Funny thing is is that I FORGOT to include that. All that I wrote, and I thought of and forgot that.
But, I imagine that if IBM and Hansoft even agreed to work with SO/OOo, they would demand a total rewrite, no doubt about it.
I noticed that CompuUSA sells StarOffice, but I don't know how much it moves/alters inventory. It's been hanging from the endcap for maybe a year that I've noticed.
I don't known what "best code" SO folds into SO from OOo, but if any speed gains were to be had, I'm sure we'd get them as part of the incremental upgrades to OOo, unless Sun is holding those back to attempt increasing sales of SO...
============ Different topic....
BTW,
JUST yesterday (or maybe it was Friday) I recalled the other thread about Novell/ms. I think that ms does not need to outright assault/kill Linux/FOSS immediately. Someone mentioned that ms wouldn't care that Linux/FOSS created good software as long as what people use is the stuff that **ms** puts out. So, what if ms DOES release "ms office for Linux"? I think, now, to avoid Win4Lin, VMware, and other apps, a LOT of businesses just MIGHT use ms-warez ON Linux, just for stability, and streamlining their apps.
Now, Linux the server/desktop would still survive, but mshaft would put a big dent in the outflow of FOSS apps if ms could stem the flow of FOSS uptake. This would hurt a LOT of people, maybe even me. I want to release as a combination of GPL/proprietary (free/non-free) license an app I've been building for a few years. But, my mind thought of all this when I was perusing my licensing options.
==============
Back on topic....
I wonder how much of Apple's customer base actually USES ms VBA scripting. I'd presume that ms did some intense polling and decided the number was not large enough to support, or just large enough to hurt in order to hurt Apple.
Sure they can. But then the/that local police chief won't make mayor. See, the marketing lobby will lobby the living shit out of the local police union to NOT give their votes to that chief. Maybe even a few lawyers/pro tems and the DA might get recalled or not re-elected if they signed off on the city breaking down the door of these evil marketing execs. The word EVIL exists for a REASON, ye know?
I feel how you feel. Maybe what we end users need is a hella intense honey net with our OWN real-time MITMA to modify our data to feed SHIT to those marketing companies. We'd be a "GOOD EVIL" bunch, eh?
I'll probably get flamebait or troll for this but, what the hell? So far I've got enough karma, so I must not be pissing off the saner of the modders (yet)...
How QUICK is NeoOffice? Is it faster than OOo is on Linux? ON my box, OOo takes up to 1.5 minutes to get its ass away, just to get to a blank screen. And, no, I don't run that little cheat/kudge quick-start thing. And this is with a MINIMUM of anything else open. Even Win4Lin 4.x is not invoked at this point. But, since Lotus SmartSuite from 1986-2002 can start Word Pro in under 8 seconds in Win4Lin in windoze 98 in 256 MB of shared ram, on an 6 and on a 128 MB card, in 700, 800 and 900 MHz systems, then why the hell is OOo still taking forEVER? OOo has been around for years, and has had at least 1 or 2 major code shifts, and still relies on a few gimmicks to appear to run faster.
When I have to download.doc docs, I just shoot them to my mydata folder and edit them in Lotus Word Pro, then shoot them back as word 97 or word 2000 format. I am not worried how it looks on the other end because so far no one has complained.
Even when I run a RealVNC session from my semi-functional 800 MHz laptop (diskless/dead hardware controller, so no hdd functionality) box when I run Win4Lin/Win98 (it only lets me run one session at a time from one computer) on my 900 MHz fic box, the remote session across TWO thin wires between NICs is smooth, fast, and stable.
So, how are Mac users doing so far with Neo Office? I don't own a Mac but I guess I will check by the Mac store and see if they are selling or loading or displaying it.
Really, OOo, you ought to give up, throw in the towel, and urge IBM/Lotus and Han Office to join forces with you to clean up your code, pursue more markets, and become more nimble, more stable, and tighten up and crispen the interface.
Fix the database to look more professional. Ditch that spreadsheet metaphor and make Base a more independent/separate-feeling app. It should have a worksheet not the spreadsheet underneath. Widgets and forms should behave like they are a separate app, not be all confusing and mimic other apps. And, take a few pages from Lotus Approach to learn how a non-engineer-necessary relational database front-end works for end users. I've built in Approach a screenplay dialog tracking application that has fewer than 120 formulas, a few dozen mostly-unused macros, and a good number of forms to manage dialog, manuscripts, and scrap dialog. I'll bet anyone trying to do this in Base will feel DEbased and go insane. (While the actual work was spread out over 2-3 years, if compressed it might be 6 months worth of work, and that is just as myself as an individual...) If only I knew how to program, I could just ditch Approach and use RealBasic or Trolltech's QT or maybe even Glade (if I can ditch that Gnome file manager paradigm...).
Fix the word processor to more sensibly/intelligently display multi-part documents. Ditch that lame "rule" line or shoe-horn area where externally linked docs go. Put a TAB at top or bottom or side (even better, let the USER decide how their tab/scrapbook view will look...) of the workspace so that the user can ad hoc name them as documents are added to the project. The tabs should let the user format globally or individually each section's/division's page layout, footers, headers, and more. Like Lotus Word Pro does. You guys REALLY need to take a few pages out of Lotus Word Pro. IBM is Open Source friendly these days, haven't you heard? If you're going to reinvent the wheel, then be grander, bolder, and do stunning improvements or introduce NEW features, not just improve on the seen-that-done-that. If it's underwhelming or overwhelming, nobody's going to want it anyway, so why not stop the ms-mimic routine and improve FOSS with some non-ms-copy-cat features.
But, when OOo starts up on 5 to 8 seconds without gimmicky pre-loading, and starts as fast in Linux as OOo seems to in windoze, then I can tell my browser "Open in OpenOffice.org" instead of "Save as..." to be opened in Lotus Word Pro.
Yeh, vista IS seeing things... what a view... Maybe they should rename it "Diablo" (devil, in Espa~nol...)
Funny... Novell is being CALLED microsoft's bitch, and vista is BEING a bitch... ain't dat a BITCH??!! Novel want's to wake UP from a bad dream, and vista wants to stay in hibernation... Man....
"Windows Crash - USS Yorktown Dies Due to Divide by Zero USS Yorktown Dies Due to Divide by Zero Posted on Sunday, September 15 @ 19:32:14 EDT by coppit News articles of interest The Navy's Smart Ship program is..." www.windowscrash.com/modules. php?name=News&file=article&sid=1 - 23k -
----- Lots more where that came from....
Hopefully we don't have any ms programs built into shipboard defence systems...
Oh, but I see it wasn't flamebait when rejected submitters called certain moderators on the carpet for nearly/virtually plagiarizing the journals of others to get a story topic posted. So, I go from 5, Interesting to 0 flamebait. I don't think it's too much to ask Slashdot to NOT ALLOW MODS/nite-staff to submit sensationalist, twisted summaries to draw readership. Keep it up and the REAL IT leadership or the companies paying for ads will dismiss Slashdot, pull the ads and force slash to reinvent itself.
Someone's knocking me down to 0, Flamebait and staying there shows Slashdot's priorities... Would be nice if a histogram or something similar would show the min/max/average/best/most-enduring score/rating of a comment rather than let an asshole here and there denigrate meaningful commentary by someone with a GENUINE assertion intended to neutralized sensationalistic, self-aggrandizing submitters from wrecking Slashdot any further.
"That's why the FSF sponsored projects require the source be signed over to them and placed on their servers... then they can relicense at will. You of course are free to maintain your own version of your work if you wish, but not the official version."
That's very informative for me. I am sitting around (well, chafing, fidgeting, actually), trying to figure out HOW to expose my pet project to the world and at the same time retain copyright and IP ownership of what I am doing. So, from what you're saying, it sounds like I am *almost* 50% through my philosophical angst over how to NOT LOSE my stuff. I have this problem, mainly because my project is intrinsically tied to 3 or 4 other apps/interfaces/projects I've been working on for many years. Depending on the licensing, I could find my multi-pronged projects gutted or totally taken away from me. Is this a false concern I hold?
I *think* I would be willing to let FSF "fork" my work via exposure and Community input. But, then if I gain skills or work with others to improve my base-level app and then start incorporating things submitted by the Community, at what point do I start violating myself, the FSF sponsorship, and the Community? Admittedly, I haven't read any contracts or agreements the FSF might post as a required reading, so this is pre-reading questioning I am doing here.
Really, I'd like my project to become a product, and I want it to be dual source. I want it dual source because I want to make money (I *NEED*, not *WANT* to make money. I am jobless (got shit-canned 50% thru my project by a company that is NOT poor, and which told me they were not looking for a SysAdmin when they contracted me and then "suddenly"/2.5 months in, decided they'd rather have one. Canned me rather than groom me. But, that's OK. It's either Karma, or I am destined for a better place. But, either way, it's been PAINFUL without that income...), have resumes out there (and recruiters looking for me), and have a bit too noble of an attitude and it's costing me, but yet, I am not greedy, I think...) and at the same time I want to distribute or see distributed a lighter free version. Sort of like the Star Office/OpenOffice.org situation. Except, I have not foundation, no contacts, and the few seemingly-approachable people, foundations, or companies I can think of might not like me personally, might have too much going on internally, or might be too big and too slow to respond (it doesn't help, either, that I've taken so long to work out these issues in my head... the licensing/sharing part...).
One major *must have* that I would pursue from a sponsor/suitor/foundation is shared ownership rather than my surrendering 100% of "*my baby*". I fear that by turning it over, it'll stagnate or be sold off to someone or some company and it would end up bastardized. Some of you might say, "So what, you get paid." But, NO amount of money is worth having someone buy up and destroy or let languish something *I* care about. I believe my project can become a product. So, will FSF *PATENT* the work so that it cannot be hijacked and taken from me, you, FSF, and the community? Will I be able to fork my version and have it track the "official" version, but just call mine by another name?
Oh, yeh, and the name of mine is something I won't give up, but I'd participate in helping create a new name. I've got 3 potential names, all three I've used internally, for my own purposes.
But, it seems like going through the FSF means I don't have to worry about directionless or fake foundations that are fronts for true-blue commercial entities that are just fattening up their patent portfolios. Or, so it seems.
I was lucky that day. I had only minutes before left Grand View (Chinese) Restaurant (they changed names to Fortune after the quake) with a few cartons of food and couldn't decide whether to go straight back to Milpitas or to dart over to Embarcadero and shoot a few pictures.
By the time I'd decided it wouldn't be good to get the food late to some people I told about the restaurant, when I decided to head on south, I was barely out of Oakland, somewhere south of Cypress on 880 because. Had I gone to SF, I'd have been SOMEwhere on the Cypress. It's possible I could have also been somewhere before the fallen deck section, but that all could have depended on how many people on the Cypress would have been in my way (back then I might have wanted to speed, might have just relaxed and slipped in and cranked up my Depeche Mode cassettes, (but instead I kept the KGO talk on), blah blah blah...) and I am SURE I'd have probably died that day had I not just taken the food straight to my friend.
I think I was barely north of the Marina shopping outlet when my steering started acting up. I couldn't believe my barely 1 year old car was acting up. Then the radio went out. There wasn't too much traffic in that section, so my eyes fixated partly on the road and partly on the trees. When I saw them swaying, I knew my car was OK, but the radio was hissing. Only a few weeks earlier IIRC, KGO's antenna near the Dumbarton Bridge went out and needed repairs, so I thought they were having problems. I tuned to other stations only to hear noise and mostly silence, but sporadic bits mentioned major earthquake.
Fortunately, the roads don't open up like they do in hollywierd flicks. Fortunately it wasn't in the thick of commuter traffic, or there might have been collisions all up and down the freeway for dozens of miles if anyone freaked and lost control of the car. I was fortunate that day...
I'm probably going to damage my "excellent karma" (at least as shown on my personal page when I log in, but....
JESUS H. CHRIST jumping a barbed wire fence, Slash editors. Who's letting these submissions across the wire? While slash is not a world-class journal or trade rag, it ought tot
As MUCH as I tend to slight microsoft, the fake FUD from submitters is likely to cause more irreparable damage than the few of us who are terse and critical toward microsoft.
Please, take more time, or force your editors to work in teams as "two-person integrity" or SOMEthing. This is getting ridiculous.
C'mon, did microsoft REALLY say, "'not open or save Word files,' even from trusted sources."?
Likely NOT. Y'see, SOME of us can recognize the cute little enclosure of single and double quotes. I didn't at first catch it until I read another comment in this thread. When I went back, I got pissed, feeling the submitter is trying to be wiley and cute. But, for every IT or biz exec who considers Linux based on things in Slashdot (probably more and more a mistake these days), another will point to lame submissions such as the one being shredded now...
But, you know what? I am starting to think some mshaft people (who volunteered for projects, ascended the local ranks, gained trust and leadership positions) INFILTRATED Slashdot and is intentionally posting FUD like this to rile up the readership, get them passing bogus information, and setting them up for discrediting in the workplace. This sounds like rumored infiltrations going on with various Linux development groups, where some Human Trojan screws with projects and releases broken code in apps and distros to stymie and screw with companies trying to earnestly deploy Linux-based solutions or interoperability.
If that is the case, then Slashdot needs better vetting.
Can stealth clothing be made sort of like the various stealth planes' features? I mean, can a combination of:
-- corner reflectors (I saw suggested in this topic) -- ducts/channels (on shoulders, elbows, fleshy area...) -- rock shields -- helmets or hats
work for civilians?
Presumably, since the manufacturer probably has a green light on making these things, there must have been very exhaustive scenarios run to satisfy the US government and Army that all known or conceivable ad hoc materials and donning of them would not undermine the viability of the system. (OTOH, when has lying stopped procurement processes?)
So, not plates, not foil, not JUST "corner reflectors", but maybe some absorbent paint and Transformer-like shoulder accouterments and cranial gear and some abdominal gear might help. Does a MIRROR have any effect on 12 cm waves?
It could be as simple as having:
-- battery pack -- off-the-shelf fans -- ducts/tues -- laminated/coated kite mylar or foil -- flexible and hard-to-break extension rods
Now, a person can run around and not worry that bumping walls or people would tear down their shield.
But, even if this works, it just means the government will "turn up the power" and turn people into "Screaming Alphas". But, at least any dead would show to what lengths government will go in order to "control the people". Realy, HOW often are mobs aplenty and require this stuff. Somebody stands to make a TON of money off of ADS (until or unless a lot of people start dropping like flies and the UN or some entity steps in...)
And JUST the other day I was wondering when mshaft would get around to making a "live boot DVD". Or, make one widespread. But, now that I've read the Slash intro to the article, I am wondering if mshaft will go to the OLPC manufacturers with money to defray their costs. "Here, if you make the computer with a windows boot-rom, we'll pay YOU for every OLPC you deploy."
See what is going on now? Now it is easy for mshaft to get even CHEAPER computers into the hands of the public, the poor, non-working public, and now stands the chance to disrupt any new uptake of Linux. I was thinking Negroponte himself might console the Open Source community by spec'ing chips that will boot Linux off a chip and then via GRUB or something like it allow *dows to run. But, I fear mshaft is planning an end-run around that.
But, if Negroponte doesn't take ms' blood money, then mshaft will just have to get into more of the hardware business. But, if that happens... well, things could get really bloody. Hardware manufacturers would DEFINITELY revolt if for some reason msoft did an end-run around them. WHY do an end-run? Well, profit margins are so thin, so VERY thin, that most assemblers or manufacturers might just fold of a ms-olpc (whether or not made by ms, it just needs to be sponsored/subsidized by ms), and ms is NOT going to slather money all over every or a lot of the manufacturers. BUT, if they could get below $100, AND still crank out nearly-kid-proof machines...
So, now even more, any philanthropic people or foreign (non-us) governments or companies harboring dislike for msoft better help get more generators and surge strips and more up-to-date refurbed REAL laptops with GOOD batteries to make up for any OLPC shortcomings or undercutting situations. At some point, tho, those kids will be like any other: they'll want NEWER or "REAL" computers. I think OLPC at best will help, but it will be eclipsed if it is not shiny and new enough...
Might make them a "fag hag", too (if the operator is female.. but male? Hmmmmm... can't think of a word jussss yhet...). The beltee would then here a Village People-like song starting up:
"I jussss wanna kawwwwwl... you MAH BITCH! I jussss wanna kawwwwwl... you MAH Bitch, BITCH!"
(Yyeeng... Yyeenng....Yeeenggg, Yeennggg...goes the lowered jack-sweeper....)
Wold give a whole new meaning to "jackin' around"...
The whole POINT of agony, pain, death is to make GOVERNMENT find ways to AVERT war, not DIVERT civilians. F*cking idiots in charge, wiling and scheming away.
Now, it's time for rogue smart scientist to come up with Civilian FAE-effect. Sort of like a Fuel Air Explosive, but instead of blowing up, it is really ADS-A... ADS-Attenuator.
