tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55268862011-10-14T20:29:26.625-04:00<a href="http://samhiser.blogspot.com">Sam Hiser's Complexion Connexion</a>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.comBlogger1131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134671971525335382005-12-15T13:32:00.000-05:002005-12-15T13:43:06.130-05:00

...3 cats, two cockatiels, and a Great Dane named Lucy.As of today, my blogging moves over to PlexNex2.Please go there for the latest.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134615560221127732005-12-14T21:46:00.000-05:002005-12-14T22:16:51.936-05:00

Don Sambandaraksa's article in the Bangkok Post represents the most comprehensive mainstream journalistic effort that I have seen in the English language to synthesize the issues of open file formats with simple examples of how open standards can improve the efficiency of government services. The principal example is the response of the Thai government to the tsunami one year ago this Boxing

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134598594867642892005-12-14T17:12:00.000-05:002005-12-14T17:16:34.880-05:00

James Guv'nah has an interesting post on some interesting developments in the respective skunkworks at IBM & Sun which echoes my feelings precisely.Vista is going to surface -- one day -- in the quaint town of Rich-Client-on-Thames and it will be a ghost town, innit?

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134583879288309572005-12-14T12:43:00.000-05:002005-12-14T17:36:57.873-05:00

Hey, you'll never guess what I found out today!That I was quoted in the Valoris Report (PDF), the European Union's gloss on file formats, published in December 2003.If you have never read the complete, unabridged Valoris Report, actually entitled: "Comparative assesment of Open Documents Formats Market Overview", then shame on you. There, in section 4.3.3.1, "User momentum" (page 58), it reads:"

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134582049954644842005-12-14T12:24:00.000-05:002005-12-14T12:42:13.550-05:00

Andy Updegrove kindly provides on Consortiuminfo.org his play-by-play notes from the Senate Reading Room on Beacon Hill, today (Wednesday, December 14, 2005).This always looked like a constructive effort on the part of moderate members of the Massachusetts State Senate to hear more-balanced views of the technical & economic merits of The Commonwealth (Executive Branch) computer department's

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134140863935173912005-12-09T10:02:00.000-05:002005-12-09T10:09:14.530-05:00

Hon. Marc R. PachecoMassachusetts SenateState House, Room 312-BBoston, Mass. 02133re: OpenDocument StandardsDear Sen. Pacheco,My name is Dan Geer. I am one of the half dozen ranking world experts in matters of computer security. By virtue of a long career both in academia (MIT and Harvard) and the private sector (six times an entrepreneur), there is absolutely no one in the State House who is not

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134073577172561112005-12-08T15:18:00.000-05:002005-12-09T12:10:50.203-05:00

Industry sources indicated Thursday that Ecma International has voted to create the Technical Committee and move ahead with submission of Microsoft's "Open"XML to that standards body. The one dissenting vote -- the lone dissenting vote -- among members of the TC was IBM's. hp abstained, which is equivalent according to Ecma rules to a "no" vote.There are standards and there are sub-standards:

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134070048491737152005-12-08T13:44:00.000-05:002005-12-08T14:37:02.473-05:00

(Florentine Street Sceen. Photograph, Ben Hammersley) Wandering the Web you come across some interesting things.Ben Hammersley is one of the better writer | journo | hackers and has given good thought on blogging & the Semantic Web (as well as dry laughs and some nice pictures).Ben is working on a project to organize the BBC archive with Matt Biddulph.Matt, who is doing the real work, explains it

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134054827058239412005-12-08T09:53:00.000-05:002005-12-08T10:58:30.520-05:00

In announcing Harold Pinter as the winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, Horace Engdahl, Chairman of the Swedish Academy, said that Pinter "in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."Harold Pinter, in his acceptance address to the Swedish Acacemy in Stockholm yesterday, ripped unrelentingly into The Microsoft Corporation.I

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1134020344408651942005-12-08T00:32:00.000-05:002005-12-08T00:44:34.996-05:00

Letter from CCIA President, Ed Black, compares OpenDocument to the Internet protocol, TCP/IP. Is it so?CCIA to Ecma: 'Reject MS Office XML proposal.' It is not open. Endorsing single-vendor technology is not what standards bodies are established to do. Innovation & competition occur on open standards these days. Insist on true openness. Dec. 7, 2005Mr. Harald TheisPresidentEcma InternationalDear

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133969582004432392005-12-07T10:25:00.000-05:002005-12-07T13:59:16.943-05:00

Berlind is right on the money again."Tipping point: The Web is easier to use than your hard drive"This piece is about the relative complexity of navigating the desktop (i.e. Microsoft Windows) withall its confusing buttons and alternative ways of doing the same thing...versus the ease of accessing 8 billion Web pages basically in a uniform way.I've been saying for a while now that Microsoft's

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133802480738486552005-12-05T12:02:00.000-05:002005-12-05T12:08:00.750-05:00

IDC analyst, Frank Gens, talks of the "Google Effect" for 2006 in which IT companies opening up their business models and cultures will become hyped.Well, isn't it nice that something good is finally getting hyped? The problem this presents is that we'll have to be more discerning on relative states of openness. I'm going to have to write that article on the Beaufort Scale after all.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133753375491752112005-12-04T22:26:00.000-05:002005-12-04T23:13:39.533-05:00

IBM announces that Workplace's release date is firming up for early 2006 (Martin Lamonica | CNet). Workplace features OpenDocument and MS Office file formats and will deliver office suite functionality to the browser. It is one of the prominent examples -- from Big Blue itself -- of applications drifting from the FAT client desktop into the data center; I've been thinking about other examples in

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133746531667545462005-12-04T20:21:00.000-05:002005-12-04T20:36:49.423-05:00

"New York Still Life #15"(copyright 2005, Sam Hiser)To all my colleagues & friends, Happy Holidays!

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133738785234652122005-12-04T18:24:00.000-05:002005-12-04T18:26:25.246-05:00

"Don't waste your energy on the ugly. Save it for the beautiful."Harold Arlenin his diary

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133709546717439282005-12-04T10:05:00.000-05:002005-12-04T10:20:41.403-05:00

Nick Carr (for one) legitimately highlights some of the problems with the World Wide Web: pornography, moribund & repetitive information ("echolalia" he aptly called it), reinforced errors, ranting. He correctly and helpfully cited examples on Wikipedia that rightly embarrass the concept.For cases, however, that assert the true balance, see Wikipedia's entry for OpenDocument...or the one for

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133610079793739522005-12-03T06:16:00.000-05:002005-12-04T09:52:04.036-05:00

Paul Otinelli, Intel's new CEO, addressed the Churchill Club for its 20th Anniversary gala. Otinelli touched on standard old problems emerging into dominant position:Otellini did address the power consumption issue (see video clip), saying that "energy at the chip and system level is one of the critical things the industry needs to change." He citing the fact that for Google today, electricity

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133601088235920282005-12-03T04:08:00.000-05:002005-12-03T06:12:31.826-05:00

This is real rock criticism:Mutt R, the Obsessive-Compulsive muso cognoscento, reviews The Duke Spirit at Beluria.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133480419306886342005-12-01T18:32:00.000-05:002005-12-01T22:20:09.450-05:00

...will curse the day they were born.[Just kidding, Erwin.]It does feel funny to stumble onto the same blog template once in a while; a bit like catching yourself in the mirror and not recognizing who it is...for better or worse.Actually, the big news, I am working on a new blog template on TypePad behind the scenes and may create a bit of a global PR splash for its launch to maximally confuse

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133408113699682972005-11-30T22:26:00.000-05:002005-11-30T22:43:58.030-05:00

John Gotze is having the same XPerience as me, since I cleaned up my old WinXP partition to sync up my own User Experience with colleagues who are using Windows. (I find I can't empathize with clients and their problems as well when I'm running Linux and they're pulling out their hair, alone.)It is what I was talking about 18 months ago in "The Power of Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice on Windows"

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133405918910021522005-11-30T21:56:00.000-05:002005-11-30T22:00:14.280-05:00

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133386966343514552005-11-30T16:39:00.000-05:002005-11-30T16:42:46.353-05:00

"We want to decide our IT strategy in Mannheim and not have Microsoft make the decision for Mannheim," ...declares Gerd Armbruster, the IT infrastructure manager at the German city.3,500 users"We migrated from Microsoft Exchange Server 2005 to Oracle Collaboration Suite because it [OCS] supports open standards — it is proprietary software but it uses standard protocols," ...says Armbruster,

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133306000718632692005-11-29T18:07:00.000-05:002005-11-29T22:12:51.216-05:00

Two new worthy pieces on the Microsoft file format "openness" gambit. As the dust settles, the substance looks feinter and feinter."Massachusetts Assaults Monoculture" | CNetby Dan Geer"Microsoft Drops the Office Open Standard Ball" | eWeekby Steven Vaughan-Nichols

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133284306572767342005-11-29T12:09:00.000-05:002005-11-29T12:11:46.583-05:00

Simon Phipps' comment on "Ecma" should be definitive.The covenant is incomplete and question upon question remains.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133226748268586912005-11-28T20:08:00.000-05:002005-11-30T16:46:44.383-05:00

At one point over the Thanksgiving holiday, Bob Sutor broke away from the leftovers to add a large dollop of knowledge and a generous helping of common sense to Microsoft's "Ecma" tempest-in-a-teapot.He lays out what a purely open standard would behave like in terms of several characterisitics: 1. Development 2. Maintenance 3. Accession 4. Implementation 5. Modification by OthersThen he

