[News] OOXML is a Sham. Here's Why.
Roy Schestowitz
,----[ Quote
| I heard Microsoft claiming that OOXML is open because it is in XML. In "open"
| they mean that anyone can use, process, manipulate, interpret OOXML
| documents. Is that really so? I say not!
|
| [...]
|
| The claim from Microsoft regarding OOXML being open because it is an XML
| format hits that very point I was making. This is just plain wrong and people
| need to understand why.
`----
http://lehors.blogspot.com/2007/10/xml-vs-open.html
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| "[Microsoft:] For example, we should take the lead in establishing a common
| approach to UI and to interoperability (of which OLE is only a part). Our
| efforts to date are focussed too much on our own apps, and only incidentally
| on the rest of the industry. We want to own these standards, so we should
| not participate in standards groups. Rather, we should call 'to me' to the
| industry and set a standard that works now and is for everyone's
| benefit. We are large enough that this can work."
`----
http://www.os2site.com/sw/info/comes/px09509.zip
Six questions to national standardisation bodies
,----[ Quote ]
| Application independence?
|
| Supporting pre-existing Open Standards?
|
| Backward compatibility for all vendors?
|
| Proprietary extensions?
|
| Dual standards?
|
| Legally safe?
`----
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/msooxml-questions
OOXML: The Formula for Failure
,----[ Quote ]
| As I've shown, in the rush to write a 6,000 page standard in less than a
| year, Ecma dropped the ball. OOXML's spreadsheet formula is worse than
| missing. It has incorrect formulas that, if implemented according to the
| standard may cause loss of life, property and capital. This standard is
| seriously messed up. And shame on all those who praised and continue to
| praise the OOXML formula specification without actually reading it.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/formula-for-failure.html
Mathematically Incorrect
,----[ Quote ]
| So when it comes to comparing MSOOXML and ODF v1.0 on the basis of the
| inclusion of "Formula Definitions", it becomes clear that the anti-ODF folk
| have not much to shout about. In fact MSOOXML's "Formula Definition" is
| deficient and inaccurate.
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/07/mathematically-.html
Guest Commentary: The converter hoax
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft maintains that while it would have been easy to support the Open
| Document Format (ODF) natively, it had to move to MS-OOXML because this was
| the only way for them to offer the full features of its office suite. But if
| Microsoft itself is not able to represent its internal data structures in the
| Open Document Format (ODF) in its Microsoft Office suite, how could an
| external conversion program from MS-OOXML accomplish this task? The answer to
| both questions is that it is not possible because two things cannot be the
| same and different at the same time.
`----
Erik Funkenbusch
> XML vs Open
>
> ,----[ Quote
>| I heard Microsoft claiming that OOXML is open because it is in XML. In "open"
>| they mean that anyone can use, process, manipulate, interpret OOXML
>| documents. Is that really so? I say not!
>|
>| [...]
>|
>| The claim from Microsoft regarding OOXML being open because it is an XML
>| format hits that very point I was making. This is just plain wrong and people
>| need to understand why.
> `----
>
> http://lehors.blogspot.com/2007/10/xml-vs-open.html
From the article:
"This is why the specification is so important, and this is one of the
reasons so many people have been complaining about OOXML. OOXML is so
poorly defined that there is no way two engineers in two different places
in the world can sit down, implement the specification, and except the same
behavior. The OOXML specification has way too many unspecified or
incompletely specified features."
Funny, that's what experts are saying about ODF.
Mark Kent
So what? ODF is an open standard - anyone can contribute to it.
OOXML is not a standard at all, rather, a collection of incompatible
and incomplete descriptions of a mixed-bag of definitions, some going
back many years, where the definition is sometimes almost as puerile as
"how it was done in word 2.0".
The real standards will develop, the trojan horses will rot and collapse
under the weight of their outer skins, revealing the corrupted and
corrupting mess beneath.
I wonder where you'll be sitting, Mr Off Topic and Anti Charter poster.
Why don't you go to a group proper to your postings?
Ahh... yes, because you don't think the rules should apply to you, do
you? Just like your paymasters, you think it should be different for
you. Well, matey, it's not. Leave, now, please, and take your rotting
corruption with you.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
Roy Schestowitz
By association, Erik is as criminal and corrupt as those whom he defends.
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
,----[ Quote ]
| However the 11 new countries are refusing to say how they will vote. These
| include Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan,
| Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most people seem to think
| that these have been put there by Vole to make sure the standard gets pushed
| through.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42106
Read it, Erik. Learn what sick monster you play for.
