Microsoft Office 2007 legal muy barato, casi gratis ($128.00 pesos mexicanos) / Legal Microsoft Office 2007 cheap, almost free, for aprox. $9.75 USD

Actualización / Update (2009-08-04): Los precios normales están de regreso / The regular prices are back:

——————

No podía creer lo que veía ese día.

Hace tiempo, instalé la versión de prueba de Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, en Español. La versión se venció el 31 de julio de 2009. Ese día necesité abrir un archivo de Excel, y ya no lo permitió. Apareció una ventana invitándome a activar el producto mediante comprar una licencia válida. Oprimí el botón de comprar, y se abrió el navegador en una página en donde aparecía el precio de la versión completa de Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007: $128.00 pesos mexicanos (yo vivo en México). Revisé varias veces la cifra. Hasta cerré el navegador y volví a oprimir el botón de comprar licencia.

Teniendo un poco de suspicacias, compré el producto en línea. Se me dió el número de licencia, y activé mi copia de Office (durante el proceso tuve que autenticarme con mi cuenta de Microsoft Live). Adicionalmente, me dió la oportunidad de descargar el software. Cabe hacer notar que antes de comprar quité la opción que pemite descargar el software durante los siguientes seis meses, pues así era más barato.

Hoy revisé el saldo de mi tarjeta de crédito: sólo hay un cobro de $128 pesos mexicanos:

También, recibí mi recibo en mi cuenta de Live. Como curiososidad, está enviado desde una cuenta de Microsoft Colombia (microsoft.com.co):

¿Será una estrategia de Microsoft para acabar con la piratería? Decididamente yo apoyaría este tipo de medidas.

Viendo un correo que me envió Microsoft para actualizar la versión de Office de prueba, llegué a la siguiente página (http://buy.trymicrosoftoffice.com/buymx/default.aspx), donde se pueden comprar otras versiones del Office a un precio casi gratis también:

Consulté los precios en otros países en http://buy.trymicrosoftoffice.com/, pero no me parece sean diferentes a los habituales.

——-

I could not believe what I saw that day.

Some time ago, I installed the trial version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, in Spanish. This version expired on July 31, 2009. That day I needed to open an Excel file, but I was not allowed. A window appeared inviting me to activate the product by purchasing a valid license. I pressed the buy button and the browser was opened on a page showing the price of the full version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007: $128.00 mexican pesos (I live in Mexico, it is like $9.95 USD). I checked several times that price, by closing the browser and pressing the button again. 

Being suspicios, I bought the product online. I was given the license number -during the process I needed to authenticate myself using my account on Microsoft Live. Later, I activated my Office copy. Additionally, I was given the opportunity to download the software. It should be noted that before buying I removed the option that allows to download the software over the next six months, so it was cheaper.

Today I checked the balance on my credit card: there is only one charge of $ 128 mexican pesos:

Also, I received my receipt in my Live account. How curious, is sent from an account in Microsoft Colombia (microsoft.com.co):

 

Would it be a Microsoft strategy to eliminate piracy? I would strongly support such measures.

Reading an old email that Microsoft sent me to update the trial version of Office, I came to the following page (http://buy.trymicrosoftoffice.com/buymx/default.aspx), where you can buy other versions of Office almost for free:

I checked out the prices in other countries on http://buy.trymicrosoftoffice.com/, but I do not think they are different from usual.

Hibernate: What inverse means?

If you use Hibernate, you may have seen the “inverse” attribute. I found this simple explanation:

Essentially “inverse” indicates which end of a relationship should be ignored, so when persisting a parent who has a collection of children, should you ask the parent for its list of children, or ask the children who the parents are?

Why does this matter? Well if you are stupid then you might do something like:

Parent parentA = new Parent();
Parent parentB = new Parent();
Child child = new Child();
parentA.getChildren().add(child);
child.setParent(parentB);

how should hibernate persist this situation? For unidirectional one–to–many it is trivial; only one end of the relationship is modelled (there is only parent.addChild(), not child.getParent()), but when it is bidirectional (parent.getChild and child.getParent^*) you need to indicate whether the one–to–many is inverse or not.

What does it mean to be inverse? It informs hibernate to ignore that end of the relationship. If the one–to–many was marked as inverse, hibernate would create a child–>parentB relationship (child.getParent). If the one–to–many was marked as non–inverse then a child–>parentA relationship would be created.

From: Hibernates bizarre interpretation of inverse.

* Originally it reads: “child.getChildren”, but Silvia Ruiz get my attention it must reads: “child.getParent”.

More on this here: Inverse attribute of Hibernate.

Free push email for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

mail2web.com

Your emails, contacts and tasks are fully synchronized with mobile devices such as any PocketPC or Windows® Mobile device, Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm® Treo™ or other Symbian based cell phones. The Exchange Server sends or “pushes” emails, contacts, tasks to the device as soon as they arrive on the Exchange server or you update them. You don’t have to click buttons on your cell phone to check if you have a new item. This means real time wireless synchronization of emails, calendars, tasks and contacts between your cell phone and the Exchange Server.

Sales Professional: Hello, my name is [...], thank you for visiting mail2web support, how may I help you today?
Arturo Tena: Hi [...].
Arturo Tena: I was wondering how could I sign up for a “Basic Email” account.
Arturo Tena: (Not the trial one)
Arturo Tena: It is listed here: http://mail2web.com/mobile-email/pricing.aspx
Sales Professional: You can’t, you just use the trial account and after the 60 days if you don’t input a credit card we automatically move you to the basic email account
Arturo Tena: Oh great!

NuevaSync

What is NuevaSync?
NuevaSync allows direct, over-the-air, native synchronization of certain smart phones and PDA devices with public PIM, and calendaring services including Google Calendar and GMail contacts. NuevaSync does not need any software installed on your device because it uses synchronization protocols that are already built in.

Nokia Messaging

I think this is not free.