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OOXML Will Pass Amid Massive Irregularities
Tokimasa notes a CNet blog predicting that OOXML will make the cut. Updegrove agrees, as does the OpenMalasia blog. Reports of irregularities continue to surface, such as this one from Norway — "The meeting: 27 people in the room, 4 of which were administrative staff from Standard Norge. The outcome: Of the 24 members attending, 19 disapproved, 5 approved. The result: The administrative staff decided that Norway wants to approve OOXML as an ISO standard." Groklaw adds reportage of odd processes in Germany and Croatia.
"Disallowed"? What "court"? This has nothing whatsoever to do with any government. ISO is a standards body, which publishes recommendations that people volutarily follow. And this particular standard isn't exactly the kilogram. Even if it passes, it is not something that will be forced down anybody's throat as a requirement.
Let me guess: you're the sort of whining douchebag that wants a law regulating every pet peeve and perceived injustice you encounter. Someong talking on a cell phone in a restaurant? Make a law against it. Someone building a new parking lot near your house? Make a law against it. Don't like Microsoft? Make a law against it. Hispanics moving in down the street? Make a law against them.
Grow up, man. The government is not your mommy.
If people disapprove of Microsoft's standards, then they should NOT USE THEM! PERIOD!! There are plenty of competing standards, and plenty of clean open source software out there. Which is perfect if you sit in Mama's basement all day ... but in the real world outside, when passing a lecture to your professor, or passing a report to your boss, they don't want to hear "it's open source so it's better" ... nor do they want to have to download 97MB of OpenOffice software just to open the frikken thing, as happenned to me the other day ... if your ODF is so damn open, where's all the freeware readers for windows ?
Instead of trying to "beat" the big boys, start actually side stepping them. Like the airlines and the big telecoms, they are ALL obsolete.
So presumably you have your own private plane, and airstrip on which to take off and land, and you managed to post this article using magic ?
So is central government and big agencies and militaries.
Ah okay, so you don't pay any taxes, don't use the public healthcare system, don't take any medicine, and when someone invades, you'll be right at the front armed with flaming torch and/or pitchfork to defend your land ?
I use Linux and BSD and rarely if ever drop back to windows to play a game WINEX doesn't support yet.
Rarely ... so your solution is fine *when* it works, but even you don't practice what you preach. THERE IS NO *RARELY* ... if you were so convinced of your convictions, it truly would be "all or nothing" ... f*****ng hippocryte.
don't use the public healthcare system, don't take any medicine, and when someone invades, you'll be right at the front armed with flaming torch and/or pitchfork to defend your land
Nope, I don't use "public healthcare" that's for socialists who expect something from nothing and sign themselves away for "free stuff". I went off some medication I was prescribed, and instead went into my mother's herb garden and started using her plants instead. Surprisingly, I'm healthy now... the government and its sanctioned medics now see me as a "lost stream of revenue". I call myself "free".
Course the average schmuck will miss the part that once you accept free stuff, without doing a thing for it, the government that is strong enough to give you things, is also strong enough to take those things away, oh yeah, and it owns you. On that issue I stand where I say I do and don't play your game. I've yet, in my whole life, to take a single handout from the government, yours or anyone else's. As for "defending my land"... right now its "public use" and "public policy" schmucks like you that want to put highways through people's back yards or through their farmland that are the real enemy, not some foreign schmucks who can barely afford to feed their "armies", nevermind actually invade anyone's "land". I'm fairly sure I can defend my land from an invading army more effectively than you or anything you can afford to throw my way.
As for the "rarely if ever", you need to put your dick back in your pants boyo. You forget I'm not just a believer in the Free Market, but I also exercise it whenever possible. You forget that little issue that "I already have a paid copy of windows XP" retail, they threw it in with a laptop I bought (before I got into building my own). Why not use it if I feel like it? Not like Microsoft will give me a refund. That doesn't mean I'll be buying another copy of Windows ever again, but when they throw one in, I don't mind using it for games. I have yet to get much work on Windows though.
PS - I actually hold the title and deed to several lovely little pieces of property. Including the one my mom lives on. But thanks for the typical weak minded insults you hurled my way. Shows what an enlightened "real world thinker" you are.
PPS - most of the business minds in the world whose work I read, have discussed the fact that airlines are and were (as of 2000) overdue for financial collapse. Same with most big entities. They're too slow to maneuver, and most people that matter are either in on the take of their scams or have been clued into their scams and want no part of 'em. Either way... 9/11 and all this terrorism craze resulted in governments inflating moneys through the proverbial roof. As a result, all the security theater is not meant to "keep us safe from terrorists"... it is meant only to pump endless streams of freshly printed cash and credit into the coffers of the airlines to keep them afloat. And yes, I have driven on public and private roads, and I must say, with scant few exceptions, I've felt less bumps on private roads than on public roads, course most people don't realize that private roads generally charge tolls, surprise surprise. Prime example are the roads in Washington DC... the "shining example of America's Glory!"... I've driven those roads extensively, and even close to the White House and Congress, there are potholes... no joke. I live less than 500 miles from there, and my last job took me there every other day. Needless to say, you cannot PAY me to go there anymore.
PPPS - I say this, and take it as you will kiddo, but you should definitely look at whether such lovely things as tyrannical governments, church movements and inquisitions (crusades, etc) and other such groups "helped" technology and knowledge or helped to stifle it. Ask yourself if all our advances have been the results of government control, or of individuals hoping to cash in on a good idea. Look around, lots of people, many of whom I've known, used to flee
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler