XML upgrade assessments needed for higher ed
,----[ Quote ]
| Ditch advises users of Microsoft Office software to set a time scale for
| upgrading to the 2007 version.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/09/higher_education_xml_upgrade/
What a foolish suggestion. It sounds likely that just like the BBC and National
Archives, those who makes the decisions also work for (or have a stake in)
Microsoft. Office is what they call /education/?
Computers for 3-Year-Olds
,----[ Quote ]
| By the time she was 2, Chiara was slowly punching keyboard buttons with
| her little fingers in Microsoft Word.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/070809/aug2007tc2007087437013.html?.v=1
Apple still bats for Microsoft when it comes to formats.
What's Behind Apple's iWork?
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's Office still dominates the market, but Apple's new software may
| signal a tectonic shift in the two behemoths' uneasy alliance
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/tc2007088_185747.htm?campaign_id=yhoo
They are still cozy with their patent alliance and formats. Not the case as far
as Google goes...
Noteworthy Nuggets From Googles 10Q
,----[ Quote ]
| Google hates proprietary formats:
|
| A large amount of information on the internet is provided in proprietary
| document formats such as Microsoft Word. The
| providers of the software application used to create these documents could
| engineer the document format to prevent or interfere with our ability to
| access the document contents with our search technology. This would mean that
| the document contents would not be included in our search results even if the
| contents were directly relevant to a search. The software providers may also
| seek to require us to pay them royalties in exchange for giving us the
| ability to search documents in their format. If the software provider also
| competes with us in the search business, they may give their search
| technology a preferential ability to search documents in their proprietary
| format.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070810/44107_id.html?.v=1
Related:
Batavia parents to shell out for back-to-school
,----[ Quote ]
| The district recently sent a letter to high school parents notifying them
| that all the computers in the district this summer are being updated with
| Microsoft Office 2007.
|
| District officials could not be reached for comment.
|
| The letter stressed the disadvantages of not having the new software, which
| carries a suggested retail price of $499.99.
|
| “If students use an older version of Microsoft Office at home, it is usually
| possible to translate their projects back and forth between different
| versions of Microsoft Office,”the letter said. “However, this can be a
| tedious process, and information may not be always be translated properly.”
`----
http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2007/07/27/news/local/doc46a9cc9908105330494432.txt
[OOXML] Math markup marked down
,----[ Quote ]
| It appears that Science, the journal of the America Association for the
| Advancement of Science (AAAS), itself the largest scientific society in the
| world, has updated its authoring guidelines to include advice for Office
| 2007 users. The news is not good.
|
| [...]
|
| Uh oh. Not only cannot you not submit files in OOXML format, but
| you can't even use Office 2007 and save in the old binary formats.
| The choice to invent a new "Open Math Markup Language" rather
| then use the well-established existing standard, MathML, appears
| to be a serious flaw.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/04/math-markup-marked-down.html
In case you were wondering how big 6000 pages is: OpenXML/OOXML/whatever
,----[ Quote ]
| Take a look at this photo from an OOXML workshop. (Read the blog entry
| too.) [Photo of a pile of 6,000+ pages]
|
| I don't know what your job is, but imagine your boss came to you and
| said "read this, fully understand it, implement it perfectly, and make
| sure that it fully interoperates with the software being produced by
| anyone else doing the same." Translate this statement to your own job
| and stare again at that photo. What do you conclude?
|
| * You'll have lifetime employment trying to implement the spec.
| * Your boss comes from another wacko parallel universe.
| * This is a joke if not a travesty.
| * Your job evaluation will not be very good next year.
| * There is no way you can fully do the job without
| reimplementing significant portions of Microsoft's product
| portfolio and therefore you will run into intellectual
| property problems. (Don?t think that's a problem?)
| * Microsoft is trying to change the rules on what is a standard
| and who can implement it.
`----
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1634
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244
Packing The Court At The ISO?
,----[ Quote ]
| ...P member countries ('participating member' countries) sending
| representatives, and I am interested to note the majority of
| their representatives are, as individuals, also Microsoft employees.
|
| [...]
|
| How can they not see that OOXML (ECMA 376) is unwanted by anyone outside of
| Microsoft? How about it Brian Jones? Are you really so desperate that you
| have to resort to that?
`----
http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/packing-the-court-at-the-iso/
Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
legislature
,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's
| Office Open XML file format.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50
,----[ Quote ]
| Quinn: Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
| the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
| or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
| is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
| Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
| Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
| playbook and words, in my opinion.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729
MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183
The Sorry State of Massachusetts
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2006111603531029
Microsoft offers schools in Mass. free software [to stop ODF adoption]
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6090196.html?part=rss&tag=6090196&subj=news
Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32515
Microsoft playing three card monte with XML conversion
,----[ Quote ]
| Gary Edwards of the Open Document Foundation, a leading member
| of its technical committee, says Microsoft is playing proprietary
| games aimed at controlling XML file formats and preventing the
| Open Document Format from gaining a foothold.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=959
http://forums.scc.ca/forums/scc/dispatch.cgi/public/docProfile/100009/d20070501143554/No/t100009.htm
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