Office 2013 hits RTM

Microsoft has announced that their latest Office suite - Office 2013 - has just been released to manufacturing.  General availability will be January 2013 (just after the FSMas rush - I think that was badly timed), however the roll out of versions will start in November 2012 to Office 365 Enterprise customers (some features, most likely not all in the initial upgrade), followed by existing Software Assurance customers in mid November and new Licensing customers in December 2012.

Anyone who purchases Office 2010 from October 19th will be eligible for a free upgrade (costs for postage, if required) to Office 2013 when it is available in 2013.

Microsoft's Office News blog had this to say about Office 2013:

This is the most ambitious release of Office we've ever done. It spans the full family of Office applications, servers and cloud services. The new Office has a fresh, touch friendly design that works beautifully on Windows 8 and unlocks modern scenarios in social, reading, note-taking, meetings and communications. We are proud to achieve this milestone and are eager to deliver this exciting release to our customers.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

HSQ - Separation of Church and State Schools in Qld

Just a reminder to anyone who is interested in the future of public school education here in Queensland that the Humanist Society's Separation of Church and State Schools conference is being held at Hotel George Williams this weekend.  Please see http://hiltont.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/separation-of-church-and-state-schools.html for more information.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Islam - The Religion Of Intolerance

I posted this on Facebook back on 20th September, 2012:

http://freethinker.co.uk/2012/09/18/more-die-in-the-wake-of-innocence-of-the-muslims-movie/

There is no chance now that a muslim can claim that islam is a religion of love and peace and expect anyone to take them seriously. Islam is showing itself to be a religion of hatred, intolerance, massive overreaction and extreme violence.

To all the moderate muslims out there - WHY are you not standing up and taking back your religion from these fundamentalist whack jobs? The longer you leave this sort of lawlessness and insanity ruin your religion, the harder it will be to get out from under them when they call on you to support their fundamentalist ways. The time is now and will soon pass. Take action, take control, or lose all hope of being seen as different from these people.

And now, just to prove my point, the fundamentalist Taliban goes and does this: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/us-pakistan-schoolgirl-idUSBRE8980EB20121009

Yet one more show of extreme violence from those who represent the islamic faith.  Time is fast fading for the moderate muslims to take their faith back.  The problem is that when they try and stand up to the growing fundamentalist uprising in their own faith - that uprising who values fear, intolerance, hatred and the ultimate power this brings - those representing the fundamentalist side of their faith murder them.  In what way is that a religion of peace and love?

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Separation of Church and State Schools – Time For Reform In Queensland?

Please consider attending the 13-14 October 2012 Humanist Society of Queensland conference: Separation of Church and State Schools – time for reform in Queensland?

This event will possibly be the most important and constructive of its kind to have been staged in Queensland.

The keynote address will be provided by Prof Marion Maddox, Director - Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University, NSW.

Mr Greg Purches, Deputy General Secretary of the Queensland Teachers’ Union will be among the seven prominent speakers at the event. The presence of Mr Purches will provide an excellent opportunity for concerned Queensland parents, citizens and teachers to directly relate any concerns, experiences and anecdotes to the QTU.

The same personal communication access will also apply to ACSSO President Mr Peter Garrigan who will also be speaking at the event. ACSSO—the Australian Council of State School Organisations—is the peak national organisation representing the interests of the parents, families and school communities of more than two million children attending government schools throughout Australia. ACSSO’s formal structure currently comprises six State and Territory peak government school organisations and their membership networks.

Bookings can be made at the HSQ website: http://www.hsq.org.au/Whats-on/Conference-Booking

A conference flyer PDF is also available for download:

http://www.hsq.org.au/Portals/0/HSQ%20Files/Documents/HSQ%20Conference.pdf

Should the conference not be relevant to you, please pass-on the information to any other persons who might have an interest in attending.

 

 

See this and more critical thinking events at http://SomewhereToThink.com.au.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Looking For Somewhere To Think?

Are you looking for somewhere to meet up with other people and exercise your brain?  Do you like critical thinking?  If so, have a look at http://SomewhereToThink.com.au for places around Australia (OK, around SE Qld right now) for places to meet up with others who share a love of critical thinking.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie