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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Open Source Technology

Urban: Marie Østerbye har svært ved at huske sine kodeord – lad os hjælpe hende!

Marie Østerbye fra Urbans bagside kommer med nogle spændende og relevante betragtninger i hendes klumme Indtast venligst…Øh? fra Urban den 11-Juni-2007.

Uden at vide det (tror jeg) rammer hun faktisk hele den digitale verden hårdt og præcist, og hun giver os da en klar udfordring, der kan opsummeres med dette:

“Hvorfor skal vi have alle de kodeord, et burde da være nok”.

Vigtigheden af at have et sikkert system til vores digitale infrastruktur kan ikke undervurderes, og det er uhyggeligt at folk føler sig så utrygge, og det med god ret, ved at gemme kodeord på deres computere.

Problemet skyldes egentlig web-browseren, der aldrig har været tænkt som en platform til at køre deciderede programmer, og problemet er at stort samtlige hjemmesider har udviklet deres egne systemer til login, uden at tænke over standardisering.

Til jeres og Marie Østerbyes information, kan jeg oplyse om at der foregår en hel del standardiseringsarbejde på dette felt, bla. i offentligt regi, hvor det også hører hjemme, selvom løsninger det offentlige tidligere har promoveret, som f.eks. digital signatur, ikke fået den udbredelse som forventet.

Der forgår bla. et godt arbejde i projekter som OpenID, der er et åbent, decentralt og frit system til bruger-centreret digital identitet, der får stigende støtte i f.eks. open source miljøet, og listen over software der bruger OpenID vokser.

Så der er håb forude, selv om jeg nu ikke tror det kommer fra folk som Janus Friis, William Henry Gates III og Steve Jobs – som Marie Østerbye håber på – men man kan jo håbe at de følger trop, eller tvinges til at gøre det, hvis der kommer nogle åbne standarder.

De nævnte mennesker er ganske vist meget interesseret i at folk kun bruger et enkelt kodeord, men det skal naturligvis være til de tjenester de selv tjener penge på (hhv. Skype og Joost, MSN og iTunes).

Så jeg tror virkelig på at Marie Østerbye meget snart kan nøjes med at huske et kodeord, nemlig det til hendes computer, men lad os tage os sammen og sørge for at det sker.

Der er i øvrigt intet mere kedeligt end at udvikle systemer til bruger identifikation – je’ ve’ det je’ har gjort det – så kære udviklere: spar besværet, sæt jer ind i standarderne og nyd det gode vejr, i stedet for at sidde inde og genopfinde hjulet.

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Blogs Kim Blog (English) Open Source Technology

Net Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

In the beginning the digital world was a big wasteland, with scattered oases. These oases were called Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes), driven by “crazy” people that spent their savings on dial-up connections, so they could provide support for a local BBS oasis.

Episode IV: A new hope

And it was relatively quiet for a long long time.

Then something happened, the oases began “trading” information, and information began flowing between the oases, making it possible to talk to people from all over the world.

This was all being build by a volunteer workforce, and different languages were being spoken – depending on the software used to run the “oasis”. This meant that the different systems used to run the oasis, couldn’t really trade information between “borders”, and since it was all based on scheduled windows of information trade, due to the expensive dial-up connections, delivery of information was sometimes very slow, and could take many days.

“The Internet” changed all that. That was because it established “traffic-rules” that guide it. The rules are invented, or rather proposed and ratified through RFCs (Internet standards are suggested by so called RFCs – Request For Comments), in an entirely open review process, ensuring that information can flow freely. Another important difference between the rather disconnected world of the BBS oases, and the Internet, was that the Internet servers were always accessible, ensuring instant exchange of information.

Having established the traffic rules, the world could be “paved” with a computer network, driven by the military, research and governmental institutions of the world.

But it was still relatively quiet.

That was until 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee (TBL) came up with the simplicity of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), that meant that all information could be refered to (linked to) using a simple string of text. You all know that as the address with the strange http:// in front. That is a URL.

HTTP is an acronym for HyperTextTransferProtocol – and HyperText documents are the documents that you download when you browse the web. HyperText Documents are formatted in a “language” called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML is a pure text and human-readable document format, making it possible to apply attributes to text like bold and italics using nothing but a lowly text-editor, that usually comes bundled with the operating system (e.g. Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac OS X and vi/EMACS on *UX).

TBL wrote the first web-browser, and the Internet instantly became usable. That was due to the intuitive document metaphor, and the fact that the web-browser ran under a user graphical interface, made away with the text commands, that was mostly used for navigating the web, before the web-browser was introduced.

Deployment of the web and e-mail applications was swift.

I remember talking for months with partners on how to trade information (exchange files). Usually we set up dial-up connections to local computers running either terminal emulation software with X, Y og Z-Modem protocols, or later more advanced things like cc:Mail.

Then suddenly, within the span of a few months in 1996, we all had Internet @ e-mail addresses – it was astonishing, and it’s really hard to believe that you had to send disks to your costumers a mere 10 years ago.

It didn’t take me long to discover the feature of the web-browser called “view source”, and that was how I learned HTML.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The Internet, and before that the BBSes, has always, despite it’s roots in the military, been a place for free-thinkers, and in parallel with the grass-roots, a number of commercial systems for online communications existed, CompuServer, Prodigy later AOL. They all relied on dial-up access – you know using the modems that made the whining fax-machine sounds – to their servers, and had expensive subscription-plans that made it possible to tap into a community of experts.

William Henry Gates The Third – amongst others – saw this clearly, and wrote about it, at great lengths, in his quite visionary book: “The Road Ahead”. Bill Gates saw the power of online services, and wanted to take the next version of Windows, Windows 95, to the next level, by providing seamless integration with an online service called MSN – The Microsoft Network. Microsoft also wanted to provide the entire infrastructure, including access-points and network access subscription plans.

Controlling the desktop entirely, MSN should have been a tremendous success, but at the same time, 1995, the Internet had gained critical mass, and MSN didn’t happen, and by the time “The Road Ahead” was issued, Bill Gates had realised that the Internet might actually become the ubiquitous network, “the information superhighway”, that he envisioned, and Bill Gates was getting ready to turn the supertanker, that is Microsoft, around.

While MSN was sitting idle, a number of implementations of the web-browser had been released, especially the company Netscape had success and had become the de-facto web-browser.

Bill Gates didn’t like that, he wanted Windows 95 to tap into MSN, and this was difficult, because Netscape, by default, sent their users to the Netscape home-page.

A leaked internal memo described the plan – “how do we leverage the fact that we own the desktop”? The answer was simple, bundle the browser with the operating system, and give it away – that will surely kill Netscape, since they charge for it.

And that was exactly what happened! Netscape lost the war, Microsoft had won, they owned the desktop, the browser (Internet Explorer market share topped at something like 95%) and MSN had finally found it’s market due to the IM client for MSN that is also bundled with the operating system.

And despite the fact that Microsoft actually was found guilty in monopolistic practices, they just kept on going, and the change of US administration in 2001, only meant that the judgement against Microsoft never really materialised, and didn’t account for more than a slap on the wrist.

The ability of Microsoft to change strategy was amazing, the supertanker did a 180 in a very short timeframe. Microsoft also managed to make Windows much more manageable, effectively killing off the concept of the Network Computer, the PC and Windows had grown up, and it became the cornerstone of the digital world.

Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi

But something surprising happened. Microsoft became lazy, complacent, and arrogant. Microsoft was also under constant attack from “terrorists” that targeted their operating systems, binding developer resources, that should be working on the next version of Windows, now known as Vista. Vista was supposed to be the long promised nirvana of Cairo, but constant delays and de-scoping of important features like WinFS, means that Vista ended up being little more than a point-release

Internet Explorer and Windows had been sitting idle for 5 years, the bugs in it becoming more and more annoying, and the security patches kept coming in, an ever increasing stream.

During that time Bill Gates also seemed to loose interest in Microsoft, focusing more and more on his reputation for posterity, being the greatest philanthropist in the history of humankind.

This relative absence of Microsoft meant that opportunities for alternatives opened wide. Netscape finally had success with their open source efforts, and released Firefox, the KHTML project from KDE (desktop environment for *UX) had been adopted by Apple with the Safari browser and now it’s even finding it’s way to Windows. The Opera browser runs great on basically anything from desktop computers over gaming consoles to cellphones, meaning that there’s an alternative browser even for embedded OSes, like Windows Mobile, Symbian and Nintendo DS.

Linux has also seen tremendous growth, and philantropic projects like Ubuntu has started spreading Linux to the desktop. Linux is no longer hiding in the back-office, and the dark rooms of the geeks.

Linux is also on the rise as an embedded OS, with Maemo and OpenMoko, and the amazing project XO, formerly known as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, that promises to bring computing to the children of the developing world, by thinking different.

I can’t wait for the children to start creating Wikipedia entries, blogging, sharing pictures, making music, digital art and writing books. Imagine what they can do when they grow up!

And with social web-applications and Wi-Fi access becoming universal, we don’t really need complicated OSes for our day to day computing tasks, and a new class of devices will help us shed the shackles of the anachronism, the desktop computer. If you doubt me, try to take a look at Flickr, it’s better at organising information, than your desktop operating system.

Another frontier is open standards, especially document standards are being debated. The closed standards are history, and no matter who wins the “format wars” (that I’ve written about earlier), completely closed de-facto standards for documents, is going to become a closed, and very dark, chapter in the history of computing.

The Jedi of the BBS has returned…

…may the Force be with you.

Free at last, free at last, God all-mighty we’re free at last!

ps. I know there’s episodes I, II and III, and I might write about the prequel – even though the Star Wars prequels weren’t that succesful – and Microsoft might be down, but they’re not out. I have tremendous respect for Ray Ozzie, the current Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, and the Internet Explorer team and the Mac Business Unit are doing great applications.

So there might also be a sequel: “Episode VII: Developers, Developers, Developers” – stay tuned – it will be fascinating – we do indeed live in interesting times.

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Caféer og Restauranter Historier/Stories Musik

Jaiku@macnyt.dk: Fra “Second Life” til “First Life” i en helvedes fart – fordi IRL det er 24-karat

Wendelboe oprettede for et par dage siden en tråd om Jaiku på det danske Mac og Apple forum: Macnyt: Jaiku:

Kim Bach henviste forleden til Jaiku (Udtales som var det et dansk ord..), og jeg er blevet forelsket i lortet.. Men man kan hurtigt savne kontakter.. Så mange spændende ting, render Kim heller ikke og laver.. Er der ikke nogen her som bruger det?

Og her er hvad der så skete:

Her er da det bedste eksempel på hvad alle disse services kan bruges til..

Igår sad jeg og kedede mig da følgende tikkede ind på Kim Bach’s Jaiku:

IRL tip: Vesterbro. Right now Frappé with Hazzelnut. I’m a happy camper B-)

Og 15 minutter efter sad jeg på Kaffe og Vinyl med Mr. Bach og min helt egen frappé.. Det er da sejt!

Fra Second Life til First Life i en helvedes fart
Fordi IRL det er 24-karat

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Hackers IT Guruer Kim Blog (English) Kunst Music NGOs Open Source Technology

John Perry Barlow: The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace – Amen

John Perry Barlow - from the Wikipeida articleListening to an old issue of one of the best technology podcasts Go Digital from the BBC, I was reminded of John Perry Barlow ((born October 3, 1947) is an American poet, essayist, retired Wyoming cattle rancher, political activist and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead (source Wikipeida)).

In 1996 he formulated a Decaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, and after listening to the BBC, I’m focusing on this quote!

We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.

Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.

Amen!

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Blogs Hackers IT Guruer Kim Blog (English) Technology

“Weapon of choice”: What is the best device for basic Internet access on a public hotspot?

It should not come as a big surprise that I’m a serious gadget junkie, it’s probably easier to list the gadgets I don’t have.

For the last two days, I’ve been “packing serious heat”, being equipped with 4 devices capable of accessing the Internet, so I decided to do a field test of the devices, focusing on determining which device of the four, is the best suited for basic Internet browsing of a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

Let’s find the “weapon of choice for the road warrior”.

The Fantastic 4

The Fantastic 4• Apple PowerBook G4 12″
• Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
• Nintendo DS with the Opera browser
• Nokia 6070 GSM phone with the Opera Mini browser

The test was performed at the Café High-Q, on Sønder Boulevard, Vesterbro, Copenhagen, Denmark. High-Q has a WEP encrypted network, just ask for the WEP keyphrase in the bar.

Internet access wants to be free

Nokia 6070 isn’t capable of using Wi-Fi, and since I’m charged serious green for accessing the Internet using my phone, and Internet access wants to be free, it’s bye bye to the GSM/GPRS/EDGE device, even though it’s probably the most high-tech of the devices, and the only one of the four devices that offers true roaming.

For pure simplicity, it’s actually the best device. You can for instance do microblogging on Jaiku, since you can send a blog-entry by simply TEXT-ing the Jaiku server. Hey my 70-year old mother and my 14-year old niece could even do that! And I’ve given up trying to get them to do regular blogging 🙁

How do you like them Apples?

Since High-Q is a café, and you’re in a social setting in the IRL sense, the Apple PowerBook was the next device to get delegated to it’s bag. Even though the form-factor of the PowerBook 12″ is nice, it’s simply too big, bulky and since I can write a lot of text, and it offers a full browsing experience, I tend to “disappear” into cyberspace when using it in public, much like Jeff Bridges in Tron, so no more Apples for me, it’s too annoying for basic browsing and presence updating.

For full Internet access and serious writing, however, the PowerBook 12″ rocks – and I still consider it to be the nicest computer I’ve ever used – and for updating a web-site or writing a blog-entry I would not choose any of the other devices. I’m actually happy that Apple’s current offerings are so unsuitable for me, it’s healthy for my economy.

Halfway mark

Next up was the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, my newest “computer” – and that’s what it should be considered.

The N800 was made for Internet accees and it’s a great device for just that, being one of the first devices to offer an always-on experience of the Internet if you’re doing limited roaming.

The N800, is a new class of device, consider it a PDA on steroids. It runs a version of Linux called Maemo, and it is full of open source thinking, sponsored by Nokia. It has a nice touch screen, that works well without the pen, and it automagically detects if you used the finger to press the screen, offering a bigger onscreen keyboard and menu system. On top of that, the N800 also does handwriting recognition.

N800 has a nice big widescreen, exactly the size of a standard business card, and the webcam cleverly pops out, and auto-launches the video chat application, when you press it. The video chat application seems to be using a protocol build on top of Jabber (Gtalk uses Jabber). I’ve yet to use it, because I don’t know anybody else that has a N800, and I don’t know what standard PC software that might work with it, iChat maybe?

The buttons on the N800 works great, and it’s a major improvement on the classical PDA, that offers quick-launch buttons for applications.

The N800 has a cell-phone like navigation joystick, a back-key, a context menu key, a task-bar key, that lists all open windows. On top it has three keys for zooming the UI, and a button to put it in full screen mode, hiding the menu and status bars.

You quickly learn to navigate it using a combination of the keys, the pen and your index-finger, and you can hook it up to any Bluetooth keyboard, I’ve used my Apple Wireless Keyboard with no problems at all.

The N800 would do better if I could use the video-chat for anything, had better battery life and was slightly smaller and lighter. The list of applications is huge, mostly due to the Linux heritage, hey it even runs VNC, making it the KEWLest remote control EVER!

My favourite feature is the task-switcher, it’s fast, and since the N800 runs offers true multitasking – I don’t like to close anything – the list of open windows and application quickly gets extensive.

The bundled RSS-reader is quite good, and the way that visual and audible notifcations you get when a new Gtalk IM arrives or you leave/enter a hotspot, simply works, making it an always-on Wi-Fi device with roaming support.

I only miss a bundled calendar application with support for the iCal format – but you can get that from Maemo.

The most ground-breaking feature of the N800 is that it shows, that Linux really does have the potential to become the last OS you’ll ever “wear” – Linux is ACTUALLY happening and Maemo and Ubuntu is paving the road. Poor, poor Apple and Microsoft: software wants to be free. The N800 also made me think of the Alan Kay quote Steve Jobs used during the MacWorld 2007 keynote:

“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Alan Kay

With the N800 Nokia has realised the potential of the community process, so I’ll try to improve on Alan Kay:

“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware, but stop re-inventing the wheel.” Kim Bach (*blush*) AND Alan Kay

I find it so strange that Nokia isn’t doing more to promote the N800, you can’t get a real live demo anywhere in Copenhagen, unless you run into me – it’s actually not that difficult, if I remember to update my Jaiku presence ;-). The N800 also wins on the RSS-reader, making it extremely well-suited for “presence checking”.

The main problem with the N800 is that it, like the PowerBook, delivers a full Internet experience, sending me too far into cyberspace, and I think that battery life is too low, offering only 2-3 hours of continous browsing, at least if you have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled. Stand-by time is pretty impressive however, and if you’re roaming, it is great at connecting to the network automagically.

Nintendo DS

The Nintendo DS is a portable gaming console, but it’s different. First and foremost it features a dual-screen layout, and one of the screens is a touch screen. I love the Brain Training Games for the DS, but the greatest thing is that Opera has developed a browser for the DS, and it has a lot of optimisation tricks up it’s sleeves, that enhances the browsing experience.

Innovative use of the dual screens. In the standard mode the page is optimised for the strange 4:3*2 formfactor, and an awesome overview mode, where a full version of the websites is rendered on the bottom screen, and a zoomed view is presented on the top screen.

My favourite feature is the fast scrolling that happens when you combine pressing the top buttons and using the “joystick”.

It’s also very nice that the top screen is used to advertise some of the more advanced features, like the screen-shot feature where you can take a “screenshot”, and have it display on the top-screen.

On the hardware side, I love that it’s so easy to switch between online and offline. If you want to go offline, you simple close the screen, and you flip it open when you want to go online again, it’s instantaneous.

The DS is the perfect device if you are doing limited roaming and browsing. The DS offers great browsing experience of basic XHTML standards compliant web-sites like Google, Wikipedia, Gmail, Flickr and Jaiku.

I think that a lot of intelligent choices has been made by Nintendo.

You can only configure 3 different hotspots, but that reflects a lot of real world scenarios – @home, @work and @ “favourite watering hole”.

Battery life is amazing. I need to measure it, but it feels like it’s close to 10 hours, Nintendo must have some very clever power management tricks up their sleeves.

The DS is quite rugged, and that’s great when you’re in public.

On the downside, the Opera browser only “talks” English, and some Danish letter are strangely missing from the onscreen keyboard. The lack of WPA support is OK, since you’ll most likely be using it to access an open hotspot.

...weapon of choice…

…the Nintendo DS…

My Jaiku on the Nintendo DSFor basic browsing, that doesn’t send you too far into cyberspace, the Nintendo DS with the Opera browser, is a surprising capable device for Internet browsing and simple TEXT style messages, like “Jaikus”, and the rendering tricks are quite simply amazing. The Nintendo DS is more than a toy, and it’s the least annoying of the devices, and it offers hours and hours of Internet browsing, I’ve been using it for 2 days without charging it, and the battery indicator still flashes green, indicating that the power-adapter can stay put. The DS is also much cheaper than the N800.

The N800 is a close contender however. Any talk about Linux being too difficult to use must cease, and the open source philosophy of Maemo is right up my alley

Another big plus is the fact that the UI, and the applications, all are translated to Danish.

The N800 would win the test if Nokia improved battery-life – I’d like 10-12 hours of modest use, if they shrunk the device just a little, and maybe adopted the intuitive way of “hanging-up”, like on the DS, by closing the lid. As it is designed right now, you have to push a button and select “off-line”, followed by another key-press and the selection of “lock” – I have to add that you could skip locking the device manually, since it locks automatically after a set interval.

For now, however, I’ll be getting this take on a classic Mae West quote:

“Is that a DS in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Open Source Technology

“Format wars”: CW – Bliver det uafgjort mellem ODF og Open XML?

(opdateret: 8-Jun-2007: 20:57)

Bølgerne går for tiden lidt højt i den danske verden for alt der er “åbent og frit”, og det skyldes en artikel i ComputerWorld.

Artiklen er baseret på et møde om dokument formater, arrangeret af DKUUG, SLUUG og KLID (danske foreninger/interessegrupper der bla. arbejder med åbne standarder, undertegnede er på DKUUGs mailinglister).

“Format wars”

Den efterhånden lange “formatkrig”, handler om hvilket format der i fremtiden skal anvendes til udveksling af dokumenter, ikke mindst når det offentlige kommunikerer med borgerene.

Krigen står primært mellem de to formater, ODF (Open Document Format) og OOXML (Office Open XML). ODF er en ratificeret ISO standard, OOXML er på vej til at blive det.

ODF-lejren (herunder DKUUG, IT-Politisk Forening, SUN – ikke mindst SUNs COSO Simon Phipps) mener der “kun kan være et format” (ODF). Det gør OOXML-lejren (mest Microsoft) sikkert også – OOXML forstås – de siger det bare ikke så højt.

Så ComputerWorlds budskab om at “fredspiben er tændt”, er overraskende, ikke mindst for undertegnede. Nicolai Devantier fra ComputerWorld starter sin artikel med disse ord:

ComputerViews: I kampen om hvilken åben standard vi skal benytte i Danmark efter årsskiftet, er både ODF og Open XML kommet nærmere målet.

Stridens parter ser nemlig ud til at have accepteret, at der skal være plads til begge.

Men er stridsøksen virkelig blevet begravet til fordel for en dobbeltløsning, hvor der er plads til, at ODF og Open XML lever side om side?

Parolerne om, at vi kun skal have ét format er i hvert fald stilnet af, og dualismen præger i højere grad debatten – og det fra begge sider.

Som ComputerWorld fremstiller det, lyder det jo som om format krigen er afblæst, og det er faldet “ODF lejren” (i form af DKUUG), voldsomt for brystet, de mener der er tale om manipulation, og artiklen har også resulteret i skarpe kommentarer fra den danske “ODF lejr” (vi skal jo nok passe på med at kalde det lobby ;-)).

Dokument filformater er “uinteressante”

Der er vist ikke den store tvivl om at undertegnede er solidt placeret i ODF-lejren, men jeg har nu lidt svært ved at se problemet med artiklen, der bare er en konstatering af at krigen ikke er så varm.

I øvrigt mener jeg at dokument filformater er ganske uinteressante, selv om åbne standarder på dette punkt er vigtige.

Vi skal ganske enkelt til at holde op med at sende kopier af filer til hinanden, men i stedet sende henvisninger til netadresser (URLer, links), så er det jo op til browseren og serveren at rendere/konvertere korrekt og dynamisk. Bemærk at Microsoft Office og Open Office jo i øvrigt også er en slags browsere, de anvendes dog ofte kun til at browse lokale kopier af indhold.

Vi glemmer også at det stadig er Microsofts “gamle” og lukkede DOC format og Adobes delvist åbne PD og da i høj grad (X)HTML, der er de virkelige de-facto standarder.

