2013-11-15
2013-10-28
2013-10-12
Why Microsoft Word must Die - Charlie's Diary
Quote:
But this isn't why I want Microsoft Office to die.
The reason I want Word to die is that until it does, it is unavoidable. I do not write novels using Microsoft Word. I use a variety of other tools, from Scrivener (a program designed for managing the structure and editing of large compound documents, which works in a manner analogous to a programmer's integrated development environment if Word were a basic text editor) to classic text editors such as Vim. But somehow, the major publishers have been browbeaten into believing that Word is the sine qua non of document production systems. They have warped and corrupted their production workflow into using Microsoft Word .doc files as their raw substrate, even though this is a file format ill-suited for editorial or typesetting chores. And they expect meto integrate myself into a Word-centric workflow, even though it's an inappropriate, damaging, and laborious tool for the job. It is, quite simply, unavoidable. And worse, by its very prominence, we become blind to the possibility that our tools for document creation could be improved. It has held us back for nearly 25 years already; I hope we will find something better to take its place soon.
2013-10-09
2013-09-28
2013-09-26
2013-09-24
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
2013-09-21
NeoOffice FAQ
NeoOffice FAQ
I was being provocative before, in teasing that NeoOffice is not "free"; I meant it costs money. -- The really interesting thing about NeoOffice on the Apple App Store is that the code is still GPL. Thus, from the FAQ:
I was being provocative before, in teasing that NeoOffice is not "free"; I meant it costs money. -- The really interesting thing about NeoOffice on the Apple App Store is that the code is still GPL. Thus, from the FAQ:
Can I copy NeoOffice?Yes. Since NeoOffice is distributed under theGNU General Public License (GPL), you can copy it as much as you like and give it to whomever you want.
Since providing user support consumes much of our funds, there are some restrictions on when you can use the NeoOffice trademark. So, if you are selling NeoOffice, you must comply with the NeoOffice CD Distribution and Trademark Usage policy.
I used to be friends with Ed Peterlin, one of the founders of the company, and friendly with Patrick Luby, but my position at Sun complicated matters, as in introducing confusion about who is a who and not a company. I wish them both well--and would try out NeoOffice (this version) if it were not 10 dollars :-) but "free," as in free beer (I mean, of course, the compiled binaries; I can build it meself from the source.)
NeoOffice 2013: In the Apple App Store (not free)
NeoOffice 2013
It costs 9.99 USD, a fine price. I actually don't have any criticism about Planamesa selling the product, which quite honestly and clearly announces that it is based on OpenOffice. I am, rather, impressed by the (r)evolution.
It costs 9.99 USD, a fine price. I actually don't have any criticism about Planamesa selling the product, which quite honestly and clearly announces that it is based on OpenOffice. I am, rather, impressed by the (r)evolution.
The Truth About Open Source Hardware Business Models | Open Electronics
The Truth About Open Source Hardware Business Models | Open Electronics
Been working through week's fairly interesting accounts of the burgeoning open hardware movement. Basically, I tend to believe that there are obvious advantages to open collaboration, regardless of the matter (or lack thereof) at hand. But, less obviously but no less importantly, organising the open networks so that there is actually something produced that can be added to after the initial wave of enthusiasm, is both hard and harder than it seems at first. It's one thing to have a band of enthusiasts working night and day on release 1.0. It's another to have a sustained effort so that 1.0 leads to 2.0, and so on. History, one might note, is blotted by the faded (if not failed) efforts that never caught on.
What makes things catch on is, for the market capitalist, kind of like asking, What do women want?, where "women" is all of us as consumers. The answer is of course that we want "want," or neverending desire--not even, I suppose, the ability to act on it. Just the desire itself--up to a point. At some point, terminally anorexic with the infinity of desire, we die.
Been working through week's fairly interesting accounts of the burgeoning open hardware movement. Basically, I tend to believe that there are obvious advantages to open collaboration, regardless of the matter (or lack thereof) at hand. But, less obviously but no less importantly, organising the open networks so that there is actually something produced that can be added to after the initial wave of enthusiasm, is both hard and harder than it seems at first. It's one thing to have a band of enthusiasts working night and day on release 1.0. It's another to have a sustained effort so that 1.0 leads to 2.0, and so on. History, one might note, is blotted by the faded (if not failed) efforts that never caught on.
