write a short letter, e-mail or place a short phone call.
I had some involvement with this while it was in the house general committee. The combination of AeA lobby and the Minnis couple are what is holding this bill back.
I got a chance to speak with some legislators on a one for one basis. Most of them do consider well written / spoken input and are happy to have it.
When you do write this letter or place a phone call, be sure and ask for a response to a question. Not only is your input catagorized and considered, it will take time. They will give you some sort of answer; otherwise, they are on the defensive for later conversations.
Interestingly enough, if you mail Minnis, you get a short form indicating in advance exactly why you will not get a direct response. (Really shows where the attention is here doesn't it?) Anyway, phone calls and fax work best for her because both of those take actual time and resources from her staff. Your legislator may vary...
Example questions:
What is your position on SB 589, the Oregon Open Source bill?
Given the number of unemployed IT professionals and the potential for savings HB 589 holds, why not work to keep Oregons dollars here where they can do some good for those struggling to find work in tough times?
Can I count on your support in committee regarding SB 589?
If, they express support, ask them how you can best help them move the bill forward. --Then do it. (Won't be bad, just a couple phone calls, friendly discussion or a letter.)
If against, ask them "why?". Take those answers and do some research and get back to them.
Finally: (The guilt approach)
Cooper Stevenson along with Rep. Phil Barnhart's staff have worked very hard on this bill against a powerful lobby. Many people across Oregon, myself included, devoted time and energy to the task of education for our legislators the first time around.
After about a month of hard lobbying, phone calls, letters and appointments, I personally believed Minnis had stopped the bill. We have a second chance people! Passing a bill like this is worth it! Spend a little time, feel good today --why not?
This is damn good news coming at a time when the legislature is looking for money anywhere it can. Perhaps ongoing pressure from the people of Oregon can make a difference. There must be at least 10,000 Oregon/. readers.
This is a lot of noise people. If you have never done this before, it's easy, please start now and get two other people to do the same.
I guess what is missing is K-12 basic computer science. We are showing kids how to get other things done with the computer, but are not showing them anything about the nature of the computer itself.
Many of the educators today are not really capable of this and they should be.
In that, I agree with you.
However, working with a couple different platforms just from a user perspective is a good thing and can be done today. The kids will get the idea of computing by inference, not the details mind you, but the basic idea of differences. It will affect their learning process in a good way.
Instead of asking where is the start bar, for example, they might just ask how to navigate to the applications. By inference they will understand at some level that applications are different than computing systems...
Every last one of them should be shown the command line. Again, by inference, they will learn about parts of the computer that will help them in later more specialized learning.
At the college level, they better damn well be able to show these things, otherwise why pay? (seriously)
As a kid in school, the trend was to "just pass the test". I never got answers to many hard questions, unless I went digging for the information myself.
I remember clearly the day I learned to think for myself:
Third grade, about the middle of the year. At home, I had been getting interested in magnets and electronics. Took apart some of electronic toys wondered about all the little bits inside. I asked about these things, but did not get many answers. (Not the teachers fault, they really did not know either!)
One day during a trip to the library, I wandered into the "big kids" section. Just was not in the mood for another "Space Cat" story. Saw lots of good books and was interested. During this time, I happened to stumble upon a book titled "The Boys First Book of Electronics". "Man, this was the book for me", I thought on the way to checkout.
I was told, I was too young for that book. Could not possibly read it, so I can't have it. I was told I needed to check out one of the same sort of books the other kids were. They fsking knew I was interested in these things because I got into trouble many times for having them in class. (Batteries, motors and such.)
We were all shown the dictionary and how to use it. New words were not a problem, you just looked them up. Keep doing that and the text will become clear. Isn't that what we are supposed to be doing? I explained some of this, thought about the rest and was in general confused and very angry. I remember thinking these people really don't give a shit as long as you get what they need you to get done.
Fuck that. I stole that book and read it cover to cover. I still have it. Sometimes I see it and remember why I took it. --It still pisses me off.
I spent many hours reading and re-reading that book, but it was worth it. The following year, I fixed several fans, and other simple electronics I found broken around the house. Things went pretty well from there. Had a HAM license, learned to program computers, and even helped develop classroom plans and deliver instruction to my peers in computer classes using LOGO and Pascal.
My High School experience was good however. They let me do all sorts of things I found important provided I tow the line on responsibility, citizenship and ethics. Things are not all bad, just spotty.
Our computer teacher found us programming and messing with the machines instead of using the programmed instruction disks. (He let us see the manuals.) Instead of slapping us down, he told us to let him know what we were trying to do, then made us get it done if we could. Our grade was an "A" provided we were learning something. Given the newness of computers at the time, this was an interesting approach.
Did us a lot of good too. Learned to program in assembly (6502 Apple II). Before I left school, I knew that machine inside and out.
I feel the damage happens when people are young. Strained budgets, mandated instruction, and the schools inability to deal with problem kids due to potential lawsuits all combine to produce an environment of such boring conformity, most kids die inside before they reach age 10... I see signs of it in mine. My math experiences are similar to yours. (Why do they show that goofy stuff when the tried and true methods will always work just fine?)
I was one of those problem kids. Just stubborn enough to make my own way. All the trouble was worth it for me. Funny, all the "problems" went away when the environment changed enough to allow creative learning to happen.
I always wanted to be a teacher because I want to help young people learn without the hassle I got.
What stops me?
The sorry state of our schools today. (Not the teachers --most of them are good people trying to do their best.) Better to get kids involved after school when they have a chance to get some real learning done.
I am not sure you could pay me enough to deal with that mess. It is highly likely that same mess is why your classes are the way they are.
Go take a hard look at your school budget sometime, if they even will let you see it. When you are finished with that, ask yourself why the ratio of administrators to students is as high as it is.
