Aardvark Daily aardvark (ard'-vark) a controversial animal with a long probing nose used for sniffing out the facts and stimulating thought and discussion.

NZ's leading source of Net-Industry news and commentary since 1995
Australasia's "New Economy" News And Commentary Site
Headlines | XML feed | Contact | New Sites | Archives | Job Centre | MARKETPLACE | For Sale
Note: This column represents the opinions of the writer and as such, is not purported as fact
The .DOC Disaster 7 May 2002 Edition
Previous Edition | Archives

Million $ Ideas
At last, the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook are revealed for all to see!
Click To See
Governments all over the world are turning to the Internet to reduce costs and improve levels of communications between themselves and the people who they are elected to serve.

Naturally one would expect that in order to maximise the effect of their investment in computers, software, content and online systems, governments would use systems that adhered closely to open standards rather than forcing people to adopt proprietary solutions.

Alas this doesn't seem to be the case.

Whatever Happened To?
About a year or so ago I started developing a new type of pulsejet engine which takes aim fair and square at the defense and recreation markets.

To find out how things are going, check out the X-Jet page on this site.

While some governments in other parts of the world are making a concerted effort to stick to "open" content formats and even embrace open source software, the New Zealand, US, British and US governments remain well-entrenched in the Microsoft camp.

I've protested (seemingly in vain) that this is ridiculous and poses a major security risk to the recipient and the sender. Only a week or two ago yet another gaping hole in MS Word was exposed that showed, once again, how a .doc file can act as a perfect vector for viruses and trojans.

Readers Say
(updated hourly)
  • .Doc disaster... - Bahu
  • Government Documents... - Peter
  • Standardisation in Peru... - maddogmut
  • Peruvian Congressman vs... - Shannon
  • Peru example... - Tim
  • It's not all bad... - RussB
  • Peru... - Sarah
  • Re: Peru... - Shannon
  • Have Your Say

    Now, before I offend some quite innocent people working hard to build good quality online systems within government, let me say that some parts of the government's Net presence are very well done and have avoided the use of .doc files as a method for delivering content on the Web.

    However -- a quick Google query indicates that there are still almost 4,000 MS Word documents sitting online within the .govt.nz domain space.

    But NZ's politicians are not alone -- the US government has almost a quarter of a million such documents online, the Brits have nearly 80,000 and the Aussies have close to 50,000.

    Some of these documents appear to have been created using quite old versions of MS Word -- versions that were known to include random chunks of computer memory with information that might contain sensitive data from previous sessions.

    In an age of terrorism and cyberterrorism, who's going to be first to stumble on something of great strategic value hidden inside an otherwise benign-looking document?

    The longer governments delay fully embracing open standards (as opposed to proprietary systems masquerading as defacto standards), the more expensive such a move will be.

    Maybe, instead of telling us that they're going to introduce e-Government, our politicians should fess up and admit that they're actually aiming for an MS-Government with all the benefits that offers -- them.

    Have Your Say
    As always, your comments are welcomed. Please remember to select "For Publication" if you want them included on this site.

    Have your say.

    Add Aardvark To Your Own Website!
    Got a moment? Want a little extra fresh content for your own website or page?

    Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

    Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

    Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

    Linking Policy
    Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

    Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!

    Latest
    Security Alerts
    Security flaw in Microsoft Office for Mac (CNet - 18/04/2002)

    A trio of MS-Office security vulns (TheReg - 10/04/2002)

    Two new "critical" bugs patched in IE (ZDNet - 01/04/2002)

    Second Java hole poses Windows risk (CNet - 20/03/2002)

    Microsoft offers patch for Java software (CNet - 06/03/2002)

    Latest
    Virus Alerts
    New Klez worm squirms across Internet (CNet - 18/04/2002)

    Aphex E-mail Worm Has A Way With IRC, Instant Messenger (NewsBytes - 11/04/2002)

    'Bill Clinton' Worm Gets Around (NewsBytes - 22/03/2002)

    Bookmark This Page Now!

