OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 Released

OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 has been released as a leap for OOo 1.x users to 2.0 users by providing support for OpenOasis Document format. Here is the official announcement that i received via mail:

OPENOFFICE.ORG ANNOUNCES VERSION 1.1.5

14 September, 2005 - 16H00 UTC

OpenOffice.org is proud to announce the immediate availability of the new 1.1.5 version of the award-winning open source office suite.

This new version is initially available on the Windows (98/ME/NT/2000/XP), GNU/Linux (X86 and PowerPC) and Solaris (SPARC and X86) platforms.

In addition to English, builds for Czech, Danish, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Turkish are immediately available with other localisations following shortly.

OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 introduces import support for documents, spreadsheets and presentations in OpenDocument format. The OpenDocument format is an XML based international office document standard approved by OASIS, the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards. XML based, the OpenDocument format enables the free exchange of data between compliant software packages.

OASIS is the industry body for e-business standards and is sponsored by the leading names in IT such as Computer Associates, EDS, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Sun Microsystems. The OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee, which is responsible for the
development and maintenance of the OpenDocument standard, currently comprises Adobe, IBM, Sun Microsystems and numerous other interested parties. The technical committee is open for membership to anyone interested in participating.

The OASIS OpenDocument standard has also been specifically endorsed by a number of organisations including the European Commission; Singapore's Ministry of Defense; France's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry; Brazil's Ministry of Health; the City of Munich; the Bristol City Council; the City of Vienna; IBM; Israel's Ministry of Finance; Novell; Red Hat as well as Sun Microsystems.

The suite, according to the terms of its open source licenses (LGPL & SISSL), is free for all to use, improve, modify, and to redistribute to anyone.


OpenOffice.org Availability

The suite and its source code can be downloaded from http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.5/index.html or obtained from one of the CD-ROM distributors listed at http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/.


OpenOffice.org Support Services

Free end user support for OpenOffice.org is provided by the community through mailing lists, forums and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels. Commercial support is also provided by Sun Microsystems and other organisations. For more information on support services, please visit
http://support.openoffice.org/.


About OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is a fully featured open-source productivity suite available as a free download for major computing platforms in over 45 languages. Data is stored in an XML file format standardized for office documents by the international body OASIS. OpenOffice.org is developed,
supported, and promoted by an international community of volunteers with its main sponsor and primary contributor being Sun Microsystems. OpenOffice.org operates from .


OpenOffice.org Conference - 2005

The release of OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta 2 comes one month before the annual OpenOffice.org Conference, to be held in Koper - Capodistria, Slovenia, from 28 to 30 September. The conference, organised by the Slovenian and Italian OpenOffice.org project teams, follows the
successes of the last two years, OOoCon 2003 in Hamburg and OOoCon 2004 in Berlin, and is intended to bring together all people who are interested in the development, deployment and use of the software suite. For further information regarding the conference, please visit
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/index.html.


Further Information

For release notes regarding version 1.1.5, please visit
http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.5/release_notes_1.1.5.html.

For further details on the features of OpenOffice.org, please visit
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/1.1/index.html.

For previous press release information, please visit
http://www.openoffice.org/press/1.1/index.html.

For details regarding the 2005 OpenOffice.org Conference, please see
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/.

For additional details regarding the OASIS OpenDocument format, a
datasheet can be downloaded from
http://www.oasis-open.org/who/data_sheets/OASIS-opendocument-datasht-a4-05-06-20.pdf


GLOBAL CONTACTS

Jacqueline McNally (UTC +08h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead

jacqueline@openoffice.org
+61 (8) 9474-3021

John McCreesh (UTC +01h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead

jpmcc@openoffice.org
+44 (0)131 523 9218

Louis Suarez-Potts
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
louis@openoffice.org
+1 (416) 625 3843

© 2005 OpenOffice.org

Major Upgrades

Today i conducted a major upgrades on my Slackware. I upgraded the kernels, glibc, and all the updated packages available from Slackware's Changelog. Upgrading glibc was one process that scared me because i had a bad experience when i was still using Mandrake 9.0. I upgrade the glibc using Mandrake 9.1's glibc version and after that, everything was messed up, so i had to reinstall all the system back.

Unfortunately, the upgrade process on Slackware is simpler than Mandriva and i didn't break the system at all. Just type upgradepkg and everything works perfectly, expect for the kernels which need some modifications, mostly on initrd and lilo configurations.

