Don't know about YOU, but I don't want mshaft plugged into MY ass.
Let's see them try it on their EMPLOYEES first. Not even on criminals, but on THEIR employees, then politicians...
Instead of wasting money on this, maybe we could use more programs for endangered/at-risk youth, young adults, and the homeless who WANT to work, go to school or be sheltered.
Smarter idea: follow the military's style of document classification markings(Top Secret; S E C R E T; C O N F I D E N T I A L; UNCLAS, (Classification/sub-class category). Make it standard in industry:
1. Overall document classification stamped at top & bottom of document and at the subject line 2. Indicate if the subject itself is a classified term or such 3. Mark EACH paragraph with the classification marker
Then,
1. ANY document access requires logging of by whom, date/time, viewing and output device, recipients apprised of document in same or other emails... (this can deal with "content aggregation" whereby unclass stuff added up might become equivalent to classified matter...)
2. Any document ACCESSED or PRINTED is logged, scanned and compared to the the original to determine if the user tampered with or edited the classification markings prior to scanning/copying
3. Micro-embed varied tale-tale symbols (watermarking) in the text fonts.
Even marketing material should have some identifier to indicate it was sanitized prior to dissemination. Problem with many companies is they STUPIDLY consider EVERYTHING they do that's not released to be "confidential". That's wasteful and probably intended to legally deny employees from talking too much, but it is a morass that makes it difficult to do work, too.
ALL classifications/sensitivity markers need a traceable authorization, a fixed declassification date, and need to be monitored. Could create more jobs, I imagine.
I suspect that the IBM scanning method simply compares KNOWN/AUTHENTIC classified documents and a wide body of theoretical matter that is potentially subject to classification markings, and simply is routed to humans who research a bit more and flag it to make future semi-matches become classified until downgraded. The bad part is that erroneous or capricious classification might take AGES to be corrected.
I can just see the infomercials and commercials about these.
Polycom and other teleconference companies might, umm, make a killing. Or, Skype might. Imagine tho, "'scuse me honey. I have to update my YIM burial calendar..."
There's got to be some sort of "MotherFudders" campaign to smear, tarnish, and hobble mshaft. It's amazing that people will use the products of some of the most brazen, uncouth, vicious and dastardly of companies because it helps them get something done.
Shame. (Yeh, I know, people, particularly businesses, don't operate business with morals and ethics...)
While I think this COULD be a preview (not that it IS THE preview), I suspect that the US government won't enact in full such a process. After all, driving the subversives, dissenters, and freedom fighters TOTALLY underground just makes them go away but return with a vengeance, fully recharged.
But, it is ironic that the US government intelligence agencies and various special interest groups bemoan that China does these things, yet for the sake of the shareholders and the 'merkun economy, it's business as usual. The US and other western friends of the US will continue to "sell granny for a buck" and worry about the consequences later.
Anyway, if the US used this internally to shut down "troublemakers", then the government and wealthy might have to shift base of operations to India before telecom takes off like crazy over there. There's a whoolllle lot more work over there since infrastructure is coming up basically from scratch, much more so than in China. I'm just assuming that these US "masters of the universe" exist to have something to DO, not to END.
My less-than-succinct response is (to those who disagree that this is or might be a preview of things to come in the US):
And...? The US "intelligence" agencies have "honeynets" which are capable of (even if not yet used for) moving undesirable topics out of view by timing out the site, proxy-sending copyright infringement notices to take down articles, spamming and altering sites. Though I cannot say this has happened to me, I am sure that HOT ENOUGH sites would be and are affected.
"However, there is a principle in law (or Equity) that one cannot do indirectly what he cannot do directly. An interesting question for practicing lawyers (I am a retired one and not up on all of this) would be, is there a way to attribute the Plaintiff's actions to Microsoft, canceling their GPL rights? Would it in fact be too late to do this based on their provable support of SCO (the massive loans arranged by MS to keep SCO afloat)? I'd sure like to hear what Eben Moglen has to say about this."
In a way, the "principle in law (or Equity) that one cannot do indirectly what he cannot do directly." is to bad. I mean, look at it this way: you ineptly or ignorantly get hooked up with a corrupt thief passing himself off as an investment broker or somesuch. He get $800 of your money, which he says you can get back minus $25 processing fee if you don't want to remain in the deal during the time you have for backing out.
