[WEBWARE] gOffice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Bohan
  • Start date Start date
F

Frank Bohan

Web Office Suite. Word Processing, Desktop Publishing, Presentations,
Spreadsheets. (Registration required)

https://goffice.com/
===

Frank Bohan

¶ People will buy anything that's one to a customer.
 
Frank said:
Web Office Suite. Word Processing, Desktop Publishing, Presentations,
Spreadsheets. (Registration required)

https://goffice.com/
===
Click to expand...

Don't do it folks. It's one step closer to Bill Gates' vision of renting
online software.

Keep hard disk software alive!

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.
 
Don't do it folks. It's one step closer to Bill Gates' vision of renting
online software.
Click to expand...

A reasonable dig at their site strongly suggests its adware, and
adware by what I consider a patent troll.
Keep hard disk software alive!
Click to expand...

Yes!!

From their site -

"Q. How do you make money?

A. We make money when you click on advertisements that are of
interest to you. We also offer consulting services and offer a
gOFFICE appliance preloaded with gOFFICE server software.
Additionally, we offer our services via XML so you can embed our
functionality into your website, while you maintain your website's
look and feel. "

And the patent troll part is from their partners section -

"This site represents a new category of web application, and many
say it should be part of a global Internet company, to make the
maximum impact on the world. We are alway interested in speaking
with potential acquirers. We are most interested in big players,
either in the US or not. This site is all but impossible to legally
duplicate, as we have filed a broad patent application that seeks to
lock up the interplay of technologies we use in a unique and
unobvious way. There's a key piece that without makes it next to
impossible to offer the quick response time we offer. Well, perhaps
several years of effort might do the trick, but no quick effort,
even a well funded one, will succeed, in our opinion. We also have
trademark applications on file for gOFFICE in multiple jurisdictions
around the globe, and have international domain names such as for
Japan, China, Russia, India and the UK. This would be a quick, clean
transaction. There are no venture or angel investors, other than
Warnock, the company's founder."

I would sooner go to bed with a pissed off rattlesnake than deal
with these bastards. Thankfully, I don't have to make that choice.
 
[email protected] said:
Don't do it folks. It's one step closer to Bill Gates' vision of renting
online software.

Keep hard disk software alive!
Click to expand...

Well, it's either Bill Gates or a million other upstarts. Given my
druthers, I'll go with the upstarts :)

But seriously, I don't think this is as bad as it looks. I'm well aware
of Redmond's appetites and for this particular type of service, I don't
think they can make it happen. And I'm not one of those blissninnies who
routinely exults about MS GOIN' DOWN! either, I never underestimate the
tenacity of those clowns.

First of all, it IS a client-side technology, a rudimentary rich text
editor run from scripts in your browser (ironically, a technology
pioneered by MS). The formatted document you create remains in (and can
be extracted from) your browser. The only added value you get from
gOffice is pdf conversion, pretty templates, and online storage.

Early last year, Mozilla inserted a nifty little timebomb in their
browsers, the <canvas> tag (Safari has it too). With it, you can do
direct bitmap manipulation on the browser screen -- paint effects,
vector rendering, etc. Also, with a modest bit of scripting, you can do
screen capturing. There's already extensions that use this feature for
thumbnailing screens in tabs. One extension in particular:

http://pearlcrescent.com/products/pagesaver/

goes a good way toward making the gOffice service useless. It'll do a
screen capture and render it as a PNG. Once you've got your PNG, there's
plenty of free options to convert it to a PDF, clientside and online.

And shortly, it'll become possible to skip the interim steps and save
your formatted document as a PNG or PDF from within Moz/Firefox:

.......

"It appears likely that Gecko will add support for some of the
technologies developed by the Web Hypertext Application Technology
Working Group in the near future."

"One of the big initiatives in 1.9 will be an overhaul of the graphics
infrastructure. Instead of using the platforms' API, Cairo will be used
for all graphics outputs. This will result in improved 2D graphics
capabilities and, via Glitz, acceleration using 3D graphics hardware. It
will also mean that there will be a single rendering pipeline for
HTML/CSS, canvas and SVG, so that SVG effects can be applied to HTML
content. Because of Cairo, it will also be possible to output the
graphics as formats like PNG and PDF, e.g. 'Save this page as a PDF'."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_layout_engine

.......

The likes of gOffice will be left with little more than pretty templates
and online storage to offer.

I think that some of these services will thrive, because what they'll
offer will be akin to the way we use email right now. Everyone has a
desktop client AND an online subscription, since both are suited for
different purposes. Used wisely, they'll be a convenience and not a
lockin to something proprietary, just like email.

