Slashdot Mirror
Getting Your News as MP3s?
GreenKiwi asks: "I've been really interested in finding a news source that has MP3s of their brodcasts. I have an iPod and download the news in text form most mornings to it so that I can find out what's going on. However, I would love to download (preferably automatically) news in the form of an MP3 that I could download to my iPod in the morning so that I could listen to the news on my way to work. The BBC has Real Audio output, but no MP3s that I can find. NPR has them for Real and WMP. I guess I could download and then convert the files. If that's possible. I'd love to hear whether anyone is doing this and how."
FLASH FXP
FlashFXP is the root of all evil. Not only does this closed source call-home program get huge amounts of attention making all of us wonder if "Charles DeWeese the information thief" is 1) selling your information to marketeers, 2) pretending he can increase profits by threatening, as reported in some cases, paying customers with BSA actions and lawsuits or 3) trojaning your system for other nefarious activities the nature of which you will never be aware because he provides neither source or debugging symbols, and the binary is stripped. One thing is for sure. Be it here on BetaNews, or on Slashdot, or on download.com.com, there is more than a few people calling into question why FlashFXP does what it does, and what is it doing. I would recommend the use of WinPCAP, WinDUMP, and ethereal, along with the free for personal use application firewall, Kerio Personal Firewall (software with nothing to hide, such as KPF, is often free for personal use, and others, like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenSSL (a technology probably stolen by DeWeese and used illegally in FFXP) and Linux/GNU to name a few. With scary legislation in the US empowering copyright holders to DDOS your P2P networks, "root" your boxes in order to delete copyrighted content, and to make circumventing the mechanism by which an MP3 prevents the playing of an MP3 without a digital signature a felony, you can not trust software which calls home in an undocumented, undesirable way. This is the inroad by which these technology fascists will infect your computer with government sanctioned Trojaning devices. FlashFXP, when purchased legitimately, forces your to divulge HUGE amounts of information about yourself. You cant use cash and anonymously buy "shrink." Not only did I buy FFXP, but I excercised my right to fair use on more than one machine, the closed source binary was never run concurrently on more than one CPU at a time, yet my key got blacklisted. I have always been fond of OpenSource, but this and the EULAs for Windows Media Player, which also does various call home undocumented behavior, make not using OpenSource suicidal if you want a life where the government doesn't control and monitor your every keypress. Best of luck in the brave new world, if we continue to support fascists such as Charles DeWeese in his never-ending pursuit to force you to be tithed for non-Novel software which is built upon the stolen intellectual property of others, and prioritized. This is by no means a call for legislated digital communism, but it certainly calls into question the value of something that is not transferable, the seller has not liability of the actions of, the right to fair use is forfeit, and they law claims they copyright holder can root your computer in order to enforce copyright. Software like this I should be paid to use! Not pay for it! Be careful. He has stolen from the public domain technology to implement this secure technology, SSL, then he uses it to hide from you the true nature of his communications with home-base, as he calls home and Jon.Ashkrofts your information. I'm glad I use SmartFTP and NCFTP and run KPF as a start in the line of defense against a Orwellian cabal of software and I.P.
I've written to AD-AWARE and even asked that FlashFXP be added to the scanlist!