Sådan starter lavinen

Historien viser at det der sker er, at så snart bare en enkelt offentlig instution har købt MSO2007, så starter lavinen:

Først sendes der et OOXML formateret dokument fra en offentlig instution til en anden, herefter ringer telefonen:

Modtager af OOXML dokument: “Jeg kan ikke åbne dit dokument”!
Afsender af OOXML dokument: “Det er ellers skrevet i Word”
Modtager af OOXML dokument: “Det har jeg da, men jeg kan ikke åbne det”
Afsender af OOXML dokument: “Så skal du jo bare have den nyeste version”
Modtager af OOXML dokument: “Ah – udviklingen går jo så stærkt, og nyt er jo altid godt…Jeg taler med chefen, han siger jo altid at vi skal være på forkant med udviklingen…”

Hvorefter modtager bliver til afsender, og den ene offentlig instution efter den anden falder som de proverbiale domino brikker – *suk*.

Får DKUUG til at fremstå som utroværdige

Egentlig kan jeg ikke se det store problem med artiklen, udover at den naturligvis får. DKUUG til at fremstå som dybt utroværdige, da de (eller skal man sige vi) er placeret solidt i “ODF-lejren”. Det største problem lader til at være at Simon Phipps er fejlciteret:

Simon Phipps giver i et podcast til Computerworld således udtryk for, at han ikke udelukker Microsofts format og godt kan forstå, hvis politikerne vælger dobbeltløsningen.

Sagen er også kompliceret, krigen drejer sig nemlig reelt om noget helt andet, noget der ikke rigtig kan siges højt: nemlig at Microsoft Office 2007 (MSO2007) ikke skal indføres i det offentlige, og det er jeg helt enig i.

“Jeg viser dig verden som den er”

Men, husk:

“Redmond ligger på Sjælland, på Sjælland, på Sjælland…”
“Balmer ligger i udbrud…i udbrud…i udbrud…”

(undskyld til Nephew).

Se også:

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Musik

Rebooter baby…

Det er en prod ting i Prima – Mega – Giga
Gutes musika
Masterkræs vi ka’ li at se dig ødelægge butik og faa kolik af
Og lytte til det her klasses prod
Sagt sødt
Er det godt sagt sandt er det super
Det kan du gennemskue uden at være agent Cooper
Du rebooter baby – husked’ du at gemme?
Du oppe mod matrixen nu for drengene er hjemme
Spids mund skatter og spids øre skatter
Det en Prod vibration noget de kiefe ikke fatter
Det har de aldrig gjort og det vil de aldrig gøre
Det har de aldrig turdet og det vil de aldrig tørre
Men det er deres dont og det rager mig en disse
At være deres pop idol er ikke min bizze
Jeg har mig ikk’ en flise min massage klinik
Den er inde i dit hoved pakket ind i musik

(Malk de Koijn 2002)

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Reboot9: BBC “caught” using the “two-dot-O-M-G” word

BBC News Logoreboot 9 logoAs you might have noticed, I attended the reboot “(un)conference” in Copenhagen last week, and it was great.

I’d like to draw your attention to the feature “Rebooting the Web 2.0 age” on reboot 9 that BBC ran during the “(un)conference”.

Here’s a quote from the article:

The future of the web is being debated at Reboot 9.0, a leading European grassroots technology and design conference in Copenhagen.

But…”oh-my-two-dot-oh-NO” they’re using the “two-dot-O-M-G” dreaded “two-dot-oh-YEAH” word…

The big question here for the start-ups and opinion formers is how to use Web 2.0’s focus on community to build the next generation of web tools and become Europe’s Web 2.0 poster child.

I guess I can forgive the BBC, since the feature is “more than decent” ;-), and they capture some of the spirit of reboot in this quote:

This year’s conference theme is Human? with many speakers grappling with such deep philosophical queries as what it means to be human. One session was called Humanism 101.

Understanding human behaviour and how to adapt those behaviours to technology and the web rather than the reverse is rare for technology devotees.

Last.fm LogoAnd Last.fm deserves all the love in the world, iTunes might never know what hit them.

However, it is no surprise as the big subject in the bars and on the grass outside was this week’s sale of London social software music service Last.fm.

Its creator Martin Stiskel, explaining why US broadcaster CBS would want to buy a music preference tool said: “They want to move from a content company to an audience company, giving the audiences control and learning from this and that’s why Last.fm was their choice.”

