Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: N3WBI3
So you just want to read the file and nothing else? Do you also demand highway road signs in Swahili, Laotian, Spanish, and Cantonese?

No, I do believe that part of your petitioning for 'open source' will come to mean that documents from the government can be read on anything you choose and be likewise manipulated on anything you choose and ultimately compel the government to accept it as their own legal document.

If you demand something other than .PDF so that your Hewlett-Packard palmtop can open an application for a driver's license and print it on scrolly thermal ribbon paper, don't be surprised when the DMV says 'omgwtflolz' and rejects it.

The digital revolution is about embracing standards, not non-standards.

25 posted on 06/27/2005 1:58:54 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies ]


To: The KG9 Kid
So you just want to read the file and nothing else? Do you also demand highway road signs in Swahili, Laotian, Spanish, and Cantonese?

Funny I did not know the English language was privately owned, and a secret at that...

I do believe that part of your petitioning for 'open source' will come to mean that documents from the government can be read on anything you choose and be likewise manipulated on anything you choose and ultimately compel the government to accept it as their own legal document.

Certainly not by my endorsement, private people can store and move their data anyway they want.

The digital revolution is about embracing standards, not non-standards.

Standards which are locked up by a company that can drop them at any time are not standards. when a company can drop support in their next version forcing a huge data conversion so that people can keep accessing government data until the next time the standard is changed what is that? http is a standard, ftp is a standard (albeit not a great one), ssh is a standard, png is a standard... Being open and being standard have nothing to do with eachother.

30 posted on 06/27/2005 2:04:48 PM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson