KWord is easily up to the task of generating nice letters,
letterheads, memos, faxes and papers, but lacks hyphenation,
mail merge (or any database integration) and endnotes/footnotes.
Similar stories for the other applications.
But, with all due respect to the diligent work of the filter developers, the biggest obstacle
to KOffice right now is the filters for MS Office documents.
what's the use of filters for opening Word file formats if the program doesnt support the features? Fine, it's ok if KOffice doesnt have Auto-Hyphen Underlining. But lacking endnotes/footnotes? mail merge is gone? These are SERIOUS problems. It automatically means KOffice is totally useless for any professional academic or business use. What will happen if I try to open my Physics Thesis or my Business Plan word file in KOffice - will it barf when it gets to eth footnotes? mangle it beyond compare?
Features DO MATTER. It's a very sour-grapes attitude to say "sure our open source Office lacks some features, but users dont use them anyway". If all you want out of an Office suite is to type some letters, then you don't need Office, you just need Microsoft Works! but if you want to use an Office suite for true business or academic or professional uses, you need much more features than the average letter writer.
frankly, there's a REASON that Office became the behemoth it is, and that is solely due to features, not monopoly. Remember Wordperfect used to OWN the Office space, and Lotus has a really nice office suite as well. In fact I myself used to be a SAM file diehard, until one day I just realised that the things I wanted, Lotus was dragging its feet on, and Word already had (example - integrated equation editor. advanced font and layout abilities. sectioning and numbering. Automatic tables and figures indexes. list goes on). Other things like support for third party tools like EndNote and MathType. KOffice is still behind even what Lotus and Wordperfect used to have, though I do agree it has a very nice graphic UI. And yet we still accuse the Windows people of liking style over substance?
If you want to do professional business or academic work, there are only two options. TeX or Microsoft Office. Right now, KOffice is still in Microsoft-Works league. Features DO matter and we need them on teh desktop office suite (not the browser:P)
To ease the transition, engineers are developing ways for networks on v6 to talk with those still on v4. It'll be like running two separate Internets, with boxes in the middle to connect and translate seamlessly between the two.
great! if we are gonna effectively have two internets anyway, lets have the IPv6-based Net do away with the current DNS monopoly and let anyone register a TLD..web,.sex,.JoeSchmoe, whatever. Open DNS is the way to go.
all someone would have to do is, write a plugin for a browser that lets it seamlessly navigate IPv6 networks. But at the same time, also allow the user to choose from a open list of DNS servers at the same time. YOU choose your root ! as it was intended to be.
my apologies to JoeSchmoe for any offense. thpbt:P
wrong - R&D funds are actually on par with advertising, marketing, and CEO salaries of the Big Pharm Corps. If their R&D budgets were at risk they can cut back on Mr Fat Cat.
Anyway, are you really so gullible to think that a Pharm Co would not do R&D ? that's like General Motors deciding not to build new models of cars. Its counter to common business sense.
Profits from a single drug like TYlenol are so vast that the R&D costs are easily met. You're jkust spouting a typical conservative argument that favors $$ and BigCorps over common sense.
to be REALLY paranoid, I'd like a terminal client that waited for the enter/return key to be pressed before sending the packets - collect each command locally and only transmit upon completion. BUT the actual keypresses shoudl be immediately encrypted as they are typed in RAM - so there is never a plaintext version of the password (or in factm anything you type!)
I think Stephenson invented this idea in Cryptonomicon - it was secureEmacs or something like that...
> It doesn't contain anything
> saying "I'm DNA" or "Read me like this"
sure it does - the "control codes" for DNA are embedded in between the genes. There are genes that contain "data" and there are "start", "stop" , and other more complex signaling all built in. DNA is a *bad* model for filesystems because the data and metadata are all in one long stream, but it works because it's a massively parallel system, and carefully and precisely regulated by enzymes (analogous to environment variables)
if I understood the article, file types are bad because they get in the way of allowing the user to determine how to open and view files. The only real reason to want file types is closely related to application binding, IMHO - some users want *all* html files to open in Frontpage, others want to pick and choose on a per-file basis, most want something in between.
But then why even *have* file types? You can survive quite nicely without them if you do have application binding metadata. Whenever you use an app to create a file, that file shoudl be bound to that app. If you want to subsequently open that file in a differrent app, then you shoudl let the app try. It's up to the APP, ot the filesystem, if it can open it or not. Why shoudln't you be able to open a JPG in notepad? if notepad has a hex viewing capability, it shoudl open just fine.
a well-designed app shoudl let the user attempt to open any file. It shoudl try and interpret the data correctly, and it should allow the user to bind the file to the app if they so choose.