What makes things catch on is, for the market capitalist, kind of like asking, What do women want?, where "women" is all of us as consumers. The answer is of course that we want "want," or neverending desire--not even, I suppose, the ability to act on it. Just the desire itself--up to a point. At some point, terminally anorexic with the infinity of desire, we die.
2013-09-20
Anthony Amsterdam,"Perspectives on the Fourth Amendment". Minnesota Law Review 58: 349. 1974
Anthony Amsterdam is considered a major figure in undermining the reasoning for the death penalty's implementation and its long suspension in the US. But he also wrote importantly and influentially on privacy issues, and the cited paper is probably the most famous.
A nice way of looking at the provisions of the 4th Amendment, as it pertains to all citizens, which is to say, the presumed innocent, unless otherwise found otherwise:
Our thinking about questions of this sort is inevitably distorted by the fact that fourth amendment
controversies ordinarily come before courts only in criminal prosecutions where what the policeman sees
through the window is a crime or evidence of it. In that setting, it is natural enough to react by saying that
anyone who commits a crime or leaves criminal evidence lying around in front of an open window
deserves exactly what he gets. Let him at least have the decency to draw the shade before he commits a
crime.
But, unless the fourth amendment controls tom-peeping and subjects it to a requirement of
antecedent cause to believe that what is inside any particular window is indeed criminal, police may look
through windows and observe a thousand innocent acts for every guilty act they spy out. Should we say
that prospect is not alarming because the innocent homeowner need not fear that he will get caught doing
anything wrong? The fourth amendment protects not against incrimination, but against invasions of
privacy—or rather, as Katz holds, of the right to maintain privacy without giving up too much freedom as
the cost of privacy. The question is not whether you or I must draw the blinds before we commit a crime.
It is whether you and I must discipline ourselves to draw the blinds every time we enter a room, under
pain of surveillance if we do not.
2013-09-19
2013-09-18
2013-09-17
City of Munich throws Ubuntu lifeline to Windows XP holdouts • The Register
City of Munich throws Ubuntu lifeline to Windows XP holdouts • The Register
I assume that the lucky City of Munich workers will also get LibreOffice as part of the deal?
I assume that the lucky City of Munich workers will also get LibreOffice as part of the deal?
2013-09-11
SUSE Partners with Collabora to Deliver Commercial LibreOffice Support | SUSE
SUSE Partners with Collabora to Deliver Commercial LibreOffice Support | SUSE
Basically, SUSE has ceded development to others, if any, on LibreOffice. And also calling it a "community" effort--often, if not necessarily in this case--a code term for something thrown under the bus does not inspire confidence in LibreOffice.
Of course, as a champion of AOO, I *would* see it this way. But I also feel that though the desktop will be with us for at least the next generation, that at the same time we are moving to mobile alternatives, and, as far as I know, that means a more agile, lightfooted alternative than AOO or LibreOffice can offer. For it has to work well on the tablet.
Basically, SUSE has ceded development to others, if any, on LibreOffice. And also calling it a "community" effort--often, if not necessarily in this case--a code term for something thrown under the bus does not inspire confidence in LibreOffice.
Of course, as a champion of AOO, I *would* see it this way. But I also feel that though the desktop will be with us for at least the next generation, that at the same time we are moving to mobile alternatives, and, as far as I know, that means a more agile, lightfooted alternative than AOO or LibreOffice can offer. For it has to work well on the tablet.
2013-08-24
Daily Kos: New community guidelines, final draft
Daily Kos: New community guidelines, final draft
Those of us who've been involved and even led communities, online or not, end up devising simple guidelines to guide behaviour. Most of us try to keep it simple and trust that if the community "needs" a bureaucratic codification that goes on and on then it probably needs a reassessment. What we have in mind by having any guideline is to ensure that the environment of communication stays friendly and, ideally, productive; that it is not a space where hostility is at all countenanced or tolerated and that people contribute because they like the whole process and also trust it as an institution. Certainly that idea, of insisting that discourse be friendly and open to all, and inclusive and stay civil and not veer into misogyny or racism or other forms of obnoxious rudeness determined the guidelines and policies I had a part in writing for OpenOffice.org.
