> It's my understanding that OOXML isn't even a standard that microsoft uses or can implement and microsoft intends to replace it in the very near future.
I think msft does use an OOXML standard, just not the same OOXML standard that ISO approved. As I understand it, there are many OOXML "standards" just as there are many.doc standards.
It is interesting that the OOXML standard that was approved for fast-track processing, was so approved because it was deemed to be the de-facto standard. A de-facto standard that is being used by absolutely nobody, even the standard's creator.
> "Job security for IT professionals plummeted more than 10% from January to February of this year, far surpassing the average job security declines seen nationwide in a rigorous analysis of U.S. employment patterns."
> WSJ: "Government Quietly Changes Rules on Foreign Tech Workers"
> On Friday, DHS issued a press release saying that businesses could now hire foreign students who attended American schools for 29 months without obtaining an H-1B visa,
> The economy shed 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment, presenting a stark sign that the country may already be in a recession.
> The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, its highest level since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.
> The downturn has even come to San Francisco, where highly trained workers with elite degrees flock to work for some of the world's biggest technology companies. CNet Networks, the online media giant, laid off 10 percent of its staff -- about 120 workers -- this year in an effort to increase profitability and its share price. Yahoo, the search engine company, said it would cut its work force by 1,000.
The price of yahoo has already adjusted for the possible buyout. If there is any more adjustment to be made, it will made Monday morning - not when the actual buyout occurs.
This news will probably cause a price spike Monday morning. Smart traders may sell on the spike up - that way, they win either way.
Everybody on Wall street knows that you buy on the rumor, and sell on the news. The *rumor* of this merger is helpful is helpful to traders, but long term, the actual merger may not be helpful at all.
Shouldn't the entire process be stopped? Shouldn't there be an end to end investigation?
I realize that the vote from Swedens was thrown out. But does it make any since to assume that if msft was only caught once, then such bribery only happened once? How does that make any sense at all? If msft is trying to bribe their way to a win, the why would msft only bribe one country?
Of course msft down played the incident. Msft said it was just one rouge employee. As absurdly implausible as that story sounds. I would be will to give msft the benefit of even the smallest doubt. But, come on, msft was caught cheating - let's at least stop the process long enough to find out for sure if it was in fact an isolated incident.
> "Yes, because Microsoft obviously purchased 86% of the world."
What kind of silly crap is that? Microsoft only had to buy off a few dozen people.
> "This obviously will surprise you, but most people in the world are happy with Microsoft products."
What does this have to do why msft products? And why do msft shills constantly try to confuse standards with products? Msft is no more forbidden to use ODF than msft is forbidden to use ASCII or HTML. What is wrong with ms-word supporting ODF?
I am not sure if ISO is irrelevant when it comes to government purchasing.
> Did you expect a major change if ODF won?
Not overnight, but yes, that would have been possible. If governments started using ODF, then big businesses, that work with the governments, would have used ODF. Which means smaller businesses would start using ODF, and so on.
You are lying. Msft can use ODF.
on
ISO Approves OOXML
·
· Score: 3, Informative
>>And by real motives I mean "Anti-Microsoft people dont want Microsoft to obtain a public international standard on documents, so Office sinks (and Microsoft gets screwed) when governments start pushing restrictions on formats for their documents".
Absolute 100% pure unadulterated crap. Msft is entirely capable, and welcome, to use ODF. In fact, I think plug-ins already exist.
I am sick to death of this brazen lie being propagated on slashdot, and elsewhere. It is not true, and it makes no sense. You statement is based on the assumption that ODF locks msft out - and that assumption is simply not true.
So when msft is caught red-handed, like in Norway, or Sweden, then that one particular vote is not counted. But it is assumed that everything else is just fine, in spite of dozen of irregularities?
That doesn't really seem fair to me. It seems like, if you cheat, then you either win, or at least break even. It's like saying that the penalty for shop-lifting is that you have to put the stuff you stold back.
In fact, it seems like, in the case of Norway, msft did better than break even. Instead of a "yes" msft rigged a "nothing" which is better for msft than a "no."
