Get a load of THIS:
Йцукенгшщзхъ
фывапролджэ
ячсмитьбю.
ЙЦУКЕНГШЩЗХЪ\
ФЫВАПРОЛДЖЭ
ЯЧСМИТЬБЮ.

In free Ubuntu, it is a PIECE OF CAKE, to change to ANY LANGUAGE. You just click on SYSTEM, and PREFERENCES, the keyboard will say USA, you click ADD, select RUSSIAN FEDERATION, and click that as default. NOW everything you type in Open Office Document will be as you see above, which is all three qwerty rows, first in lower case, and next in caps lock. And then, I copied it to the paste buffer, and had to go BACK to SYSTEM Preferences, Keyboard and click RESTORE TO DEFAULT to get the damn thing out of Cyrillic. So, IF you want to do a WUBI install of Ubuntu WITHIN your Windows environment, that is the easiest way, it takes less than an hour, automatic, with a DSL connection, and instantly comes up (with dual boot choice Windows or Ubuntu) with Firefox browser, Open office Document, Spreadsheet, and Presentation mgr. And, if you DONT like UBUNTU, you can delete it with PROGRAM ADD/DELETE and poof, its GONE.

“
Di nuovo io, sempre in tema di decrescita dei rifiuti, stavolta elettronici. Spesso si devono buttare computer perfettamente funzionanti solo perché il nuovo software (magari copiato
illegalmente) per scrivere testi, fogli elettronici o presentazioni per la scuola è diventato troppo pesante per girare. Però c’è una versione di OpenOffice che gira anche su computer molto vecchi e quindi può ritardarne l’invio alla discarica:

http://stop.zona-m.net/it/node/43

NOTA: contrariamente a quanto scritto nell’articolo (devo ancora aggiornarlo), la versione in italiano ora *è* disponibile dal sito!”

É com satisfação que finalizamos a edição 09 da nossa revista que traz além das dicas e tutorial, um momento de reflexão com o artigo de Fernando H. Leme mostrando as vantagens da migração para software livre e BrOffice.org em órgãos públicos. Na reportagem principal, Rochele Prass nos traz informações precisas e atuais dos municípios brasileiros que passaram por migração recente para software livre e BrOffice.org, além de análises, gráficos e entrevista que não deixam dúvidas sobre a importância e aceitação da suite BrOffice.org nas instituições brasileiras que em muitos casos passam primeiro pelo BrOffice.org antes de fazer uma migração total. Na seção Como Nós, Willian Colen faz um breve relato histórico e atualiza o processo de produção do CoGroo.

Gostaria de agradecer imensamente o esforço de todos para que conseguissemos manter os prazos e espero continuar contando com a prestimosa ajuda nas edições seguintes.

A edição 09 está disponivel no portal BrOffice.org:
http://www.broffice.org/revista

Não deixe de contribuir com críticas e sugestões: revista@broffice.org. Boa leitura e até a próxima!!

Atenciosamente
Luiz Oliveira

______________________________

_________________
Lista de discussão BrOo-Clipping
BrOo-Clipping@listas.broffice.org
https://listas.broffice.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/broo-clipping

Revista BrOffice nº 9

RB 09 | BrOffice.org nos municipios Brasileiros

Baixe a edição completa: Arquivo em *.pdf

Open Office writer merupakan aplikasi yang sangat penting  yang digunakan di Perkantoran, dintaranya word, spreadsheet, presentation.

sekian ja …. g” da inspirasi………..

[The First Part of this series was <<A: Open Source. The second installment of the Stop Usage Based Billing alphabet series was <<B: Packets and the Internet. The third installment was <a href="<<C: Deep Packet Inspection, and the final installment will be E: Open Source Deep Packet Inspection]

What is BitTorrent Anyway??

“BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounts for approximately 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.”

– Wikipedia on BitTorrent

BitTorrent is an extremely fast and efficient means of uploading and downloading. BitTorrent is an excellent way to distribute large materials to many people via the internet.

Radical Ideas

Like so many of the radical new ways to do things that technology and the internet have made possible, BitTorrent can only work through co-operation. BitTorrent requires a network of “peers”, or other people’s computers who are willing to share the file. This is referred to as “peer to peer” or “p2p.

If I have a large file I want to transfer, the first step is to “seed” the file, transferring portions of the file to multiple members of the p2p network.

