I’ve been very busy this week and haven’t had time to do much writing. I’m going to be presenting on open source software opportunities in K-12 education at the NYSCATE conference in Rochester, New York next month and I’ve been collaborating with a couple of peers who will be co-presenting with me.
Open Source
IBM dives into OpenOffice.org development
IBM joins forces with OpenOffice.org to contribute code and resources starting with the iAccessible2 accessibility tool. Once it’s assimilated into OpenOffice.org, it’ll make ODF more attractive to governments, which often require that the technology they purchase be accessible to all of their users, including the disabled. read more | digg story
Good news from Google
Google is going to start giving away Star Office as part of its free toolset that includes Picasa and Google Earth. Read more from this post at Novell’s East blog. The boys in Redmond have to be taking a deep breath. Open source software advocates are breathing a sigh and the internet connected public including … Read more
Doors
Today started out with a drive over the Mt. Irenaeus for Mass this morning. I wasn’t going to go, but being a creature of habit I got in the car and drove over. I listened to Bill Douglas on the way. It was a change. This summer for one reason or another I’ve listened to a lot of Jimi Hendrix. I can’t seem to get enough of Voodoo Child and some of his other cuts from the Woodstock Concert.
Hazy summer thoughts..
It’s hot here tonight. It’s muggy and hot. Today the daytime temperature in the Genesee Valley and Rochester, New York area exceeded 95F. That’s very warm in Western New York. It may not be global warming but it’s unusual. I went shopping at the Lands End Inlet store adjacent to Market Place Mall in Henrietta, New York.
Competition is good
I read a great deal each week. Thanks to bloggers and the internet in general I have a diverse assortment of new sources. As an open source user and advocate I read with particular interest those items dealing with Linux and other open source packages. It’s generally assumed that competition is a good thing for consumers and generally it is.
More thoughts
When I was a child I grew up next to the Arcade Library. I learned how to read at school and I’m blessed with enough intelligence and a sense of curiosity to wonder how things work. I spent hours each week at the library as a child learning how to read and gather more information and vicarious experiences from the authors I read. I even learned skills out of books, but most of the time I needed visual models. Before the World Wide Web was born I would curl up with encyclopedias at work and read them. I’m really fascinated with learning about the world we live in.
Thinking out loud
I got a nice email from a colleague who’s been writing me as part of an ongoing discussion about the use of Open Office in a K-12 school system. Long story short we’re going back to using Microsoft Office 2000 with students because using Open Office 2.0 made some teachers uncomfortable.
Open Office recommended
I want to buy my kid a laptop… by ZDNet‘s Christopher Dawson — I hear this more and more from high school parents. It wasn’t that long ago that college kids were lucky to get a laptop for a high school graduation gift. The number of freshman and sophomores in high school now toting around … Read more