User Levels and spreadsheets

I've not been writing since Xmas because I've taken a break from the computer world and sorting out moving house.

Anyway yesterday I realised again it's not a good idea to think that all users can use standard technology on whatever level they work at and have to be shown, lead or taught depending on their technology level.

I'm pretty useless at writing macros and using MS Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc, but there are high level technology users in my office who are equally as bad, and low level users who are brillant.

Technorati Tags: Open Source, spreadsheet, software

Understanding free software and Bloppers in Movies

Having used free software since I came into computing I've had to explain the meaning to many people. This article from freesoftewaremagazine uses a cake as a good analogy to explain what "free" means.

Many movies show their protagonists using computers to save the day. However it's always amazing what the computer can do compared to real life. For example in the 24, they are able to download information to a PDA without problems and there is always someone who can crack the computer code of the enemy just in time which is always helped by the fact they can just demand more computing power when they need it. In Minority Report, Tom Cruise's character is seen using a 3D computer to move files around and collect information. The system doesn't crash and Tom Cruise never gets tired. Anyway more movie bloopers

Technorati Tags: Open Source, Movies, software, Films

Open Office and Java

Yesterday week I was doing some programming at work and got stuck on an issue, so I decided to look at the openoffice.org forums. I typed in the URL and received an error message stating that the DNS couldn't be resolved. I then did a whois search and emailed the site admin. I got no response. Today I was still struggling with the same issue and was getting fed up but now the site is back up.

The highlights a problem with software development particularly if depends on other users being accountable rather than companies. They can have problems with support sites and not bother informing their user base that there is this problem. I should point out that openoffice.org open source project is sponsored by Sun and so this issue shouldn't have happened.

Java was officially open sourced this week under the GPL. What does this mean? At the moment very little because there are a lot of little Java libraries out there.

Technorati Tags: open source, forums, technology, computing, openoffice.org, Java