Diagram 1: Seeding

It only takes a small fraction of the file to be passed along before the process speeds up enormously.

Diagram 2: Seeding and Sharing

Once I have a small portion, i pass it along at the same time as I’m receiving new bits of the same file, either from the original seed source of another peer.

Diagram 3: Upload + Download = Speed

With many participants (peers) uploading and downloading at the same time, large files can be distributed very quickly indeed.

Diagram 4: Finish Fast

Bell Canada “Throttles” BitTorrent

Bell Canada

When Bell Canada was first caught “throttling” internet traffic to the Independent ISP customers, Bell Canada’s justification to the CRTC was that the internet was too crowded, and that it was necessary to “manage” the traffic. Bell claimed that they needed to employ Deep Packet Inspection to identify BitTorrent Traffic so that they can “throttle” it.

Mandate:
“The CRTC’s mandate is to ensure that both the broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public. ”

—CRTC Role, CRTC Website

Amazingly, the CRTC had nothing to say about Bell Canada’s plans to discriminate against particular Canadian internet users.

The CRTC has accepted Bell’s unsubstantiated contention that this discrimination was necessary, and in approving it they have allowed Bell Canada to think that this discrimination is acceptable. In no way does this serve the Canadian public.

You might almost think that the CRTC mandate was to suppress Canadian creativity and the creation of Canadian movies and music. The availability of the technologies that exist to make it easy to create our own movies and music should be welcomed as an opportunity to add to and help grow our Canadian Culture.

Why single out BitTorrent traffic for throttling if it is an efficient use of the available bandwidth?

One of Bell Canada’s arguments for implementation of Usage Based Billing is that Canadian internet bandwidth is in short supply, making it necessary for them to “manage” bandwidth by penalizing heavy users.

So how could anything as efficient as BitTorrent possibly be seen as a bad thing if the Internet is so crowded?

It doesn’t make sense to discriminate against BitTorrent use. There is nothing inherently bad about BitTorrent use or BitTorrent internet traffic. But Bell Canada’s contention is that BitTorrent is bad because people use it to download movies and music.

Which begs the question: how does that make BitTorrent bad?

The Copyright Red Herring

The “Copyright Lobby”, which consists of large media producers and distributors (like Disney), and corporations and organizations (like MPAA), who distribute commercial movies and music, want us to believe that this is a bad thing.

This corporate special interest group has spent a great deal of time, energy and cash trying to promote the “pravda” that any digital copying of copyright works is bad. Making no distinction between commercial bootleggers who distribute illegal copies for profit and legal purchasers who seek to make a back-up copy or digital format shift for personal use, the Copyright Lobby has been pressuring governments the world over to criminalize personal use copying.

The problem for ordinary citizens is that these corporate interests have vast quantities of money to spend and a great deal of media power. This makes it incredibly difficult for governments to stand up to their onslaught. In some parts of the world this persistent advocacy has paid off for the Copyright Lobby, as lawmakers knuckle under and legislate to the detriment of their own citizens by making it illegal even to copy or download movies or music for personal use.

Here in Canada the Copyright Lobby is seeking to influence our lawmakers to criminalize personal use copying. They are trying to make Canadians think that people who make copies for personal use are performing criminal acts, and should be penalized the same as a a bootlegger who films the latest theatrical release off a theatre screen and proceeds to sell hundreds of thousands of bootleg DVDs.

Once again, Channel Four’s hilarious I.T. Crowd puts this question in perspective with this send-up of a video piracy commercial I found on YouTube.

Strong and free?

Canadian Law says

RIGHT NOW, in Canada, personal use copying is simply not illegal.

RIGHT NOW, in Canada, use of the BitTorrent file transfer protocol is also perfectly legal.

RIGHT NOW, in Canada, peer to peer (p2p) file sharing is legal; Canadians break no laws simply by joining in a p2p network.

The Copyright Lobby’s smear tactics have gone a long way toward making the world believe that BitTorrent is inherently bad.

Bell Canada has convinced the CRTC that it is acceptable to “throttle” BitTorrent, because of BitTorrent’s reputed connection with possible copyright infringement. So although BitTorrent is perfectly legal, Canadian internet users are paying the price for the success of this Copyright Lobby propaganda.

Myth: All BitTorrent/p2p internet traffic consists of copyright movies and music

The Corporate world doesn’t understand radical ideas like Open Source software and p2p file sharing because these concepts are so different from anything appearing in the old business models. Even more incomprehensible to the outdated business models is the fact that it may or may not generate a direct monetary profit.