I’m nominating Last.fm for the price of being the “greatest service on the planet”, even though it makes it look like I have absolutely no taste in music – is it about time to get more discriminating, and start “acting my age, not my shoesize” – nah some people have actually expressed love for my personal radiostation ;-), and I get shouts like this:

Du er på alder med min far, men jeres musiksmag ligger usandsynligt langt fra hinanden. Det er meget godt klaret! Respekt herfra 🙂

(translation from Danish: You’re the age of my father, but your taste in music is unbelievably far from each others. That’s well done! Respect :)).

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Reboot9 (un)conference “spinoff”: the conversation continues @ the “rebooters” mailing list

The great reboot 9.0 Jaiku backchannel posterI just joined the new google groups (e.g. mailinglist), called rebooters.

The purpose of the group, is to have a “permanent backchannel” for the reboot (un)conference, since backchannels, like the Jaiku backchannel from reboot9, has a tendency to “die”.

The mailing list has the following description:

Missing the brainshift experienced from talking to all the brilliant rebooters? Keep the conversation going between reboots here…

It’s a good idea – that would have been even better, if it was set up, officially, through the reboot website, but because website technologies change all the time, the use of a relatively low-tech solution, like a mailing-list, is a not as bad an idea as it sounds – e-mail still is “the lowest common denominator”.

This might help to avoid the frustrations I experienced, when I learned that the “reboot 8” site had it’s URLs changed, making it appear that a lot of information from 2006, had either been lost, or, at best, made (too) difficult to locate.

“I want my Permalinks”, and I’m looking forward to the continued discussions and next year, where I suggest that the organisers make away with the “Wired style dot-oh-NO” numbering scheme, and just calls the event “reboot”!

Some background

“Reboot” is, according to the website:

[…]a community event for the practical visionaries who are at the intersection of digital technology and change all around us[…]

Reboot usually takes place end May/start June, in Copenhagen Denmark.

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“Kammerater! Nåeh nej…” – Til Grundlovsmøde med Ny Alliance i Kongens Have

(opdateret 7-Juni@04:25 UTC)

For FØRSTE gang i mit liv har jeg været til et Grundlovsmøde, det er faktisk lidt pinligt, men jeg tror at det nu bliver en tradition.

Grunden til at jeg var til Grundlovsmøde i går skyldtes et tip jeg fik fra en god veninde – tak for det – men det var nu også fordi jeg tror jeg først forstod at værdsætte vores Grundlov efter jeg faktisk læste den, og specielt den vigtigste paragraf, i forbindelse med “en eller anden sag” sidste år.

Her er den vigtigste paragraf i Danmarks Riges Grundlov (kopieret fra grundloven.dk):

§ 77

Enhver er berettiget til på tryk, i skrift og tale at offentliggøre sine tanker, dog under ansvar for domstolene. Censur og andre forebyggende forholdsregler kan ingensinde på ny indføres.

Det kan vist ikke siges meget mere klart, jeg bøjer hovedet i respekt over hvor simpelt og klart denne paragraf er formuleret, ulig en hel del af de “andre” (hvis du stadig er i tvivl, så er dette paragrafen om ytringsfrihed, og “sagen” var den der med Profeten Muhammad “Salla Allahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam”).

Anders #1 – “Lad dem om det!”

Og så må jeg da indrømme at Ny Alliance tiltaler mig, det er fantastisk spændende, og de er gennemsyret af “demokratisk energi”, hvilket er dejligt, og fantastisk for demokratiet, det har faktisk været med til at få Anders Fogh Rasmussen til at undsige Dansk Folkeparti, UTROLIGT! Og det Anders Fogh Rasmussen sagde i går (omtalende Hadjab og Burka forbud):

“Lad dog dem om det”, sagde Fogh om de muslimske kvinder. – “Lad det velkendte danske frisind sikre retten til at klæde sig, som man vil – også i det offentlige rum”.

Det er da klar og fornuftig tale, og det var ikke noget Pia Kjærsgaard kunne lide at høre.

Anders #2 – “Kammerater – nåeh nej!”

Nå! Nu spørger du nok: “hvornår kommer der noget om Ny Alliance”? – det gør der – men først et par ord fra Anders #2, nemlig Lund-Madsen. ALM var indkaldt som konferencier, og han åbnede med at sige “Kammerater! nåeh nej”, og så kan man vist sige at stilen var lagt.

ALM tog i øvrigt over efter DJ Kenneth Bager i topform, vi fik Herp Albert og så Edith Piaf (La Vie En Rose) lige før ALM gik på…Respekt * liggende ottetal!

Anders #3 – “2.0 (to-punkt-åget)” opfordring til deltagelse

Første taler var Anders #3, dennegang Samuelsen, og han imponerede mig med en klar og utvetydig opfordring til at deltage i formuleringen af partiprogrammet, det var som han talte direkte til mig da han talte om hvordan vi kan forbedre skolerne.

