BrustBlog

Vista rising to the occasion?

posted @ Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:37 PM | Feedback (0) |

Office Dilemma: Splitting the Baby in Two

The State of Massachusetts has decided that they will continue using Microsoft Office but will make OpenDocument format (ODF) plug-in part of the standard install.

The irony is uncanny: in an attempt to be politically correct in support of open file formats, the Commonwealth's CIO has decided to tell people to use the world's de facto office software suite, but optionally (?) save their files in a format that may not maintain the full fidelity of the documents themselves.  The irony doesn't stop there: it turns out that Microsoft Office, rather than OpenOffice, is in fact the politically correct choice, given its richer accessibility features (i.e. features for people with vision, hearing and other disabilities).

That OpenOffice lacks these accessibility features cuts to the core failing of open source software: without a regular, paid staff of developers, some of the nitty-gritty features, the ones that are less "sexy" and which appeal to a minority of users, just don't get implemented.  With commercially developed software, people get paid to do what others might consider grunt work, and they get reviewed based on their performance on this work.  So it gets done.

The failing of OpenOffice will become more apparent once Office 2007 is released.  And maybe OpenOffice will respond, within two years or so, with something representing feature parity.  But playing catch-up isn't a software development strategy; it's a grudge match.

posted @ Sunday, August 27, 2006 10:53 PM | Feedback (0) |

Turning Blue and Getting Long in the Tooth

I just got my Treo 700w to sync over Bluetooth.  And I am very proud of myself.

But, in a technologically sensible world, I shouldn’t be…that is to say, setting up an ActiveSync partnership over Bluetooth shouldn’t be that hard.  In fact, there shouldn’t even be a concept of setting up a “partnership.”  I should just be able to tell ActiveSync to allow Bluetooth connections and go.

Instead, I have to go into the Bluetooth stack software on my laptop, enable the serial port profile, determine its COM port in the property sheet, go into the ActiveSync Connection Settings dialog, allow connections to that COM port, pair the phone with the laptop’s ActiveSync profile, fire up ActiveSync on the device, and then, finally, tell it to connect over Bluetooth.

Bluetooth was initially designed to replace the cables used to connect PCs and peripherals.  But until Bluetooth is as easy to use as a USB cable, it will be relegated to a specialized protocol for cell phone cordless headsets.  People will plug and play with cables until playing unplugged doesn’t require voodoo or passing a certification exam.

posted @ Sunday, August 13, 2006 10:03 AM | Feedback (0) |