Vague article doesn't have the details I want
on
Office 2003 and XML
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It is obvious that Office 2003 will not have a beautiful open standard the will interpolate with any piece of software. I find that unfortunate, but not unexpected. As the Oasis link points out, Microsoft is not really interested in letting its consumers out of the box of proprietary formats they are currently stuck in.
The article is on the other hand very vague (probably because the information still isn't available) about what information is left in. My interest is no so much in being able to read OfficeXML documents, though as a WordPerfect user I would find this handy. What I am really interested in is if Word 2003 can in anyway be cajoled into being an authoring tool for already existing XML formats like DocBook. WordPerfect2000's support for XML is present, but clunky. My real hope was that Microsoft would offer a more useful solution, and to spite the bad rap about "presentation information" being removed, if other more useful information like 'heading,' 'strong,' 'table' etc. are still present, then I think it is a(n admittedly small) step in the right direction.
Everybody ought to lick the stamp and write there Rep. but if you vote in the districts of any of the following it is especially important.
Thank you, JFMILLER
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) [Chair] Lamar Smith (R-TX) (Sub Committee chair) John Conyers, Jr (D-MI) * [Ranking Democrat] Howard L. Berman (D-CA) * Henry J Hyde (R-IL) * Richard Boucher (D-VA) * Elton Gallegly (R-CA) * Robert C Scott (D-VA) Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)* Jerrold Nadler (D NY) William L. Jenkins (R-TN) * Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) Spencer Bachus (R-AB) * Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) * [Bill's Sponcer] Mark Green (R-WI)* Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) Rick Keller (R-FL)* Maxine Waters (D-CA) * Melissa Heart (R-PA) * Martin T Meehan (D-MA) * Mike Pence (R-IN) * William Dalahunt (D-MA) * Jeff Flake (R-AZ) J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) * Robert Wexler (D- FL) * John Carter (R-TX) * Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) * John Hostettler (R-IN) Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY) * Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Adam B Schiff (D-CA) Chriss Cannon (R-UT) Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA) Steve King (R-IA) Howard Coble (R-NC) Steve Cabot (R-OH) Tom Feeney (R-FL) Chris Cannon (R-UT) * -- Member, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
Ok, what was the deal with this story showing up on the front page in red with a posting date of "the mysterious future?" I know the the editors can post date a story, but why did I (and presumably the rest of the world) get to see it?
I'd just like to mention that I really appriceate it when the author of an article on science sums it if for us. I often have only 5 min to brouse the headlines and information like this is most welcome.
Perhaps the "little Guy" should rise up and overthrough the "Capitalists." Then a government structure could be set up where everyone give to the "COMMUnity" what they are able and in return recieves what they need to live.
Interesting to note that the two states with the most to "loose," CA and NY are "observers." Perhaps that's also because those two states have abour 65% of the online retailers within their borders.
If an interstate tax kills off more Dot.com's then CA esp. will take a heavy economic blow. If a state with potential losses of 7.7billion dolars is "observing" what does that tell?
You can now see the (benifitial) results of a good old-fashion Slashdotting on the front page, with the graph for pages from Nov. 8 going way off the scale.
There's one very simple way to put all this to rest. It's time for the world to return to the moon.
Near Earth exploration has stagnated, lost the publics imagination, and worst of all given no major technical inovation for more then a decade. It is time to return to the moon. It's time to send a man to mars. Most of all it time to focus this county's and the worlds efforts on something more productive then blowing each other to bits.
Ok folks here's what all the descussion boils down to:
Does the ADA apply to the web?
We can all agree that when the ADA was passed it didn't have the internet in mind. The defense will agrue that it therefore doesn't apply to the web. The procicution will argue that the internet has become a normal part of life for most people and that it should therefore be covered under the ADA. Would you be able to function "normally" if you couldn't use the net?
Is the service provided by SW's website available to the ADA protected groups?
I don't think the facts of the case are in dispute. the plantif clearly can't use the sight and sence you've been there you know why. (You have been there right) The question then becomes could the plaintif have recieved the same service by some other means. (The telephone seems to be mentioned alot) the answer is here clearly no. In order to get the discounds for some of these programs you must use the web interface. To give and analogy in the brick and morter world, what would happen if you got %50 off movie tickets provided you only used the stairs?
Assuming the two questions above are 'yes', must SouthWest change it's sight?
Here things get a bit trickier. SW must provide the same services offered on the web to ADA protected people. This could simple mean a note at the bottom of some pages stating that people with visual impairment may receive web only offers by phone. If on the other hand it is ruled that there is something intrinsically serviceable about SW's web page then they very well may have to change there sight.
How would a guilt verdict effect the rest of the web?