The classic example of corporate myopia is:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. ”

—attributed to Thomas J. Watson, president of International Business Machines, circa 1943

For many years IBM has taken the rap for this quote whether or not Mr. Watson really did say it. (Most likely not.) Maybe proving it wrong is part of why IBM is such a going concern in the 21st Century. Having weathered the storms of fortune today’s IBM is a world leader by continuing to innovate and adapt alongside evolving attitudes and technologies. IBM has been steadily increasing their participation and involvement with Open Source software in this new century.

The reality is that IBM not only understands the importance of open source, the corporation has actively supported and promoted adoption of Linux and Open Office in the corporate world. And naturally BitTorrent is a part of the equation because it is such an efficient means to distribute large files (like for instance, Canonical’s Ubuntu.)

“Think.”

—Thomas J. Watson, president of International Business Machines

Seems IBM actually does heed their most enduring slogan (which definitely was coined by Mr. Watson). Sadly, this type of foresight is uncommon. Because BitTorrent is such a radical idea, most entrenched corporations simply aren’t capable of understanding it.

There are other uses for BitTorrent that are not only legal, but even perfectly acceptable in polite society.

Probably my favorite use of BitTorrent is the amazing Project Gutenberg. This organization has been digitizing books in the public domain and distributing them freely… via BitTorrent, since this is such an efficient method of digital distribution. After all, BitTorrent is used for transferring very large files like music and movies because it is very efficient.

BitTorrent file sharing is not all movies and music. Like IBM, many people actually use p2p to help distribute open source software like OpenOffice via p2p. There is a growing body of open source software available, for instance my favorite web browser is Mozilla’s Firefox.

In fact, there the awesome SourceForge website which provides a place to find all manner of open source software, or where you can release your own.

When a new distribution of Ubuntu is released, people around the world gather together and have Ubuntu Release Parties making more good use of BitTorrent

And of course the Pirate Party of Canada has established Captain: the Canadian Pirate Tracker, their own BitTorrent site where Recording Artists and Filmmakers (and I imagine novelists, and software creators as well would be welcome to utilize this) to freely distribute their work.

Every bit of music and every movie transferred is not a copyright infringement. If I get to the point where my home made movies may prove marketable, I would certainly be looking at BitTorrent Distribution. In fact it would probably be easier to distribute home movies to family via BitTorrent than it would be to try to burn DVDs. (DRM makes the two commercial movie making software packages I’ve purchased almost unusable. Of course it doesn’t slow down the bootleggers.) If YouTube is an indicator, I’m not the only person who wants to transfer music and movies freely … not as copyright infringements. I have paid levies to the music industry for home movies I have made and burrned to CD for distribution to friends and family. If I choose to transfer them via BitTorrent now I can avoid the levy but instead suffer the added expense of Bell Canada’s deliberate throttling inflation?

Another really good legal use of BitTorrents are the actual commercial websites where people can go to to purchase downloads of music. So far no one seems to have found anything wrong with this practice.

But that’s not all. Canada’s own CBC Television Network tried their own experiment by releasing an episode of their program Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister via BitTorrent. Unfortunately the BitTorrent didn’t work so well because of Bell Canada’s CRTC approved BitTorrent “throttling”.

Geist tweets about the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

Which is not to say it wasn’t a good idea. Not too long ago Michael Geist tweeted about the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s foray into BitTorrent use. All accounts indicate that their experiment was very successful indeed, which is having a big impact in the way they do business.

Ink Poster

The sad tale of a pirated Independent film can be found in this TorrentFreak article Indie Movie Explodes on BitTorrent, Makers Bless Piracy.

I guess it isn’t such a sad story after all.  

Thanks to piracy this Indie film called INK was has been achieving a distribution level that the filmmakers had never dreamed of.  They are of course extraordinarily pleased.

I think what is being called piracy here is BitTorrent p2p personal use sharing. Friends sharing with friends is one of the most effective ways to achieve recognition. They used to call it a “grass roots” movement. This is one of the major issues for the large movie studios. This is the place where they complain of being ripped off. What they don’t seem to realize is that this is a good thing. Exposure garners fans, makes a “name”. Fans buy stuff.

BitTorrent Traffic is not the only thing Bell Canada is Throttling

Rumour has it that there are people who actually work from home.