But, instead, he stalls you, screws you, and neither the local police nor the FBI will get involved. You suspect that this jerk is burning people across multiple states' lines, yet you have no proof.
Under this "Equity" law, where "one cannot do indirectly what he cannot do directly", you cannot rub out an asshole in ANY kind of way. So, it seems it would be legal to "make amends" with the thief by re-investing more money into him, then introducing him to sharks bigger and more voracious than he, KNOWING that ONCE he crosses THEM, they'll eat his ass alive. You'll likely not get your money back. You're do NOT tell the bigger sharks that he's a thief, or maybe you do. But you don't tell the ONE thief he's facing a trap that will ensnare his greedy ass if he gets greedy again.
Losing money to CON ARTIST (not talking about friends you figure cannot easily repay you) you want to "trust" can lead to all sorts of emotions from philosophical to downright self-destructive.
Too bad the "equity" aspect of law won't overlook this kind of revenge provided all the evidence is there to show the thief got his due. I suppose the ONE saving grace of this aspect of law is that if the jerk IS brought to justice, others have their shot at reclaiming what they are entitled to -- provided the law didn't impose a statute of limitations, and provided the thief is not working with or for some bigger law enforcement agency that wants the thief protected for a bigger investigation.
See my two comments (I concede they may make for good FICTION ideas, but "Where there's a WAY there's a WILL" comes to mind. I learned that from a USMC SSgt in the '80s...
They can be used to deliver pin-needle-doses of biochemical weapons to vermin located in countries the US (or powerful US-based or sponsored rogues) may someday want to "curtail". The two targets *I* can think of off the top of my head (and from reading about how the US is likely to lose "its position" or competitive edge) would be China and India. The US could just sit back and allow the IBMs, Ciscos, etc squeeze enough brain-capital until blue and white collar jobs are under intolerable, unsustainable threat.
Just an idea. It's quickly-deliverable, anonymous, and can cover wide areas when deployed in sufficient quantity. I for one would never EXPECT nor HOPE it to be used. If it IS used (by ANYone) I would be FIRST to hope for massive, cataclysmic retribution upon the perps (the decision-makers or their whole, sleepy-go-lucky population) using the critters for evil purposes.
Just enough power to observe a target, then sting it, then fly away. No more (or, less chance of, if this mode still is in use) darts accidentally killing the wrong individual.
These critters can also be used to poison food at private villas (just over, and when the operator is sure no one is looking, dive the bug). They just need to be water soluble so no one sees it.
They could be used to attack, infect, then set up vermin vector, in case some targets live among pests (and seem comfortable doing so), which then can be used to "naturally" take out a population.
If **I** can think of this in about 2 minutes, imagine what the schemers with money, time, a mission/mandate and a will can do.
I wouldn't be surprised if someday the US (or, rogue military commanders, or "patriotic" politicians and agitated business types) uses these to attack China and India to "take back" the tech competitive edge -- after it/they decide(s) "enough control loss is enough"...
(Ducks, for he just created an international paranoia incident....)
Like you said, "I don't know Approach...". You should find a way to look at it from who the TARGET audience is. Home users of a database don't want nor NEED to become developers. Lotus Approach took me about 2 weeks to get really comfortable. Access, never, for me. Filemaker, ehh. It was too developer-aimed, IMO.
Lotus Approach IS used by some serious development types of work, mainly as a front end to Oracle, MySQL, mssql, and some 10 or 15 other db back ends. The data and forms are separate, and have always been, unlike what, Access, which took YEARS for ms to "get it".
Approach is WYSIWYG, so right from the word GO no one NEED be a developer.
NO ONE should be using spreadsheets to do non-statistical storage of data. This happened because for years either the tools didn't exist to appease the desk-side data analyst-- they had to rely on IT. The other part is some developers were lazy or territorial, and LOTS of companies and IT staff are mixed on hoard the data (not just from protection of data, but for IT job security), or share the data (so IT can concentrate on OTHER more important tasks than to risk backlash of "THAT'S not the report I ASKED FOR...".
The other problem is that ms popularized excel, and businesses did, too. LOTS of bad habits grew up around the kludge excel is. It is an abominable excuse for a database wannabe.
Approach lets people GET WORK DONE. People who need databases and never before saw one get sample database tables and applications in Approach. They can reverse engineer these and customize them.
The biggest drawbacks of Approach:
-- no runtime executable (royalty free, or otherwise) -- not a big enough widget set (compared to FMP, Access, et al... -- poor or non-existent ERD -- only runs on windoze -- not separable from Lotus SmartSuite (except the Japanese version IS separate...) -- only in maintenance/patch mode, since IBM is SITTING on Lotus SmartSuite, letting it die a slow, worthless death, as if even IBM's OWN want it to die, despite their "10 million S/S users..." -- not built-in way to record and reuse queries; but users created this and sell solutions
Pluses:
- I use it as a front end to my Linux & win98-based MySQL engine - I am writing a screenplay dialog and script tracking database - I can build in minutes or hours what would take me and MOST non-developers days or WEEKS to do in access - It's GREAT for an ad hoc WYSIWYG prototyping tool
You admit you don't know Approach, yet you could almost single-handedly dissuade most readers here from even considering it. Approach -- if IBM opened up its code-- could almost single-handedly kill Rekall, Kexi, and a slew of others that still retain the giant framework, geek-appeal that most END USERS will run from. Approach is good enough that user- and developer-based solutions are sold all the time.
Nice. But before I can use it, I'd like integrated WYSIWYG charting, reporting, crosstab, and a few more things. It seems they are on to something. I think Knoda's been around more than 2 years, aye?
Have you seen Lotus Approach? Sadly, it's only on windoze, and even sadder, IBM came out with "Symphony", which I tried, and almost cried in anguish over. Symphony was supplanted by the combination of Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Approach in use together, but singly, each did most of what the original Symphony did.
It's quite unfathomable/astonishing/mind-boggling that they co-opted the Symphony name and foisted it upon a new product that appears half-baked in that it lacks a decent database app. It's like IBM is just goddamningly-dogged-determined to NOT give us a database app unless we take Notes. Pity. Angering, in fact. Sadly, no one with programming skills and moxy is taking IBM to the carpet on this. Some of us users have for YEARS been begging IBM, and our pleas just fall on deaf ears, canned responses from IBM, and "don't-hold-out-hope" sympathies from other users who tried and failed ahead of us.
What URCHIN would deign to mark my comment as "offtopic" when I included a potential point of contact:
""Google principal scientist Krishna Bharat is settin up a Bangalore lab complete with colorful furniture, exercise balls, and a Yamaha organ -- like Google's Mountain View (Calif.) headquarters -- to work on core search-engine technology.""
Some people are lamenting the demise of the product Urchin, and may not know that they can pressure Google to revive it and uphold their end of the bargain, particularly since most US-originated hi-tech companies shift to Bangladesh or Beijing, and other places for the the cheaper cost of doing business. They HAVE cheaper bodies there and could probably stand to do some "good will" and could more cheaply do it there. They could even SPIN OFF of new ideas generated by the new pick-up team handling the dropped software.
Offtopic. Sheesh. No WONDER mainstream media regards self-professed geeks/knowledgeable people on Slasdot as crackpots (yeh, I DO post zany stuff, but not under the air of authority, or boasting low subscriber/registered user ID.)
PLEASE, PLEASE look at Lotus Approach. The interface is crisp, thin, lean, flexible, and feature-rich. IT should be the envy of Open Source developers who are designing for END-USER accession, not developing for geeks or nerds or power-user-going-programmer. The database application needs to have WOW factor for end-users.
I cannot ENOUGH implore you to look at Lotus Approach. It is not separately available, but it is part of Lotus SmartSuite, which exists in several versions, the older ones being about $25 and have about 99% of the features of the more current, $300 version, but have a few bugs that are addressed in the newer version.
If Lotus Approach, or even Lotus SmartSuite ever became ported to Linux, I'd REALLY consider giving BOTH my pinkie fingers in joy.