These guidelines I link to by Daily Kos are of interest if only because Daily Kos is such a public site and not an open source site. But as with open source environments, where harshness and (misinterpreted or not) irony is always a possibility, maintaining productive civility is hard. Hence these guidelines.
Speculatively, it would be interesting to look at the other big, public sites, like Reddit, or even Twitter, to track the elements that are permitted or not and how they may differ around the world.
Those of us who've been involved and even led communities, online or not, end up devising simple guidelines to guide behaviour. Most of us try to keep it simple and trust that if the community "needs" a bureaucratic codification that goes on and on then it probably needs a reassessment. What we have in mind by having any guideline is to ensure that the environment of communication stays friendly and, ideally, productive; that it is not a space where hostility is at all countenanced or tolerated and that people contribute because they like the whole process and also trust it as an institution. Certainly that idea, of insisting that discourse be friendly and open to all, and inclusive and stay civil and not veer into misogyny or racism or other forms of obnoxious rudeness determined the guidelines and policies I had a part in writing for OpenOffice.org.
These guidelines I link to by Daily Kos are of interest if only because Daily Kos is such a public site and not an open source site. But as with open source environments, where harshness and (misinterpreted or not) irony is always a possibility, maintaining productive civility is hard. Hence these guidelines.
Speculatively, it would be interesting to look at the other big, public sites, like Reddit, or even Twitter, to track the elements that are permitted or not and how they may differ around the world.
2013-08-20
LibreOffice Development Howto | Lanedo GmbH
LibreOffice Development Howto | Lanedo GmbH
This is interesting and useful. Of course, I follow and help out--though much less now--Apache OpenOffice development, for any number of reasons; and I advocate the finished code, too, over all others. But it's always worthwhile to learn about forks and similars, and to remind not just oneself but others that there is usually more that binds than severs.
This is interesting and useful. Of course, I follow and help out--though much less now--Apache OpenOffice development, for any number of reasons; and I advocate the finished code, too, over all others. But it's always worthwhile to learn about forks and similars, and to remind not just oneself but others that there is usually more that binds than severs.
2013-07-05
Another nail in the IRS scandal’s coffin - Salon.com
Another nail in the IRS scandal’s coffin - Salon.com
From the NY Times, via Salon, on J Weisman's bylined article:
"Today, Weisman reports that plenty of groups that had nothing to do with left-right politics, like a Palestinian-rights organization and open source technology groups, made it onto target lists and received “a series of questions and requests almost identical to the ones it was sending to Tea Party groups at the time:”' (Emphasis added.)
This is not a surprise to those of us in the open source world.
From the NY Times, via Salon, on J Weisman's bylined article:
"Today, Weisman reports that plenty of groups that had nothing to do with left-right politics, like a Palestinian-rights organization and open source technology groups, made it onto target lists and received “a series of questions and requests almost identical to the ones it was sending to Tea Party groups at the time:”' (Emphasis added.)
This is not a surprise to those of us in the open source world.
2013-07-02
How to submit to Linux kernel
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
It's actually still rather useful. It also reminds me a lot of the rules for submitting copy to publishers.... just the text and only what you yourself have written and make sure that others can read it and understand it.
It's actually still rather useful. It also reminds me a lot of the rules for submitting copy to publishers.... just the text and only what you yourself have written and make sure that others can read it and understand it.
2013-06-23
2013-06-16
Thomas Penfield Jackson, Outspoken Judge, Dies at 76 - NYTimes.com
Thomas Penfield Jackson, Outspoken Judge, Dies at 76 - NYTimes.com
The article bears reading. We tend to forget the storied anti-trust narrative and trials that gave Lessig brilliance and dimmed only slightly Microsoft. That's a mistake. It's also an error to assume that just because the conditions have changed and that "we" are moving away from the desktop, where the dinosaurs of computing reigned, that Microsoft and other equivalent companies, like Oracle, are less relevant and thus less powerful. They are not.