Release a floating, persistent vapor or cloud around the demonstration and then maybe the micrometals will either disperse or amplify the ADS. Maybe even create a huge *OPEN-AIR TESLA EFFECT*. Maybe it'll get so out of hand the idiots IN and working FOR the offices of these devious officials will have to re-think. And, if the boys in urbarn warfare cammo think they'll have it easy, then the civilians -in whatever country they might be- can fire RPAs, or Rocket-propelled Attenuators from a distance into the ADS zone to dampen the attenuator. Not saying shoot the soldiers (at least, not if they cease and desist-- after all, you're a "guest" in a country not by the invitation of a president/emir/premier/whatever, or by your the decree of the invading soldier's leaders, but by the PEOPLE of the country being "occupied" -- pretty much any other scenario is an illusory thing at best...), but to shot into the ADS/millimeter wave area.
Anybody besides me thinking this thing needs an attenuator? Hell, that ADS can be used for sweeping whole neighborhoods in the night, cooking and brain-killing all sorts of people, innocent AND criminal. Might even mess with emergency or home-based/hospice care medical equipment at some point. After all, just recently the USAF conducted tests that jammed a widely-used spectrum occupied by civilian garage door remote controllers/transceivers, and it was asserted THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO DO SO by the Slash poster/submitter.
It's sort of along lines of wasting the government's time (really, tax payers' time and money) to prove the thing is a boondoggle and is a disingenuous activity.
This ADS is NOT a scheme as simple as using fire hoses in a Civil Rights riot. Even a FIREHOSE can kill if it is let go and whips around. The bell brass or metal crank/nozzle can break skulls, smash cars and damage solid equipment. Even water and soap on the streets can wash people into a trampling situation, getting them hurt or killed. ADS could be vastly more damaging, and given its mobility, can be quite vicious and nefariously used.
I say that for every deployment of ADS, an equivalent jammer operated by a civilian oversight team should have the veto power to order troops and cops to stop, or jam them then JAIL them (if they dilly-dally too long and hurt civilians after the desist order was issued).
"So while you're busy theorizing to yourself about Java, remember to curse to yourself about that crash-happy C shit."
OK, I'm confused, yep. But I *do* curse some of that crash-happy C shit. Really, I do. But, since Linux is written in what, C/C++ I don't envision turning it off. I chalk nspluginviewer's probs to bad coding.
But, there doesn't seem to be a Notes native to Linux. Maybe they won't make enough selling tech support and client licenses in an environment where people might try to wring them dry "cuz it's open source..."
I say they should dual license Lotus SmartSuite, but particularly Approach and Word Pro and 1-2-3.
Then, make Approach a runtime executable so simple stand-alone apps can be built for NON-ENTERPRISE users who absolutely will pay for SIMPLICITY that is limited. Unfortunately, SOME of that might get reverse engineered, but as long as the app is not a total quantum leap over the run of the mill O/S IDEs, then Approach probably shouldn't be a threat to Notes, Domino, or even Trolltech and others. As a relational front end, it's great. It just SUCKS having to run Approach in windoze.
I think there's a LOT of IBM/Lotus stuff that is not being exploited in Open Source. OTOH, a lot of stuff that can mimic or block/stunt/stem entry by IBM IS being done, namely the manufacturing, CRM, PIM and other things. If these smaller pims and CRM tools become entrenched due to steady improvement in quality, scalability, and stability, then not only IBM, but even msoft at some point will lose control and territory to new upcomers. This is probably the BIGGEST reason major patent lawsuits are not yet flying across the wires. Wait and see what innovators do to outflank the big guys like IBM, Salesforce.com, etc, even msoft, then buy them up before a bigger fish does.
But, I think if IBM shared or mentored some of the smaller database companies and let them operate as small subsidiaries or subsidized entities, then when the market gets tight, full of competitors, or the tech is right, then buy the operations but keep the talent pool in synch with customers and only incrementally fold them into the bigger org so the customers are not scared off or upset. At LEAST IBM's tech could be dispensed in a manageable fashion that might help IBM downstream. Then, there is the risk that even msoft would try to do an end-run and buy up something IBM spawned or mentored if precautions are not taken. But, then, how to mentor Open Source without letting msoft get their hands on it? Foundations? Controlling stakes? Plant key officers in key positions? Lots of options, but not enough BANG for the BUCK to please Scald Street...
Is THAT what the SHIT is??!!?? I am sure Lotus SmartSuite has no Java in it, considering it's era of origin (circa 1994 or slightly earlier). MAN, aLIVE!
Does EVERY frakkin' thing have to java-ized? I turn it off in Konqueror, Java AND java-script. Only if I am desperate to push some damned e-mail-in-a-browser-page through or read some site to I turn it on.
I'm ALSO sick of those profile sites that have the hankering to call up nspluginviewer and CRASH my Konqueror browser. Yep, it happens, and more than occasionally. So, I've become accustomed to running TWO instances of Konqueror: usually one for "safe" (non-music/non-whirly-twirly shit) and one for the self-stroking dev-built sites that are likely to play rough and dirty with my browser....
Otherwise, I'd dig and scrape all that shit out of my system. I have friends who code with it, and some seem to love it, but MAN, on the computer, it sucks. I have usually been "generous" to say, "Java is not bad. It's the lazy or incompetent developers who MAKE it bad...", but does anybody know if even THAT is too generous a thing to say about Java? I'm actually not in contempt of Java for java being java, but I hate going to sites that demand java for what looks like a trivial page change. Some of these web masters or their unrelenting marketing departments have gone just a little bit overboard. I think Java-mania will backfire on Java's better attributes...
Mommy and Daddy (the supporters) give Junior a bag of candy to share with his friends. Bullies (mshaft), of whom Mommy and Daddy are aware, show up in the park. Do you think that Mommy and Daddy REALLY want Junior to share candy bought with their sweat and blood with bullies that BROKE Juniors braces this year, his glasses the year before that, and stole his bike before that....? But, Mommy and Daddy say, well, let's hope he inspires them to mend their ways....
See, the bullies watch Mommy and Daddy walk the dog or whatever is that shaggy thing on a leash. Now, they pin down Junior, mock-rape him, put lipstick on him, tug his pants a few times, and while he's distracted, they swap out the candy with re-wrapped laxatives.
Then, they tell Junior, s'OK, we don't want your candy? We just wanna be friends for a while.
Tomorrow, Junior gives out candy.
Now, Junior takes the blame for trusting jerks who he KNEW would be up to no good if he didn't leave that merry-go-round.
(Just a quick & dirty analogy I put together as fast as my hands could type....)
You see. You SEE???!!!??? THIS is the damned problem. Everybody who hears "Lotus" thinks NOTES or 1-2-3!
There's MORE to Lotus than those two. I used Notes, and used to like it. I have no need for it, I'm no enterprise, so it's not on my computer. 1-2-3 I still use. Built a business plan in it, then ported it to Calc, but still use the 1-2-3 version because frackin OO.o's charts are a PAIN in the ass to reverse/edit (last time I bothered).
I don't want nor expect Lotus/IBM to "dominate anything". I just want them to shake OO.o's ass UP, a LOT. OO.O is bloated, frakin takes too damned long to start up cold, relies on a gimmick button to load it in memory when it should start in 5 seconds FLAT. All the talk people spew about "SUPERIOR OPEN SOURCE APPS" makes me nearly vomit sometimes. Yes, OS has GREAT stuff, but hardly polished they way the other community wants before the jump ship to Linux.
I'll concede (and do so easily, willingly) that Word Pro sorely lacks the whiz-bang graphics tools that Write has, but for plain text document generation, KICKS OO.o's ass up and down the wall with better linked/embedded support of master/support documents, starts faster, has a tabbed viewing interface, has multiple view offerings, non-modal dialog for editing the doc, in WYSIWYG manner, has better print previewing, and a few other things. Not to mention a reasonably small foot print.
If ONLY IBM would dual-license it, the Open Source community that praises IBM for its support of Open Source/Linux but without merit contemptuously loathes SmartSuite based on bedraggled, years-old antipathy towards Notes or Forms or other failed/expensive Lotus offerings just might finally see what SmartSuite has been hiding.
