In an earlier post we showed some amazing Origami spheres and balls. If you’re hooked on this paper art, you know how easy it is to become an origami fanatic. So this link is for you…dozens and dozens…nay - hundreds of drawings in PDF to help you quench your Origami fever!

Posted by Russell at 8:00 AM PDT

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Want to lose a few thousand pounds and feel better about your health and fitness? Get a carectomy. I haven’t owned a car since my last divorce over a decade ago, and I haven’t missed it. If I need to leave town, I rent an automobile. And, now I have a choice to rent a hybrid if I want. Otherwise, I hoof it around my area to get what I need (or I borrow my roommate’s car once a month for huge grocery runs). Yes, I’m a leech. But, I do pay for gas. And, I save much more money than you do as a car owner. Neener neener.

Posted by Linda at 4:57 PM PDT

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It appears that the Gnome Foundation is participating in ECMA TC 45 regarding resolving comments and contradictions for DIS 29500. Given the technical shortcomings in the specification and the disregard for process that the backers of DIS 29500 have displayed during the process, Gnome’s participation in this activity is to the detriment of interoperability among office suits.

Efforts should be made to support the International Organization for Standards (ISO) policy of “one standard, one test, accepted everywhere.” Gnome can do this by promoting support for ISO/IEC 26300. Once the standard is implemented and in use, then add extras can be added, either import-only, or read-write. But, if different suites support unfinished specifications while failing to support the standard, then there is no interoperability.

Having Gnome team members promoting the agenda of its main opponent, however, is not only counter-productive but also reflects negatively on the project and its credibility. GNOME is supporting its main opponent by explicitly participating in the official Ecma / ISO process; by participating informally at the conferences; and, presumably, by participating inside of actual development. It seems that Gnome is becoming Microsoft’s catspaw to damage and slow down open source and open standards.

Along those lines, it would be important for Gnome to present a respectable public image in regards to standards and to be sure that Gnome team members are able to back ISO’s position rather than ISO’s opponent. Individuals may wish to work against open standards, and they are free to do so, but Gnome as a project should distance itself and emphasized that such activities not be done under the auspices of Gnome nor in their role in the project.

For example, one high profile team member can cause a lot of trouble for Gnome, especially when promoting proprietary technologies in opposition to open source and open standards. Quotes like, “Time to play with C#, ASP.NET and some nifty toys (you can make almost Windows feel like Linux now)” seem to be promoting themes advanced by bloggers at Gnome’s (and open standards’) main antagonist, Microsoft.

A good illustration of pragmatic reasons for standards has been provided in a presentation by David Wheeler, linked below. In sum, Wheeler makes a compelling case that open standards save time and effort.

http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-security.pdf
http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-security.odp
http://www.dwheeler.com/multimedia/open-standards-security.ogg

It is time to unite the community behind the standard, universal format for office suites and distance themselves from Ecma TC45 and DIS 29500. The participation of Gnome in Ecma TC45’s apparent subversion of the standards process is a major disservice to FOSS and all in the community who have worked so hard for open platforms and open standards.

Further reading

http://www.ecma-international.org/memento/TC45-M.htm

http://www.mail-archive.com/foundation-list@gnome.org/msg01874.html

http://blogs.gnome.org/jody

Posted by Russell at 2:49 PM PDT

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Yes, I made the mistake! I have a compulsion for feeding animals and birds but was warned - don’t feed the raccoons. Why? Because they will end up bringing their buddies and babies along for the food train ride. I did not listen and every night I fed Mama handfuls and handfuls of peanuts.

Then the ritual stopped. Mama did not come around for a few weeks. But, one morning about about 1:30 am I heard an animal screaming repeatedly. I ran to the back yard to see what the commotion was all about. It was Mama, making all kinds of noises with four little babies in tow, the sweetest baby raccoons who waddled along behind her.

Now I had a whole family to feed every night, five raccoons that would rush to the door to call me out. One night I noticed two of the babies limping, one extremely bad. It was actually dragging its body with just its front legs.

Read on, mon cher! »

Posted by Russell at 8:00 AM PDT

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