Archive for July, 2007

Now we can’t read either

1656 days

by Simon Scullion in Miscellaneous

As if not knowing our multiple tables wasn’t enough, now it turns out we can’t read either!

More than 10% of the 1,000 parents asked had struggled to understand some words in the stories they had read to their five to 10-year-old children.

Parents said that they made up words they could not read or missed out difficult passages, the survey said.

How difficult is it!?

I really enjoy reading to my nearly-two-year-old daughter. While I realise books of any complexity suitable for ten-year-olds will likely be more challenging than baby stories, in some ways I think they are harder to read! You have to work harder to make them interesting, with tones of voice and changes in volume.

Open source applications…magnets for open source infrastructure | Tech news blog – CNET News.com

1656 days

by Simon Scullion in Miscellaneous

An interesting article on the makeup of the open source stack.

One line that caught my eye (emphasis mine):

But Alfresco’s customers significantly skew toward the Global 2000 plus leading government and nonprofit organizations: ….. European Commission, …. etc.

It’s possible that these organizations represent the lunatic fringe of the software-using world but, in fact, many of these would generally be considered late adopters or mainstream adopters.

Interesting, particularly following the rumours of the EC’s use of Office 2007. Looks like they don’t necessarily fall into the late, or mainstream adopters category.

Open source applications…magnets for open source infrastructure | Tech news blog – CNET News.com

Alfresco open+source

Various

1662 days

by Simon Scullion in Miscellaneous

Just catching up on a couple of things, a few posts on the beeb have caught my attention lately.

Broadband prices

An interesting article on the price of broadband worldwide. Not sure how valid the comparisons are, but I know that here in Spain we continue to be shafted, I’m currently paying just under 40€ for 1Mb (soon to go up to 3Mb)!

Sony BMG Vs Amergence Group

Ironic. And who benefits? Not the customer then. Enough said.

BBC iPlayer

More positive news, the BBC appears it’ll start to listen to opinion on the need to make this more open. I must admit, I was surprised at some of the choices made for the initial release.