1999 - 2011 Open Office
Well, well, well. A software suite I've used during my Windows and Linux days is over. Open Office first appeared online around 2000. Yeah, it wasn't fancy, perfect, or whiz bang intuitive, but it was a cheaper alternative to what was/is out there, and in my opinion a better version of a straight forward program to write with. I believed at that time that code/programs shouldn't cost a years salary, and some doctorate to install/use. Open Office will always be fondly remembered to me as I used this exclusively as my writing program. I wrote in my (then) journal, fancy resumes, cover letters, and endless edits with college homework assignments.
My last big project came with the Jazz in American Culture course back in fall of 2009. There was so much work that went into that assignment, the biggest drawback though and this became a real thorn for me was the cross platform ability to save from the .odt, to a .doc format. Saving in .odt meant the file size was tiny, going into a .doc format was three times the size, and often would balloon if pictures were placed. All the edits in the world wouldn't compact the file size, so this was becoming very concerning.
I should also qualify that Open Office was also pretty pissed off about the XML document standard Microsoft was sexing the industry up around 2006/2007. Thus making Microsoft's ability to be the big penis waver much more apparent. What is XML? XML is a standard to which only and specifically Microsoft can enforce for any documents being used, written, modified in their Word suite.
This essentially played very foul with other word programs because if one used (ex.) Open Office and wanted to save it in the XML standard, you weren't allowed to. Its also where the EU governing body was ignored to the case of a unified cross platform exchange of many document writers i.e. Open Office, Word, and Pages, etc.
Microsoft's tactics of trying to pay for votes towards a one only standard of file format somewhat fell on its ass. Microsoft decided they were going to institute the standard anyways and ignored any criticism levied. So here we are in 2011, I still don't use Word, and won't. Its a nice platform for it what does, but I prefer free.
When Sun MicroSystem's bought Star Office 1999, which was then turned into Open Office project. From 2000 onwards Open Office was developed by partnerships with Novell, Red Hat, and the open source project. Open Office gained a lot of core supporters, including myself. Open Office enjoyed some flexible development (I think), but Sun MicroSystem's was bleeding money from its network division, and by 2006 they were having trouble keeping the ship afloat. Three years later Oracle buys Sun MicroSystem's for 7 plus billion dollars. 2009 would see the end to the Sun MicroSystem's brand name, and replaced with the name Oracle. I have mixed feelings about Oracle, some of them relate back to the 90's when Oracle was trying a paywall service to the operating system environment.
As of today Open Office is gone. Oracle killed the project because of difficulties with the open source community. All I gather is that the operating profits for Oracle didn't include Open Office, and Oracle's own admission (In My Opinion) was they were going to kill off anything that wasn't profitable for their company.
The open source community fought Oracle, from what I can tell weren't going to cede the main reason for free software, and thunderously became a point of contention with the programmers. Though Open Office is gone, LibreOffice is the new kiddo, but I feel like it might take a little work to get this going because of the fallout of the XML standard. Some people aren't going to want to learn another program, the learning curve is really steep once you start taking into account how much will be changed. Heck, most office productivity programs are eventually going to be tethered to a cloud based writing program. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. I for one, will miss the oOo name. Just had a nifty ring to it.
Thanks for reading.
B.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Utmost disdain
Well, I'm sitting here on a Saturday, coding, with what I think will be the building blocks of my switch case assignment, and I'm waiting as always for correspondence. To whatever avail I have at my finger tips, I'm feeling somewhat saddened by the change of computer systems, and how people interact with them.
You see, I built my first system (ECS). Though it wasn't perfect, I could and would do many types of tweaking and testing of whatever I chose to put that system through. Though I had lacked good fundage to afford a much greater system to bigger complicated tasks with, it wasn't just about tweaking that I became enthralled with. In general terms it was my connection to the world of information. Anything, video, music, and news. I was so excited for the next frontier I was immersing myself in the field of Linux thinking that maybe I could get 'in' on the open source wave. Well, I'm still trying to figure out where it all means for me in the sense of connectedness. I'm no closer to an answer I set out to find back in 2003/2004.
