I tried a new service from Ulteo that lets you use OpenOffice.org from a browser, since I was curious about this startup company led by Gaël Duval, the original founder of the GNU/Linux distribution Mandrake, now renamed as Mandriva.

This service consists in a sort of remote desktop that, streamed through a java applet, that gives you control over a real openoffice instance on the Ulteo’s servers, no html, xul or javascript magic.
Currently this is in beta and accepting up to 15000 testers, you just need to open a free account to get to this: (click for full size)

These are my first impressions and findings:

• Openoffice is at version 2.3.0 and runs with the Qt look and feel,
• latency is a bit high. Could be just due to the high traffic from the initial attention,
• the image compression algorithm creates some small artifacts around fonts, just like jpeg screenshots,
• you can’t copy and paste between local applications and the remote openoffice,
• bringing up the java browser plugin takes too much,
• recovery of files works,
• customizations seems to be persistent,
• it’s a real openoffice on a linux box, this is cool.

On a less technical note I think that an online openoffice is good for users and the openoffice project itself, but when it comes to money anything more than 0,0 € would be too much on its subscribers. This is why:

• you can download and run openoffice for free,
• if you have the bandwidth to use the online service you also have what it takes to download it,
• a portable usb drive is very cheap and can contain both openoffice and your files,
• a fast connection and the java runtime aren’t that ubiquitous,
• html-based online apps are also available and usually feel faster too.

Surely they know this at Ulteo and they plan to integrate this into the bigger “Online Desktop” they are cooking, which could bring real value worth paying for.

Anyhow should I have to edit some document on someone else’s computer I will head to this service if it remains free for sporadic use.

E’ bello che i dati sulla qualità dell’aria siano tutto sommato disponibili a chi vuole vederli. Un po’ meno bello è che la media delle polveri sottili sia più alta del valore che non si dovrebbe superare se non in periodi particolari e limitati.

Ovvero non si dovrebbe avere più di 40 in media e invece si ha 56.

Non si dovrebbe superare 50 per più di 35 giorni l’anno, invece lo si supera 140 volte.

In soldoni gran parte dei prossimi giorni, fino a marzo, l’inquinamento atmosferico sarà ad un livello che con certezza fa male alla salute e anche sopra il doppio di quello e fino al triplo.

C’è una legge al riguardo, ma come al solito niente punizioni per chi non la rispetta.