Today’s ODT reports:

A recent increase in groups of people as young as 13 intent on trouble in central Dunedin has members of the public and the police concerned. . .

What are children doing out and unsupervised late at night?

Where do they get the alcohol which fuels most of the trouble?

Do their parents know where their children are?

Do they care?

The ball was leather, the goal posts were freshly felled trees, the shorts were longer and the referee, Bruce Rowland,  wore street clothes:

It was rugby as it used to be, played under 1905 rules in uniforms of the era as part of Oamaru’s Victorian Heritage celebrations.

It attracted a large crowd of spectators and St John ambulance volunteers were on hand to deal with the injured:

The referee summoned the police, who were also attired in Victorian uniforms, to deal with an unruly player but behaviour on and off the field was generally seemly.

Some of the players were more oldie than golden but anything they lacked in youth was more than compensated for by enthusiasm.

The ODT’ reported: long on shorts and short on breath.

Hace un tiempo tuve varios problemas al intentar editar un archivo .doc creado en Word de Micro$oft Office, ayer me volvió a pasar lo mismo (la memoria es frágil). Les cuento mi experiencia y un par de tips, para evitar una catástrofe.

1. Cuando quieran trabajar con un archivo y modificar aspectos de su formato, tamaño de tablas por ejemplo, SIEMPRE guárdenlo en formato ODF, es decir, con extensión .odt.

Si no lo hacen y eligen “mantener el formato actual” al momento de guardar su archivo, la próxima vez que lo abran verán que todos sus cambios han quedado sin efecto.

2. Siempre, cuando se trate de un documento de varias páginas, deben aplicarle UNA A UNA el estilo predeterminado, si no lo hacen, las tareas como “insertar el número de página” se volverán imposibles.

Luego de abrir el documento que vamos a editar presionamos F11 y vamos a la pestaña “Estilo de Página”:

Luego, vamos avanzando página a página y dando doble clic en el estilo “Predeterminado”. Si se fijan, para cada una de las páginas de nuestro documento original se creó un estilo con el formato “Convertir x”, el cuál nos obliga a trabajar con cada página en forma individual, nu pudiendo aplicar un estilo a todo nuestro documeno.

Por el momento les dejo esos dos Tips. Más adelante agregaré más.

Artigo original postado em: http://www.dicas-l.com.br/dicas-l/20091108.php – Colabore postando um comentário no artigo original !!!

Colaboração: Herbert de Carvalho

Data de Publicação: 08 de November de 2009

Já participei de vários projetos de utilização do BrOffice é um dos principais
problemas é a questão do suporte.

Muitas instituições apenas instalam o programa e deixam o usuário
abandonado. Outras dão algum tipo de treinamento, mas depois deixam os
usuários sem nenhum auxílio, achando que ter treinado resolve tudo. Algumas
poucas se preocupam com o suporte por algum tempo e depois também deixam os
usuários de lado.

Como sofro muito ao ver esta situação, tomei a iniciativa de criar uma Barra
de Ferramentas Comunitária que possui uma série de recursos podem auxiliar em
muito os administradores de sistemas que estão vivenciando o uso do BrOffice
em suas instituições. O propósito não é substituir o suporte, mas dar aos
usuários mais uma fonte de ajuda num caso de necessidade.

Ela funciona nos principais navegadores utilizados (IE, Firefox e Safari)
e possui recursos como:

- Twitters sobre OpenOffice e BrOffice
- Links úteis de sites com informações, apostilas e sites com dicas
- Notícias sobre tecnologia
- Chat Online com A comunidade BrOffice para tirar dúvidas online

Outros recursos podem ser adicionados e os que já estão podem ser
modificados. Espero que dêem suas sugestões.

Espero muito ver toda a comunidade participando. Sempre que a comunidade se
engaja as coisas vão para frente.

Instalem a barra em todo os computadores de sua instituição e incentivem os
usuários a recorrerem a ela caso precisem.

O Chat Online é o principal recurso disponível e espero que todos ajudem.

Saiba mais: http://brofficeorg.OurToolbar.com/

Vamos ajudar nosso país a adotar ferramentas livres.

 

Bija mums te kāds uzdevums. Bija dažādi kāzusi utml..

Interesanti bija tas, ka bija ļoti dažādi risinājumi.

Zemāk, dažādi šī uzdevuma risinājumi.

izvēlējās izmantot Arch Linux, tar, openoffice, mplayer, gimp, sylpheed.

archlinux, ~7 minūtes nesteidzīgi žāvājoties (tar, openoffice, mplayer,
gimp, sylpheed)

zem win nemēģināju, pieņemu, ka pieplusotos laiks novilkt 7zip, gimpu un
vlc.

Bilde:

—————————————–

No sākuma WinRAR protams

Šis te man aizņēma 20 min uz win 7.
No tām 10 – sūdagimp download + install (neviens cits normāli
neatbalsta viņu sasodīto formātu), +2 min palaišana (wtf? photoshops
cs3 ir ātrāks)
Ļoti neērts softs +5 min mocījos, mēģinot uzzīmēt baltu ovālu, līdz
pametu šo ideju.

papildus izmantoti MS Word 2010 beta 1 un The KMPlayer.

