ISO Miscounted Cuban OOXML Vote

An anonymous reader notes Groklaw's coverage of the apparent mix-up ISO made with Cuba's vote in the matter of recommending OOXML as a standard. Cuba apparently voted against OOXML in September, but ISO recorded their vote as a "yes" — which is odd on its face, as Microsoft is forbidden to sell any products in Cuba. The Cuban NB head has apparently now officially responded to the BRM, but Groklaw's PJ notes that verification remains problematical, and "...the bottom line to me is that a process that worked perfectly well when folks all trusted each other falls into chaos when there are allegations of dirty tricks or undue pressure."

Comments

I knew it

[MyLongNickName]

As soon as they bought the Diebold voting system, I knew we were screwed.

Re:I knew it

[tobiasly]

We all know how close Cuba is to Florida, maybe they *meant* to vote No but really voted Yes, and the ISO committee couldn't agree on whether the chad was hanging or just dimpled.

Re:I knew it

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is that in Cuba, Chad actually was hanged.

They get their computers from Hugo Chavez

[gelfling]

The Red Revolution People's First October Socialist Workers Computing Platform. Which is either a Linux distro or pirated Windows anyway. Communists don't care about code you have to buy from the running dog lackeys of Capitalist Colonialist Aggression.

Re:They get their computers from Hugo Chavez

[Van Cutter Romney]

You didn't know? Its called "Red Flag" Linux.

Undermining our way of life...

[Urger]

These Cuban scum! They are trying to ruin our American way of life with their instance on "open standards." Their dangerous ideas of "freedom" and "choice" are directly opposed to our system of allowing us to choose whatever option we are told to choose. Damn Commies! If we don't stop them now, they will want to monitor our machine controlled elections! We have to stop these anti-Americans now, while we still have the chance!

Re:Undermining our way of life...

[rvw]

Know what? If something changes Cuba's mind about OOXML and very shortly after the US embargo of Cuba is ended... fuck, I just don't have words for that. I think those Cuban cigars come in handy when Hillary is in "Office". It could open her up, you know! ;-)

Re:Er, um...

[SnarfQuest]

I hope none of those guys designed the equipment my eye surgeon will be using when I have my vitrectomy (shudder).

Don't worry, it was designed by Microsoft, and it runs on Vista.

Ahhh, my eyes!

[spun]

An eye surgery tool running Vista? What if it gets hacked? That's just asking to have the goatse guy literally rather than figuratively burned into your retinas.

This is news?

[wiredog]

the bottom line to me is that a process that worked perfectly well when folks all trusted each other falls into chaos when there are allegations of dirty tricks or undue pressure

Like we haven't learned that from the spammers abusing e-mail, the various hacks to slashcode to prevent carpflooding, etc. etc. etc.?

Re:This is news?

[makapuf]

[OT]Sir, I'm not a native speaker, but would you explain what carpflooding means and how it relates to slashdot/code ? Google returned three incomprehensible references (incl this citation). well, four, now that I posted this.[/OT]

Re:What?

[jamstar7]

Of course they do. The only country to embargo them is the United States. They can get all the computers they want from other countries. You are aware there are other countries out there, right?

Re:ISO

[Mister Whirly]

You know you are on Slashdot, right?

ANY problem can be tied back to Microsoft, no matter what it is.

Cancer? Microsoft
War? Microsoft
Famine? Microsoft
Bryan Adams? Microsoft
Disease? Microsoft