05.26.08
Posted in Economy, Political at 1:14 by lnxwalt
Even while the bad economic news continues, we need to continue to invest in our communities. Instead of giving tax breaks to large corporations that move operations into the area (which are paid for by smaller businesses and families), we need to use a two-fold strategy:
- Invest in building small, locally-owned businesses in the community, particularly those whose product or service is sold to buyers outside of the area. They bring funds into the local economy, and are intimately tied to the local area by the residency of their owners.
We should not be afraid to set goals for hiring of local employees, including both number and compensation levels of those employees. Nor should we be afraid to work out a deal to help with job-skills training for the employees that get hired. Remember that during the heyday of aerospace in Southern California, it was said that each job supported five other jobs in the economy. We may not reach that level, but even 1.5 other local jobs is preferable to giving funding to big box retailers paying minimum wage and costing more jobs than they bring.
- Find an area of town with reasonable land costs and build whole communities of “starter homes”. The idea is that people earning the local median income should easily be able to afford these homes. This helps with stabilizing the economy (homeowners have a reason to participate in making things better, where renters do not) and with helping your local construction, real estate, and financial industries to recover from the recession.
It does not have to be solely funded by taxpayers. A cooperative project with a group like Habitat for Humanity can have a wonderful effect on the area. Habitat often has the buyer help with the construction, which gives them some skills and experience they’ll need during the maintenance phase, and which may even open the door to a new career in construction.
In areas where it is possible, these homes should be heavily-insulated (protects occupants from temperature extremes, reduces utility costs) and maybe even utilize solar and wind generators to augment the power grid. Also, make housing areas as close to business areas as possible. Ideally, employees will be able to walk to work (this means that businesses have to follow strict environmental and safety standards, including regular inspections by regulating agencies).
What we know is this: Washington is too “bought and paid for” by large corporations that have too much at stake to truly be concerned about your little community. Instead, your community needs to take the lead and break its dependency upon outside funding, imported goods, and the now-nonexistent loyalty of corporate America. Let me say it again: most of what your community needs will not come from the feds.
Your small business is intimately tied to your community by the fact that you live and work there. This is even more true if your customers live or work there. It is in your best interest to begin promoting these concepts to your town or city council members and staff. Join your local chamber of commerce or other local business alliances and make sure they also understand and work toward this goal.
We already know from past experience that giving subsidies to large companies to come into your town does not work. Your taxpayers pay up front, and before the company’s contribution matches the benefit it received, it closes up shop and moves to the next town. The large discount retailer nicknamed “Big Blue” is well-known for this strategy, leaving empty stores in town after town. It is time to return to something that works: local community investment in local businesses is a key part of a strategy for preserving your community’s economic future.
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Posted in FLOSS, Industry News at 0:22 by lnxwalt
Suddenly, a flurry of OOXML-ODF related news « CyberTech Rambler
Fourth. We may in fact, never see a full implementation of ISO OOXML. Microsoft already said that it will support ODF 1.1, not ISO ODF (version 1.0). That is a correct technical decision, since ODF 1.1 is the norm today. Superimpose this tread of thinking on to OOXML and what do you get? Microsoft not implementing ISO OOXML, but a later, “enhanced” version which they dictate the development of. To critics who says this will not happen, let me remind you that ISO OOXML support is still an raincheck. We know that the earliest posible date is in two years time, i.e. 2010. Do you really believe that Microsoft Office format will stay stagnant at ISO OOXML for the two years??? I put my money on Microsoft Office in 2010 saving in the “updated” OOXML format, with the ability to save to ISO OOXML. When that comes true, every other office suite will still be in the same situation as they are today: forever playing catch up.
Lastly, to those who says OOXML is needed urgently, therefore we should sacrifice quality for speed, you just had egg on your face. The urgency is so strong that we can wait till 2010. Yeah!
CyberTech Rambler always has some interesting insights on the OOXML / Ecma 376 / ISO 29500 situation. I recommend reading his blog along with mine, Rob Weir’s, Andy Updegrove’s, and Pamela Jones’s. Others to read include Arnaud Le Hors and Bob Sutor.
For pro-OOXML propaganda, I recommend Brian Jones, Doug Mahugh, and Jason Matusow. Just recognize that they are constrained by their employer and so cannot speak their true minds. For example, Jason often states that he’s always against technology mandates, but if the mandate was that software used had to faithfully interpret and preserve compatibility with files used by an agency’s existing (Microsoft) software, I sincerely doubt that he’d oppose that. Rick Jelliffe’s posts on XML.com are another excellent read, once you understand that he is still sore about being branded as a wiki-editing prostitute by some overzealous OOXML opponents.
