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MS Awarded "Best Campaigner Against OOXML"
HansF writes "Microsoft itself is the surprise winner of the FFII's Kayak Prize 2007, offered by the FFII in its call for rejection of Microsoft's OOXML standards proposal. The software monopolist is honored as 'Best Campaigner against OOXML Standardization.' FFII president Pieter Hintjens explains, 'We could never have done this by ourselves. By pushing so hard to get OOXML endorsed, even to the point of loading the standards boards in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, and beyond, Microsoft showed to the world how poor their format is. Good standards just don't need that kind of pressure. All together, countries made over ten thousands technical comments, a new world record for an ISO vote. Microsoft made a heroic — and costly — effort to discredit their own proposal, and we're sincerely grateful to them.'" If Microsoft doesn't send a representative to claim their 2500-Euro prize at the FFII General Assembly in November, FFII will give the money to Peruvian earthquake relief.
In addition, MS has helped IT security improve more than any other company.
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
They nearly won, and it isn't over yet - there is another vote coming up in Februrary.
My rights don't need management.
I've already started seeing .docx format attachments in my email at the office. Never mind the fact that my office is nearly 100% Linux/FOSS (except for the sole Windows machine running proprietary apps requiring outdated API's); I'd figured that since the vast majority of companies I've seen haven't (yet) started to migrate to Office 2007 then maybe sending .docx fils to everyone might not be such a smart move. For now we simply kick these emails back along with a friendly reminder that we don't do .docx or OOXML here, and will never accept anyhting in that format.
Microsoft says the 'O' in 'OOXML' stands for "open". My ass...
This space for rent!
the foot should have been on top of gate's head...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
If I see an armed mugger robbing two women, and then run away screaming, and the robber looks at me for a second, giving one of the women enough time to open a can of woop-ass, that doesn't make me a hero.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
Their message is "I am cool. I use the newest stuff. My dick is bigger than yours".
If OOXML finally dies, shall we give Microsoft a Darwin Award? Or perhaps a Richard Dawkins Award since it's a dying meme?
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
Don't send the money to MS!!! Send it to me - I trolled bravely and gratuitously against/for whatever the thing is, and I've already send my money to Peru. Email me here to get contact info:
ac@slashdot.org
I just got off the phone with Mr Bill. He said I am supposed to accept the award for Microsoft. The only problem is that I am busy on the night it would be awarded. I could make a teleconference appearance but sadly would need assistance in getting the money back to Microsoft. If it is wired to me, I couldn't get through customs and we all saw that movie with tom hanks who had to live in an airport.
If anyone with a valid checking account could help with this, I am willing to give them a small convenience fee of 10% plus any expenses. Please down load my personal instant messaging program and shoot me a message. If you have difficulty installing it, you can email me directly at 419 at nigeria.embasy Notice I used the "at" instead of the "@" sign in the email address to avoid spammers and scammers.
Thank you in advance to anyone able to help.
I don't think the ISO organization will allow M$ to damage their reputation that way. The OOXML vote is an international scandal and the people who count are not going to forget it. The whole business has already been damaging to ISO and they would do better to bury ooxml.
Just the same, I don't feel smug about how easily they damaged ISO. When I want to feel smug, I contemplate Vista's failure and what that means for the whole next generation of M$ crap and lock in.
Vista is one of the best things that ever happened to free software. It's later, more restrictive more expensive and less functional than anyone could possibly have imagined. There is zero enthusiasm for it and a plenty of rejection.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Is this the Japanese numbering of Final Fantasy II, or the USA releases?
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History only partially backs you up on this one. Remember Microsoft's numerous attempts to define a networking standard so that they could crush the TCP/IP network protocol? NetBUI anyone?
But yes, it can be hard to overcome the market leader. But, then again, if Microsoft were really sure that they controlled the market, why go through the trouble of standardizing? Because large parts of the world were looking elsewhere, especially governments.
I'm imagining a hailstorm of flying chairs in an office somewhere.
Just like Microsoft's Java corruptions set that standard, and their C corruptions set that one, and their HTML corruptions set that one, and (as pointed out above) their TCP/IP alternative set that one, and ... um. In their dreams. They haven't corrupted the language that far yet. Standards, see, standards are written documents everyone can consult to implement products that meet them. Microsoft's entire business model fails in the presence of actual standards.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
Remember Microsoft's numerous attempts to define a networking standard so that they could crush the TCP/IP network protocol? NetBUI anyone?
In MS's defense, TCP/IP wasn't a great option at the time either. MS was working with NetBEUI before DHCP came on the scene for instance.
Sure, they could have put the effort they spent in developing NetBEUI into fixing their objections to TCP/IP, but there was also plenty of work done on NetBEUI by that point already as well, so I don't think it was clear at the time that TCP/IP was going to win out even on LANs.