Please, will you developers dump the "not-invented-here" syndrome and develop for END-USERS? Next, look at Lotus Word Pro. It's got tabs (division and sections) and multiple, useful live print previews that are NOT in ms word nor in OO.o, not even in StarOffice.
It breaks my heart that Linux developers do not seem to know of nor care about the polished, end-user-studies-aimed Lotus SmartSuite feature set.
Lotus Approach is what you can ask for. Access is TOO developer-centric after basic forms creation. Lotus Approach was designed with END USERS in mind. That said, it is not as POWERFUL as Access, but it's MUCH easier, and the user base is crafty enough to devise ways of using the built-in code to do things the developers never even considered possible or worth pursuing. If **only** IBM would share its Approach code base (at least the parts that aren't patented not owned by IBM) with KDE.or, then Lotus Approach would once again get fresh air.
A few things Approach could use, if KDE.or copies Approach (instead of say, Kexi or similar but not as flexible/friendly):
-- horizontal sliders for the detail tables -- better, more flexible relationship/table linking diagram (needs a better ERD) -- web/html production/save-as that is better than what Approach currently has -- Run-time executable/binary -- multi-user collaboration in real-time for not just record-level locking, but row and cell-level locking for better end-user multi-access capability -- more flexible and more non-modal dialog boxes during browse AND design -- updated charts --.....
Slashdot Mirror
They'll probably wish the let microsoft read their brain...
I'm sorry, but it appears you are trying to download pronofarphic material. Would you like to:
1. change topics
2. plug ahead
3. go to jail/prison
4. ask me to repeat the statement
No one modded above "3".
(Oh, there must be a voting mob clobbering down the scores...)
"I's the filtering that counts"
You is?
Ass-IMMOlated.
Don't know about YOU, but I don't want mshaft plugged into MY ass.
Let's see them try it on their EMPLOYEES first. Not even on criminals, but on THEIR employees, then politicians...
Instead of wasting money on this, maybe we could use more programs for endangered/at-risk youth, young adults, and the homeless who WANT to work, go to school or be sheltered.
Polaroid?
(Hmm, If I shoot the wrong thing with a Polaroid, will the owner shoot me a hemorrhoid?)
I'm not sure that this is a smart idea.
Smarter idea: follow the military's style of document classification markings(Top Secret; S E C R E T; C O N F I D E N T I A L; UNCLAS, (Classification/sub-class category). Make it standard in industry:
1. Overall document classification stamped at top & bottom of document and at the subject line
2. Indicate if the subject itself is a classified term or such
3. Mark EACH paragraph with the classification marker
Then,
1. ANY document access requires logging of by whom, date/time, viewing and output device, recipients apprised of document in same or other emails... (this can deal with "content aggregation" whereby unclass stuff added up might become equivalent to classified matter...)
2. Any document ACCESSED or PRINTED is logged, scanned and compared to the the original to determine if the user tampered with or edited the classification markings prior to scanning/copying
3. Micro-embed varied tale-tale symbols (watermarking) in the text fonts.
Even marketing material should have some identifier to indicate it was sanitized prior to dissemination. Problem with many companies is they STUPIDLY consider EVERYTHING they do that's not released to be "confidential". That's wasteful and probably intended to legally deny employees from talking too much, but it is a morass that makes it difficult to do work, too.
ALL classifications/sensitivity markers need a traceable authorization, a fixed declassification date, and need to be monitored. Could create more jobs, I imagine.
I suspect that the IBM scanning method simply compares KNOWN/AUTHENTIC classified documents and a wide body of theoretical matter that is potentially subject to classification markings, and simply is routed to humans who research a bit more and flag it to make future semi-matches become classified until downgraded. The bad part is that erroneous or capricious classification might take AGES to be corrected.
heheh. We DIgress... LOL! Maybe I will make my Egress/Outgress from my previous INgress
CONgress != PROGress (CONgress is the opposite of PROGress...)
...Mwo? "They can have my privates when they pry them from my coiled, dead finger..."
Oh, wait...
Tele-burial?
I can just see the infomercials and commercials about these.
Polycom and other teleconference companies might, umm, make a killing. Or, Skype might. Imagine tho, "'scuse me honey. I have to update my YIM burial calendar..."