TechNet Home > Products & Technologies > Windows Web Services (IIS) > Deploy > Deployment Overviews and Guidelines Hard Rock Cafe Switches from Linux to Windows 2000 Topics on this Page down Solution Overview down Company Overview down Situation down Solution down Moving Forward With Microsoft down For More Information hdlinx01 Published: May 2001 Switching from Linux and Apache to Microsoft® Windows® 2000 enabled Hard Rock Cafe to easily build a sophisticated and full-featured intranet, which the company is using to facilitate all areas of its business. In the year since the switch, the powerful tools provided with the Microsoft platform have enabled the company to develop a wide range of useful applications with just two developers, resulting in lower internal costs and improving the company's ability to communicate with employees across its 50+ corporate-owned cafes. Every Hard Rock Café employee using the intranet now enjoys a customized start page, providing easy access to the relevant tools and information needed to do their jobs. Solution Overview Back to Top Customer Profile Hard Rock Café International is a $400 million entertainment company and a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based Rank PLC. Business Situation The company's heterogeneous environment based on Sun Solaris, Oracle, WebObjects, Lotus Notes, and NetWare was difficult to maintain, and required the company to rely on expensive, hard to find external expertise. This was resulting in higher costs and the inability to keep its Web site up and running. Solution By switching to the Microsoft® platform, Hard Rock Café was able to reduce its total cost of ownership and increase its ability to deliver the new applications that will improve the company's efficiency. Software and Services Microsoft Windows® 2000 Advanced Server Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 7.0 Enterprise Edition Scenario Intranet Company Overview Back to Top Founded in 1971, Hard Rock Cafe International has grown into a $400 million entertainment company that embodies the spirit of rock music through its signature cafes, hotels and casinos, collectible and fashion merchandise, live concerts and performance venues, and the Hard Rock Records music label. A wholly-owned subsidiary of London-based Rank PLC, Hard Rock Cafe International operates or franchises 104 signature Cafes in more than 36 countries, providing visitors around the world with a unique experience that combines food and merchandise with the largest collection of rock memorabilia on the planet. Situation Back to Top Until recently, Hard Rock Cafe had a mixed IT environment consisting of Sun Solaris, Novell NetWare, and Lotus Notes, with the company's intranet consisting of an Intel-based server running Linux and Apache. Although the IT group had a large number of intranet applications it needed to develop, their Linux-based platform made this extremely difficult and time-consuming. "The Linux-based intranet consisted of a few simple applications that two developers had built--looking up a phone number, browsing imported POS logs, and paging a support technician--with everyone sharing the same password," said Rob Conti, manager of network services for Hard Rock Café. "We wanted to offer additional Web-based applications for accessing detailed financial data and communicating with our stores, but the lack of security and functionality in the Linux platform meant we would have to develop everything from scratch. That made these initiatives just too cost-prohibitive to pursue on the Linux platform." Solution Back to Top In March 2000, Hard Rock Café standardized on the Microsoft platform to lower its total cost of ownership. This included converting the company's Internet site from Solaris to Windows 2000, migrating the company's mail and messaging solution from Lotus Notes to Exchange 2000, and consolidating the company's four NetWare-based file and print servers onto a single server running Windows 2000. Hard Rock Café also migrated its intranet server to Windows 2000. It still resides on a single Intel-based server, now running Windows 2000 Server with Internet Information Services 5.0 and SQL Server(TM) 7.0. In each restaurant, five or six PCs running Windows 2000 Professional and Microsoft Internet Explorer are used to access the intranet. If your browser does not support inline frames, click here to view on a separate page. "The Microsoft platform has enabled us to achieve far greater functionality than we ever dreamed, both for our public Web site and our corporate intranet. Since we migrated to Windows 2000, we've been able to rapidly deliver the tools and applications needed to support our business and reduce costs." Ron Ward Sr. Director, IT and Internet Hard Rock Café International Since migrating to the Microsoft platform, Hard Rock Cafe has enjoyed the ability to easily build and deploy new intranet applications that assist users throughout the company with doing their daily jobs. "The Microsoft platform has enabled us to achieve far greater functionality than we ever dreamed, both for our public Web site and our corporate intranet," said Ron Ward, senior director of IT and Internet for Hard Rock Café. "Since we migrated to Windows 2000, we've been able to rapidly deliver the tools and applications needed to reduce costs and streamline the way we do business." To create the extensive functionality now enjoyed across the company, Hard Rock Café developers used the Visual Studio® 6.0 development system. "The power of the integrated tools provided in the Microsoft platform was one of the key reasons we decided to use it as the foundation for our new corporate intranet," said Conti. "We've only had two developers working on our intranet--the same number we had working on the Linux platform--and the Microsoft platform has enabled them deliver upwards of 50 applications over the last year. We're definitely getting more results for our development dollars now. Not only have we been able to implement a great deal more functionality, but the Microsoft