I think the sheer volume alone is illustrative of the weight of the outcry against it.
Sig free's the way to be.
Yay somebody finally found out where AC lives and is going to sort out the problem of trolls and frist posters once and for all!
I hate printers.
I think duplicate comments would be even worse than unique ones. If a huge number of the reviewers see the same failings in the spec, then obviously the spec is clearly broken and should have been worked on more before even being submitted, much less before being considered for a fast-track approval.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
The problem is that this doesn't change much.
They're still going to deploy it as the default document format for the new Offices. Lots of small and large companies are still going to upgrade their software at some point. OOXML is still very likely to become the new de facto standard due to common usage.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
Let's face it, folks. MS had the OS market in a stranglehold. They could've gotten away with pretty much anything. Bundling with hardware? No problem at all. Actually made the Average Joe user happy. Crappy bundled software like players and browsers? Zero problem either. Who doesn't know that there's better alternatives is happy with what he got. Mandatory registration? Already a bit of a nuisance to the average user (especially if he doesn't have internet access), but still bearable. Anyone will make a single phone call to use his computer.
But then they stepped across the line where the average user grins and bears it. After a major repair, another call. After a few more, the spanish inquisition starts. People start to get nervous. They didn't do anything wrong, yet they feel as suspects for copying software. Software they bought honestly. People also care whether they can do what they used to do. Now DRM is hanging over their heads, and they start looking at their friends who use Linux, who don't have to call, who don't have to register, who get tons of software for free and legally so, and with the various installers the distributions have, it's also only a mouseclick away.
People start to look around for alternatives. Being the moderator of a "non-geek tech board", I got a pretty good idea what bugs the "Average Joe" users and what direction they take. For about a year now, we have had a vastly increasing number in postings containing questions about Linux, which distribution to take, how to install it and how to get it going, quickly followed by quite happy notes how easy it was.
I've been trying to talk them into it for a few years now. Until recently the response was mostly "What for?". Now there's a reason. So if anyone helped Linux become more of a mainstream system, it's MS.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I think your fear of calling MS is unfounded. The phone people are tools and getting your registration updated is as simple as saying 'This is the only hardware this OS is installed on.' when they ask.
That may be OK for a retail boxed version that comes with an install disk. This isn't OK for the OEM factory installed system. Just try to use a Dell recovery DVD on a homebuilt box. The EULA forbids the OS transfer and the recovery DVD program won't recover to another machine. With that in mind, the WGA hasn't actualy been tested. I just figured it was registered with a genuine Dell model XXXXXX and anything else is "Not Genuine".
Therefore I didn't even try when I built a Core 2 Duo box to play with. I just stuck Feisty on it and enjoyed it.
The truth shall set you free!
I'm not sure what recovery DVD you're referring to... Perhaps something for Vista, or Media Center Edition? All of the Dells I've seen in the last year or two come with a recovery CD that works just fine on any machine. It's basically a regular WinXP install CD with a Dell label on it.
We've got a bunch of these Dell recovery CDs floating around the office (Win2k, WinXP Home, WinXP Pro) that we use when we don't have recovery media for a machine (like the wonderful HPs with the recovery partition - hose the HDD and lose your recovery media too!).
Obviously the licensing is tied to the machine. You can't transfer an OEM license from one computer to another. What you need to do is enter the OEM license from the sticker on the PC you're reloading. Generally speaking, it will activate online just fine. If it doesn't, just call Microsoft and tell them what happened. They don't generally ask a whole lot of questions, especially now that Vista is the hot item to have.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
You are correct, I did miss the point.
If you're moving to a new home made whitebox then you cannot move your licensing. OEM licensing is tied to the hardware itself.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Point of order:
This is a kayak.
These are canoes.
That is all.
Hooray for reverse-FUD! NetBEUI (Yeah, that's how it's spelled) wasn't made by Microsoft or even made for Microsoft. They adopted it as the default networking protocol when TCP/IP was still a little immature, the internet wasn't mainstream or readily available, and small business LANs were all the rage. It was actually a good choice for the time. Not that most people here really care about truth. Just post "Fuck M$ and WINDOZE" and you get modded as insightful.
In the US, the Wintel press has cranked up nonsense about how ooxml's demise was "political", which spins everything upside down. A company that owns it's own broadcast network, a sizeable number of newspapers, and spends a billion dollars a month in advertising does have it easy when it comes to blanketing the world with it's opinions.
The attack was also easy because there is little downside to it from their persective. They hate all reasonable standards so the controversy's damage to ISO is a win even if they lose. They also think that the only people who will notice are people who hate them anyway. That's a gamble they have been losing more often and the crowd of people turned off is growing because of it.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.