Nah, I painted over the foil cuz all of it's manufactured with DOD/Intel devices embedded...
There's got to be some sort of "MotherFudders" campaign to smear, tarnish, and hobble mshaft. It's amazing that people will use the products of some of the most brazen, uncouth, vicious and dastardly of companies because it helps them get something done.
Shame. (Yeh, I know, people, particularly businesses, don't operate business with morals and ethics...)
Your demand of him was FUNNY. I guess it will be a "lifetime" making movie...
While I think this COULD be a preview (not that it IS THE preview), I suspect that the US government won't enact in full such a process. After all, driving the subversives, dissenters, and freedom fighters TOTALLY underground just makes them go away but return with a vengeance, fully recharged.
But, it is ironic that the US government intelligence agencies and various special interest groups bemoan that China does these things, yet for the sake of the shareholders and the 'merkun economy, it's business as usual. The US and other western friends of the US will continue to "sell granny for a buck" and worry about the consequences later.
Anyway, if the US used this internally to shut down "troublemakers", then the government and wealthy might have to shift base of operations to India before telecom takes off like crazy over there. There's a whoolllle lot more work over there since infrastructure is coming up basically from scratch, much more so than in China. I'm just assuming that these US "masters of the universe" exist to have something to DO, not to END.
EXACTLY, and succinct.
My less-than-succinct response is (to those who disagree that this is or might be a preview of things to come in the US):
And...? The US "intelligence" agencies have "honeynets" which are capable of (even if not yet used for) moving undesirable topics out of view by timing out the site, proxy-sending copyright infringement notices to take down articles, spamming and altering sites. Though I cannot say this has happened to me, I am sure that HOT ENOUGH sites would be and are affected.
Captcha: enqueues
"However, there is a principle in law (or Equity) that one cannot do indirectly what he cannot do directly. An interesting question for practicing lawyers (I am a retired one and not up on all of this) would be, is there a way to attribute the Plaintiff's actions to Microsoft, canceling their GPL rights? Would it in fact be too late to do this based on their provable support of SCO (the massive loans arranged by MS to keep SCO afloat)? I'd sure like to hear what Eben Moglen has to say about this."
In a way, the "principle in law (or Equity) that one cannot do indirectly what he cannot do directly." is to bad. I mean, look at it this way: you ineptly or ignorantly get hooked up with a corrupt thief passing himself off as an investment broker or somesuch. He get $800 of your money, which he says you can get back minus $25 processing fee if you don't want to remain in the deal during the time you have for backing out.
But, instead, he stalls you, screws you, and neither the local police nor the FBI will get involved. You suspect that this jerk is burning people across multiple states' lines, yet you have no proof.
Under this "Equity" law, where "one cannot do indirectly what he cannot do directly", you cannot rub out an asshole in ANY kind of way. So, it seems it would be legal to "make amends" with the thief by re-investing more money into him, then introducing him to sharks bigger and more voracious than he, KNOWING that ONCE he crosses THEM, they'll eat his ass alive. You'll likely not get your money back. You're do NOT tell the bigger sharks that he's a thief, or maybe you do. But you don't tell the ONE thief he's facing a trap that will ensnare his greedy ass if he gets greedy again.
Losing money to CON ARTIST (not talking about friends you figure cannot easily repay you) you want to "trust" can lead to all sorts of emotions from philosophical to downright self-destructive.
Too bad the "equity" aspect of law won't overlook this kind of revenge provided all the evidence is there to show the thief got his due. I suppose the ONE saving grace of this aspect of law is that if the jerk IS brought to justice, others have their shot at reclaiming what they are entitled to -- provided the law didn't impose a statute of limitations, and provided the thief is not working with or for some bigger law enforcement agency that wants the thief protected for a bigger investigation.
Captcha: "prayers"
See my two comments (I concede they may make for good FICTION ideas, but "Where there's a WAY there's a WILL" comes to mind. I learned that from a USMC SSgt in the '80s...
They can be used to deliver pin-needle-doses of biochemical weapons to vermin located in countries the US (or powerful US-based or sponsored rogues) may someday want to "curtail". The two targets *I* can think of off the top of my head (and from reading about how the US is likely to lose "its position" or competitive edge) would be China and India. The US could just sit back and allow the IBMs, Ciscos, etc squeeze enough brain-capital until blue and white collar jobs are under intolerable, unsustainable threat.
