Who needs open protocols?That would just lead to everything working whenever we needed it.
First of all, a disclaimer.This article should not be considered serious writing. It's just some shit I dreamt up so that I could fuck around with some CSS and see what it looks like on different browsers, so fuck you if you don't like the article. Sure anyone in their right mind will read it anyway. As Jeff K would say:
JUMP UP MY BUM
I can't login to hotmail while on Linux. I think things started going down hill over at hotmail a long time ago. The new interface... Pop ups... Remember when Hotmail just started out? Oh well.
DO NOT USE HOTMAIL - If you need free web email, sign up to Yahoo! mail, it is non-bias and somewhat more secure according to net lore.
I can't believe IE6 still doesn't implement CSS2 to any great exent, but finally MS got the CSS1 box model correct. Not that that's any great technical feat. I read somewhere something about MS Word attachements, and my own experience is that these things are rife. If not for anything else, people should not use these for the risk of viruses. Someone also complained that without MS Word, there's no easy way to do document collaboration, with change marking etc. Now this is the biggest load of steaming groeger, but you could be forgiven for thinking it was true... If you've had your head burried up you arse for the last few years. XML anyone, HTML even.
My thoughts: Someone needs to create a simple desktop word processor cum desktop publisher type program (ie, having the superficial functionality that users like in MS Word) that uses HTML or better still, an open source XML spec (see www.w3.org for details of what this means), with auto-(de)compression on file open/close (pref. tar.gz, or perhaps zip might make it more accessible, seeing as many tar/gz dlls don't seem to work properly (fuck dlls, fuck Windows - ahem, ok settle down)), so that file sizes would be kept small and easy on the email, but so that anyone could access the content through other means (decompress and use a web browser etc). Encryption could be built in with PGP. This would be a necessity to my mind, as the password and protection features of .doc and .pdf are used in commerce. Of course, this would also mean that if you gave someone your PGP to encrypt a document, you could decrypt, decompress and view without the need for any proprietary software, or even the open source editor that is the topic of this monologue. Simpleton users (read: most people), of course would need the editor, but who cares, because it's open source. This is a lot more sensible than using Word and Pdf encryption when you think about it, and would raise peoples' awareness of such issues (ie, the mere fact that you have an individual, or office PGP key makes you think about it and what it is and how it works and why it's important.).
With CSS and HTML/XML, there really is no need for word processor binary formats any more. There really isn't. Anything you can do with a wp you can do with these tools. These open and publically maintained standards, in the interests of everyone. Set the print page size of A4 (or letter if you're in the US), and you're laughing.
Well, if you hadn't noticed...Sun's Star Office is open source and so is the XML file format. Yay! So stop using that proprietary crap from MS, install a Java runtime environment and get SSoffice (go to sun.com now!).
There is however one problem with SSO; no Asian language versions. What the...? Come on, this is pretty fucked up and needs to be remedied. Luckily there is good Japanese language support for Linux (not sure about other languages however). So what the hell, someone get cracking, or hacking I mean.
Hugh Jarss
- staff writer
(Hugh has worked for the New York Times, Financial Review, The Economist, Cleo, Dolly (as Dr. Dolly), The Independent, The Sydney Morning Herald, Time Magazine (and he had his photo on the cover), The Globe, Shitsville Town Newsletter, Playboy, Hustler, Vogue, Forbes, Esquire, TV Guide, and as a pamphlet boy for several local pizza shops)
Like my background colours? Me neither. This page is open to comment, I will post interesting, insightful discussion and criticism (as if you have nothing better to do. Really...). Email me at: markexp@yahoo.com.au