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133226395507244162005-11-28T19:51:00.000-05:002005-11-28T20:06:35.560-05:00

Nat Torkington, O'Reilly editor & author (Pearl), has a neat entry on O'Reilly Radar about Writely's Sam Shillace and his small team using C# -- as Nat says, "the first Web 2.0 success that I can think of that was written in .NET." Here's another Web-ified Word-Processor...Writely validation. Word-Processors are becoming a crowded space.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133224924365474832005-11-28T19:34:00.000-05:002005-11-28T19:47:05.900-05:00

Stockholm Sweden will be trying on Novell Desktop Linux and OpenOffice for the winter. Does it say for 25,000 users (or was that the price of a single-user license for Microsoft Office)?My Swenska ist nicht so gut but it looks like the city will be saving millions of kronor per year on license fees...to say nothing of the untolled productivity gains and blue-sky access to document data in our

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133147388271193382005-11-27T22:06:00.000-05:002005-11-27T22:09:48.280-05:00

Nick Carr adds intelligently to the conversation about Microsoft's cynical half-measure to "open" its file format:Whether it's a huge step forward remains to be seen - there are a few weasel words in the official announcements - though it does look like a clear step forward. But excuse me if I hold my applause. Microsoft has been an obstructionist on open documents for years, and the reason it's

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1133011449399194092005-11-26T08:20:00.000-05:002005-11-26T08:24:09.410-05:00

Forbes.com is usually well-behind the curve -- like Microsoft -- on technology issues; however, Rachel Rosmarin does a nice piece on the wider use of the fresh techniques for delivering applications over a Web browser.Rachel Rosmarin | Forbes.com

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132978726912686742005-11-25T23:10:00.000-05:002005-11-25T23:30:19.190-05:00

One of the very best players in the English/Northern Irish game throughout the 1960's and into the early 70's, George Best, died this week.Michael Walker's obituary about "the Keith Moon of Manchester United," is at The Guardian Unlimited.Belfast is not a city noted for forgiveness but where George Best was concerned, among the public, it was a bottomless well. To local politicians it was

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132975583605197802005-11-25T22:24:00.000-05:002005-11-25T23:39:39.390-05:00

This is Microsoft negotiating. Negotiating with the market. They are pretending they have just given up a lot.You can get everything, if you just hold out for it: OpenDocument. If you're disciplined; if you don't flinch.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132970528381095392005-11-25T20:42:00.000-05:002005-11-29T05:07:34.826-05:00

For a revealing look at the internals of MS XML versus OpenDocument, see this useful post by the gentlemen at the OpenDocument Fellowship (Daniel Carrera, Bruce D'Arcus, J. David Eisenberg and Alex Hudson).MS XML was designed for implementation by one office suite while OpenDocument was designed for implementation by any and all office suites. The internals tell the weather.The article's implied

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132951832452645422005-11-25T15:02:00.000-05:002005-11-25T21:53:37.400-05:00

I confess that I possess fear, uncertainty & doubt about the meaning of "ECMA." There isn't, in fact, much to go on.The ECMA/ISO announcement reflects Microsoft's work to mitigate certain problems customers have voiced about the difficulty, in some cases impossibility, of implementing MS XML Reference Schemas.There have been concerns over Microsoft's patents in the schemas and over the license of

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132747998351483462005-11-23T06:37:00.000-05:002005-11-25T16:12:39.046-05:00

Andy Updegrove, counselor to OASIS and poobah of Consortiuminfo.org, kindly offers a line-by line interpretation of Microsoft's covenant not to sue developers and others who one day might deploy their XML schemas.Andy concludes that -- apart from the unease created by the covenant being containted on a web page at a site controlled by Microsoft, where the content can change at any time -- the

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132686425948415772005-11-22T13:32:00.000-05:002005-11-25T16:24:22.166-05:00

There's no there there on "ECMA."David Wheeler made this stimulating post to the OpenDocument Fellowship discuss list this afternoon:The notion of a standard with licensing terms that forbid some competitors from implementing it is reprehensible. Massachusetts eventually saw through this, but many others may not.It is possible that Microsoft may drop those licensing terms and allow anyone to

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132681221548026802005-11-22T12:38:00.000-05:002005-11-22T13:31:46.936-05:00

David Berlind, as usual, is asking all the questions we were afraid to ask about Microsoft's Closed/Open ECMA play. And there are so many.It's especially interesting when David starts digging into questions about the unknown rules of ECMA Technical Committees, and then our old friend the filibusterer, Morgan Reed III, who's the Association for Competitive Technology's vice president of public

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132680435678005922005-11-22T12:17:00.000-05:002005-11-22T12:29:21.873-05:00