platform has been much easier to administer and maintain, requiring almost no effort at all. " Every user accessing the Hard Rock Café intranet now enjoys a personalized start page based on their role in the organization, and designed to help them do their jobs as efficiently as possible. "When a user logs in, they're now presented with a customized start page that provides links to all the functionality they're permitted to access," said Conti. "User profiles and permissions are managed using another intranet application we developed, and are stored in the SQL Server 7.0 database. This was much easier to develop on Windows 2000 than it would have been under Linux, again due to the extensive core functionality provided in the Microsoft platform." "Not only have we been able to implement a great deal more functionality, but the Microsoft platform has been much easier to administer and maintain, requiring almost no effort at all." Rob Conti Manager of Network Services Hard Rock Café International With the new platform, the company has been able to rapidly develop applications that improve the efficiency of the company's core business--food, entertainment and merchandising. "With the Microsoft platform, we've been able to build tools and applications to lower costs and assist with just about every part of our business," said Conti. "In the past, new menus required sending a large amount of materials to all our stores--recipes, food display guidelines, and so on. Now that we can do this via our intranet, we're saving upwards of $20,000 per year for just this one task. We've also developed a wealth of other applications, for everything ranging from gift certificate management to souvenir merchandise catalogs. We've even built a tool to control the functionality of our Cisco-based video playback system, which we're now running in some of our cafes." Migrating to the Microsoft platform has also enabled Hard Rock Café to take advantage of the wide range of third-party applications available for Windows 2000. "We deployed a solution from Business Intelligence Solution Group, called intelligentScorecard(TM), to provide business managers throughout the company with easy access to the information needed to run their area of the business," said Ward. "It consolidates information from systems across the company into a centralized data warehouse and gives us the ability to define and monitor key performance indicators on a real-time basis. Each café manager sees the relevant indicators directly on their personalized intranet start page, and can easily drill down to investigate the information behind the numbers. We never would have been able to deploy something like this with Linux." "We've only had two developers working on our intranet--the same number we had working on the Linux platform--and the Microsoft platform has enabled them deliver upwards of 50 applications over the last year. We're definitely getting more results for our development dollars now." Rob Conti Manager of Network Services Hard Rock Café International Moving Forward With Microsoft Back to Top Now that Hard Rock Café has built an extensive intranet to service its 50+ corporate-owned cafes, the company is planning on deploying an extranet that will service its 50+ franchise locations. "We'll be able to communicate all the corporate standards for menu items and merchandise by basically cloning our existing Intranet server--just leaving out the financial reporting tools," said Conti. "This will allow our franchisees to enjoy all the benefits of the functionality we've developed for internal use, and will aid them in achieving the same high standards that we demand of our corporate-owned cafes." The .NET Enterprise Servers are Microsoft's comprehensive family of server applications for building, deploying and managing next generation integrated Web experiences that move beyond today's world of standalone Web sites. Designed with mission-critical performance in mind, .NET Enterprise Servers will provide fast time to market as well as scalability, reliability and manageability for the global, Web-enabled enterprise. They have been built from the ground up for interoperability using open Web standards such as XML. The .NET Enterprise Servers are a key part of Microsoft's broader .NET strategy, which will enable a distributed computing model for the Internet based on Internet protocols and standards in order to revolutionize the way computers talk to one another on our behalf.
For More Information Back to Top
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada information Centre at (800) 563-9048. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/
For more information on Hard Rock Cafe International, visit their web site at: http://www.hardrock.com/
© 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Visual Studio, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact Us | E-mail this Page | TechNet Newsletter
© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement Accessibility
TechNet Home > Products & Technologies > Windows Web Services (IIS) > Deploy > Deployment Overviews and Guidelines
Hard Rock Cafe Switches from Linux to Windows 2000
Topics on this Page
down Solution Overview
down Company Overview
down Situation
down Solution
down Moving Forward With Microsoft
down For More Information
hdlinx01
Published: May 2001
Switching from Linux and Apache to Microsoft® Windows® 2000 enabled Hard Rock Cafe to easily build a sophisticated and full-featured intranet, which the company is using to facilitate all areas of its business. In the year since the switch, the powerful tools provided with the Microsoft platform have enabled the company to develop a wide range of useful applications with just two developers, resulting in lower internal costs and improving the company's ability to communicate with employees across its 50+ corporate-owned cafes. Every Hard Rock Café employee using the intranet now enjoys a customized start page, providing easy access to the relevant tools and information needed to do their jobs.
