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Pity the Poor Classmate PC'd Children of Portugal
,----[ Quote ]
| Combine that complete outsourcing of computer systems evaluation with silence
| on the financial terms of the deal and I'm thinking there is a deal in the
| works - cheap Classmates now for lucrative future government orders.
|
| Shady deals being a hallmark of Classmate sales to date.
`----
http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/classmate_pc_children_portugal.html
Read the details.
Related:
Lessons from Africa: How to Kill Your Own FUD
,----[ Quote ]
| So, even as Microsoft claims superior quality over Linux, they act as if they
| don't even buy their own FUD. If they really believed that Windows was
| superior to Linux, they wouldn't have to bribe people with “marketing help”
| to get them to choose Windows.
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-11-09-030-26-OP-MD-MS
Linux wins Nigerian school desktops back from Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| "We are sticking with that platform," said the official, who would not give
| his name.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=6124
http://tinyurl.com/27ycq9
[Mandriva CEO:] An open letter to Steve Ballmer
,----[ Quote ]
| Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their
| mind like this? It’s pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone.
| How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live? In my
| place, they give it various names, I’m sure you know them.
|
| Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
|
| Of course, I will keep fighting this one and the next one, and the next one.
| You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics
| you and I, but I believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win
| too.
`----
http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/
Negroponte says Intel should be "ashamed of itself"
,----[ Quote ]
| He is furious that Intel's CEO Craig Barrett called the One Laptop a
| gadget. The Negroponte initiative is caught in the middle of a vicious
| fight between AMD and Intel, he said.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39733
Not Such a Harsh Toke, Actually
,----[ Quote ]
| This is socially, economically, politically and otherwise innovative. It is
| good for democracy too in some of the few remaining places that good thing is
| having trouble getting hold. We regard that thing too lightly, I fear.
|
| The Gates | Otellini axis directly hurts us deeply. To me, it is a
| particularly American shame.
`----
http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/11/not-such-a-hars.html
Open source tour of Europe: Portugal
,----[ Quote ]
| Many of the country’s open source projects to date are in the education
| sector, triggered by the government’s five-year agreement with Sun, signed in
| 2004, to provide open source technologies – including Linux and
| OpenOffice.org/StarOffice – to Portuguese secondary schools.
|
| More recently the Associação Ensino Livre (Association for Free Education)
| was founded to increase the use of open source software in education, while
| the Education Ministry launched a new website designed to promote open source
| usage.
|
| Outside the education sector, the Institute of Technology is migrating to
| OpenOffice, the Ministry of Justice has used an open source system based on
| JBoss, PostgreSQL and Linux for the dissemination of information on
| referendum results and the Ministry of Internal Affairs used JBoss to create
| a new traffic fines management system.
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/06/20/open-source-tour-of-europe-portugal/
OpenOffice.org being distributed to Portuguese schools
,----[ Quote ]
| I was just made aware of this Portuguese blog entry. CDs including
| OpenOffice.org will be distributed to Portuguese schools again. Great news!
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/openoffice_org_being_distributed_to
Portuguese Schools Learn About Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| As Microsoft understands - and as Apple first learned - if you get them
| young, you've pretty much got them forever. So it's good to see efforts being
| made to spread the open source word in the educational world, like this new
| effort by the Portuguese Ministry of Eduction...
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/04/portuguese-schools-learn-about-open.html
,----[ Quote ]
| In my country (Portugal) we have a very similar deal, available to all
| students and teachers in high school, which is subsidized by the
| cellphone/mobile ISP companies, the government and probably Microsoft, where
| you can get a laptop for 150 euros with a contract for 2 years for the mobile
| internet access with a nice discount from the usual monthly fees, from
| several well known laptop manufacturers (HP, Toshiba), and pretty decent
| machines also (Core Duo, 1 Gb RAM, the only downside is they all have
| integrated graphics cards), of course they all come with Windows Vista Home
| Premium as well.
`----
http://technocrat.net/d/2008/2/16/36312
IBM is still locked out of the Portuguese OOXML meeting
,----[ Quote ]
| In spite of various communications, we [IBM] are still locked out and will
| not be allowed to participate. Microsoft will be there, as well as a special
| Microsoft guest, as will various Microsoft business partners, and others.
`----
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1755
Portugal: Votes Yes with Comments on OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Commitee presided over by Microsoft decides in it's favor 13-7:
|
| It's with much disgust that I see that after an initial membership controlled
| by Microsoft of 7 to 1, it was only possible to add the participation of 12
| more entities, 6 in favor of open standards, and 6 in favor of Microsoft.
|
| If from the the first meeting it was clear that there was a favorable support
| for Microsoft of 7 to 1, the voting just an hour ago of YES WITH COMMENTS is
| sadly revealing.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/newsitems.php
Portugal's ISO says no room for IBM & Sun in the room ! ?
