Office 2003 Service Pack Disables Older File Formats 555
time961 writes "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft disabled support for many older file formats. If you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source. Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward 'Do you really want to do this?' dialog boxes to click through. And of course because these are, after all, old file formats ... many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives."
maybe grepping (Score:4, Funny)
Is that how one interfaces with rarely-used document archives? via groping?
That's why (Score:1, Funny)
Well, thank god we're all so worried about security! Now those "unsecure" files as so secure, not even the author can read them!
Revenge (Score:5, Funny)
Think Visicalc 26 service pack 3 is going to import Multiplan files?
Think again, bitches.
Re:maybe grepping (Score:5, Funny)
Bender: If by "interface" you mean "have sex with" and if by "rarely-used document archive" you mean "your girlfriend", then yes, "groping" is the correct term. As follows:
Re:maybe grepping (Score:4, Funny)
That's assuming they date back to the Clinton admistration. In California this approach will be required for current documents.
Re:Do I understand correctly? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Default value goes back pretty far (Score:3, Funny)
If a student has been held back that long, the old notes are probably not going to help!
Re:That's why (Score:4, Funny)
Software? I use pen and paper to do all the hex calculations and use a morse code key to write to the hard drive. But, I suppose if you are going to trust a machine where anyone can break into your home and change the code on it, then you deserve the lack of security that leads to.
Re:Default value goes back pretty far (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of this story:
With nearly half a century of experience using computers to run their business, Chris M's company knew that law all too well. Ever since that fateful Wednesday -- still known throughout the company as The Crash of '68 -- they swore, Never Again. And forty years later, they've kept their promise.
Over the years, Chris's employer has come as close to a Perfect Technology Infrastructure as anyone. They hire the best network administrators money can buy and give them whatever resources they need to ensure that the infrastructure remains solid. And that they do.
The company's backup and retention plan is nothing short of immaculate. Every system they've ever purchased -- from that old payroll program on the System/360 to that bizarre parts database for OS/2 -- can be brought back to life, if not physically than through virtualization. A walk through their "software archive" was a treat for many; new technicians are often astonished to learn, not only of the existence of 8-inch floppy disks, but that the company still has the 8-inch install disks for CP/M. And a drive to run them on.
Naturally, thanks to the aforementioned Murphy's Law, this elaborate backup and retention is rarely, if ever, called into use. The only excitement the network technicians ever get is that occasional, frantic, "Oh Crap! I accidentally deleted that critical PowerPoint presentation" call. And even that is easily solved by walking the user through their self-service file restoration system.
But a little while back, the network technicians received a restoration request that actually sounded interesting. A production manager needed a report of the "old old" part numbers for a long out-of-production assembly. "Old old" referred an ancient mainframe system that had been replaced by the "old" system over ten years go and finally shut down in 2001. Restoring the "old old" system meant setting up a new emulation environment, mounting the old disk image, and praying that it boots up without a hitch.
This was the first time ever that an actual user had requested such a restoration, so the network technicians were naturally a bit nervous. But thanks to their meticulous planning and procedures, everything went fine. The system booted up without a hitch and the production manager was summoned to log in to the terminal they had set up for him. He sat down at the chair, keyed in his username, and then paused for a moment.
"Now, what was my password five years ago?"
Re:Default value goes back pretty far (Score:3, Funny)
Re:maybe grepping (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, didn't you know? You should have RTFM:
GROPE
NAME
grope, egrope, fgrope, rgrep - print lines matching a pattern
in rarely used document archives
SYNOPSIS
grope (options) PATTERN (FILE...)
DESCRIPTION
grope searches the named archives FILEs (or standard input if none are
named, or the file name - is given) for lines containing a match to the
given PATTERN. By default, grope prints the matching lines.
In addition, three variant programs egrope, fgrep and rgrep are avail-
able. egrep is the same as grope -E. fgrope is the same as
grope -F. rgrope is the same as grope -r.
BUGS
Backreferences are very slow, and may require exponential time.
Re:Thank you Microsoft... (Score:2, Funny)
For ultimate data portability, I prefer MDF.
And a chisel.
Re:Revenge (Score:3, Funny)