IMHO the whole notion of file types is a mistake - the Mac approach seems to be, incorporate type as metadata, the windows approach seems to be use an extension. But neither is really necessary.
as a final note - dumping file types avoids the "identical icon" problem that the author demonstrated in the screenshot. Simply use the icon for teh file that corresponds to the *binding* , not the file type.
Sorry, but the plot was actually GREAT, and yes, Chris and Jackie ARE good actors. It's amazing how there seems to STILL be a anti-Chan bias even among geeks and longtime fans in western culture. The same fanboys who will rave about how great Akira was will then turn around and unfailingly undercut Jackie Chan with off the cuff comments like, "Grade B plot" and clumsy references to acting skill.
It's like every film reveiewer has a compulsion to go out of their way to assert that a Chan movie had to have some weakness of plot or direction or acting. This wasn't mere escapist fare, it was as strong a plot as any of the movies this summer or last. Perhaps its threatening to see an Asian style film start to really take ahold in the West. Maybe you just wouldn't recognize a good plot in a Jackie Chan film if it bit you in the ass.
If this movie were filmed by John Woo, or if it was animated, it would be held up as a tour de force of moviemaking. Chan kicked ass this weekend and everyone who saw the movie without consciously wearing a "Reviewer" hat knows it.
while it may not be an "applied" book, G.E.B. is an important text because it has a high-level description of concepts that scientists and engineers should make part of their worldview. Don't discount the importance of philosophy:)
so it's the fault of the Internet's structure that the crappy business models like CueCat and Pets.com fail? It's the weakness of the infrastructure that drove users to Napster and now Gnutella? It's the major flaw in "openness" that pamphletware and vapour don't derive a profit?
big business can go build their own internet if they want a totally controlled, pseudo-capitalist entity that will force users to roll over and get screwed. But don't blame us if no one shows up..
right, obviously, since the article clearly says the site is just a demo to attract interest from investors. Teoma has not yet decided whether or not to run as a standalone search engine.
most of us who use Google were fans waay back when their database was a fraction of the size that Teoma's is now, and we still swore by it. It's interesting that some of the same people I have talked to who were militant in their support of Google (is, it's "our" search engine!) now are disdaining Teoma.
And I am sure that Google will respond to the challenge with honor - I can't imagine that Google would try a patent challenge. It seems so out of character. But then again, I may be guilty of putting Google on a pedestal just because it was started by other geeks. Though one could make the argument that in today's downturn economy, patent litigation is just good business sense. There are no morals or honor in pure capitalism.
I'll add Teoma to my bookmarks - if they give me better results than Google, I'll switch in a heartbeat. Even if they run M$ IIS !
Senator Wyden will be holding town meetings in Oregon. Surely enough Slashdotters livbe within a few hour's drive?
Saturday, June 30th
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Lake County Town Hall
Lakeview Senior Center
11 N. G Street
Lakeview
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Curry County Town Hall
Port Orford City Council Chambers
555 W. 20th Street
Port Orford
Sunday, July 1st
2:00pm - 3:30pm
Lane County Town Hall
Cottage Grove Community Center
700 E. Gibbs Avenue
Cottage Grove
Monday, July 2nd
4:30pm - 6:00pm
Benton County Town Hall
The Corvallis Fire Hall
400 NW Harrison Boulevard
Corvallis
A major weakness of this material is that Barr only ever talks about "open source" (a development methodology) and never about "free software" (a much broader movement). One major reason for techs ranting at Microsoft is their unhappiness with loss of choice, freedom, and control - and this has been articulated as an ethical and political position by the Free Software Foundation and others. But Barr never considers this argument against Microsoft at all.
That's because Free Software isn't an argument against Microsoft, it's Open Source that is the real threat. Note that Microsoft has given away software for free (example: Internet Explorer) but Microsoft does not support eth concept of Open Source and that it is Open Source, not Free Software, that Microsoft is actively attempting to discredit.
Since part of FSF's definition of "Free" includes Open-ness, you could argue that Microsoft is targeting FSF by default (FUD inheritance?). But realistically it's solely the Open Source aspect of the FSF that is a threat.
