Tag: asf

Laundering Office

Microsoft has announced that it will – with a European partner – contribute to an open-source project for reading and writing Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Visio files. The Apache POI API is already used by various open source projects to handle Microsoft Office documents, but work is needed to add Office Open XML support as used by Office 2007 and 2008.

looks like the sourcesense guys are helping microsoft to establish a standard no one wants. not sure that is progress.

Version Control Architectures

Linus’ main idea in favor of distributed version control is that, as humans, we are naturally social beings and we deal with trust and respect in a social way: one way is to create a gate and select who comes in and out (the centralized, walled garden, grant-commit-access way of doing things), another is to let everybody have their own personal branch, where nobody is fixed in the center and anybody can pull from anybody else in the network (the center becomes really a centroid, the center of gravity of the network and can move more easily over time). I had dismissed such ideas as heretic in the past because I thought that centralization was the only mean that could maintain brand control and provide a consistent legal framework upon which to operate.

i used bitkeeper on an earlier open source project, and it definitely helped us scale better. i think apache.org would do well to move to git or another distributed scm.

JCK Access

Geir Magnusson: Today, the Apache Software Foundation sent an open letter to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, regarding the ASF’s inability to acquire an acceptable TCK license for the Java SE TCK (also called the “JCK”) in over 7 months of trying. For more information, there is also a FAQ available.

I sincerely hope that Jonathan quickly intervenes as he is in a unique position to assess the trade-off between the short term benefits in the credit column against the intangible costs in the debit column of (1) actively destroying the community that Sun has taken so much time and effort to foster, (2) mortgaging the future of Java, and (3) undermining Sun’s own open standards efforts. Specifically:

Finally, it is my understanding that a number of Sun employees have attempted to help, but were blocked by people higher in the pecking order. Their efforts are most appreciated. Keep up the good fight!

how about it, sun?

Greg Stein Roast

So we’re in Vegas. Most good “Greg Stories” start that way. It’s really late and we’re at the Blackjack table with Herman, the 80 year old dealer. He’s telling stories about the early days in the casinos and we’re just wishing he would just shut up and deal. Herman isn’t paying too much attention and instead is watching the ladies walk past. Greg starts to doze off at the table and puts his head down. Just to catch a couple Zs. The dealer says, “Sir, you can’t sleep at the table.” Greg wakes up and his cards are stuck to his forehead like he’s playing Indian Poker. The dealer grabs the cards and throws them down on the table. Now it wouldn’t be so bad if that were the end of the story. Herman must have had a”senior moment” because Greg had blackjack and didn’t immediately pay him. As Herman is sweeping the cards, Greg starts yelling about not getting paid. Herman starts yelling back and accused Greg of not knowing what his cards were. Here is where it got ugly. The pit boss comes over and paid Greg for a win but not a Blackjack. More yelling. Lot’s of “just look at the video tape” at the $5 table. Needless to say, we were no longer welcome at the Blackjack tables of the Mirage. No great loss.

heh. the man who introduced me to manhattans