Bilde:

—————————————–

Izmantoja Windows XP.

win xp
cik atceros:
winrar
GIMP
MS word
Photoshop
firefox + flash plugin
media player classic

prasīja kādas 30 minūtes.

Bilde:

—————————————–

diemžēl W7 nebija pa rokai, nācā izpildīt uz Ubuntu 9.04, Gimp, Movie Payer, Openoffice.
tā kā ar grafiku strādāju ļoti maz, prasīja kādas 10 minūtes, lielāko daļu laika, pārlasot uzdevumu.

Bilde:

—————————————–

Ubuntu Karmic
Prasīja ~ minūti laika (atpakot, atvērt, izlabot).

Kamēr saglabāju vēl pagāja kādas sekundes, bet tiešām. Esmu pie GIMP diezgan pieradis.

Bilde:

—————————————–

Windows 7

Far + 7-Zip plugin
OpenOffice
Gimp
Inkscape
VLC

~4min.

Atarhivē (man fāri 3 vismaz vienmēr atvēri)
atver to dokumentu;
Atver to skice;
Atver Inkscape, exportē uz attiecīgo izmēru.
Atver exporteto .png (arī caru far ar Enter) – atveras IrfanView, uzreiz copy.
peistēju tajā skicē
atveru to video, nopauzēju;
ar paint, iekrāsoju to lauku zaļu
dubultklikšķis uz texta lajeri, uzrakstu endrju
save as – skice_edit.xfc
save as – skice_edit.jpg, 90%
done.

Vai tad vairāk vajadzēja? Nu varbūt 5min, max.

Man visi softi bija, nebija nekas jākačā. ja būtu jākača, būtu ilgāk.

pie tam, atarhivēt caur far, ir vienkārši:
uzspiež enter uz .tar.bz, uzspiež vēlreiz enter (jo ir .tar), f5, enter;
viss.

Bilde:

—————————————–

Prasīja ~30 min, lielāko laika daļu paņēma gimp instalācija un iemācīšanās ar to darboties. (:
Izmantoju Windows 7.

1. Arhīvs – 7zip
2. Video – Media Player Classic
3. Dokuments – Google Docs
4. Vispār jau paint.net arī ir plugini gimp failiem, bet man bija slinkums meklēt. (:

Bilde:

—————————————–

Es nekad nebūtu iedomājies, ka tikai septiņi cilvēki var izmantot tik dažādas metodes

Paldies visiem, kas piedalījās!

Šis nav TOPs (lapā ievietoju pēc e-pasta saņemšanas laika).

Ja kas, tad rakstiet komentāros un tādā garā.

An opposition party desperate for publicity would normally be pleased that three of the country’s biggest papers devoted their editorials to it.

But Labour wouldn’t be celebrating the editorial round ups they were given last week.

The ODT editorial was headlined Earning Trust:

It damns Phil Goff with faint praise, says the team he leads is shy on talent then gets to the nub of the matter:

 One reason delaying its return is the question of trust.

There were sufficient numbers of dodgy practices by Labour when in government to help speed the party’s exit from power; any attempted repetition of that behaviour so early in its term of Opposition should be a dominating concern of Mr Goff and his colleagues.

The Dominion Post’s editorial was headed No shortcuts for labour’s sinners.

The party’s MPs have lost touch with the voters who elected three straight Labour-led governments.

If they were doing their jobs, the MPs would know, from their daily contact with constituents and interest groups, what the pressing issues are.

Labour’s MPs resemble grumpy, disinherited members of the landed gentry who have been turfed out of their comfy gentlemen’s club for not paying their subscriptions and are trying to fast talk their way back in past the doorman.

But there are no shortcuts. If Labour’s MPs want to regain the good opinion of the public, they will have to earn it.

Voters are drawn to politicians who seek to serve their (voters’) interests. They are repelled by politicians who seek to serve their own interests.

The Herald on Sunday editorial was headlined Labour lose moral compass:

Barker has acted dishonestly.

Hughes has sacrificed principle for patsy-ism.

Goff has just cowered and, when confronted by political reporters outside the Labour Caucus room with nowhere to hide, obfuscated.

Labour’s leader must now stand up and take responsibility for the deception that was conducted with funds entrusted to him by Parliament.

Barker should be sacked from all his Caucus responsibilities. Hughes, too, must be left in no doubt about how repugnant his rationalisations are.

These, then, are the simple truths that are demanded of Labour’s tarnished leadership.

And these are the truths Labour has forgotten.

Using public money for party polling was wrong, but it’s Labour’s response to it which has kept the issue live and raised issues about integrity which won’t be countered easily.

Parties have to earn public trust before they win votes and Labour spent last week showing once again why it can’t be trusted.

As Meat Loaf might have sung: We don’t like them, we don’t trust them, we don’t want them and three out of three’s not good.

Uma necessidade que está surgindo é a criação de arquivos doc, odt ou rtf para pdf. Veremos como faze-lo.

Uma necessidade que está surgindo é a criação de arquivos doc, odt (formato de texto do Open Office – Writer) ou rtf para pdf. O Php não possui nenhuma engine que realiza essa transformação, desta forma é necessário usar alguns métodos para realizar essa tarefa.