And PART of this problem stems DIRECTLY (IFFF IBM told the truth a few years about about IP licensing issues preventing IBM from open sourcing the SmartSuite code... BAH! probably ms office shareholders who secretly bought into SmartSuite as a poison pill to prevent a new suitor from catapulting SmartSuite over & beyond ms office some day, or IBM/Lotus employee-shareholders who toil at IBM/Lotus cuz they couldn't move to mshaft, but want mshaft to stay top dog...) from the people who are sitting on patents in SmartSuite. It ought to be shameful that these "people" are so powerful as to hold back IBM, and if IBM lied, then I hope they come clean.
Yeh, even ms office has some nice stuff, but the interface design and the depressing blue-gray scheme and other things stunt my work abilities. SmartSuite, compared to OO.o, has a cleaner, less intrusive interface. OO.o needs to shrink those icons, speed up the app, take a few design and tool pages from SmartSuite, and stomach-staple 78' of intestinal code.
Anybody heard a song making the club circuit that goes like this (kinda in a side-show/Updated Village People)?:
"I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH; I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH, BITCH!
I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH; I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH, BITCH!"
You GOTTA believe ole stevie ballmer is not tossin' chairs anymore! He's tossin' somethin' ELSE! Gotta be struttin' around his office, and those conference rooms, funky-struttin' and rolling his shoulders, ogling and craning his neck around, all smiling and aglow, neatly tidying up the chairs (to the surprise of those accustomed to otherwise...), straigtenin' up ties and an affectionate finger-pluck to the nose of some disheveled execu-nerds, swaggerin' his new, thinnin' self up and down the campus.... singin aloud:
"I Jusss-like to cawllllllllll... you mah BITCH; I Jusss-like to cawllllllllll... you mah BITCH, BITCH!"
(IRT my other posting in this same thread) Meanwhile, then Novell body is clumpity-clumping down some steep ridge in some non-distinct place in Cairo...
Moment of silence. Arrrhhhhh-awwwww...
In strained voice, off-screen, "Uncle Stevie, Uncle Bill? Even tho you've torn my sphincter... rearranged my spine, crushed my ribs, and b-dro-ken my pelvis, dat's okay... I can still move my legs...."
How long will you wait to fork/dual-license SmartSuite?
Linux desperately needs the world to see diversity in office suites. If they are addicted to ms office, but hesitant to plunge into OO.o, then maybe IBM/Lotus Development can FINALLY lay aside the sword, shields and maces for a while and try to merge the best bits of SO/OO.o/Lotus SmartSuite. OO.o DOES have some cool stuff, but it has NOT got:
-- Lotus Approach, your award-winning END-USER, non-programming-required relational database (and it NEEDS updating, not just maintenance and stabilization fixes... SURELY by now your "stabilization-seeking customer base of some 10 million could use a rejuvenated Lotus SmartSuite before they give up and cave in to ms' constant attempts to woo them); Approach has made it a pleasure for me to develop all sorts of prototype databases that would be mind-numbingly impossible to do in the current tools SO & OO.0 have, despite the fact that Star Office has been around since, what, 1995, and 2000 before the first major code shift? And, SmartSuite has been around only a little before that.
-- Lotus Word Pro, your slick, kewl, tight-n-crisp interface word processor. OO.o, again, has some cool stuff, lots of cool stuff, but it's compound document (main and linked) interface is horribly, gut-kickingly, BUTT UGLY. Word Pro's icons and tabbed document interface combined with SO/OO.o's updated code base (well, if it could be stripped of 48 seconds of that load time...) would give the holding-out camp something to leap for in Linux.
-- Speed. Yep, Lotus Smart Word Pro, no documents, loads in about 6 seconds in Windoze 98, in Win4Lin, in my PCLinuxOS-based 800-MHz K-7, 256 MB RAM Gateway Select from year 2000 computer.
Please, IBM, I can accept that you don't want to be called on the carpet for "harming Open Source", but if Open Source were fully-commercial, Base and Kexi and others tyring and trying to be end-user databases would look like Approach, File Maker Pro and Alph 4/5 by now, SATURATED with features in a smooth, cohesive, ambitious, award-winning layout like Approach has won for multiple times.
I am sure people here are TIRED of me harping the Approach & Word Pro thing, but I am sure of those who scoff, maybe only 1% has SEEN, USED, and DONE anything meaningful WITH/VIA Approach and Word Pro. For example, I have built a virtual HR database and screenplay/dialog database, single-handedly in Approach. It will eventually do what most of the other screenplay tools do, but obviously, with a database engine, access to the interface and user-level innards, it says something about Approach. Yeh, a database as the back end allows all SORTS of things a word-processor-based tool simply cannot do out of the box, or would require vast amounts of code to effect.
Regrettably, tho I want to dual-source my app, I cannot until I have a sponsor co-patent it with me so that after patenting, Open Source (or anyone for that matter) can USE or COPY it but theoretically no one can then re-patent it and try to take away from ME (and my intended audience) what *I* spend years created.
Are there any like-minded foundations or sponsors out there? Two bangs here:
-- The Approach hammer slamming down on the hammer to revv up the Linux/Open Source-based offerings -- Yet another screenplay tool/application to offer to those tired of ms word-based/only-supporting applications
And, it wouldn't HURT if any prominent Open Source attorneys would vett the purported sponsors of foundations to make sure there are no wolf-in-sheep's-clothing undermining operations going on.
How about it, IBM? Wanna be first in line to sponsor and help patent it so it's TRULY safe for the Open Source community to use it without fear some jerk would patent MY work to undercut us? I don't need 100% patent control of it, just be named and it written up so it is not ruined by hyper-commercial-minded types.
I think that given the increasing size and decreasing prices of hard drives, now is the time to start sandboxing apps. ESPECIALLY shit from microsoft. I don't mind having multiple, different-version.dlls as long as I can have stable apps. But, noooo, common libraries are supposed to make things easier, yet crappy or lazy developers will write binaries or modify.dlls that stomp on others.
At least in Linux, I can try to link libraries. I can't recall about windows. However, I suspect that the registry was designed to discourage the installation of apps in their own directories. Forcing sharing of.dlls also gives an incentive to "save space", but we know developers assume you're willing to give it up.
I'll give up space for certain reasons, and certainly I think the disks and their prices make the tradeoff worth it for some cases. SO, I ask this question: just HOW many *meaningful*/*useful* apps can a person have on the computer and still care about multiple.dlls?
(I'm tired and hungry so I may have overlooked something other than the marketing/ms-machine speak...)
Isn't there some kind of dangerous aspect to what mshaft is doing? I mean, intel and other spy operations at the levels of upper government can do this and face being called on the carpet by ACLU or other countries' respective orgs (if such are permitted to exist), but for mshaft to do it, they must have been condoned by the government. If not, then they'll be told to shutter.
However, mshaft being mshaft, they'll probably give the government a deal with the devil by saying, WE'LL give YOU the goods, but we'll digitally morph or mask or modify to your liking any structures you consider to be safe houses, unlisted spook ops, dwellings or businesses used, visited, or owned by persons of interest, and more.
Pretty soon, mshaft will be that mega-weapon "arsenal of freedom" from the old STTNG episode, when the shit goes ape and starts fragging innocent people. Anyone remember the USS Yorktown, an Aegis cruiser that went (what we call in naval parlance) "broke dick" in the Atlantic (well, a bit offshore, not far out to sea...) around 1997/1998. Apparently a divide by zero error knocked the generators off-line, and the ship (costing some $980 million to $1+BILION) had to be towed to port, ONCE but MORE than once. Of course, the story was modified over time, and mshaft gradually got removed from culpability, depending on the sources you read.
Now, imagine if mshaft's structure catalog to "out-'innovate' Google" backfires. I wonder if IP addresses looking at certain structures (and, floors of buildings... speaking of which.. what will mshaft do NEXT? Start publishing the floorplans of offices, homes, plants and such?) will be flagged and sent to the TIA (total information awareness) people.... Imagine, tho, if we could ALL dwell on random and tipped-off sites jussssst enough to unnerve certain agencies. Hmm, they probably wouldn't JAIL us all, but might subject us to surfing "blackouts".
Slashdot Mirror
Funny thing is is that I FORGOT to include that. All that I wrote, and I thought of and forgot that.
But, I imagine that if IBM and Hansoft even agreed to work with SO/OOo, they would demand a total rewrite, no doubt about it.
I noticed that CompuUSA sells StarOffice, but I don't know how much it moves/alters inventory. It's been hanging from the endcap for maybe a year that I've noticed.
I don't known what "best code" SO folds into SO from OOo, but if any speed gains were to be had, I'm sure we'd get them as part of the incremental upgrades to OOo, unless Sun is holding those back to attempt increasing sales of SO...
============ Different topic....
