The Danish Competition Authority (report in English)

The Danish Competition Authority Recommends a Continued Use of all Open Standards for Office Software in the Public Sector

http://www.ks.dk/index.php?id=28728&L=1

My experience with Android - part I

I'm working together with a few other consultants on a joint project. Last week I was sitting in the office at customer and one of my co-workers said:

Hey Leif! You are always bragging about being that open source freak. Are you aware that you are the one with the less open sourced mobile?

I must admit that it was embarrassing. I - the open source freak - was using a traditional Nokia running Symbian. And he just bought a new Android phone: The HTC Hero.

I looked at it. I tried that Google application where you can look at Google Street View in 3D (if you turn around, you will automatically switch view direction). Useless gadgets off cause. Who needs that kind of overestimated rubbish.

Today I called my operator and asked about the price and conditions. She told me about I could have a similar phone (because I'm a very valued customer) for almost nothing. Okay then. Please ship it today, I said.

No no. You must go to one of our shops and buy it. Remember to change your subscription first - then you will get it for less. Thanks a lot. I'll go and buy it right away.

Off with the bus. Shift bus twice (no wonder why their phones are so cheep. Their shop is in the middle of nowhere). Okay now finally at the phone shopand I waited only 20 minutes before I could get to talk with one of the shop employees.

Okay - A business subscription - I need to call the business department - Hang on. Waited another 3 - 5 minutes.

Fine - we can change your subscription right away if you buy a new phone. YES! Thats the whole purpose of me beeing here for crying ou loud. I was getting a little irritaded. When all the computer registrations was done, he asked me what phone I would like to buy? Well I was thinking of a HTC Hero, I said.

Ohhhh. Thats ehhh - not good. have you seen the new Iphone by the way? HTC Hero is not on stock and we have no idea about hen we can get another delivery.

WHAT?

This is one of your top models. I talked to a sales woman in business department this afternoon. She send me here.

I guess you will have to wait for my evaluation until later. So far I can only look with envy towards my co-worker by the next table. I think I'll stick with Nokia for a while. At least until Telenor can get me a new phone.

Did I tell you, that I had to wait undtill the guy could undo all his registrations to my subscription?

Export to Freemind Part II

I have been working to improve the export to Freemind over the last few days.

Here are the new features:

Freemind structure is changed, so that top level is from document properties. I am using Title and Subject if available. Otherwise I just use the filename.

If one or more levels are missing, I will substitute with dummy levels that will be colored red in Freemind. That is to keep the strict structure.

Help content added.

Launching the file with Freemind if possible (For Windows and Linux only). That is if I can find the Freemind program.

Added status in statusbar

Fixed bugs:
Correct encoding of filename with spaces.
Problem with "" and & in headers
Pushing the Cancel button in Save file dialog results in an error.

You can download the extension here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/Freemind

Export from OpenOffice to Freemind

I just launched a new extension that exports the structure of headings in a text document to Freemind 0.8 format.




Quite nice if you need to get an overview of a large document.

Please help me test it.

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/Freemind

Set data free!

In the public administration we can find thousands of small pieces of data that are maintained with one or more specific purposes. What if others (public authorities or private enterprise) could benefit from these data?

Why are these data not available to the public?

Probably because of old fashioned thinking. Minds are like parachutes - they work best when they open.

The National IT- and Tele Agency has just published an analysis in the form of a list of public databases http://digitaliser.dk/ressourcer?tabContainerResources=tabDatakildeResources# . More than 800 small pieces of information. Some of them are already public available but most of them are not.

The purpose of this project is to show that the data exists and who the owner is. This way we can put a pressure on the most important owners to set the data free.

So far I have identified a few interesting databases like a WordNet (Thesaurus) database and lots of interesting GEO data. And then of cause, the list of Results of the control of seed potato - highlights for breeding control in pre-breeding base in 2006 - 2007. Okay not all data are that interesting :-)