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Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument
FOX News ^ | September 28, 2005 | James Prendergast

Posted on 09/29/2005 8:52:01 PM PDT by Golden Eagle

The broader media usually take little interest in public policy debates about technology, but they’re missing a big story in Massachusetts.

The technology trades, blogs and industry are buzzing about a monumental policy shift in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Officials in the state have proposed a new policy that mandates that every state technology system use only applications designed around OpenDocument file formats.

Such a policy might seem like something that should concern only a small group of technology professionals, but in fact the implications are staggering and far-reaching. The policy promises to burden taxpayers with new costs and to disrupt how state agencies interact with citizens, businesses and organizations.

Worse, the policy represents an attack on market-based competition, which in turn will hurt innovation. The state has a disaster in the making.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: brassbuzard; microsloth; microsoft; microsoftshill; opensource; paidshill; redmondlapdog; redmondmalware; redmondpayroll; redmondshill; twobitweasel
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To: LibFreeOrDie; Golden Eagle; MikeinIraq; N3WBI3
One of the founding members of the author's organization, Americans for Technology Leadership, is...Microsoft!

http://www.techleadership.org/about/

Not exactly an independent view.

Okay...now we're coming up to the part where Brass Buzzard accuses you of being a Communist lackey for actually stating facts.

21 posted on 09/29/2005 9:09:54 PM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: Golden Eagle
Editorial on FOX News weighs in on the controversial decision by MA to switch all their systems to an obscure and untested data format.

That would be very useful for the legislature.

22 posted on 09/29/2005 9:10:33 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (France is an example of retrograde chordate evolution.)
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To: ordinaryguy
PDF is an open format. Anyone who cares to implement the format within their application is able to do so, because Adobe has provided detailed specifications describing the format.

From what I understand, so is Microsoft's new format, which was specifically opened to meet the supposed MA request. But MA moved the target anyway.

23 posted on 09/29/2005 9:10:38 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
So Microsoft is excluding itself from Massachusetts over "a slight modification of a competitor's format?"

How moronic of them.

24 posted on 09/29/2005 9:10:57 PM PDT by Petronski (I thank God for Cyborg.)
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To: Prime Choice

I've never heard him justify why he frequents a site that runs on two of the biggest 'commie' pieces of software - apache and linux.


25 posted on 09/29/2005 9:11:39 PM PDT by flashbunny (Do you believe in the Constitution only until it keeps the government from doing what you want?)
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To: Petronski

And I am no fan of Microsoft - there loss is free-market gain.


26 posted on 09/29/2005 9:12:06 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (The radical secularization of America is happening)
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To: NJ_gent
Let's see, a document format that can be read by anything, written by anything

I think you must have meant "read by 1% of computers, written by 1% of computers" instead, since that is about how common this format is.

27 posted on 09/29/2005 9:12:36 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: LiteKeeper

I didn't want to sound like I disagree with you. I don't.

Be well.


28 posted on 09/29/2005 9:12:53 PM PDT by Petronski (I thank God for Cyborg.)
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To: flashbunny; Golden Eagle; MikeinIraq; N3WBI3
Uh-oh...you dinged the Brass Buzzard with readily-accessible facts. That's like holding up garlic and a crucifix to Dracula himself.

Now all we're going to get is a lot of hissing, frantic swiping and erratic backpedaling from ol' Buzzy.

29 posted on 09/29/2005 9:13:28 PM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: magellan
Obscure and untested? Any new format is obscure and untested.

Which is why it's not a good idea to mandate an entire state government to use it, with no alternatives allowed.

30 posted on 09/29/2005 9:13:53 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle

I imagine you do.

Are you back to opposing non-proprietary file formats?


31 posted on 09/29/2005 9:13:53 PM PDT by Redcloak (We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singin' "whiskey for my men and beer for my horses!")
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To: flashbunny; All
The release said Americans for Technology Leadership was "a new grassroots coalition."

Y'all refresh my memory. Wasn't that grassroots coalition made up of dead people who wrote letters to State Prosecutors and Letters to the Editor(s) of newpapers? ;)

32 posted on 09/29/2005 9:15:32 PM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered. ©)
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To: flashbunny
I've never heard him justify why he frequents a site that runs on two of the biggest 'commie' pieces of software - apache and linux.

Hell...dig back into his posts far enough and you'll find he claims he was on Free Republic prior to it being created...and that he was on the World Wide Web years before it existed.

The guy's a few biscuits short of a picnic, I tell ya.

33 posted on 09/29/2005 9:15:33 PM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: flashbunny
And that took me less than 5 minutes to find out.

No surprise, doesn't make the points he made wrong. At least he's a capitalist, and not one of the "all software must be free" hippies.

34 posted on 09/29/2005 9:15:48 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Petronski

Never crossed my mind - I am well!


35 posted on 09/29/2005 9:17:04 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (The radical secularization of America is happening)
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To: Golden Eagle

you speak like someone with absolutely no experience in tech or internet fields.


36 posted on 09/29/2005 9:18:05 PM PDT by flashbunny (Do you believe in the Constitution only until it keeps the government from doing what you want?)
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To: Gunslingr3
Eighteen state's attorneys general were joining with the Justice Department in its anti-trust suit against Microsoft.

Yeah we remember, a bunch of liberals lined up behind Billy Clinton and Janet Reno. Sounds like you were you in the back too?

37 posted on 09/29/2005 9:18:35 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: packrat35
Bill Gate's Smithers


38 posted on 09/29/2005 9:18:52 PM PDT by Reeses
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To: Golden Eagle
"obscure and untested data format"

Who the hell cares, let Massachusetts do whatever they want. Everything is in XML so its not like they can't later hire a couple of college interns or get some software engineering students to write some xslt to convert between the formats.
39 posted on 09/29/2005 9:19:10 PM PDT by bahblahbah
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To: Golden Eagle

uh, exactly what experience do you have with technology or open protocols?

Do you know the history of TCP/IP and why it was created?

If you did, you would realize his position and yours are ridiculous.


40 posted on 09/29/2005 9:19:21 PM PDT by flashbunny (Do you believe in the Constitution only until it keeps the government from doing what you want?)
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