In light of Microsoft's big public relations push behind its new CLOSED "Open XML" file format and the ECMA play, it may be a good time to review the principals of Disinformation and Doublespeak.This may give loyal readers something meaty for bedside over the holiday weekend.DisinformationTwenty-five Ways to Suppress the Truth:The Rules of Disinformation | by H. Michael Sweeney (includes as a

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132675118724109332005-11-22T10:36:00.000-05:002005-11-22T11:02:13.940-05:00

WritelyWritely, the new Web-based word-processing program that accommodates document collaboration over the Internet, now supports OpenDocument as well as the MS Office formats.This Wiki-esque development, along with the sense we have of Google creeping silently into this passion-play, should be a boon to users who revile the traditional office suite redlining features (called "Tracking Changes"

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132673439681453202005-11-22T10:09:00.000-05:002005-11-22T12:12:04.543-05:00

Phase ONE: Abject DenialPhase TWO: "We was robbed!"Phase THREE: Immitation is sincerest form of flattery.Microsoft is now pursuing a scorched earth head-to-head competition on File Formats, having announced with a global PR push that they will have an "Open" file format standard coming out sometime in 2006. They will pursue validation with the International Standards Organization ("ISO") --

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132364367243687132005-11-18T20:33:00.000-05:002005-11-22T13:08:52.806-05:00

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has the coolest Home Page since asciipr0n...and it changes frequently, highlighting the amazing and unusual creativity there. One day it even had clickable duct tape. What will they think of next, a 100-dollar laptop?

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132362784305526082005-11-18T20:07:00.000-05:002005-11-18T20:13:04.316-05:00

Solveig has a nice post with good links to this minor story.And Nick Negroponte is Person of the Week. When it's time for individuals to pledge a laptop, I'll let you know.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132346552842231682005-11-18T15:36:00.000-05:002005-11-18T15:51:50.023-05:00

...with your harbor lights...If you're as curious as I am about the progress of the OpenDocument, XML file format discussions that are certainly going on in other countries, John Gotze's blog, Gotzeblogged, offers a pleasant view of Denmark.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1132019814425683502005-11-14T20:55:00.000-05:002005-11-18T17:45:05.346-05:00

...would be a mirage.Because it keeps receding into the distance.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131900328218176542005-11-13T11:22:00.000-05:002005-11-13T11:49:50.663-05:00

Who is collecting OpenOffice case studies in a simple, one-stop tabular format like LXer.com tracks Linux adoptions?Is it going to be the OpenOffice Newsletter? The OpenOffice.org Marketing Project? The OpenDocument Fellowship? LXer itself?With the advent of the release of OpenOffice2 and milestone adoption cases like the State of Massachusetts' policy declaration for OpenDocument, there is

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131730796901143512005-11-11T12:37:00.000-05:002005-11-11T12:41:32.216-05:00

As if the Websters people were reading PlexNex, they give us Peter Ustinov for Quote of the Day:In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131672721919974822005-11-10T20:18:00.000-05:002005-12-03T06:11:43.466-05:00

In places like Massachusetts, competition has been mentioned as one of the desirable results of adoption of OpenDocument (results of the release of Microsoft's choke-point on the file format), but the context is usually theoretical and general, as in, "The tax-payers will enjoy the fruits of better competition in the technology industry."If there are unsaid things in the ODF conversation so far,

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131406494584380752005-11-07T18:10:00.000-05:002005-11-07T20:22:55.596-05:00

Another keeper from David Berlind, this is a selective transcription of the Massachusetts Senate hearing last Monday (Halloween, one week ago today, October 31, 2005). The annotated commentary from DB is edifying.I remember when David was willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt but you can tell he's really mad now because the language and logic of Marc Pacheco betray his meritless

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131393036672317082005-11-07T14:37:00.000-05:002005-11-07T15:33:08.566-05:00

Dan Farber writes in Between the Lines about Microsoft's new software development metaphor, the Twitch Cycle.Short Twitch (6-9 months)Medium Twitch (12-24 months?)Long Twitch (3-4 years)Said Ballmer:We just can’t make our customers wait three or four years for things [Longhorn/Vista] that should have been on more interim cycles. We try to orchestrate ourselves, so that we have innovations coming

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131256352015768362005-11-06T00:31:00.000-05:002005-11-07T18:09:02.446-05:00

The Senate hearing last Monday on the MassGov OpenDocument policy betrayed the glaring misprision by some people of the lingua franca of our open standards conversation. Whether or not state Senators and other representatives have a sincere interest in understanding the subject at a basic human or technical level, the responsibility falls to the cognoscenti to fill in the blanks.Here's a tiny

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131043781075883972005-11-03T13:23:00.000-05:002005-11-06T09:06:34.416-05:00

