tech

  • LibreOffice advises don’t use OpenOffice!

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Security, Social Media, Tech

    The developers of LibreOffice, the most popular free and open source alternative to Microsoft’s ubiquitous office suite, are advising against the use of its OpenOffice progenitor due to security vulnerabilities and its lack of development, German news site heise reports.

    In a post on Mastodon, they point to security vulnerabilities that have been known for years but still remain unfixed. According to minutes of the Apache board meeting in March 2025, there are three security vulnerabilities in OpenOffice that are more than a year old. This has been confirmed by a representative of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) security team.

    Post reads Hi everyone! We still see people on the fediverse recommending OpenOffice, despite it having year-old unfixed security issues. So if you see someone recommending it, please inform them about the risks - but also that there are actively maintained successor projects (like LibreOffice).

    According to the record there are numerous other, previously unaddressed issues with OpenOffice software, including vulnerabilities have existed since at least November 2023. “We are making progress in identifying improvements to address these issues,” the ASF security team representative explains.

    LibreOffice: Apache Foundation is harming open source

    Furthermore, the LibreOffice developers accuse the ASF of not developing OpenOffice actively any more, but of feigning to do so with minor changes to HTML tags and blank lines. This harms the entire open source community. The ASF has not commented on these allegations. However, OpenOffice has an active project management committee and retains its status as a top-level project within the ASF, according to spokesperson Brian Proffitt. In fact, the recent commits in the OpenOffice GitHub repository have primarily consisted of correcting typographical errors and making minor amendments to translations.

    The current version of OpenOffice, 4.1.15, was released in December 2023. It included several bug fixes and dictionary updates, whilst it last received new features with the release of version 4.1 in April 2014. In the light of this, the LibreOffice team recommends using alternatives and in particular its own office suite.

  • Generative AI art – the ultimate comment

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Social Media, Tech

    The photograph below showed up in your ‘umble scribe’s social media feed today and is the best comment he has seen to date in respect of the so-called “AI slop” (or just plain “slop”. Ed.) produced by generative AI engines.

    Message reads Say no to generative AI art. Buy art from a real degenerate.

    However, your ‘umble scribe is not the only person who questions the utility of generative AI, let alone its accuracy and/or faithfulness. Here’s the historian Dan Snow of History Hit clearly suffering from the output of generative AI in respect of great events in world history Whoever would have guessed the USA had ships in the thick of the Battle of Trafalgar? :-D.

  • Happy anniversary Open Document Format

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    ODF logoToday marks the 20th anniversary of the ratification of the Open Document Format (ODF) as an OASIS standard. Two decades after its approval in 2005, ODF is the only open standard for office documents, promoting digital independence, interoperability and content transparency worldwide.

    Even though it was originally created as an XML-based format to enable universal access to documents across platforms and software from different vendors, ODF has become a technology policy pillar for governments, educational institutions and organisations that choose open, vendor-independent formats to assert their digital sovereignty.

    ODF is the native file format of LibreOffice, the most widely used and well-known open source office suite and is supported by a wide range of other applications, including Microsoft’s ubiquitous office suite.

    ODF has been adopted as an official standard by the ISO (as ISO/IEC 26300) and by many governments on all continents to support digital sovereignty strategies and public procurement policies to ensure persistent and transparent access to content. These administrations include the UK government, which has comprehensive information on sharing and collaborating on government documents using ODF.

    If a reason were required besides those referred to above, one only has to hear the words of Eliane Domingos, Chair of The Document Foundation (TDF), the organisation behind LibreOffice: “In a world increasingly dominated by proprietary ecosystems, ODF guarantees users complete control over their content, free from restrictions”.

  • Mermaids, volcanism and… Google Translate!

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Oddities, Social Media, Tech

    Google Translate, the Mountain View behemoth’s translation service is noted for not being very good on technical terminology, even of the most basic kind. Furthermore, it also struggles with a little thin called context, i.e. the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea and in terms of which it can be fully understood.

    When Google Translate gets the context wrong and confuses protecting the public with ancient Greek mythological figures, the result is at the very least amusing and at must alarming and downright dangerous, as revealed by the following social media post by Prof. Jenni Barclay of the University of Bristol.

    Post reads In this case of volcanic eruption, you will hear mermaids. Do not ignore the mermaids; they are there for your safety. Perils of Google Translate No. 44a. People seeking greater warning of volcanic eruption want sirens _not_ mermaids. (Spanish: Sirenas).

    Prof. Barclay’s research is the reduction of risk and prevention of disaster in volcanic settings, with a particular focus both on volcanic processes and the social processes that amplify volcanic risk.

    My question for Prof. Barclay is are mermaids a social process? 😉

    Mis-translations definitely are!

  • LibreOffice 25.2 video subtitled in 17 languages

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

    LibreOffice 25.2, the latest stable release* of this popular free and open source office suite, contains many new features, which are described in the video below.