O processo descrito aqui funciona para servidores Windows rodando o Apache e o PHP.

INSTALANDO O OPENOFFICE.ORG

Como o PHP não possui engines para transformação de documentos de texto para pdf é necessário instalar o OpenOffice.org, pois através dele que iremos realizar a criação dos arquivos de texto em pdf. O primeiro passo é instalar o OpenOffice.org, para isso basta acessar: www.openoffice.org e fazer o download do Open Office, nesse artigo usei o Open Office versão 2.2. Após fazer o download do Open Office realize a sua instalação, se quiser basta instalar somente o Writer e o Calc (em um próximo artigo explicarei como converter arquivos xls ou ods para PDF).

————————————————————–
CRIANDO A CLASSE DOC2PDF

Agora vamos criar um arquivo novo em PHP, esse arquivo será a nossa classe de criação de arquivos Doc, Odt ou Rtf para Pdf. Digite o texto o abaixo e salve o arquivo como: doc2pdf.class.php.

<?php
/****************************************************************/
/* CLASSE RESPONSÁVEL PELA CRIAÇÃO DE ARQUIVOS TEMPLATES EM PDF */
/* CRIADO POR: PATRICK ESPAKE ***********************************/
/* E-mail: patrickespake@gmail.com ******************************/
/****************************************************************/
class Doc2Pdf
{
// Atributos.
private $template_file;
private $doc_file;
private $pdf_file_name;
private $pdf_file;
private $dir_files;

// Métodos sets e gets.
function setTemplateFile($template_file) { $this->template_file = $template_file; }
function getTemplateFile() { return $this->template_file; }

function setDocFile($doc_file) { $this->doc_file = $doc_file; }
function getDocFile() { return $this->doc_file; }

function setPdfFileName($pdf_file_name) { $this->pdf_file_name = $pdf_file_name; }
function getPdfFileName() { return $this->pdf_file_name; }

function setPdfFile($pdf_file) { $this->pdf_file = $pdf_file; }
function getPdfFile() { return $this->pdf_file; }

function setDirFiles($dir_files) { $this->dir_files = $dir_files; }
function getDirFiles() { return $this->dir_files; }

// Método construtor.
function Doc2Pdf()
{
set_time_limit(0);
}

// Método de criação do arquivo pdf.
function makePdf()
{
if(file_exists($this->getDirFiles() . $this->getTemplateFile()))
{
$doc_file = “file:///” . $this->getDirFiles() . $this->getTemplateFile();
$pdf_file = “file:///” . $this->getDirFiles() . $this->getPdfFileName();
$this->setDocFile($doc_file);
$this->setPdfFile($pdf_file);
if($this->word2pdf())
return array($this->getPdfFileName(), $this->getDirFiles(), $this->getTemplateFile());
else
die(“Não foi possível gerar o arquivo pdf, tente novamente.”);
}
else
die(“O arquivo de template especificado não existe.”);
}

// Método de criação das propriedades do OpenOffice.org
function makePropertyValue($name, $value, $osm)
{
$oStruct = $osm->Bridge_GetStruct(“com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue”);
$oStruct->Name = $name;
$oStruct->Value = $value;
return $oStruct;
}

// Método de transformação do arquivo doc, odt ou rtf para arquivo pdf.
function word2pdf()
{
$doc_url = $this->getDocFile();
$output_url = $this->getPdfFile();
$osm = new COM(“com.sun.star.ServiceManager”) or die(“O OpenOffice.org não está instalado.”);
$args = array($this->makePropertyValue(“Hidden”, true, $osm));
$oDesktop = $osm->createInstance(“com.sun.star.frame.Desktop”);
$oWriterDoc = $oDesktop->loadComponentFromURL($doc_url, “_blank”, 0, $args);
$export_args = array($this->makePropertyValue(“FilterName”, “writer_pdf_Export”, $osm));
$oWriterDoc->storeToURL($output_url,$export_args);
$oWriterDoc->close(true);
return true;
}
}
?>

————————————————————–
GERANDO O PDF

Agora vamos criar um arquivo PHP chamando criar_pdf.php, esse arquivo deverá ter o seguinte conteúdo:

<?php
// Inclui o arquivo da classe.
include(“doc2pdf.class.php”);

// Cria o objeto.
$doc2pdf = new Doc2Pdf();

// Nome do arquivo do doc, odt ou rtf.
$doc2pdf->setTemplateFile(“meu_arquivo.doc”);

// Nome do arquivo do pdf que será gerado.
$doc2pdf->setPdfFileName(“meu_pdf.pdf”);

// Diretório onde os arquivos estão localizados, é necessário usar o caminho completo.
$doc2pdf->setDirFiles(“C:/apache/www/pdf/”);

// Cria o arquivo pdf.
$doc2pdf->makePdf();
?>

Para gerar o pdf é só rodar o arquivo criar_pdf.php e o PDF será gerado na pasta definida no $doc2pdf->setDirFiles(“C:/apache/www/pdf/”), no nosso caso na pasta C:\apache\www\pdf\.

