lang:en

OOXML: Venezuela changed vote from YES to NO

Published: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:36:46 +0000 Updated: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:36:46 +0000 |

Dear Mr. Kimura, Attached please find a letter from Mrs. María Teresa Saccucci, Standardization Manager of FONDONORMA (Venezuela) through which Venezuela wishes to modify its position on DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML file formats from “Approval with comments” to “Disapproval with comments”. [...]

OOXML’s BRM: A flow of dirt

Published: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:03:08 +0000 Updated: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:03:08 +0000 |

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Finally Jomar, one of the brazilian delegate that went to OOXML’s BRM in Geneva has started to tell all the dirty little details of what really happened in that meeting and the surreal modus operandi of how 120 people can discuss 1027 issues in 5 days. Have fun in english and portuguese.

Oh, and talking [...]

OpenDocument Format

OOXML: A global NO so far but still counting

Published: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:05:11 +0000 Updated: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:05:11 +0000 |

2 comments

Open Malasia blog has a user friendly post with a map of the voting. See the tables and understand the voting criterias.

OpenDocument Format

OOXML: Brazil Says NO. Again.

Published: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:55:16 +0000 Updated: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:55:16 +0000 |

10 comments

It is now official. Brazilian vote was decided by consensus of the entire technical team, including Microsoft crew’s: OOXML does not deserve to be an international ISO standard.

Our first vote, in august, was also NO, due to the same reasons: OOXML is an awful specification.

That outcome was expected because we simply followed the [...]

Linux & Open Source ● Mobility

Open Source Software inside the iPhone

Published: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:49:42 +0000 Updated: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:49:42 +0000 |

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Can Open Source Software be more ubiquitous than this ?

A few days ago I was playing extensively with Apple’s iPhone, investigating each sub-menu and little details. There is a section listing legal stuff and software being used with each license. GPL, LGPL, BSD and other Open Source licensed software rule the iPhone.

Some I [...]

Info & Biz Technology ● OpenDocument Format

Microsoft sells Intra-operability as Interoperability

Published: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:19:16 +0000 Updated: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:19:16 +0000 |

9 comments

These are my visual examples of the difference between real Open Standards-based Interoperability and Microsoft Intraoperability. [...]

OpenDocument Format

How Microsoft raped ISO

Published: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:18:29 +0000 Updated: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:18:29 +0000 |

4 comments

One of the most critical and discussed points of the whole OOXML subject is how the specification lets you include binary proprietary information.

Let me show you how it happens with a piece of an OOXML document, the red-marked text is the problematic part (see for yourself, §6.2.2.14, paper page 4,813, lines 7–13):

<v:shape> <o:ink [...]

Chronicles ● Metaphysics ● Music & Podcasts

Better sleep leads to a better You

Published: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:02:40 +0000 Updated: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:02:40 +0000 |

4 comments

The title was the phrase written in a CD left in a Crown Plaza Hotel room I stood this days.

Its excellent content is a relaxation program with very soft music to listen and do after you go to bed and before you fall asleep, with the aim to make you sleep better.

I found [...]

OpenDocument Format

The OOXML Date Bug

Published: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:16:43 +0000 Updated: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:16:43 +0000 |

6 comments

This is an example of an old Excel bug that was transported to OOXML for “compatibility” reasons.

In new OOXML, there are several non-standard ways to represent dates. The main one is this, that requires that 1900 is a leap year contradicting the Gregorian calendar, used for centuries now.

More info on [...]

Metaphysics ● Vegetarianism

How I Became Vegetarian

Published: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:09:42 +0000 Updated: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:09:42 +0000 |

5 comments

Around early 1995 I was thinking about to stop eating meat. I thought that would do good for my body and my mind.

Then I was waiting in a room, randomly took a book and randomly open it in the part that finally defined my decision. Later a saw many people becoming vegetarian because of [...]

OpenDocument Format

OOXML in Numbers

Published: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:08:38 +0000 Updated: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:08:38 +0000 |

2 comments

This is a numerical photography of what is the Microsoft Office Open XML wannabe specification:

6063 pages written in 12 months Only 6 months of analysis pointed 3500 issues that span from intellectual property, to standard date & time representation, to malformed XML definitions, to binary proprietary bits 3500 issues where summarized in “only” 1027 [...]

Ecology & Environment ● Web 2.0

My Ecological Footprint

Published: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:27:22 +0000 Updated: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:27:22 +0000 |

6 comments

I decided to take the test to see how much the planet gets stressed with me. This is the result:

I have a lot to improve. Specially in goods (which was a weak test) and transportation.