The article bears reading. We tend to forget the storied anti-trust narrative and trials that gave Lessig brilliance and dimmed only slightly Microsoft. That's a mistake. It's also an error to assume that just because the conditions have changed and that "we" are moving away from the desktop, where the dinosaurs of computing reigned, that Microsoft and other equivalent companies, like Oracle, are less relevant and thus less powerful. They are not.
2013-06-15
UX Write - Live Demo
UX Write - Live Demo
This live demo of UX Write is not a video but a real demonstration. Not sure if it uses the latest pre-release, but it gives enough for any user to get an idea of what the app is and what it does.
And it--the app--is worth using, if you use now or plan on using an iPad for work, during travel, at school, or whenever. It's an app for creating documents, editing documents sent you, and for doing things that previously could only be done on a desktop.
But this is mobile.
This live demo of UX Write is not a video but a real demonstration. Not sure if it uses the latest pre-release, but it gives enough for any user to get an idea of what the app is and what it does.
And it--the app--is worth using, if you use now or plan on using an iPad for work, during travel, at school, or whenever. It's an app for creating documents, editing documents sent you, and for doing things that previously could only be done on a desktop.
But this is mobile.
2013-05-27
List of ERP software packages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of ERP software packages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A serious question: What open ERP packages do people recommend, and why?
A serious question: What open ERP packages do people recommend, and why?
2013-04-25
Skydrive: Office document defaults
Office document defaults
Not sure if a user/pwd is required to view this, but this is pretty cool. Office file formats that can be stored on SkyDrive, Microsoft's public cloud:
Not sure if a user/pwd is required to view this, but this is pretty cool. Office file formats that can be stored on SkyDrive, Microsoft's public cloud:
2013-04-10
Docstoc Partners With Microsoft, Starts Selling Some Of Its Document Templates From Inside Office | TechCrunch
Docstoc Partners With Microsoft, Starts Selling Some Of Its Document Templates From Inside Office | TechCrunch
Interesting; I wonder if the company would be interested, too, in working with Apache OpenOffice to further extend template options for the hundreds of millions using the application.
Interesting; I wonder if the company would be interested, too, in working with Apache OpenOffice to further extend template options for the hundreds of millions using the application.
2013-04-03
UX Write - Live Demo
UX Write - Live Demo
I've written before about UX Write, the native iOS app for text editing--creating new documents, editing them, sharing them with MS Office and other suites, including my favourite. ODF is not yet supported by UX Write, but for now, that hardly matters, as OO is able to read MS Office formats quite easily.
The link is to an interactive demo, not a video. You can try it out. And let me know how it goes for you.
Note: I'm not being paid for this endorsement. I am doing it because I think the approach and work is brilliant and doing what I and many others want.... an editor for the most popular tablet that is not sever based, is native, and can be used by students and anyone else who needs or wants the real mobility tablets offer.
I've written before about UX Write, the native iOS app for text editing--creating new documents, editing them, sharing them with MS Office and other suites, including my favourite. ODF is not yet supported by UX Write, but for now, that hardly matters, as OO is able to read MS Office formats quite easily.
The link is to an interactive demo, not a video. You can try it out. And let me know how it goes for you.
Note: I'm not being paid for this endorsement. I am doing it because I think the approach and work is brilliant and doing what I and many others want.... an editor for the most popular tablet that is not sever based, is native, and can be used by students and anyone else who needs or wants the real mobility tablets offer.
2013-04-01
Production-ready ZFS offers cosmic-scale storage for Linux • The Register
Production-ready ZFS offers cosmic-scale storage for Linux • The Register
Exciting, this:
I recall when Apple was considering ZFS, and then screeched halt on that. But as _Ars_ pointed out in February, there's even a petition to get ZFS into OS X and make it modern.
