If you bother to read the Groklaw article, you'll note that the ODF plugin supports Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I.e., you can save to an ODF format from each of the three. I assume Access will be forthcoming in a later release.
Now can you see why they've bolted down all the furniture in the executive suite in Redmond? That's another three shackles coming off. Freedom of choice is within reach.
And for all you die-hard MS fans that live in Massachusetts: You might want to download the plug-in anyway. At least in the future you'll be able to read newly archived ODF-formatted documents. Save them as.doc,.xls, or.ppt files if you want. And if you want to pay for the privelege of upgrading to Vista and Vista Office some time in the future, go ahead. I'd rather get off that high-speed carousel and upgrade on my terms, not some vendor's...
Just picking a nit: in banking EVERYTHING is not standardized. There are areas that financial institutions specialize in because, similar to what you said, they feel they can excel in that area and devote resources to exploit it.
To correct the parent poster, though - the one with the custom POS software. What's to prevent someone else from writing a similar application that's better than yours and open sourcing it? Then it's decision time for you: devote more resources ($$$) to try and one-up your competition, or bite the bullet and follow McNealy's advice...
Flame me if you will, since I haven't RTFA, but what if I own the copyright to the content I'm streaming, and I want to distribute it under the condition that you can copy it all you want - as long as you keep the attribute pointing to me as the copyright holder?
I'm sure there's a provision for that, but the leadin to the article causes people like me to begin foaming at the mouth!
Actually, we/.'rs do understand. You've created a strawman argument. The big music companies are GLOBAL, and sell into many markets - and cater to those markets' tastes when they can (i.e., they can make a profit doing so), or else they try to make their major artists - whether they are American, Canadian, English, Italian, Indian or Japanese - appeal to "minor" markets so they can minimize their overhead selling to those markets.
Let's face it. The bottom line is this is a classic case of an entrenched supplier reacting - in our opinion, futively - to a disrupting technology. Like any "monopoly", they are doing their best to influence the creation of laws that favor their outdated methods of doing business. If market forces were allowed to work their magic, with only enough necessary government oversight to ensure "fair play", then those "monopolies" would have to evolve or die.
We consumers also have to adapt, or continue to pad the pockets of corporations who employ what are essentially indentured servants - the artists. More and more consumers will get smarter about where they make their music and other media purchases. More and more artists will follow the models of the Arctic Monkeys and others, bypassing the record labels, promoting themselves via "viral" and guerilla marketing techniques until they have enough recognition to deal with the labels on their own terms - not the labels' terms.
Didn't VMWare have its start as the IBM product VM/386? It was released in the early 90's, but at the time IBM really didn't know what to do with it - they had their hands full with trying to quit alienating OS/2 developers...
Didn't VM/360 come about in the early 70's? Is it really over 40 years old?
"However, source code released under a BSD-style license arguably stimulates improvement and adds more value than GPLed code. Nothing in the GPL guarantees its widest possible distribution either."
That's a bit disingenuous. A BSD-style license adds value for the company incorporating it into its proprietary products. It does little directly to add value to the end-user or the customer. The GPL, on the other hand, ensures that there's a tit-for-tat: you the distributer get to use GPL code gratis - as long as you give access to the source for any enhancements you make. That ensures that the code isn't taken private - it ensures wider distribution and makes the project (or the code) stronger for it. More interest in the source, the better the resulting software for the consumer of it.
Don't tell the half of it. Tell the whole truth.
Why isn't NetBSD or OpenBSD enjoying the popularity that Linux is? Look in the mirror: it's the license it's released under.
Anyone can implement the PDF format without having to pay royalties to Adobe.
Of course, the Wikepedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pdf_format is a bit confusing, saying in the opening sentence that it's a proprietary file format, then saying later it's an open standard...
The official measurement system of the US is metric, not the English/imperial system.
All the packaged food products you buy are in grams, liters, etc. The english measurement is on there for the convenience of the consumer. Just about the only consumable item we have is gasoline and oil - the entire world uses barrels (42 US gallons). Pretty much other than that and it's all metric.
Any engineering discipline teaches the metric system. If it weren't for the US housing industry, with its 2x4's (pardon me - that's 1.5x3.5's) and 16" centers, we the consumers would have converted by now.
Metric's only hard when you try to convert measurements to english. If you stay in metric, it's a breeze.
There was a recent article in the IEEE's Spectrum magazine, http://spectrum.ieee.org/apr06/3223 titled "Do-It-Yourself-Patents", where the author steps through the prior art process. The author only searches the patent record for prior art - doesn't even entertain the thought of a wider search.
How sad! Hopefully the study referred to in this Slashdot article will reach a wide audience.
What makes quantum encryption "unbreakable" is that any attempt tamper with it can be detected. Of course, it doesn't prevent a good old DDos attack!
My question, however, is this: Once hackers obtain quantum computers themselves to use for cracking quantum codes, will they actually have to run them? After all, it was just proven that a quantum program doesn't even have to run to come up with an answer. That's all we need - a new generation of lazy quantum hackers! What's this world coming to? What happened to good old-fashioned dishonest work?
