among men. In the largest study to date on the health effects of napping, researchers tracked 23,681 healthy Greek adults for an average of about six years. Those who napped for about half an hour at least three times weekly had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart attacks or other heart problems than those who did not nap.

Dear Beta User, Discover the latest refresh to the 2007 Microsoft® Office system Beta. We've listened carefully to your feedback and have developed a technical refresh with significant performance improvements and redesigns to address your needs and to enhance your user experience. New features of the Beta 2 Technical Refresh include an updated user interface and better accessibility support. Please note that the Beta 2 Technical Refresh extends the timeline for Microsoft Office Beta 2 use, which you need to install first. The refresh is also recommended if you'd like to use it in combination with Windows Vista RC1. Visit...

Miran Shah, 28 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - The local Taliban have set up an office in Miran Shah, the headquarters of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, for "curbing crimes and anti-social activities" in the area. Announcements were made and pamphlets distributed in the town on Wednesday, asking residents to cooperate with the Taliban in keeping peace. The office, complete with phone, has been set up at the main bus stand in Miran Shah and the Taliban Shura (council) has appointed a committee to run it. The move follows the signing of a peace accord between the Pakistani government and pro-Taliban militants...

Nigeria: He Abused His Office - ObjDaily Champion (Lagos) September 13, 2006 Posted to the web September 13, 2006 David Idonor Abuja PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday rose in stout defence of his decision to send the report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which investigated Vice President Atiku Abubakar to the National Assembly, insisting that the V-P abused his office. In a press statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, Obasanjo advised Atiku to "address pertinent issues at hand, rather than alleging it was a case of political persecution". The...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government on Thursday ordered Arabic satellite network Al-Arabiya to shut down its Baghdad operations for one month, state television reported. Al-Arabiya said Iraqi police later arrived at its offices to enforce the order. The other pan-Arab satellite network, Al-Jazeera, had its office in the capital closed two years ago. Al-Arabiya, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at first said its headquarters had not yet been informed of a ban, but later said on live television that police had arrived at its Baghdad offices to close its operations down. The order apparently was issued...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2006 – DoD is spending almost $3.5 billion this year to defeat improvised explosive devices, and the effort’s leader today said he expects the same level of funding in fiscal 2007. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs said the Joint IED Defeat Organization is using an all-encompassing approach to counter the threat of IEDs, terrorists’ main weapon in attacks against coalition forces and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq alone, IEDs have killed almost 1,000 servicemembers. There is no “silver bullet” solution to the leading cause of death for coalition troops, Meigs told media during a...

The offering, called Google Apps for Your Domain comprises Google services that all have seen the light of day: Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page Creator. Notably absent from the menu are Writely and Google Spreadsheets, which respectively provide basic word-processing and spreadsheet functions that would be essential for a productivity suite, a la the more feature-rich Microsoft Word and Excel. Also, Google has yet to unveil an application that could rival Microsoft PowerPoint. With Google Apps for Your Domain, organizations can tailor the included applications’ UIs with their own branding, and they can pick and choose which...

Lt. Col. Albert Zakaib, the 3rd Corps Support Command officer in charge, holds an Iraqi baby who survived a vehicle collision on May 20. On May 29, after a diligent search, Marines and Armed Forces delivered the orphaned baby (by Iraqi cultural standards) to his mother. Story and photo by by Sgt. Judith Dacosta 3rd Combat Support Command Public Affairs On the evening of May 20, two individuals, a five-month-old boy and an adult male, were injured in a collision. Troops brought both individuals to a checkpoint manned by Iraqi army forces and U.S. Marines. Once the patients arrived at...

Microsoft Friday said that this week it will begin charging US$1.50 for users to download a copy of the Office 2007 beta 2. "In just the past two months since its launch, more than 3 million people have downloaded the 2007 Microsoft Office system beta 2," the company said in a statement sent via e-mail. "Given how dramatically the beta 2 downloads have exceeded our goals, we have made the business decision to implement a cost-recovery measure for downloading the beta."

