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MS stealing additional time with ooxml for private consumption?
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May. 13th, 2008 @ 12:33 am
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Could it be that the delay in the final documentation of the broken ooxml is because MS wants a monopolistic lead in fixing their office suite to be compliant with the ISO standard months before their competition can? |
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Missing a clue here perhaps?
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May. 12th, 2008 @ 06:57 am
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A self-confessed Microsoft office enthusiast who also claims to be a big Linux fan runs a test of openoffice.org version 3 beta to read the ill-conceived ooxml file - and fails. Should we be surprised here? He claims to have created a document in word 2003 and saved it as word 2007 format (I assume that word 2003 is actually able to correctly save it as word 2007 - thus far no one from Redmond can confirm that it can be done). Anyway, he then laments oo.o version 3 beta cannot read it.
To wit:
"I'm very disappointed to have to say it, but OpenOffice.org's support for the Office 2007 file formats simply isn't ready for prime time. I haven't had time yet to do a full review of the suite, but the tests I tried were extremely basic import/export operations on documents that were not in the least bit complex. Unfortunately, the beta OpenOffice.org struck out.
It's strange, if you think about it. Wasn't the whole point of XML file formats for Office to make the documents more compatible with other software? Isn't XML a self-describing, human-readable file format that should make reverse-engineering a breeze (compared to the old, binary Office formats, at least)? And isn't OOXML, the Office 2007 file format,a public ISO standard?"
Hmm. It is May 12th now and no one has a finalized copy of the alleged "public ISO standard" of ooxml. Please, someone buy the author of this article a clue. |
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Charging the Burmese military dictators
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May. 10th, 2008 @ 06:49 am
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I think we should have the United Nations arrest and charge the military junta/dictators of Burma for genocide and crimes against humanity for killing thousands of people who could have been saved if they had allowed help to get to those who needed it.
What kind of self-centered and self-serving, uncaring and outright evil people would be standing by and not allowing any form of help to reach those in need? I think the United Nations Security Council should authorize a humanitarian invasion by sea and air of Burma to bring food, medicines, building materials etc to those in the Irrawady river basin. |
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It's May 8th do YOU know where the ooxml final doc is?
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May. 9th, 2008 @ 07:24 pm
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It's May 8th and there is still no sign of the ooxml final documentation. NBs who voted on this document, sight unseen, are, it would appear, being taken for a ride. There is no transparency, no status report, nothing. Different rules of engagements for NBs and ISO/IEC/JTC1. Where is the accountability? |
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Tracking what's happening in Burma
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May. 8th, 2008 @ 08:03 am
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I think this site is very useful in tracking what is being done by the UN OCHA to help Burma in their time of need.
Check ReliefWeb as well. |
| » What is ASEAN doing to help Burma? |
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It is appalling to continue to hear the constant calls by countries, NGOs, the UN to let humanitarian help reach Burma following the cyclone disaster. I have yet to hear of any ASEAN call to Burma to open up and let those who want to help, help. I am sure the response to this lament will be the "oh, ASEAN works quietly, diplomatically, behind the curtains" bull. People are dead and dying. We are sitting on our behinds and letting the irresponsible military junta continue to kill the beautiful nation of Burma.
I sent my best wishes to the SCDF on getting their elite DART team ready to be deployed under Ops Lion Heart. I am indeed proud to have been part of that group when I was mobilized in 2004 following the Boxing Day tsunami. They are such a professional, committed and well trained group of life savers and it was my privilege to have had a chance to work with the DART team. I am sure that once the junta lets the gates open for help to flow, SCDF's DART will be a able to help significantly.
In the meantime, please consider donating monies to help in this effort. Visit your local Red Cross/Crescent, Mercy Relief and give money, clothings etc. Go to avaaz.org and help as well. As ASEAN citizens we should not let our fellow citizens down at this crucial and difficult time.
May. 8th, 2008 @ 07:00 am
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| » Where's the ECMA 276/DIS-ISO 29600 aka ooxml? |
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The ooxml final documents were to have been published by end of April 2008. It is May 6th and there are no signs of it showing up.
It appears to me that the ISO/IEC/JTC1 has broken their own rules on this. What do national bodies who voted in favour (aka conned into voting in favour) to pass ooxml as it stood (in vacuum at the point of voting), have to say about this? I would encourage all National Bodies to file an objection with ISO on this.
While this is being done, can Microsoft answer these questions? With Jan's permission, I am reproducing the questions here:
I have a short list of questions that I would like to see answered by Microsoft. If anyone from Microsoft wants to answer them, please do. If you are also interested in answers, please forward these questions to your Microsoft contact of choice and add the answers you receive as comment.