Take a hard look at what they all do and you will begin to wonder why so many of them are required.
In my district, the teachers ask for bulk paper as part of the school supply list, yet the administration exists in high numbers and in offices that are as good or better than found in many corporations.
In Oregon, we have a big bit of waste called CIM / CAM. This is the state mandated standardized testing program. Not only do they spend a lot of money on custom out of state testing companies to develop their tests, they place such a high emphasis on the scores that teachers are sharply limited in what they teach.
They offer financial incentives to businesses and colleges in an attempt to buy recognition of a program that is a solution to a problem that does not exist.
This is all under the heading school reform.
Given the existance of already working standardized testing programs, this whole mess is foolish and costly.
This same district is trying to use Linux to cut computing costs, but only for the money, not because the kids might need the diverse education later in life. Home of the LTSP project which is a good thing.
Elsewhere in this same administration, (ESD) growth is out of control. Full of highly paid coordinators, directors, public relations, and other fluffy positions that consume money that could be spent directly in the classroom.
The running joke here is that if you cannot work in the schools, you go to work in the ESD.
Kids should know what computing is, what a word processor is, filesystems, programs, operating systems, interfaces, what makes your average computer, how to recognize one and perhaps its type, etc...
If they see only one computer, then they make many assumptions that will hurt them later on.
These things only become evident when more than one platform is used.
That platform could be a PC running more than one OS, so this does not exactly support Apple however.
Every kid should be equipped to understand on a basic level what computing means, not just what a particular computer happens to do. We have had these machines in our culture long enough for these bits of information to become part of the body of common knowledge. If these things do not happen during K-12 then something very clearly is wrong with the teaching.
Unless, we all want to accept the fact that Redmond Washington is the authority on computing...
I for one don't. I also don't want my kids to either.
large portion of the spectrum unless there is a damn good tradeoff for the public at large.
How about very low cost internet access funded by a small tax on your utility bill? You choose your ISP, they move the data.
The problem I have with this is simple.
Power companies want to make more money and they intend to keep it. This is theft from everyone else with established uses on the HF bands. --Yes this includes HAM radio.
HAM radio is responsible for a lot of good in this country and worldwide. To just brush them off is an insult at best and outright theft at worst.
We should support HAMs the same way we do others who are using technology in creative ways. What if a law were passed that prevented anyone from moving their own e-mail? Or that limited their ability to move large portions of data?
Everyone here would be *pissed*. Raising the noise floor this high on the HF bands is the same sort of thing.
I am in the process of (re) earning my license again after a 15 year lapse. HF is one of the reasons I want to start again. This is lame. I plan to write my reps and congress critters. You all should do the same if you value anything. Afterall your particular technology niche just might be next...
One more thought:
If this goes through without some serious compensation to both the general public and the HF community in general, it is nothing more than an outright money grab that we all should be ashamed of. --nothing more.
This posted to the Newsforge board, but mangled. Repeated here:
We are still firmly in the early adopter stage with Linux on the Desktop. That's a hard thing for me personally because I use Linux all the time. The price of a good distribution is good value. We all know choice is good, trust is good, price is good, performance is good, Linux is good.
I have had some good advocacy success with Open Source applications. People would listen, but lose interest quickly when starting from Linux. Buring a CD full of apps does wonders though. They know how much software costs them and free, legal alternatives have value they can understand.
(I don't sell consumer hardware. My success was getting people I know and work with to try Open Source software.)
I think you are on the right track. Here are a few ideas I thought of that might help you get something out of Open Source while building interest at the same time.
Improve the software bundle and charge them a bit for it. You should get something for your efforts and the customer should get a chance to see value.
One of the problems with free is that free is simply free. It's hard to show the value when they don't see it as part of the transaction. On their receipt, include that bundle as a line item and list all the stuff they are getting.
Positioned right, its an easy sell that adds a small bit to your margin while advocating OSS at the same time. Its even a good sell because you are providing a nice service and some minor, but important education/advocacy at the same time. Both will do them some good and are worth the small price.
You might put together a small printed manual that contains a brief bit of information on each package, where it came from and where the best instructions are located on the system. Setting their default browser and home page to these instructions and introduction might not be a bad idea either.
In that manual, let them know they can support Open Source software efforts, thus getting more of the same sort of value in the future, by purchasing selected hardware items. Get a nice warm fuzzy sending a check to some developers somewhere;)
This is a bit more work, but building a custom Knoppix CD could add a bit more value as well. Set it up so that it is a emergency tool. Say their machine gets hosed up. They can boot with that CD and use their software tools and still get information from their disk. (Assuming it works)
If they have a problem with the dollars, offer to take the value back toward something else. Do this with a nice printed promotional item. That way some of them will take you up on it, but not all of them.
Finally, if they just want the cheapest machine they can get, give them the chance to just purchase the bundle stand alone. The purchase price can be less than the bundled price and can be used discount toward that copy of Microsoft Office they want. Maybe one of their friends can use the software they got free with Office, or it can be used on the kids machine.
A percentage of these customers are going to discuss their use of these tools with you in the future. Maybe Linux might not be so hard to understand for them after they get past the Free/Open Source issues via use of fine applications.
If somebody wants to die to cause some damage to the US, then they have a high likelyhood of doing it.
The ratio of terrorists compared to good people is too low to allow any reasonable accuracy no matter what the predictive system.
What's worse is the engineering of possible weapons will make the already low rates worse. They can't check for what was just invented can they?
The land of the free was formed with some pretty strong responses to threats.
Personally, I would rather see more of that, than attacks on our own people.