Just an idea. It's quickly-deliverable, anonymous, and can cover wide areas when deployed in sufficient quantity. I for one would never EXPECT nor HOPE it to be used. If it IS used (by ANYone) I would be FIRST to hope for massive, cataclysmic retribution upon the perps (the decision-makers or their whole, sleepy-go-lucky population) using the critters for evil purposes.
Just enough power to observe a target, then sting it, then fly away. No more (or, less chance of, if this mode still is in use) darts accidentally killing the wrong individual.
These critters can also be used to poison food at private villas (just over, and when the operator is sure no one is looking, dive the bug). They just need to be water soluble so no one sees it.
They could be used to attack, infect, then set up vermin vector, in case some targets live among pests (and seem comfortable doing so), which then can be used to "naturally" take out a population.
If **I** can think of this in about 2 minutes, imagine what the schemers with money, time, a mission/mandate and a will can do.
I wouldn't be surprised if someday the US (or, rogue military commanders, or "patriotic" politicians and agitated business types) uses these to attack China and India to "take back" the tech competitive edge -- after it/they decide(s) "enough control loss is enough"...
(Ducks, for he just created an international paranoia incident....)
Mind, or "Church of the Poisoned, Mined"
Re-done by Boy George...
Like you said, "I don't know Approach...". You should find a way to look at it from who the TARGET audience is. Home users of a database don't want nor NEED to become developers. Lotus Approach took me about 2 weeks to get really comfortable. Access, never, for me. Filemaker, ehh. It was too developer-aimed, IMO.
Lotus Approach IS used by some serious development types of work, mainly as a front end to Oracle, MySQL, mssql, and some 10 or 15 other db back ends. The data and forms are separate, and have always been, unlike what, Access, which took YEARS for ms to "get it".
Approach is WYSIWYG, so right from the word GO no one NEED be a developer.
NO ONE should be using spreadsheets to do non-statistical storage of data. This happened because for years either the tools didn't exist to appease the desk-side data analyst-- they had to rely on IT. The other part is some developers were lazy or territorial, and LOTS of companies and IT staff are mixed on hoard the data (not just from protection of data, but for IT job security), or share the data (so IT can concentrate on OTHER more important tasks than to risk backlash of "THAT'S not the report I ASKED FOR...".
The other problem is that ms popularized excel, and businesses did, too. LOTS of bad habits grew up around the kludge excel is. It is an abominable excuse for a database wannabe.
Approach lets people GET WORK DONE. People who need databases and never before saw one get sample database tables and applications in Approach. They can reverse engineer these and customize them.
The biggest drawbacks of Approach:
-- no runtime executable (royalty free, or otherwise)
-- not a big enough widget set (compared to FMP, Access, et al...
-- poor or non-existent ERD
-- only runs on windoze
-- not separable from Lotus SmartSuite (except the Japanese version IS separate...)
-- only in maintenance/patch mode, since IBM is SITTING on Lotus SmartSuite, letting it die a slow, worthless death, as if even IBM's OWN want it to die, despite their "10 million S/S users..."
-- not built-in way to record and reuse queries; but users created this and sell solutions
Pluses:
- I use it as a front end to my Linux & win98-based MySQL engine
- I am writing a screenplay dialog and script tracking database
- I can build in minutes or hours what would take me and MOST non-developers days or WEEKS to do in access
- It's GREAT for an ad hoc WYSIWYG prototyping tool
You admit you don't know Approach, yet you could almost single-handedly dissuade most readers here from even considering it. Approach -- if IBM opened up its code-- could almost single-handedly kill Rekall, Kexi, and a slew of others that still retain the giant framework, geek-appeal that most END USERS will run from. Approach is good enough that user- and developer-based solutions are sold all the time.
