Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Moonbase, Schools, Entropia
Perhaps in a bit, though. texchanchan writes: "From the BBC: 'China will not be launching a manned mission to the Moon in the foreseeable future, according to Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's Moon exploration programme... he said he wanted to clarify news reports in the Chinese media that Beijing would be putting a man on the Moon by 2010..."We will explore the Moon certainly," he said from his office in Beijing, "but with unmanned spacecraft."'"
Can I sign up to be a robot brain surgeon? ascii7 writes "Remember that story a while back about Project Entropia, the free MMRPG? Well, now it's in the commercial trial phase, and free for all to download. Get it at www.project-entropia.com"
Free Software Entrepreneurs, take note. llywrch writes with more information on the Microsoft effort to crack down on licensing in Northwest public school districts, as reported by Oregonian columnist Steve Duin, writing: "Most intriguingly, Microsoft's heavy-handed tactics have already started a backlash, with 16 school districts in central Iowa having 'completely dumped' Microsoft and migrated everything to Linux."
He sends some background details not in the column:
- This column generated the most feedback Duin has seen for any one of his columns to this time. (He has experienced the Slashdot effect first hand.)
- The Beaverton And Hillsboro school districts, two that have been targeted for the audit, apparently will comply quietly. Beaverton will because they have kept close enough tabs on software licenses to make it feasible (as well as officially banning all non Mac & MS Windows machines from their network). Hillsboro will because a certain microprocessor manufacturer based in that city can subsidise the costs of Microsoft software.
- Paul Nelson (one of the forces behind the Linux for public schools movement) has been urging more cooperation between public schools and local Linux user groups. ``My hope is that other LUGs out there would start hosting clinics. If you are from a school, contact your local user group and offer to host a clinic!" He is planning a demonstration of what Linux can do for schools this July 4, calling it Software Independence Day."
Apropos that, JDALaRose writes: "While it was discussed at some length in this Ask Slashdot, the Washington Post is running an article wherein a columnist gives his take on making the switch from Windows/MS Office to Linux/OpenOffice."
my school district is still on apple ][ machines for word processing in the english department...
needless to say, apple has not tried any heavy handed licensing tactics with them... YET
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
You want to demo software on July 4th??!?!? Instead of drinking beer and bbq'ing? That will definitely show people that Linux users aren't communists!
ostiguy
I wonder, why is it called Entropia? Because it brings chaos (entropy) into the lives of the poor people who download the client?
Also, how long will it take the Entropia world to create Project Reality (the peak of technology, real world emulator!)?
;)
Could it be possible that the move towards "Free Software" is a result of its cost effectiveness rather than any particular sin of Microsoft? When you calculate the cost of licenses to cover an entire school district, $50 (if you buy an COTS version of RedHat, for example) beats $75 (guessing) x # of seats.
The kids still will be ill-prepared to work in any normal job, though, as Linux is nowhere near standard in the real life world.
I have been pwned because my
I like it. "Open Source: beating down the forces of tyranny." "Give me OS liberty, or give me ... well, Windows." "I regret that I have only one CPU to run with my OS." "We must all hang together, or certainly our PCs will all hang separately." And so on.
Perhaps we need a Boston Tea party sort of thing where we burn hundreds of Windows licenses.
Or not.
=brian
After trying Linux Mandrake out a couple of months ago, one thing that crossed my mind is how ready Linux is for schools. Linux distros these days contain all the basic tools needed for productivity. You have several different office applications (Abiword, KOffice, StarOffice, OpenOffice) to choose from for word processing and spreadsheets and then you also have scientific tools like Scilab (a clone of Matlab I am told). Though admittedly I am not sure if there are Powerpoint and Access alternatives for Linux, perhaps someone could shed some light on this.
Now consider the Windows alternative, that would entail getting a site license for Windows, Microsoft Office, Matlab and who knows what else. This would not only cost quite a bit of money but I imagine would also create a pile of added paperwork due to the multiple licenses. Then with Windows you have to contend with issues of kids installing software on the school machines such as games, and macro and email viruses which from past experience spread like crazy in schools.
As far as I am concerned Linux is more than ready for schools. Sure it may be different to Windows which most children would be accustomed to using at home but children these days are quite tech savvy and I assume they would pick up Linux interface quite quickly (perhaps faster than adults?). The only major issue to consider is inoperability issues such as opening Word 97/2000 files but this could be resolved by encouraging children to save in RTF format which presents no problem.
aus.music.scrapbook
Lord forbid any children be exposed to those awful satanic Sparcstations!!!
