Mittwoch Mai 25, 2005

A standard based on standards
"OpenDocument provides a single XML schema for text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents. It makes use of existing standards, such as HTML, SVG, XSL, SMIL, XLink, XForms, MathML, and the Dublin Core, wherever possible. OpenDocument has been designed as a package concept, enabling it to be used as a default file format for office applications with no increase in file size or loss of data integrity."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 25 2005, 10:21:02 AM CEST ) Permalink

"OO.o 2.0 pioneers new standard"
"The new standard format promises greater compatibility between all office productivity applications in the future, according to author Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. "It's designed to not tie businesses' data to a particular program or version of a program," Vaughan-Nichols writes.

The Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) has already won the endorsements of Sun, IBM, and Red Hat according to Vaughan-Nichols. Also, there are predictions that it will find a solid niche in both government and private sectors."

The full article can be found here.
( Mai 25 2005, 10:19:14 AM CEST ) Permalink

Becoming rich without an MBA
Based on the following comments to my last MBA related blog posting I did a little research:

"Go to the home page of a top VC, for instance Sutter Hill Ventures (www.shv.com), and see where they got their degrees. Can you see a pattern?"

"the best talent and the most money clusters around relatively few institutions"

Although I believe that institutions like Harvard and Stanford "produce" a lot of successful business men, I also strongly believe that there are other ways to be equally successful.

BTW, how is success actually measured? Is it the size of the salary, the title, the money-earned-per-hours-worked ratio, or simply the level of contentment and satisfaction? Many people want to be CEO's. However, although I'm pretty ambitious I don't see that as the highest level of success. I'm not sure if people are happier if they don't see their families anymore because they are constantly flying around the world to close deals.

Nevertheless, I took a look at the list of the richest people in the world. To my surprise (if I did not make a mistake), most people don't have an MBA from a top institution. Actually, they don't have an MBA at all.

Quite a few of these people also did not inherit a fortune, but created it themselves. A few examples that I identified are Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Larry Ellison, Sam Walton, as well as Karl and Theo Albrecht.

Apparently, Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) and the Albrechts (ALDI, Trader Joe's) started the businesses from scratch with not a lot of money in their pocket. Bill Gates and Paul Allen decided to drop out of college to start their software business. And Larry Ellison seemed to have a rough start, too:

"He enrolled at the University of Chicago the following fall, but dropped out after the first semester. his father was now convinced he would never make anything of himself, but Ellison had learned the rudiments of computer programming in Chicago and took this skill with him to Berkeley, California, arriving with just enough money for fast food and a few tanks of gas.

For the next eight years he bounced from job to job, working as a technician for Fireman's Fund, Wells Fargo bank and began working as a programmer with large databases at Ampex. At Ampex he built a large database for the CIA, code name: Oracle."

Probably these are extraordinary people, and also most likely top business schools can help to accelerate the career. However, it looks to me that there are other ways to become successful. I doubt that all the European, Asian and African CEO's and VP's went to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and INSEAD!

Thus, if the people network is key, like some people indicated in their comments, there must be other ways to build up or access such a network. If it is the MBA knowledge, like others suggested, there must be other ways to access the knowledge.

As usual, I'm curious to see and read your comments!
( Mai 25 2005, 07:56:17 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [2]

Looking for OpenOffice.org/StarOffice ISV's
Here in my blog I already introduced a few third party solutions that are available (or at least under development) for StarOffice. A few solutions are also listed on the OpenOffice.org development page. However, I'm sure this does not provide the full picture!

Therefore, please let me know if you have developed a solution on top of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org. Also, if you want to start integrating your product with OpenOffice.org or StarOffice, please contact me or the OpenOffice.org BizDev Project, so that we can check how we can help you with your effort.

Finally, the next OpenOffice.org Conference is coming up. If you are selling StarOffice or OpenOffice.org-based products, it would be great if you could support this event! Even Microsoft was there last year!
( Mai 25 2005, 06:13:04 AM CEST ) Permalink

NetBeans Interview with Gosling and Cramer
"Cramer: The big key feature is J2EE 1.4 development, and working on there the ability to work on EJBs for mere human beings. What took so long? I know, I know. EJBs are complicated, so we spent a lot of time with the EJB team and the tool team together and worked very hard to make EJB development a lot easier."
The full interview can be found here.
( Mai 25 2005, 06:03:42 AM CEST ) Permalink

