On Fri, 2007-01-05 at 12:56 -0600, stuart bell wrote: I `phoned up my accountant yesterday: ME: Can I ask you three questions? ACC: Yes. ME: How much will it cost me? ACC: 75 pounds, what's the third question? [you can't beat the old ones =o] An attachment in non-text form, which can only be viewed by a particular app, not your MUA. [which in your case, as a GoogleMail user, is whatever they're running server-side, and you're accessing through the browser.] In this case Microsoft's .doc format is a binary encoding of text using a format which is a trade secret. The only way of decoding that is to license the technology (expensive, and as it usually means a per-seat payment, not possible for Free Software, regardless of restrictions on the source that would be likely to accompany said licence), or to reverse-engineer the format. Reverse-engineering has a long and honourable tradition in IT, and in the wider engineering world. However legislation like the DMCA in the US, and EUCD over here, chips away at this. Regardless of that, it's a big drain on people's time, making sure that OpenOffice.org, Abiword, KOffice, AntiWord, WV, GNUMeric, & Co., can open up all of Microsoft's changing office file formats. [0] There is now an ISO international standard for office documents [1], but people who send the @!#~% things don't seem to be aware of it, and continue to send .docs. :-/ Are you asking for personal careers advice? ;-) I might be tempted myself, if I hadn't just started a business, and also have a mistrust of the longevity of positions in the voluntary sector :-/ I don't think that there's an emoticon for raising your eyebrows while crunching on a carrot Bugs-Bunny style, but consider it typed ;) - Richard [0] Actually OOo does such a good job of it that one school uses it to read older .docs that recent versions of MS Word can no longer open =^) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/pressreleases/2006/Ref1004.html http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/faq.php -- Richard Smedley, richard(a)sc.lug.org.uk Technical Director, http://M6-IT.org/ A PRINCE2 aware company Web services * Back-ups * Support * Training & Certification * E-Mail M6-IT CIC ``Software Freedom for the Education and Voluntary Sector'' M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee Registered in England & Wales, Registration No: 6040154 11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT

On 05/01/07, Richard Smedley <smedley358(a)btinternet.com&gt; wrote: I think the clue here is [Qoute] "Funded until April 2008" that concerns me on two points 1. Its potentially 16 Months of work. 2. Its 'Funded' so unless that 'Salary' budget has been set aside theres a danger of the money running out. I have over 20 years experience of dealing with charities TBH they are very good at getting money in but not so hot at managing it. Having said that charity work always looks good on a CV it proves your a caring individual. :-) -- Dick Turpin "Stand and deliver!"