Erik is a Sham. Here's Why.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | GPL - Global Programmer's Law
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
Erik Funkenbusch
> So what? ODF is an open standard - anyone can contribute to it.
If by "anyone" you mean Sun and IBM, then yeah. Sun and IBM control the
ODF technical comittee. They don't have to let anything happen they don't
want to have happen.
> I wonder where you'll be sitting, Mr Off Topic and Anti Charter poster.
> Why don't you go to a group proper to your postings?
That's rich, coming from you.. the guy that licks Roy's boots and reposts
everything (no matter how off topic and charter) he writes.
> Ahh... yes, because you don't think the rules should apply to you, do
> you? Just like your paymasters, you think it should be different for
> you. Well, matey, it's not. Leave, now, please, and take your rotting
> corruption with you.
My irony meter is off the scale.
Erik Funkenbusch
> By association, Erik is as criminal and corrupt as those whom he defends.
You are going way too far there Roy. Calling people criminals is uncalled
for, and you should be ashamed of yourself. That is, if you had any shame.
chrisv
>My irony meter is off the scale.
It probably needs repair, like your logic meter.
chrisv
>That is, if you had any shame.
Now MY irony meter is off the scale!
Roy Schestowitz
What a scummy man you are. Once again changing subject line to accuse people,
eh...?
Is bribery not a crime? Yes? Well, Microsoft bribed people for OOXML.
To borrow a recent example, how about inside trading?
Insider Trading Hasn't Affect Microsoft Stock - Yet
,----[ Quote ]
| MarketWatch.com reports that Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's
| Entertainment and Devices division, sold $6.2 million of Microsoft
| stock just prior to announcing that Microsoft was going to have to
| extend XBox 360 warranties to three years because of extensive
| failures. The filings note that this was not part of any
| scheduled diversification or selling program; this was a
| conscious, unscheduled sale by the guy in charge of releasing
| news that could affect the value of Microsoft stock.
|
| [...]
|
| Insider trading is a very serious violation of the law; just
| ask Martha Stewart, who served five months in prison for
| avoiding losses of $43,000 through trades that just had suspicious
| timing (no insider trading was actually proven). This is $6.3
| million that went straight into Robbie Bach's pocket.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070713/40947_id.html?.v=1
That's a crime, Erik. If you defend this behaviour, then you endorse crime. Be
careful.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Switch to GNU/Linux. < http://www.getgnulinux.org/ >
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Load average (/proc/loadavg): 0.57 1.53 2.02 2/129 6326
http://iuron.com - semantic search engine project initiative
Erik Funkenbusch
> ____/ Erik Funkenbusch on Friday 26 October 2007 17:03 : \____
>
>> On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:38:24 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> By association, Erik is as criminal and corrupt as those whom he defends.
>>
>> You are going way too far there Roy. Calling people criminals is uncalled
>> for, and you should be ashamed of yourself. That is, if you had any shame.
>
> What a scummy man you are. Once again changing subject line to accuse people,
> eh...?
You're the one accusing me of being a criminal, asshole.
> Is bribery not a crime? Yes? Well, Microsoft bribed people for OOXML
Whether or not it's true, that has nothing to do with me. So stop lying.
> To borrow a recent example, how about inside trading?
And again, what has that got to do with me? Nothing. You're reaching, and
lying about me at the same time.
Asshole.
> That's a crime, Erik. If you defend this behaviour, then you endorse crime. Be
> careful.
That's rich, considering YOU are the one proven to have broken the law, on
several occasions with your copyright infringement.
Second, that's an awfully slippery slope you're standing on.
Third, since I have never defended those imaginary actions of yours, you're
lying by claiming I have.
Stop it.
High Plains Thumper
>
> Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML
> document format
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index
> of the above mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most
> corrupted half (CPI index less than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for
> approval (approval or approval with comments) and 7 or 23% for
> disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
> index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or
> 46% voted for disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
> `----
>
> http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
Interesting article. I found this about EFFI from the article:
[quote]
What is Effi?
Electronic Frontier Finland ry (Effi) was founded in 2001 to
defend active users and citizens of the Finnish society in the
electronic frontier. Effi influences legislative proposals
concerning for example personal privacy, freedom of speech and
user rights in copyright law. We make statements, press releases
and participate actively in actual public policy and legal
discussion. Effi also works in close cooperation with
organizations sharing same goals and values in the Europe, United
States and elsewhere. Effi is a founding member of the European
Digital Rights (EDRi). The members of the board and many active
members are experts in the fields of law and technology. Many of
us do University-level research on these matters.