,----[ Quote ]
| [PJ: OpenXML.info is reporting (in Portuguese, but a Groklaw member
| translates for us) that the person who is head of the ISO technical committee
| about to vote on Microsoft's Ecma-376 wouldn't let IBM and Sun
| representatives in, claiming there was no room! This, if true, is ridiculous.
| And here is a second source reporting the same thing, also in Portuguese. So
| in the US, we hear reports of packing the TC. Now, it's weeding out those who
| are not likely to vote a certain way desired? Is this how standards
| get "approved"? I don't recall ODF having to play such games. Here is the
| rough translation:]
|
| Portugal, and more concretely, its national organization of certification IPQ
| is a member "O" (observator) of ISO/IEC for the voting of OOXML (ISO DIS
| 29500).
|
| WARNING: the first meeting of the Technical Commission "Language for document
| definition" was on Monday 16 of July. The vote was delayed. Representatives
| of IBM and Sun were not allowed to attend because there "was no available
| space in the room"
|
| Dear G [Sun Microsystems] due of restricted number of members of the CT
| (Commissao Tecnica) that can attend the scheduled meeting room to host the
| meeting, we cannot, in this stage, accept your proposal of integration of the
| CT.
|
| With my best regards,
| D [Microsoft as president of the Technical Commission]
`----
http://mv.asterisco.pt/2007/Jun/cat.cgi?MS%20OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| * More details are emerging from Portugal regarding the kerfuffle there
| over Ecma-376. If you read Portuguese, here you go -- just click on the
| link. I asked a Groklaw member to do a rough translation, and if you see
| ways to improve it, sing out, but it gives a bit of the history of how
| this committee that has no room for Sun or IBM (see previous News Picks
| item) was formed and how it happened to choose a Microsoft representative
| to be president of the committee that decides whether to "approve"
| Microsoft's submission as a "standard". Unless I'm missing something, it
| appears to have been set up so Microsoft can "approve" itself. Now that's
| handy. Here's the translation of the part about how Microsoft is
| represented on this committeee with no room for IBM or Sun:]
|
| I was present on the meeting of the Technical Commission (CT) created
| to award the ISO standards in the area of structured documents (in
| Portugal)
|
| A Technical Commission (CT) did not exist when ISO 26300 (Open
| Document) was submitted neither when there was a submission of OOXML
| (ECMA 376, potential ISO 29500) for the the fast track, and that was
| the reason why Portugal did not submit any opinion nor had any right to
| vote. We expect that now, with the pressure made and the CT created
| there would be right to vote.
|
| The CT was created by the Computing Institute, in which is delegated
| the responsability for the norms of the IT sector; a delegation granted
| by the Portuguese Institute of Quality (IPQ), the point of contact of
| ISO in Portugal. Its creation is motivated mainly by the pressures and
| availability of some people when the proposal for fast tracking of
| OOXML and a neccessity to avail now the OOXML as standard ISO and as a
| Portuguese National Standard
|
| In the meeting they were present:
|
| * 2 persons from II (Instituto de Informatica [Computing Institute])
| * 1 person from the local government (Alentejo region)
| * 1 person from Jurinfor [Jurinfor is a Microsoft partner]
| * 2 persons from Microsoft
| * 1 person from Primavera [Primavera is a Microsoft partner]
| * 1 person from ISCTE
| * 2 persons from Assoft [reportedly, most members of ASSOFT are Microsoft
| partners]
| * 1 person from the Inst. Informatica da Seg Social [Computing Institute
| of the Social Welfare Department]
| * 1 person from the Inst. Tecn. Informacao da Justiça (eu) [Technical
| Institute Information of Justice (eu)]
|
| The meeting dealt basically with the bureaucracy details of the creation of
| the CT. It didn't go into details of OOXML; that discussion will be held in
| the next meeting, on July 16th about 14:30 in the II [Instituto de
| Informatica, I assume]
|
| The CT, thus, was composed of 8 vocal elements, one representative for each
| of the organizations present. The II [Instituto de Informatica] is arranging
| and hosting the initiative and is a not-named representative.
|
| The 8 vocals will readily follow to the election of the president of the CT.
| There was 1 candidate in the place (Miguel Sales Dias, from Microsoft). I did
| not present my candidature but made myself available in case the rest of
| representatives deemed it neccesary -- informed not adequate since to begin
| with, as a member of the OpenDocument Alliance, I had a conflict of interest.
|
| The vote results were 7 votes in favor of Miguel Sales Dias, of Microsoft,
| who was designated to preside over the CT, and a (1) blank vote.
|
| It was decided to adopt consensus as the form of adoption of any proposed
| norm, following to majority vote in case there is no consensus in the CT and
| if there is a strong opposition to submit any norm.
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