https://www.bennee.com/~alex/2003-08-18T18:42:00+01:00the wanderings of a supposed digital native2003-08-18T18:42:00+01:002003-08-18T18:42:00+01:00alextag:www.bennee.com,2003-08-18:/~alex/blog/2003/08/18/who-can-you-trust/

<div class="line-block"> <div class="line">I was reading another href=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3154479.stm&gt;article on MS</div> <div class="line">WORD on the BBC site today. Sometimes some of my friends grumble when I</div> <div class="line">ask them to send attachments in standards based formats that I can</div> <div class="line">easily read (although href=http://www …</div></div>

<div class="line-block"> <div class="line">I was reading another href=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3154479.stm&gt;article on MS</div> <div class="line">WORD on the BBC site today. Sometimes some of my friends grumble when I</div> <div class="line">ask them to send attachments in standards based formats that I can</div> <div class="line">easily read (although href=http://www.openoffice.org&gt;OpenOffice.org usually does an</div> <div class="line">ok job). But really its not just for my convenience...I hope people realize every time they save a word document they are trusting</div> <div class="line"><em>their</em> data to:</div> </div> <ul class="simple"> <li>An undocumented file-format (other programs have to guess how to read them)</li> <li>A binary file (i.e. you can't open it with a text-editor, say to recover data from a corrupted file)</li> <li>A unnecessarily bloated file (Word save all sorts of junk in a .doc file, have you ever wondered why your cover letter takes 100's of K?)</li> </ul> <div class="line-block"> <div class="line">You don't have to switch to Linux, or even change your word-processor.</div> <div class="line">Its as simple as clicking Save As and selecting a format like RTF. Not</div> <div class="line">only will I be happier, but should you ever want to change your</div> <div class="line">word-processor, or recover data believe me you will be too!</div> </div> <p>p.s At almost at the same time as me can I wish href=http://www.debian.org&gt;Debian a happy birthday.</p>