I use OpenOffice.org on a daily basis and it is good enough for my use but I am pretty sure it is not for everyone. While its support for reading and writing Microsoft’s file formats increase with each release it will always be a little behind. The current release can read the Microsoft 2007 file format but not write it.
I use OpenOffice.org mainly to read files from clients and create very basic Word and Excel documents. If you plan on working mainly with the Open Document Format then OpenOffice.org should be more than perfect for you. It’s a pity more organisations don’t standardise on this format. I would love if this was the case and most organisations and individuals would not feel the need to purchase or pirate a copy of MS Office.
I sincerely hope more people become aware of OOo so we can lessen the grip MS Office has on the office suite market. OpenOffice.org could do to this space what Firefox did for browsers but I don’t think it’s there yet.
Have a look at the new list of featrues.
Update: One feature that I am really glad to see is the editing of PDFs, this will be especially useful.
Also, the site seems to be taking a beating from the onslaught of downloads so here’s a mirror.
]]>An official post will be made on our main website once the move is completed. We don’t have a new number as yet but that information will be included in the announcement.
]]>An official post will be made on our main website once the move is completed. We don’t have a new number as yet but that information will be included in the announcement.
Wish there were some pictures to show of the demolition but our main camera is not working and no one else thought it pertinent to bring one :(.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have cables to disconnect and servers to shutdown.
]]>Now, hacking and phishing are nothing new. They have been very prevalent in other countries. But I’m wondering if these two attacks are the start of a trend. Jamaican financial institutions have certainly had websites for years now. Why the increase of attacks now (if this wasn’t just a fluke)? Is it that we are more visible or just more vulnerable?
I certainly hope that First Global wasn’t keeping users personal information on their website and that this will lead to better security considerations by our financial websites. There is not much you can do against phishing, some of the biggest on-line companies have the same problem. Paypal comes to mind. The response NCB gave was the correct one I think. Notifying their customers as soon as possible of the threat. Let’s hope no one lost their life savings because of this fraudulent behaviour :)
I would love to hear more about these two stories and I wish them the best of luck in dealing with their individual situations.
Note: I never really understood how people got caught by phishing attempts. It’s a little bit like those Nigerian emails - never understood those either.
]]>We do need to provide an easy way for users to update and create content on their website but the current breed of editors are not the solution. So what is? My thought on the matter has always been that users need to know at least a little bit about the system they are using. The CMS is not a word processor. It’s a different paradigm and that needs to be communicated to the users.
]]>We do need to provide an easy way for users to update and create content on their website but the current breed of editors are not the solution. So what is? My thought on the matter has always been that users need to know at least a little bit about the system they are using. The CMS is not a word processor. It’s a different paradigm and that needs to be communicated to the users.
A partial solution may be, as suggested in the post linked above, using less buttons on the editor. Ideally these should include “bold”, “italic”, “underline”, “link” and some means of inserting an image. Image insertion comes with its own issues, which I won’t get into right now. My suggestion is the use of more lightweight markup languages such as Markdown and Textile. These use special markers that when interpreted generate correct HTML but the inputted text is still readable by someone who doesn’t know the first thing about HTML. My personal favorite is Markdown. In fact this post is written in Markdown and the comment form on this site accepts Markdown.
People still like to see buttons that remind them of their word processor, so for the time being I am watching WYMeditor. WYMEditor takes a different approach, according to the website:
WYMeditor’s main concept is to leave details of the document’s visual layout, and to concentrate on its structure and meaning, while trying to give the user as much comfort as possible (at least as WYSIWYG editors).
WYMeditor is written as a JQuery plugin. JQuery is a javascript library that is included in Drupal as of version 5 and happens to be my library of choice :)
There is seemingly another option cropping up. Control.TextArea provides a bridge between the WYSIWYG editors and the plain text options by providing buttons that generate the markup for you. It is not a WYSIWYG editor though.
The good news is; people do realize current solutions are not ideal and are working on better solutions. For the time being though we are stuck with editors such as TinyMCE and FCKEditor.
]]>Their about page states:
NFL Times Ja. is the communication space used by a group of football fanatics resident in Jamaica…
Not being an American football fan myself I probable won’t be participating much but you can pay them a visit and get in on the madness. Maybe they will even let you in on their weekly wagers :).
Cheers!
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