antiprocess.net

Say NO to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

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:
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I’m going to be brief about every link.

Atom Smasher’s Error Message Generator [ link ]

No computers were harmed during the production of this web page; IANAL; void where prohibited; subject to change with or without notice; all information provided “as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness are disclaimed; no other warranty expressed or implied; this is not an offer to sell securities; use only in well-ventilated area; keep away from fire or flame; not recommended for children; this supersedes all previous notices; no Microsoft™ products were used during the making of this web page or any images contained herein; all trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.

Cool way to make your own error messages in Windows 95/98 or XP style windows. Damn great idea. Image on the right is one of the samples from the gallery.

Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers [ link ]

This is an unofficial list of well-known unsolved codes and ciphers. A couple of the better-known unsolved ancient historical scripts are also thrown in, since they tend to come up during any discussion of unsolved codes. There has also been an attempt to sort this list by “fame”, as defined by a loose formula involving the number of times that a particular cipher has been written about, and/or how many hits it pulls up on a moderately-sorted web search.

Finally a list of those! I’ve been trying to find these for ages. And now they are all listed in one place. Awesome.

Glyn Hughes’ Squashed Philosophers [ link ]

There is no taking-part in the ‘Great Debate’ of Western civilisation, the debate about who we are, how we should be governed, how we think and how we ought to behave, without some familiarity with the, remarkably few, thinkers in whose language and idiom the talk is conducted.

Unfortunately, life is rather short, the little storeroom of the brain doesn’t have extensible walls and the greatest of thinkers seem to also be among the worst, and the lengthiest, of writers. So, most knowledge of Plato or Hume or Aristotle tends to come second-hand, unfortunately too often through masters more filled with pompous pleasure in their own mastery of complexity than with knowledge of their subject. Which is a pity, because your Prince, whether they call themselves President or King or Prime Minister, has almost certainly read Machiavelli. Your therapist is steeped in Freud, your divines in Augustine. Lawmakers take their cues still from Paine, Rousseau and Hobbes. Science looks yet to Bacon, Copernicus and Darwin.

The books which defined the way The West thinks now. Condensed and abridged to keep the substance, the style and the quotes, but ditching all that irritating verbiage.