1. When will which versions of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works will be updated to deliver a native implementation of the ISO standardized version of the OOXML document format?
2. As Microsoft claims to be a big supporter of Open Standards, when will which versions of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works be updated to deliver a native implementation of the ISO standardized version of the ODF document format?
3. In the Microsoft Open Specification Promise only the old version of OOXML which is not an ISO standard is mentioned. When will the ISO standardized version of OOXML be added to the list?
I am honestly interested in answers to these questions.
Jan Wildeboer
See also Rob Weir's call for the ooxml final text to be immediately released. This is beginning to look very much like Zimbabwe's general election fiasco.
May. 6th, 2008 @ 11:44 pm
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| » How this for Technical Leadership |
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I think a lot applause has to be directed at Adobe for making SWF and FLV fully published and open to anyone to build upon. This is what I call a fully spec'ed open standard. Not the half-spec'ed ooxml.
I guess leadership in this space clearly belongs to Adobe. Now to get gnash fully functional - or better yet, Adobe open sourcing their flash players and putting it out on a GPLv2 or even a GPLv3 license.
May. 2nd, 2008 @ 01:11 am
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| » Example of leadership and accountability |
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I was referred to this article from the MSM which reports on a contractor whose worker fell and died from his injuries was fined by $150,000 under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.
The contractor, a Mr Lam Teck Foo, clearly did not have a wongkanseng moment.
Just contemplating the similarities and how responsibilities and accountabilities are so diverse is quite disappointing.
May. 2nd, 2008 @ 12:15 am
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| » How much lower can they go? |
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While I am not surprised that it happened, the fact remains that once a business feels that it's status as a monopoly is threatened, it will do everything it can to ensure that it's status quo is maintained.
From this you can be pretty sure that it was not an isolated instance of corporate bullying. They did the same in Malaysia (the MS MD paid a visit to the IT minister who was in Sabah just after the crucial vote of Disapprove to get it changed to Abstain) as well as similar efforts in Singapore. I am sure similar things were done in South Korea as well.
I was mildly surprised that some local journalists actually bought the MSspeak in that "ooxml is a great thing" and that "the anti-ooxml crowd is really not willing to play fair" was to them accurate. When I explained how MS walked out of the OASIS ODF committees and also that in the ECMA/MS deliberations, no independent third party was allowed to participate does not show that they were or are now any more sincere in working with the open standards people in making a truly and fully specified document standard. It has been a month since the ooxml was bulldozed into the ISO and we have YET to see the final document. How's that for honesty and credibility?
Another low point of that organization is their "new fangled" open source initiative: microsoft. com / opensource. They are championing some individuals as heros for using open source apps and tools on top of a closed source OS supported by closed source development tools. While I am all for a mixed source environment where it makes sense, I note that my challenge to MS to make their tools like their office suite fully supported and available on Fedora is still not taken up. Making it available on Fedora is a guarantee that it will run on other distributions as I personally believe that the freedoms that Fedora adheres to (and possibly exceeds the Debian Social Contract) is a crucial cornerstone in ensure software freedom.
Apr. 30th, 2008 @ 08:09 pm
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| » Ignoring the MSM (main stream media) |
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Let me put this out: in the Singapore context, does ignoring the MSM do the country a favour? The MSM, is, by an large, a government spin machine and we all know that. The detainee escape fiasco (confluence of happenstance) and lack of leadership accountability is being pushed aside by calls from a person whom I was proud to acknowledge as my PM, the current Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. Chok Tong has said that we should move on, with more pressing issues facing the nation. The lack lustre defence of DPM KS Wong by PM HL Lee last week, should not just be swept under the proverbial carpet. Failure of leadership, of accountability, or Doing The Right Thing cannot be forgotten. It might be forgiven, but not forgotten.
I will assume that KS Wong will not stand down and so be it. I cannot but lend my voice and vote to see him out of office. Yes, we have bigger and more challenging things to focus on. I shall continue to ignore MSM - until someone tells me that they have gained credibility.
Apr. 30th, 2008 @ 12:22 am
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| » A wongkanseng moment |
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I think I just had a wongkanseng moment, you know the ones where you had no idea what was happening, but had oversight of the whole thing and yet, managed to escape any accountability? Boy, I am glad that we have a label for such moments.
In the meantime, a great post by mr wang.
Apr. 30th, 2008 @ 12:01 am
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| » It is a war between IBM and MS? |
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Today, April 29th 2008's, Digital Life's "Hot News" section has a blurb about failed ooxml tests. That blurb is reproduced here:
Office 2007 fails Open XML test
Microsoft is behind the newly approved Open XML (OXML) international standard that supposedly allows interoperability with Microsoft documents.