Back on Thursday (October 27, 2005) -- only one week ago, today, but what seems like years in OpenDocument-time -- a group of standards experts met in a room at the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for the Interenet & Society to talk about file format standards and the present situation in Massachusetts.I'm offering a selective transcription of some of the high points in the first hour of

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1131036839970493042005-11-03T11:51:00.000-05:002005-11-03T11:53:59.983-05:00

Bob Sutor's keeping a nice running list of links to sources of notes on the Massachusetts Senate's hearing (Monday, Oct 31, 2005) on OpenDocument.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1130973930957113902005-11-02T18:21:00.000-05:002005-11-02T18:25:30.970-05:00

David Berlind (ZDNet) has a creditable piece asking 4 important questions about software accessibility for the disabled in its context within MassGov ITD's OpenDocument policy.Worth a peek.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1130777142258239802005-10-31T11:33:00.000-05:002005-10-31T15:09:53.423-05:00

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight meets today on Beacon Hill to check whether the Information Technology Division's (ITD) process for declaring the OpenDocument file format policy went above board.Senators Marc Pacheco (Democrat - Taunton) and the Secretary of State William Galvin (Democrat) convene the Committee to ensure that an important vendor to

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1130270984042910872005-10-25T15:55:00.000-04:002005-10-31T00:54:36.966-05:00

Microsoft CTO, Ray Ozzie, indicates that Microsoft is at least watching how work in France on an OpenDocument Format filter for MS Office is coming out. According to Ozzie, the technical questions around doing Office-to-ODF output for office document files center around support resources issues.This is a change from the messages that came out at a lower level during Alan Yates' and Stuart McKee's

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129909551208285792005-10-21T11:39:00.000-04:002005-10-22T10:26:36.733-04:00

We're building here on an earlier PlexNex post, "Sustaining v. Disruptive Innovation", in which we reviewed the old model from Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma.OpenOffice2 and its OpenDocument file format are bonafide disruptive innovations. You can see where we are today in context of the Dilemma model, and you can see where we're going.OpenOffice should ostensibly be improved and

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129838726518641772005-10-20T15:57:00.000-04:002005-10-20T17:14:31.486-04:00

Feel free to download OpenOffice2 for any of the following platforms:WindowsLinuxMac OS X (10.2+)...I recommend getting "NeoOffice/J"SolarisFreeBSDIn addition to a new updated look & feel and improved functionality, OOo2 offers the open XML OASIS OpenDocument file format(s) as the native default format(s) for your text document, spreadsheets, presentations and other types of file creations.I

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129741805002399772005-10-19T12:28:00.000-04:002005-10-19T13:37:18.123-04:00

David Berlind and other opinion leaders like Tim O'Reilly and Nick Carr -- recently and around the time of the conference -- have been talking about Web 2.0 as well as all the alliances between IT and Internet companies.Berlind's list falls out like this: the Black Hats [my designation] are Microsoft, Yahoo! & Real (they're all "black" because they choose to associate with that bad company,

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129736451339812542005-10-19T11:33:00.000-04:002005-10-25T16:29:41.920-04:00

There's never an opportunity too slim to hype the hyperbole of OpenDocument: "...turn everything inside out...""Now we have the potential to explode the world again, to turn everything inside out again, if we get the widespread use across the office desktops of the world, of a common, open, unencumbered, reusable data format, namely OpenDocument."Tim Bray | Sun Microsystems"...biggest battle the

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129733683645439532005-10-19T10:50:00.000-04:002005-10-19T10:54:43.650-04:00

...like capitalists don't get software.Eben Moglen:“It's really a mistake for capitalists to assume that in these areas--software, information, data--that the best way of guaranteeing the production of this valuable material is the old way [of selling over government-authorized networks]," Moglen says. “There is something different going on here.”This was in an interesting piece about our own

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129732165319715802005-10-19T10:20:00.000-04:002005-10-19T10:30:26.646-04:00

Gervase Markham of the Mozilla Foundation has a short piece in The London Times today recapping why it's important to have open standards around our data; he also flags the significance of Massachusetts.Open formats are an important part of computing freedom (although alone they are not sufficient) because they give people full control of their own data. In future years, when this freedom is

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129664051026758172005-10-18T15:29:00.000-04:002005-10-18T15:35:50.483-04:00

Here's one from the internet archive:March 3, 2003 | Sam Hiser, a technologist who spends much of his time promoting open-source alternatives to proprietary software, has an interesting way of describing the main difference between Microsoft's Windows operating system and Linux, its open-source competitor. "It's something I call the 'Windows pucker,'" Hiser says. "That's the feeling Windows

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129650182421338922005-10-18T11:38:00.000-04:002005-10-19T13:59:27.350-04:00

