Topic: Ten Years of OpenOffice.org

[sam]

This year (2010) marks the 10th anniversary of a lot of things: Tuvalu’s entry into the United Nations, Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, and the debut of Windows ME, for example. But much more importantly, 2010 marks OpenOffice.org’s tenth year of existence. To celebrate, here’s a look–literally, because there are a lot of screenshots–at how OOo has evolved throughout the decade.

"OpenOffice’s history began on July 19, 2000, when Sun GPL’d the source code of StarOffice, which it had purchased a year earlier from the German company StarDivision. Granted, that means OOo won’t actually turn ten until this summer, but what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t jump the gun from time to time?

http://www.workswithu.com/2010/03/18/ten-years-of-openoffice-org/

[Clive]

Bizarre as it may sound, I had to record all of England's 2006 world cup matches for the President of Tuvalu.  Anyone like to trump that for pure bonkerness?   

[sam]

WTF! :-)

Hook a brother up with a good holiday, eh?

[Clive]

Tuvalu is a small inhabited island in the middle of the Pacific.  Because it's so remote it has fishing rights over a vast area which means it's quite well off.  It's part of the Commonwealth and the Tuvalu government invests most of its money in the Japanese bank for which my son works.  In fact he is responsible for their account and regularly visits the island.  It takes a full 24 hours to get there and the route is London - Bangkok - Sidney - Fiji - Tuvalu.  The island is sinking and nowhere is more that a couple of feet above sea level which is a bit unnerving.  It will disappear completely in a few years time and no other country is willing to take the islanders because they are basically Abos in grass skirts.  The Australian government allows the youngsters to attend University and they can then stay if they get a degree.  Tuvalu has a lagoon into which they pump the raw sewage and the whole island stinks of the stuff.  The Governor General of the island is a keen England supporter and asked my son if he could record the matches and send the DVDs over to him.  He delegated the task to me and I have a great dinner party story.   

[sam]

yeah a great story!

The wiki article makes it look like a really nice place to visit.. but raw sewage ... 

[Clive]

Oh yes, Wiki makes it seem idyllic.     Apparently the smell hits you as soon as you get off the plane and it lingers in your nostrils for weeks after you get back to the UK.  The last time he was there they had a power cut in the middle of the night causing the air conditioning in his hotel to shut down.  The temperature soared and became unbearable.  Worse, his room became alive with mosquitoes which the aircon had previously kept at bay.  The only light he had was from his blackberry and when he went to the bathroom he could see it was full of cockroaches.  Thankfully he only had to stay the one night and he flew to Fiji the following day. 

[sam]

yikes! ok don't hook a brother up 

[Simon]

Told you BlackBerry's are good! 

[Clive]

They give off much more light than my phone.   

[Simon]

That's because they work on batteries, not candle power. 

[Clive]

What are these batterie things you speak of?     I think my wicks need trimming.   

[Rik]

Careful, Clive, the operation can be painful.

[Clive]

My wick was trimmed when I was too young to know about it.   

[Simon]

Hell, I really didn't want to know that!   

[sam]

Welsh and without a dong... lets get him a sympathy card.