IMHO the Free Software movement, while broader than Open Source by virtue of including it, is less relevant. Espeially if Linux intends to penetrate the business market!
while I appreciate raising the alarm - this is an insightful piece - I couldn't help but wonder why he thinks NC would have been good under Sun's control. Clearly.NET will be a nightmare under the monopolistic control of M$ - but Sun is just as hungry for monopoly as Microsoft, and would hardly have shepherded the concept any more benevolently than M$ would. The NC *was* a failed concept and for good reason!
From the Sony website, they explicitly say that the Clie will *play* both MP3 and ATRAC, but the Memory Stick will only support ATRAC. However, later they say that the Memory Stick will allow users to pile on more games, applications, and data. This makes me wonder if OGG files (which ar technically just data) could be played on a Clie? could a OGG payer app be written which takes advantage of the player hardware (including the headphone-based remote) ? What are teh hacking opportunities here?
it would be irony indeed if we could play OGGs on a Sony product:)
The judge asked where those encryption devices would be, after all, they've been banned by the DMCA. The lawyer had faith that they would appear.
So that's what DeCSS is used for - for works whose copyright has expired! why is the MPAA against it if their own lawyer has faith it will appear? it has appeared!
Anyone remember the "Earth" application from Snowcrash (Neal Stephenson)? That seems to be the ideal point towards which all of this is evolving.. check out the Planet-Earth project which is directly inspired by Snowcrash as well as H2G2 and Everything2.
The best place to store your keys are in a Java Ibutton from Dallas Semiconductor, IMHO. You can get accessories/holders for it on your watch or your actual keychain (you know, the physical one which encrypts your house and your car to you)... there's even a thread on Slashdot from some time ago on it.
IMHO the basic rationale they provide for eth existence of CURL is flawed, based on mistaken assumptions. From their site:
Slow response. To dynamically update any new data within a page, the Web server must re-send and the browser must redraw the entire page.
re-drawing the entire page is a red herring - the issue here is speed of response, which is ruled by three factors: 1. processing speed, 2. available system resources, and 3. web connection speed. Their assumption is that server-side processing is inherently slower than client-side, but that isnt true nowadays by default because server-side processing actually is more efficient than client side on all these fronts.
the trend of most content-heavy websites is towards heavy duty server hardware with efficient server-side engines like PhP or mod_perl. Compare that hardware and software environment to a typical client-side desktop which suffers from M$ bloat, multi-tasking, and limited hardware. Unless you have server-grade hardware and don't use any other programs while surfing, you're probably not going to be able to execute code a.out in less time than it would take the server to execute it AND deliver it to you.
speaking of delivery, consider that the trend is towards cable modems, ISDN, and DSL and away plain old dialup. True not everyone has fat pipes (I don't , myself) but why design a technlogy for the past?
The first rationale basically is saying, "if you have a really slow connection, super-expensive hardware, and don't multi-task when browsing, you can benefit!" - what subset of users fit this profile?
Inflexibility. Data is transmitted inefficiently from server to client because HTML forces data and layout information to be fully expanded. This increases the size of the data packet delivered - and the cost to deliver it.
odd they are talking about cost of delivery, when you can deliver content for free using PhP and HTML and it costs you PER CHARACTER to deliver content via CURL:P
granted, server-side processing sends the Whole Enchilada. Your 5-line PHP file expands to 100 lines of HTML and jscript. so what? if your connection is fast you won't notice, and if your hardware isn't state of the art you will wait for local compile time anyway. Just like you do now for Java (which is why IMHO Java sucks for web but rules for everything else).
Big downloads. HTML requires extra coding to handle layout, boosting download size.
well, actually if you follow CSS you can separate content and layout without installing Yet Another Plugin and also minimize complex nested tabling. Assuming you use Opera or IE anyway:) To be fair they should compare CURL vs HTML + CSS, not CURL vs HTML alone, if they want to talk about layout affecting code design.
they should rethink these issues a bit more:) seems like they are trying to invent something unneccessary. For any real client side application requirements you would probably want stable Java anyway.
shades of AOL Time Warner...
on
Hope For H2G2
·
· Score: 2
it's fantastic for the people working at H2G2 that they have financial stability, and now can actually be paid etc. I'm happy for them:)
but... and I'm probably being needlesly cynical, doesn't this remind anyone of AOL-Time-Warner?
at least this time it's the Old Media company acquiring the New Media one. I wouldn't be surprised to find the BBC trying to "integrate" other communities to try and build up a strong user base. I wonder if one reason a huge content/media company like the BBC (which resembles Time-Warner more than CNN) is interested in "online communities" is to create "captive audiences" for its content produced in-house.
