JVA's personal hangout

Petition against Microsofts's OOXML

2007-10-19T21:11:35+01:00

I just signed the petition against OOXML to become an ISO standard.
Microsoft is trying to make it's own defined OOXML format an ISO standard. OOXML is an Office format.
So what is the deal with this format? and why not make it a standard?

I'll tell you why:

Standards are good, everyone likes standards and comply to them except for Microsoft.
There is already a standard for office documents, ODF (Open Document Format), why doesn't Microsoft conform to it, well i say it can't, it never did conform to any standard why this should be any different? It doesn't comply to any standard other than it's own intrests.
The specification of the OOXML format has problems, too many problems. To read more about it check out NoOOXML
The specification is patented, it's not Free.

Dear readers, i urge you to sign the petition against OOXML

Old blog content is saved by it's web archives and feeds

2007-10-17T15:40:38+01:00

I started blogging in the middle of 2004, i used Blojsom as Blog-engine. However when i had problems with my old web host, i switched to a new one, during this process i moved all static pages of the site, but i have forgotten to move the dynamic pages "blog pages".

I didn't do anything to get the blog files then. But now that i started blogging again, i needed the old blog content. I had two choices, either contact the old web host, which -in my belief- invloves sending and reading lot's of correspondance emails and it takes days, or i could look for the content in the web archive, and so i did.

Web archive, or "The Internet Archive Wayback Machine" contains periodic complete snapshots of entire sites, including mine. I looked for the latest versions of my site, the blog was thier, but since i had problems with permalinks in the old blog-engine, the main page of the blog contains only teasers and the "more" link doesn't work, so i had to look for the feeds, for my luck, web archives did have copies of the atom feeds, which contains complete blog entries, not just teasers. And so, i got back all my old blog content and i submitted them to my now blog.

First blog entry in my new blog

2007-10-15T21:15:05+01:00

This is the very first blog entry in my new blog. It is written for technical reasons, further details about the installation and configuration of the new blog will follow-up, stay tuned, but until then wish me luck.

Technical problems at a very unappropriate time

2006-04-07T10:57:00+01:00

I'm having terrible problems with my jsp engine running this blog, having problems are the normal situation but what's causing the disaster is having two many problems together, like moving the office which leads to ADSL internet connection interruption plus having too many paper work to do besides the ordinay work. All this together is a killing-combination. The result was that the blog was out of service for couple of days, now it's back but some features are missing, hope it doesn't make any problems in the comming days until i can look into the causes.

Toefl result

2006-04-02T10:57:00+01:00

A while ago i did a Toefl exam and now i got the results, i got 617 out of 677 ant the TWE (Test of Written English) 4.0 out of 6.0. Not as much as i expected but good enough. LOL

Toefl exam

2006-03-07T10:57:00+00:00

I got TOEFL exam on Friday, 10-th of March 2006, which is exactly three days from today.

I registered online a month ago, but i haven't prepared anything until today. I just did a sample test, it wasn't bad, but i'm not satisfied by any means, but hey, this is my first try beside i did the exam in my office in the presence of many people whose chattering caused me inconvenience and made me lose some marks in "Listening".

Wish me luck.

Inkscape, the Great, Free Software, Vector Graphics Editor

2006-03-05T10:57:00+00:00

Inkscape, is a excellent, free software, vector graphics editor, for those how don't know what the term "vector graphics" mean, check out what Wikipedia says about Vector Graphics

Ah yah, guess what, Inkscape is heavily used in another free project, Open Clip Art Library which aims as quoted from the site itselt to "create an archive of clip art that can be used for free for any use."

My Laptop

2006-03-04T10:57:00+00:00

In posts i always mention "My Laptop", i always wanted to make those words a link to a page showing my laptop, describing it's features, So here it is.