BTW,
JUST yesterday (or maybe it was Friday) I recalled the other thread about Novell/ms. I think that ms does not need to outright assault/kill Linux/FOSS immediately. Someone mentioned that ms wouldn't care that Linux/FOSS created good software as long as what people use is the stuff that **ms** puts out. So, what if ms DOES release "ms office for Linux"? I think, now, to avoid Win4Lin, VMware, and other apps, a LOT of businesses just MIGHT use ms-warez ON Linux, just for stability, and streamlining their apps.
Now, Linux the server/desktop would still survive, but mshaft would put a big dent in the outflow of FOSS apps if ms could stem the flow of FOSS uptake. This would hurt a LOT of people, maybe even me. I want to release as a combination of GPL/proprietary (free/non-free) license an app I've been building for a few years. But, my mind thought of all this when I was perusing my licensing options.
==============
Back on topic....
I wonder how much of Apple's customer base actually USES ms VBA scripting. I'd presume that ms did some intense polling and decided the number was not large enough to support, or just large enough to hurt in order to hurt Apple.
Sure they can. But then the/that local police chief won't make mayor. See, the marketing lobby will lobby the living shit out of the local police union to NOT give their votes to that chief. Maybe even a few lawyers/pro tems and the DA might get recalled or not re-elected if they signed off on the city breaking down the door of these evil marketing execs. The word EVIL exists for a REASON, ye know?
I feel how you feel. Maybe what we end users need is a hella intense honey net with our OWN real-time MITMA to modify our data to feed SHIT to those marketing companies. We'd be a "GOOD EVIL" bunch, eh?
"We don't need information from them, we just want them out of circulation."
LOL. That sentence alone ought to have earned you 2 to 3 mod points... Or, maybe you had them, but had them taken away by:
"spammers and spyware makers are evil and a drain on society" supporting types....
I'll probably get flamebait or troll for this but, what the hell? So far I've got enough karma, so I must not be pissing off the saner of the modders (yet)...
.doc docs, I just shoot them to my mydata folder and edit them in Lotus Word Pro, then shoot them back as word 97 or word 2000 format. I am not worried how it looks on the other end because so far no one has complained.
How QUICK is NeoOffice? Is it faster than OOo is on Linux? ON my box, OOo takes up to 1.5 minutes to get its ass away, just to get to a blank screen. And, no, I don't run that little cheat/kudge quick-start thing. And this is with a MINIMUM of anything else open. Even Win4Lin 4.x is not invoked at this point. But, since Lotus SmartSuite from 1986-2002 can start Word Pro in under 8 seconds in Win4Lin in windoze 98 in 256 MB of shared ram, on an 6 and on a 128 MB card, in 700, 800 and 900 MHz systems, then why the hell is OOo still taking forEVER? OOo has been around for years, and has had at least 1 or 2 major code shifts, and still relies on a few gimmicks to appear to run faster.
When I have to download
Even when I run a RealVNC session from my semi-functional 800 MHz laptop (diskless/dead hardware controller, so no hdd functionality) box when I run Win4Lin/Win98 (it only lets me run one session at a time from one computer) on my 900 MHz fic box, the remote session across TWO thin wires between NICs is smooth, fast, and stable.
So, how are Mac users doing so far with Neo Office? I don't own a Mac but I guess I will check by the Mac store and see if they are selling or loading or displaying it.
Really, OOo, you ought to give up, throw in the towel, and urge IBM/Lotus and Han Office to join forces with you to clean up your code, pursue more markets, and become more nimble, more stable, and tighten up and crispen the interface.
Fix the database to look more professional. Ditch that spreadsheet metaphor and make Base a more independent/separate-feeling app. It should have a worksheet not the spreadsheet underneath. Widgets and forms should behave like they are a separate app, not be all confusing and mimic other apps. And, take a few pages from Lotus Approach to learn how a non-engineer-necessary relational database front-end works for end users. I've built in Approach a screenplay dialog tracking application that has fewer than 120 formulas, a few dozen mostly-unused macros, and a good number of forms to manage dialog, manuscripts, and scrap dialog. I'll bet anyone trying to do this in Base will feel DEbased and go insane. (While the actual work was spread out over 2-3 years, if compressed it might be 6 months worth of work, and that is just as myself as an individual...) If only I knew how to program, I could just ditch Approach and use RealBasic or Trolltech's QT or maybe even Glade (if I can ditch that Gnome file manager paradigm...).
Fix the word processor to more sensibly/intelligently display multi-part documents. Ditch that lame "rule" line or shoe-horn area where externally linked docs go. Put a TAB at top or bottom or side (even better, let the USER decide how their tab/scrapbook view will look...) of the workspace so that the user can ad hoc name them as documents are added to the project. The tabs should let the user format globally or individually each section's/division's page layout, footers, headers, and more. Like Lotus Word Pro does. You guys REALLY need to take a few pages out of Lotus Word Pro. IBM is Open Source friendly these days, haven't you heard? If you're going to reinvent the wheel, then be grander, bolder, and do stunning improvements or introduce NEW features, not just improve on the seen-that-done-that. If it's underwhelming or overwhelming, nobody's going to want it anyway, so why not stop the ms-mimic routine and improve FOSS with some non-ms-copy-cat features.
But, when OOo starts up on 5 to 8 seconds without gimmicky pre-loading, and starts as fast in Linux as OOo seems to in windoze, then I can tell my browser "Open in OpenOffice.org" instead of "Save as..." to be opened in Lotus Word Pro.
Yeh, vista IS seeing things... what a view... Maybe they should rename it "Diablo" (devil, in Espa~nol...)
Funny... Novell is being CALLED microsoft's bitch, and vista is BEING a bitch... ain't dat a BITCH??!!
Novel want's to wake UP from a bad dream, and vista wants to stay in hibernation... Man....
fans of 1998 or 1999:
i on+by+zero&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
..."
http://www.google.com/search?q=uss+yorktown+divis
"Windows Crash - USS Yorktown Dies Due to Divide by Zero
USS Yorktown Dies Due to Divide by Zero Posted on Sunday, September 15 @ 19:32:14 EDT by coppit News articles of interest The Navy's Smart Ship program is
www.windowscrash.com/modules. php?name=News&file=article&sid=1 - 23k -
-----
Lots more where that came from....
Hopefully we don't have any ms programs built into shipboard defence systems...
(captcha: "reflects")
Oh, but I see it wasn't flamebait when rejected submitters called certain moderators on the carpet for nearly /virtually plagiarizing the journals of others to get a story topic posted. So, I go from 5, Interesting to 0 flamebait.
I don't think it's too much to ask Slashdot to NOT ALLOW MODS/nite-staff to submit sensationalist, twisted summaries to draw readership. Keep it up and the REAL IT leadership or the companies paying for ads will dismiss Slashdot, pull the ads and force slash to reinvent itself.
Someone's knocking me down to 0, Flamebait and staying there shows Slashdot's priorities... Would be nice if a histogram or something similar would show the min/max/average/best/most-enduring score/rating of a comment rather than let an asshole here and there denigrate meaningful commentary by someone with a GENUINE assertion intended to neutralized sensationalistic, self-aggrandizing submitters from wrecking Slashdot any further.
"That's why the FSF sponsored projects require the source be signed over to them and placed on their servers... then they can relicense at will. You of course are free to maintain your own version of your work if you wish, but not the official version."
That's very informative for me. I am sitting around (well, chafing, fidgeting, actually), trying to figure out HOW to expose my pet project to the world and at the same time retain copyright and IP ownership of what I am doing. So, from what you're saying, it sounds like I am *almost* 50% through my philosophical angst over how to NOT LOSE my stuff. I have this problem, mainly because my project is intrinsically tied to 3 or 4 other apps/interfaces/projects I've been working on for many years. Depending on the licensing, I could find my multi-pronged projects gutted or totally taken away from me. Is this a false concern I hold?
I *think* I would be willing to let FSF "fork" my work via exposure and Community input. But, then if I gain skills or work with others to improve my base-level app and then start incorporating things submitted by the Community, at what point do I start violating myself, the FSF sponsorship, and the Community? Admittedly, I haven't read any contracts or agreements the FSF might post as a required reading, so this is pre-reading questioning I am doing here.