Microsoft plans this week to charge a nominal fee for Office 2007 Beta 2 downloads. Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged US$1.50 per download, beginning Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT, a Microsoft representative said.

WASHINGTON, July 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on Judge Thomas F. Hogan's ruling upholding his approval of the search warrant of Representative William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record)'s congressional office: "No one is above the law and no Members of the House can use a congressional office to conceal evidence of criminal wrongdoing or to shield them from prosecution. "This particular search could have been conducted in a manner that fully protected the ability of the prosecutors to obtain the evidence needed to do their job while preserving constitutional principles. "The...

WASHINGTON - An FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman's Capitol Hill office was legal, a federal judge ruled Monday. Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. He rejected requests from lawmakers and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office. In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman's office violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials. "Congress' capacity to function effectively is not threatened by permitting congressional offices...

Papers from Jefferson office raid in limboBy MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Prosecutors and investigators building a bribery case against Rep. William Jefferson have been unable to examine the documents and computer files seized in a search of the lawmaker's Capitol Hill office. The materials were placed off limits by President Bush for 45 days, a cooling-off period that ended Sunday. Yet there has been no resolution of the court fight or talks between congressional leaders and the Justice Department. The president acted after congressional leaders denounced the FBI's search on May 20 and May...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The hiring practices of the Illinois governor's office are the focus of a federal investigation into possible misconduct at several state agencies, a federal prosecutor said in a letter made public Friday. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in the letter he is looking into "very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration. The allegations include violations of restrictions against using politics to award jobs. Investigators have "developed a number of credible witnesses," the letter states. The Democratic governor, who was elected on a promise to clean up government, has not been charged with...

WASHINGTON - In a break with his counterparts in the House, the Senate's leader said Sunday the FBI was within its right to search the office of a congressman accused of bribery. "No House member, no senator, nobody in government should be above the law of the land, period," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said. Frist, R-Tenn., was responding to the search conducted May 20-21 in the office of Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La. FBI agents carted away computer and other records in their pursuit of evidence that Jefferson accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange...

NEWVILLE, Pa. (Army News Service, May 25, 2006) – The Newville, Pa., Post Office will be named in honor of Newville native Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart May 29 at 3 p.m. Shughart was killed in October, 1993, defending downed helicopter pilot Michael Durant in Mogadishu, Somalia. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration. Durant will speak at the dedication ceremony, and Black Hawk helicopters will fly over the town and land in the community ball field. “Shughart's heroic actions are an example of the exemplary men and women we have serving abroad today to...

WASHINGTON — President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI search of a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days. "The Department of Justice's search was part of an important investigation of alleged public corruption. At the same time, the bipartisan leadership of the House of Representatives believe the search violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers and the speech and debate clause of the Constitution," according to the president's statement.

Presidential - "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pioaths.html Senate - "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the...

BAGHDAD, May 21, 2006 – Coalition officials have set up an office within Multinational Force Iraq to help the new Iraqi government take hold. The Iraqis are calling the government - a mix of people from all locations, sects and ethnicities in the country - a "unity government." This goes with the position at MNFI and the American embassy that unity must happen before security can become a reality. To promote this idea, Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, MNFI's deputy chief of staff for strategic effects, spoke yesterday in an interview about how the new national unity office will work...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Mar. 30, 2006) -- With heightened security surrounding the forward deployed bases, several Third County Nationals and Local Nationals are employed by companies who build, repair and otherwise facilitate things on these bases to make the life of service members somewhat easier while in the combat zone. The Marines with the Badging Office at Al Asad, Iraq, are responsible to badge each of these individuals coming aboard their base, so that they can be escorted, moved around the base and identified while doing their jobs. "Security on the base is the main issue," said Cpl. Travis C....

