Big Brother
I confess. I watched, and enjoyed, the first 2 series' of Big Brother. However, things have got gradually worse and worse, and they have now finally scraped the bottom of the barrel. And I don't blame the 'housemates', I blame the production company. The selection of candidates this season was so blatantly designed to produce a maximum of social and sexual tension, and give them a sensationalist show. Even more so that the previous series'. I haven't watched this series, and I am happy about that. But I am surprised that Channel 4, even with its 'alternative' ideals, has dropped this low - a show like this needs to be relegated to some dodgy pay channel (Living TV?), or at the very least to late-night Channel 5 ;)'Standards'
This morning I read an interesting article looking at the GNOME desktop environment. They made some very good points, but it highlighted to me again one of the more worrying trends within the IT world - the infiltration of proprietary file formats into what is 'standard'. What I find most concerning is that the current trend within the portion of the IT community that doesn't use MS Word's .DOC files (and .DOCs aren't the only problem, just the most common) is that the programs we use should be able to deal with these file formats with ease.Now, I don't have a problem with this per se. What I have a problem with is the fact that if we continue to send files to each other in proprietary formats, no matter what program they were created with (ie MS Office, OpenOffice.org, Abiword, etc) then we cease to become part of the solution, and only exaserbate the problem.
So, here is the bottom line - I don't care what Office suite you happen to prefer (actually, I do, but that is another matter). If you decide to send files in a particular format to friends by prior arrangement, fine. I don't want to receive .DOC files though. Yes, I can read them. I can edit them. But that is not the point. Neither will I send you anything in .DOC format. I may occasionally use PDF files, but that is an exception, and only because Adobe have made it possible for the files to be read on any platform. If I have to send you a document, I will most likely send it as HTML, an open standard that 99% of word processors can import with minimal difficulties.
HTML Mail
I dislike HTML mail. Particularly those of you that have fancy graphics in your signature. It is a waste of space (especially at work where my mail file size is extremely limited), and means that I have to use an HTML aware email client (not always possible when I am logged into a shell on my home system - Mutt is good, but does not stoop that low). Even worse are those emails that have been sent from a certain hefty word processor that, instead of rendering them as text, or even HTML, inserts a whole load of guff into the top of the email to make it impossible to read. Here is an example from a recent email I received:
/* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 2 6 3
5 4
+5 2 3 4;} @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
+@font-face {font-family:"Monotype Sorts"; panose-1:5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1;}
/*
+Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoHeader,
li.MsoHeader,
+div.MsoHeader {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple;
+text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";
+color:black;} p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.MsoTitle,
+li.MsoTitle, div.MsoTitle {margin-top:7.2pt; margin-right:0cm;
+margin-bottom:3.6pt; margin-left:0cm; text-align:center;
+page-break-after:avoid; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Arial; color:black; font-weight:bold;}
a:link,
+span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited,
+span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline;} p
+{margin-right:0cm; margin-left:0cm; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times
New
+Roman";} p.Bullet2, li.Bullet2, div.Bullet2 {margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
+margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt; margin-bottom:.0001pt;
+text-indent:-18.0pt; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times
+New Roman";} p.Subhead, li.Subhead, div.Subhead {margin-top:3.6pt;
+margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:3.6pt; margin-left:0cm;
+punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt;
+font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.NumberList, li.NumberList,
+div.NumberList {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:0cm;
+punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt;
+font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.Bullet1, li.Bullet1,
div.Bullet1
+{margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:0cm;
punctuation-wrap:simple;
+text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";
+color:black;} p.Bullet, li.Bullet, div.Bullet {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:0cm; punctuation-wrap:simple;
+text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";
+color:black;} p.BodySingle, li.BodySingle, div.BodySingle {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;}
p.DefaultText,
+li.DefaultText, div.DefaultText {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;
+punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt;
+font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} span.EmailStyle28
+{font-family:Arial; color:windowtext;} /* Page Definitions */ @page
Section1
+{size:595.25pt 841.9pt; margin:48.3pt 34.0pt 50.2pt 34.0pt;} div.Section1
+{page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ ol {margin-bottom:0cm;} ul
+{margin-bottom:0cm;} All this for an email that only contained about 8 lines of text!!
Anyway - thats probably enough for you to be going on with. L8rs
mrBen