I realize the world is changing and that information systems can be helpful, but we must balance our hard won freedoms and rights at the same time. If we lock things down to the point where potential terrorists cannot move freely, given their low numbers doesn't that mean none of us can have our freedom either? If this cannot be the case, then they will have won no matter how many are killed or caught.
Most of what I value about America is being eroded away under the mask of security. Security for whom? I feel a heck of a lot more insecure now than I did 10 years ago. It's not the terror doing it either.
I agree with this. I am not sure the sound is better though, just different.
Comparing vinyl to CDs purchased over the years is kind of interesting. The combination of mechanical parts needed to reproduce music via vinyl *does* distort the audio, but it's a good thing for a lot of music.
It's not about purity or perfection or accuracy. It is about the sound you hear and how it strikes you.
I have always wanted to get a simulated vinyl processor plug-in to test this. The CD *should* be able to output a signal that sounds like it came from vinyl.
It would be neat to master a piece both ways and then test it on people.
Maybe we like the difference vinyl brings to the table --or not. That is something I would like to know.
Older people have heard music both ways. Perhaps they like the sound because that is the sound they learned to crave when they were younger. Young people today are doing the same thing.
Could it come full circle where we work hard in the digital realm to reproduce the analog faults and incorporate them into the art as we did before we had digital? If we do, it won't be due to the fact that it is a better process.
You might consider getting a new piece of vinyl, and recording it to CD. Play back both, do the speakers still fail, or not?
There are many suggestions here for the basics (win 101, excel, photography, internet)
How about a ground rules class?
Brief overview of computing today. Platforms, types of computers, and the very general reasons people use them. Perhaps a bit about where we came from, where we are today, and where we could be going.
Then a bit of positioning for them. The sort of thing that helps them place themselves in charge of their experience. Let them know they have choices and how those choices can potentially affect their computing future.
Then expand by area.
The computer itself. What does save really mean? Does it mean "keep this for later?" or does it mean to "toss what I had in exchange for what I have now?" Continue with that sort of general sort of knowledge that will help them to make sense of what they are doing no matter what the application.
The Internet. Putting new people on the Internet without some basic cultural guidence is like walking around in the worst part of town with no clue. Use scenarios to illustrate how things like e-mail, IM, web forums and such work. Let them know what others expect. Let them learn by interactive example. Make sure they can e-mail you and others in the class. Be sure they have a forum to use both in class and away from it. Privacy on the Internet. (Read: what privacy?) USENET in the form of google groups would be nice as would be the rules.
One thing about e-mail in particular to illustrate and allow them to work with is the fact that things can easily come across far differently than intended. Tell them why and help them with creative and funny examples they can remember. Same goes with forums. Tell them what a troll is...
Their Data vs other peoples data. What are backups and how best to perform them. What needs to be archived for later and why?
Software and data. Let them know the difference between Open Standards and Closed ones.
Getting help. If you have framed the discussion right and managed their expectations, they should be able to make use of USENET, web-forums (Your own in particular with volunteer help from the smarter ones helping along), friends, and books.
Lay out the rules for technical support. Let them know exactly what they can expect for a few common situations. They should know enough to decide what is worth the money and what is not.
All of these suggestions are directed toward empowering these people to help themselves as much as possible.
Computing today is really easy if one has the right expectations. It all can be done one simple question at a time. Everyone getting started should somehow know that.
A lot of things would be a lot better if they did.
if you are just reading and bitch'n, you are part of the problem.
It only takes a few minutes to express your views, or cut 'n paste someone else's you agree with. Noise works wonders to help bring an issue before a legislator. On average, very few people actually write any kind of response. Those responses they do get carry some weight.
This means we have a chance to punch well above our weight if we actually do *something*
So, do something. Do it each week. These stories are here on/. for a reason. Why waste the effort?
Join the EFF. If you *really* can't part with the $25 or so to do that, at least use their EFFector mailing list. They provide very timely call to action letters that make providing your input easy.
Put your legislators address in your address book. When you have a thought, just send it to them. Does not have to be fancy, it just needs to be honest and somewhat timely.
I recently worked to help push the Oregon Open Source bill through the house. (HB2892) We failed because a well known AeA lobbyist (Jim Craven --I think.) had the ear of the house speaker. We did make this decision hard for Karen Minnis though. She heard a *lot* about Open Source. Maybe next session she will hear more.
This experience showed me that change requires ongoing dialog with our representitives. It is the only way to counter the lobbyists. Lobbyists offer deals and dollars. The only check on these is public opinion. --Votes.
I met and spoke with many legislators. They are people just like us, who are interested in the issues. Most of them want to know what you think and are willing to take the time to learn it.
Approach them as you would any other person you know. --Just start a dialog. Sure you will get form letters, but after a few of those, you will get actual reply mail. This is valuable.
Tell them you vote. Tell them your stand on the issue. Let them know about interesting news items. A good example for those living in Oregon would be the current Wyden bill.
--This is a great bill. Its risky for him. He needs to hear thanks and support. I wrote him today expressing exactly that while asking if there is anything I can do at the same time.
Do something if you want to see things change.
Vote --- Write your legislature --- Talk to your friends.
This would be a good poll to run. (I will submit it.)
I am not sure how I stand on electronic voting. Open / Closed source both have good arguments. I do know that I want an audit trail though. Paper ballots can be archived for later study. Will the records of these things be the same? Will interested people be able to gain access without the software? If they are granted the software, will it run 15 years from now?
We need to have some durable record of what people did. If this is not part of things now, we are doing the wrong thing.
I know thats a bit extreme, but I am having a hard time deciding what to believe from this group.
They change their stance an awful lot. If I had just paid them for one of their expensive reports only to read the new story a week later, I would be pissed.
Bummer. You could also get a Matrox. They work well too...