Time was the government encouraged the idea of people working from home. There are all sorts of advantages to society, like reduced congestion on actual highways, less wear and tear on our roads, a decrease in commuting based pollutants in our environment, a reduction of human depletion of fossil fuels.

But if you work from home, you are probably going to have to transfer files back and forth between your home and workplace. Chances are good that you are going to encrypt this type of traffic for security reasons. Although Bell Canada says they are only “throttling” BitTorrent traffic, in fact there have been instances of Bell throttling encrypted internet traffic on the assumption that if it’s encrypted, it must be BitTorrent traffic.

Bell places the onus on the customer to prove their “innocence” before they will consider stopping throttling.

Since the CRTC gave Bell Canada permission to use Deep Packet Inspection to inspect our packets, the only way to ensure that our private information remains private is through encryption. And in Canada any encrypted internet traffic will most likely to be throttled.

Canadian Copyright Consultation

The Canadian Government is looking at updating Canadian copyright law. They held a copyright consultation process this year, traveling around Canada soliciting opinions of stakeholders. Even better, they set up a website where they accepted submissions from any Canadian who wished to contribute. This website was flooded with thousands of submissions. Some are simply a few lines, some are extensive essays covering all sorts of topics, but all I’ve read are heartfelt. Because of the overwhelming response it took a long time to get all the submissions posted. (My own submission finally made online.)

This process led a lot of Canadians, including me, to believe that the copycon process might actually mean that our elected representatives were listening to us.

Unfortunately there is currently a lot of pressure on our government to make copying movies, software and music for personal use illegal. The secret ACTA meetings have caused a feeling of dread to settle over most Canadians. There has been deprecating talk about weak Canadian copyright law.

Except it isn’t true.

If anything, Canadian copyright law is probably more robust than is good for us.

The essential problem that the copyright lobby is attempting to overcome the problem of suing their own customers for what they imagine are infringements. They have noticed that fighting personal use copying garners bad publicity. This problem can be neatly solved by passing the responsibility for finding and prosecuting copyright infringement to governments. And of course the only was to get government to take ob the responsibility is to convince them that the copyright infringement is a criminal offense.

Regardless, currently copyright law is imprecise as regards personal use copying. So we’ll just have to wait for an actual law to be passed before it becomes illegal. (This pressure is actually largely from foreign owned interests– like Disney. It will be interesting to see if our government caves to this outside pressure.)

mixed messages

The government mandated levy we pay every time we purchase a blank CD is a tacit governmental admission that it is legal to burn CDs of our own music.

In the pre-Tivo era, Canadian cable networks actively encouraged Canadians to videotape the movies that they showed so we could watch them when it was convenient. They called it “time shifting” in their massive advertising campaigns. But no media giants took our cable companies to court back then. For the same reason artists will lend or give away their work for free when they’re starting out (because they need to build and audience– exactly like the INK producers mentioned above), back then even Disney didn’t have a channel in Canada. So Disney didn’t kick up a fuss even though they had to have known this was happening. They let it go because it was in their best interests to allow time shifting (i.e personal use copying). Disney knew this was in their best interests because it would help the Canadian cable companies build their market.

Of course now Disney doesn’t want us to record their movies for personal use. Disney would be happy if our government decided personal use copying was illegal. They would be happier still if our government spent time and energy searching out and charging people who download Disney movies.

Disney would be happy they no longer had to expend time and energy chasing down copyright infringements. They would be ecstatic if our Mounties were to do it for them. Gratis.

But this precedent indicates copying movies for personal use is also legal in Canada

So even though p2p networks or copying movies and music are not actually illegal in Canada, our friends the CRTC gave Bell Canada permission to “throttle” anyone using BitTorrent transfers. Because the assumption is that even if you’re not technically performing criminal acts, per se, anyone who uses BitTorrent can’t be very nice.

The CRTC, the government body that is supposed to safeguard Canadian telecommunication consumers, gave Bell Canada legal permission to mess with BitTorrent traffic. Its discriminatory for one thing. If there are copyright infringements happening, there are laws to handle them. It isn’t any of Bell Canada’s business. Or the CRTC’s.

[More on copyright in my other blog-- in the wind: Personal Use Copying vs. Bootlegging]

Dudley Do-Right?

Eirik Solheim's metaphorical image of the internet is the best I've seen: The internet is a series of tubes

Even if it were true that Canadian consumers were downloading music or movies, and even if it had been made illegal under Canadian Law, it should not make a whit of difference.

