[plug] MS Office and TCO

[SweenyTod]

At 08:35 AM 11/09/2000, you wrote:

 > It hangs in very well.  The fun part is when you can show
> > them how to get rid of two $5000 servers (that's $5000 each) and 
> replace them
> > with one box filled with software that costs exactly $0.00.  And if 
> Sendmail
> > could do forms, I think I'd have been able to do it too.
>
>Uh, what is "do" forms? What kind of forms? I ask this because there are many
>tools for processing form-like information out of email streams, and turning a
>web-form into email is a one-liner in PHP.

Well, that's a very good question, and I've asked it myself a number of 
times.  Basically, it's an outlook email beaten to look like a standard 
form on a webpage.  It submits the data back to Exchange, which does 
whatever you want with it.  It's nothing clever or special.  The only 
reason it's used is that it is part of Outlook.  I can think of a number of 
alternatives, and don't think it would take more than a day to convert 
every form we use over to a web based thing.  I've asked why we don't 
switch to using Sendmail, and so get rid of an entire server, but, and I 
quote, "Exchange is the company standard."  And that quote is at the heart 
of what I've been saying.  It's there, it's working, and they don't want to 
change because after all this effort and expense, they want to get their 
money worth out of it.

> > The idea of Word
> > not being able to write Word documents as well as another word processor is
> > just a little hard to take.
>
>Next time Word royally screws up a WP document, try it in SO. If SO can 
>read it,
>point this out. Each time.

Ah, I see.  SO's import filters are pretty top notch hey?  I'll keep that 
in mind.

> > Whatever...  My #1 requirement for a desktop is making sure I can get a
> > picture of Gillian Anderson on it.  Everything else is just icing.
>
>I won't ask.

Hey, I'm single and have no life.  Leave me alone. :)




=============================================================
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.    His skin was pale and his eye was odd.
Always trust an Australian with a razor.

http://www.sweenytod.com               Paranoid is normal, normal is good