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Windows Incompatibilities Frustrate D.C. Schools
capouch writes "The Washington Post reports that school administrators for the DC public school system are having an awful time getting their new administrative software to work properly." From the article: "'In my experience, the combination of an Oracle database, Windows operating system, Unix hardware and an Apache webserver is a bad combination,' Barlow wrote in the memo to Thomas M. Brady, the school system's chief business operations officer. 'In fact, through our research the last few days, we have found an advisory on the Apache website that states, 'Please note that at this time, Windows support is entirely experimental and is recommended only for experienced users.' The Apache Group does not guarantee that the software will work as documented or even at all...Barlow said officials plan to replace Windows with a different operating system."
Well, that's obviously their problem. They've melded their OS and HW together in some freaky Doctor Moreau experiment. Either that, or their IT guys suck. Apache works fine on Windows, if that's what you want to do.
Meria J. Carstarphen, the chief accountability officer, said that D.C. STARS has great potential and that some of the glitches are attributable to long-standing problems with the city's technology infrastructure.
I think that tells you something about the structure of the DC school district. A chief accountability officer? WTF? Is this because the other O-level folks don't have to practice accountability, or is it because they're simply used to having to defend themselves against charges of incompetence?
They've frequently had problems getting the school year to start on time. Back when I lived in DC, it was because of asbestos in the buildings, but there have been other reasons.
The city government as a whole has been a joke for as long as anyone can remember, so it's probably unfair to blame the school district alone. But somehow this late discovery that Apache really doesn't work best with Windows doesn't surprise me, given the source.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Apache has only limited support for Windows, but still, Apache is a bitch to configure for any platform. And ORACLE? Look, Oracle is a problem in itself. But adding Apache, Windows, UNIX hardware, and then expecting a proprietary software solution (D.C. Stars) to perform is not Windows fault.
Windows is a lot of things. It is slow, it is insecure, but it cannot be blamed for errors in an untested software solution running on a proprietary DB solution with a webserver that does not support the Windows platform.
*nix zealots - thats the truth. I use Ubuntu at home, but i can appreciate a falllacy when I see one.
"Sure there's porn and piracy on the Web but there's probably a downside too."
You are obviously unfamiliar with DC in general, much less the public school system in particular.
That level of incompetence is barely par for the course.
Frankly I think the real function of the DC city government is sort of a sink for dangerously incompetent quasi-governmental professionals. They come there for the promise of power, and stay for whatever small fiefdom they can build up, plus the near impossibility of ever being fired.
On the bright side, just think of how much damage they might be doing if they were actually running around in the real world. I'm just glad every day that they all seem to stay there and out of my company. (Not that we don't have any numbskulls, just none quite that egregious.) Think of the federal dollars as being spent on a sort of "intellectual pollution control."
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
That's ok, I work for a company that has dozens of people sharing one act database among 3 locations which I have to hand sync weekly. You'd think when you sync act databases you'd have the same number of contacts in both databases... You'd be wrong of course... The reason most places become pure Microsoft shops is because Microsoft markets to management who then says "I just sat through this greeat presentation and we should use this because everyone else does!" I was told we have to migrate our e-mail system to exchange because that's what everyone else uses. This person who makes far more per year than I do and knows nothing about computers believes that we can somehow work better with out clients if we use exchange because that's what everyone else uses... I kid you not, he said that. I guess my days of virus free e-mail systems are over. 10 years without ever having a virus outbreak. Ironically, not one of our customers that run exchange can say the same thing but hey now we'll fit right in. How ironic... You're a heretic!! I was playing Heretic II on a server earlier. Ya people still play that...