Re:The design of X is multi-user
on
Qt On DirectFB
·
· Score: 1
Interesting comparison. I did not know that was how things worked in OS X.
I agree 100 percent with you on the framebuffer folks. They just don't understand what they are getting in the deal.
Implementation is much less of an issue now compared to a few years ago. The current XFree is a pretty damn good X server provided you are running hardware that is well supported. Funny, I have an old Matrox G400 card. It works better under XFree than it ever did under win32... Go figure.
Anyone wanting to really understand how much a good X implementation can affect the users perception of performance should take a hard look at an SGI machine.
The X server is getting dated in that it does not have the latest and greatest extensions, but the performance is outstanding given the graphics hardware. Even older 40 Mhz machines are nice and snappy.
The design of X is multi-user
on
Qt On DirectFB
·
· Score: 3, Informative
just like the UNIX underneath.
Personally, I consider the true multi-user nature of UNIX systems to be their greatest strength.
Getting rid of X means giving that up. It also means making our OS just like the other multi-tasking, but not mulit-user ones out there.
It is just not worth it.
I use X every day. For gaming, remote support, and various other things. The current XFree works better than any other X server I have used.
Look at OS X. It has a frame buffer. It also can have a rootless X server. All the apps for the machine target the frame buffer. None of them work well over the network.
Sure you have VNC, but that just moves the ONE desktop around.
In an X environment, you get to move anything anywhere you want to. This is where the strength of UNIX is.
Multi-user computing is valuable. It makes older hardware continue to be useful. It also allows for different computing models and resource usage.
The other Operating systems do not do this. Linux / UNIX does and it is our killer feature.
What happens when a win32 server has trouble? You get a few admins looking at the machine while one operates it. With UNIX, you get a few admins all poking at the machine at the same time working together to work through the problem!
X is not slow. DRI has fixed the 3D part of things. 2D has always been fast. The transparent windows are nice, but do we really need them more than we need to continue to build on the software base we have now?
Look at Open Office. It runs nicely over X. One machine can serve many others. Install one copy of the software, setup the environment for the end-users once and you are done! No local installs, no hassle. Upgrade once and everybody is done.
If we do a frame buffer, it needs to be truely multi-user or it is not work doing. VNC is not the same as remote application display.
For those who say most people do not use the features of X, I say you are right. Why? It's because they don't know better, not because the tech sucks.
I have several machines that all perform their various functions. Some are Linux, some are IRIX and one other one is win2k. On my Linux desktop, the IRIX and Linux are perfectly intergrated. All the machines act as one. The odd man out is win2k. I have to bring up a silly VNC window for it.
Things are getting faster in a hurry folks. X is there already. The toolkits and window managers and desktop stuff is progressing nicely.
Choice is a big part of what OSS is all about. X provides more choice and power than any other display system ever has. That is why it is still around. That is also why it should stay.
Anyone who really wants to replace X does not understand just what it does. They just want the simple system their old OS had without realizing it is part of the problem.
has a character that looks like Rosie O Donnel with a sword.
(AHHHHrrgh!)
Man, they just don't make art like that anymore. Does anyone have Starpath art online anywhere? Revenge of the MindMaster and Communist Mutants from Outer Space featured some pretty strange (but cool to me) cover art.
I do not believe they were bluffing. They had discounts presented to them. They could have taken them. This bluffing position you take is just spin --nothing more.
The taxpayers did not get to choose --maybe they should have. I live in Oregon and am a tax payer. Our legislature killed an OSS bill that would have made these sort of choices easier. Our legislature chose to keep feeding the beast in Redmond at the expense of jobs and dollars best kept here.
Munich at least chose a solution that stands to keep more of the dollars closer than they would be with a win32 solution. They also chose a solution that gives them a high degree of freedom from forced upgrades in the future.
The taxpayers will appreciate this over time.
Munich could have very easily done their people worse. The state of Oregon did...
They can take those licenses running on VM's and continue to use them for as long as they want to regardless of hardware issues.
They can limit the interactive nature of those images as well. Strip them until they only perform the tasks required. No browser, etc...
Admin can be easy if they want. They can deploy the images on a central server or on each machine.
I think the admins will be amazed. Once things are working the way they can, the setup will have clear advantages. If a user hoses things up, copy standard image, restart VM, done! --This is easy now and will remain so even as the rest of the environment changes.
Because they removed the win32 apps and software from the hardware environment, they can and will be able to run what they have now for as long as they want.
It has a *lot* to do with OSS. Having the OSS platform native on the desktop provides a number of benefits.
1. Good quality X server
2. Stability
3. Use of standard packages.
4. Incremental user familiarity with the OSS environment.
5. control of upgrade path.
6. More choice than that provided under a win32 environment.
These guys have thought things through past the short term. They understand the value an OSS environment will bring them. Sure, they are going to buy some licenses right now, but they will be able to control how and where and when they are used to a greater degree with this solution.
I also seriously question your supposition regarding win32 + OSS ease of use. My OSS experience so far has been most favorable when running a Linux desktop. Anything else (BSD, win32+cygwin, and other UNIX) just is not as elegant.
Nowhere did I say "OSS ROX NUBZ".
Why don't you get an account and back your statement up. My journal has a new thread waiting for you...
Slashdot Mirror
write a short letter, e-mail or place a short phone call.
/. readers.
I had some involvement with this while it was in the house general committee. The combination of AeA lobby and the Minnis couple are what is holding this bill back.
I got a chance to speak with some legislators on a one for one basis. Most of them do consider well written / spoken input and are happy to have it.
When you do write this letter or place a phone call, be sure and ask for a response to a question. Not only is your input catagorized and considered, it will take time. They will give you some sort of answer; otherwise, they are on the defensive for later conversations.
