I’m a Web 2.0 but I must admit since I have converted to OS X, I am using online utilities much less. No longer do I use Gmail’s webmail (and that was the only reason I used Google Docs!).
I see the benefit of Google Docs but if I require a document to be portable, I’ll put it onto my USB pen or into a WebDAV folder. I used to only use Google Docs because it nicely integrated into Gmail!
How many of my readers actually use online office suites? If you do, are you a Linux, Windows or Mac user (or heck, an AmigaOS one if you’re so inclined!).
A proper post is coming on Wednesday!
Tags: online office, google docs
I downloaded something off USENET overnight and I was very disappointed to find that it would not play. A 300MB file only contained one frame which said This video can only be played in DomPlayer, Visit Download.Domplayer.Com. This struck me as suspicious; DomPlayer obviously was not a codec and why would I need a certain player to open an AVI?
A little bit of research revealed that:
- DomPlayer is malware; being flagged by several anti-virus suites
- It costs $3.75 to use!
- The video file probably doesn’t contain what I’m after but probably contains garbage
DomPlayer place bogus files on P2P networks, especially BitTorrent, and con users out of their money and privacy and waste their bandwidth (and time)!
Basically, if you’re unlucky enough to download a bonus video, do not pay… download another!
Tags: bittorrent, piracy, domplayer
Earlier this week, I was hacked. Fortunately, I lost very little data (due to the fact my host seems to do daily back-ups) but I experienced significant amount of downtime.
It was not only my site which was hacked; the whole box was brought down. Even though my site was back-up in no time, my host/the hackers brought the box down for about 24 hours (I guess to restore back-ups and apply patches or to cause more havoc!).
What annoyed me most is the fact my host’s server status tool lied to me by telling me everything was functioning perfectly well. Also, live support would not respond to me and my support ticket took about 48 hours to be answered.
I only managed to figure out what was going on through my host’s forums, and only through what other users said (the host didn’t comment at the time).
When I saw my site was down, I obviously wanted to know what was happening and, rather pathetically, the fact that my website was down distracted me for a whole day! I really do wish they were more transparent <sighs>.
I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of backing up but I strongly urge you to back-up in case your host don’t back up as frequently as mine.
Oh, and by the way, hackers can’t speak English very well. I tried to ask them about what they did on MSN and they gave me very poorly worded responses before blocking me!
Tags: hacking, security
Whenever I ever suggest to people, public or private sector, the notion of utilising free and open-source software I always receive the same response: “It’s not the industry standard”.
I do not see a single reason why people should adhere to a standard piece of software. I’m sure if you renamed the title bar of OpenOffice.org Writer to Microsoft Word, 99% of people would not notice the difference! So why do they elect to stick with the most popular piece of software?
For example, most schools will use Microsoft Office instead of OpenOffice.org, despite the expense to the tax payer. If you ask why they choose to use MS Office, they will say it’s important because businesses use Microsoft Office and that it is the industry standard.
So why do businesses, which are normally capitalist establishments, lower their profits by paying for software? Probably because their employees are only trained for Microsoft Office. Who trains them? Businesses and schools, who train using MS Office.
I’m sure 75% of people could do whatever they want to do using OpenOffice.org just through their MS Office training (we might have issues with macros etc.). They’re just scared.
It’s a vicious cycle: people get trained for Microsoft Office, business demands Microsoft Office so more people get trained through Microsoft Office.
Can the cycle be broken? Probably not but if it did, it would require bold moves. Governments would have to encourage the education system to use FOSS as well as governmental departments, forcing businesses to change. This will never happen due to vested interests and (not to be horrible) technical ignorance amongst governments (the internet’s a series of tubes according to Sen. Ted Stevens).
Tags: opensource, software, linux, openoffice.org, education
For over a decade, Windows has featured customisation through ‘themes’ but this never is equal to the degree of customisation offered by software such as WindowsBlinds. Windows users often wow when they say a machine running WindowsBlinds, so why don’t Microsoft ship Windows with a similar feature?
Surely the naive public would be even more impressed by Vista’s eyecandy if they could actually choose how their operating system looks. Instead, they have to pay $20 for a bit of shareware they probably didn’t even realise existed!
For the next Windows, perhaps Microsoft should provide a truly customisable UI. Consumers to corporations would all love placing their own branding on their installation and it’d break that Windows feeling of uniformity!