You might be a bit confused here. "Public safety agencies' first responders' inability to communicate...in the event of...crisis" refers to their ability to communicate with each other - that is, fire departments can communicate with police, national guard, FEMA, etc - using the same radio gear in the same area of spectrum. It is NOT a super kind of Emergency Broadcast System for the public to listen to.
Right now, different frequencies are allocated to each agency, and their radio gear cannot communicate with other agencies.
What I don't hear (unless I missed it!) is who's gonna pay for all those agencies to buy new radio gear that will USE the VHF spectrum vacated by the TV broadcasters?
Slashdot Mirror
Now can you see why they've bolted down all the furniture in the executive suite in Redmond? That's another three shackles coming off. Freedom of choice is within reach.
And for all you die-hard MS fans that live in Massachusetts: You might want to download the plug-in anyway. At least in the future you'll be able to read newly archived ODF-formatted documents. Save them as .doc, .xls, or .ppt files if you want. And if you want to pay for the privelege of upgrading to Vista and Vista Office some time in the future, go ahead. I'd rather get off that high-speed carousel and upgrade on my terms, not some vendor's...
Just picking a nit: in banking EVERYTHING is not standardized. There are areas that financial institutions specialize in because, similar to what you said, they feel they can excel in that area and devote resources to exploit it.
To correct the parent poster, though - the one with the custom POS software. What's to prevent someone else from writing a similar application that's better than yours and open sourcing it? Then it's decision time for you: devote more resources ($$$) to try and one-up your competition, or bite the bullet and follow McNealy's advice...
eom
I'm sure there's a provision for that, but the leadin to the article causes people like me to begin foaming at the mouth!
Not too many OC-192's or STM-4's reaching down into Antarctica...
Let's face it. The bottom line is this is a classic case of an entrenched supplier reacting - in our opinion, futively - to a disrupting technology. Like any "monopoly", they are doing their best to influence the creation of laws that favor their outdated methods of doing business. If market forces were allowed to work their magic, with only enough necessary government oversight to ensure "fair play", then those "monopolies" would have to evolve or die.
We consumers also have to adapt, or continue to pad the pockets of corporations who employ what are essentially indentured servants - the artists. More and more consumers will get smarter about where they make their music and other media purchases. More and more artists will follow the models of the Arctic Monkeys and others, bypassing the record labels, promoting themselves via "viral" and guerilla marketing techniques until they have enough recognition to deal with the labels on their own terms - not the labels' terms.
Didn't VMWare have its start as the IBM product VM/386? It was released in the early 90's, but at the time IBM really didn't know what to do with it - they had their hands full with trying to quit alienating OS/2 developers...
Didn't VM/360 come about in the early 70's? Is it really over 40 years old?
That's a bit disingenuous. A BSD-style license adds value for the company incorporating it into its proprietary products. It does little directly to add value to the end-user or the customer. The GPL, on the other hand, ensures that there's a tit-for-tat: you the distributer get to use GPL code gratis - as long as you give access to the source for any enhancements you make. That ensures that the code isn't taken private - it ensures wider distribution and makes the project (or the code) stronger for it. More interest in the source, the better the resulting software for the consumer of it.
Don't tell the half of it. Tell the whole truth.
Why isn't NetBSD or OpenBSD enjoying the popularity that Linux is? Look in the mirror: it's the license it's released under.
Anyone can implement the PDF format without having to pay royalties to Adobe.
Of course, the Wikepedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pdf_format is a bit confusing, saying in the opening sentence that it's a proprietary file format, then saying later it's an open standard...
The official measurement system of the US is metric, not the English/imperial system.
All the packaged food products you buy are in grams, liters, etc. The english measurement is on there for the convenience of the consumer. Just about the only consumable item we have is gasoline and oil - the entire world uses barrels (42 US gallons). Pretty much other than that and it's all metric.
Any engineering discipline teaches the metric system. If it weren't for the US housing industry, with its 2x4's (pardon me - that's 1.5x3.5's) and 16" centers, we the consumers would have converted by now.
Metric's only hard when you try to convert measurements to english. If you stay in metric, it's a breeze.
How sad! Hopefully the study referred to in this Slashdot article will reach a wide audience.
My question, however, is this: Once hackers obtain quantum computers themselves to use for cracking quantum codes, will they actually have to run them? After all, it was just proven that a quantum program doesn't even have to run to come up with an answer. That's all we need - a new generation of lazy quantum hackers! What's this world coming to? What happened to good old-fashioned dishonest work?
You might be a bit confused here. "Public safety agencies' first responders' inability to communicate...in the event of...crisis" refers to their ability to communicate with each other - that is, fire departments can communicate with police, national guard, FEMA, etc - using the same radio gear in the same area of spectrum. It is NOT a super kind of Emergency Broadcast System for the public to listen to. Right now, different frequencies are allocated to each agency, and their radio gear cannot communicate with other agencies. What I don't hear (unless I missed it!) is who's gonna pay for all those agencies to buy new radio gear that will USE the VHF spectrum vacated by the TV broadcasters?