Writer-developer, Jono Bacon, gets it right about the need for OpenOffice to restructure along a more frequent 6-month release schedule. (His piece has been up about a month, now.)My comment at bottom describes how I imagine an OpenOffice Foundation might go.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129588955587542262005-10-17T18:35:00.000-04:002005-10-17T18:44:39.123-04:00

Hey, it's growing!The OpenDocument entry on Wikipedia is wicked up-to-date. Looks like Open Source and secure software developer, David Wheeler, has been quietly keeping up with ongoing developments.Please thank David for his unselfish contributions.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129406068099518962005-10-15T15:16:00.000-04:002005-10-15T23:29:29.936-04:00

Microsoft: what part of the word 'open' do you not understand?(This site is turning into a David Berlind 'zine; however) Berlind offers a long review of the process by which Peter Quinn's MassGov ITD group selected a suitably open file format for its documents.Berlind goes to unusual length with unusual clarity to explain the Commonwealth's process. Berlind's departure is in response to Microsoft

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129244205602118982005-10-13T18:51:00.000-04:002005-10-13T19:02:46.826-04:00

...Berlind gets it:So, where are we? Microsoft/Yahoo/Real vs. Google/Sun/AOL/ComcastBasically, it boils down to FAT, CORRUPT & STUPID vs smart, thin & clever.But lest we consider this a case closed, it's helpful to recall Nigel Tufnel's bristling insight:There's a fine line between clever and stupid.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129219385990201142005-10-13T11:57:00.000-04:002005-10-13T12:23:30.690-04:00

Don Parris (on the OpenOffice Marketing List) and Bob Sutor (on his blog) sourced this one:FoxNews.com just published some letters of response to the Microsoft Astroturf run a few weeks ago against OpenDocument. The letters of rebuttal cover most of the points thoroughly.Editor's Note:The column "Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument" that appeared on FOXnews.com Sept. 28 identified author

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129216116734315622005-10-13T10:56:00.000-04:002005-10-13T11:17:03.350-04:00

Simon del.icio.us ly points out that Dave Winer hates OpenDocument. Cool!Dave whines about the foolishness of starting another format when the real companies -- Yahoo & Google -- are on to smarter things. Dave misses the point.OpenDocument, as Gary Edwards has been saying, is about the Internet: it's not as much about unhinging Microsoft's monopoly lever (though it does that handily) but about

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129166952282277322005-10-12T21:00:00.000-04:002005-10-13T18:36:55.463-04:00

John Banville's The Sea won him on Monday the 50,000 GBP Man Booker Prize for Supposedly Good Writing. On the slim sales of his imposing and underappreciated 13 previous works, he can use it. For he merits the attention.Finn Fordham writes:Banville writes novels of complex patterning, with grace, precision and timing, and there are wonderful digressive meditations. In The Sea we hear about work

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129125377985471802005-10-12T09:51:00.000-04:002005-10-12T11:33:01.226-04:00

If your organization is planning to adopt Linux, please take this short survey. The sample is small now and needs a critical mass to be reliable & valid.Looks by interim results that the Europeans are winning. North Americans, Get up Stand UP!Stuart, please do this survey in the Asian langs!

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129125018332815012005-10-12T09:35:00.000-04:002005-10-12T10:19:59.256-04:00

Jim Grisanzio (Sun Microsystems) is Community Manager of the OpenSolaris project. By all measure of vibrations emanating from that project -- not just Jim's -- OpenSolaris is felt a significant success.He blogs today a really interesting list of Lessons Learned, which should be required reading for any organization adopting open source and/or open standard tools as well as for developers and

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1129063063704338252005-10-11T15:44:00.000-04:002005-10-12T10:09:36.496-04:00

'It's time to get aggressive on promoting OpenDocument,' implies Bob Sutor.Bob -- IBM's Vice President of Standards and Open Source -- is among the leaders in the open standards trade: he sets the tone. Today in his blog he updates his promotion of the idea of "Commitment to Action," effectively sending a wake-up call to CIO's in every kind of organization.This is suitably forceful message for

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128963267203451312005-10-10T12:34:00.000-04:002005-10-10T15:09:39.666-04:00

A good & trusted friend sent me a cryptic email recently: 'Google "failure."' This I did to find President Bush's (Dubya's) Whitehouse Bio page at the top of the results. Try it. Aparently the phrase "miserable failure" produces the same kind of giggles.She, my friend, who is not a techie but is quite sophisticated in many areas (but politically naive) said something like, 'See what those clever

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128960559392382522005-10-10T11:53:00.000-04:002005-10-10T22:41:53.156-04:00

It's not just me who sees the advent of XML and the adoption of OpenDocument as a world-changing sequence of events...part of the plumbing of Web 2.0. Gary Edwards is the uniquely articulate member of OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee ("TC") who has been sketching out the future of systems interoperability for us less imaginative members of the open standards trade.OpenDocument is already in