Interestingly enough, if you mail Minnis, you get a short form indicating in advance exactly why you will not get a direct response. (Really shows where the attention is here doesn't it?) Anyway, phone calls and fax work best for her because both of those take actual time and resources from her staff. Your legislator may vary...
Example questions:
What is your position on SB 589, the Oregon Open Source bill?
Given the number of unemployed IT professionals and the potential for savings HB 589 holds, why not work to keep Oregons dollars here where they can do some good for those struggling to find work in tough times?
Can I count on your support in committee regarding SB 589?
If, they express support, ask them how you can best help them move the bill forward. --Then do it. (Won't be bad, just a couple phone calls, friendly discussion or a letter.)
If against, ask them "why?". Take those answers and do some research and get back to them.
Finally: (The guilt approach)
Cooper Stevenson along with Rep. Phil Barnhart's staff have worked very hard on this bill against a powerful lobby. Many people across Oregon, myself included, devoted time and energy to the task of education for our legislators the first time around.
After about a month of hard lobbying, phone calls, letters and appointments, I personally believed Minnis had stopped the bill. We have a second chance people! Passing a bill like this is worth it! Spend a little time, feel good today --why not?
This is damn good news coming at a time when the legislature is looking for money anywhere it can. Perhaps ongoing pressure from the people of Oregon can make a difference. There must be at least 10,000 Oregon
This is a lot of noise people. If you have never done this before, it's easy, please start now and get two other people to do the same.
This group deserves an hour or two of your time.
Cooper, Sally, others... --good job!
(Off writing and calling as you read this...)
Good points.
I guess what is missing is K-12 basic computer science. We are showing kids how to get other things done with the computer, but are not showing them anything about the nature of the computer itself.
Many of the educators today are not really capable of this and they should be.
In that, I agree with you.
However, working with a couple different platforms just from a user perspective is a good thing and can be done today. The kids will get the idea of computing by inference, not the details mind you, but the basic idea of differences. It will affect their learning process in a good way.
Instead of asking where is the start bar, for example, they might just ask how to navigate to the applications. By inference they will understand at some level that applications are different than computing systems...
Every last one of them should be shown the command line. Again, by inference, they will learn about parts of the computer that will help them in later more specialized learning.
At the college level, they better damn well be able to show these things, otherwise why pay? (seriously)
As a kid in school, the trend was to "just pass the test". I never got answers to many hard questions, unless I went digging for the information myself.
I remember clearly the day I learned to think for myself:
Third grade, about the middle of the year. At home, I had been getting interested in magnets and electronics. Took apart some of electronic toys wondered about all the little bits inside. I asked about these things, but did not get many answers. (Not the teachers fault, they really did not know either!)
One day during a trip to the library, I wandered into the "big kids" section. Just was not in the mood for another "Space Cat" story. Saw lots of good books and was interested. During this time, I happened to stumble upon a book titled "The Boys First Book of Electronics". "Man, this was the book for me", I thought on the way to checkout.
I was told, I was too young for that book. Could not possibly read it, so I can't have it. I was told I needed to check out one of the same sort of books the other kids were. They fsking knew I was interested in these things because I got into trouble many times for having them in class. (Batteries, motors and such.)
We were all shown the dictionary and how to use it. New words were not a problem, you just looked them up. Keep doing that and the text will become clear. Isn't that what we are supposed to be doing? I explained some of this, thought about the rest and was in general confused and very angry. I remember thinking these people really don't give a shit as long as you get what they need you to get done.
Fuck that. I stole that book and read it cover to cover. I still have it. Sometimes I see it and remember why I took it. --It still pisses me off.
I spent many hours reading and re-reading that book, but it was worth it. The following year, I fixed several fans, and other simple electronics I found broken around the house. Things went pretty well from there. Had a HAM license, learned to program computers, and even helped develop classroom plans and deliver instruction to my peers in computer classes using LOGO and Pascal.
My High School experience was good however. They let me do all sorts of things I found important provided I tow the line on responsibility, citizenship and ethics. Things are not all bad, just spotty.
Our computer teacher found us programming and messing with the machines instead of using the programmed instruction disks. (He let us see the manuals.) Instead of slapping us down, he told us to let him know what we were trying to do, then made us get it done if we could. Our grade was an "A" provided we were learning something. Given the newness of computers at the time, this was an interesting approach.
Did us a lot of good too. Learned to program in assembly (6502 Apple II). Before I left school, I knew that machine inside and out.
I feel the damage happens when people are young. Strained budgets, mandated instruction, and the schools inability to deal with problem kids due to potential lawsuits all combine to produce an environment of such boring conformity, most kids die inside before they reach age 10... I see signs of it in mine. My math experiences are similar to yours. (Why do they show that goofy stuff when the tried and true methods will always work just fine?)
I was one of those problem kids. Just stubborn enough to make my own way. All the trouble was worth it for me. Funny, all the "problems" went away when the environment changed enough to allow creative learning to happen.
I always wanted to be a teacher because I want to help young people learn without the hassle I got.
What stops me?
The sorry state of our schools today. (Not the teachers --most of them are good people trying to do their best.) Better to get kids involved after school when they have a chance to get some real learning done.
I am not sure you could pay me enough to deal with that mess. It is highly likely that same mess is why your classes are the way they are.
Go take a hard look at your school budget sometime, if they even will let you see it. When you are finished with that, ask yourself why the ratio of administrators to students is as high as it is.
Take a hard look at what they all do and you will begin to wonder why so many of them are required.
In my district, the teachers ask for bulk paper as part of the school supply list, yet the administration exists in high numbers and in offices that are as good or better than found in many corporations.
In Oregon, we have a big bit of waste called CIM / CAM. This is the state mandated standardized testing program. Not only do they spend a lot of money on custom out of state testing companies to develop their tests, they place such a high emphasis on the scores that teachers are sharply limited in what they teach.
They offer financial incentives to businesses and colleges in an attempt to buy recognition of a program that is a solution to a problem that does not exist.
This is all under the heading school reform.
Given the existance of already working standardized testing programs, this whole mess is foolish and costly.
This same district is trying to use Linux to cut computing costs, but only for the money, not because the kids might need the diverse education later in life. Home of the LTSP project which is a good thing.
Elsewhere in this same administration, (ESD) growth is out of control. Full of highly paid coordinators, directors, public relations, and other fluffy positions that consume money that could be spent directly in the classroom.
The running joke here is that if you cannot work in the schools, you go to work in the ESD.
Kids should know what computing is, what a word processor is, filesystems, programs, operating systems, interfaces, what makes your average computer, how to recognize one and perhaps its type, etc...
If they see only one computer, then they make many assumptions that will hurt them later on.
These things only become evident when more than one platform is used.
That platform could be a PC running more than one OS, so this does not exactly support Apple however.
Every kid should be equipped to understand on a basic level what computing means, not just what a particular computer happens to do. We have had these machines in our culture long enough for these bits of information to become part of the body of common knowledge. If these things do not happen during K-12 then something very clearly is wrong with the teaching.
Unless, we all want to accept the fact that Redmond Washington is the authority on computing...
I for one don't. I also don't want my kids to either.
Life of author + x years could end up being a very long time indeed...
Who knows with the way IP law is heading, the right portfolio just might be worth the investment in longevity...
Being able to work with hardware in a nice simple fun environment is a great learning tool.
People want to work on games. The end result of this need combined with the learned skills could very easily be put to other uses.
This is a great tool. I plan on getting one.
large portion of the spectrum unless there is a damn good tradeoff for the public at large.
How about very low cost internet access funded by a small tax on your utility bill? You choose your ISP, they move the data.
The problem I have with this is simple.
Power companies want to make more money and they intend to keep it. This is theft from everyone else with established uses on the HF bands. --Yes this includes HAM radio.
HAM radio is responsible for a lot of good in this country and worldwide. To just brush them off is an insult at best and outright theft at worst.
We should support HAMs the same way we do others who are using technology in creative ways. What if a law were passed that prevented anyone from moving their own e-mail? Or that limited their ability to move large portions of data?
Everyone here would be *pissed*. Raising the noise floor this high on the HF bands is the same sort of thing.
I am in the process of (re) earning my license again after a 15 year lapse. HF is one of the reasons I want to start again. This is lame. I plan to write my reps and congress critters. You all should do the same if you value anything. Afterall your particular technology niche just might be next...
One more thought:
If this goes through without some serious compensation to both the general public and the HF community in general, it is nothing more than an outright money grab that we all should be ashamed of. --nothing more.
This posted to the Newsforge board, but mangled. Repeated here:
;)
We are still firmly in the early adopter stage with Linux on the Desktop. That's a hard thing for me personally because I use Linux all the time. The price of a good distribution is good value. We all know choice is good, trust is good, price is good, performance is good, Linux is good.
I have had some good advocacy success with Open Source applications. People would listen, but lose interest quickly when starting from Linux. Buring a CD full of apps does wonders though. They know how much software costs them and free, legal alternatives have value they can understand.
(I don't sell consumer hardware. My success was getting people I know and work with to try Open Source software.)
I think you are on the right track. Here are a few ideas I thought of that might help you get something out of Open Source while building interest at the same time.
Improve the software bundle and charge them a bit for it. You should get something for your efforts and the customer should get a chance to see value.
One of the problems with free is that free is simply free. It's hard to show the value when they don't see it as part of the transaction. On their receipt, include that bundle as a line item and list all the stuff they are getting.
Positioned right, its an easy sell that adds a small bit to your margin while advocating OSS at the same time. Its even a good sell because you are providing a nice service and some minor, but important education/advocacy at the same time. Both will do them some good and are worth the small price.
You might put together a small printed manual that contains a brief bit of information on each package, where it came from and where the best instructions are located on the system. Setting their default browser and home page to these instructions and introduction might not be a bad idea either.
In that manual, let them know they can support Open Source software efforts, thus getting more of the same sort of value in the future, by purchasing selected hardware items. Get a nice warm fuzzy sending a check to some developers somewhere
This is a bit more work, but building a custom Knoppix CD could add a bit more value as well. Set it up so that it is a emergency tool. Say their machine gets hosed up. They can boot with that CD and use their software tools and still get information from their disk. (Assuming it works)
If they have a problem with the dollars, offer to take the value back toward something else. Do this with a nice printed promotional item. That way some of them will take you up on it, but not all of them.
Finally, if they just want the cheapest machine they can get, give them the chance to just purchase the bundle stand alone. The purchase price can be less than the bundled price and can be used discount toward that copy of Microsoft Office they want. Maybe one of their friends can use the software they got free with Office, or it can be used on the kids machine.
A percentage of these customers are going to discuss their use of these tools with you in the future. Maybe Linux might not be so hard to understand for them after they get past the Free/Open Source issues via use of fine applications.
just not going to do us any good.
If somebody wants to die to cause some damage to the US, then they have a high likelyhood of doing it.
The ratio of terrorists compared to good people is too low to allow any reasonable accuracy no matter what the predictive system.
What's worse is the engineering of possible weapons will make the already low rates worse. They can't check for what was just invented can they?
The land of the free was formed with some pretty strong responses to threats.
Personally, I would rather see more of that, than attacks on our own people.