This year marks year 8 from the first build I did on my own. There was so much promise, excitement, I forgot to think about what happens when there isn't anything left to mine. I've spent countless hours going on weird niche information hunting assignments that I've become so accustomed to routine that now I'm feeling somewhat let down. I can't really feel alone here in that there is so much to learn but I've been so stubborn with the way I've honed the craft that I'm not sure where I'll end up next.
The uncanny valley I think has happened for me. The fact the tech foundries aren't utilizing even the 10th percent of the hardware, let alone designing stuff that will last beyond 3 months is atrocious. Gone are the bios chips one could remove flash, and rebuild, whereas companies specifically use built in, heavily controlled systems done by manufacturing. The guesswork is taken out of the loop, and we are expected to just plug in and go. For simplicity sake yes I like this, but at the same time, this leaves me an old man pinning for the old days. I want to tweak and install, and do whatever I can to break systems, but I feel like I'm in the last breathing gasps of the home computer user market.
Its going away from a tethered wall wort, to a transportable, linked via wireless type system. I'm not even sure where I fit into this new idiom. I enjoy doing and learning, but at the pace of turnover of yearly bothers me. There is already to much e-waste out there, so to make more doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Every type of handheld device is tethered to a pay to play construct it makes this stratus almost unreachable for me. The costs of using wireless services is astronomical, considering how much more expensive things are at this stage of the game.
I've spent hours talking to myself about what kind of system I need to build. Everything takes money, and money is often the bain that chars this hide. Alas, I'm realizing maybe the universe is trying to tell me something, I just haven't figured out what that is yet.
B.
You see, I built my first system (ECS). Though it wasn't perfect, I could and would do many types of tweaking and testing of whatever I chose to put that system through. Though I had lacked good fundage to afford a much greater system to bigger complicated tasks with, it wasn't just about tweaking that I became enthralled with. In general terms it was my connection to the world of information. Anything, video, music, and news. I was so excited for the next frontier I was immersing myself in the field of Linux thinking that maybe I could get 'in' on the open source wave. Well, I'm still trying to figure out where it all means for me in the sense of connectedness. I'm no closer to an answer I set out to find back in 2003/2004.
This year marks year 8 from the first build I did on my own. There was so much promise, excitement, I forgot to think about what happens when there isn't anything left to mine. I've spent countless hours going on weird niche information hunting assignments that I've become so accustomed to routine that now I'm feeling somewhat let down. I can't really feel alone here in that there is so much to learn but I've been so stubborn with the way I've honed the craft that I'm not sure where I'll end up next.
The uncanny valley I think has happened for me. The fact the tech foundries aren't utilizing even the 10th percent of the hardware, let alone designing stuff that will last beyond 3 months is atrocious. Gone are the bios chips one could remove flash, and rebuild, whereas companies specifically use built in, heavily controlled systems done by manufacturing. The guesswork is taken out of the loop, and we are expected to just plug in and go. For simplicity sake yes I like this, but at the same time, this leaves me an old man pinning for the old days. I want to tweak and install, and do whatever I can to break systems, but I feel like I'm in the last breathing gasps of the home computer user market.
Its going away from a tethered wall wort, to a transportable, linked via wireless type system. I'm not even sure where I fit into this new idiom. I enjoy doing and learning, but at the pace of turnover of yearly bothers me. There is already to much e-waste out there, so to make more doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Every type of handheld device is tethered to a pay to play construct it makes this stratus almost unreachable for me. The costs of using wireless services is astronomical, considering how much more expensive things are at this stage of the game.
I've spent hours talking to myself about what kind of system I need to build. Everything takes money, and money is often the bain that chars this hide. Alas, I'm realizing maybe the universe is trying to tell me something, I just haven't figured out what that is yet.
B.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Another few weeks, time just cooks along
Ah, this is what its like to weed through the weeks, focusing upon the titular bits of truth in a sea of misinformation, and trying to stay dedicated to the fruit of my passion: learning something viable for the workforce. (If I can even get into it considering the fact so much of it is under extreme uncertainty) I would like to believe that the world is a true and just place, only I've been learning this isn't so because certain things are in place that makes living your own life somewhat difficult, or damned miserable.