When ODF was being created at OASIS, Microsoft chose to let things go without their input. The knew that it was meant as a vendor-neutral open format that could be easily implemented by office applications suites. So why did they wait? Because their secret weapon has always been their file formats. Truthfully, nearly all of the important functionality in an office suite was already present in 1997. Very little has been added since then, other than bundling some other applications with the suite. The reason that MS Office has been used so widely is because only their product fully-understood their file formats. If you use Word and I use WordPerfect, there will always be little variations in the way the products render documents using Word’s file format. They saw ODF as just another attempt to dethrone them. If the product that runs on 90% of computers does not support the format, it will just die, they must have reasoned. But it did not turn out that way.
It turned out that the timing was right for ODF. Governments and end-users were tiring of having a single vendor for their software. They wanted vendor neutrality in their file formats and in their network protocols. They also wanted open standards, so they did not have to fear the wrath of patent-holders’ legal departments for accessing their own data. The wanted choice, not of file formats, but of vendors and products that use those formats. This is what ODF offers. OpenDocument Format (ODF, ISO 26300) is designed primarily for use by multiple vendors (althoug some claim that OpenOffice.org specific markup still exists within the format). ODF is mostly compatible with existing standards, so there is already a lot of experience with implementing parts of the standard. ODF has multiple implementations, including some that are completely independent. Once ODF went through the ISO-ification process, Microsoft suddenly realized that there are some areas (such as Europe) where laws may require governments to prefer ISO standards.
As a result, Microsoft sent their then-proprietary XML formats (dubbed Office Open XML [OOXML, sometimes called OpenXML]) through Ecma for standardization, with a target of getting the ISO seal of approval. In a contentious process that was far too short for the kind of detailed examination and changing that was needed, ISO recently approved OOXML as a standard, pending the disposition of a recent challenge. They have opened up considerably, although there are still some challenges for outside implementers of the formats.
The goal of the MS 2007 formats, as well as OOXML to some degree, is to prevent you and your business from having a choice of applications to use in creating, modifying, and reading your data. If you are locked-in by file format incompatibilities, you will not normally be willing to endure the pain of conversion to a competing product, even if that product fits your needs better. This also enables MSFT to charge higher prices, which leads to higher profits, which enables them to continue to subsidize their money-losing MSN / Live and XBox / Zune businesses. Their eventual goal, in my estimation, is to have an intravenous line into your wallet. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that they want to have you so dependent on Microsoft that you buy Microsoft-branded underwear because no one else makes undergarments compatible with the software that operates your chair.
The important thing for you to know is this: Microsoft’s Office 2007 does not support ISO standardized OOXML, and will not until at least 2010. Your .docx / .xlsx / .pptx documents are now in a doomed format that may shortly be unreadable by most software. Likewise for the corresponding macro-containing formats. If you care about continued access to your data, do not save in MS 2007 formats. Use the older .doc / .xls / .ppt formats, or even better, use ODF formats (.odt / .ods / .odp). If necessary, install the Sun plug-in (NOT the CleverAge plug-in) to enable support for ODF in your Microsoft Office software. (Unfortunately, there is not a Mac version of Sun’s plug-in yet.)
For your SLOB (small, locally-owned business), OMB (owner-managed business), or FOB (family-owned business), you might be better off holding onto what you have for a while and whenever you have to upgrade or replace a computer, going with Sun’s commercially-licensed StarOffice product (or the related open source licensed OpenOffice.org product). If you really prefer MS Office 2007, wait until SP2 is released next year, so you will have some level of ODF support built-in (and also PDF saving, the most requested feature in my workplace). Or you may want to check out IBM Lotus Symphony, which has a similar interface (like MS Office 2007, I can never find the functions I want).
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05.15.08
Posted in FLOSS, News and Announcements, Political, Society at 1:01 by lnxwalt
Standards attorney Andy Updegrove announced the creation of the Hague Declaration recently. The Hague Declaration is a statement of human rights on the Internet. But it is more. Without being overly verbose about it, the Declaration also promotes free software, where “free” is not about the price of the software, but about the freedom that the user of that software gains.
I want to encourage you to visit Mr. Updegrove’s blog to read his statement, and then to go to the site to sign the Hague Declaration. As a follow up, write your elected representatives to encourage them to require government agencies to use vendor-neutral, open standard file formats, such as ODF.
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05.11.08
Posted in Political, Small Business at 17:11 by lnxwalt
I have recently made several posts on political subjects.
The object isn’t primarily political (as in pro or anti this or that candidate), however, but to help mold the agenda to focus on SLOBs as the key to our economy and our society (in conjunction with another small, local unit, the family).
For small towns in far away areas around major cities, SLOBs provide the economic wherewithal to keep the town going when economic swings cause large, out-of-area corporations (LOOACs) to retreat. Because they are locally-owned, their interests are intimately tied to those of the local economy. Because they are small, they are less likely to be able to coerce local governments into sacrificing residents’s interests for the benefit of the business. Certainly SLOBs are not a panacea for every possible ailment, but they are a fundamental piece of bringing about a locally-focused economy where fewer individuals are marginalized.
