Posts

Tim Bray’s trip report from his visit to StarOffice in Hamburg is pretty interesting. I didn’t know that OpenOffice stored its documents in a way that’s pleasing to XML purists, that’s pretty cool from an interoperability perspective. I’ve been using OpenOffice as my desktop suite (and I forced it on my wife) when I reinstalled Windows and then found out that I lost my Office 97 CD. She complained at first, but now she’s used to it and likes it well enough. That’s a pretty good endorsement. A few months ago I found the Office 97 CD, but we still haven’t gone back. ...

Eclipse 3.0 M8 is out. Seems like this release includes a number of spiffy new features.

Everybody seems to have not only noted a throwaway bit in a New York Times article that mentioned that Condoleeza Rice is leaving her job at the end of the year, but also to have taken it as proof that they’re out of the loop. See Wonkette, Josh Marshall, and Slate’s Today’s Papers.

Cory Doctorow explains why DRM really does suck. In this case, it’s Apple’s DRM that’s the issue, but all DRM schemes present similar quandries.

Ed Foster notes that purchasers of the dreaded SCO license are not granted the right to modify or even recompile applications covered under that license (which, according to SCO, is all of Linux). In other words, you’re not even allowed to build a custom kernel for your servers once you’ve submitted to SCO’s extortion. The CEO of EV1.net says he wouldn’t buy the license if he had it to do over again. Maybe now SCO can sue him for defamation. ...

Salon today has an article about moderate Republicans and their reaction to the radicalization of their political party. One of the most discouraging things to me about the Republican party is that the Republicans that I can respect are becoming increasingly marginalized. It’s striking to me that the current President’s father would no longer be all that comfortable with what his party has today become. As I’ve said before, I know some actual loyal Republicans who find themselves in the Anybody But Bush camp, so the article has the ring of truth to it. ...

Salon: What about Bob? A lament for Bob Edwards.

Scott McNealy has announced that open source Java is not in the cards. That’s not going to be a popular decision.

This list of the Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School is applicable for software developers as well as designers. (Via Kottke.)

Richard Clarke’s current statements on the war on terror are going to have to be reconciled with this background briefing given to reporters by Clarke in 2002, wherein he seems to contradict his more recent statements. If nothing else, this puts him in a “were you lying then, or are you lying now” situation.