A linha $doc2pdf->makePdf() retorna um array com as informações do nome do PDF, o diretório e o nome do arquivo de template. Essas informações podem ser usadas depois para redirecionar o browser para mostrar o PDF, após ser gerado.

Fonte: Código Fonte

OpenDocument Viewer Beta2 (2007-01-17) Daniel Carrera, Alex Hudson, Roman Fordinal, Eugene Prigorodov | OpenDocument Fellowship

OpenDocument Fellowship에서 제공하는 무료 ODF 뷰어.

맥에서는 텍스트 편집기(TextEdit.app)에서 ODT 문서를 열어볼 수 있다.

Seguinte, eu postei anteriormente como fazer de odt para txt, e isto resolveu meu problema, hehehe, no entanto fiquei curioso para ver se tinha como converter odt para doc pela linha de comando ^^, daí, mãos à obra e dálê google, descobri o unoconv! Ele é um conversor que transforma para vários formatos de arquivos, ou seja, você tem uma figura.jpg e quer transformá-la em png, ou um arquivo .doc em .odt, ou vice-versa. O gosto fica para o freguês

Modifique a sua necessidade, eu fiz pois estava com uma grande quantidade de ODTs, Openoffice, e queria passar para doc.

Segue o código.

#! /bin/sh
#criando a lista de arquivos que será modificada, faça manualmente, ou
find -name *.odt > odtslist.txt;
#startando o socket do openoffice
soffice "-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=2002;urp;"
N=0;
while read LINHA; do
N=$((N+1));
filename=`basename "$LINHA"`;
direname=`dirname "$LINHA"`;
unoconv -v -c "socket,host=localhost,port=2002;urp;StarOffice.ComponentContext" -f doc "$LINHA"
done < odtslist.txt;
rm odtslist.txt;
echo "$N arquivos processados"

Saudações

Eu tinha um monte de ODTs dentro de um diretório, e precisava fazer uma busca dos termos que preciso dentro dos textos no ODTs, então tinha que conseguir acessá-los na busca, sem abrir um por um ou aprender como fazer isto, a idéia é simples, usa um conversor para texto, assim podendo ser acessado por um buscador de texto ^^

O diretório tinha 53 diretórios com 426 subsubdiretórios, ou seja, 426 arquivos para fazer isto, na mão não dá. Então pesquisei no google, e vi que tinha inúmeras formas de fazer, escolhi uma e mão na massa.

Segue o código, é bem simples e usa o odt2txt para realizar,


#! /bin/sh
#criando a lista de arquivos que será modificada, faça manualmente, ou
find -name *.odt > odtslist.txt;
N=0;
while read LINHA; do
N=$((N+1));
filename=`basename "$LINHA"`;
direname=`dirname "$LINHA"`;
#renomeando para a nova extensao do arquivo convertido
newfilename=`echo $filename | sed 's/\(.*\)\.odt$/\1.txt/'`;
odt2txt "$LINHA" --output="$direname/$newfilename";
done < odtslist.txt;
rm odtslist.txt;
echo "$N arquivos processados"


Saudações

Not all editorials and columns agree with the government view on ACC’s problems and solutions.

But there is concensus that there is a big problem in need of an enduring solution.

Southland Times:

That belt-tightening exercise we’re enduring with ACC – there comes a point where what you’ve got is no longer a tightened belt. It’s a tourniquet. Confuse the two and something’s going to blacken and fall off, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

Many eyes are bulging at the severity of the huge rises to ACC levies, and the toughening up of the qualifying criteria. These measures, including an extra $320 a year coming out of the average wage (which actually seven out of 10 workers are on or below), do need scrutiny for over-reaching.

ODT:

Of greater concern is the growth of future liabilities, from $9.4 billion to $23.8 billion in four years, and a good deal of the responsibility for widened and costly coverage can be laid at the door of the Clark government.

An example is the physiotherapy benefit . . . According to the Government, the subsidy introduced by Labour in 2004 and budgeted to cost $9 million a year had by this year risen to $139 million and was projected to rise to $225 million by 2011-12, with no equivalent rise in rehabilitation rates.

It has quoted other examples of how the scheme has developed far beyond its original concept to cover diseases like leptospirosis and brucellosis and medical conditions like asthma, when, it argues, these should instead be paid for out of Vote Health.

To these might be added trauma of various kinds suffered by victims and perpetrators resulting not from accidents but from criminal acts, mental injury arising from workplace trauma, and sports injuries.

When it began with the 1972 Accident Compensation Act, only those who were employed were entitled to claim for workplace accidents. That soon changed to cover all accidents, including motor vehicle accidents, regardless how injury occurred.

Timaru Herald:

The unworkable or unprofitable parts will have to be bundled back into a Government scheme. And somewhere in the middle the romantic notion of a Government-funded no-fault system will have to be modified in a politically-acceptable way.

It is a Herculean task and one that will provide a stern test for the National Government. Whatever happens in the long term, what is crystal clear today is that taxpayers will have to dig deep to get ACC out of the mire. Having a unique highly regarded system is great in theory. It is also extremely expensive.

The Press:

What would really undermine ACC and its no-fault comprehensive coverage principle would be a lack of firm action taken now to control its costs, with major levy rises not just a short-term source of financial pain for New Zealanders but something that continues well into future years.