I realize the world is changing and that information systems can be helpful, but we must balance our hard won freedoms and rights at the same time. If we lock things down to the point where potential terrorists cannot move freely, given their low numbers doesn't that mean none of us can have our freedom either? If this cannot be the case, then they will have won no matter how many are killed or caught.
Most of what I value about America is being eroded away under the mask of security. Security for whom? I feel a heck of a lot more insecure now than I did 10 years ago. It's not the terror doing it either.
How many of you feel the same?
I agree with this. I am not sure the sound is better though, just different.
Comparing vinyl to CDs purchased over the years is kind of interesting. The combination of mechanical parts needed to reproduce music via vinyl *does* distort the audio, but it's a good thing for a lot of music.
It's not about purity or perfection or accuracy. It is about the sound you hear and how it strikes you.
I have always wanted to get a simulated vinyl processor plug-in to test this. The CD *should* be able to output a signal that sounds like it came from vinyl.
It would be neat to master a piece both ways and then test it on people.
Maybe we like the difference vinyl brings to the table --or not. That is something I would like to know.
Older people have heard music both ways. Perhaps they like the sound because that is the sound they learned to crave when they were younger. Young people today are doing the same thing.
Could it come full circle where we work hard in the digital realm to reproduce the analog faults and incorporate them into the art as we did before we had digital? If we do, it won't be due to the fact that it is a better process.
You might consider getting a new piece of vinyl, and recording it to CD. Play back both, do the speakers still fail, or not?
There are many suggestions here for the basics (win 101, excel, photography, internet)
How about a ground rules class?
Brief overview of computing today. Platforms, types of computers, and the very general reasons people use them. Perhaps a bit about where we came from, where we are today, and where we could be going.
Then a bit of positioning for them. The sort of thing that helps them place themselves in charge of their experience. Let them know they have choices and how those choices can potentially affect their computing future.
Then expand by area.
The computer itself. What does save really mean? Does it mean "keep this for later?" or does it mean to "toss what I had in exchange for what I have now?" Continue with that sort of general sort of knowledge that will help them to make sense of what they are doing no matter what the application.
The Internet. Putting new people on the Internet without some basic cultural guidence is like walking around in the worst part of town with no clue. Use scenarios to illustrate how things like e-mail, IM, web forums and such work. Let them know what others expect. Let them learn by interactive example. Make sure they can e-mail you and others in the class. Be sure they have a forum to use both in class and away from it. Privacy on the Internet. (Read: what privacy?) USENET in the form of google groups would be nice as would be the rules.
One thing about e-mail in particular to illustrate and allow them to work with is the fact that things can easily come across far differently than intended. Tell them why and help them with creative and funny examples they can remember. Same goes with forums. Tell them what a troll is...
Their Data vs other peoples data. What are backups and how best to perform them. What needs to be archived for later and why?
Software and data. Let them know the difference between Open Standards and Closed ones.
Getting help. If you have framed the discussion right and managed their expectations, they should be able to make use of USENET, web-forums (Your own in particular with volunteer help from the smarter ones helping along), friends, and books.
Lay out the rules for technical support. Let them know exactly what they can expect for a few common situations. They should know enough to decide what is worth the money and what is not.
All of these suggestions are directed toward empowering these people to help themselves as much as possible.
Computing today is really easy if one has the right expectations. It all can be done one simple question at a time. Everyone getting started should somehow know that.
A lot of things would be a lot better if they did.
Good luck with your project.
if you are just reading and bitch'n, you are part of the problem.
/. for a reason. Why waste the effort?
It only takes a few minutes to express your views, or cut 'n paste someone else's you agree with. Noise works wonders to help bring an issue before a legislator. On average, very few people actually write any kind of response. Those responses they do get carry some weight.
This means we have a chance to punch well above our weight if we actually do *something*
So, do something. Do it each week. These stories are here on
Join the EFF. If you *really* can't part with the $25 or so to do that, at least use their EFFector mailing list. They provide very timely call to action letters that make providing your input easy.
Put your legislators address in your address book. When you have a thought, just send it to them. Does not have to be fancy, it just needs to be honest and somewhat timely.
I recently worked to help push the Oregon Open Source bill through the house. (HB2892) We failed because a well known AeA lobbyist (Jim Craven --I think.) had the ear of the house speaker. We did make this decision hard for Karen Minnis though. She heard a *lot* about Open Source. Maybe next session she will hear more.
This experience showed me that change requires ongoing dialog with our representitives. It is the only way to counter the lobbyists. Lobbyists offer deals and dollars. The only check on these is public opinion. --Votes.
I met and spoke with many legislators. They are people just like us, who are interested in the issues. Most of them want to know what you think and are willing to take the time to learn it.
Approach them as you would any other person you know. --Just start a dialog. Sure you will get form letters, but after a few of those, you will get actual reply mail. This is valuable.
Tell them you vote. Tell them your stand on the issue. Let them know about interesting news items. A good example for those living in Oregon would be the current Wyden bill.
--This is a great bill. Its risky for him. He needs to hear thanks and support. I wrote him today expressing exactly that while asking if there is anything I can do at the same time.
Do something if you want to see things change.
Vote --- Write your legislature --- Talk to your friends.
--It matters.
slashdot. Are they voters?
This would be a good poll to run. (I will submit it.)
I am not sure how I stand on electronic voting. Open / Closed source both have good arguments. I do know that I want an audit trail though. Paper ballots can be archived for later study. Will the records of these things be the same? Will interested people be able to gain access without the software? If they are granted the software, will it run 15 years from now?
We need to have some durable record of what people did. If this is not part of things now, we are doing the wrong thing.
I know thats a bit extreme, but I am having a hard time deciding what to believe from this group.
