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A Set of RFI Responses for Sherlock Holmes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the snooping-through-sniping dept.

Andy Updegrove writes "In early May, Massachusetts issued a 'Request for Information' on plugins that could help ease the transition from a Microsoft Office based environment to one relying on ODF compliant software. Now the seven responses received have been posted by the ITD: six from vendors large and small — and one from Microsoft that purports to be informational, but in fact gives no information beyond what is already publicly available. Like everything else in the ODF saga, many of the responses are as much political as technical, with some delivering off-topic messages, one (from the ODF Foundation, strangely) refusing to disclose much at all, and several contradicting each other on the technical challenge of working with Office absent further code disclosures by Microsoft. All in all, they make for an intriguing read on multiple levels — offering more of an Easter egg hunt than informative offering. It will be interesting to see which, if any, of these offerings the Mass. ITD decides to utilize."

12 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Wow. by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    After reading all that, I suddenly have a new appreciation for our mod point system. Maybe Massachusetts should have submitted their request to "Ask Slashdot."

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    1. Re:Wow. by bradkittenbrink · · Score: 3, Funny
      Maybe Massachusetts should have submitted their request to "Ask Slashdot."
      Only if they wanted to get this as a response...
  2. Re:Open? by Ruie · · Score: 4, Funny
    I guess in the land of Microsoft, an open door and a closed door are the same thing.

    That's because people enter through the windows.

  3. Re:Slashdot editors... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    &#78 &#111 &#46

  4. Behind closed doors... by SpecTheIntro · · Score: 5, Funny
    Like everything else in the ODF saga, many of the responses are as much political as technical, with some delivering off-topic messages, one (from the ODF Foundation, strangely) refusing to disclose much at all, and several contradicting each other on the technical challenge of working with Office absent further code disclosures by Microsoft.

    Conversation between ODF advocates before they submitted their responses:

    "Ok, let's see here... cryptic response?"
    "Check."
    "Stick something in there about penguins?"
    "Check."
    "Refuse to reveal any actual information?"
    "Yep."
    "Awesome. Finish it up with something about Bill Gates eating babies, and send it out."
    "You got it."

    1. Re:Behind closed doors... by houghi · · Score: 3, Funny

      That is how posting here is done as well.

      Bill Gates eats baby penguins.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  5. Mod parent...something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    (-1, MustBeNewHere)

  6. Re:Microsoft as a machine. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You didn't voice it, but seems like time to point out Mark's Corollary:

    "Malice and stupidity are NOT mutually exclusive."

  7. Re:Open? by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's because people enter through the windows.

    And more often, through the backdoor ;-)

  8. Re:Cruise Missle Source, Please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm pretty sure it would not be construed as such. Remember that firing software across international borders as a missile payload was considered a loophole in ITAR that technically allowed strong cryptography to be legally exported by those means (at least as far as ITAR was concerned. I'm sure there are other laws against lobbing missiles over international boundaries somewhere). I think we can use that opinion to back the idea that software binaries delivered via missile do not require the inclusion of source code for the recipient.

  9. It's even simpler than that... by jpellino · · Score: 2, Funny

    If it takes more than 20 minutes, engineers in MA say "screw it - put in a rotary!"
    Then they throw down their pencils and head for Dunkin Donuts.
    Oh wait - I may be thinking of another roadmap...

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  10. Sherlock Holmes Responds and Doug too by Quirk · · Score: 2, Funny
    "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" This phrase has entered Western popular culture as a catchphrase. It also turned up in the Dirk Gently stories by Douglas Adams where the detective uses the opposite phrase, "because we know very much about what is improbable, but very little about what is possible".

    Apparently the RIF responses are nothing to do about much.

    --
    "Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
    Cohen