oocompare
oocompare currently a trivial pygtk script around gs -sDEVICE=png and netpbm tools to graphically diff postscript files.
msoffice 97 encryption
I was asked today why the ms word97 encryption hash is not a standard md5, but a modified one. I haven’t a clue of course, but I did read in levy’s crypto that when ms (and other companies) first tried to export crypto (back when the cat was still in the bag) that the NSA worked with them to find encryption that was acceptable to the NSA for export purposes, so it’s plausible that any tweaks were enforced on them from above to make it less powerful.
gcj and OOo
1.9.71s1 with integrated gcj1 workspace announced, should be possible to build ooo2 with gcj now. A few things cannot be built, but I ‘ll try and sort of few more of them out now.