(J/K of course).
1) Entropia is a multi-player game. The Street in Snowcrash was essentially the Internet, since Snowcrash was, in fact, written before the internet.
2) The motorcycles in the book were neither super-sonic nor racing; it was a chase scene. Though given some of Hiro's commentary, I'm sure there Were super-sonic motorcycle races
3) The mafia wasn't legalized. In those small pieces of land still ruled by the United States of America organized crime was still illegal. The rest of what was once the USA, territorially, was owned by franchies; Uncle Enzo being one of those franchisers.
4) You couldn't kill the pizza guy. You could certainly Try, but part of The Deliverator's coolness was his essential invulnerability. If the pizza was late, Uncle Enzo would arrive on your lawn and present you with a free trip to Italy.
5) Snowcrash was a device-independent viral meme, not a computer virus on the Street.
So the question would be, do You remember the novel Snowcrash?
"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live" -- MLK, Jr.
I don't buy it. First of all, the whole point of commercial products (according to MS and their bannermen) is that the interface is "intuitive" -- which means it can't take all that long to become a power user. Second, anyone who's grown up on a complex and responsive system like Linus will find Windows a breeze -- plus they'll have actual problem-solving abilities. Let's face it: One reason that Unix conceded the desktop world to Microsoft involved the inability of any seasoned Unix user to take Windows seriously. Yeah, that was a mistake, but going from Linux to MS definitely does not tax the brain...
Besides, this isn't about preparing students for the real world. Students are remarkably flexible and adaptable. This is about the inconvenience to the old dinosaurs who can't conceive of a computer as anything more than an intimidating electric typewriter...
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Yes both mysql and postgres are superior. Is there a problem with using a superior substitute? If so, maybe since it's open source, we could dumb it down to the level of Access.
Seriously, they also provide features that let users make tools to use the database. Those tool-making features are called bash and perl. Duh.
Now they just say its a bad idea to accept computers without the original OS.
They don't say it's a bad idea, they say that a school should decline to accept a FREE COMPUTER just because it doesn't have an OS. I think that is just utterly unethical. They should be recommending not to decline the donation, but to make sure that all computers have legitimate licenses, or get a legitimate license. It's some of the worst FUD I've heard from M$, yet they seem to think we should be happy that they have at least stopped trying to tell schools that it is illegal to remove an OEM install of Windows.
Schools and the people who donate computers to schools should not be led to believe that it is in any way improper to donate or receive a donation of a pc without an OS. Large companies with donation programs often wipe the hard drive for data security reasons.
M$ doesn't want schools to get cheap old boxen because they know that sooner or later the schools will figure out that they can install k-12 LTSP and save themselves a lot of headaches and expense. It's the headaches of maintaining PC's in a student environment that will drive this more than the cost savings. Students rapidly break any security and change the settings so the computer labs all have Slipknot screensavers and so on.
M$ has no excuse anymore for the donated computers FUD, because it has now been cleared at high levels in the corporation. When the original "donation" site appeared on slashdot, I wrote to them to complain. Shortly after they changed the site, M$ wrote back to me explaining that they had changed the site to clear up misleading language.
They have not responded yet to me regarding the just as misleading suggestion that schools should decline to accept donated pc's without OS's. They cannot say that the site has "unclear language" or anything like that anymore, because it has obviously been reviewed and approved by someone with some clout.
I cannot imagine the fantasy world they are living in that they think it is a good idea to recommend that schools refuse perfectly good computers just because they don't have an OS. And what makes matters even worse is that they are in the business of selling OS's !!!!! . If that isn't evidence of something being seriously rotten in Denmark, I don't know what is.
Think about that for a while. I'll repeat it again...
1. M$ sells OS's
2. M$ recommends that schools refuse to accept FREE computers unless it comes with a valid OS.
If you were in the OS business, wouldn't the logical thing be to recommend that schools BUY an OS for their donated computers?
Send lawyers, guns, and money. Dad, get me out of this.
Right now, your average distro just loads on the options. Eight different text editors, six different shells, five ftp programs, and countless other duplicate items.
This is in general a good thing (tm) but when it comes to putting it in a school or giving it to a home user, it's overwhelming. I know because I am not an average user and all those options in the toolbar menu drive me up the wall.