Det var befriende at AS faktisk slet ikke talte om skattepolitik, det han kom med var i stedet denne totalt to-punkt-ågede (two-dot-oh-ede) opfordring til deltagelse:

Politikudviklingen kommer i vidt omfang til at foregå på nettet, og vi skyder debatten i gang i løbet af få uger. Vi ved godt, at ikke alle har adgang til nettet, men skriv til os, hvis I har noget på hjerte. Vi vil lytte til de mange gode ideer – og først til august lægge os fast på et principprogram. Ikke et detaljeret program med en holdning til alt fra forholdene for søens folk til problemerne på Danmarks Radio, men et program, der redegør for værdier, grundholdninger og visioner på de forskellige områder.

Vi fik forøvrigt at vide at hjemmesiden er lavet af to 16-årige. I følge AS havde de to drenge været bekymrede for om den kunne klare belastningen efter den 7-maj-2007, til det sagde AS at han da ikke regnede med at der var ret mange der kom forbi! “Tror i der er nogle der opdager den?” – det var der som bekendt.

Og så kom Anders Samuelsen med en vittighed: Da den dynamiske trio var på vej til pressekonferencen den 7-maj-2007, var de kørt forbi Søren Pind…De rullede så vinduet ned og råbte ud: “Nej Søren du kan IKKE være med”!

Gitte Seeberg – Deltagelese i det internationale samarbejde

Jeg har tidligere nævnt at jeg synes Gitte Seeberg er det svageste led i den nye alliance, men hun overraskede mig positivt med klar tale om at Danmark skal deltage fuldt og helt i det internationalle samarbejde, herunder EU – væk med EU forbeholdene – og arbejdet i FN og andre internationale organisationer skal styrkes. Min respekt for Gitte Seeberg er vokset voldsomt.

Og så var hun helt klar omkring USA, og det var flot:

Ny Alliance ønsker, at Danmark skal stå stærkt gennem et solidt udenrigspolitisk samarbejde mellem EU-landene. Et samarbejde der gerne i fremtiden må blive yderligere styrket. Vi ønsker også et stærkt og forpligtende samarbejde med alle gode kræfter i USA. Vi mener ikke, at der hverken kan eller skal sættes lighedstegn mellem Bush-administrationen og USA. USA er mere og andet end Bush, hvilket det seneste valg i USA jo også har bevist, hvor der nu er et nyt flertal i både senat og kongres.

Rasmus Nøhr – Jeg kan godt li’ kærlighedssange

Har ikke hørt Rasmus Nøhr før, men han er virkelig god – synger og spiller godt – meget minimalistisk – det kan jeg godt li’. Faktisk kan jeg (efterhånden) godt li’ (hmm forstå?) når der bliver “sagt”: kærlighed.

Naser Khader – “Oprør fra midten” og samarbejde

Til sidst gik Naser Khader på, ALM introducerede ham som “Sølvfisken”, da han er som en sølvfisk der forsvinder når lyset tændes, men altid er der LOL.

NK er faktisk alliancens svageste led, men jeg må indrømme at han overraskede ved at komme med klare udmeldinger vedr. Mellemøsten, hvor han talte om at Israels besættelse af Gaza og Vestbredden skal ophøre, men essensen af det han sagde var dette:

Ny Alliance står lige dér, hvor vi skal stå: på midten.

Det er vigtigt for mig at understrege: Vi har værdifællesskaber på kryds og tværs med de eksisterende partier. Vi kan arbejde til højre og til venstre – jeg gentager: til venstre – i Folketingssalen.

Og i onsdags i Folketingssalen slog det mig endnu engang: For os er det ikke afgørende, hvem vi samarbejder med, men hvad vi samarbejder om.

Men midten: det er os!

Det er flot og klart, ENDELIG: “oprør fra midten”, og jeg glæder mig til at se om Ny Alliance får nogle markante venstrefløjs politikere med.

Kammerater 2-punkt-åge – og så bagte Bageren “kiks” MUMS

Da der som bekendt nu ikke var flere medlemmer af alliancen der kunne tale – som ALM sagde – og der i øvrigt ikke var nogle der meldte sig til en Jam session (jeg overvejede det), så gik Bageren på igen. Lækkert, lækkert ørekræs med alt fra Dolly Parton over Chic til David Bowie og The Specials.

Men jeg skriver ikke under på opstillingsblankletterne før “jeg” (læs “vi”) har skrevet Ny Alliances program, eller skal vi kalde det “manifest”, og titlen kunne jo være “KAMMERATER to-punkt åge”!

Tillykke med fødselsdagen Danmark! Ny Alliance ligner en GAVE til demokratiet, og kender Naser Khader den “statiske duo”, eller var det bare et anerkendende nik vi fik, fordi vi havde den mest chillede attitude?