Last month, Microsoft shoehorned OXML to be passed as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) an the International Electrotechnical Commission - despite heavy opposition.
Yet the company's Office 2007 Word document do not conform to the standard, according to Alex Brown, leader of the ISO group in charge of maintaining OXML.
Alex recently revealed the findings in a blog post at www.griffin-brown.co.uk.
SIGNIFICANCE: This is a major problem for Microsoft. Many issues have been left answered, like why was OXML approved when it's not even ready for primetime?
A posting on Groklaw, a website partly sponsored by IBM, asked: "All you folks who voted for it need to tell us why you accepted it before it was done. Because what this means is that OXML was just approved as an ISO standard, on the allegation that it was necessary for interoperability with Microsoft documents, and it turns out it doesn't even do that."
It's a war between IBM and Microsoft.
Sigh. While I still think ooxml (and not OXML as alluded to in the paragraph above) is not worth the 6000 pages it is printed on, the writer just can't get things right.
To wit:
a) " ... shoehorned OXML to be passed ...": while it is true that MS bought out many a national body to vote in their favour, shoehorn sounds too lame - bulldozed should have been better.
b) " ... Groklaw, a website partly sponsored by IBM ...": I have not found any evidence of that yet. Groklaw lists ibiblio and AMD as their sponsors. Journalistic boo-boo, again?
c) " ... a war between IBM and M...": Sigh. OOXML, in it's current form, has been opposed to by IBM, Red Hat, Oracle, Google, and Sun, just to name a few. It is not that no one wants to approve another document standard - it is that the ooxml as it is now, is an incomplete work and is work-in-progress. To prematurely approve it as an ISO standard gives the spin meisters at Microsoft yet another data point to con and trick governments into using their stuff.
For some, clues can be offered, for others, just let them be.
Apr. 29th, 2008 @ 06:52 am
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| » My post to www.p65.sg |
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[This was posted to: http://www.p65.sg/2008/04/23/accountability-responsibility-culpability/; the www.p65.sg site is too kiddish, a laughable attempt at the p65 (meaning those MPs born after 1965, hence the p as in post) who think it appeals to the younger citizens. Yeah right.]
Pin Min -
Hi. I thought I should post something there for I am absolutely disappointed with the whole fiasco of the escape and how the Cabinet has been responding.
Firstly, can you tell me, why was it that there was no live TV/radio feed of the proceedings? Instead, we get edited excerpts (so as not to make some people look silly, I am told). Would you not agree with me that in presenting a report of a fiasco as critical as this, it should have gone out live on TV/radio? If there was sincerity on the part of the government in being totally up front and transparent, they would have put it out live. Any credible democracy would have done exactly that - by saying it, I do imply that we do not have credibility in this instance. I am told that there were verbal exchanges between KS Wong and Chiam that clearly showed a lapse of judgment on KS’ part. I am not sure if the Hansard would be edited to take it out as well.
It is important to remember that, ultimately, each person in parliament is answerable to us, the Citizens of Singapore.
Second, it is a not a witch hunt as alluded to by Hsien Loong, but it is about doing the Right Thing. KS Wong has been the MHA minister for a while now. He appointed a committee of inquiry to investigate his own ministry (even if the law authorizes him to do so). He SHOULD have chosen NOT to do that, but went ahead anyway. He then appoints three members - two of the members I don’t have particular problems with, but have an issue with the third person from MHA. Where is the independence and credibility? I am sure that each of the three persons are fully above board as individuals, but it is the perception. Are we so devoid (perhaps the PAP is) of common sense as to have a self-serving committee be formed? A fiasco of this nature must be investigated by a truly independent commission whether appointed by the minister or the president. By not doing so, KS Wong has further damaged my country’s good name. It may turn out that the independent commission finds exactly what this current commission found, but at least, we citizens can be assured of the credibility.
Third, the “excuses” given by KS Wong to Chiam’s question about sniffer dogs not being able to track MS Kasturi, is at best, unbelievable. Chiam, I’m sure, is not an expert on sniffer dogs, and I assume KS Wong is also not. Did the dogs have a bad day? I cannot believe that the dogs were not able to track MS Kastari.
In the final analysis, we can do all the talking and reasoning and cajoling and the speculating. The right response to this fiasco is for KS Wong to stand down from office. Singaporeans deserve a sense of decency. We can close this episode and move on.
Harish
Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
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| » Fedora for Ammuma (grandma) |
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The PC at my mom's home running Fedora (albeit older version) and the machine finally failed - the harddisk locked up!
So, now, it is an opportunity for my sons to get F9 installed into the new drive. All I can say, from their point of view, Ammuma (grandma in Malayalam) rocks Fedora! Now she can get back to chatting with her grandsons, granddaughters via Ekiga (with a VoIP subscription from XLVoice), Skype and to read Malayalam websites.
Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 08:41 am
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| » F9 and bringing Linux even further |
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Although I am not a big fan of KDE, it is probably something that a lot of folks like and so, kudos to the F9 team in ensuring that KDE 4 is included. Well done. From a networking point of view, NetworkManager has been further enhanced to support GSM (and those who need CDMA) right out of the box. I am wondering if I can get that work on my Dell.
Something that is not all that obvious to people, except when it happens to them, is that you can have Fedora installed into an encrypted partitions. That means that if ever the laptop (and to a less extent desktops), get stolen, the data is safe. It would be interesting if, at some airport screening station, you are asked to boot up your F9 encrypted partition and are not able to - would that trigger a concern or cause one to be delayed. I think it would be just fine to say that it is a Redmond problem!
The amount of innovation that happens in the FOSS space is, in a word, mind-blowing. Fedora did not have liveCDs nor installability into thumbdrives. But that was 4 versions ago. And thanks to a lot of clever engineering and the collaboration of ideas in the open source world, F9 will now have persistent, custom live USB thumbdrive options. I have been using a 4G thumbdrive with F8 and have been used at a lot of places. Time to get another 4G (or should I go for a 8G?) drive. Onwards!
read more | digg story
Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 12:18 am
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| » Really pleased with Fedora 9 |
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I have been spending a lot of time with F9 beta and all I can say is that it just works. The biggest bane of any desktop environment is the support for audio and I can fully understand and appreciate the stand Fedora has take with respect to the inclusion of codecs for playing mp3 files.
So, how did I solve the problem? Easy. I used codeina and that allowed me to get, for free, a mp3 codec. Even if I had to pay for it, I can get the whole bundle of different codecs for about 28 Euros. I think that is perfectly acceptable and, imho, the right way to do things.
Let it not be forgotten that it is in the Fedora development that the hardest development and innovation happens in the Linux world today. Fedora is what Linux is today. Red Hat Enterprise Linux which has Fedora as it's upstream, is what Linux has to be for enterprises for seven years!
Can't wait for the official launch of F9 - May 13th. Cool features as well. Time to pop the champagne on yet another great operating environment focussed on freedoms!
Apr. 23rd, 2008 @ 07:41 am
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| » ooxml conformance test fails for ms office 2007 - well done |
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I guess this is a reasonable test to call the bluff that is the ooxml specification and of MS's implementation (or alleged) of it.
I cannot test it for myself [a) no windows b) no msoffice 2007 for RHEL/Fedora] so I will have to go with what others say.
Now it will be interesting to see how Alex Brown's test results will be spun with MSspeak.
Apr. 22nd, 2008 @ 10:59 am
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| » "Patent-protected and open source" MSspeak |
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What a bunch of croc! This story is amazing. I appreciate that this is a story being spun out of some press release. But even then.
"We are very pleased with the initial response in the Chinese market to our joint offerings for IP peace of mind and technology interoperability in such areas as virtualization and high-performance computing."
For a nation that did not care for US copyrights and patents, they are now suddenly concerned about it? I reckon all of this is really a April 1st story that got delayed.
Oh, and another thing: I am aware that there are some people at MS Singapore upset with me in being critical of their business and their lack of any ethics. I heard it in the voice of someone whom I thought would have been above all of this. I will call it as I see it. Tough.
Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 11:51 pm
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| » So, did they win fairly? |
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If you look at the ongoing spins, it appears that the Microsoft camp is still trying to justifiy that they won ability to label their broken ooxml proposal as an ISO standard fairly and with consideration to the consumer.
The continuing volumes of lies and deceptions, while pales in comparison to cold war tactics, is still remarkable. The article's author, a John Obeto (who is MS funded), sings praises of the Malaysian IASA VP Doug Mahugh. If someone like Doug deliberately fabricated information to cheat, how would one then take cruft he is generating over ooxml?
I am told that my friends at MS Singapore (who it seems since the ooxml global vote buying has stopped monitoring my blog) were "caught off guard" by the reaction on the ground to ditch ooxml in March. They apparently "had to scramble; job #1" to ensure that enough national bodies were magically beholden. I must commend the enormous marketing machinery that Microsoft is. I wonder how much money was spent on printing a glossy, 60-page book praising the ooxml. Frankly, I don't care what they want to do with the ill-gotten monies. What bothers me is that MY TAX DOLLARS are going to them as well. And those monies are being used to buy even more.
Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 06:47 am
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