First off this part will depend a lot on how the previous questions were answered. Second it will depend on what gets ruled as a service. To give an example, I'm fairly sure Hotmail doesn't work with the web reader. There is also the issue of what standards will have to be met. Wheel chair ramps must be wide enough to accommodate a standard wheelchair, and everyone knows how big that is because it's in the code. On the other hand there is no standard for web readers. Establishing one (if necessary) will be a long and painful processes with lots of lawyers involved.
In the end, I (and IANAL) believe that the ADA will apply in a very limited fashion to the web, simply requiring that ADA protected groups be able to access services availably on the web either directly or through alternate means (telephone). Ialso think it will apply only to those buisnesses that offer non-web based services through web interfaces. It will take another case to clarify what happens to sights sell goods, and sights that offer only web based services (like slashdot).
In a closing note I want to remind readers that the ADA protects people from unequal treatment which they could not otherwise aviod. If every blind person in the US were to boycott SW it would not make a dent in SW's revinew. The ADA is the governments way of providing a leagle insentave to accomadate dissabled people for whom a finiantial incentive is not availible. This is not to say it isn't used like a club by scum sucking lawyers, nor is it to say that it couldn't use some fixing and clarifaction, but it is an important piece of law with it's place in our society.
Very simple. The Web takes the very expensive person out of the loop. The one that the ADA requires have a large bathroom w/ hand rails, elevators/ramps, and ADA complient workstations. All this along with payrole costs, taxes, paid leave, etc. In the united states in every buisness the human resources are the most costly part.
By encouraging it's costemers to use web based ticketing, SW and other airlines save on personell costs.
The limited scope of a contest tells you very little about either the proficiency of the programmer or the quality of the programming language.
One of the biggest claims of those who support Functional Programming is that one can create programs faster then by traditional methods both because the language is faster to write, and also because Languages like OCaml and Haskle are much less suceptable to errors.
While there is some pretty intence debate about the first part. The lack of memory, type and overflow errors in most functional languages are a huge plus for rapidly developed software. Bases on previous years results, better then 2/3s the C/C++ entries will crash and be disqualifies at some point.
So what's the point? The point is that the short length of the contest is meant to show off the very Functional Languages the contest is promoting.
Another SourceForge project that deserves mention in this catigory is CrystalSpace. It is very stable and looks realy good and has the advantage that it's cross platform. If nothing else, it would make a good display package for a 3D design package.
Please, everybody remember that any diet can get you to drop from two to seven percent of your body weight in a short span. The true measure of any diet is how much weight you loose between month 6 and 18. For most people this is where equilibrium is reached.
I could take off 20 lbs (1 stone, ~8 kg) by just going on the "you have to cook for your self" diet. That doesn't mean that having to cook your own meals should be the next dietary fad.
duff writes----- The government claims that the area is a seismic (sp?) dead zone. Yet there was an earthquake at Yucca mountain about a month ago and a major fault line about 300 miles away. ----- If you think 300 miles is to close, how about 30ft? The Diablo Cyn. Plant in central CA is on an active falt. Because of this the sight was never licensed for long term storage. At the moment casts of spent fuel are sitting out in the salt air less then a quarter mile from the most pristeen coast in the lower 48.
In my (not so) humble opinion, 300 mi from a fault and in the middle of no where is a far sight better then 30ft from a fault 900 yards from the ocean.
It seems someone always beats me to the punch. With the exception of average sized ORA books, books don't naturally lay flat. I have intentionally had several books that I use often spiral bound because they last longer (paperback do at least) and they stay open.
JFM
Re:Official Signs that you'd think would be jokes.
on
Hacking the Highways
·
· Score: 1
If you think that is a joke then I would also point you to Brown Material Road. This is the actual name of a road leading north from California's Highway 46 about 5 miles east of Cholame. (for thouse of you who are history buffs this is the where James Dean was killed). The road leads off through a cow pasture to some oil fields.
I recieved the e-mail anouncing the change in TOS/PP and having read this post I sent an e-mail to Mr. McGovern asking what was going on. He was gracious enough to sen me this reply.
JFMILLER
From Pat McGovern:
There does appear to be a conspiracy theory brewing on the web about why we
updated our TOS. I've been amused and a tad frightened by it.
The terms of service change/ privacy change was simply an ongoing maintenance of
the documents on our site. Nothing more. Nothing less. You'll likely see
similar updates on other OSDN sites in the coming months. We seem to be the
first...which perhaps is why we are seeing raised eyebrows.