They change their stance an awful lot. If I had just paid them for one of their expensive reports only to read the new story a week later, I would be pissed.
'nuff said.
Bummer. You could also get a Matrox. They work well too...
Interesting comparison. I did not know that was how things worked in OS X.
I agree 100 percent with you on the framebuffer folks. They just don't understand what they are getting in the deal.
Implementation is much less of an issue now compared to a few years ago. The current XFree is a pretty damn good X server provided you are running hardware that is well supported. Funny, I have an old Matrox G400 card. It works better under XFree than it ever did under win32... Go figure.
Anyone wanting to really understand how much a good X implementation can affect the users perception of performance should take a hard look at an SGI machine.
The X server is getting dated in that it does not have the latest and greatest extensions, but the performance is outstanding given the graphics hardware. Even older 40 Mhz machines are nice and snappy.
just like the UNIX underneath.
Personally, I consider the true multi-user nature of UNIX systems to be their greatest strength.
Getting rid of X means giving that up. It also means making our OS just like the other multi-tasking, but not mulit-user ones out there.
It is just not worth it.
I use X every day. For gaming, remote support, and various other things. The current XFree works better than any other X server I have used.
Look at OS X. It has a frame buffer. It also can have a rootless X server. All the apps for the machine target the frame buffer. None of them work well over the network.
Sure you have VNC, but that just moves the ONE desktop around.
In an X environment, you get to move anything anywhere you want to. This is where the strength of UNIX is.
Multi-user computing is valuable. It makes older hardware continue to be useful. It also allows for different computing models and resource usage.
The other Operating systems do not do this. Linux / UNIX does and it is our killer feature.
What happens when a win32 server has trouble? You get a few admins looking at the machine while one operates it. With UNIX, you get a few admins all poking at the machine at the same time working together to work through the problem!
X is not slow. DRI has fixed the 3D part of things. 2D has always been fast. The transparent windows are nice, but do we really need them more than we need to continue to build on the software base we have now?
Look at Open Office. It runs nicely over X. One machine can serve many others. Install one copy of the software, setup the environment for the end-users once and you are done! No local installs, no hassle. Upgrade once and everybody is done.
If we do a frame buffer, it needs to be truely multi-user or it is not work doing. VNC is not the same as remote application display.
For those who say most people do not use the features of X, I say you are right. Why? It's because they don't know better, not because the tech sucks.
I have several machines that all perform their various functions. Some are Linux, some are IRIX and one other one is win2k. On my Linux desktop, the IRIX and Linux are perfectly intergrated. All the machines act as one. The odd man out is win2k. I have to bring up a silly VNC window for it.
Things are getting faster in a hurry folks. X is there already. The toolkits and window managers and desktop stuff is progressing nicely.
Choice is a big part of what OSS is all about. X provides more choice and power than any other display system ever has. That is why it is still around. That is also why it should stay.
Anyone who really wants to replace X does not understand just what it does. They just want the simple system their old OS had without realizing it is part of the problem.
What don't you like?
The 4.x series works very well for me.
has a character that looks like Rosie O Donnel with a sword.
(AHHHHrrgh!)
Man, they just don't make art like that anymore. Does anyone have Starpath art online anywhere? Revenge of the MindMaster and Communist Mutants from Outer Space featured some pretty strange (but cool to me) cover art.
AYACASOJPTCOOYA -- That's funny!
I am not pulling this crap out of my arse. And I am not citing a source either... Don't plan to on this thread because its late.
Curious, which part of that post prompted your crazy acronym?
Our Federal Government just awarded Microsoft a nice fat homeland security contract recently.
These guys are a sloppy convicted monopolist with a poor security track record in general.
I am a tax payer and did not get a choice in that either...
I believe the investment is worth it.
I do not believe they were bluffing. They had discounts presented to them. They could have taken them. This bluffing position you take is just spin --nothing more.
The taxpayers did not get to choose --maybe they should have. I live in Oregon and am a tax payer. Our legislature killed an OSS bill that would have made these sort of choices easier. Our legislature chose to keep feeding the beast in Redmond at the expense of jobs and dollars best kept here.
Munich at least chose a solution that stands to keep more of the dollars closer than they would be with a win32 solution. They also chose a solution that gives them a high degree of freedom from forced upgrades in the future.
The taxpayers will appreciate this over time.
Munich could have very easily done their people worse. The state of Oregon did...
They can take those licenses running on VM's and continue to use them for as long as they want to regardless of hardware issues.
They can limit the interactive nature of those images as well. Strip them until they only perform the tasks required. No browser, etc...
Admin can be easy if they want. They can deploy the images on a central server or on each machine.
I think the admins will be amazed. Once things are working the way they can, the setup will have clear advantages. If a user hoses things up, copy standard image, restart VM, done! --This is easy now and will remain so even as the rest of the environment changes.
Because they removed the win32 apps and software from the hardware environment, they can and will be able to run what they have now for as long as they want.
It has a *lot* to do with OSS. Having the OSS platform native on the desktop provides a number of benefits.
1. Good quality X server
2. Stability
3. Use of standard packages.
4. Incremental user familiarity with the OSS environment.
5. control of upgrade path.
6. More choice than that provided under a win32 environment.
These guys have thought things through past the short term. They understand the value an OSS environment will bring them. Sure, they are going to buy some licenses right now, but they will be able to control how and where and when they are used to a greater degree with this solution.
I also seriously question your supposition regarding win32 + OSS ease of use. My OSS experience so far has been most favorable when running a Linux desktop. Anything else (BSD, win32+cygwin, and other UNIX) just is not as elegant.
Nowhere did I say "OSS ROX NUBZ".
Why don't you get an account and back your statement up. My journal has a new thread waiting for you...
AC Indeed.