Month: August 2007

Cracking Word and Excel protection passwords

One of our employees has left the organization and, with that, had left me with quite a predicament. He had password protected the views on all of his Excel and Word documents. In other words, you could see the document, but you couldn’t edit it. Apparently he didn’t leave on the best terms, as he would not relinquish the password to us. Of course, I wasn’t about to say that “it isn’t possible” – so I did a little digging and came up with the following solutions:

Both links are quite simple to use and give you an unprotected document as an end result! I figured I’d share the knowledge as I had tried quite a few other methods from other sites that either didn’t work or were much more complicated.

As far as document open passwords, which Microsoft Office handles quite differently, they require “brute force” method which can take days to weeks to accomplish. So those of you using passwords for those files should fear not, one would have to be quite determined to crack them!

Back from Mexico

Ok – so I’ve been back for over a week! I just haven’t had the time or the energy to write about the trip. (I got sick upon my return – still taking antibiotics!) It’ll take some time to fully register – but, no worries, I have a lot to write about. In the mean time, I have posted pictures from the trip (if you haven’t already noticed on the left) – so go ahead and click on the album above to take a look! More soon!

(seems like a general lull in posting – get to it bloggers!)

Spotty internet

I just spent the last half hour on an entry, and my internet connection dropped. I was just writing about the things that we take for granted, and I suppose a reliable internet connection is one of them! I finally got a good night’s rest after my first hot shower since the night we arrived! We are now preparing our final presentation for the school the wrap up what we have been working on all week Its a bit haphazard, but we are getting there. The municipal president is receiving us and taking us all out to lunch, and we will be presenting immediately afterwards. We then hop in a bus and head back to Durango! The wireless seems to work better there, so hopefully I’ll be able to post more. Its been a sometimes frustrating but always fascinating trip – it’ll take some time to process it all.

Good morning

After a meal of Taquitos Encuernados last night, we had a few drinks to talk things over once we got the 12 kids settled in their rooms. On my way back down to the Hotel restaurant (still in Durango city) I ran into a gentleman that asked why we were all here. I gave him the usual 60 second speil about how we bring Chicago Public School kids to Durango to donate 100 computers to communities in need. The guy was visibly excited and told me that he lives in Chicago and has family in Durango and would love to help us out in any way possible! It was great to see somebody so excited!
After our drinks and discussion of how things are going we headed to bed and I got some MUCH needed sleep. We had a huge brakfast and followed it up with a teambuilding activity – we have a fantastic group! Although I’m still nervous, I’m excited at the same time for what lay ahead.
Today I head to Mezquital (the Governors hometown) with a contingent of 2 kids and a board member. The rest of the group heads to Santiago Papasquiero, our homebase. Not sure what to expect, but the unknown holds promise! .