See: <http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/02/zfs-loving-mac-users-demand-support-in-os-x-10-9/>
The petition argument:
Exciting, this:
The maintainers of the native Linux port of the ZFS high-reliability filesystem have announced that the most recent release, version 0.6.1, is officially ready for production use.But, there's been this more than palliative...
So when will the latest, production-ready release of ZoL find its way into the kernel of your favorite Linux distro? Ah, there's the catch. Because of incompatible licensing and other intellectual property concerns, the ZFS filesystem module can't be distributed with the Linux kernel.[Yet...]
For that reason, much of the Linux community has already turned toward Btrfs, a GPL-licensed filesystem that has been under development at Oracle since 2007 and which offers similar features to ZFS.
Still, those who are impressed by the possibilities of ZFS and would like to try it out on their Linux systems – or who are already using it and who want the most stable version – can download source tarballs and packages from the project's website.
I recall when Apple was considering ZFS, and then screeched halt on that. But as _Ars_ pointed out in February, there's even a petition to get ZFS into OS X and make it modern.
See: <http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/02/zfs-loving-mac-users-demand-support-in-os-x-10-9/>
The petition argument:
Some Mac users are demanding that Apple add modern file system support in the next major version of OS X. Anonline petition has been started to let Apple know that its aging HFS+ file system just won't cut it any more, and the company should include ZFS in OS X 10.9, expected later this year.
HFS+ is the current file system used by OS X (and iOS). It was originally developed as HFS, or "Hierarchical File System," for the original Mac OS in the early '80s. A team at Apple, led by engineer Don Brady, adapted HFS for 32-bit systems in the mid-1990s. Brady later adapted HFS+ to work with the UNIX environment that OS X was built on, and over time he and other Apple engineers added additional features, including the extensible metadata used by Mac OS X's Spotlight search, live partition resizing used for Boot Camp, and the Adaptive Hot File Clustering used to reduce seek times for oft-used system files.
Despite all the features Apple has managed to tack on to HFS+, though, its design certainly isn't modern. "The initial HFS+ was primarily about addressing the block count problem," Brady told Ars in 2011. "Since we believed it was only a stop-gap solution, we just went from 16 to 32 bits. Had we known that it would still be in use 15 years later with multi-terabyte drives, we probably would have done more design changes!"
ZFS, on the other hand, was designed from the ground up to address the ever-increasing needs for large amounts of storage, as well as the need to protect data as it is written to and read from disk.
2013-03-31
2013-03-03
Enraged by abusive lawsuits, anonymous troll slayers fight back | Ars Technica
Enraged by abusive lawsuits, anonymous troll slayers fight back | Ars Technica
Besides the specific cases mentioned by the writer, the issue is fascinating for what it says about the status of rights today--and points to areas where "the social" needs something more than vigilante defence. (And I'm also reminded of Brunner's The Shockwave Rider. But, then, so much of the present we find ourselves in tiredly lives out his bleak anticipations.)
Besides the specific cases mentioned by the writer, the issue is fascinating for what it says about the status of rights today--and points to areas where "the social" needs something more than vigilante defence. (And I'm also reminded of Brunner's The Shockwave Rider. But, then, so much of the present we find ourselves in tiredly lives out his bleak anticipations.)
2013-02-20
2013-02-08
Lotus 1-2-3 turns 30: Mitch Kapor on the Google before Google
Lotus 1-2-3 turns 30: Mitch Kapor on the Google before Google [printer-friendly] • The Register
A good examination of the trajectory of Lotus 1-2-3. But it also puts into relief the very real differences that obtained then--30 years ago--and today, when no one app is expected to do it all, and indeed, we expect the opposite. The Internet has made efficient flexibility not just possible but mandatory, and it has also ushered in a focus on community (the something more than a market) that is only growing.
A good examination of the trajectory of Lotus 1-2-3. But it also puts into relief the very real differences that obtained then--30 years ago--and today, when no one app is expected to do it all, and indeed, we expect the opposite. The Internet has made efficient flexibility not just possible but mandatory, and it has also ushered in a focus on community (the something more than a market) that is only growing.
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