Dienstag Mai 24, 2005

"Bristol ready to put open source on 3,500 desktops"
"Last week, Birmingham City Council announced a 1,500-seat pilot of an open source desktop - including a Linux operating system and open source application. Although Bristol Council will keep its Windows environments, both councils are part of the Open Source Academy, funded by £1.3m from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 24 2005, 07:28:42 AM CEST ) Permalink

"OptimaNumerics Supports Sun's Solaris 10"
"The combination of OptimaNumerics Libraries' extreme performance with portable and reliable technologies, and Sun Solaris 10 systems' trusted capabilities allows our customers to better take advantage of their supercomputer investments, complete their computations quicker and ultimately lower total R&D costs."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 24 2005, 07:27:11 AM CEST ) Permalink

Montag Mai 23, 2005

Google Fight: OpenOffice.org vs. Corel WordPerfect
Thanks to Roumen for the link to Google Fight! Look here to see the competion results for OpenOffice.org vs. Corel WordPerfect. OpenOffice.org is also doing pretty well against the "current" market leader. We'll see how the numbers will change over time! Oh, and as you can see here, I'm not doing too badly against Britney Spears! ;-)
( Mai 23 2005, 06:42:24 PM CEST ) Permalink

Now it's official! Time to celebrate!
OASIS today finally announced that the OASIS members approve the OpenDocument as an OASIS standard:

"XML doesn't always mean open. You can hide a lot in a file format. OpenDocument represents an opportunity to ensure truly open file formats for productivity applications, which is why it will receive the enthusiastic support of public sector steering organizations on a global basis," commented James Governor, principal analyst at RedMonk. "The participation of enterprises in vertical industries, such as aerospace, will also ensure adoption in the private sector. One key to success will be the royalty free status of the spec; there are no financial penalties associated with developing to it." [...]

"IBM recognizes the importance of a standards-based document format. Use of open, non-proprietary formats will facilitate seamless collaboration between vendors, customers and partners and ensure the maintenance of corporate and government knowledge," said Karla Norsworthy, vice president, Software Standards, IBM. "IBM supports the OASIS OpenDocument formats, and we believe the standardization is a major accomplishment in an important area."

"Sun believes in the power of open standards to enhance business productivity and to stimulate innovation by preserving the intellectual property rights of content creators," said Tim Bray, Technology Director at Sun Microsystems. "Sun is a founding member of the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee, and Sun's StarOffice 8 productivity suite, based on the OpenOffice.org project, uses OpenDocument as its default file format."

For more background information read also this!
( Mai 23 2005, 06:21:39 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

3rd OpenOffice.org Conference in Koper, Slovenia (28-30 Sept. 2005)
The announcement can be found here.
( Mai 23 2005, 11:46:22 AM CEST ) Permalink

Nokia supports Firefox?!
"Nokia's move to web services is not a sudden shift. The company has been involved in the Oasis, Liberty Alliance and W3C standards groups. It also helped fund the Mozilla effort that produced the Firefox browser."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 23 2005, 08:56:32 AM CEST ) Permalink

"Microsoft Needs More than Tabbed Browsing"
"There are numerous other things that Microsoft can do to make Internet Explorer a competitive browser functionally and feature wise. What really intrigues me is that Microsoft only seems interested in eliminating competition, and not catering to its users. Microsoft clearly has the resources to define the software industry, but they choose not to do that. I am all for the goal of eliminating competition, but they need do that with better products and continued support to their customers. Microsoft can learn a lot from Firefox and the things that have made it a success. The company will certainly need more than tabbed browsing in 7.0 to get knowledgeable users to switch back over to Internet Explorer."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 23 2005, 08:55:08 AM CEST ) Permalink

Professional linguistic technology in StarOffice
"It's quite an honor to welcome Sun Microsystems to our family of prestigious licensees such as Adobe Systems and Macromedia. Franklin's linguistic solutions provide extensive language offerings and excellent quality which benefit our valued customers."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 23 2005, 08:50:53 AM CEST ) Permalink

Inserting special characters into OpenOffice.org
"OpenOffice.org lets you process multiple languages within the same document easily, as long as you use only the characters your keyboard offers you. Anything beyond that requires you to Insert > Special Character. This is acceptable, as long as you don't need to enter too many of these special characters. This article discusses a convenient way to mix two or more languages in small amounts, as with single words or single characters."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 23 2005, 08:49:23 AM CEST ) Permalink

Microsoft using OpenOffice.org?
I just found this and this. I'm really anxious to find out if this is really true!
( Mai 23 2005, 08:31:51 AM CEST ) Permalink