[/quote]
They seem to be a reputable consumer's organisation. It seems as
though the convicted monopoly is loading the dice by seeding the
jury, does it not?
--
HPT
Roy Schestowitz
Findland, IIRC, is ranked very well for low levels of corruption (I haven't
looked). Then there's the issue of detectability. Remember that the government
turns a blind eye in many to thing which it knows are illegal and abusive.
Consider the US Department of Justice for example:
Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.
,----[ Quote ]
| Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark effort to break
| up Microsoft, the Bush administration has sharply changed course by
| repeatedly defending the company both in the United States and abroad
| against accusations of anticompetitive conduct, including the recent
| rejection of a complaint by Google.
|
| [...]
|
| In the most striking recent example of the policy shift, the top
| antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state
| prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by
| Google that is tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft's
| behavior. Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest
| operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google's desktop
| search program, lawyers involved in the case said.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Kroes slams US criticism of EU Microsoft ruling
,----[ Quote ]
| Kroes said that it was "unacceptable" that a representative of the US
| judiciary should criticise a court of law outside his jurisdiction.
|
| “It is absolutely not done,” she told journalists on Wednesday.
|
| “The European commission does not pass judgement on US rulings and we should
| expect the same from the US.”
`----
http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200709/87884c7c-c721-49b1-b6f0-5ba4ece0897c.htm
Microsoft, The European Union, and the United States: A Statement by the AAI
,----[ Quote ]
| The AAI comments on the European Court of First Instance's upholding of the
| EC's Microsoft decision, taking the USDOJ to task for poor diplomacy and
| mistaken policy in its criticism of the EC.
`----
http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/Archives/miceu3.ashx
Microsoft sets spinners on court verdict
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may have lost in court, but it quickly tried to win the war of
| media reaction via organisations like CompTIA, the Computing Technology
| Industry Association and ACT (the Association for Competitive Technology)
| which both intervened in court on its side.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/17/reaction_microsoft_verdict/
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu
Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket
,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----
http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Some manipulation and bullying:
Microsoft Paid Lobbyist $160,000
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Paid Paid Bingham McCutchen $160,000 to Lobby Federal Gov't in
| First Half of 2007
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070905/microsoft_lobbying.html?.v=1
Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation
,----[ Quote
| It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into
| a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within
| 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were
| pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
| (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974.
`----
http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss
Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting
,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense
| and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards
| Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on
| ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in
| competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun.
|
| Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by
| one vote to support Microsoft.
`----
http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Windows: backward-compatible, even for viruses
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
01:20:01 up 10 days, 10:05, 3 users, load average: 3.22, 2.77, 2.42
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
Mark Kent
Roy - you're wasting your time with Erik. He sold his soul decades ago.
I doubt he'd even know how to behave ethically any more. He'll just yell and
shout and abuse, and then go running back to the troll-feeders here, to
continue to spout his off-topic and anti-charter corrupting diatribes.
To look back at the allegorical Lord of the Rings, The One Ring is
ultimate power, and yet it steadily corrupts all who come into contact
with it. Erik is like a Gollum character, he's been in contact with the
ring for so many years now he's forgotten the young, happy, innocent,
ambitious and naive man he was so many years ago, he's now an embittered
sociopathic, owned creature, who's pimped out onto the virtual streets of
the internet to push a political position he probably once could've
analysed, but long ago lost any independence of thought as the
corruption eroded his ability to think.
Killfile him.
Roy Schestowitz
He already is, but notice the subject line, which elevates score more than
plonks in KNode do (-50). I need to keep looking over the shoulder for slander
like this. Even Erik has resorted to unsubstantiated accusations, just like
the boss of his boss of his boss, Steve "I'm a nuclear bomb" Ballmer.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Reversi for Linux/Win32: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 2 2007-10-16 15:14 last=
http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine
Erik Funkenbusch
> He already is, but notice the subject line, which elevates score more than
> plonks in KNode do (-50). I need to keep looking over the shoulder for slander
> like this. Even Erik has resorted to unsubstantiated accusations, just like
> the boss of his boss of his boss, Steve "I'm a nuclear bomb" Ballmer.
Unsubstantiated accusations...
And calling me a criminal is substantiated?
Hypocrite.
Mark Kent
Ah, score such things down, then they won't work any more. He really
isn't worth the time. We have enough trollfeeders here who'll respond
to him, he doesn't need you.
Tim Smith
Mark Kent <mark...@demon.co.uk> wrote:
> So what? ODF is an open standard - anyone can contribute to it.
Anyone can contribute if Sun approves. That's not "open".