Classic Menu 2007, developed by Addintools, which brings easy-to-understand Office 2003 menus and toolbars to Office 2007 is available for download from the company’s Web site. As users of any of the Microsoft Office Suite of programs (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook or PowerPoint) well know, Microsoft developers replaced the familiar menus and toolbars with a less-familiar and much less user-friendly ribbon. Even Office partisans wished, from time to time, that they could have their old menus back. Classic Menu 2007 revives the menus, empowering users with a choice.

File in the category of Things Only Get More Interesting. Turns out the reporter from the local NBC station decided there was more interesting news going on in Central Florida last night. This really comes as no surprise. I’ve been bumped from local news before.

Back in the mid-80s, I introduced the very first computer-based live video product, BigTime TV. This was the precursor for what would become QuickTime, Flash video, and even the YouTube boom. It was important tech. But even though we did the interview, it never aired because a local elementary school was holding a bubble-blowing contest. And, so, I got bumped by bubbles. After all, what’s more important: the future of video or cute kids blowing bubbles?

Ah, but the shameless book promotion news isn’t all bad. If you want to hear your esteemed Editor-in-Chief talk about the book, you can tune in online to my first official interview. I’ll be on MyPointRadio tonight at 7pm.

Now, here’s a heads up: we normally talk tech in the ZATZ magazines. But since the book crosses both tech and political lines, I’m bound to be talking to non-techies. This is a talk show that is decidedly political — and decidedly conservative oriented. It’s also on the Web, so it’s completely uncensored.

I’m telling you this to provide you with a bit of a caution before you click on through. Also, the destination Web page isn’t 100% safe for work. Even so, I’m expecting this to be whole heck of a lot of fun. As the promotion process goes on, I hope to be talking to people on both sides of the aisle, so this’ll be a good chance to meet an audience I might not ordinarily ever get to talk with.

Should you miss the full broadcast, you can also download the interview at BlogTalkRadio. This page might be a bit safer for those of you concerned about seeing (or being seen) around naughty words. — David

The latest release of Xcelerator for Excel continues to reduce the time and effort required to format data for the first time and on a repetitive basis. Formatting requiring 30 minutes each time it is performed using only Excel is completed for the first time in less than 5 minutes with the help of Xcelerator. Xcelerator’s subsequent formatting of new data for the same fields is automatically completed in as little as 30 seconds after selection of a workbook format.

As Xcelerator is used with Excel to format data, it transparently creates a re-usable workbook format. When formatting new data for fields previously formatted Xcelerator automatically creates an identical workbook using the selected workbook format. Within seconds Xcelerator automatically transforms unformatted data into a formatted workbook better suited for viewing, printing and data analysis.

When SP1 ships sometime in early 2008, it will strip away one of Vista’s most annoying features and remove one of the most persistent objections to Vista’s adoption. Microsoft plans to remove the infamous kill switch from Windows Vista when SP1 is installed, restoring the Windows Genuine Advantage program to its original role as a series of persistent but nonlethal notifications. In a confidential briefing ahead of today’s formal announcement, WGA senior product manager Alex Kochis laid out the changes for a handful of reporters and analysts.

Absolute Software Corporation, provider of firmware-based, patented computer theft recovery, data protection and secure asset tracking solutions commissioned Research Concepts to ask 185 members of NetworkWorld’s Technology Opinion Panel about the state of computer and data security in their organizations. The results revealed that, although computer and data security are high priorities for corporations, they are nevertheless unprepared to prevent data breaches and computer theft. Included here are key findings from the survey.

Messageware, provider of enterprise productivity and security solutions for Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, announced the availability of the Messageware OWA Suite for Microsoft Exchange 2007. Drawing on its position as a long-standing Microsoft Gold Certified partner, the company is introducing Exchange 2007 SP1 enhancements that improve the OWA user experience while adding critical security enhancements that keep security in the hands of Exchange Administrators and the IT department.

Ah, yes. The important details. You can buy Where Have All The Emails Gone? from Amazon.com. It’s $19.95 and it’s a heck of a read.

I am having a very strange day. For the first time, the PR shoe is on the other foot and I’m trying to get PR and talking to reporters. Right now, I’m waiting on a callback from our local NBC news station. They’ve been calling us all day about showing up to do an interview in my living room tonight. They were in a big hurry to book it, but now we don’t even know if they’re going to show up.

Stay tuned. Whether I get covered is anyone’s guess.

Anyway, the fuss is about a press release I sent out about my new book, Where Have All The Emails Gone? The official press release went out yesterday and we’ve been gearing up to let you, our readers know about it this week.

In any case, the headline was "Is Osama bin Laden reading private White House email? New book shows it’s possible." And that got NBC’s attention. But was it enough to get them to plop a camera in my living room tonight? Don’t know yet.

And, so now, the shoe’s on the other foot. Rather than calling each individual news person (which is how I like to be approached), we just blasted out the release to a list we bought. Now, I’m the one mailing to a list. Not exactly my idea of best-practice, but given my total lack of time, it’s what had to happen.

I’m beginning to understand a little more of the PR challenge. Our accumulated list is something like 99,000 people. If we were to try to figure out who on that list should get the release, it could take years to go through the whole thing. But one email takes a short time. Of course, now each individual editor has to deal with the PR UCE that comes flowing in. My email box is always filled to the brim with this crap.

And now, I’m doing it, too. So weird.

By the way, here’s the fulltext of the release, just for kicks. — David

Does Osama bin Laden know President Bush’s confidential travel itinery before Mr. Bush’s own staff does? Can Mahmoud Ahmadinejad read our war plans and strike first? If Vladimir Putin knows America’s secret foreign policy decisions, how badly could that hurt us?

Our new book, Where Have AllThe Emails Gone?, by our own David Gewirtz, shows how something as seemingly benign as White House email can have freaky national security consequences.

Microsoft has purchased Seattle startup WebFives, which provides a Web-based file-sharing service for Internet and mobile video, photos, audio, and blogs, according to a message posted on the startup’s Web site. WebFives, previously called Vizrea, was founded by former Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Michael Toutonghi, who helped pioneer the Media Center version of the Windows OS, many of the features of which found their way into Windows Vista.