In my laptop, the latest kernel, 2.6.13 didn't break with the WLAN modules, so i only need to make a new build for the current kernel and everything was back to normal. I didn't experience any major nor minor problem after upgrading the kernels, but for safety, i keep the previous kernel, 2.6.12.5 on my system, in case something bad happened.

Mirrors Are Freezing Slackware

This morning i looked at Slackware's Official Changelog and it has a lot of updates, but when i searched the mirrors, they haven't update their repository, even though the changelog has lasted for about 2-3 days long. Just now, it has been updated with the new one. That's a good news. The final release of 10.2 is getting closer.

Come Back to Jogja

Today i went back to Jogja and i have safely arrived at my home and get online to download all emails, reading all news and also blogging :)
I missed a lot of information while i was in Jakarta, mostly on Saturday and Sunday, because i couldn't get any Internet connection. So i have to be online as soon as possible as i arrove at home and here i am.

Activities in Jakarta

What a boring day without Internet connection. No forums, no YM, no emails, etc. What i did was writing a list of things that i should prepare when i work in Jakarta. Some of them can be brought from Jogja, while the other must be bought from Jakarta. Maybe i will have a new mobile number to be used in daily activities while i'm in Jakarta, but you may contact me via my old number, because i will keep using it to receive from my old friends. I will let everybody know about my new number via mailing list.

Besides that, i also updates my websites locally to fix some bugs and also wrote a new article "Configuring Services on Slackware". I will upload the article and the bug fix on the net as soon as possible when i reached Jogja on Monday. I also update my presentation material about OpenOffice.org Calc. I didn't do a major changes on Writer because i think it's enough for now, so i add a new material on the Calc.

Second Day in QnAP

Yesterday, i joined the trainning session in my company and everything was fun. We played a puzzle game in a limited time. This game was a simulation to a real project. We had to plan everything, just as we handle the real project. The game was harder than the first game that i played in my first day. In the project, we had to estimate the time, defining milestones, predicting a change plan and redefining resource allocation and task, risks management, and many more. Everytime had to be well prepared, since it involves many factors. I learned a lot of things in 2 days and everything was made just like the real project, so it's like a real work. Too bad i underestimate the project management subject when i was in university. It is an important subject that you can't ignore when you work on a real project. Everything had to be well prepared and that subject will teach you the basic.

I went back at 7 PM and i took a taxi to ride my home. After that, i packed my luggage and i had to wait for my sister who picked me up about 2 hours later. I went to my aunt's house and stayed there until next Monday. I'm heading for Jogja in Monday, because i have to finish some unfinished job at Jogja and also preparing many things. I still had to be a speaker at 29 September, where i should bring an OpenOffice.org's material. At 17 and 18 September, it will be my last JEMUAH before i went to Jakarta for my new job. I will be heading back to Jakarta at 2 October and i will start working at 3 October.

A New Job

Finally i got a new job as a new software engineering at QnAP Asia, Jakarta. I will start my new job next October and i will live in Jakarta for the next six months. I have started my first training yesterday and today and it was fun. Can't wait until next October :)

One Day in Jakarta

Yesterday was like a nightmare to me. My plane was delayed for about 45 minutes and it started to take of at 6 PM, where it should be 5.15 PM. After 45 mninutes on the air, i landed in Jakarta and we have to wait about 20 minutes for the airport bus to arrive. It was full, so i didn't get chair to sit and so i sat on the rail that supposed to be a place to place luggages. It's took 1 hour to reach Blok M. Next, we have to wait for our friend who picked us up.

Next, we walked to bought a busway tickets. It's my first time to ride a busway in Jakarta. It has air conditioner and i was happy about it, since Jakarta was so hot and my shirt was almost fully wet, because i carried some quite heavy luggage. It also had a nice seat, so it was quite comfortable.

After we stepped out of the busway, we walked again to reach our friend's home and i rent 1 room for 2 people. It's quite expensive (nothing is cheap in Jakarta) and we finally can take a rest at 11 PM. What a day ......

Tommorrow, our journey continues ....
Until then, let me rest for today

Still Have Time

Well, i still have time to write my last blog before i go to Jakarta this evening, so i think it will be my last blog post (for temporary only). My friend has an "always on" Internet connection in his place, and maybe i can use his connection to get in touch with everyone around, but still... i can't give you a promise that i can't reply all the email sent to me. Let's hope i get a better place to stay and there's an Internet connection on it.

