[plug] MS Office and TCO

[Leon Brooks]

SweenyTod wrote:
>> 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.

Ah, so... too easy. Just send HTML email with a form buried in it that points
back to a page on your intranet webserver, which snarfs the data from the fields
using PHP, send an email and presents a "so long and thanks for all the fish"
page.

As for Exchange, point out that one powerball (or cracker) and the whole lot is
(1) public knowledge and (2) history; go for HP OpenMail or one of the Bynari
solutions.

>>> 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?

Not so much that as they make no wild assumptions about sanity on import, or
what will be reading it on export.

>>> 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. :)

I have a friend who is married and has no life. She's perfectly happy. (-:

-- 
"The liberty of the computer must be thus far limited; it must not
make a nuisance of itself to other systems." (Egress filtering)