Hard News: Brown bigots etc.
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Given that I am unable to comment on the other issue of the day let me ask this:
Why does a nation/country (I'll let others decide that one) need a religion?and then: If we decide on one can it be democratically changed later on?
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Danyl, you weren't at the GOVIS conference by any chance?
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_Firefox, Thunderbird, any number of alternatives to Windows Media Player, Open Office_
That's the good stuff, a lot of which have corporations behind them.
In order to install a current Oracle version on a current Redhat version, I had to:
- note what happened when the installer crashed
- Google for why
- Download a C file
- Install development tools (e.g. the C compiler) using a wierd semi-GUI interface
- Compile the C file (using the command line shell)
- Copy the file into an obscure locationThat's pretty standard. Other installs have required that I recompile my kernel.
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While I admit I have yet to migrate my work to Ubuntu, I didn't find it much different to windows to use. This is someone who speaks Mac and PC talking of course.
You're ever gonna have to write a line of code if you don't wanna, as far as I could see.
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Dim, it's calling your integer 'value' that scares me most about that code. From a guy who used to support VBA apps written by dozens of the techiest users and used by thousands, I can tell you that part is the most typical of why converting all those VBA apps will simply never happen.
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Counts on this topic so far.
God botherers 25
Computer geeks 20
And I was starting to think this country was a nation of opensourceanists. ;-)
Anyroad,re OpenOffice, just so long as you can explain and people will understand the differences between a .doc and a .odt file I'm sure it will be fine.
The need to understand the difference is almost irrelevant, as long as you save the document as .doc then it can be read and edited on almost any machine, unlike saving in most "new" Microsoft formats.
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On the National Anthem, it invokes a theist god and one that acts in human affairs. That could be any major religion (I think) - maybe not some forms of Buddhism?
Personally I would prefer a minimally deist version:
"God of bosons and of quarks,
the Big Bang's long gone and you aren't going to do stuff, are you?" -
I have the opposite problem - we migrated the last kid to Linux a year or so when she demanded she get a computer like Mum's (from a Mac). The kids use open office for reports and don't even know it - it's just a word processor for heavens, konq for web browsing, amarok to talk to their ipods etc etc etc it's just the way of their world ....
Problem I have is when my son doing an NCEA lvl 1 IT course comes home with homework from the teacher like "what key does X" (with an implicit 'in MS word' in there), "what's a virus?", "how do you guard against them?" (switch to linux duh!) - all this contextual stuff that she expects the kids to have a windows computer and doesn't bother teaching for those who don't.
Don't get me wrong, I want my kids to learn how to use Windows, and Linux and Macs - by the time they're in the work force whatever they learn now will be out of date and they need to learn now how to adapt to whatever they need to use when the time comes - exposing kids to as many platforms as you can is a big win!
On the other hand I'm not going to spend all my spare time rooting spyware and viruses out of my family's computers
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Rich, in the context I use the National Song, it could be shortened to:
"Please let the All Blacks win", and then padded out by translating into Maori, and every other Pacific Island language that has ever boasted an All Black. -
Wouldn't know. Was talking about schools anyway. Haven't used a Mac since I left university. But they were great there....
Schools can be considered quite large IT enterprises nowadays. Thin clients in a virtual server environment will be far and away the cheapest option for desktop mgt and some schools, including Nelson College on my patch have started to understand this.
While the issues around broadband have carried on for years, the poor old schools have been left to make a complete balls up of developing the LAN and data infrastructure at their premises. The sad fact is that, as metropolitan data services and local peering networks come onstream, the requirement to fix inside the firewalls may make the broadband problem seem trivial.
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"I don't believe in an interventionist god, but I know that you do."
But if I did, I would kneel down and ask him to intervene when it came to Brian Tamaki.
(sorry Nick)
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a .odt file
It's a tragic fact that for me those letters will forever stand for "Otago Daily Times"
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Re: Herald Premium Premium Content removal:
P'raps it was maintained by the sub-editors...
Mind you, it had it's place - I wish a certain new blog was behind it (see Cracker) so certain editors could see the worth of asking young journos to write such stuff.
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In order to install a current Oracle version on a current Redhat version
Because installing Oracle is noted as both a common task for end-users, and trivial to do on any platform, it represents an excellent test of the platform in question.
Personally I prefer trying to upgrade my Linux PCs to my Windows ones. Major upgrades with the latter seem to lead to black screens of non-booting or activation related pain with monotonous regularity.
Why does a nation/country (I'll let others decide that one) need a religion?
It doesn't, any more than a country needs an official political party.
Many religions, however, seem desperate to own countries.
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Hi Danyl
regarding your comment about open source
....and a total freaking nightmare for the other 99.999999% of the population.
I think you're exactly right. But maybe if you exposed children to perl etc earlier you might just get a society where a larger percentage was comfortable creating/modifying their own software.
cheers
Bart -
On the other hand I'm not going to spend all my spare time rooting spyware and viruses out of my family's computers.
See, unless someone is a complete vandal, there is really no reason why a MS environment needs to be like that. It's easy enough to stay trouble free if you want to. I'd say it's no more trouble than my Linux desktop tbh.
The thing I love about Linux is that any application or device that exists out there can be retooled, re-engineered and downright pimped with a wealth of features that I may have never known I needed, until I started using them. That is the power of open source.
But it's not a wholely suitable environment for workers who just want to use the screen to do the basic tasks they need to do for their job. Any changes to the enterprise should start with them. And any factors for change should take the wholesale consequences of those changes into the account. Not just the price of the software licenses.
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The need to understand the difference is almost irrelevant, as long as you save the document as .doc then it can be read and edited on almost any machine, unlike saving in most "new" Microsoft formats.
Not my humble experience. Even with Word for Mac's inbuilt compatability check, the resulting .doc doesn't always open at first try on a Windows machine. Other apps that output .doc files don't necessarily preserve their formatting when opened in another .doc-compatible program, even on the same platform. As I need to exchange .doc files with a number of users on a variety of OSes I've minimized the problem by running Word for Office 2007 on Windows XP inside Parallels on my Mac.
The resulting .docs are near-idiotproof.
It's a case of the devil that everyone knows. Perhaps I should become a little more muscular about promoting the use of that other Microsoft innovation, RichText. It's just that there are still people out there who'll email you back when they receive a .rtf attachment, asking how to open it.
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Steve,
What I meant by "understand the differences" is that 1) There is such a thing as a file type, 2) That MS Office Word uses (generally) .doc, 3) that OpenOffice uses something different, .odt, and 4) that OO can save as .doc if necessary.
I used to push OpenOffice when I worked at DSE back during university and after a while I realised I couldn't assume that people would necessarily easily understand the above. I also found it useful to tell people how to save as Word files if they wanted to share. Then having ended up being labelled as a "word expert" (not really deserved either) at my last work I became pretty cynical about the general level of Office/Word expertise amongst the 20+ age group.
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" a .odt file
It's a tragic fact that for me those letters will forever stand for "Otago Daily Times""
I thought it was a computer game - "Or Die Trying". Kind of poignant.
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I can't remember if Russell or anyone esle linked to this: the Herald's opinon page on a state religion
Why does a nation/country (I'll let others decide that one) need a religion?
Many religions, however, seem desperate to own countriesI think that might've been my point. A nation doesn't need a state religion, religion needs a state religion so it can say: "See, we're the right one!"
Surely NZ's religion shouldn't be one founded in the desert then, it should be something more Pacific.
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The .odt/ODT will forever be seared in my mind, however I have to say it has improved markedly from the 1990s, as a newspaper. Oh I believe the ODT still has premium content, but then a parochial paper like that wouldn't dare outsource sub editing.
Leading the ODT today, as per most days, is the now seemingly endless development vs. anti development debate on any number of different items - stadiums, museums, wind farms, power/irrigation schemes, concrete plants, and my personal favourite - Opera House renovations.
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Bokononism for state religion!
Or we could have pastafarianism, just so all those religious people who insist atheism is a religion can be right.
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This from the Herald's Your Views:
Grace (Parnell)
NZ is a Christian nation. If we went to the Middle East we wouldn't expect them to become Christian for us.Jesus was clearly born in the other Middle East, not the one Grace is refering to.
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Ben: I became pretty cynical about the general level of Office/Word expertise amongst the 20+ age group.
I'm glad to tell you I'm in the 50+ age group, there is hope.
Joe: As I need to exchange .doc files with a number of users on a variety of OSes I've minimized the problem by running Word for Office 2007 on Windows XP inside Parallels on my Mac.
The resulting .docs are near-idiotproof.
So, they can nearly be opened by idiots?
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Dim, it's calling your integer 'value' that scares me most about that code.
Good point - I've been using good old $perl for too long.
Danyl, you weren't at the GOVIS conference by any chance?
No - I work in a biology department and mostly go to biology and biotech related conferences.
On the other hand I'm not going to spend all my spare time rooting spyware and viruses out of my family's computers
I'm always surprised by these slashdotesque 'I gave all my friends and family Ubuntu (or whatever) and they love it' stories really surprise me. Great that it works for some people, but if I tried to give my friends and family Linux it would go something like this.
Me: Here you go - your computer should be a lot faster and you won't ever have to worry about virus's or spyware.
Friend: Great! Let's kick up Civ IV and see how well it runs!
Me: Errr . . .
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