I've been following this discussion and there's one question I haven't seen answered yet.
Ah ok, so if I want Silverlight in my Firefox, I just download the plugin like I do for Flash right? Can you respond to that please? I'm interested.
Seriously? Wouldn't it be a bit more suspect if the *didn't* use it?
It's not about them using it themselves.
It's about them leveraging an existing product to force the adoption of a new product.
Re:Standardize RTF first
on
RTF Vs. OOXML
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· Score: 1
If Microsoft is really concerned about interoperabillity, they should have published the full specs of RTF and pushed for standardization a long time ago.
Ask and ye shall receive. It was released in 1999, so it even meets your "long time ago" requirement.
One of the more amusing lines of the specification;
Because of the way Microsoft word processors implement tables, and the table-driven approach of many Microsoft RTF readers, it is very easy to write tables in RTF that will crash Microsoft word processors when you try to read the RTF. And of course, how much value there is in the specification for a format more than a decade obsolete, I'll leave as an exercise for the reader.
Also, what happens when you press a key that is obstructed from it's field of view. I often hit the left alt key by sliding my thumb under my palm to press it with the side of my thumb. Also, the lack of any tactile feedback would be terrible.
It won't work for you then, so I suggest you not buy one.
The ePassport will meet new US requirements to be introduced on 26 October 2006. Or where it says
As of October 26, 2006, any passport issued on or after this date by a Visa Waiver Program (VWP) country must be an e-Passport for VWP travelers to be eligible to enter the United States without a visa. on the DHS website?
What's really cool is that now terrorists can rig bombs that only kill people carrying American passports.
It's not just about Americans.
Australians have had to use RFID-embedded passports for the past couple of years to comply with US regulations. Can't say it's sped up my travels at all.
Just one thing: have you ever try to read the XML ODF generates in a text editor? I have. I actually tried to alter something; after a minor change, the document didn't open anymore.
I've done that, and if you weren't able to make it work, I suggest you read a little more about the standard.
I'm in the process of writing an app that modifies existing spreadsheet and documents to add new data automatically.
ODF is easily an order of magnitude simpler to create and modify than any Microsoft format.
It's why I'm putting a big effort into promoting ODF and fighting MSOOXML. If ODF becomes the defacto standard, my job becomes massively easier and my profitability leaps.
The thing is, computer's haven't changed in years.
That's what a monopoly does for you.
The major cost of software to the producer is the development phase. Once that's done, software sellers can keep flogging the product indefinitely for almost zero additional cost. The only fly in the ointment is that customers want to see improvements, and that keeps the costs high.
If you can take over the whole market, stifle competition so there's minimal expectations of change, you can keep gouging those 85-90% profit margins forever.
Because who is a bigger threat Microsoft or the NSA?
Microsoft.
The reason the NSA has become a threat to individuals is because corporations like AT&T and Microsoft collaborate with them to betray their customers.
The current government in the USA is driven by lobbyists from companies like Microsoft. The goals of the government and its agencies, including the NSA, are generated from corporate agendas. Threats to Microsoft profits have become threats to the nation.
We've just put 20 of them out in the field with a custom app for some of our data collectors. They're doing a fine job at a fraction of the price of a UMPC.
What also sucks, is that Gateway decided to put in only shared memory graphics, so there is no way to run Compiz or Beryl
The Intel GL960 chipset in that laptop should be fine with Compiz.
It's probably PCLinux 2007 not being new enough to recognise it.
Try;
SKIP_CHECKS=yes compiz --replace ccp & And if that works, you can use
mkdir -p ~/.config/compiz; echo SKIP_CHECKS=yes >> ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager for a permanent fix.
It is no more a "fake" standard than any other standard.
You may not see a pattern here. I suspect may others will.
Maybe we could define the APIs so that they work well with NT and not the others even if they are open. Or maybe we could patent something related to this. - William Henry Gates III on ACPI, 1999
Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language. - Prashant Sridharan, MS Visual J++ Product Manager, 1997
The first obligation that the ICPs undertook was to distribute Internet Explorer and no "Other Browser" in connection with any custom Web browsing software or CD-ROM content that they might offer - US District Court of Columbia on proprietary HTML extensions, 1999
OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new ones, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market. - Vinod Vallopillil, ex-MS Engineer, 1999
The first type of conduct found to constitute an abuse consisted in Microsoft's refusal to supply its competitors with interoperability information and to authorize them to use that information to develop and distribute products competing with its own products - EC First Instance Court, 2007
We [Microsoft] are OASIS members but since we didn't have an interest in ODF we didn't participate in its development. - Brian Jones , MS Office Program Manager, 2007
This isn't a battle between OOXML and ISO. It is a battle between having document standards and not having them.
Microsoft is trying to wreck the concept of standards and interoperability to a point where those concepts are useless.
The result of Microsoft's manipulation should be ISO banning MSOOXML from participating in the standards process.
It's abundantly clear now that the format is critically flawed and cannot be implemented by anyone, not even the Office team themselves.
ECMA 376 is a bomb disguised as a standard. It redefines functions and components just to retain ties to the undocumented legacy formats. Therefore a number of things that should be fixed by now, thanks to better engineering, and existing ISO standards, are left not only unfixed, but even perpetuated by ECMA376. The fact that Microsoft continues to push this fake "standard" shows how little they care about their customers and how much their business is predicated on lockin.
The problem Google Apps and similar online suites are going to run into is that it's easy to develop special-purpose document creation tools with OpenLaszlo and similar dev tools.
At the moment, it makes sense to use a stand-alone office suite because even just writing the most common document format requires heavy code and resources. Once ODF becomes ubiquitous, it'll make more sense to equip users with tools appropriate to their roles and minimise the use of resource intensive general-purpose suites.
Slashdot Mirror
This site doesn't force me to use Flash.
It's not about them using it themselves.
It's about them leveraging an existing product to force the adoption of a new product.
Ask and ye shall receive. It was released in 1999, so it even meets your "long time ago" requirement.
One of the more amusing lines of the specification;
Because of the way Microsoft word processors implement tables, and the table-driven approach of many Microsoft RTF readers, it is very easy to write tables in RTF that will crash Microsoft word processors when you try to read the RTF. And of course, how much value there is in the specification for a format more than a decade obsolete, I'll leave as an exercise for the reader.It won't work for you then, so I suggest you not buy one.
The rest of us should be ok though.
Or even earlier from the olden days of mid 2006, Mitsubishi's PK20 PocketProjector.
You mean where it says;
The ePassport will meet new US requirements to be introduced on 26 October 2006. Or where it says As of October 26, 2006, any passport issued on or after this date by a Visa Waiver Program (VWP) country must be an e-Passport for VWP travelers to be eligible to enter the United States without a visa. on the DHS website?It's not just about Americans.
Australians have had to use RFID-embedded passports for the past couple of years to comply with US regulations. Can't say it's sped up my travels at all.
It's IIS.
Not mine.
They died more than a decade ago, you insensitive clod!
I've done that, and if you weren't able to make it work, I suggest you read a little more about the standard.
I'm in the process of writing an app that modifies existing spreadsheet and documents to add new data automatically.
ODF is easily an order of magnitude simpler to create and modify than any Microsoft format.
It's why I'm putting a big effort into promoting ODF and fighting MSOOXML. If ODF becomes the defacto standard, my job becomes massively easier and my profitability leaps.
That's what a monopoly does for you.
The major cost of software to the producer is the development phase. Once that's done, software sellers can keep flogging the product indefinitely for almost zero additional cost. The only fly in the ointment is that customers want to see improvements, and that keeps the costs high.
If you can take over the whole market, stifle competition so there's minimal expectations of change, you can keep gouging those 85-90% profit margins forever.
Microsoft.
Or a useful tool.
We've just put 20 of them out in the field with a custom app for some of our data collectors. They're doing a fine job at a fraction of the price of a UMPC.
Nuh, pinched straight from Blender. That's why MS can't get a patent on it.
The Intel GL960 chipset in that laptop should be fine with Compiz.
It's probably PCLinux 2007 not being new enough to recognise it. Try;
SKIP_CHECKS=yes compiz --replace ccp & And if that works, you can use mkdir -p ~/.config/compiz; echo SKIP_CHECKS=yes >> ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager for a permanent fix.Like phoning home and telling its owners what you're (not) doing?
But seriously, what could a home computer be doing that would chew up so much CPU at idle?
Suck cock first, sign later.
It looks like you've used the tag. That only works in Internet Explorer version 5.51g on a full moon if you squint and hold your mouth just right.
Try using <p> next time. It's standard HTML.
You may not see a pattern here. I suspect may others will.
-
Maybe we could define the APIs so that they work well with NT and not the others even if they are open. Or maybe we could patent something related to this. - William Henry Gates III on ACPI, 1999
- Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language. - Prashant Sridharan, MS Visual J++ Product Manager, 1997
- The first obligation that the ICPs undertook was to distribute Internet Explorer and no "Other Browser" in connection with any custom Web browsing software or CD-ROM content that they might offer - US District Court of Columbia on proprietary HTML extensions, 1999
- OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new ones, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market. - Vinod Vallopillil, ex-MS Engineer, 1999
- The first type of conduct found to constitute an abuse consisted in Microsoft's refusal to supply its competitors with interoperability information and to authorize them to use that information to develop and distribute products competing with its own products - EC First Instance Court, 2007
- We [Microsoft] are OASIS members but since we didn't have an interest in ODF we didn't participate in its development. - Brian Jones , MS Office Program Manager, 2007
This isn't a battle between OOXML and ISO. It is a battle between having document standards and not having them.Microsoft is trying to wreck the concept of standards and interoperability to a point where those concepts are useless.
It's abundantly clear now that the format is critically flawed and cannot be implemented by anyone, not even the Office team themselves.
ECMA 376 is a bomb disguised as a standard. It redefines functions and components just to retain ties to the undocumented legacy formats. Therefore a number of things that should be fixed by now, thanks to better engineering, and existing ISO standards, are left not only unfixed, but even perpetuated by ECMA376. The fact that Microsoft continues to push this fake "standard" shows how little they care about their customers and how much their business is predicated on lockin.Their competition has barely started.
The problem Google Apps and similar online suites are going to run into is that it's easy to develop special-purpose document creation tools with OpenLaszlo and similar dev tools.
At the moment, it makes sense to use a stand-alone office suite because even just writing the most common document format requires heavy code and resources. Once ODF becomes ubiquitous, it'll make more sense to equip users with tools appropriate to their roles and minimise the use of resource intensive general-purpose suites.
A statement of intent and two example postings is "making an effort"?
You're being very generous to a company with a long history of abandoned promises and vapourware.
How about we wait and see how they perform for a few months instead of offering immediate praise?
You didn't read the page you quoted, did you?
Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.No, the wicked witch is still spreading FUD.
She's down one Winkie now though.