CHICAGO, March 27 (UPI) -- Computer networks can dramatically cut costs and improve customer satisfaction, but only for major Fortune 500 and Forbes 400 companies, right? Perhaps that was the case last century, but not anymore. Experts tell United Press International's Networking that technologies are now providing the same benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises -- and that this may be part of what is behind the productivity-based economic boom in the United States today. "Today's small and mid-size companies are taking a cue from these larger organizations," Joe Hewitt, an expert on small and medium-sized business networking at Dimension...

VISTA ---- Members and supporters of the San Diego Minutemen gathered outside U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa's office Wednesday to protest any immigration reform that would include amnesty and guest worker programs for illegal immigrants. Only a few demonstrators had arrived by the rally's noon start time. By 2 p.m. the number had increased to a dozen. Several waved American flags, others held up homemade signs. "We're not here to protest Darrell Issa," said rally organizer Jeff Schwilk, wearing a matching baseball cap and T-shirt for the Minuteman Project, a national border watch group. "We're here to send a message to...

See this thread first. The man who invented the "cube" Admits that he feels like a rube A box with a hole that steals your soul and reduces your status to "noob"

NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity." Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence....

It would seem as if there's a new rule for women who are running for the U.S. Senate: Don't be too ambitious. "...So much for 40 years of feminism. Women not only have to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, we also have to look as if we just walked off the set of "Desperate Housewives" while standing over the stove. And for women running for U.S. Senate, there's a new rule: Don't be too ambitious.

/8/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Ensuring that pilots and ground forces are aware of one another’s intentions, limitations and capabilities is a full-time job. That responsibility falls into the hands of three people assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Ground Liaison Office, or GLO. Comprised of one Airman and two Soldiers, the GLO provides a conduit of information between the Air Force and the ground combat units it supports. “We stay up-to-date on strategic and tactical operations and provide that information to the planners within the 332nd AEW,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Patrick McCormack, 332nd...

Microsoft has begun e-mailing its corporate customers worldwide, letting them know that they may need to start using a different version of Office as a result of a recent legal setback. The software maker said Monday that it has been forced to issue new versions of Office 2003 and Office XP, which change the way Microsoft's Access database interacts with its Excel spreadsheet. The move follows a verdict last year by a jury in Orange County, Calif., which found in favor of a patent claim by Guatemalan inventor Carlos Armando Amado. Microsoft was ordered to pay $8.9 million in damages...

Sixteen years ago, California voters enacted term limits in hopes of purging Sacramento of career politicians. The career politicians are not going quietly. The 2006 election will feature a gaggle of legislators, who are prohibited from seeking re-election, hoping to move up to one of the seven low-visibility, statewide constitutional offices below governor. And, in an unprecedented development, three constitutional officeholders are looking to make lateral moves to avoid losing their places in line for some future bid for governor or the U.S. Senate. Attorney General Bill Lockyer is running for treasurer. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Insurance Commissioner John...

University Finds $275,000 in Office Sunday January 15, 2006 3:17 AM TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Three University of South Florida officials were fired after the school discovered $275,000 in misplaced checks and cash scattered throughout an office. Nearly half the money at the school's English Language Institute - $133,647 - was in checks up to 10 years old and could not be deposited, said university spokeswoman Michelle Carlyon. The cash and checks Dec. 21 were found inside desks and underneath books and office machines, among other places, Carlyon said.

When Ramsey Clark joined the Saddam Hussein defense team I knew things would start to get interesting. Clark is just one more example as to why liberals should never be allowed to run the country. After a stint as the United States Attorney General under Lyndon B. Johnson, Clark would take up a new hobby as a defender of the peace and virtue of terrorists and dictators across the globe. Even before declaring Hussein’s innocence, Clark had more than enough on his resume to at least compete with Howard Dean for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. Among his...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2005 – Deployed troops are getting a helping hand ringing in the New Year without breaking the bank. Employees of the Defense Department's Contracting Center of Excellence office have been collecting donations for the "Cell Phones for Soldiers" program - a grassroots member of DoD's "America Supports You" program -- as part of a holiday community outreach effort, said Charito Glorioso, chief of the CCE's Customer Education and Support Division. "Cell Phones for Soldiers was selected because it didn't compete with (the Combined Federal Campaign) and is in line with our ultimate mission to directly support the...