One other bonus of widespread adoption of this type of web service -- it
keeps the DRM bozos at bay. The data you create is standard markup and
can't be locked into a specific app or locked out as "untrustworthy" by
an Intel CPU.
 
(snip)
"This site represents a new category of web application, and many
say it should be part of a global Internet company, to make the
maximum impact on the world. We are alway interested in speaking
with potential acquirers. We are most interested in big players,
either in the US or not. This site is all but impossible to legally
duplicate, as we have filed a broad patent application that seeks to
lock up the interplay of technologies we use in a unique and
unobvious way. There's a key piece that without makes it next to
impossible to offer the quick response time we offer. Well, perhaps
several years of effort might do the trick, but no quick effort,
even a well funded one, will succeed, in our opinion. We also have
trademark applications on file for gOFFICE in multiple jurisdictions
around the globe, and have international domain names such as for
Japan, China, Russia, India and the UK. This would be a quick, clean
transaction. There are no venture or angel investors, other than
Warnock, the company's founder."
Click to expand...

(snip)

Har! You can get toasted from the hot desperation in that pitch. I've
never seen such a burning desire to flip NOW expressed so nakedly.
They're terrified dotCom Mania II is gonna fizzle before it gets
started. "Maximum impact on the world", whatta hoot.
 
Hi Folks,

We don't have adware nor do we approve of it. We are supported by
google ads like many companies. We aren't interested in spamming you
because that would reduce what company value, and I am in charge of
things like that and I am generally to lazy to bother with it. We have
no agenda to take over the Internet, eliminate hard disk based
software, step on Bill Gate's toes or are we terrified of dot com
mania. We are open to selling the company, but we would only be
interested in a buyer who plans on keeping the product alive and well
for a long time. We just wanted to offer an alternative to strictly
controlled and heavily licensed products.

We also keep our phone number, skype, and email address on the website
so that contact us if you need help with the office suite or have any
concerns.

Have a very nice day,

Fara Otterbeck
http://gOFFICE.com
 
...or are we terrified of dot com
mania. We are open to selling the company, but we would only be
interested in a buyer who plans on keeping the product alive and well
for a long time.
Click to expand...

Oh, ack. I regret my "desperation" crack and apologize for it. T'was
cheap and unfounded. Good luck with your endeavors.
 
Early last year, Mozilla inserted a nifty little timebomb in their
browsers, the <canvas> tag (Safari has it too). With it, you can do
direct bitmap manipulation on the browser screen -- paint effects,
vector rendering, etc. Also, with a modest bit of scripting, you can do
screen capturing. There's already extensions that use this feature for
thumbnailing screens in tabs. One extension in particular:

http://pearlcrescent.com/products/pagesaver/

goes a good way toward making the gOffice service useless. It'll do a
screen capture and render it as a PNG. Once you've got your PNG, there's
plenty of free options to convert it to a PDF, clientside and online.

And shortly, it'll become possible to skip the interim steps and save
your formatted document as a PNG or PDF from within Moz/Firefox:
Click to expand...

One other bonus of widespread adoption of this type of web service -- it
keeps the DRM bozos at bay. The data you create is standard markup and
can't be locked into a specific app or locked out as "untrustworthy" by
an Intel CPU.
Click to expand...

erm. . . about those PNG files. . . another WinXP SP2 security
feature -> IE will not display .png images when you view *local* web
pages (IE uses ActiveX to display .png files).

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)
 
erm. . . about those PNG files. . . another WinXP SP2 security
feature -> IE will not display .png images when you view *local* web
pages (IE uses ActiveX to display .png files).

Susan
Click to expand...

Only if the PNG has alpha transparency and a page uses CSS filters to
display it. It's the transparency that requires ActiveX. It's really
weird that the restriction applies only locally, though. I don't
understand the thinking behind that.
 
CharlieDontSurf said:
Only if the PNG has alpha transparency and a page uses CSS filters to
display it. It's the transparency that requires ActiveX. It's really
weird that the restriction applies only locally, though. I don't
understand the thinking behind that.
Click to expand...

Some decisions can only be "understood" if one postulates a complete
absence of thought. . . this is one of them . . . ;)

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)
Click to expand...
 
CharlieDontSurf said:
Well, it's either Bill Gates or a million other upstarts. Given my
druthers, I'll go with the upstarts :) (big snip)
Click to expand...

Heh. Given my druthers, I'll stick with offline software and avoid both
Gates AND the upstarts.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.
 
Some decisions can only be "understood" if one postulates a complete
absence of thought. . . this is one of them . . . ;)
Click to expand...

Hee, true. And why should they bother thinking, when we'll just assume
there's some deep arcane reasoning behind their daft decisions? Once
they trained us to regard clicking Start to stop the computer as
sensible, they were home free.
 
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