ActiveWin.com has a very well-written and hevaily illustrated review of Office 12 written by Andre de Costa. This is, to date, one of the two best resources I know of for people who either could not or chose not to participate in the beta of the next generation suite from Microsoft (Paul Thurrott's preview is the other). As I (and other beta testers like Ed Bott) have stated in the past, the rules for writing about the beta are kind of murky. I'm glad Andre got permission to write such an in-depth and extensively illustrated review. If you're at all curious about what's coming in the next version, you will be too.

Hat tip to Bink.nu

Engadget was all ove the Consumer Electronics Show this past week and they've just put together a list of the best gadgets they saw. From personal video to big screens, they have assembled a selection of objects guaranteed to inspire some lust. Go check it out.

The good folks at InBubbleWrap have hit the gold mine with today's offer. Enter for your chance to win a free pass to a Getting Things Done seminar and autographed copy of the book signed by David Allen. This is potentially life-changing stuff we're talking about here folks. Head right over and enter now.

I didn't make it to CES. I'm bummed about that for a number of reasons (although I can't say I feel too deprived at missing the $18 hot dogs, endless taxi lines, and sardine can crush). Sitting on the sidelines, I've been able to take it all in courtesy of the crew from Engadget and my Tablet PC buddies JK and Rob.

The big buzz all week was about what Google would or would not be announcing. True to their word, they did not mention a Google PC (except to repeatedly deny any interest in building such a beast) and flatly denied interest in a Google OS when asked directly by Weblogs, Inc.s Jason Calacanis after the keynote. Instead, they fired the expected shot across the bow at iTunes and other purveyors of downloadable video, announcing some interesting partnerships with CBS and the NBA.

The other announcement was Google Pack - a collection of Google's software applications augmented by a curious selection of third-party products that Google wants to download, install, and monitor en masse on your PC. I have to agree with Joe Wikert of Wiley who points out that in the book publishing world this is called shovelware. Some folks in the Tablet PC world are even less charitable and call it crapware.

Sometimes, it's the little things that make all the difference. One of the few real annoyances I've complained about in Gmail is the purposeful (on Google's part) lack of a Delete button. A while back, I tried GreaseMonkey and a script that provided this capability and promptly had my Gmail account suspended for "unusual activity".

One burned, twice shy. I rely on Gmail for too many interactions to take a chance on losing access over a button.

I'm happy to report that a new version of the Gmail delete button is now available in both GreaseMonkey script and compiled form. I've been using the compiled version (you do not need the GreaseMonkey engine to use this) for a week now with no problems. Thank you Arantius!

A post at The Code Project (warning: serious geek site) does a fine job of summarizing how ClearContext and ActiveWords can help get your Inbox problem under control. You say you have no Inbox problem? Remember... the first step is to admit there is a problem.

Good reading and the author, who goes by the handle of "code-frog" explains why he found ClearContext to be better suited to getting Outlook under control than the Business Contact Manager add-on or NEO (Nelson E-mail Organizer).

For more information about how ClearContext and ActiveWords work together, see this post on the ClearContext blog.

Neville Hobson reports that Skype 2.0 will be officially released at 1:00 pm EST today. Neville reports that the latest beta build has squashed most of the bugs that were widely reported and is now working well for him. Skype is making a lot of announcements at the CES show.

Google celebrates seven years today with this special logo. It's hard to believe that it's been seven years since the company first started indexing the net. Google has gone from being just another obscure startup founded by a couple of sharp kids in the valley to a ubiquitous verb and stock market phenomenon. Not bad for a mere seven years.

Download Squad's Jordan Running has put together an amazing list of events from the past year. It's hard to narrow things down to just ten, but he's picked a fine selection that includes the Numa Numa Dance, the AOL acquisition of Weblogs, Inc., and my personal favorite, the cult of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Check out the list and chime in on the comments if your favorite web moment didn't make the list.

Happy New Year to you all. Hope you had a safe and joyous holiday and that 2006 is a tremendous year for each and every one of you.

Google is celebrating with one of the odder custom logos I've seen them post so far. Made me look twice to figure it out. The "2" is pretty subtle.

James Fallows has been contributing a technology column to the New York Times for quite some time and I have enjoyed every single one. Sadly (for NYT subscribers), he announced today that the current column will be his last for the paper (registration required). The good news is, he'll be authoring a similar column for The Atlantic Monthly where he is a senior editor.

"This is the 22nd monthly column I have done for these pages, and it will be the last. The Atlantic Monthly, the magazine for which I work and in which I first wrote about personal computing some 25 years ago, is expanding its technology coverage, and I will write a similar column there.

In the English-speaking world there is no better platform than The New York Times, and I have greatly enjoyed the response from readers in diverse corners of that world. I've enjoyed most of it, anyway; the exceptions know who they are. I've also enjoyed something that makes covering the broad world of technology different from, say, covering Congressional politics: each time you write about one development, you learn about five other encouraging trends."

Thanks for your great writing Jim. I'll be looking forward to your new column at The Atlantic Monthly.

Qube is a small tray application that provides one-click access to a mash-up of search engine results for whatever word your cursor is hovering over or text you have selected. Using a user-defined mouse button (left, middle, or right) and a modifier key (CTRL, ALT, etc.), you can execute a Qube search with one click. A popup search box is also provided via the system tray icon or hotkey. This is definitely a work in progress but looks interesting. Qube is a free download.

Paul Thurrott has just posted a series of screen shows at his SuperSite for Windows showing the installation engine and the application user interfaces in Office 12. He offers screen shows of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and other Office applications. Either the Office team is selectively loosening their NDA restrictions for select journalists or Paul is braving the lawyer's wrath by going public with these images.

Either way, if you've been curious about Office 12 and want to get a great glimpse at the next generation suite, here's your chance.

A number of people I know who use Outlook absolutely hate the security feature that demands you manually approve another application's attempt to connect to Outlook. Personally, I have found that most of the applications I use that talk with Outlook have figured out how to work around this annoyance but if you're still faced with this dialog box when you attempt to synchronize content in Outlook with another application or utility, here's a great fix. Download a copy of the free Express ClickYes utility. This tiny tray app will, as the name implies, click the "Yes" button in Outlook's security warning dialog box for you. Just be aware that you're trading convenience for a warning that something might be going on behind your back.

Hat tip to Marc Erickson at Lockergnome.

I learned about the Foxit PDF Reader from Scott Hanselman's blog. I know a number of people who have issues with Adobe Reader - it's big (and gets bigger with each new release). It adds a number of startup processes to your system. And it can create conflicts with other software. So, an alternative is welcome.

Enter the Foxit PDF Reader - it's free, lightweight (less than 1 MB download), and available for both all flavors of Windows from 95 to XP. It provides search, copy-and-paste of text from a PDF, and the ability to type new text into a PDF which is great for completing forms.