When the glass factory, the slaughterhouse, and the furniture store leave your town, the only way your community will keep going is to have a strong local economy, based upon smaller, locally-owned businesses, and not upon LOOACs.
The Victor Valley’s cities are currently oriented toward attracting LOOACs, rather than organically growing their economies through backing SLOBs. This must change, if we are to have any chance of adequately employing all or nearly all of our residents. The best thing about backing SLOBs? No tax subsidies! All they really need to do is fund the training and education work of the local college and help with loan guarantees for smaller start-up businesses. Barstow, in a similar state, needs to back its college and help with start-up funding for its local residents. LOOACs ask for all of this and tax subsidies too!
For inner cities, SLOBs, rather than LOOACs, are the key to bring about prosperity. LOOACs hire hundreds or even thousands of people at once, and therefore attract applicants from far-away parts of the city, often leaving nearly as many local area residents unemployed (or underemployed) as there were before the corporation’s arrival. They also use that large number of jobs to extract tax and other concessions from city governments. In essence, your local minimart probably pays extra taxes in order to allow “Big Blue” to bring a few hundred minimum-wage jobs and Chinese goods to the market.
Small, locally-owned businesses cannot exist in isolation, if we want the local community and economy to benefit. There must be a veritable ecosystem of small, locally-owned suppliers, distributors, and retailers to help the community become resilient against the various twists and turns of the wider economy. But there is more: SLOBs are more strongly integrated into the local community, sponsoring Key Clubs and youth sports, ponying up funding to send the local band to a competition in the state capital, hiring your brother-in-law who just got out of jail, and giving a first employment experience to your neighbor’s high school kid. Because SLOBs lack the resources to go it alone, they are more likely to support your local community’s attempt to bring about high-speed Internet access, towers and infrastructure for mobile telephone service, and better lab facilities at your local high school and local college.
In remote farming communities in middle America, SLOBs may be the only things still keeping some towns on the map. When LOOACs leave a farming-based community, or during times of consolidation, where smaller, family-operated farms are gobbled up by large, corporate-operated agricultural businesses, graduates often have no choice but to leave the area.
So it is vitally important that any so-called small business advocate makes his voice heard on political choices that will affect the direction of our national policies toward smaller businesses.
Tags: political, small business
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05.04.08
Posted in Economy, Political at 13:54 by lnxwalt
Higher fuel prices are causing pain for most people in our country. As a consequence, Congress-members are talking about temporarily suspending the tax (about 18 cents per gallon on gasoline) for a few months. The problem is, gas prices are likely to briefly drop later this year, and then start rising again, possibly going until they surpass five dollars per gallon.
The gas tax suspension will slightly reduce present pain, but in the process, will also lead to much greater pain in the future. What we need is to make it financially untenable for most people to operate low-mileage vehicles such as pickups and SUVs. Why? Because we need to make some dramatic changes in our economy and infrastructure, but are not willing to do so as long as we continue to have relatively cheap fuel.
How many of us have lots of single-layer glass in our homes? This is a sure-fire way to waste energy, heating and cooling the great outdoors. How many of us have only minimal insulation? How many of us have city governments that balk at energy-conservation efforts that might not match the look of the rest of the town?
All of that must change. But it won’t change unless the cost of change is lower than the cost of keeping things the way they are. Years ago, during California’s power crisis, a resident of my town wanted to put up a windmill to generate some of his family’s electric power. The town told him that he could only have it if it was forty feet tall, surrounded by trees that were sixty feet tall, because it needed to be invisible to the neighbors. This is the same mentality that causes them to require mobile telephone towers to be disguised as hideous false trees or hidden inside of building attics and fat flagpoles. We then complain because we cannot get reliable service on our phones.
If we want to reduce the pain of higher fuel costs, we have to first let the pain get so intense that people refuse to take jobs that involve long commutes or refuse to live long distances from their existing workplaces. I can say this, because where I live, most available jobs are seventy-five miles or more from home. As a result, I do work where I fly outside the area (I’m currently working in Columbus, Ohio). Meanwhile, I’ve got my eyes open for jobs and housing together, preferably outside of California.
In the Inland Empire of California (and the I-15 corridor North of the I.E.), we have made a conscious decision to encourage housing developments and retail developments, without corresponding industrial, mining, and agricultural development. We have lots of homes, we have low-wage retail and service jobs (but even there, not enough to meet the demand), but we sorely lack local jobs that have pay and benefits sufficient to support a family on. Therefore, most of our residents get in their cars and drive fifty, seventy-five, or even one hundred miles one-way to get to work. We could sacrifice and put in high-speed commuter rail systems to make this tenable, or we could refuse to approve housing developments that do not have sufficient employment opportunities within twenty or twenty-five miles. However, hard decisions such as these will never happen until we stop fiddling with the system and let greedy oil companies chase off all their customers.
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