Because Internet Service Providers or Internet Carriers are NOT branches of Canadian law enforcement. They have not been deputized to enforce the law by the RCMP. If Bell Canada was in fact a Law Enforcement entity they would not be allowed to peek in any citizen’s packets without first acquiring a search warrant. Corporations don’t exist to uphold laws, they exist to make money.

The internet has been called dumb pipes, or a series of tubes, or a highway. It doesn’t really matter what you call it, what is most important is access for all.  
The people who control the pipes should not be allowed to discriminate against particular users for ANY reason. Net Neutrality is so important: the internet should be accessible to all.

revolutionary ideas

In the United Kingdom The Times Online Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing? article looked at the benefits of personal use copying applied as peer to peer file sharing with some dramatic results.

Canada’s own ThisMagazine presented this thought provoking article Pay indie artists and break the music monopoly — Legalize Music Piracy which advocates making the law serve the artists and consumers rather than just the corporations.

Further rumblings about changing the way we look at this issue were reported recently by the The Globe and Mail blogs article NDP, Billy Bragg make case for free music

STOP Usage Based Billing

Do You Need Word, Excel, and Powerpoint?

Well there are a couple alternatives to take a look at. Both which are FREE and they serve different purposes, so you should just use them both and see what works best for you.

Open Office

You can download this office productivity suite at OpenOffice.org. You can open, edit, and save in the newest Microsoft Formats.  Although on occasion some formatting may not stay exactly the same. It works great, it does everything you need to do, plus more! You can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations all in one program. Easily save to PDF to distribute documents that aren’t meant to be edited.

Google Docs

If you have a gmail account you should be using this! Just click on “documents” and there you go. A web-based way to create documents, spreadsheets, and more!  Easily save drafts, email them to friends, etc. The great thing about this is that you don’t have to store anything locally to your computer. You have access to all your documents wherever you go.  Easily share them among co-workers to enable them access to view, edit. Think about how much wasted time and network bandwith this saves. No more having multiple versions of large DOC files being transmitted back and forth and back and forth between two or more parties working on a single document.  Just give them a specialized link to view it and grant them access to edit. Simple!

Hello guys, kembali bersua dengan tutorial mengenai penomoran halaman di openoffice.org. openOffice.org dapat membuat syle halaman berbeda antara halaman genap atau ganjil istilah jawanya “odd and event pages”. Misalnya : saya pengen membuat syle header dan footer yang berbeda antara halaman yang bernomor ganjil dan genap, di halaman ganjil ( hal 1, 3, 5 dst.) saya tuliskan header “belajar membuat header dan footer GANJIL di openOffice.org” sedangkan footernya “Footer halaman ganjil”

I was tweaking my budget spreadsheet and trying to figure a way to display the percentage of money spent to income earned. I figured the easy was was to divide spending cell by income cell. For example, my household expenditures are totaled in C28 and my total income is listed in H4 so =C28/H4. However, since this was a new budget sheet, the cell displayed #div/0. That looks sloppy and distracting to me so I did some research and figured out how to get a blank cell. I found a formula that does exactly that. It is an IF formula which I didn’t know existed until to me, that’s the fun of learning a new program. The formula is =IF(H4=0,”",C28/H4). The commas separate the arguments.  The first argument sets the condition, which can be either true or false. The second argument is what to do if the formula is true and the third argument is what to do if it is false. The “” leave a blank cell, therefore if H4 is 0, than the cell is simply left blank.

Introduction

The average computer user does not need a crystal ball to know their use patterns will be changing in the next few years, whether they like it or not. The question from a business perspective is: ”How do you deal with the changes?”

We will take a look at a heavily publicized trend: distributed or “cloud” computing. What is it? What does it do? What are some products and how do they compare to Microsoft Office?
Executive Summary

Executives need to close look at how their managers and employees work with computers before making any changes. Productivity will drop while people learn new software, though some products are extremely easy to use.

Cloud computing promises to make document sharing much easier and less cumbersome than current methods. Formatting options, though, will suffer.
A Brief History of Software

In the beginning, there was DOS and it was good. Microsoft, IBM and Digital Research all had their own flavors, but they were essentially the same in that programmers could use this language to create tools and toys for the masses.

And it was good. And it was profitable. And computers shrunk from devices the size of buildings to something small enough to sit on desktops. And the masses bought them, and it was good. And companies made a mint marketing these tools and toys to the masses.