Offline For Several Days

Tomorrow, i will leave to Jakarta and at Thursday, i will have an interview with QnAP's manager. I don't know how long will i stay at Jakarta and until i went back, maybe i'll be offline. (i'll try to find an internet cafe or any internet connection, but i can't guarantee that i can reply all email directed to me, but i'll do my best). My blog will also be stopped for several days. Let's hope i can get Internet connection there.

Another Bypass to Break XP SP2

Although Microsoft really put security on their primary focus, flaws keeps comming and now, a new bypass description has been released to break Windows XP SP 2 and Windows 2003. It was first published by Nicolas Falliere in SecurityFocus with a title "A new way to bypass Windows heap protections". He also gives a proof of concept which can be downloaded.

I think, Microsoft has to response quickly about this, since there is still time to make a new patch and include it in this months's release, or customers had to wait for another month to get the patch, which is a bad idea.

Sun Removes SISSL

Next OpenOffice.org version will be released only in LGPL licences, because Sun was retiring the SISSL (Sun Industry Standards Source License). Here are the official announcement that i receive :

All,

On 2 September 2005 Sun Microsystems announced that it was retiring
the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL), an Open Source
Initiative (OSI)-approved software license. In recent weeks, the
OSI, which authorises open-source licenses, has been discussing
limiting license proliferation, so as to make the process of choosing
a license easier for developers and companies. Sun's move is in
support of that objective.

How does this move affect OpenOffice.org? As most know,
OpenOffice.org code was launched under the dual banner of the SISSL
and LGPL; licensees could choose which one they wanted to use, and
nearly all have chosen the LGPL. Effective with the announcement
that Sun is retiring the SISSL, however, OpenOffice.org will in the
future only be licensed under the LGPL.

For users, the simplification means: no change. OpenOffice.org
remains free to use, distribute, even sell. One can freely use it in
commercial as well as government environments; nothing has changed.

For vendors, distributors, add-on and plug-in writers of
OpenOffice.org: The LGPL allows for commercial distribution without
affecting derived products in the same way as the GPL.

For developers and other contributors: As the code will be licensed
only under the LGPL, modifications to the source must be published.
(The SISSL did not require all changes to the source to be
published.) As most OpenOffice.org contributors are already openly
contributing to the community, we anticipate no problems. And for
those who have been using the SISSL exclusively, we invite you to
join us.

The OpenOffice.org Community Council

http://council.openoffice.org
http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/license-change.html

Learning Language Automatically

In the future, perhaps we can write a code by using our own language, thanks to Cornell University and Tel Aviv University researchers who have developed a method for enabling a computer program to scan text in any of a number of languages, including English and Chinese, and autonomously and without previous information infer the underlying rules of grammar. The rules can then be used to generate new and meaningful sentences. The method also works for such data as sheet music or protein sequences.

This new algorithm called Automatic Distillation of Structure (ADIOS) and it was successfully identifies complex patterns in raw texts. The algorithm discovers the patterns by repeatedly aligning sentences and looking for overlapping parts.

Read the full story

Kernel 2.6.12.5

New kernel has arrived for Slackware, 2.6.12.5. It's not the latest kernel version available, because the 2.6.13 has been released officially, but it's the stable one, since 2.6.13 includes many new features and it's considered not a stable one. Maybe after a few minor release, Slackware distro will try to use this version.

Most of the functionality in 2.6.12.5 doesn't change from 2.6.12.3, so all my devices are detected and working perfectly. I have swept away the 2.6.12.3 kernel and now i'm using this version along with 2.4.31, although i never boot to my 2.4.x kernel, since most of functionality i needed wasn't available via 2.4.x, like ACPI, Wireless Device, and Touchpad.

Mplayer 1.0.7try2

Last night, i tried to upgrade my Mplayer to the latest version, 1.0.7try2, because there is a bug that can cause to a heap overflow. Here is the official annoucement from the Mplayer team :

There is a bug which, depending on configuration, can lead to a heap overflow. If and under which circumstances this is exploitable is unclear to us as of now. We are aware that at least one person was able to write a working exploit on his system using an AVI file with uncompressed PCM audio. We have found a file that is supposed to exploit it but could not make it work, still we do not want to put you at risk by waiting longer to publish this.

They have worked a patch on CVS and it can be downloaded. I downloaded the new package from Linuxpackages and it requires a lot of new library, such as divx4linux, libsndfile, libsamplerate, and polyaudio, but i finally managed to install all of them and now it's upgraded to 1.0.7try2.