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Microsoft pulls Office from own online store
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has pulled almost every version of
| Office from its own online store to comply
| with a court order requiring it to remove
| custom XML technology from its popular Word
| software starting today.
`----
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/332081/microsoft_pulls_office_from_own_online_store?fp=2&fpid=1&rid=1
Software Patents: Should the Burden of Proof Be on the Accuser?
,----[ Quote ]
| When we wrote our year end posts for 2009, we
| should've added patent trolling to our list of
| trends. In the past year we've covered a
| number of patent disputes including the Word-
| blocking patent against Microsoft and
| VoloMedia's patent on podcasting. Union Square
| Ventures' Brad Burnham wrote an excellent
| piece today on independent invention and how
| patent reform can minimize trolls.
|
| Said Burnham, "Almost a third of our portfolio
| is under attack by patent trolls. Is it
| possible that one third of the engineering
| teams in our portfolio unethically
| misappropriated technology from someone else
| and then made that the basis of their web
| services? No! That's not what is
| happening...Our companies are being attacked
| by companies that were not even in the same
| market, very often by companies they did not
| even know existed."
`----
http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2010/01/software-patents.php
Recent:
Alex Brown wants Brazil out of the ISO !
,----[ Quote ]
| As if the dirty things he did with Brazil
| during the OpenXML BRM in ISO wasnât
| sufficient, now Alex Brown suggests in his blog
| that Brazil shouldnât be a SC34 member at JTC1.
| Reason: Brazil did not send delegates to the
| SC34 WGâs meeting in Paris last week!
|
| Seeing that I was nominated as one of the
| Brazilian delegates, I want to make clear the
| explanation about my absence: I had no money to
| pay for my trip! (btw, since the middle of this
| year I donât know what is âhave moneyâ for
| anything â).
`----
http://homembit.com/2009/12/alex-brown-wants-brazil-out-of-the-iso.html
OOXMLâs BRM: A flow of dirt
,----[ Quote ]
| Finally Jomar, one of the brazilian delegate that went to OOXMLâs BRM in
| Geneva has started to tell all the dirty little details of what really
| happened in that meeting and the surreal modus operandi of how 120 people can
| discuss 1027 issues in 5 days. Have fun in english and portuguese.
|
| Oh, and talking about dirty playing, check the domain
| www.DocumentFreedomDay.com but remember that the original one is
| www.DocumentFreedom.org. The first one really deserves a DDoS attack.
`----
http://avi.alkalay.net/2008/03/ooxmls-brm-a-flow-of-dirt.html
Finally: the details about the final results of the BRM
,----[ Quote ]
| During the debates, some discussions had expanded and covered more than one
| ECMAâs responses (or sometimes different responses dealt with related
| themes), and this explains the high degree of items discussed (or as I prefer
| to call âtouchedâ) during the BRM (withdrawn from this document, the final
| document of BRM): 189 responses or 18.4% of the total (is that the amount of
| discussed items expected on an International Evaluation of a so important
| theme specification? Imagine if your countryâs constitution was write using
| that method, with only 18% of itâs laws discussed).
`----
http://homembit.com/2008/03/finally-the-details-about-the-final-results-of-the-brm.html
Porn Site technique used to promote OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| In March 26, 2008, was celebrated around the world the first Document Freedom
| Day (documentfreedom.org/). Notice the site's name: Document
| Freedom dot org.
|
| While refusing all around the world to participate in a celebration towards
| the promotion and usage of open standards, Microsoft even goes to the point
| of issuing a press release in Portugal against ANSOL's Document Freedom Day
| announcement.
|
| Meanwhile, anonymous supporters of OOXML use Domains by Proxy registar in
| order to register a site with a very similar address of Document Freedom
| Day's. The OOXML support site is Document Freedom Day **dot com** and
| redirects to a well known astroturf site which pretends to be a community of
| OOXML supporters.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-49321/porn-site-technique-used-to-promote-ooxmlviral%20youtube
Related:
At the end: What we did in Geneva ?