The Nelson Mail:

Though there has been no shortage of spin around ACC’s balance sheet and performance during National’s 11 months in office, it is clear some significant changes were needed in order to bring the scheme back under control.

Some of the proposals will sail in – no more entitlements for injured methamphetamine “cooks” for example – but increased levies have already provoked wide-ranging protest.

Dominion Post:

There is no such thing as a free ACC system.

That must be central to the honest conversation the Government is asking New Zealanders to have about the scheme. Stripped to its essentials, the scheme is an insurance one, and that means any entitlement in the scheme costs money, and must be paid for by levies.

The debate must also recognise that the ACC was established to compensate people who are injured. It was not meant to be an extension of the social welfare system, cushioning people against all misfortune. The distinctions it makes are arbitrary, and can be seen as unfair . . .

. . .  The job facing Dr Smith and his colleagues is to convince the public that what is being done is fair, and within the spirit of the deal that saw New Zealanders trade away their right to sue for a no-fault right to compensation.

That deal remains a good one. It should be made to work and made affordable, not torn up.

Taranaki Daily News:

The massive increases aimed at the two-wheelers just highlights what a sorry mess ACC has become. The corporation was introduced in 1974 on April Fool’s Day which probably says much about what it has become – a $24 billion liability to the taxpayer.National promised to put the boot into bureaucrats and under-performing government departments when it came to power last year.

ACC was clearly in its sights and so it should have been.

Quite apart from the horrific imbalance between money taken in and that dished out, New Zealanders have become sick of the tales that have leaked from the corporation throughout its 35-year existence.

Remember the outrage of the prisoner being paid ACC for injuries suffered during the act of crime?

While those criminal instances might be a fraction of the ACC’s overall costs it nevertheless highlights the stupidity of parts of its system.

Past abusers of ACC are partly responsible for the current tightening in all areas.

Deborah Hill Cone:

A benefit now has a cosier name – an entitlement – which is “a right granted by law or contract”. Big. Difference. . .

There has been a lot of talk of entitlements over the ACC-in-a-pickle problem. . .  And the punters who have “entitlements” are no longer called claimants; they are clients, lest it might sound as though they are putting their paw out. The ACC public relations dude told me the Labour Government had asked for the jargon change – Labour understood the power of Neuro-linguistic Programming. The theory was that people had actually paid their premiums and so shouldn’t feel they were getting summat for nothing. Dinky idea, but as we now know, the premiums do not cover the cost of the ACC scheme – so claimants are getting something for nothing. Actually. . .

. . . I am still waiting for someone to explain to me why it is that large corporates, such as Fonterra and Air New Zealand, can opt out of ACC and self-insure – but I can’t. Oh, I get the practical reason – that I don’t have a lazy mill to cover a claim – but where is the policy rationale? The opt-out clause (cosy name: the “partnership programme”) takes 15 per cent of the country’s workers out of ACC. So if these corporates can manage their health and safety liabilities more efficiently than ACC, what does that say about ACC?

Herald on Sunday:

. . .  in the 35 years since ACC was established, so many bits have been carved off and clipped on that it bears little resemblance to the original design.

Anomalies abound: people who work in dangerous jobs pay more in earner levies than people who work in offices, but rugby league forwards incur no more expense by way of premium payment than those whose leisure preference is macrame. . .

More profoundly, many of its conceptual assumptions have been corrupted by this piecemeal regulatory intervention. ACC has not been reviewed since the 1980s and, once it has dealt with the immediate crisis, the Government would do well to consider another reassessment of the entire system.

In 1974, we entered a social contract by which we surrendered the right to sue. As a society, we were keen to avoid the litigious and ludicrously expensive American model.

But it is not an absolute truth than our system is better. Anyone who spends time in the US will quickly notice the lengths to which people go to avoid posing a risk to others.

That carefulness flows from fear of being sued, of course, but it’s worth wondering whether we here have grown too accustomed to being reckless of others’ – and our own – welfare, in the knowledge that someone else will pay.

If nothing else, the crisis we face now reminds us that we are all that someone else.

Deborah Coddington: 

The Government can remain insurer of last resort for dangerous employers with bad track records, but why should safe, careful employers who look after their workers continue to pay high levies and cross-subsidise the former?

In today’s ODT:

At least one University of Otago student has said he fears he will be suspended from university for up to six  months for his part in last month’s melee in Castle St.

Oh boo hoo. I hope no-one feels an ounce of sympathy for the little cretins who were clearly told they would be in trouble for rioting but did it anyway. They have no-one to blame but themselves and should take the consequences like an adult, not a whiny teenager. After the Toga Parade debacle everyone knew the University would take strong action and if someone didn’t know then you have to question whether they were smart enough to be at University in the first place.

Twenty-six University of Otago students faced charges after the disorder, in which drunken mobs threw bottles at police and lit fires over two nights after the arrival of the Undie 500 rally from Christchurch.

What the ODT doesn’t tell you is that not all of the arrests that took place happened in the Castle St locale or were related tot he Undie 500…so why is the ODT continuing to report these numbers? Because it looks worse and that sells more newspapers.

Police have opposed diversions.