C'mon man, check out Approach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_SmartSuite
http://xpertss.com/
http://orderdeskxpert.3dcartstores.com/Order-Center_c_1.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/Lotus_SmartSuite/Lotus_Approach/Q_22816555.html
http://jabrown.customer.netspace.net.au/approach/index.htm
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Lotus_Approach
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/smartsuite/approachfeatures.html
What COULD happen but isn't is that IBM could:
-- partner with Sun/OpenOffice.org
-- open the code to Kexi, t
Nice. But before I can use it, I'd like integrated WYSIWYG charting, reporting, crosstab, and a few more things. It seems they are on to something. I think Knoda's been around more than 2 years, aye?
Have you seen Lotus Approach? Sadly, it's only on windoze, and even sadder, IBM came out with "Symphony", which I tried, and almost cried in anguish over. Symphony was supplanted by the combination of Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Approach in use together, but singly, each did most of what the original Symphony did.
It's quite unfathomable/astonishing/mind-boggling that they co-opted the Symphony name and foisted it upon a new product that appears half-baked in that it lacks a decent database app. It's like IBM is just goddamningly-dogged-determined to NOT give us a database app unless we take Notes. Pity. Angering, in fact. Sadly, no one with programming skills and moxy is taking IBM to the carpet on this. Some of us users have for YEARS been begging IBM, and our pleas just fall on deaf ears, canned responses from IBM, and "don't-hold-out-hope" sympathies from other users who tried and failed ahead of us.
What URCHIN would deign to mark my comment as "offtopic" when I included a potential point of contact:
""Google principal scientist Krishna Bharat is settin up a Bangalore lab complete with colorful furniture, exercise balls, and a Yamaha organ -- like Google's Mountain View (Calif.) headquarters -- to work on core search-engine technology.""
Some people are lamenting the demise of the product Urchin, and may not know that they can pressure Google to revive it and uphold their end of the bargain, particularly since most US-originated hi-tech companies shift to Bangladesh or Beijing, and other places for the the cheaper cost of doing business. They HAVE cheaper bodies there and could probably stand to do some "good will" and could more cheaply do it there. They could even SPIN OFF of new ideas generated by the new pick-up team handling the dropped software.
Offtopic. Sheesh. No WONDER mainstream media regards self-professed geeks/knowledgeable people on Slasdot as crackpots (yeh, I DO post zany stuff, but not under the air of authority, or boasting low subscriber/registered user ID.)
PLEASE, PLEASE look at Lotus Approach. The interface is crisp, thin, lean, flexible, and feature-rich. IT should be the envy of Open Source developers who are designing for END-USER accession, not developing for geeks or nerds or power-user-going-programmer. The database application needs to have WOW factor for end-users.
I cannot ENOUGH implore you to look at Lotus Approach. It is not separately available, but it is part of Lotus SmartSuite, which exists in several versions, the older ones being about $25 and have about 99% of the features of the more current, $300 version, but have a few bugs that are addressed in the newer version.
If Lotus Approach, or even Lotus SmartSuite ever became ported to Linux, I'd REALLY consider giving BOTH my pinkie fingers in joy.
Please, will you developers dump the "not-invented-here" syndrome and develop for END-USERS? Next, look at Lotus Word Pro. It's got tabs (division and sections) and multiple, useful live print previews that are NOT in ms word nor in OO.o, not even in StarOffice.
It breaks my heart that Linux developers do not seem to know of nor care about the polished, end-user-studies-aimed Lotus SmartSuite feature set.
Lotus Approach is what you can ask for. Access is TOO developer-centric after basic forms creation. Lotus Approach was designed with END USERS in mind. That said, it is not as POWERFUL as Access, but it's MUCH easier, and the user base is crafty enough to devise ways of using the built-in code to do things the developers never even considered possible or worth pursuing. If **only** IBM would share its Approach code base (at least the parts that aren't patented not owned by IBM) with KDE.or, then Lotus Approach would once again get fresh air.
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A few things Approach could use, if KDE.or copies Approach (instead of say, Kexi or similar but not as flexible/friendly):
-- horizontal sliders for the detail tables
-- better, more flexible relationship/table linking diagram (needs a better ERD)
-- web/html production/save-as that is better than what Approach currently has
-- Run-time executable/binary
-- multi-user collaboration in real-time for not just record-level locking, but row and cell-level locking for better end-user multi-access capability
-- more flexible and more non-modal dialog boxes during browse AND design
-- updated charts
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