Really, I'd like my project to become a product, and I want it to be dual source. I want it dual source because I want to make money (I *NEED*, not *WANT* to make money. I am jobless (got shit-canned 50% thru my project by a company that is NOT poor, and which told me they were not looking for a SysAdmin when they contracted me and then "suddenly"/2.5 months in, decided they'd rather have one. Canned me rather than groom me. But, that's OK. It's either Karma, or I am destined for a better place. But, either way, it's been PAINFUL without that income...), have resumes out there (and recruiters looking for me), and have a bit too noble of an attitude and it's costing me, but yet, I am not greedy, I think...) and at the same time I want to distribute or see distributed a lighter free version. Sort of like the Star Office/OpenOffice.org situation. Except, I have not foundation, no contacts, and the few seemingly-approachable people, foundations, or companies I can think of might not like me personally, might have too much going on internally, or might be too big and too slow to respond (it doesn't help, either, that I've taken so long to work out these issues in my head... the licensing/sharing part...).
One major *must have* that I would pursue from a sponsor/suitor/foundation is shared ownership rather than my surrendering 100% of "*my baby*". I fear that by turning it over, it'll stagnate or be sold off to someone or some company and it would end up bastardized. Some of you might say, "So what, you get paid." But, NO amount of money is worth having someone buy up and destroy or let languish something *I* care about. I believe my project can become a product. So, will FSF *PATENT* the work so that it cannot be hijacked and taken from me, you, FSF, and the community? Will I be able to fork my version and have it track the "official" version, but just call mine by another name?
Oh, yeh, and the name of mine is something I won't give up, but I'd participate in helping create a new name. I've got 3 potential names, all three I've used internally, for my own purposes.
But, it seems like going through the FSF means I don't have to worry about directionless or fake foundations that are fronts for true-blue commercial entities that are just fattening up their patent portfolios. Or, so it seems.
I was lucky that day. I had only minutes before left Grand View (Chinese) Restaurant (they changed names to Fortune after the quake) with a few cartons of food and couldn't decide whether to go straight back to Milpitas or to dart over to Embarcadero and shoot a few pictures.
By the time I'd decided it wouldn't be good to get the food late to some people I told about the restaurant, when I decided to head on south, I was barely out of Oakland, somewhere south of Cypress on 880 because. Had I gone to SF, I'd have been SOMEwhere on the Cypress. It's possible I could have also been somewhere before the fallen deck section, but that all could have depended on how many people on the Cypress would have been in my way (back then I might have wanted to speed, might have just relaxed and slipped in and cranked up my Depeche Mode cassettes, (but instead I kept the KGO talk on), blah blah blah...) and I am SURE I'd have probably died that day had I not just taken the food straight to my friend.
I think I was barely north of the Marina shopping outlet when my steering started acting up. I couldn't believe my barely 1 year old car was acting up. Then the radio went out. There wasn't too much traffic in that section, so my eyes fixated partly on the road and partly on the trees. When I saw them swaying, I knew my car was OK, but the radio was hissing. Only a few weeks earlier IIRC, KGO's antenna near the Dumbarton Bridge went out and needed repairs, so I thought they were having problems. I tuned to other stations only to hear noise and mostly silence, but sporadic bits mentioned major earthquake.
Fortunately, the roads don't open up like they do in hollywierd flicks. Fortunately it wasn't in the thick of commuter traffic, or there might have been collisions all up and down the freeway for dozens of miles if anyone freaked and lost control of the car. I was fortunate that day...
I'm probably going to damage my "excellent karma" (at least as shown on my personal page when I log in, but....
JESUS H. CHRIST jumping a barbed wire fence, Slash editors. Who's letting these submissions across the wire? While slash is not a world-class journal or trade rag, it ought tot
As MUCH as I tend to slight microsoft, the fake FUD from submitters is likely to cause more irreparable damage than the few of us who are terse and critical toward microsoft.
Please, take more time, or force your editors to work in teams as "two-person integrity" or SOMEthing. This is getting ridiculous.
C'mon, did microsoft REALLY say, "'not open or save Word files,' even from trusted sources."?
Likely NOT. Y'see, SOME of us can recognize the cute little enclosure of single and double quotes. I didn't at first catch it until I read another comment in this thread. When I went back, I got pissed, feeling the submitter is trying to be wiley and cute. But, for every IT or biz exec who considers Linux based on things in Slashdot (probably more and more a mistake these days), another will point to lame submissions such as the one being shredded now...
But, you know what? I am starting to think some mshaft people (who volunteered for projects, ascended the local ranks, gained trust and leadership positions) INFILTRATED Slashdot and is intentionally posting FUD like this to rile up the readership, get them passing bogus information, and setting them up for discrediting in the workplace. This sounds like rumored infiltrations going on with various Linux development groups, where some Human Trojan screws with projects and releases broken code in apps and distros to stymie and screw with companies trying to earnestly deploy Linux-based solutions or interoperability.
If that is the case, then Slashdot needs better vetting.
Can stealth clothing be made sort of like the various stealth planes' features? I mean, can a combination of:
-- corner reflectors (I saw suggested in this topic)
-- ducts/channels (on shoulders, elbows, fleshy area...)
-- rock shields
-- helmets or hats
work for civilians?
Presumably, since the manufacturer probably has a green light on making these things, there must have been very exhaustive scenarios run to satisfy the US government and Army that all known or conceivable ad hoc materials and donning of them would not undermine the viability of the system. (OTOH, when has lying stopped procurement processes?)
So, not plates, not foil, not JUST "corner reflectors", but maybe some absorbent paint and Transformer-like shoulder accouterments and cranial gear and some abdominal gear might help. Does a MIRROR have any effect on 12 cm waves?
It could be as simple as having:
-- battery pack
-- off-the-shelf fans
-- ducts/tues
-- laminated/coated kite mylar or foil
-- flexible and hard-to-break extension rods
Now, a person can run around and not worry that bumping walls or people would tear down their shield.
But, even if this works, it just means the government will "turn up the power" and turn people into "Screaming Alphas". But, at least any dead would show to what lengths government will go in order to "control the people". Realy, HOW often are mobs aplenty and require this stuff. Somebody stands to make a TON of money off of ADS (until or unless a lot of people start dropping like flies and the UN or some entity steps in...)
And JUST the other day I was wondering when mshaft would get around to making a "live boot DVD". Or, make one widespread. But, now that I've read the Slash intro to the article, I am wondering if mshaft will go to the OLPC manufacturers with money to defray their costs. "Here, if you make the computer with a windows boot-rom, we'll pay YOU for every OLPC you deploy."
See what is going on now? Now it is easy for mshaft to get even CHEAPER computers into the hands of the public, the poor, non-working public, and now stands the chance to disrupt any new uptake of Linux. I was thinking Negroponte himself might console the Open Source community by spec'ing chips that will boot Linux off a chip and then via GRUB or something like it allow *dows to run. But, I fear mshaft is planning an end-run around that.
But, if Negroponte doesn't take ms' blood money, then mshaft will just have to get into more of the hardware business. But, if that happens... well, things could get really bloody. Hardware manufacturers would DEFINITELY revolt if for some reason msoft did an end-run around them. WHY do an end-run? Well, profit margins are so thin, so VERY thin, that most assemblers or manufacturers might just fold of a ms-olpc (whether or not made by ms, it just needs to be sponsored/subsidized by ms), and ms is NOT going to slather money all over every or a lot of the manufacturers. BUT, if they could get below $100, AND still crank out nearly-kid-proof machines...
So, now even more, any philanthropic people or foreign (non-us) governments or companies harboring dislike for msoft better help get more generators and surge strips and more up-to-date refurbed REAL laptops with GOOD batteries to make up for any OLPC shortcomings or undercutting situations. At some point, tho, those kids will be like any other: they'll want NEWER or "REAL" computers. I think OLPC at best will help, but it will be eclipsed if it is not shiny and new enough...
Just my ideas...
Might make them a "fag hag", too (if the operator is female.. but male? Hmmmmm... can't think of a word jussss yhet...). The beltee would then here a Village People-like song starting up:
.Yeeenggg, Yeennggg...goes the lowered jack-sweeper....)
"I jussss wanna kawwwwwl... you MAH BITCH!
I jussss wanna kawwwwwl... you MAH Bitch, BITCH!"
(Yyeeng... Yyeenng...
Wold give a whole new meaning to "jackin' around"...
The whole POINT of agony, pain, death is to make GOVERNMENT find ways to AVERT war, not DIVERT civilians. F*cking idiots in charge, wiling and scheming away.
Now, it's time for rogue smart scientist to come up with Civilian FAE-effect. Sort of like a Fuel Air Explosive, but instead of blowing up, it is really ADS-A... ADS-Attenuator.
Release a floating, persistent vapor or cloud around the demonstration and then maybe the micrometals will either disperse or amplify the ADS. Maybe even create a huge *OPEN-AIR TESLA EFFECT*. Maybe it'll get so out of hand the idiots IN and working FOR the offices of these devious officials will have to re-think. And, if the boys in urbarn warfare cammo think they'll have it easy, then the civilians -in whatever country they might be- can fire RPAs, or Rocket-propelled Attenuators from a distance into the ADS zone to dampen the attenuator. Not saying shoot the soldiers (at least, not if they cease and desist-- after all, you're a "guest" in a country not by the invitation of a president/emir/premier/whatever, or by your the decree of the invading soldier's leaders, but by the PEOPLE of the country being "occupied" -- pretty much any other scenario is an illusory thing at best...), but to shot into the ADS/millimeter wave area.
Anybody besides me thinking this thing needs an attenuator? Hell, that ADS can be used for sweeping whole neighborhoods in the night, cooking and brain-killing all sorts of people, innocent AND criminal. Might even mess with emergency or home-based/hospice care medical equipment at some point. After all, just recently the USAF conducted tests that jammed a widely-used spectrum occupied by civilian garage door remote controllers/transceivers, and it was asserted THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO DO SO by the Slash poster/submitter.
It's sort of along lines of wasting the government's time (really, tax payers' time and money) to prove the thing is a boondoggle and is a disingenuous activity.
This ADS is NOT a scheme as simple as using fire hoses in a Civil Rights riot. Even a FIREHOSE can kill if it is let go and whips around. The bell brass or metal crank/nozzle can break skulls, smash cars and damage solid equipment. Even water and soap on the streets can wash people into a trampling situation, getting them hurt or killed. ADS could be vastly more damaging, and given its mobility, can be quite vicious and nefariously used.
I say that for every deployment of ADS, an equivalent jammer operated by a civilian oversight team should have the veto power to order troops and cops to stop, or jam them then JAIL them (if they dilly-dally too long and hurt civilians after the desist order was issued).
"So while you're busy theorizing to yourself about Java, remember to curse to yourself about that crash-happy C shit."
OK, I'm confused, yep. But I *do* curse some of that crash-happy C shit. Really, I do. But, since Linux is written in what, C/C++ I don't envision turning it off. I chalk nspluginviewer's probs to bad coding.
http://www.google.com/search?q=lotus+notes+linux+c lient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
s _n9_v92/ai_12834133
But, there doesn't seem to be a Notes native to Linux. Maybe they won't make enough selling tech support and client licenses in an environment where people might try to wring them dry "cuz it's open source..."
I say they should dual license Lotus SmartSuite, but particularly Approach and Word Pro and 1-2-3.
Then, make Approach a runtime executable so simple stand-alone apps can be built for NON-ENTERPRISE users who absolutely will pay for SIMPLICITY that is limited. Unfortunately, SOME of that might get reverse engineered, but as long as the app is not a total quantum leap over the run of the mill O/S IDEs, then Approach probably shouldn't be a threat to Notes, Domino, or even Trolltech and others. As a relational front end, it's great. It just SUCKS having to run Approach in windoze.
What ever happened to Lotus' workflow stuff?
I read SOME of the URL:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0REL/i
but haven't kept track of the stuff since years.
I think there's a LOT of IBM/Lotus stuff that is not being exploited in Open Source. OTOH, a lot of stuff that can mimic or block/stunt/stem entry by IBM IS being done, namely the manufacturing, CRM, PIM and other things. If these smaller pims and CRM tools become entrenched due to steady improvement in quality, scalability, and stability, then not only IBM, but even msoft at some point will lose control and territory to new upcomers. This is probably the BIGGEST reason major patent lawsuits are not yet flying across the wires. Wait and see what innovators do to outflank the big guys like IBM, Salesforce.com, etc, even msoft, then buy them up before a bigger fish does.
But, I think if IBM shared or mentored some of the smaller database companies and let them operate as small subsidiaries or subsidized entities, then when the market gets tight, full of competitors, or the tech is right, then buy the operations but keep the talent pool in synch with customers and only incrementally fold them into the bigger org so the customers are not scared off or upset. At LEAST IBM's tech could be dispensed in a manageable fashion that might help IBM downstream. Then, there is the risk that even msoft would try to do an end-run and buy up something IBM spawned or mentored if precautions are not taken. But, then, how to mentor Open Source without letting msoft get their hands on it? Foundations? Controlling stakes? Plant key officers in key positions? Lots of options, but not enough BANG for the BUCK to please Scald Street...
Heheh... captcha: "munition"
Is THAT what the SHIT is??!!?? I am sure Lotus SmartSuite has no Java in it, considering it's era of origin (circa 1994 or slightly earlier). MAN, aLIVE!
Does EVERY frakkin' thing have to java-ized? I turn it off in Konqueror, Java AND java-script. Only if I am desperate to push some damned e-mail-in-a-browser-page through or read some site to I turn it on.
I'm ALSO sick of those profile sites that have the hankering to call up nspluginviewer and CRASH my Konqueror browser. Yep, it happens, and more than occasionally. So, I've become accustomed to running TWO instances of Konqueror: usually one for "safe" (non-music/non-whirly-twirly shit) and one for the self-stroking dev-built sites that are likely to play rough and dirty with my browser....
Otherwise, I'd dig and scrape all that shit out of my system. I have friends who code with it, and some seem to love it, but MAN, on the computer, it sucks. I have usually been "generous" to say, "Java is not bad. It's the lazy or incompetent developers who MAKE it bad...", but does anybody know if even THAT is too generous a thing to say about Java? I'm actually not in contempt of Java for java being java, but I hate going to sites that demand java for what looks like a trivial page change. Some of these web masters or their unrelenting marketing departments have gone just a little bit overboard. I think Java-mania will backfire on Java's better attributes...
I kinda see it like this:
Mommy and Daddy (the supporters) give Junior a bag of candy to share with his friends. Bullies (mshaft), of whom Mommy and Daddy are aware, show up in the park. Do you think that Mommy and Daddy REALLY want Junior to share candy bought with their sweat and blood with bullies that BROKE Juniors braces this year, his glasses the year before that, and stole his bike before that....? But, Mommy and Daddy say, well, let's hope he inspires them to mend their ways....
See, the bullies watch Mommy and Daddy walk the dog or whatever is that shaggy thing on a leash. Now, they pin down Junior, mock-rape him, put lipstick on him, tug his pants a few times, and while he's distracted, they swap out the candy with re-wrapped laxatives.
Then, they tell Junior, s'OK, we don't want your candy? We just wanna be friends for a while.
Tomorrow, Junior gives out candy.
Now, Junior takes the blame for trusting jerks who he KNEW would be up to no good if he didn't leave that merry-go-round.
(Just a quick & dirty analogy I put together as fast as my hands could type....)
You see. You SEE???!!!??? THIS is the damned problem. Everybody who hears "Lotus" thinks NOTES or 1-2-3!
There's MORE to Lotus than those two. I used Notes, and used to like it. I have no need for it, I'm no enterprise, so it's not on my computer. 1-2-3 I still use. Built a business plan in it, then ported it to Calc, but still use the 1-2-3 version because frackin OO.o's charts are a PAIN in the ass to reverse/edit (last time I bothered).
I don't want nor expect Lotus/IBM to "dominate anything". I just want them to shake OO.o's ass UP, a LOT. OO.O is bloated, frakin takes too damned long to start up cold, relies on a gimmick button to load it in memory when it should start in 5 seconds FLAT. All the talk people spew about "SUPERIOR OPEN SOURCE APPS" makes me nearly vomit sometimes. Yes, OS has GREAT stuff, but hardly polished they way the other community wants before the jump ship to Linux.
I'll concede (and do so easily, willingly) that Word Pro sorely lacks the whiz-bang graphics tools that Write has, but for plain text document generation, KICKS OO.o's ass up and down the wall with better linked/embedded support of master/support documents, starts faster, has a tabbed viewing interface, has multiple view offerings, non-modal dialog for editing the doc, in WYSIWYG manner, has better print previewing, and a few other things. Not to mention a reasonably small foot print.
If ONLY IBM would dual-license it, the Open Source community that praises IBM for its support of Open Source/Linux but without merit contemptuously loathes SmartSuite based on bedraggled, years-old antipathy towards Notes or Forms or other failed/expensive Lotus offerings just might finally see what SmartSuite has been hiding.