Considering the massive number of irregularities in the OOXML approval process, I think OOXML approval should be put on hold, until an investigation can be completed.
After it's over. ISO decides that many things could be done differently. So ISO makes some changes, and promisses this sort of thing will never happen again.
That way ISO get's it credability back, but still does not have to change the OOXML approval.
Formal protest regarding the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500
I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairman (of 13 years standing) of the Norwegian mirror committee to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34. I wish to inform you of serious irregularities in connection with the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (Office Open XML) and to lodge a formal protest.
You will have been notified that Norway voted to approve OOXML in this ballot. This decision does not reflect the view of the vast majority of the Norwegian committee, 80% of which was against changing Norway's vote from No with comments to Yes.
Because of this irregularity, a call has been made for an investigation by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry with a view to changing the vote.
I hereby request that the Norwegian decision be suspended pending the results of this investigation.
"August 30, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard."
"the president of the European Academy for Standardisation, Tineke Egyedi, is critical of OOXML being made a standard when ODF exists already, and she believes duplicative standards conflict with WTO rules"
Not that stuff like rules or laws ever stopped msft.
So what? Msft has $40 billion in the bank. So what if EU gets $25 million, or whatever.
And so what if the slashdot/groklaw crowd knows about all the corruption? Msft has hundreds of millions of customers, and 99% of them don't give a damn.
Slashdot Mirror
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Burns,_Your_Company's_Computer_Guy
> It's my understanding that OOXML isn't even a standard that microsoft uses or can implement and microsoft intends to replace it in the very near future.
.doc standards.
I think msft does use an OOXML standard, just not the same OOXML standard that ISO approved. As I understand it, there are many OOXML "standards" just as there are many
It is interesting that the OOXML standard that was approved for fast-track processing, was so approved because it was deemed to be the de-facto standard. A de-facto standard that is being used by absolutely nobody, even the standard's creator.
Open standards may be prefered, but I don't think it's an actual ISO requirement. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
If so, then sure stop buying msft. Frankly, I am not imagine why anybody would you msft, unless they needed some specific application.
But, let's face it folks, a *lot* of apps only run on windows.
There is also this:
> "Job security for IT professionals plummeted more than 10% from January to February of this year, far surpassing the average job security declines seen nationwide in a rigorous analysis of U.S. employment patterns."
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/edu/2008/033108ed1.html
And this:
> WSJ: "Government Quietly Changes Rules on Foreign Tech Workers"
> On Friday, DHS issued a press release saying that businesses could now hire foreign students who attended American schools for 29 months without obtaining an H-1B visa,
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/07/government-quietly-changes-rules-on-foreign-tech-workers/?mod=WSJBlog#comment-18914
"Dell Job Cuts to Top 8,800 as U.S. Spending Slows" (Dude! You're getting a pink slip!)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aEO1GX_CC.8U&refer=u...
"Google DoubleClick cuts 300 jobs"
http://www.newsoxy.com/google_doubleclick_cuts_300_jobs/article10671.htm
"Motorola to lay off 2,600 workers"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri-motorola-8k-jobcuts-motap...
"Chrysler Slashing Tech Jobs - The latest cutbacks affect 400 technology workers"
http://www.thecarconnection.com/blog/?p=1095
In other news, according to the NYT:
> The economy shed 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment, presenting a stark sign that the country may already be in a recession.
> The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, its highest level since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.
> The downturn has even come to San Francisco, where highly trained workers with elite degrees flock to work for some of the world's biggest technology companies. CNet Networks, the online media giant, laid off 10 percent of its staff -- about 120 workers -- this year in an effort to increase profitability and its share price. Yahoo, the search engine company, said it would cut its work force by 1,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/business/04cnd-econ.html?em&ex=1207540800&en=c1de4fb13c4ec4bd&ei=5087%0A
If you a job like that, wouldn't you want to keep it?
If msft buys yahoo, msft won't need those execs anymore.
The price of yahoo has already adjusted for the possible buyout. If there is any more adjustment to be made, it will made Monday morning - not when the actual buyout occurs.