Hallelujah. That’ll sting next time they try to get a job and have to fill out the ‘Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence?’ question.

]]> http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/foss-odt-zoho/ Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:04:47 +0000 shirishag75 http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/foss-odt-zoho/ http://homepaddock.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/doc-not-always-access-friendly/ Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:40:31 +0000 homepaddock http://homepaddock.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/doc-not-always-access-friendly/

One of the reasons cited for surrendering pastoral lease land to the crown is that the public will have better access than when it’s under private control.

However, that’s not always the case.

Friends went through tenure review. Part of the land that went back to the crown had been used for an annual mountain bike race. It had been run for years and the farmers had never charged the organisers.

Once the land came under Doc control the race organisers were charged for access which meant they then had to charge race participants more. The race then became too expensive for some people and the organisers were considering canning it.

Doc may well be acting in a fiscally responsible manner in trying to offset some of the costs of looking after the vast tracts of land which had been taken back under public control. As a taxpayer I don’t have a problem with that, but it does show that when it comes to access the theory that public ownership = good and private ownership = bad isn’t necessarily so.

Apropos of this, the ODT reports that film makers are complaining that filming on land administered by DOC is becoming increasingly fraught.

Filming on conservation land is becoming so difficult that some parts of The Lord of Rings movies would not be able to be filmed if they were being made today, Film New Zealand chairman Julian Grimmond says.

That film and others which showcase New Zealand’s stunning scenery are wonderful advertisements for the country which attract tourists. It would be a pity if access problems compromised this wonderful opportunity for free publicity.

Not all of land suitable for filming is under Doc control and film makers may be able to find alternative sites. But given the transient nature of filming you’d think it would be possible to allow access without compromising any conservation values or causing any serious conflicts of interests with other visitors.

(Nota: esta información esta parcialmente basada en este artículo de Avi Alkalay, Donovan Rebbechi y Hal Burgiss, de lectura muy recomendable para usuarios de GNU/Linux. Está en inglés, eso sí.)

¿Alguna vez os ha pasado el crear un documento de texto formateado estupendamente y al ir a abrirlo en otro equipo, con otro sistema u otra aplicación o simplemente una versión distinta de los mismos, os encontráis con que el aspecto ha cambiado, a veces drásticamente? Las cosas ya no están en su sitio, el tipo de letra y el tamaño ha cambiado (y además a peor, siendo menos legible) y consecuentemente se ha llevado por delante la cuidadosa maquetación y el buen aspecto de vuestro documento….

El problema es el cambio de fuente (del tipo de letra). ¿Y porqué lo cambia?. Muy sencillo: las fuentes disponibles lo son generalmente a nivel de sistema, aunque el usuario puede haber instalado otras adicionales, eso sin contar con que varias aplicaciones instalan nuevas fuentes por su cuenta… Con lo cual las fuentes disponibles en cada equipo pueden ser muy distintas a las que tenga otro; seguramente el usuario tenga fuentes que ni conozca o usará una fuente para sus documentos que aunque él crea que es muy común (si llega a pensar siquiera en ello) resulta que no lo es tanto. Resultado: al abrir el documento en otro equipo, la fuente indicada en el documento no está disponible así que el programa que usemos la sustituye por otra que se supone que es parecida, con resultados que van desde lo regular hasta el desastre, pero vamos, que mejor no queda, no.

Dentro de un mismo sistema el problema se minimiza debido a que cada sistema incluye por defecto un conjunto de fuentes comunes, por lo que si usamos estas fuentes, no tendremos que preocuparnos por esto (a no ser que sean versiones distintas del sistema y una esté muy desfasada respecto a la otra). Pero claro, si cambiamos de sistema (entre GNU/Linux y Windows, por ejemplo, eso sin contar con el Mac, muy usado en diseño) la sorpresa está casi asegurada. Afortunadamente existen también soluciones, que expongo por orden de preferencia:

1. Convierte el documento a PDF. Esta es, sin duda, la mejor opción. El formato PDF se creó específicamente para resolver este tipo de cuestiones; en el caso concreto de la tipografía, el PDF incluye las fuentes usadas junto con el documento, de forma que se ve de manera similar en todos los sistemas. Para convertir a PDF, pues usa el OpenOffice, que tiene esta característica de serie (al igual que GNU/Linux, en general); para usuarios de Windows una buena alternativa es el PDFCreator, programa de software libre que instala una impresora virtual, que en lugar de imprimir convierte el documento que le enviemos a PDF, por lo que se puede usar desde cualquier aplicación para convertir todo tipo de documentos. La única pega del PDF es que es un formato diseñado sólo para lectura, si además necesitamos modificar o que otros puedan modificar el documento, pasamos a:
2. Usar fuentes tipográficas comunes en nuestro sistema. En GNU/Linux estas fuentes son todas las de las familias siguientes: Bitstream Vera, Nimbus, DejaVu, URW, Luxi, Century, Utopia y Liberation (esta última sólo en las distros más recientes). En Windows están: Verdana, Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS. Pero claro, si queremos que nuestro documento se vea bien en un sistema y en otro, habrá que:
3. Lo primero, usa un formato y una aplicación común a ambos sistemas; o sea: OpenDocument (ODT) y OpenOffice, te ahorrarás dolores de cabeza. (Si no podemos disponer, o no podemos contar con que nuestro destinatario disponga, de OpenOffice, nos queda el formato RTF, que entiende cualquier procesador de textos, aunque es bastante limitado, véase Formatos Abiertos para más información). Pero esto sólo no basta; si usamos GNU/Linux y queremos editar (o que editen otros) el documento también en Windows, podemos usar una de las fuentes comunes de Windows que mencionábamos arriba. Pero claro, estas fuentes son de Microsoft y no vienen disponibles por defecto en las distribuciones GNU/Linux. Sin embargo, la licencia de estas fuentes, pese a ser propietaria, permite su uso gratuito, pero no su modificación ni distribución, por lo que el usuario habrá de instalarlas explícitamente. En muchas distribuciones de GNU/Linux, estas fuentes están incluidas en el paquete msttcorefonts (o ttf-mscorefonts-installer). ¿Es esta la solución perfecta? Pues no, claro. Si queremos que además otros puedan editar el documento en GNU/Linux y no podemos garantizar que también tengan instaladas las fuentes Windows (según un estudio, estas fuentes están instaladas entre el 50% y 60% de los equipos con GNU/Linux, lo que no es poco, pero tampoco suficiente) habrá que esforzarse un poco más (eso sin contar que puede que no queramos atarnos a unas fuentes propietarias):
4. Usar una fuente común a ambos sistemas. ¿Eso existe? Bueno, en cierta medida. OpenOffice instala por defecto una fuente libre, de forma que si en ambos sistemas se usa OpenOffice, podemos garantizar que al menos tendrán una fuente común. Normalmente la fuente incluida con OpenOffice era la familia Bitstream Vera, pero parece ser que a partir de la versión 3 de la aplicación, la fuente incluida es la familia DejaVu. Según las pruebas que he realizado tanto Bitstream Vera como DejaVu parecen verse correctamente en ambos sistemas (al igual que Nimbus Roman) sin importar la versión de OpenOffice. Supongo que esto se debe a que DejaVu es una modificación de Bitstream y por tanto se pueden sustituir entre ellas sin problemas, igualmente en el caso de Nimbus Roman, parece que en Windows la sustituye exitosamente por Times New Roman, aunque no puedo asegurar que esto sea así siempre. Existe una importante excepción: los tipos monoespaciados (en los que todos los caracteres tienen el mismo ancho) con Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, OpenOffice 3 en Windows se hace un lío con el espaciado de los caracteres y los muestra solapándose unos a otros, con lo que no se entiende nada. Idem con DejaVu Sans Mono y OpenOffice 2. De todas formas la solución a estos inconvenientes es bien sencilla: cerrar OpenOffice (incluido el inicio rápido) y volver a abrir el documento. También podemos escoger Ver -> Diseño para Internet. Otra posibilidad es (recordad que son documentos modificables) cambiar el tipo de letra allí donde no se vea bien.

Resumiendo, a la hora de distribuir ampliamente un documento (p.e. colgándolo en Internet):

Si además necesitas que el documento sea editable:

• Usa siempre que sea posible el formato ODT y una tipografía común en Windows (nos guste o no, el sistema más extendido hoy por hoy). Si tu sistema es GNU/Linux, acuérdate de instalar el paquete con dichas fuentes.
• En el caso de que tu “público” sea mayoritariamente de usuarios de GNU/Linux (p.e. porque trates un tema específico de ese sistema), pues usa una de las fuentes comunes de GNU/Linux. Si deseas tener también en cuenta a los usuarios de Windows, usa DejaVu, por ejemplo.

Y ya que hablamos de Internet, respecto al tema de los tipos de letras en las páginas web, lo ideal es indicar en la CSS varios tipos de letra por orden de preferencia, por si el equipo en el que se visualiza la página no tiene un tipo de letra instalado, use el siguiente de la lista y así sucesivamente. Como última opción conviene poner un tipo genérico de forma que valga más o menos para cualquier equipo. Aquí vale también la recomendación de usar tipos comunes del sistema, y ya que Windows es el sistema más extendido, poner en primer lugar un tipo común en ese sistema y a continuación su equivalente en GNU/Linux. Veamos un ejemplo:

Los tipos de letra sans-serif tienen fama de ser bien legibles en la pantalla (especialmente el Verdana), así que los escogemos para nuestra página. Dentro de los tipos comunes de Windows, nuestra primera opción sería Verdana (cuyo equivalente en GNU/Linux es DejaVu Sans) y a continuación Arial (equivalente Nimbus Sans L); por último especificamos el tipo genérico sans-serif, para el caso de que el equipo del visitante no dispusiera de ninguno de éstos (notar que esta última no va entre comillas):

font-family: “Verdana”, “DejaVu Sans”, “Arial”, “Nimbus Sans L”, sans-serif;

Y ya que estamos, y para terminar, veamos una tabla de equivalencias básicas entre tipografías comunes de Windows y Linux:

As I finished getting petrol in Dunedin on Friday evening a couple of young women in fancy dress rushed up and asked me to sign their arms as one of the things they needed for a scavenger hunt.