And PART of this problem stems DIRECTLY (IFFF IBM told the truth a few years about about IP licensing issues preventing IBM from open sourcing the SmartSuite code... BAH! probably ms office shareholders who secretly bought into SmartSuite as a poison pill to prevent a new suitor from catapulting SmartSuite over & beyond ms office some day, or IBM/Lotus employee-shareholders who toil at IBM/Lotus cuz they couldn't move to mshaft, but want mshaft to stay top dog...) from the people who are sitting on patents in SmartSuite. It ought to be shameful that these "people" are so powerful as to hold back IBM, and if IBM lied, then I hope they come clean.
Yeh, even ms office has some nice stuff, but the interface design and the depressing blue-gray scheme and other things stunt my work abilities. SmartSuite, compared to OO.o, has a cleaner, less intrusive interface. OO.o needs to shrink those icons, speed up the app, take a few design and tool pages from SmartSuite, and stomach-staple 78' of intestinal code.
Anybody heard a song making the club circuit that goes like this (kinda in a side-show/Updated Village People)?:
"I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH;
I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH, BITCH!
I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH;
I Jusss-like to cawlll... you mah BITCH, BITCH!"
You GOTTA believe ole stevie ballmer is not tossin' chairs anymore! He's tossin' somethin' ELSE! Gotta be struttin' around his office, and those conference rooms, funky-struttin' and rolling his shoulders, ogling and craning his neck around, all smiling and aglow, neatly tidying up the chairs (to the surprise of those accustomed to otherwise...), straigtenin' up ties and an affectionate finger-pluck to the nose of some disheveled execu-nerds, swaggerin' his new, thinnin' self up and down the campus.... singin aloud:
"I Jusss-like to cawllllllllll... you mah BITCH;
I Jusss-like to cawllllllllll... you mah BITCH, BITCH!"
(IRT my other posting in this same thread) Meanwhile, then Novell body is clumpity-clumping down some steep ridge in some non-distinct place in Cairo...
Moment of silence.
Arrrhhhhh-awwwww...
In strained voice, off-screen, "Uncle Stevie, Uncle Bill? Even tho you've torn my sphincter... rearranged my spine, crushed my ribs, and b-dro-ken my pelvis, dat's okay... I can still move my legs...."
Moneywise, things look pretty shagadelic from where Novell is sittin' & spinnin', suckin' on the ms-machine gun udders.
Watch out for the winding roads ahead, Novell... I see mshaft squirting oil on the road in your path...
But, the Powers question: can we say of Novell "It is SPITZ, or SWALLOWS, baby?..."
How long will you wait to fork/dual-license SmartSuite?
Linux desperately needs the world to see diversity in office suites. If they are addicted to ms office, but hesitant to plunge into OO.o, then maybe IBM/Lotus Development can FINALLY lay aside the sword, shields and maces for a while and try to merge the best bits of SO/OO.o/Lotus SmartSuite. OO.o DOES have some cool stuff, but it has NOT got:
-- Lotus Approach, your award-winning END-USER, non-programming-required relational database (and it NEEDS updating, not just maintenance and stabilization fixes... SURELY by now your "stabilization-seeking customer base of some 10 million could use a rejuvenated Lotus SmartSuite before they give up and cave in to ms' constant attempts to woo them); Approach has made it a pleasure for me to develop all sorts of prototype databases that would be mind-numbingly impossible to do in the current tools SO & OO.0 have, despite the fact that Star Office has been around since, what, 1995, and 2000 before the first major code shift? And, SmartSuite has been around only a little before that.
-- Lotus Word Pro, your slick, kewl, tight-n-crisp interface word processor. OO.o, again, has some cool stuff, lots of cool stuff, but it's compound document (main and linked) interface is horribly, gut-kickingly, BUTT UGLY. Word Pro's icons and tabbed document interface combined with SO/OO.o's updated code base (well, if it could be stripped of 48 seconds of that load time...) would give the holding-out camp something to leap for in Linux.
-- Speed. Yep, Lotus Smart Word Pro, no documents, loads in about 6 seconds in Windoze 98, in Win4Lin, in my PCLinuxOS-based 800-MHz K-7, 256 MB RAM Gateway Select from year 2000 computer.
Please, IBM, I can accept that you don't want to be called on the carpet for "harming Open Source", but if Open Source were fully-commercial, Base and Kexi and others tyring and trying to be end-user databases would look like Approach, File Maker Pro and Alph 4/5 by now, SATURATED with features in a smooth, cohesive, ambitious, award-winning layout like Approach has won for multiple times.
I am sure people here are TIRED of me harping the Approach & Word Pro thing, but I am sure of those who scoff, maybe only 1% has SEEN, USED, and DONE anything meaningful WITH/VIA Approach and Word Pro. For example, I have built a virtual HR database and screenplay/dialog database, single-handedly in Approach. It will eventually do what most of the other screenplay tools do, but obviously, with a database engine, access to the interface and user-level innards, it says something about Approach. Yeh, a database as the back end allows all SORTS of things a word-processor-based tool simply cannot do out of the box, or would require vast amounts of code to effect.
Regrettably, tho I want to dual-source my app, I cannot until I have a sponsor co-patent it with me so that after patenting, Open Source (or anyone for that matter) can USE or COPY it but theoretically no one can then re-patent it and try to take away from ME (and my intended audience) what *I* spend years created.
Are there any like-minded foundations or sponsors out there? Two bangs here:
-- The Approach hammer slamming down on the hammer to revv up the Linux/Open Source-based offerings
-- Yet another screenplay tool/application to offer to those tired of ms word-based/only-supporting applications
And, it wouldn't HURT if any prominent Open Source attorneys would vett the purported sponsors of foundations to make sure there are no wolf-in-sheep's-clothing undermining operations going on.
How about it, IBM? Wanna be first in line to sponsor and help patent it so it's TRULY safe for the Open Source community to use it without fear some jerk would patent MY work to undercut us? I don't need 100% patent control of it, just be named and it written up so it is not ruined by hyper-commercial-minded types.
Captcha: hostile
I think that given the increasing size and decreasing prices of hard drives, now is the time to start sandboxing apps. ESPECIALLY shit from microsoft. I don't mind having multiple, different-version .dlls as long as I can have stable apps. But, noooo, common libraries are supposed to make things easier, yet crappy or lazy developers will write binaries or modify .dlls that stomp on others.
.dlls also gives an incentive to "save space", but we know developers assume you're willing to give it up.
.dlls?
At least in Linux, I can try to link libraries. I can't recall about windows. However, I suspect that the registry was designed to discourage the installation of apps in their own directories. Forcing sharing of
I'll give up space for certain reasons, and certainly I think the disks and their prices make the tradeoff worth it for some cases. SO, I ask this question: just HOW many *meaningful*/*useful* apps can a person have on the computer and still care about multiple
(I'm tired and hungry so I may have overlooked something other than the marketing/ms-machine speak...)
Sheesh... Troll? some dips can't take a frakkin joke.... can't see past their SIG being adversely affected...
Isn't there some kind of dangerous aspect to what mshaft is doing? I mean, intel and other spy operations at the levels of upper government can do this and face being called on the carpet by ACLU or other countries' respective orgs (if such are permitted to exist), but for mshaft to do it, they must have been condoned by the government. If not, then they'll be told to shutter.
However, mshaft being mshaft, they'll probably give the government a deal with the devil by saying, WE'LL give YOU the goods, but we'll digitally morph or mask or modify to your liking any structures you consider to be safe houses, unlisted spook ops, dwellings or businesses used, visited, or owned by persons of interest, and more.
Pretty soon, mshaft will be that mega-weapon "arsenal of freedom" from the old STTNG episode, when the shit goes ape and starts fragging innocent people. Anyone remember the USS Yorktown, an Aegis cruiser that went (what we call in naval parlance) "broke dick" in the Atlantic (well, a bit offshore, not far out to sea...) around 1997/1998. Apparently a divide by zero error knocked the generators off-line, and the ship (costing some $980 million to $1+BILION) had to be towed to port, ONCE but MORE than once. Of course, the story was modified over time, and mshaft gradually got removed from culpability, depending on the sources you read.
Now, imagine if mshaft's structure catalog to "out-'innovate' Google" backfires. I wonder if IP addresses looking at certain structures (and, floors of buildings... speaking of which.. what will mshaft do NEXT? Start publishing the floorplans of offices, homes, plants and such?) will be flagged and sent to the TIA (total information awareness) people.... Imagine, tho, if we could ALL dwell on random and tipped-off sites jussssst enough to unnerve certain agencies. Hmm, they probably wouldn't JAIL us all, but might subject us to surfing "blackouts".