Solution Overview Back to Top
Customer Profile
Hard Rock Café International is a $400 million entertainment company and a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based Rank PLC.
Business Situation
The company's heterogeneous environment based on Sun Solaris, Oracle, WebObjects, Lotus Notes, and NetWare was difficult to maintain, and required the company to rely on expensive, hard to find external expertise. This was resulting in higher costs and the inability to keep its Web site up and running.
Solution
By switching to the Microsoft® platform, Hard Rock Café was able to reduce its total cost of ownership and increase its ability to deliver the new applications that will improve the company's efficiency.
Software and Services
Microsoft Windows® 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0
Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 7.0 Enterprise Edition
Scenario
Intranet
Company Overview Back to Top
Founded in 1971, Hard Rock Cafe International has grown into a $400 million entertainment company that embodies the spirit of rock music through its signature cafes, hotels and casinos, collectible and fashion merchandise, live concerts and performance venues, and the Hard Rock Records music label. A wholly-owned subsidiary of London-based Rank PLC, Hard Rock Cafe International operates or franchises 104 signature Cafes in more than 36 countries, providing visitors around the world with a unique experience that combines food and merchandise with the largest collection of rock memorabilia on the planet.
Situation Back to Top
Until recently, Hard Rock Cafe had a mixed IT environment consisting of Sun Solaris, Novell NetWare, and Lotus Notes, with the company's intranet consisting of an Intel-based server running Linux and Apache. Although the IT group had a large number of intranet applications it needed to develop, their Linux-based platform made this extremely difficult and time-consuming. "The Linux-based intranet consisted of a few simple applications that two developers had built--looking up a phone number, browsing imported POS logs, and paging a support technician--with everyone sharing the same password," said Rob Conti, manager of network services for Hard Rock Café. "We wanted to offer additional Web-based applications for accessing detailed financial data and communicating with our stores, but the lack of security and functionality in the Linux platform meant we would have to develop everything from scratch. That made these initiatives just too cost-prohibitive to pursue on the Linux platform."
Solution Back to Top
In March 2000, Hard Rock Café standardized on the Microsoft platform to lower its total cost of ownership. This included converting the company's Internet site from Solaris to Windows 2000, migrating the company's mail and messaging solution from Lotus Notes to Exchange 2000, and consolidating the company's four NetWare-based file and print servers onto a single server running Windows 2000.
Hard Rock Café also migrated its intranet server to Windows 2000. It still resides on a single Intel-based server, now running Windows 2000 Server with Internet Information Services 5.0 and SQL Server(TM) 7.0. In each restaurant, five or six PCs running Windows 2000 Professional and Microsoft Internet Explorer are used to access the intranet.
If your browser does not support inline frames, click here to view on a separate page.
"The Microsoft platform has enabled us to achieve far greater functionality than we ever dreamed, both for our public Web site and our corporate intranet. Since we migrated to Windows 2000, we've been able to rapidly deliver the tools and applications needed to support our business and reduce costs."
Ron Ward
Sr. Director, IT and Internet
Hard Rock Café International
Since migrating to the Microsoft platform, Hard Rock Cafe has enjoyed the ability to easily build and deploy new intranet applications that assist users throughout the company with doing their daily jobs. "The Microsoft platform has enabled us to achieve far greater functionality than we ever dreamed, both for our public Web site and our corporate intranet," said Ron Ward, senior director of IT and Internet for Hard Rock Café. "Since we migrated to Windows 2000, we've been able to rapidly deliver the tools and applications needed to reduce costs and streamline the way we do business."