Then there were the bulletin board services. Using arcane methods and character strings, people were able to enter these “boards” using 300 baud modems to dial in and chat with others. And it was good, and mercifully, brief.

Then after Dan Quayle invented French fries, Al Gore invented the Internet and people could suddenly chat online with anyone about anything, with live video and audio to boot. And they did. And they are, incessantly.

And Google entered the fray and said, “Microsoft, you are the big bully on the block. We are going to challenge you by offering decent software at an unbeatable price—free—with a catch: it stays on our servers.”

Then Microsoft said, “Oh yeah? We will release Office Live, Windows 7 and an on-line version of our Office 2010 package and make parts of it free too.”

And it was good, and it was goofy and it’s now what we might call “reality” for computer users.
Distributed ‘Cloud’ Computing Defined

Back in the Stone Age, when computers required a lot of power and specialized storage environments, users worked at “terminals.” Each terminal had a screen, keyboard and maybe a mouse connected by wires to a “server” (a high-powered computer) elsewhere in the building. Users input their requests and their data and the computer crunched it and spat out the results on screens and printers. This was called the “client” (what people used) “server” (where the software was stored and all the main action took place) method.

Technology evolved to the point where sufficient computing power could be placed on desktops, in laptops and now even in portable phones. People bought software, installed it on individual machines and used it. The power of servers was integrated into the client’s computers, obsolescing servers for many mundane everyday business tasks, such as writing reports. Servers were still necessary, though, to handle extremely high volumes of data, such as bank credit card billing.

In recent years, drastic improvements in computer to computer communications speeds (i.e., “broad band” and wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi) are allowing an updated version of the client-server computing model to return. We call the updated method “cloud” computing.
What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a method whereby certain key bits of information required to access remote servers are stored on local computers. But every keystroke and mouse movement on screen is applied to software stored in remote locations, along with all of the information.

The advantage to users is less computing power and storage space are required to perform tasks ranging from writing reports to holding a video conference. The disadvantage is that clear, high-speed wireless connections are required to make this happen. If the connection gets lost, work stops until the computers resume their conversation.

Software makers have several advantages. These include:

• No printing and packaging costs, since all of the software is stored on their computers.
• No distribution costs since the product moves over the airwaves, not in trucks.
• Better security, since the software resides only on their servers.
• Profit potential through paid subscriptions. Pirates won’t be able to sell illegal copies since no physical products exist.

Cloud Computing Examples

There are three readily-available examples of cloud computing, plus a fourth in its widely-distributed beta test phase.

The software we will look at is:

• Google Docs (https://docs.google.com).
• Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/).
• Microsoft Office Live (http://workspace.office.live.com/)
• Google Wave. Still in its beta testing phase, access is not allowed except through invitations from current users.

Now let’s take a brief look at each, examining their pros and cons from a business perspective.
Google Docs (and Google Spreadsheets and Google Presentations)

Requirements:

1. An Internet connection and web browser with Java scripting (a programming language) enables.

2. A Google email account (http://mail.google.com).

Pros:

• Simple and easy to use for people familiar with Microsoft Word and most other word processing software.
• A true cloud computing product because no software downloads are required.
• All program and data resides on Google’s servers.
• Documents are designed to be easily shared across the Internet.

Cons:

• Extremely limited formatting options.
• Font types and sizes are limited to those commonly found on-line, such as 12 pt Verdana.
• Making documents look unique requires HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS) knowledge.
• No ability to save documents in Adobe PDF (portable document format).
• Database options are limited to those of spreadsheets.

Open Office

Created by Sun Microsystems before its acquisition by Oracle, Open Office builds on the JavaScript programming language.

This is less of a cloud computing product than a free competitor to Microsoft Office.

Requirements:

1. Essentially a Windows-based computer with 150 MB of free space.

2. Download and install the software. The time required depends on your internet connection speed.

3. JavaScripting must be enables.

Pros:

• Many more formatting options, such as font options and size choices.
• Easy saving as a PDF.
• Includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation creation, drawing and database software making it similar to Microsoft Office Professional.

Cons:

• Does not work with Linux Deb or Apple Macintosh operating systems.
• Big and bulky when compared to Google Docs, but tiny when compared to Microsoft Office.
• Requires a download to use, making it impractical for people with dial-up connections.