    Furthermore, The Document Foundation blog reports that the but has subtitle translations in 17 languages, thanks to our awesome localisation communities!

    In addition, the blog post also includes an appeal for volunteers prepared to help with localisation.

    The video can also be viewed on Peertube, for those who don’t wish to hand their data to the Google subsidiary. 😀

    * = Your ‘umble scribe is currently using a pre-release version – 25.8.0.0alpha0+ – of the software. As intimated by the version number, the second version release this year will take place in August.

  • Muskrat less popular by the day

    Steve WoodsOddities, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    With the inauguration of the disgraced 47th and 45th president of the United States, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, it has been noticed that a certain level of authoritarianism – or even fascism – has entered American politics in The Felon’s desire to Make America Grate Again (or something like that. Ed.).

    Of course, The Felon is not implementing his far-right agenda in isolation.

    One of his biggest aides and pro-tem best buddy is the fascist known as Elon Reeve Musk, a man of capable of wielding vast wealth but very few brain cells. He is currently leading the charge to destroy US federal government departments in the drive for alleged efficiency; and is messing up badly, on account of which his approval rating in the USA is rapidly declining, but has yet to reach the levels seen in the UK.

    The Muskrat is of course best known for being the man who invested in Tesla cars, which was incorporated by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003. The Muskrat was only involved in the company’s first funding round, i.e. he just provided the money, not the technical expertise.

    Partly as a result of The Muskrat’s overt fascist sympathies, The Muskrat’s popularity has been adversely affected.

    Tesla car sales have also been affected by The Muskrat’s links to The Felon and his fascist sympathies too. As The Guardian reports, sales of Tesla in Europe in January 2025 were half what they were the previous year.

    In addition to this, the Tesla factory on the outskirts of Berlin has been used as a screen for another action by Led By Donkeys (posts passim), whilst showrooms have been targeted by demonstrators and even defaced.

    Next to Tesla illuminated sign, a projection with the word Heil and a picture of Musk giving a fascist salute

    In London, fake Tesla advertisements showing a saluting Muskrat and claiming the vehicles – renamed Swasticars – go from zero to 1939 in 3 seconds have started appearing.

    Poster showing Elon Musk giving fascist salute from a Tesla and featuring the slogan goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds and at the foot the words Tesla and TheSwasticar

    Finally, in other news, The Muskrat, who also hold Canadian citizenship via his mother, is the subject of a federal petition seeking to revoke his citizenship. At the time of writing it has over 237,000 signatures.

  • A put-down from Linus

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Open Source, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    Linux was once famously described as Communism by former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

    The non-corporate, contributive and sharing nature of free and open source software and operating systems is one aspect that has always made it attractive to your ‘umble scribe, who comes from a family where both branches have been left-leaning for three generations and possibly longer.

    Linus Torvalds, the creator and chief developer of the Linux kernel, the heart of the operating system, has a reputation for plain speaking, to put matters politely.

    Linus has responded forthrightly – but mostly politely to someone who aimed the phrase “woke Communist propaganda” in his direction via social media recently and set out his political views plainly for all to see, as shown in the following screenshot.


    Thank you, Linus, for your humanity, never mind the kernel. 😀

  • OpenAI, an irony-free company

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Tech

    AI, we keep being told is the next big thing in the wonderful world of information technology. So far most AIs out in the wild have been developed at great expense and require vast amounts of electricity to work.

    Until now.

    DeepSeek logoIn the last week or so the AI world has been shaken by the latest version of DeepSeek, an AI developed by the Chinese.

    The latest version of Deepseek (R1) provides responses comparable to other contemporary LLMs, such OpenAI’s GPT-4o and o1 despite being trained at a significantly lower cost—stated at US$6 mn. compared with $100 mn. for OpenAI’s GPT-4 in 2023. Furthermore, Deepseek only requires one-tenth of the computing power of a comparable LLM. This caused a 17% drop in the share price of Nvidia, the main supplier of AI hardware.

    However, DeepSeek is not without its limitations. As The Guardian found out, the DeepSeek chatbot becomes very taciturn and tongue-tied when asked questions which the Chinese government finds sensitive. When asked the following questions, the AI assistant responded: “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”

    In addition, DeepSeek and other Chinese generative AI must not contain content that violates the country’s “core socialist values”, that “incites to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system” or “endangers national security and interests and damages the national image”.

    Besides its reluctance to answer questions the Chinese government doesn’t like, there’s another problem for DeepSeek – plagiarism.

    OpenAI logoThe BBC reports that OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has accused DeepSeek and others using its work to make rapid advances in developing their own AI tools.

    The fact that OpenAI is accusing others of plagiarising its work shows the company does not understand or admit either irony or hypocrisy as the company’s own LLM has been trained to some extent on material that infringes others’ copyright. The use of copyrighted materials for training LLMs is a topic that has also exercised German-speaking literary translators (posts passim).

    Some companies clearly think ethics is a county with a speech defect in south-east England and that all is fair not just in love and war, but in business too.

