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Did you know Microsoft is trying to get their proprietary Office format passed as an ISO standard? Neither did I until I ran across this. Below are reasons that this should NOT be accepted as a standard. There is also a link where you can go and sign the petition… do the right thing!

I ask the national members of ISO to vote “NO” in the ballot of ISO DIS 29500 (Office OpenXML or OOXML format) for the following reasons:

1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens;
2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification;
3. There is information missing from the specification document, for example how to do a autoSpaceLikeWord95 or useWord97LineBreakRules;
4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML;
5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent lawsuits or patent license fees by Microsoft;

Danny Tuppeny is running a giveaway contest on his blog. The prize? The NeverShutsUp.com domain. All you have to do is head over to the contest page and leave a comment.

Realizing that the week was nearly at it’s end and I hadn’t run yet I got up out of bed this morning against the cries of my sleepy head. The weather wasn’t as bad as it has been; it was in the high 70s instead of the mid 80s. The run went fairly smooth and I actually sprinted a bit at the end of the run.

During the last half of my run I started thinking about fighting and martial arts. I’m not sure why exactly. I guess I was thinking that it’s been nearly a year since I left my martial arts studio in Milton, FL. I’d really like to get back into it, but I just don’t have the time these days. I commute to work now and so I end up being gone between 12 and 14 hours per day. Oh, well… at least I can still run to get exercise.

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