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128527010653971602005-10-05T11:35:00.000-04:002005-10-05T11:44:42.893-04:00

Dana Gardner at ZDNet has the last word on Sun + Google at "Between the Lines":Do you think it took as long to reach a deal with Google as it did with IBM when Big Blue re-upped for 11 more years of Java license?Or as long as Sun's technology pact with Microsoft took to negotiate? This "deal" seems so vague that it was more likely sketched out on a napkin at Buck's Diner."Google Takes a Leisurely

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128463645723968552005-10-04T17:59:00.000-04:002005-10-04T18:28:07.210-04:00

Friends who are asking -- who are as confused as I was by the Sun/Google Non-Announcement -- need only look to that most perceptive commentator, David Berlind, for a possible answer:Although Sun would probably dispute this (after all, the deal has Google leveraging Sun's distribution of Java, not the other way around), desktop Java has long needed a sugar daddy. And, as one of the few companies

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128449987983002572005-10-04T14:15:00.000-04:002005-10-05T17:58:55.090-04:00

The joint press release today by Sun & Google -- the anticipation of which sent MrSofty stock tumbling -- turned out to be just more marketing papp.We were all getting ready to hear about "GoogleOffice" in which Google & Sun would team up to deliver StarOffice to paying enterprise and individual customers via the browser for something like $19.95 per year (individuals for $4.95 a year plus a

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128440320599146132005-10-04T11:26:00.000-04:002005-10-04T13:17:54.156-04:00

Microsoft officials lie with a straight face. About Microsoft's proprietary file formats SVP of Office, Steve Sinofsky, said:We've always felt that the primary value that we deliver to people is not in the format that the information is stored in but in the tool that's used to create the format. At the same time, what the format does is it affords us a way of delivering scalable, robust secure

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128353488176413122005-10-03T11:23:00.000-04:002005-10-03T12:09:27.616-04:00

William Bright had the idea to put subway maps up online for download. The maps are formatted for use on any color-enabled iPod.He's got many cities' maps so far, including Metro DC, Paris, London, Seoul, Montreal, Tokyo and others. But the New York City MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) is asking for an annual license fee of $500.You can accept the MTA's right to charge a reasonable license

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128098686906939092005-09-30T12:43:00.000-04:002005-09-30T22:16:31.146-04:00

The principal idea to absorb here is that as incumbent technologies begin to over-serve customers' requirements, disruptive technologies often begin to address customers' lowest requirements.In general, the challenge for managers of incumbent technologies is to have the courage and authority (and the cash) to enter markets and build new value networks to participate in the different markets

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128020259318965252005-09-29T14:54:00.000-04:002005-09-29T17:50:24.813-04:00

There's a new documentary about Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, running right now on PBS (in the US). Even if you -- like me -- find Dylan to sound like nails on a chalkboard, see this film: he is one of the premier artists of our time and the film gives new insight – recent, lucid, interviews of Dylan himself – about his musical and cultural influences between his late-1950's start and 1966.The

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1128016139748811152005-09-29T13:41:00.000-04:002005-09-30T21:39:52.326-04:00

Google is to Microsoft as SOA is to Client-Server.Google is adding about 100 new employees a week and Microsoft is reorganizing its business to stop the departure of talent. What image is more indicative of the end of an era (and the beginning of a new one) than this?Among other things, Google represents the first and clearest example of the success of Professional Open Source, of

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1127929243943553732005-09-28T13:31:00.000-04:002005-09-28T22:57:45.313-04:00

In the wake of senior talent defections to Google and elsewhere (back in July I was gloating at the Kai-Fu Lee defection), Microsoft leadership leaped into action. (You noticed last week's reorganization news.) Trouble is, this reorganization is a solution to a non-organizational problem. The problem Microsoft faces is one of The Innovator's Dilemma, which is described plainly in that book (

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1127838108028997902005-09-27T12:20:00.000-04:002005-09-27T12:21:48.036-04:00

"The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"Innovation In`no*va"tion, n. L. innovatio; cf. F. innovation. 1. The act of innovating; introduction of something new, in customs, rites, commercial products, etc. --Dryden. 1913 Webster 2. A change effected by innovating; a change in customs; something new, and contrary to established customs, manners, or

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1127748290843169872005-09-26T11:19:00.000-04:002005-09-26T11:28:54.956-04:00

Ben Ratliff in The New York Times does justice to the "manic drive" and "shockingly beautiful stage set" of the White Stripes."In the Loop: Serenity, Freakouts and Craft" | The New York Times

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1125778502805298552005-09-03T16:04:00.000-04:002005-09-23T15:53:30.510-04:00

Objective versus ResultAlmost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.- Samuel JohnsonIn the 1960's, a highly specific aspect of this idea was articulated by the influential photographer, Diane Arbus, as the "gap between intention and effect."Shown: Young Man in Curlers (Diane Arbus, 1966)

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1125077810996123372005-08-26T13:33:00.000-04:002005-08-26T13:42:29.913-04:00

If you pull back on the resolution of the orange rectangles in this contextual ad it says:Tofu-eating Open-Source Communists will die and go to Hell!

