Tag: standards
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The BSA – FUD, FUD, FUD
It’s well known that the BSA has been an industry mouthpiece and lapdog for commercial software vendors since its inception in the 90’s. However, the level of FUD ( fear uncertainty and doubt ) that now pervades it’s press releases and comments threatens to dispatch any remaining sense of respect for the BSA, to the…
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Google to remove h.264 support from Chrome
… and the world cried! Well maybe just the h.264 camp … So I thought I’d weigh in on this delicate situation too and give my 2 cents. Some facts: h.264 is a standard, not an open standard due it being patent encumbered h.264 requires royalties to be paid under certain circumstances unlike VP8 which…
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MS OFfice 2007 SP2 and ODF interoperability
I’ve waited a few days to blog on this particular issue so there would be time for those in the know to test how the new ODF format in Office 2007 SP2 works. Initial reports were that things were ( just ) ok but since then, it’s all gone downhill. One of the gurus in…
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Microsoft’s AstroTurfing
Microsoft’s bullying tactics in the IT field are well known but one would have thought that they might have stopped with the AstroTurfing by now, seeing as many are wise to their tactics. But not according to one of their Technology Evangelists, James Plamondon. For those unfamiliar with the term, AstroTurfing means that you, through…
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ISO issues generate more discent
13 members of the Norwegian standards body, Standards Norway, have left the organisation citing issues relating to the OOXML standards process debacle. Reasons are as follows: * The administration of Standard Norway trust 37 identical letters from Microsoft partners more than their own technical committee. * The process within Standard Norway has been unpredictable and…
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Quebec government sued over purchase of Microsoft software
Facil ( Quebec’s open source association ) is suing the local provincial government for purchasing Microsoft software without following government guidelines which requires government organisations to stimulate competition and look for alternatives. They indicate that Quebec has refused to look at alternative bids from open source vendors – apparently they’re spending more than $80million per…
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EU and US coming to disagreement over open standards definition
The EU Commission announced on June 25 that EIF/2.0 (The European Interoperability Framework which defines the rules for software used in e-Government) will hold the line as regards patents on standards. This means that patents will not be tolerated as part of open standards ( well duh!!! ). But apparently the Americans don’t get it…
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Breaking News!!! – CONSEGI Declaration: 6 nations say no to ISO/IEC
The fallout from the ISO confirmation of Microsoft’s Office Open XML Specification as a standard, continues and is starting to lead to some serious consequences. The recent conference in South/Latin America focusing on free software, drew some 2000 registrants to the IT event, many of whom were top government officials. The outcome ( and declaration…