The BBC may not be a traditional profit-oriented corp but it has had problems with censorship. For example, will they allow any articles on "BBC Sucks!" on H2G2 ? Will they demand that user comments be edited?
I'm just expressing the hope that the BBC will give H2G2 the creative, artistic, and administrative freedoms that they promised. A public pledge/statement by BBC Online reps would be more binding than a press release.
For the BBC, acquiring H2G2 is quite a coup. I hope they have the wisdom to see that it's value stems directly from its independence. I think there are reasons to be critical of the BBC (for example, 1, 2, 3)
Slashdot Mirror
i use endnote and mathtype - mathtype alone is basically God of Math , it completely blows Tex (and variants) away. Word still has the feature edge.
what's the use of filters for opening Word file formats if the program doesnt support the features? Fine, it's ok if KOffice doesnt have Auto-Hyphen Underlining. But lacking endnotes/footnotes? mail merge is gone? These are SERIOUS problems. It automatically means KOffice is totally useless for any professional academic or business use. What will happen if I try to open my Physics Thesis or my Business Plan word file in KOffice - will it barf when it gets to eth footnotes? mangle it beyond compare?
Features DO MATTER. It's a very sour-grapes attitude to say "sure our open source Office lacks some features, but users dont use them anyway". If all you want out of an Office suite is to type some letters, then you don't need Office, you just need Microsoft Works! but if you want to use an Office suite for true business or academic or professional uses, you need much more features than the average letter writer.
frankly, there's a REASON that Office became the behemoth it is, and that is solely due to features, not monopoly. Remember Wordperfect used to OWN the Office space, and Lotus has a really nice office suite as well. In fact I myself used to be a SAM file diehard, until one day I just realised that the things I wanted, Lotus was dragging its feet on, and Word already had (example - integrated equation editor. advanced font and layout abilities. sectioning and numbering. Automatic tables and figures indexes. list goes on). Other things like support for third party tools like EndNote and MathType. KOffice is still behind even what Lotus and Wordperfect used to have, though I do agree it has a very nice graphic UI. And yet we still accuse the Windows people of liking style over substance?
If you want to do professional business or academic work, there are only two options. TeX or Microsoft Office. Right now, KOffice is still in Microsoft-Works league. Features DO matter and we need them on teh desktop office suite (not the browser :P)
quoth the article:
great! if we are gonna effectively have two internets anyway, lets have the IPv6-based Net do away with the current DNS monopoly and let anyone register a TLD. .web, .sex, .JoeSchmoe, whatever. Open DNS is the way to go.
all someone would have to do is, write a plugin for a browser that lets it seamlessly navigate IPv6 networks. But at the same time, also allow the user to choose from a open list of DNS servers at the same time. YOU choose your root ! as it was intended to be.
my apologies to JoeSchmoe for any offense. thpbt :P
wrong - R&D funds are actually on par with advertising, marketing, and CEO salaries of the Big Pharm Corps. If their R&D budgets were at risk they can cut back on Mr Fat Cat.
Anyway, are you really so gullible to think that a Pharm Co would not do R&D ? that's like General Motors deciding not to build new models of cars. Its counter to common business sense.
Profits from a single drug like TYlenol are so vast that the R&D costs are easily met. You're jkust spouting a typical conservative argument that favors $$ and BigCorps over common sense.
to be REALLY paranoid, I'd like a terminal client that waited for the enter/return key to be pressed before sending the packets - collect each command locally and only transmit upon completion. BUT the actual keypresses shoudl be immediately encrypted as they are typed in RAM - so there is never a plaintext version of the password (or in factm anything you type!)
I think Stephenson invented this idea in Cryptonomicon - it was secureEmacs or something like that...
> It doesn't contain anything
> saying "I'm DNA" or "Read me like this"
sure it does - the "control codes" for DNA are embedded in between the genes. There are genes that contain "data" and there are "start", "stop" , and other more complex signaling all built in. DNA is a *bad* model for filesystems because the data and metadata are all in one long stream, but it works because it's a massively parallel system, and carefully and precisely regulated by enzymes (analogous to environment variables)
if I understood the article, file types are bad because they get in the way of allowing the user to determine how to open and view files. The only real reason to want file types is closely related to application binding, IMHO - some users want *all* html files to open in Frontpage, others want to pick and choose on a per-file basis, most want something in between.