Microsoft Office Live

Microsoft’s initial foray into the cloud computing arena, Office Live gives users numerous preformatted “workspace” templates to use. Expect Office 2010 to look very similar to this and be web-based.

Pros:

• A wide range of documents that are quick and easy to build.
• Intuitive when thinking of documents as varying tasks.
• Potential for building documents with very specific formatting, including saving as PDF files.
• Documents are based on activities such as travel and study, not programs, such as word processing or spreadsheets.
• Easy to share documents with others and far simpler than using Word’s Reviewing options.

Cons:

• Not intuitive when thinking of document types, such as word processing, etc.
• Requires a previously installed and registered copy of Microsoft Office for full formatting flexibility.
• Takes time to reorient users to thinking in task terms.

Google Wave

Google Wave is still in its beta testing cycle (like Google Docs), which might last for several years.

At its core, Google Wave seeks to reinvent email. Instead of having one program for emails, another for instant messaging and a third for groups, Wave combines aspects of each into a single program.

Google Wave is not a replacement for Microsoft Word, but when used with Google Mail and Google Docs, it can be considered an alternative to Microsoft Mail and Outlook Express.

Requirements:

• JavaScript and an Internet connection.

Pros:

• Simple, clean interface.
• Makes collaborating on new documents a snap.
• Allows several people to comment at the same time, with everyone watching each keystroke (similar to instant messaging).
• Appears to work just fine using Apple’s Safari browser under Windows. I haven’t tested it on a Mac, though. No version was available for the iPhone when this was written, though it appears to be under development.

Cons:

• Since it’s still in a relatively early beta development phase, the only way to get a copy is through an invitation from a current Wave user.
• Being an Internet product, it’s restricted to HTML and CSS coding, which means that highly stylized will not appear with their original formatting intact.

The Bottom Line

Like it or not, computing is changing to more of a server-centric rather than individual computer-based model. The days of having every tool on every computer—and having to make sure that they are all current and identical—are rapidly coming to an end.

People who use Microsoft Office products frequently—especially those with custom templates—will want to stay with their existing versions. These products still offer more flexibility and options than the web-based versions.

Get familiar with Office Live and start using it, though, because changes are occurring. The more familiar you are with what’s coming, the easier your transition will be.

Firms with far fewer formatting requirements will want to take a close look at Google Docs due to its simplicity and ease of sharing.

Open Office is a good and powerful alternative to Microsoft Office when disk space is limited.

Sie können sich gratis Open Office herunterladen. Es ist eine komplette Office-Suite, die keine Wünsche offenlässt und der Open Source Idee verbunden ist. Hier ist die Adresse: http://de.openoffice.org/.

Falls es Ihnen lieber ist können Sie selbstverständlich auch für ein anderes Office-Produkt eines anderen Herstellers bezahlen. Sie werden vielleicht feststellen, daß das kostenlose Open Office Ihnen alle Wünsche erfüllt, sogar solche, von denen Sie überhaupt nicht wussten, daß Sie sie haben.

Ahora que el Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico y el gobierno central han decidido entregarse, a o mas bien seguirse entregando a Microsoft es oportuno sugerir que se visite este wiki sobre el proyecto OOO4Kids En este se presenta Open Office Org for Kids, el software abierto que siendo totalmente operacional y compatible con las versiones de Microsoft Office siguen ganando adeptos. Si este software es tan bueno como la versión para adultos, vale la pena explorarlo.

La empresa Liberty Seguros, con importante presencia en Bilbao, ha confiado en Ibermática la actualización de sus programas de Microsoft Office. Además de migrarlos a la última versión, la 2007, se ha incluido la posibilidad de emplear OpenOffice en algunos puestos de usuario, con lo que la compañía puede ahorrar importantes cantidades en licencias de software.

OpenOffice es un conjunto de programas de ordenador diseñado para el trabajo de oficina, de software libre y que incluye herramientas como procesador de textos, hoja de cálculo, presentaciones, herramientas para el dibujo vectorial y base de datos. Está disponible para muchas y diversas plataformas, como Microsoft Windows o Linux, y está pensado para ser compatible con Microsoft Office, con quien compite en la práctica.

Para llevar a cabo este proyecto de migración de manera que ni usuarios ni organización perciban el mínimo impacto en su trabajo diario, Ibermática ha prestado especial cuidado a la gestión del cambio a la nueva versión. En concreto, ha propuesto una solución basada en cuatro componentes que considera esenciales: Un servicio de ayuda online, otro de formación presencial, otro de formación virtual (e-learning) y, finalmente, un servicio de soporte a usuarios y mantenimiento.