Something was posed to me a week ago, "what is the universe trying to tell me." This put me in a reflective mood, to ponder about. In my life I've always felt that my timing has been off. This idiom throws my prior comprehension a bit askew. Perhaps its that there was nothing wrong with my timing, in fact I'm supposed to be unfolding in my own aspect.
I've been blindsided with folks whom have been conditioned to believe and function a certain set (correct) way. That the paradigm I've been entrenched with doesn't suit their expectation/judgement of what it is. I'm being encouraged that isn't so bad, nor does it make me feel less of a person because I couldn't do it like most people. The universe has been trying to tell me that I'm fine, that what I'm doing is enriching to my perception, that I can't ask for anything more. That I'm to be contented with that fact. I've been exposed with harsh bitter judgement, which has fostered a cancerous climate towards me personally. I've been told numerous times that I'm not doing it right. For them I say fuck you, I've survived, done things on my own terms, and have enriched experiences for it. I've survived because I used my intuition, and gut instinct. Helps to have a bit of wisdom, and smarts to go with that.
Continuing on the new stuff segment that I was writing last time. I've been finding more groups of long gone status. Fudge Tunnel, and Leather Strip (still together last checked). Fudge Tunnel, a band that has roots in the slow doom sound. Raw, and poignant. This is an apt description I can give. Its pretty remarkable considering all that was out at the time. Entombed, and others were knee deep in the scene, Fudge Tunnel was a band muddled in the scene that was over flowing with similarities.
Then I go to Leather Strip, never heard anything from this German band tied to the industrial scene. Surprising on how much I still don't know about the industrial scene. I'm a listener of extremes, carving a wide swath of musical tastes, I have found metal music can be confining in its own right. Otherwise, this year has me searching back a little bit. Being exposed to as many different styles as I can.
I'm kind of tired of the styles label. There is so much out there that I've honed in on specific groups that I remember, and following the connections to other groups of the period. I think personally, the scene was explosive, challenging, and inventive. Yeah there are clones of regular type music styles, but its in the presentation that sticks with me. I'm not big on the flash, its heart, and substance that I get.
Hence, I've even gone back and looked at Siouxsie and the Banshees catalog. I think they're peak was 1987 with the covers album Through The Looking Glass. By the time Superstition 1991 came out, this era had moved on. Bands whom were born in the 1970's didn't survive much into the mid 1990s. I look at this period with profound nostalgia. Something about being exposed to different types of music really stuck with me. That I constantly hunt for that elusive different, and unique. I felt though during the period bands whom where clinging to their mantra, where losing out to the next wave of crop pushed out by the labels. People had moved away from the mod look, hair/cock rock, punk scene, and clamored around for a much more varied harder sound. Whereas the folks groomed on this style moved on, and never really looked beyond that music style.
My feeling is that the industry as a whole kept trying to push their fresh agendas to the homes of kids like myself. Announcing new offerings of Rap, Grunge, Hip Hop, R&B Hip Hop. I stopped really paying attention to the pop scene around 1992. Because I had felt that what I wanted to listened to was being largely ignored by the masses. I turned to the underground scene for substance. I would occasionally poking my head up to see what was going on in the proceeding years. I had aligned myself to only one specific style, which made me an elitist asshole. I find it can be really difficult to waft through the chaff when it comes to bands, and music. There is so much, that its hard to sift through what is, and what isn't. I suppose the backing of label interest or having a advertising firm step in and coach ones career makes sense. There isn't a market for the style I love anymore. In fact its teetering on irrelevance. So, I dusted off the cynical attitude, and pushed through it. Since 2000, I've opened up more, focused on a few areas that I think and feel are very important. Sure bands have come and gone, as youth trumps over the established group. The staying factor is often missing, but I don't align myself to that process, I don't care as long as one does what they love, the fans will always be there. Something the blokes in Novembers Doom were discussing is that the album era is long over. Short term attention spans, no one really has the time to sit through a full album. I'm that singularity that still does. I treat it with great respect to still have that ability. Otherwise until next time, lets see whats out there...