A Microsoft Corp. executive said yesterday that his company's new office software will comply with a disputed Massachusetts government mandate requiring the use of ''open" data formats.Executives from rival software makers greeted the pledge with skepticism.But Massachusetts' chief information officer, Peter Quinn, who's leading the drive for the new data standard, said the Microsoft proposal will probably meet the state's demands.The Massachusetts standard, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2007, has attracted worldwide attention because it poses a major challenge to Microsoft Office, by far the world's most popular office software program. Up to now, Microsoft Office has used data formats...

MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON, Washington DC (Nov. 10, 2005) -- Gen. Michael W. Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and John E. Potter, Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service,unveiled the Distinguished Marines commemorative 37-cent U.S. Postage stamps at Marine Barracks Washington on the 230th Birthday of the Marine Corps, Nov. 10. The stamps depict legendary Marines, Daniel Daly, John Basilone, John A. Lejeune and Lewis "Chesty" Puller. Other participants included the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps performing elements of the Barracks' Friday Evening Parade, and Aaron Tippin, country music recording artist. Another first-day dedication ceremony took place at...

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. (search) on Tuesday announced online versions of its Windows (search) operating system and other popular software programs, hoping to defuse a growing threat from Google Inc. and .

WASHINGTON - FBI agents examined computers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office and talked to former and current White House aides Thursday as they investigated an FBI intelligence analyst accused of passing classified information to Filipino officials. Meantime, former Philippine President Joseph Estrada acknowledged receiving an internal U.S. government report on the Philippines from the analyst, Leandro Aragoncillo, but played down the importance of the information, comparing it to material aired in his country's media. The FBI is looking at whether Aragoncillo, a former Marine, took classified information about the Philippines from the White House when he worked for Vice...

Microsoft Corp. is not going to release a version of its Office suite software for open-source rival Linux, although the company is actively studying how Linux works and how it can integrate with the platform, a Microsoft representative said Wednesday. “The simplest way I can answer the question is that Microsoft is 100 percent focused on Windows,” said Nick McGrath, director of platform strategy for Microsoft in the U.K. “We have no plans at this present moment in time to deploy or build a version of Microsoft Office on Linux.” McGrath participated in a roundtable debate on whether free software...

A new Trojan horse exploits an unpatched flaw in Microsoft Office and could let an attacker commandeer vulnerable computers, security experts have warned. The malicious code takes advantage of a flaw in Microsoft's Jet Database Engine, a lightweight database used in the company's Office productivity software. The security hole was reported to Microsoft in April, but the company has yet to provide a fix for the problem. "Microsoft is aware that a Trojan recently released into the wild may be exploiting a publicly reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office," a company representative said in a statement sent via e-mail on Friday....

A new Trojan horse exploits an unpatched flaw in Microsoft Office and could let an attacker commandeer vulnerable computers, security experts have warned. The malicious code takes advantage of a flaw in Microsoft's Jet Database Engine, a lightweight database used in the company's Office productivity software. The security hole was reported to Microsoft in April, but the company has yet to provide a fix for the problem. "Microsoft is aware that a Trojan recently released into the wild may be exploiting a publicly reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office," a company representative said in a statement sent via e-mail on Friday....

Kitty thread is late, but better late than no thread this week. Swamped at work trying to meet deadlines. Only problem is that the deadline dates have passed before the project got started. In honor of office chaos, on with the kitty pictures. Hey slave (oops, cat owner) – here is another deadline you missed. Engineering changes? – What is this a bank? – No more stinking changes. Can’t take work home. This is what happens. New eye protection at job site.