This news will probably cause a price spike Monday morning. Smart traders may sell on the spike up - that way, they win either way.
Everybody on Wall street knows that you buy on the rumor, and sell on the news. The *rumor* of this merger is helpful is helpful to traders, but long term, the actual merger may not be helpful at all.
I think the network edition is about 140mb, then you just apt-get whatever you need. Seems to be the same idea.
Shouldn't the entire process be stopped? Shouldn't there be an end to end investigation?
I realize that the vote from Swedens was thrown out. But does it make any since to assume that if msft was only caught once, then such bribery only happened once? How does that make any sense at all? If msft is trying to bribe their way to a win, the why would msft only bribe one country?
Of course msft down played the incident. Msft said it was just one rouge employee. As absurdly implausible as that story sounds. I would be will to give msft the benefit of even the smallest doubt. But, come on, msft was caught cheating - let's at least stop the process long enough to find out for sure if it was in fact an isolated incident.
> "Yes, because Microsoft obviously purchased 86% of the world."
What kind of silly crap is that? Microsoft only had to buy off a few dozen people.
> "This obviously will surprise you, but most people in the world are happy with Microsoft products."
What does this have to do why msft products? And why do msft shills constantly try to confuse standards with products? Msft is no more forbidden to use ODF than msft is forbidden to use ASCII or HTML. What is wrong with ms-word supporting ODF?
So what if everybody has to use a crappy standard, it's all about 'da bling.
I am not sure if ISO is irrelevant when it comes to government purchasing.
> Did you expect a major change if ODF won?
Not overnight, but yes, that would have been possible. If governments started using ODF, then big businesses, that work with the governments, would have used ODF. Which means smaller businesses would start using ODF, and so on.
>>And by real motives I mean "Anti-Microsoft people dont want Microsoft to obtain a public international standard on documents, so Office sinks (and Microsoft gets screwed) when governments start pushing restrictions on formats for their documents".
Absolute 100% pure unadulterated crap. Msft is entirely capable, and welcome, to use ODF. In fact, I think plug-ins already exist.
I am sick to death of this brazen lie being propagated on slashdot, and elsewhere. It is not true, and it makes no sense. You statement is based on the assumption that ODF locks msft out - and that assumption is simply not true.
In Norway, a majority voted OOXML. Yes msft shills on slashdot think that should be a "yes" vote.
So when msft is caught red-handed, like in Norway, or Sweden, then that one particular vote is not counted. But it is assumed that everything else is just fine, in spite of dozen of irregularities?
That doesn't really seem fair to me. It seems like, if you cheat, then you either win, or at least break even. It's like saying that the penalty for shop-lifting is that you have to put the stuff you stold back.
In fact, it seems like, in the case of Norway, msft did better than break even. Instead of a "yes" msft rigged a "nothing" which is better for msft than a "no."
Considering the massive number of irregularities in the OOXML approval process, I think OOXML approval should be put on hold, until an investigation can be completed.
After it's over. ISO decides that many things could be done differently. So ISO makes some changes, and promisses this sort of thing will never happen again.
That way ISO get's it credability back, but still does not have to change the OOXML approval.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080331144223128/
This article does a great job of presenting the big picture:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-great-besmirching
"August 30, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard."
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033701
Now tell me that's not corruption.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080327170359776
"the president of the European Academy for Standardisation, Tineke Egyedi, is critical of OOXML being made a standard when ODF exists already, and she believes duplicative standards conflict with WTO rules"
Not that stuff like rules or laws ever stopped msft.
Cover up? Msft is not even shy about their brazen corruption anymore.
Yes, there was corruption. Tons of it. It has all been very well documented. Read groklaw.net or noooxml.org.
What does msft care is the slashdot/groklaw crowd doesn't like it?
This is not about bloggers v professional journalists. This is just about words on a computer screen vs a words on a piece of paper.
So what? Msft has $40 billion in the bank. So what if EU gets $25 million, or whatever.
And so what if the slashdot/groklaw crowd knows about all the corruption? Msft has hundreds of millions of customers, and 99% of them don't give a damn.
I don't know if it would matter, it seems that msft makes the rules.