Thanks for reading.
B.
Something was posed to me a week ago, "what is the universe trying to tell me." This put me in a reflective mood, to ponder about. In my life I've always felt that my timing has been off. This idiom throws my prior comprehension a bit askew. Perhaps its that there was nothing wrong with my timing, in fact I'm supposed to be unfolding in my own aspect.
I've been blindsided with folks whom have been conditioned to believe and function a certain set (correct) way. That the paradigm I've been entrenched with doesn't suit their expectation/judgement of what it is. I'm being encouraged that isn't so bad, nor does it make me feel less of a person because I couldn't do it like most people. The universe has been trying to tell me that I'm fine, that what I'm doing is enriching to my perception, that I can't ask for anything more. That I'm to be contented with that fact. I've been exposed with harsh bitter judgement, which has fostered a cancerous climate towards me personally. I've been told numerous times that I'm not doing it right. For them I say fuck you, I've survived, done things on my own terms, and have enriched experiences for it. I've survived because I used my intuition, and gut instinct. Helps to have a bit of wisdom, and smarts to go with that.
Continuing on the new stuff segment that I was writing last time. I've been finding more groups of long gone status. Fudge Tunnel, and Leather Strip (still together last checked). Fudge Tunnel, a band that has roots in the slow doom sound. Raw, and poignant. This is an apt description I can give. Its pretty remarkable considering all that was out at the time. Entombed, and others were knee deep in the scene, Fudge Tunnel was a band muddled in the scene that was over flowing with similarities.
Then I go to Leather Strip, never heard anything from this German band tied to the industrial scene. Surprising on how much I still don't know about the industrial scene. I'm a listener of extremes, carving a wide swath of musical tastes, I have found metal music can be confining in its own right. Otherwise, this year has me searching back a little bit. Being exposed to as many different styles as I can.
I'm kind of tired of the styles label. There is so much out there that I've honed in on specific groups that I remember, and following the connections to other groups of the period. I think personally, the scene was explosive, challenging, and inventive. Yeah there are clones of regular type music styles, but its in the presentation that sticks with me. I'm not big on the flash, its heart, and substance that I get.
Hence, I've even gone back and looked at Siouxsie and the Banshees catalog. I think they're peak was 1987 with the covers album Through The Looking Glass. By the time Superstition 1991 came out, this era had moved on. Bands whom were born in the 1970's didn't survive much into the mid 1990s. I look at this period with profound nostalgia. Something about being exposed to different types of music really stuck with me. That I constantly hunt for that elusive different, and unique. I felt though during the period bands whom where clinging to their mantra, where losing out to the next wave of crop pushed out by the labels. People had moved away from the mod look, hair/cock rock, punk scene, and clamored around for a much more varied harder sound. Whereas the folks groomed on this style moved on, and never really looked beyond that music style.
My feeling is that the industry as a whole kept trying to push their fresh agendas to the homes of kids like myself. Announcing new offerings of Rap, Grunge, Hip Hop, R&B Hip Hop. I stopped really paying attention to the pop scene around 1992. Because I had felt that what I wanted to listened to was being largely ignored by the masses. I turned to the underground scene for substance. I would occasionally poking my head up to see what was going on in the proceeding years. I had aligned myself to only one specific style, which made me an elitist asshole. I find it can be really difficult to waft through the chaff when it comes to bands, and music. There is so much, that its hard to sift through what is, and what isn't. I suppose the backing of label interest or having a advertising firm step in and coach ones career makes sense. There isn't a market for the style I love anymore. In fact its teetering on irrelevance. So, I dusted off the cynical attitude, and pushed through it. Since 2000, I've opened up more, focused on a few areas that I think and feel are very important. Sure bands have come and gone, as youth trumps over the established group. The staying factor is often missing, but I don't align myself to that process, I don't care as long as one does what they love, the fans will always be there. Something the blokes in Novembers Doom were discussing is that the album era is long over. Short term attention spans, no one really has the time to sit through a full album. I'm that singularity that still does. I treat it with great respect to still have that ability. Otherwise until next time, lets see whats out there...
Thanks for reading.
B.
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