,----[ Quote ]
| This person tried in saying that believes that we should not submit our
| proposal that asked the mapping, since there was no time at the meeting (just
| over three hours) to write the mapping document. Weâve said that our proposal
| stemmed from the premise that the ECMA had this document because they
| justifies âthe needâ of OOXML because it supports the binary documents legacy
| and it is also stated that there are still things that can not be translated
| (deprecated), they should have thoroughly studied this and at least have made
| the mapping.
|
| I have never seen a person so nervous and ashamed in my lifeâ He said that
| Microsoft should have this mapping and if we want, we can ask it to Microsoft
| but not ask it to ECMA. He said that ECMA was only responsible for creating
| the new XML schema and who do not have this mapping documentation.
`----
http://homembit.com/2008/03/at-the-end-what-we-did-in-geneva.html
ISO Statement on the BRM: Public Stay Out
,----[ Quote ]
| So much for an open standard. I have a question for the ISO. Have all prior
| meetings been run like this? In the deepest shade you can find? You know they
| have not, and I know they have not.
|
| So, how about letting us listen to audio of the meeting, so we can compare
| claims now coming from all sides? There are so many different accounts, and
| they don't all sync up. Given that this format, if accepted, will impact us
| little people, not just a bunch of vendors, how about letting us in enough to
| make it at least possible to figure out who is telling the truth?
|
| Hey, EU Commission. Did you know that there is reportedly audio made of the
| BRM meeting?
`----
http://homembit.com/2008/03/at-the-end-what-we-did-in-geneva.html
Probe into votes on Microsoft standard
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission is investigating the process under which a key
| Microsoft document format could be adopted as an industry standard - a move
| that would carry significant commercial benefits for the software company.
|
| Officials at the European Commission's competition directorate have written
| to members of the International Organisation for Standardisation, asking how
| they prepared for votes in September and later this month on acceptance of
| Microsoft's OOXML document format as a worldwide standard. Without ISO
| acceptance, Microsoft could stand to lose business, particularly with
| government clients, some of which are becoming increasingly keen to use only
| ISO-certified software.
|
| The ISO process has been widely criticised, however, with some members of
| national standards' bodies accusing Microsoft and its rivals of attempting to
| influence the vote.
|
| Tim Bray, a member of the Canadian national standards body, called the
| procedure "complete, utter, unadulterated bullshit" in a recent blog posting.
|
| [...]
|
| In addition, in several countries, a large number of Microsoft partners
| joined the national standards organisations just ahead of a vote on the issue
| in September.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft said it openly encouraged its partners to participate in the ISO
| process, but was not funding any third parties doing so. The company said it
| would cooperate with the European Commission's inquiry.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88e570a2-ea56-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
The Art of Being Mugged
,----[ Quote ]
| The four options presented were:
|
| * Option 1: Submitter's responses (Ecma's) are all automatically
| approved.
| * Option 2: Anything not discussed is not approved.
| * Option 3: Neutral third-party (ITTF) decides which Ecma responses are
| accepted
| * Option 4: Voting (approve + disapprove) must be at least 9 votes.
| Abstentions not counted.
|
| We were told that these options are not in the Directives and that were are
| given these choices because ITTF "needs to act in the best interests of the
| IEC". I don't quite get it, but there appears to be some concern over what
| the press would think if the BRM did not handle all of the comments. One NB
| requested to speak and asked, "I wonder what the press would think about
| arbitrarily changed procedures?". No response. I thought to myself, why
| wasn't ITTF thinking about the 'best interests" of JTC1 when they allowed a
| 6,045 page Fast Track submission, or ignored all those contradiction
| submissions, or decided to schedule a 5-day BRM to handle 3,522 NB comments.
| Isn't it a bit late to start worrying about what the press will think?
|
| We break for lunch.
|
| After lunch and after more discussion, the meeting adopted a variation of
| option 4, by removing the vote minimum. I believe in this vote the BRM and
| ITTF exceeded its authority and violated the consensus principles described
| in JTC1 Directives.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/03/art-of-being-mugged.html
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