The bloke who took my money explained it was one of the activities for Undie 500 weekend and he was pleased he wouldn’t be working the following night because the last time the Undie 500 hit town the Saturday night was no fun for workers.

As I drove north a couple of hours later I noticed a large contingent of police on the outskirts of the city and an almost constant stream of cars heading south.

There was no sign of anything amiss when we passed through the campus yesterday.

Today we spotted dozens of decorated vehicles like this one heading north:

Several stopped at Moeraki. Their occupants looked tired but sober.

From what we’d seen, the Undie 500 hadn’t been undone by alochol-fulled foolishness. But when we caught up with  the news: we realised we’d obviously seen only the better behaved bits of the weekend:

Police arrested between 50 and 60 people. This follows the 20 arrests made on Friday night. The weekend’s violence and disorder saw the highest number of arrests in recent years.

 It’s not the Undie 500 by itself, but students say:

Students from Otago believe that the tradition of the Undie 500, even if it didn’t start with bad intentions, will continue to attract people that want to riot. . .

. . . Jason Bay (21), a second-year management student who organised a sausage sizzle on Castle St on Friday night, believes that “[the students] just reach a certain degree of drunk after which you either get violent, or let nothing in the way of stopping you partying.

“I think the cops did a good job overall, but they can’t always distinguish who are being dickheads or who just want to have fun.”

It’s very difficult to distinguish the dickheads from the people just wanting to have fun in this ODT video. But those who end up in court are likely to find the judge puts most of them in the former category.

The Otago Daily Times’ Class Act/Extra! won first prize in the young readers section of the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association’s Newspaper of the Year awards.

The ODT was also a finalist in the newspaper of the year and the innovation in pre-production processes or technology categories.

The awards attracted 369 entries from newspapers in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The ODT was one of only two New Zealand metropolitan dailies named as a finalist – the other was Wellington’s Dominion Post.

The newspaper of the year winners were: The Sydney Morning Herald (90,000+ circulation); The Geelong Advertiser (25,001-90,000); The Daily Examiner (up to 25,000).

We subscribe to the ODT. It comes with the mail which arrives anytime from early to mid afternoon by which time we’ve caught up on news from it and other papers online and listened to bulletins on the radio. But the paper still provides enough we haven’t yet encountered to keep us paying up.

There more than a whiff of emperor’s new clothes about modern art.

People are too scared to admit they don’t understand, or like it, in case they look stupid.

When I look at a work which bemuses me I ask a simple question: could I do it? If the answer’s yes then I don’t consider it’s art.

I’d have no trouble creating something like the pile of rubbish which won the Waikato National Contemporary Art Award and therefore have a great deal of sympathy for the artists who’ve rubbished the win.

Meanwhile, down here the Waitaki District Council is mulling over the membership of a committee which will be charged with the placing of art in public places.

Deputy Mayor Gary Kircher posted on the issue at Waitaki Blog  and the ODT reports councillors are concerned that the committee will be too arty farty.

It’s a vexed issue and as the judge in the Waikato competition has illustrated all too well, one person’s art is another’s pile of rubbish.

Arty farty or not, I hope the people who end up on the committee take care to ensure that public places in the district aren’t populated by a whole lot of naked emperors.

 Ladies A Plate, the 21st century tribute to 20th century baking, won the PANZ design award.

It’s a lovely book – so good that mine has gone north for a while with a student who uses it for stress release.

Charmian Smith from the ODT interviewed its author, Alexa Johnston, when the book was published last year:

In the 1970s, as a feminist, she believed political and social change were necessary for women to have control of their own lives, but she still chose to bake as a hobby.

“Feminism is about choice and baking was a choice. For some women it was a huge relief not to have to bake.

“Now where feminism is, it is still possible to make a choice, and I think baking is a better way of spending your time and money than going out and buying stuff – and you end up with a better result, too,” she said.

“When you bake for other people it gives them pleasure as well. It’s a bit of a win-win situation.”

I used to bake several times a week but when I stopped feeding our staff I stopped baking too.

However, now I don’t have to do it I sometimes choose to do it and have come to enjoy baking again.

A gift from the home kitchen is a gift from the heart which, as Alexa says, brings pleasure to the baker and the recipient.

The ODT’s criterion for its Class Act awards is simple: excellence.

Every year since 2000 the paper has asked Otago’s secondary schools to nominate two pupils each on the basis of what they’ve have achieved and their potential for success in the future.

Each year the paper arranges a ceremony where the Prime Minister presents the recipients with their awards and the ODT shares their accomplishments with its readers.

Class Act unashamedly celebrates academic, sporting, social, artistic or cultural excellence and many of the recipients excel in more than one field.

It’s a classy act by the paper.

Today’s ODT looks at where the Class Act recipients of 2002 are now.

The ODT reports that Air New Zealand plans to offer University of Otago students $39 standby fares to and from Dunedin.

Student Standby operated when I was a student in the mid to late 1970s and was a wonderful way to get cheaper airfares providing you didn’t have to get somewhere at a specific time.

There was no guarantee you would get a seat until just before the flight was due to leave but if there was a spare seat you got it for half price.

The airline got a passenger, albeit a low paying one, on a seat which would otherwise have been empty and the student got a cheaper flight.