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1123985515597020582005-08-13T21:59:00.000-04:002005-08-13T22:11:55.606-04:00

Feeds, Permalinks & TrackbacksI just set up RSS & Atom feeds above the fold on FUSSnotes.com, my footballing blog.Simultaneously I installed the Sage feed & newsreader plugin for the Mozilla Firefox browser on my new OS X 10.4 iMac (Dashboard is terrific eye candy). Easy as snap! A no-brainer.FUSSnotes looks smooth when viewed within Firefox/Sage; each distinct post is neatly organized -- thank

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1117071445820159002005-05-25T21:36:00.000-04:002005-05-25T21:37:25.823-04:00

"Trust the force, Luke!"

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1116646412494130892005-05-20T23:30:00.000-04:002005-08-25T12:25:08.443-04:00

"...he not busy being bornis busy dying."It's alright, Tom. The bleeding has slowed to a trickle.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1109639782732723912005-02-28T19:44:00.000-05:002005-03-06T21:48:12.796-05:00

What Jazz Is, and Isn'tThis article by Ben Ratliff in the NY Times is very interesting. It features Pat Metheny listening and talking about some favorite samples of music."Sonny Meets Hawk!" with Paul Bley on piano"He was a young guy at the time," Mr. Metheny marveled, listening to Mr. Rollins's emphatic, darting lines in "All the Things You Are," harmonically at odds with Hawkins's, on the

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1108138423823665462005-02-11T11:13:00.000-05:002005-02-11T11:24:14.556-05:00

Still My LeslieJames Oscar Smith on Hammond B3December 8, 1928 - February 8, 2005Obituary by John Fordham | The Guardian UnlimitedJimmy Smith was Rockin' the Boat  

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1108085750898611442005-02-10T20:35:00.000-05:002005-02-10T23:00:45.636-05:00

Keane Work RateRoy Keane, most agree, is a top defensive midfielder with gifted distribution. A hard man and disciplined leader, he's the engine and the fuel--the metronome--of the Mancunians' Delight. Buy his bewk.Roy Keane: the Thomas Gravesen of Manchester United. 

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1108085597851447452005-02-10T20:33:00.000-05:002005-02-11T11:29:59.536-05:00

Better than KeaneNo one was more involved or influential than Gravesen for Everton. The Dane relishes the challenge of quality around him at Real Madrid. He will keep improving at the Bernabau, and fills a critical role as stopper in a forward leaning attack. They are lucky to have him. Gravesen Galactico! 

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1108083592944722682005-02-10T19:54:00.000-05:002005-02-10T20:08:48.260-05:00

Hard Ware Lesson The lesson of hp, Fiorina, and the Compaq merger is a simple one: "If a thing is not worth doing, it's not worth doing well." -Carol Loomis | Fortune (subscription required) While we're piling on, there isn't enough blame to attach where it belongs: on Wall Street. Bill Hewlett was right.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1105718443951039342005-01-14T10:47:00.000-05:002005-01-14T11:11:35.643-05:00

"Team America: World Police" Captures the Mood Not surprisingly, "Team America: World Police" makes Movie-of-the-Week at the Guardian. To ken why this Labour paper should be so fond of Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's skewering of the American Left in its shambolic lead-up to the re-election of George W. Bush, read Peter Bradshaw's spot-on review. Team America: World Police brilliantly

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1105413143724478092005-01-10T22:11:00.000-05:002005-01-10T22:12:23.723-05:00

"Sam! The cheese is in the FIFTH tunnel." -Tom Adelstein

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1103129402549584702004-12-15T11:46:00.000-05:002004-12-15T11:52:07.730-05:00

"Evil magic always has a way of destroying itself." -Aquaman

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1098296957406107022004-10-20T14:28:00.000-04:002004-10-20T14:29:17.410-04:00

This is why Neal Stephenson is so good.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1097869285800215792004-10-15T15:38:00.000-04:002004-10-15T15:41:25.800-04:00

Book's Amazon rank is falling...ah, improving...at #55,955. Down handsomely from #1,090,387.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526886.post-1097776984987474772004-10-14T13:55:00.000-04:002005-02-10T22:09:37.593-05:00

'Trustworthiness' still a goal for Microsoft...says it all.

Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08114467834870409189noreply@blogger.com0