     

    MORE NEWS
    NZL Sites
    IDG.Net.nz
    NZ Netguide
    NZ Herald Tech
    PC World NZ
    Scoop
    NZOOM Technology WordWorx

    AUS Sites
    ZDNet
    Fairfax IT
    Australian IT
    AUS Netguide
    NineMSN Tech
    APC Magazine

    USA Sites
    Wired.com
    CNet
    CNNfn Tech
    TechWeb
    Yahoo Tech
    ZDNet Tech
    USA Today Tech
    7am.com SciTech

    UK Sites
    The Register
    BBC SciTech

     

    The Day's Top News
    Open in New Window = open in new window
    New Zealand

    Open in New Window Beware hidden costs of rulings: Wireless firm
    Walker Wireless managing director Bob Smith has expressed concern about the hidden costs of getting a determination from the telecommunications commissioner...
    IDG

    Open in New Window Small bloke ready to take on giant
    This is a story that could - depending on how the Commerce Commission reacts - make startling headlines...
    NZ Herald

    Other

    Open in New Window ISP Can Finally Disconnect Spammer, Court Rules
    After more than a year of battling with bulk e-mailer MonsterHut, a Rochester-based Internet service provider (ISP) has been given permission by a New York State appeals court to disconnect the company it says is a notorious spammer...
    NewsBytes

    Open in New Window Hacker: Vulnerability lingers in AIM
    AOL Time Warner failed to properly fix a security hole in its AOL Instant Messenger application, leaving its users vulnerable to a new way to exploit the same flaw, a security researcher said this weekend...
    CNet

    Open in New Window 'Spidey' Already Being Swapped By Online Pirates
    While Columbia Picture's new "Spider-Man" movie was breaking box-office records over the weekend, Internet movie pirates were busily downloading free copies of the film on file-trading networks...
    NewsBytes

    Open in New Window StarOffice to eat MS share (probably)
    Sun Microsystems Inc's StarOffice office applications suite is expected to wrest a 10% market share of the desktop productivity software sector away from Microsoft by 2004...
    The Register

    Open in New Window Dot-Com Still the Main Domain
    New domains like dot-biz and dot-info have proven popular with speculators and protective corporations. But original content is taking longer to evolve...
    Wired

    Australia

    Open in New Window Compaq Australia faces lawsuit over one cent laptops
    Compaq Australia may be facing a class action lawsuit from irate customers who feel duped by the hardware manufacturer’s accidental Web site promotion of Presario laptop computers costing just one cent...
    ZDNet

    Open in New Window Australia lags on broadband
    AUSTRALIA risks falling drastically behind other countries on broadband, despite recent government moves to impose extra regulation on Telstra...
    Australian IT

    Other

    Open in New Window Intel cranks up desktop speeds
    Intel today launched three new desktop P4s, with its fastest clock speeds to date. And more importantly, they incorporate support for the 533MHz frontside bus, through the new Rambus 850E chipset...
    The Register

    Open in New Window EU to tax e-commerce with the U.S.
    EU finance ministers will on Tuesday rubber stamp new rules for taxing products bought on the Internet such as games and software, EU officials said on Monday, a move likely to earn the ire of the United States...
    ZDNet

    Open in New Window Information Technology Work Force Set to Grow
    The outlook for hiring in information technology jobs -- one of the hardest hit sectors in last year's downturn -- was starting to improve even as the national unemployment rate touched its highest level...
    Yahoo

    Open in New Window Shanghai cybercafes shut down
    Almost 200 internet unlicensed internet cafes have been closed down in Shanghai in a new drive against premises offering web access...
    BBC

    Open in New Window Apple's Bluetooth Move: Genius or Folly?
    With its new strategy to back Bluetooth technology, Apple has jumped aboard what looks right now to be a slow-moving train....
    Newsfactor


    Looking For More News or Information?

    Google
    Search WWW Search Aardvark

    Privacy Policy | Copyright © 2002, Bruce Simpson, republication rights available on request

    jet engine page