The, Surprise

Microsoft’s move to open up the (file) specifications for its Office applications quite surprised me. I don’t think it has hit Slashdot yet, but it made it to the ‘frontpage’ of ZDNews. Brian Jones (Program Manager for Office) made the announcement late last week. All files are available in PDF format and, they’re actually quite readable.

The news that Toshiba is going to announce the end of the HD-DVD format is another surprise: Well, not nearly as much as the one above. Rumour has it that many movie distributors decided to go for Blu-Ray. The final nail on the HD-DVD coffin appears to have been Walmart’s decision to exclusively sell Blu-Ray discs.