We've updated these documents in the past, and we will likely do it again. We
seem to do it every 12 to 18 months. I hope it's not sooner, because I'm
tired of seeing my name on the front page of Slashdot.;-)
Is SF.NEt going away? Gosh, I'm not planning on it.. We are adding features,
building a new User interface, deploying new systems and adding more download
servers. The whole team is in overdrive to make the site even better then it
currently is. SF.NET is core to VA's business model. The site isn't going
anywhere.
If you do this then you can't play with there minds. consider the following responce to telemarketers:
Brother/Sister have you been saved?
I already told the FBI everything so go away
You've got to listen to me! I can prove I was abducted by aliens
Do you use free software? (ala an RMS rant)
hola, habla Espanol? carful sometime they do
And of course the clasic when asked for Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so: they're DEAD
Remember these poor people are just mindless drones for a heartless magacorp. Add some spice to there live. But always remember to end the conversation with: Per FTC Regualtions, Add me to your do not call list!
While RMS is obviously adviocating an open source solution, your post seems to imply that MSWord is the only option availible in Word Processors.
I wish to hold up for your consideration WordPerfect 9 (or 10 but I haven't used it yet) as being in all ways a better product than Word. It's easier to use (yes even for your Grandma) is more powerful, has a better scripting language, converts to HTML much better then MSWord, can handle embeded pictures without an hours worth or repaging, and still costs less!
(a small side note is that it apperently also runs on Linux)
In conclusion, If MSWord is the only word Processor you've ever tried you have no idea what you're missing.
This is an issue that effects more that just those people using GNU/Linux. Our office used WordPerfect (form Corel at the moment) but we are slowly being forced to move to Word because it was named as the CA state standard for document exchange. I won't go into everything I don't like about Word but the lack of reveal codes and picture placement issues are a major problem.
The real problem is that "No one ever got fired for choosing MS" (recent IIS issues not withstanding) therefore MS can sell the least effective wordprocessor on the market and still have a >50% market share.
Normally I tend to think that RMS's writing are a bit extreme. This time I can agree whole heartedly and without reservation.
Slashdot Mirror
It is obvious that Office 2003 will not have a beautiful open standard the will interpolate with any piece of software. I find that unfortunate, but not unexpected. As the Oasis link points out, Microsoft is not really interested in letting its consumers out of the box of proprietary formats they are currently stuck in.
The article is on the other hand very vague (probably because the information still isn't available) about what information is left in. My interest is no so much in being able to read OfficeXML documents, though as a WordPerfect user I would find this handy. What I am really interested in is if Word 2003 can in anyway be cajoled into being an authoring tool for already existing XML formats like DocBook. WordPerfect2000's support for XML is present, but clunky. My real hope was that Microsoft would offer a more useful solution, and to spite the bad rap about "presentation information" being removed, if other more useful information like 'heading,' 'strong,' 'table' etc. are still present, then I think it is a(n admittedly small) step in the right direction.
JFMILLER
This bill has been refered to the Judiciary Committee and from there will most likely be sent to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
Everybody ought to lick the stamp and write there Rep. but if you vote in the districts of any of the following it is especially important.
Thank you,
JFMILLER
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) [Chair]
Lamar Smith (R-TX) (Sub Committee chair)
John Conyers, Jr (D-MI) * [Ranking Democrat]
Howard L. Berman (D-CA) *
Henry J Hyde (R-IL) *
Richard Boucher (D-VA) *
Elton Gallegly (R-CA) *
Robert C Scott (D-VA)
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)*
Jerrold Nadler (D NY)
William L. Jenkins (R-TN) *
Melvin L. Watt (D-NC)
Spencer Bachus (R-AB) *
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) * [Bill's Sponcer]
Mark Green (R-WI)*
Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
Rick Keller (R-FL)*
Maxine Waters (D-CA) *
Melissa Heart (R-PA) *
Martin T Meehan (D-MA) *
Mike Pence (R-IN) *
William Dalahunt (D-MA) *
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) *
Robert Wexler (D- FL) *
John Carter (R-TX) *
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) *
John Hostettler (R-IN)
Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY) *
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Adam B Schiff (D-CA)
Chriss Cannon (R-UT)
Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA)
Steve King (R-IA)
Howard Coble (R-NC)
Steve Cabot (R-OH)
Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Chris Cannon (R-UT)
* -- Member, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
Ok, what was the deal with this story showing up on the front page in red with a posting date of "the mysterious future?" I know the the editors can post date a story, but why did I (and presumably the rest of the world) get to see it?
JFMILLER
I'd just like to mention that I really appriceate it when the author of an article on science sums it if for us. I often have only 5 min to brouse the headlines and information like this is most welcome.
