Promoting ODF (OpenDocument Format),How low can you go?
In today's online edition of the Daily Telegraph (UK), there is a headline and leader in the sports section which says:
It was technically correct, though if you didn't know the actual results of the F1 race in Istanbul, you'd think that Alonso had won it. What actually happened was that Hamilton was running third, behind the Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen when 15 laps from the end his right front tyre ripped. Alonso at the time was fourth, and overtook Hamilton as he was limping back to the pits. Anyhow, the point is that what gets chosen to be reported isn't usually what happened. In fact, in my personal experience, what gets reported is almost NEVER what actually happened.Fernando Alonso beat Lewis Hamilton in the Turkish GP after Briton's puncture.
Take the article in the New Sunday Times (Malaysia), dated 26 August 2007, with the headline as so:
Hehehe!
The article leads by the following two paragraphs:
Hehehe!KUALA LUMPUR: The Open XML document software has been recognised by the private sector and endorsed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Despite this, the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry appears to be dragging its feet over an application to support the award of ISO 9001:2000 standard for the Open XML.
I have to say that this beats the pride I felt over the inclusion of Malaysia as one of the five pilot nations for the Windows Genuine Advantage program. Our esteemed Prime Minister has endorsed a file format. Let me repeat that again for posterity: Our esteemed Prime Minister has endorsed a file format. And this was reported in a Sunday paper, on page 16. Was it a trade rag? Was it in the "IT" section? Noooo! It was the NST. In between reading about bus crashes and retrospectives as we head towards our 50th year of independence ... we get a criticism of MOSTI not supporting Microsoft's Office Open XML file format.
Hehehe!
But, did the Prime Minister actually endorse a file format? Did he actually spend the time to sit through 6039 pages of technical specifications and proclaim, "I have seen it, and it is good"? Or was it a remarkable leap of logic on the part of the reporter?
I accept that the first thing to be thrown out of the window in arguments like this little ODF/OOXML tiff is the truth. But dragging the PM into this is a bit too low, don't you think? I think I shall write to him, and ask for clarification.
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