Compaq Evo N1020v

Specifications: out-of my mind: Intel Pentium 4, 2.4GHz, 512MB DDR, 15" TFT LCD, DVD Combo

P.S: This post is a place holder, i'll change the contents later, and I'll put some pictures of it later, so come back later to see the modifications and pictures here.

no posts in "Free Software"

2006-03-04T10:57:00+00:00

I was just checking-out my blog when i discovered that i have no posts in the category "Free Software", well that's a shame, i thought, what can i post, the very first thing that came to mind is Inkscape.

Now i can rest.

New blogging record

2006-03-04T10:57:00+00:00

Wow, four post on raw, this is a new blogging record for me, and guess what! this is the fifth. I must be awarded for my efforts. I'll contact my site webmaster in this regard.

Some blogging, better than nothing

2006-03-04T10:57:00+00:00

I know that yet now, all that I've posted is just personal experience with computer, but hey, isn't that what Blogging is for, otherwise i should've ran a forum. But i'm too lazy, i know, there lot's things in my mind to blog, but i'm not writing. Plus i should fix the comment problem, honestly, there are lots of things to fix in my blog, and even more to add, but it just working for me as it is now. I'll do them later, and i'll keep you posted about them. Till then, Tschüs.

Back to Freedom. Installing GNU/Linux Slackware 10.2

2006-03-04T10:57:00+00:00

About a month ago, i re-installed GNU/Linux on my Laptop, well as you know, installing GNU/Linux is much too easy today to what it was couple of years ago, but it still need some tweaking and hand-written modifications, what can i say, that's the beauty of it.

To list some of the major things:

First of all, GRUB problems
making the default runlevel: 4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
making the scroller work
making the laptop switch off the power when halting
making the sound server work
fixing getty consoles
managing packages, installing, upgrading, removing

Anyhow, now I'm running GNU/Linux Slackware 10.2, and I'm living happily ever after

I just hope that those how are still jailed behind Windows, wake up and do something about their Freedom. Oh Man, i hate non-free software

Peace, out

Live Radio Online under GNU/Linux

2006-03-04T10:57:00+00:00

Since i'm working on my laptop running GNU/Linux, i was having the problem of not listing to music online, for example LAUNCHcast is compatible only with MS programs, there are some tries to make them work with Wine or CrossOffice, but i'll definatly not use IE on GNU/Linux, it's more like "Shooting yourself in the Foot", however i searched the net to find a solution for LAUNCHcast, nothing good, so i ran a search for "online radio", the very first result is Live365.com, i browsed my favorite genre, a popup window opened, then i was listening to music. It was plug-in of xine for firefox i guess, the frontend of xine is gxine, xine is a GNU/Linux multimedia player.
There's one thing i need yet, control xine with KDE applet "Media Control"

Blog header picture, Mount Ararat

2006-03-03T10:57:00+00:00

I've changed the picture that's shown at the top of my blog, it was the default picture with the theme, now it's the a picture a mountain, Mount Ararat, , it's my home-country symbol, it's one of the highest mountains on earth (5,137 metres), it's the resting place of Noah's Ark after the Great Flood. Mount Ararat is currently in Turkish land, but it's Armenian, history proves himself, check out what Wikipedia says about Mount Ararat and how it fell in Turkish hands after the Soviets mediated peace treaty in the early 1920s. I just resent it when i find some sites, mostly turkish, saying that Ararat is Turkish, Ararat belongs to Armenia.

Latakia City added to "The Linux Counter Project"

2006-02-21T10:57:00+00:00

The Linux Counter Project, is a project to keep track of the number of computer users who use GNU/Linux as their operation system. I've registered there couple of years ago.

Yesterday as i was surfing the net i checked out this site to see how many GNU/Linux users are there in Syria. I noticed that there is only Damascus as a city in Syria, and there is no Latakia.

So, i contacted the webmaster to add Latakia, and he gladly did.

So, now Latakians GNU/Linux users can themselves to the counter project as Latakia residents, not unknown place name residents.