Multimedia

How to Make High Quality DVD Rips

Published: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:36:50 +0000 Updated: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:36:50 +0000 |

54 comments

After a long study of months I found this method to be the best way to rip/encode or backup my DVDs. The resulting digital file uses the best standards and technologies (as H.264, MP4, Matroska, AC3 etc), looks practically lossless to human eyes and has reasonable good file size (about 1 to 1.4GB per movie). [...]

OpenDocument Format

Google Supports ODF and Defeats OOXML as Unnecessary

Published: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:51:18 +0000 Updated: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:51:18 +0000 |

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A few days ago I saw a post in Google Blog with Google’s position regarding the document format war.

Google supports OpenDocument Format.

The post also provides some short documents with Google’s findings (2 pages) and sample of technical issues unresolved in OOXML (4 pages). This is a fast reading for who wants to understand [...]

Linux & Open Source ● Web 2.0

Linux on Dell IdeaStorm

Published: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:03:37 +0000 Updated: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:03:37 +0000 |

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I found Dell’s Digg-like IdeaStorm site today while having a look on Doc Searl’s January 2008 LJ Index.

This is a great example of Web 2.0 in action, together with similar sites as IBM’s Innovation Jam.

It shows how Linux is highly rated by everybody, as a top request amongst these ideas. Check Linux rank [...]

Community and Society ● OpenDocument Format

ODF in the State of Paraná

Published: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:08:00 +0000 Updated: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:08:00 +0000 |

1 comment

The state of Paraná, here in Brazil, is the first to have laws that specifically promotes the use of OpenDocument Format. This is a free translation of such law:

All public companies and institutions under the state of Paraná administration will adopt, preferably, open formats for creation, storage and public availability of digital documents. We [...]

Music & Podcasts ● Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Party

Published: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:00:13 +0000 Updated: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:00:13 +0000 |

3 comments

Web 2.0 is about people. Its a global party where human beings exchange knowledge, experiences, information and even emotions.

Yesterday I saw the Xanadu movie again with ELO’s All Over the World, a good-vibe song from the 80′s that still has very current lyrics that explain what people are doing in our 2008′s Web [...]

OpenDocument Format

Tired of Feeding the Machine?

Published: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:46:30 +0000 Updated: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:46:30 +0000 |

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What a cute movie about $$ spent with office suites.

Linux & Open Source

Software Security from a Specialist: Gary McGraw

Published: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:48:11 +0000 Updated: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:48:11 +0000 |

comments are closed

I just listened to an excellent interview with Gary McGraw, a security guru, in the Software Engineering Radio, and I suggest software developers to hear it too.

Some points he touched:

Software security is about how to approach computer security if you are a developer or a software architect. Security problems come from 2 [...]

OpenDocument Format

Anarchy at ISO

Published: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:36:07 +0000 Updated: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:36:07 +0000 |

7 comments

How the OOXML process at ISO is messing up stardization (for all industries) as we know. [...]

Web 2.0

Eliminating Blog SPAM

Published: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:53 +0000 Updated: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:53 +0000 |

1 comment

Thanks to the Trackback Validator WordPress plugin I completely eliminated the increased SPAM (and specially trackback SPAM) in my blog.

Podcast: brazilian jazz

Interview with Ulisses Rocha

Published: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:01:05 +0000 Updated: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:01:05 +0000 |

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The website Music from Brazil just published an audio-interview/podcast/MP3 with brazilian acoustic guitar player Ulisses Rocha. Includes stories and full wonderful songs. Available in portuguese, english and spanish.

OpenDocument Format

Microsoft Does Not Own OOXML

Published: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:39:58 +0000 Updated: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:39:58 +0000 |

4 comments

This is a reply to David Nielsen’s “OOXML and Microsoft” post. Since comments are closed there, I am writing here.

David, there is nothing wrong in Microsoft opening such an important spec. We should welcome this step. But there are several things that we should take care here:

There is already an approved, open, [...]

Web 2.0

Creating OpenSearch plugins for Browsers

Published: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:12:48 +0000 Updated: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:12:48 +0000 |

1 comment

How to create and OpenSearch plugin for any website. [...]

Info & Biz Technology

Zeroconf your Network

Published: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:16:03 +0000 Updated: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:16:03 +0000 |

3 comments

I remember the days when I was configuring DNS and DHCP for a small home network with only 2 or 3 computers.

This is not needed anymore since the invention of Zeroconf. As Wikipedia says, “is a set of techniques that automatically create a usable IP network without configuration or special servers. This [...]

Podcast: general

Worshiping Joyce in Rio

Published: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 02:14:12 +0000 Updated: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 02:14:12 +0000 |

1 comment

Some time ago, my New Yorker cousin came to visit Brazil and I wanted to make sure she was leaving with her iPod full of brazilian specialities. A few weeks later we exchanged this conversation by e-mail.

“Im listening to music you sent me while writing (I really like Joyce!…although right now im listening to [...]