Desde: Euskadi+innova – Liberty Seguros se pasa al software libre de la mano de Ibermática.

3.11.2009 została wypuszczona finalna wersja Mandriva 2010. Wewnątrz znajdziemy m.in. KDE 4.3, GNOME 2.28, OpenOffice 3.1, oraz kernel 2.6.31. Jak zwykle Mandriva zaoferowała wersję społecznościową, jak i obraz instalowanej płyty LiveCD dystrybucji Mandriva One. Ta ostatnia umożliwia nam wybór pomiędzy pulpitem GNOME oraz KDE. Wszystkie obrazy ISO można nagrać także na pendrive’a, a następnie zainstalować system na netbooku pozbawionym napędu optycznego.

Când am văzut imaginile cu şoricelul OOMouse de mai jos am crezut că este o glumă bună. După câteva pagini web vizualizate, legate de acelaşi subiect, am înţeles că dispozitivul va intra în producţie în curând şi cei interesaţi vor fi nevoiţi să scotă din portofel 75 $ pentru a-l achiziţiona. Butoanele principale ale unui mouse obişnuit au fost înlocuite cu 16 butoane diferenţiate, având diverse dimensiuni şi două culori. Pe lateral se găseşte un mic joystick, similar cu cel de pe gamepad-uri şi încă un buton. Dacă luăm în considerare şi click-ul de pe rotiţă, avem 18 butoane.

OpenOffice.org

Hello everybody!

Last Saturday was Media Democracy Day at the Vancouver Public Library.  It was both very informative and very interesting.  Chris and I weren’t able to attend the entire day, but for the couple hours we were there we learned much that was useful.  And much that made us think.

Ifny Lachance spoke about FreeGeek and its mission to distrubute free

Ifny Lachance (FreeGeek)

computers and software to whoever needs them.   FreeGeek volunteers take apart and recycle old computer parts into new, usable machines.   Volunteers are trained to do this, and after volunteering for several hours and assembling a certain number of machines, are able to assemble their own (free) computer to take home.

And if you can have free computer why can’t you get  free software?  This is posible too.  Infy talked about several alternatives to “Micro$oft”.  Like Ubuntu.   Chris decided to try Ubuntu instead of Windows.  He loves it and says he won’t go back.   I downloaded Open Office 3, a Free and Open Source Software alternative to Microsoft Office, and haven’t noticed any difference.  Except price…it was free of course.

Next we got to screen Be the Media a film about citizen journalism as

Chad Schroter-Gillespie and Nick Middleton

alternative to coprorate media by Nick Middleton and Chad Schroter-Gillespie.   This 20 minute documentary introduced the many different ways ordinary ‘citizens’ are becoming involved in journalism through alternate media like blogs, YouTube, podcasting,  etc.  It’s message: everyone can be the media today and that often citizen journalism may be more pertinent, trustworthy, and effective, to a large and often discredited corporate media.

The “Social Media Revolution” isn’t a fad.   (You’ll find an interesting YouTube video about it here).

A number of independent media representatives also set up information tables in the main foyer of the library and answered questions for those who were interested.  The Vancouver Observer, an online magazine, CO-OP Radio, and the Website Media Co-op were present, among others.

So people today can choose, if they want, to have their own opinions, to make their own contributions to media, or to continue to buy corporate packaged thoughts and information.

See you!

…that the folks over at OpenOffice have concentrated so much on mimicking interfaces rather than trying to come up with their own interface.

If this is the best that can be achieved, I’m not surprised that OpenOffice takes longer to launch and gets uglier with each iteration. This is not interface design. It reminds me of the Kill-o-Zap gun from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, which was described thusly in the book:

The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. ‘Make it evil,’ he’d been told. “Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with.’

I keep hoping this is a joke, but I can’t see anything that suggests it’s anything other than something serious. It’s not a mouse – it’s an obscenity of undesign.

This product is great for you organizers out there. Our Maco ML-8576 index cards is perfect for your index card needs. Just type up some index cards in OpenOffice and run these babys through your printer, and organize away!

Open Office – An option for Microsoft Word / Powerpoint or Excel.

You can draw or make pdf files.

It is a free Programme..

get it:

http://download.openoffice.org/index.html