JFMILLER
According to this article peroxide is ~$0.40 /lb
u t= articleWebzine&articleid=CA120248
http://www.manufacturing.net/pur/index.asp?layo
Why would I want to do this on line. I have enough problems with spending money on things that decay in the real world?
JFMILLER
Does anyone still contibute?
Why, yes I do. I enjoy the lack of adds, and I like knowing that I'm helping to keep this site, which I enjoy reading, up and running.
JFMILLER
Perhaps the "little Guy" should rise up and overthrough the "Capitalists." Then a government structure could be set up where everyone give to the "COMMUnity" what they are able and in return recieves what they need to live.
It's a great system, just ask the Russians.
Now where'd I put my red ink?
JFMILLer
Interesting to note that the two states with the most to "loose," CA and NY are "observers." Perhaps that's also because those two states have abour 65% of the online retailers within their borders.
If an interstate tax kills off more Dot.com's then CA esp. will take a heavy economic blow. If a state with potential losses of 7.7billion dolars is "observing" what does that tell?
JFMILLER
You can now see the (benifitial) results of a good old-fashion Slashdotting on the front page, with the graph for pages from Nov. 8 going way off the scale.
JFMILLER
Near Earth exploration has stagnated, lost the publics imagination, and worst of all given no major technical inovation for more then a decade. It is time to return to the moon. It's time to send a man to mars. Most of all it time to focus this county's and the worlds efforts on something more productive then blowing each other to bits.
JFMILLER
We can all agree that when the ADA was passed it didn't have the internet in mind. The defense will agrue that it therefore doesn't apply to the web. The procicution will argue that the internet has become a normal part of life for most people and that it should therefore be covered under the ADA. Would you be able to function "normally" if you couldn't use the net?
I don't think the facts of the case are in dispute. the plantif clearly can't use the sight and sence you've been there you know why. (You have been there right) The question then becomes could the plaintif have recieved the same service by some other means. (The telephone seems to be mentioned alot) the answer is here clearly no. In order to get the discounds for some of these programs you must use the web interface. To give and analogy in the brick and morter world, what would happen if you got %50 off movie tickets provided you only used the stairs?
Here things get a bit trickier. SW must provide the same services offered on the web to ADA protected people. This could simple mean a note at the bottom of some pages stating that people with visual impairment may receive web only offers by phone. If on the other hand it is ruled that there is something intrinsically serviceable about SW's web page then they very well may have to change there sight.
First off this part will depend a lot on how the previous questions were answered. Second it will depend on what gets ruled as a service. To give an example, I'm fairly sure Hotmail doesn't work with the web reader. There is also the issue of what standards will have to be met. Wheel chair ramps must be wide enough to accommodate a standard wheelchair, and everyone knows how big that is because it's in the code. On the other hand there is no standard for web readers. Establishing one (if necessary) will be a long and painful processes with lots of lawyers involved.
In the end, I (and IANAL) believe that the ADA will apply in a very limited fashion to the web, simply requiring that ADA protected groups be able to access services availably on the web either directly or through alternate means (telephone). Ialso think it will apply only to those buisnesses that offer non-web based services through web interfaces. It will take another case to clarify what happens to sights sell goods, and sights that offer only web based services (like slashdot).
In a closing note I want to remind readers that the ADA protects people from unequal treatment which they could not otherwise aviod. If every blind person in the US were to boycott SW it would not make a dent in SW's revinew. The ADA is the governments way of providing a leagle insentave to accomadate dissabled people for whom a finiantial incentive is not availible. This is not to say it isn't used like a club by scum sucking lawyers, nor is it to say that it couldn't use some fixing and clarifaction, but it is an important piece of law with it's place in our society.
JFMILLER
Very simple. The Web takes the very expensive person out of the loop. The one that the ADA requires have a large bathroom w/ hand rails, elevators/ramps, and ADA complient workstations. All this along with payrole costs, taxes, paid leave, etc. In the united states in every buisness the human resources are the most costly part.
By encouraging it's costemers to use web based ticketing, SW and other airlines save on personell costs.
JFMILLER
The limited scope of a contest tells you very little about either the proficiency of the programmer or the quality of the programming language.
One of the biggest claims of those who support Functional Programming is that one can create programs faster then by traditional methods both because the language is faster to write, and also because Languages like OCaml and Haskle are much less suceptable to errors.
While there is some pretty intence debate about the first part. The lack of memory, type and overflow errors in most functional languages are a huge plus for rapidly developed software. Bases on previous years results, better then 2/3s the C/C++ entries will crash and be disqualifies at some point.
So what's the point? The point is that the short length of the contest is meant to show off the very Functional Languages the contest is promoting.
JFMILLER
Another SourceForge project that deserves mention in this catigory is CrystalSpace. It is very stable and looks realy good and has the advantage that it's cross platform. If nothing else, it would make a good display package for a 3D design package.
JFMILLER
Please, everybody remember that any diet can get you to drop from two to seven percent of your body weight in a short span. The true measure of any diet is how much weight you loose between month 6 and 18. For most people this is where equilibrium is reached.
I could take off 20 lbs (1 stone, ~8 kg) by just going on the "you have to cook for your self" diet. That doesn't mean that having to cook your own meals should be the next dietary fad.
JFMILLER
I'd like to point out that it's not. If you go to SD you will find that there is another mountian being carved right now.
The Crazy Horse memorial
Ths is really quite something to see, and it is being done on a budget of less then $1e9.
JFMILLER
duff writes-----
The government claims that the area is a seismic (sp?) dead zone. Yet there was an earthquake at Yucca mountain about a month ago and a major fault line about 300 miles away.
-----
If you think 300 miles is to close, how about 30ft? The Diablo Cyn. Plant in central CA is on an active falt. Because of this the sight was never licensed for long term storage. At the moment casts of spent fuel are sitting out in the salt air less then a quarter mile from the most pristeen coast in the lower 48.
In my (not so) humble opinion, 300 mi from a fault and in the middle of no where is a far sight better then 30ft from a fault 900 yards from the ocean.
JFMILLER
It seems someone always beats me to the punch. With the exception of average sized ORA books, books don't naturally lay flat. I have intentionally had several books that I use often spiral bound because they last longer (paperback do at least) and they stay open.
JFM
If you think that is a joke then I would also point you to Brown Material Road. This is the actual name of a road leading north from California's Highway 46 about 5 miles east of Cholame. (for thouse of you who are history buffs this is the where James Dean was killed). The road leads off through a cow pasture to some oil fields.
I recieved the e-mail anouncing the change in TOS/PP and having read this post I sent an e-mail to Mr. McGovern asking what was going on. He was gracious enough to sen me this reply.
;-)
JFMILLER
From Pat McGovern:
There does appear to be a conspiracy theory brewing on the web about why we
updated our TOS. I've been amused and a tad frightened by it.
The terms of service change/ privacy change was simply an ongoing maintenance of
the documents on our site. Nothing more. Nothing less. You'll likely see
similar updates on other OSDN sites in the coming months. We seem to be the
first...which perhaps is why we are seeing raised eyebrows.
We've updated these documents in the past, and we will likely do it again. We
seem to do it every 12 to 18 months. I hope it's not sooner, because I'm
tired of seeing my name on the front page of Slashdot.
Is SF.NEt going away? Gosh, I'm not planning on it.. We are adding features,
building a new User interface, deploying new systems and adding more download
servers. The whole team is in overdrive to make the site even better then it
currently is. SF.NET is core to VA's business model. The site isn't going
anywhere.
I hope this info helps.
Pat-
- Brother/Sister have you been saved?
- I already told the FBI everything so go away
- You've got to listen to me! I can prove I was abducted by aliens
- Do you use free software? (ala an RMS rant)
- hola, habla Espanol? carful sometime they do
- And of course the clasic when asked for Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so: they're DEAD
Remember these poor people are just mindless drones for a heartless magacorp. Add some spice to there live. But always remember to end the conversation with:Per FTC Regualtions, Add me to your do not call list!
JFMILLER
Apperently there web server is running on this hardware. Please mod up parrent if you can so the rest of us can read this article.
JFMILLER
While RMS is obviously adviocating an open source solution, your post seems to imply that MSWord is the only option availible in Word Processors.
I wish to hold up for your consideration WordPerfect 9 (or 10 but I haven't used it yet) as being in all ways a better product than Word. It's easier to use (yes even for your Grandma) is more powerful, has a better scripting language, converts to HTML much better then MSWord, can handle embeded pictures without an hours worth or repaging, and still costs less!
(a small side note is that it apperently also runs on Linux)
In conclusion, If MSWord is the only word Processor you've ever tried you have no idea what you're missing.
JFMILLER
This is an issue that effects more that just those people using GNU/Linux. Our office used WordPerfect (form Corel at the moment) but we are slowly being forced to move to Word because it was named as the CA state standard for document exchange. I won't go into everything I don't like about Word but the lack of reveal codes and picture placement issues are a major problem.
The real problem is that "No one ever got fired for choosing MS" (recent IIS issues not withstanding) therefore MS can sell the least effective wordprocessor on the market and still have a >50% market share.
Normally I tend to think that RMS's writing are a bit extreme. This time I can agree whole heartedly and without reservation.
JFMILLER