To create the extensive functionality now enjoyed across the company, Hard Rock Café developers used the Visual Studio® 6.0 development system. "The power of the integrated tools provided in the Microsoft platform was one of the key reasons we decided to use it as the foundation for our new corporate intranet," said Conti. "We've only had two developers working on our intranet--the same number we had working on the Linux platform--and the Microsoft platform has enabled them deliver upwards of 50 applications over the last year. We're definitely getting more results for our development dollars now. Not only have we been able to implement a great deal more functionality, but the Microsoft platform has been much easier to administer and maintain, requiring almost no effort at all. "
Every user accessing the Hard Rock Café intranet now enjoys a personalized start page based on their role in the organization, and designed to help them do their jobs as efficiently as possible. "When a user logs in, they're now presented with a customized start page that provides links to all the functionality they're permitted to access," said Conti. "User profiles and permissions are managed using another intranet application we developed, and are stored in the SQL Server 7.0 database. This was much easier to develop on Windows 2000 than it would have been under Linux, again due to the extensive core functionality provided in the Microsoft platform."
"Not only have we been able to implement a great deal more functionality, but the Microsoft platform has been much easier to administer and maintain, requiring almost no effort at all."
Rob Conti
Manager of Network Services
Hard Rock Café International
With the new platform, the company has been able to rapidly develop applications that improve the efficiency of the company's core business--food, entertainment and merchandising. "With the Microsoft platform, we've been able to build tools and applications to lower costs and assist with just about every part of our business," said Conti. "In the past, new menus required sending a large amount of materials to all our stores--recipes, food display guidelines, and so on. Now that we can do this via our intranet, we're saving upwards of $20,000 per year for just this one task. We've also developed a wealth of other applications, for everything ranging from gift certificate management to souvenir merchandise catalogs. We've even built a tool to control the functionality of our Cisco-based video playback system, which we're now running in some of our cafes."
Migrating to the Microsoft platform has also enabled Hard Rock Café to take advantage of the wide range of third-party applications available for Windows 2000. "We deployed a solution from Business Intelligence Solution Group, called intelligentScorecard(TM), to provide business managers throughout the company with easy access to the information needed to run their area of the business," said Ward. "It consolidates information from systems across the company into a centralized data warehouse and gives us the ability to define and monitor key performance indicators on a real-time basis. Each café manager sees the relevant indicators directly on their personalized intranet start page, and can easily drill down to investigate the information behind the numbers. We never would have been able to deploy something like this with Linux."
"We've only had two developers working on our intranet--the same number we had working on the Linux platform--and the Microsoft platform has enabled them deliver upwards of 50 applications over the last year. We're definitely getting more results for our development dollars now."
Rob Conti
Manager of Network Services
Hard Rock Café International
Moving Forward With Microsoft Back to Top
Now that Hard Rock Café has built an extensive intranet to service its 50+ corporate-owned cafes, the company is planning on deploying an extranet that will service its 50+ franchise locations. "We'll be able to communicate all the corporate standards for menu items and merchandise by basically cloning our existing Intranet server--just leaving out the financial reporting tools," said Conti. "This will allow our franchisees to enjoy all the benefits of the functionality we've developed for internal use, and will aid them in achieving the same high standards that we demand of our corporate-owned cafes."
The .NET Enterprise Servers are Microsoft's comprehensive family of server applications for building, deploying and managing next generation integrated Web experiences that move beyond today's world of standalone Web sites. Designed with mission-critical performance in mind, .NET Enterprise Servers will provide fast time to market as well as scalability, reliability and manageability for the global, Web-enabled enterprise. They have been built from the ground up for interoperability using open Web standards such as XML. The .NET Enterprise Servers are a key part of Microsoft's broader .NET strategy, which will enable a distributed computing model for the Internet based on Internet protocols and standards in order to revolutionize the way computers talk to one another on our behalf.
For More Information Back to Top
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada information Centre at (800) 563-9048. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/
How about just connecting a cheap, AC-powered tape recorder to your sound card and if you want to automate it, plug it into a $10 lamp timer?
People used to do this all the time back in the days before streaming audio. It's called "hooking a tape recorder up to a timer".
Granted, these things called "tapes" can't go in your iPod, but they are compatible with those three "portable tape players" sitting in your desk drawer, and they also play on that thing called a "tape deck" that you normally stick the iPod's car adapter into.