But then why even *have* file types? You can survive quite nicely without them if you do have application binding metadata. Whenever you use an app to create a file, that file shoudl be bound to that app. If you want to subsequently open that file in a differrent app, then you shoudl let the app try. It's up to the APP, ot the filesystem, if it can open it or not. Why shoudln't you be able to open a JPG in notepad? if notepad has a hex viewing capability, it shoudl open just fine.
a well-designed app shoudl let the user attempt to open any file. It shoudl try and interpret the data correctly, and it should allow the user to bind the file to the app if they so choose.
IMHO the whole notion of file types is a mistake - the Mac approach seems to be, incorporate type as metadata, the windows approach seems to be use an extension. But neither is really necessary.
as a final note - dumping file types avoids the "identical icon" problem that the author demonstrated in the screenshot. Simply use the icon for teh file that corresponds to the *binding* , not the file type.
idiot, there is NO government - did you even read the article? the author only emphasised that about a zillion times.
Sorry, but the plot was actually GREAT, and yes, Chris and Jackie ARE good actors. It's amazing how there seems to STILL be a anti-Chan bias even among geeks and longtime fans in western culture. The same fanboys who will rave about how great Akira was will then turn around and unfailingly undercut Jackie Chan with off the cuff comments like, "Grade B plot" and clumsy references to acting skill.
It's like every film reveiewer has a compulsion to go out of their way to assert that a Chan movie had to have some weakness of plot or direction or acting. This wasn't mere escapist fare, it was as strong a plot as any of the movies this summer or last. Perhaps its threatening to see an Asian style film start to really take ahold in the West. Maybe you just wouldn't recognize a good plot in a Jackie Chan film if it bit you in the ass.
If this movie were filmed by John Woo, or if it was animated, it would be held up as a tour de force of moviemaking. Chan kicked ass this weekend and everyone who saw the movie without consciously wearing a "Reviewer" hat knows it.
while it may not be an "applied" book, G.E.B. is an important text because it has a high-level description of concepts that scientists and engineers should make part of their worldview. Don't discount the importance of philosophy :)
so it's the fault of the Internet's structure that the crappy business models like CueCat and Pets.com fail? It's the weakness of the infrastructure that drove users to Napster and now Gnutella? It's the major flaw in "openness" that pamphletware and vapour don't derive a profit?
big business can go build their own internet if they want a totally controlled, pseudo-capitalist entity that will force users to roll over and get screwed. But don't blame us if no one shows up..
right, obviously, since the article clearly says the site is just a demo to attract interest from investors. Teoma has not yet decided whether or not to run as a standalone search engine.
PLEASE read the article before posting
most of us who use Google were fans waay back when their database was a fraction of the size that Teoma's is now, and we still swore by it. It's interesting that some of the same people I have talked to who were militant in their support of Google (is, it's "our" search engine!) now are disdaining Teoma.
And I am sure that Google will respond to the challenge with honor - I can't imagine that Google would try a patent challenge. It seems so out of character. But then again, I may be guilty of putting Google on a pedestal just because it was started by other geeks. Though one could make the argument that in today's downturn economy, patent litigation is just good business sense. There are no morals or honor in pure capitalism.
I'll add Teoma to my bookmarks - if they give me better results than Google, I'll switch in a heartbeat. Even if they run M$ IIS !
The technology behind Aki is so advanced, she even made the cover of Maxim Online!check the link for the pinup (rated PG)
how's THAT for a final Fantasy :)
Senator Wyden will be holding town meetings in Oregon. Surely enough Slashdotters livbe within a few hour's drive?
Saturday, June 30th 12:00pm - 1:30pm Lake County Town Hall Lakeview Senior Center 11 N. G Street Lakeview 4:00pm - 5:30pm Curry County Town Hall Port Orford City Council Chambers 555 W. 20th Street Port Orford Sunday, July 1st 2:00pm - 3:30pm Lane County Town Hall Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E. Gibbs Avenue Cottage Grove Monday, July 2nd 4:30pm - 6:00pm Benton County Town Hall The Corvallis Fire Hall 400 NW Harrison Boulevard Corvalliswhile I appreciate raising the alarm - this is an insightful piece - I couldn't help but wonder why he thinks NC would have been good under Sun's control. Clearly .NET will be a nightmare under the monopolistic control of M$ - but Sun is just as hungry for monopoly as Microsoft, and would hardly have shepherded the concept any more benevolently than M$ would. The NC *was* a failed concept and for good reason!