  • Nearly 90 French organisations are leaving X

    Steve WoodsMedia, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    X logoIn an opinion piece which appeared on Tuesday in Le Monde (paywalled), 86 French associations and federations announced they are collectively leaving X, a cesspit of far-right intolerance, ignorance, paranoia, misinformation, flat-out lying, and malicious abuse formerly known as Twitter, on 20th January, the date of convicted felon and sexual predator Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th United States president. By supporting the “Hello leave X” initiative, they are also appealing to the public to leave the platform en masse.

    The LDH (Ligue des droits de l’Homme – Human Rights League) jointly set up the HelloQuitteX collective in partnership with the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique – National Scientific Research Centre) and was also asked to sign the opinion piece initiated by the poverty and homeless charity Emmaüs France. Moreover, it decided not to post any more content on X due to both the configuration of its algorithms, which encourage the proliferation of hateful content and spread conspiracy theories and climate scepticism, and the lack of moderation.

    The LDH believes that X is no longer the digital street (however imperfect) that it could have been, due to the manipulation of the conditions for making public debate possible by Elon Musk and, as a result, the lack of visibility of the principles that it upholds in defending human rights and equality.

    It is also a basic call to arms for democracy, implying the solidarity of all stakeholders in civil society and politics who share the same values. This entails promoting and advocating digital spaces that respect and ensure the protection of pluralism, respectful debate and reason.

    The LDH is therefore inviting all those who share these values to leave en bloc if possible on 20th and follow them on Mastodon or Bluesky instead.

    In other news, the German army has announced it is also abandoning X. Auf Wiedersehen, Elon!

  • More than 60 academic institutions quit X

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media, Tech, Uncategorized

    German emergency exit signMore than 60 German and Austrian universities and research institutions wanted to set an example and collectively announced that they were ceasing their activities on the X social media platform, a cesspit of far-right intolerance, ignorance, paranoia, misinformation, flat-out lying, and malicious abuse formerly known as Twitter. This withdrawal is a result of the lack of compatibility between the platform’s current orientation and the core values ​​of the institutions involved: cosmopolitanism, scientific integrity, transparency and democratic discourse.

    The changes to X – from the amplification of right-wing populist content to the restriction of organic reach – make further use untenable for the organisations involved. The institutions’ withdrawal underscores their commitment to fact-based communication and against anti-democratic forces. The values ​​that promote diversity, freedom and science are no longer present on the platform.

    Some institutions which have already ceased their activities on the platform also support the joint appeal, thereby reaffirming the importance of an open and constructive culture of discussion. This decision only affects the X-accounts of the institutions involved and not their communication via other social media channels. In the light of recent events, they will continue to closely monitor the development of the platforms and their algorithms.

    The institutions concerned are as follows:

    • Alanus Hochschule für Kunst und Gesellschaft;
    • Bauhaus-Universität Weimar;
    • Berliner Hochschule für Technik;
    • Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus – Senftenberg;
    • Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel;
    • Deutsche Ornithologische Gesellschaft;
    • Deutsche Sporthochschule, Cologne;
    • Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder);
    • Fachhochschule Dortmund;
    • FernUniversität in Hagen;
    • Freie Universität Berlin;
    • Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg;
    • Goethe-Universität Frankfurt;
    • HAWK Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen;
    • Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf;
    • Hochschule Anhalt;
    • Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg;
    • Hochschule Darmstadt;
    • Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar;
    • Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg;
    • Hochschule für Philosophie, Munich;
    • Hochschule Furtwangen;
    • Hochschule München;
    • Hochschule Neubrandenburg;
    • Hochschule Osnabrück;
    • Hochschule RheinMain;
    • Hochschule Ruhr West;
    • Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung, Eberswalde;
    • Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Umwelt, Nürtingen-Geislingen;
    • Humboldt-Universität in Berlin;
    • Institut für Vogelforschung;
    • Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz;
    • Justus-Liebig-Gesellschaft;
    • Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen;
    • Katholische Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen;
    • Kirchliche Hochschule, Wuppertal;
    • Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung;
    • Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde;
    • Medizinische Universität Innsbruck;
    • Philipps-Universität Marburg;
    • RWTH Aachen;
    • Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola;
    • Technische Hochschule, Cologne;
    • Technische Universität Braunschweig (Brunswick);
    • Technische Universität Darmstadt;
    • Technische Universität Dresden;
    • Universität Bamberg;
    • Universität Bayreuth;
    • Universität des Saarlandes;
    • Universität der Künste, Berlin;
    • Universität Duisburg-Essen;
    • Universität Erfurt;
    • Universität Greifswald;
    • Universität Heidelberg;
    • Universität Innsbruck;
    • Universität Münster;
    • Universität Potsdam;
    • Universität Siegen;
    • Universität Trier;
    • Universität Ulm;
    • Universität Würzburg;
    • Universität zu Lübeck; and
    • Westsächsische Hochschule, Zwickau.

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