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To: stockman_scott who wrote (52533)	8/23/2002 6:43:38 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

re: Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 .... Now available for download from Microsoft (article below). HOWEVER ... I am waiting to see what Woody Leonhard has to say before I download and install it. Woody has saved my bacon (and my company's) MANY times over the last many years by testing, cautionining, and advising on how to deal with Microsoft Service Releases, particularly for the Office Suite. Here is what he had to say in his latest issue of "Woody's OFFICE Watch" (WOW) >> XP Service Pack 2 - Heads Up! #7.39 August 20, 2002 1. OFFICE XP SERVICE PACK 2 AVAILABLE SOON: Microsoft last updated Office XP with Service Pack 1 on December 13, 2001. I've just received, uh, word that Service Pack 2 has just been made available for download in some languages but NOT yet English (at least not officially, see below for the English update link). If you've been following along in the past few issues of WOW, you know that SP2 was originally scheduled to be released a couple of weeks ago, then it got delayed - a good sign, by the way - and now it's rolled out for the world to see. I don't know of anybody outside Redmond who's played with a test copy, so I'm not willing to give it a blanket Green Light at this point. The company has gone back to it's old habit of keeping Service Packs to themselves rather than testing them widely. I will say that recent patches and service packs have gone well, so the lack of outside beta testing may not be as severe a problem as it has been in the past. But it would be more reassuring to have the SP fully tested rather than rely on corporate hubris. Besides, the most important parts of OXP SP2 are the accumulated security patches, and those have been beaten hard over the past two months. No details yet, but the Thai (!!!), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Arabic versions have been out for more than a day, and I haven't heard any huge screams. STOP PRESS The English language update is available from this link: download.microsoft.com However Microsoft has not yet officially announced that it exists so the link might change. The file is around 15MB if you want to one of the early adopters. Will keep you posted. Once the English version is out and we've had a chance to test it out we'll do our usual full and fearless report - as opposed to Microsoft's self serving and fanciful promotion. - Woody - << >> Microsoft Issues Office XP Bug Killer 21st August 2002 Joe Wilcox Silicon.com Microsoft plans to release its second collection of bug fixes to Office XP today. Service Pack 2, a 15MB download, is supposed to enhance Office XP's performance, security and stability, while fixing a wide range of glitches, Microsoft said. "This is a very comprehensive service pack," said Simon Marks, Office product manager. The software giant issued the first Office XP service pack in December. Like other updates, Office XP Service Pack 2 incorporates previously released patches and security fixes. On the security side, the update includes an April fix for an Outlook email bug and June patch protecting Word and Excel from malicious code embedded in macros. Microsoft also included five separately released smaller fixes from April, May and June. One updates the Office XP spell checker, while others resolve bugs in Word and Excel. Service Pack 2 also addresses glitches with Access, FrontPage, Publisher, PowerPoint and SharePoint Team Services, as well as problems affecting all of Office. Among the glitches fixed are: Failure to set transparent colour in PowerPoint; Word failure when running the Italian grammar checker; Outlook email attachments fail to appear when connecting to a Unix server; Pictures in documents saved in earlier Office versions are flipped; and problems displaying scrollbars in Access. The service pack also addresses a problem with the wording of the German privacy policy and the inability to set Ukrainian as the default language when using the US or Ukrainian version of Office XP. The service pack is available at: office.microsoft.com << Note: Free subs to Woody's newsletters available here: wopr.com I subscribe em all. - Eric -

To: stockman_scott who wrote (52533)	8/23/2002 7:00:33 PM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

It is hard not to agree with Krugman but since my liver would turn to stone if I ever agree with him, I won't. The only thing missing from his analysis is the impact of the bubble. The excesses and fraud we are seeing are a feature of bubbles. This does not excuse any individual behavior, nor does it mean we can ignore systemic problems like cozy board composition BUT it does not indicate a moral collapse in the system. Paul