Ideal slogan: All your Linux are Belong to Us!
From the Sony website, they explicitly say that the Clie will *play* both MP3 and ATRAC, but the Memory Stick will only support ATRAC. However, later they say that the Memory Stick will allow users to pile on more games, applications, and data. This makes me wonder if OGG files (which ar technically just data) could be played on a Clie? could a OGG payer app be written which takes advantage of the player hardware (including the headphone-based remote) ? What are teh hacking opportunities here?
it would be irony indeed if we could play OGGs on a Sony product :)
some examples of code as art include :
Obfuscated C Contest
Obfuscated Perl contest
5K contest
all of these contests are essentially defining code (in C, Perl, or HTML) as art - and art is speech.
Anyone remember the "Earth" application from Snowcrash (Neal Stephenson)? That seems to be the ideal point towards which all of this is evolving.. check out the Planet-Earth project which is directly inspired by Snowcrash as well as H2G2 and Everything2.
The best place to store your keys are in a Java Ibutton from Dallas Semiconductor, IMHO. You can get accessories/holders for it on your watch or your actual keychain (you know, the physical one which encrypts your house and your car to you)... there's even a thread on Slashdot from some time ago on it.
IMHO the basic rationale they provide for eth existence of CURL is flawed, based on mistaken assumptions. From their site:
re-drawing the entire page is a red herring - the issue here is speed of response, which is ruled by three factors: 1. processing speed, 2. available system resources, and 3. web connection speed. Their assumption is that server-side processing is inherently slower than client-side, but that isnt true nowadays by default because server-side processing actually is more efficient than client side on all these fronts.
the trend of most content-heavy websites is towards heavy duty server hardware with efficient server-side engines like PhP or mod_perl. Compare that hardware and software environment to a typical client-side desktop which suffers from M$ bloat, multi-tasking, and limited hardware. Unless you have server-grade hardware and don't use any other programs while surfing, you're probably not going to be able to execute code a.out in less time than it would take the server to execute it AND deliver it to you.
speaking of delivery, consider that the trend is towards cable modems, ISDN, and DSL and away plain old dialup. True not everyone has fat pipes (I don't , myself) but why design a technlogy for the past?
The first rationale basically is saying, "if you have a really slow connection, super-expensive hardware, and don't multi-task when browsing, you can benefit!" - what subset of users fit this profile?
odd they are talking about cost of delivery, when you can deliver content for free using PhP and HTML and it costs you PER CHARACTER to deliver content via CURL :P
granted, server-side processing sends the Whole Enchilada. Your 5-line PHP file expands to 100 lines of HTML and jscript. so what? if your connection is fast you won't notice, and if your hardware isn't state of the art you will wait for local compile time anyway. Just like you do now for Java (which is why IMHO Java sucks for web but rules for everything else).
well, actually if you follow CSS you can separate content and layout without installing Yet Another Plugin and also minimize complex nested tabling. Assuming you use Opera or IE anyway :) To be fair they should compare CURL vs HTML + CSS, not CURL vs HTML alone, if they want to talk about layout affecting code design.
they should rethink these issues a bit moreit's fantastic for the people working at H2G2 that they have financial stability, and now can actually be paid etc. I'm happy for them :)
but... and I'm probably being needlesly cynical, doesn't this remind anyone of AOL-Time-Warner?
at least this time it's the Old Media company acquiring the New Media one. I wouldn't be surprised to find the BBC trying to "integrate" other communities to try and build up a strong user base. I wonder if one reason a huge content/media company like the BBC (which resembles Time-Warner more than CNN) is interested in "online communities" is to create "captive audiences" for its content produced in-house.
The BBC may not be a traditional profit-oriented corp but it has had problems with censorship. For example, will they allow any articles on "BBC Sucks!" on H2G2 ? Will they demand that user comments be edited?
I'm just expressing the hope that the BBC will give H2G2 the creative, artistic, and administrative freedoms that they promised. A public pledge/statement by BBC Online reps would be more binding than a press release.
For the BBC, acquiring H2G2 is quite a coup. I hope they have the wisdom to see that it's value stems directly from its independence. I think there are reasons to be critical of the BBC (for example, 1, 2, 3)