Advice to distros. You want to put your product in schools and on home desktops? Make a distro that let's you pick (and set up for automation) one text editor, one word processor, one shell, etc... and then display the installed options prominently on the desktop and in the toolbar menu.
And on that note: call the text editor "TEXT EDITOR" and the word process "Word Processor". Don't call it Emacs unless you call it "Emacs - Text Editor" or better "Text Editor - Emacs".
If you look at a MS PC (even one that's been used for years) it's usually got one program for each task. Why? Because everything costs money, so the user picks one, pays for it, and sticks with it. It's not economical to buy multiple products with overlapping usages.
To make an analogy that's close to my heart, imagine you're driving a long way into an unfamiliar territory. The highway you're travelling on lists every possible route to any destination at each exit. Even if that route involves driving around back roads or dirt trails. Even if you knew what you wanted to do, there'd be so much signage and so many options that they'd be at best worthless and more than likely damn confusing. That's what Linux looks like to the new user.
Meanwhile, Linux is perfect for the classroom. It's a native programming environment. It's a lab in a box. A place for experimentation and exploration.
Kids don't want to make powerpoint presentations. Challenge them, do CS 101 in elementary school. Do Algorithms in high school. Then you'll be graduating problem solvers, not flow-chart-dependent middle-managers.
While I'm telling them what to teach in grade school. Teach English! Well! Enforce mastery and require that all your graduates can write a two page essay that could, say, get them a job or a raise or an A in college.
Those two things, if you taught kids computer programming and english and that's all, they'd be ten times as prepared as I was. They wouldn't need to go to college to get a good job, because that's all employers are looking for right now. And college can go back to being a place for future scientists and researchers (and rich kids who have nothing to do after high school).
Argh! I'm all riled up now!
Sweat
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
Windows and Mac environments lead them to explore their creativity (Mac especially) without needing to fuck around with an OS that fights you at every turn.
Fuck that, as a young child stuck with DOS I found my creativity in manipulating config files and making BAT files to do repetative tasks for me.
Windows just teachs kids how to click the blue e to get on the internet and check out the scores of their favorite sports team.
Hell even on the old AppleIIs I have more fun playing around with the various system disks then I did with the various traditional 'artsy fartsy' disks that were availble.
Developing innovative methods of solving problems involves creativity to you know.
Those students who are good at art already have control over EVERY OTHER DAMN SUBJECT, let us mathmatical / logical people keep something damnit.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
When I was an ISP support tech, I found that people from these professions were hardest to work with: journalists, teachers, lawyers, psychologists. Preachers and writers were up there too. I took to calling these "the word-oriented professions." The most dreaded customers to deal with, other than the habitually furious, were schoolteachers. Public school or private made no difference.
In general, they had great difficulty comprehending even the most basic concepts such as the difference between the Windows desktop and the interior of a web browser window. (There was one exception, a coach at some local country school who had an excellent computer lab going from the sound of it.)
Teaching teachers about computers is already hard. Introducing the idea of a different kind of operating system would, I think, confuse most of them very much.
Programming classes at the high school level, epecially in conjunction with a concerted effort across disciplines to emphasize analysis and logic, could be enlightening. On the other hand, they can indeed by drivel. It depends on several factors, including the preparation of the students (have they been taught logic, or have they been taught that systematic thought stifles their creativity?) and the teacher's approach (teach with specific examples, step by step, or assign the whole book to be read and then start applying everything at once halfway through the year, like one teacher I know).
And the system is now too big for it to ever fix itself successfully. Shame.
No system ever fixes itself. People create systems, and people have the power also to destroy, subvert or fix systems. Yes, life often sucks -- so find a small corner of it, make it yours and make it better. Inspire others to do the same. That's the whole point behind becoming a teacher -- good teachers always work to improve their schools and the educational system.
Microsoft is a huge system. It's not immune to change. The Justice Department and the States are working on it through legal channels, and the Linux community is chipping away at it by providing an alternative and demonstrating to the masses that the alternative is viable. If these school systems can expose Microsoft's licensure scheme as the extortion racket it is, if they can demonstrate that alternatives to Office and Windows are feasible, and if they can teach those two points to children, the parents and the media, they too will have changed a system.
That subject line is, incidentally, as infuriatingly grammatically incorrect as the original quotation. ROFL. Early this year, I used a Flash version of the "All your base are belong to us" game intro to demonstrate why grammar is important to understanding a language.