Core Dump

I would like to emphasize the following point: if there is an issue from an older version and no fixes are mentioned , then that issue ikely still exists (i.e. known issue).

For example, at the top of the list, under FM5.0 (released 1994), the
following few items are listed, among others:
* Spell checker does not locate repeated words when they are not on the
same line, or if their capitalization varies.
* Hypertext markers and cross-references in hidden conditional table rows
are carried over to PDF as active links.
* Cross-references in text insets are not converted to active links

These issue are equally applicable to FM5.5, FM6.0, FM7.0, FM7.1 and FM7.2
(even though they are not listed under these versions).

The movie has a troubled history. When Scott ran over budget, completion bond guarantors took control of it and made substantial changes before its 1982 theatrical release, adding a voice-over and a happy ending. That version was replaced by the much better-received director's cut in 1992, but Scott has long been unhappy with it, complaining that he was rushed and unable to give it proper attention.

In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools. Even though the word "America" appears in the department's own civics and government benchmarks, the department's style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that "America" and "Americans" be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

We're all 'North Americans'

The Department of Education asserts that "Americans" includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department's view, "America" happens to include South, Central and North America. Accordingly, when referring to the colonial period, the state bureaucracy requires teachers to refer to "the colonies of North America" or "North Americans." After the American Revolution, the nation is called the United States (not of America).

Labels: The Crazy Years

My favorite Disney-geek reading is the old operating-procedure manuals for the rides. These docs are all one-of-a-kind Rube Goldberg machines, intended to be operated by large crews of semi-skilled, lightly trained individuals who spend 8-12 hours per day loading the richest children on Earth into modified threshing machines. Therefore, the manuals tend to be wonderfully lucid and down-to-earth, the Hemingway of documentation.

The exploit arrives as an ordinary Microsoft Word document attachment to an e-mail and drops a backdoor with rootkit features when the document is opened and the previously unknown vulnerability is triggered.

With DITA, writers create maps. “Maps” are what our users need—a way to get into and through the information. She talked about getting away from the straightjacket of the PDF into an information-centric web site (her vision). Such a web site allows the users to find the information they need, and find other related information. She stressed the relationships of topics: providing access to related information or prerequisite information, and letting users give feedback about what other information might be relevant to a particular topic (suggesting other related info links). She also talked about unnecessary concepts: if you can’t relate a concept to a task that the user must perform, you should question the appropriateness and relevance of providing the concept in the documentation.

am writing to you as a newly minted rebel. My main purpose in life is to take your best, your brightest, most creative, hard-working and passionate employees and sneak them out the hallways of your large corporation so that they are free of the yoke of lethargy, oppression and resentment.

Draconian DRM is undeniably altering what a library is and how knowledge can be found and used. It alters not only what libraries are like; it alters the way copyright law works, without anyone passing a law. And it makes corporations like Adobe enforcers of the law and of whatever restrictions authors and publishers choose to place on top of the law. Where is the statute that says how many times you can copy something within what time frame? Who decides what is fair? Who passed a law banning fair use rights? You may say that authors are free to set the terms, but at least under US Copyright Law, that isn't the case. Fair use limits what they can prevent.

The OpenDocument Foundation has notified the Massachusetts ITD that we have completed testing on an ODF Plugin for all versions of MS Office dating back to MS Office 97. The ODF Plugin installs on the file menu as a natural and transparent part of the open, save, and save as sequences. As far as end users and other application add-ons are concerned, ODF plugin renders ODF documents as if it were native to MS Office.

--(Lower left corner) Huygens' trajectory views from the south, a scale bar for comparison to the height of Mount Everest, colored arrows that point to the sun and to the Cassini orbiter.

--(Top left corner) A close-up view of the Huygens probe highlighting large and unexpected parachute movements, a scale bar for comparison to human height.

--(Lower right corner) A compass that shows the changing direction of view as Huygens rotates, along with the relative positions of the sun and Cassini.

--(Upper right corner) A clock that shows Universal Time for Jan. 14, 2005 (Universal Time is 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time). Above the clock, events are listed in mission time, which starts with the deployment of the first of the three parachutes.

Sounds from a left speaker trace Huygens' motion, with tones changing with rotational speed and the tilt of the parachute. There also are clicks that clock the rotational counter, as well as sounds for the probe's heat shield hitting Titan's atmosphere, parachute deployments, heat shield release, jettison of the camera cover and touchdown.

Sounds from a right speaker go with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer activity. There's a continuous tone that represents the strength of Huygens' signal to Cassini. Then there are 13 different chimes - one for each of instrument's 13 different science parts - that keep time with flashing-white-dot exposure counters. During its descent, the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer took 3,500 exposures.

Shortly before my last day, a project manager showed up with half an hour to spare so I could “show him what I do.” I did my best to explain my automated, multiformat build process: how to edit source files, run my build tools, and post the output. There was no time to discuss technical subtleties that could cripple everything: manual vs. styled tagging, vector graphics vs. browser-compatible images, valid XML, the effects of different DPI settings on PDF output, you name it. I considered advising him to port everything back to Word for simplicity’s sake, but ultimately decided to let him twist in the wind.

The first release after my departure dropped the browser-based help screens. The next release shipped without plain text. All you got was a PDF with dodgy formatting. I heard that incoming support calls went through the roof.

First, we believe that suing our fans is destructive and hypocritical. We do not want to sue music fans, and we do not want to distort the law to coerce fans into conforming to a rigid digital market artificially constructed by the major labels.

- Second, we believe that the use of digital locks, frequently referred to as technological protection measures, are risky and counterproductive. We do not support using digital locks to increase the labels' control over the distribution, use and enjoyment of music, nor do we support laws that prohibit circumvention of such technological measures, including Canadian accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization's Internet Treaties. These treaties are designed to give control to major labels and take choices away from artists and consumers. Laws should protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies.

- Third, we strongly believe that cultural policy should support actual Canadian artists. We call on the Canadian government to firmly commit to programs that support Canadian music talent. The government should make a long-term commitment to grow support mechanisms such as the Canada Music Fund and FACTOR, invest in music training and education, create limited tax shelters for copyright royalties, protect artists from inequalities in bargaining power and make collecting societies more transparent.

But to this day, three years after the invasion and the lifting of UN sanctions against Iraq, there has been no significant improvement in the condition of these facilities. The Southern Oil Company's (SOC) ailing equipment continues to operate on the verge of collapse. The safety valves on the Fao Peninsula, the last sluice before the giant 48-inch pipelines drop to the ocean floor, are permanently open. "They're so heavily corroded," says a British engineer on board the "Bulwark," "that they probably can't even be closed completely anymore."