Separation of church and state simply means that the state cannot promote/demote any belief over another. It does not mean you can't have religious people in power.
Anybody know of the Excel in OfficeXP network file save bug fix? When saving an excel file to a network drive, you occasionally (an unpredicably) get the unable to save temp file error. It also manifests itself as a file is in use error.
I've turned off oplocks on my SMB servers and it occurs less often but still rears its head on occasion. Anti-virus turned off, client oplocks turned off, etc... still same problem.
Network: Virtually unlimited capacity, variable capacity, variable price. I like the idea of everyone having a little network share that they can always access. It's not too hard to implement, even across platforms. Of course, what do you do when the network is down or you want to take it home to a computer that isn't wired? This makes the option largely moot.. Physical media are a guaranteed thing.
This, in my experience, works well. I run a k-12 school district. Each lab has a server with two hard drives. The students MUST save to the network drive (we have desktop security turned on). Every night the students' data gets copied to the second hard drive as a backup.
This allows quick recovery of any lost data (including user error) by the lab teacher who can simply go to the second hard drive and copy it back to the student's folder.
Its pretty much idiot-proof and saves me MUCHO time trying to recover students' work.
When a student wants to take their work home, they simply email it to themselves (via Hotmail, etc.) or put it on a floppy. They can also bring it back into school thru their Web-based email.
Since our labs have a server in each lab, the network being down is moot unless we lose the lab's hub/switch... a VERY rare occurance.
Ahh, but don't you need a telephone to call MS? Neither method is standalone. MS usually costs $$$ to call them, so the LinuxCare comparison is mute.
Linux answers are 10-15 minutes away in the majority of the cases via the Web. You can wait that long just to access the MS home page! (slight exaggeration;)
My "comparison" as it was called was merely my view of the two OSes. Use the right tool for the job, of course. Linux takes time to learn but its worth it. Win2K is easier out of the box but easy ain't always better.
Linux is a stable multiuser operating system that is flexible enough to accomplish nearly any task. Tech support is as close as any browser and is as fast as you can click your mouse.
Win2K is a behemoth that requires you to buy new hardware, run configurations that only MS intended, and will obviously cause you to buy great quantities of aspirin. Tech support..., um, supposedly you get some, um..., but you have to stay on the phone most of the day.
I've found that a lot of kids think that programming is cool until they find out how much there is to learn and that it requires discipline.
What I've found that really works well is to get them involved in a real world project like networking (many of my students have gone on to make $$$ doing this for small local businesses - nothing like empowerment, eh?), building a school intranet (will be working on this one this year), and computer repair (had a bunch of kids got their A+ certification as part of the class).
What this does is a) helps the kids feel that their efforts aren't wasted, b) helps the school because you now have a trained army of student tech assistants, and c) the school looks damn good because you're helping kids learn skill that help them make a living and possibly a career.
It works, its easy to do, and the kids don't get bored. Oh yeah, and the ones that do well get to learn Linux next year (the perverbial carrot).
My public school network uses both NT4 and Linux. I use NT in locations were my less technically inclined lab managers need to do administration. Linux is installed everywhere else.
I have the NT servers reboot every night so that all those "odd problem" memory leaks are wiped out. I am lucky enough to have dormant servers at night to do this. IT HELPS TREMENDOUSLY! This isn't to say that my NT4 servers are now extremely stable during the day but it does reduce the problems I used to have.
My "problem" with the Linux servers I have is that I never have to touch them and I lose my Linux skills from lack of practice! While this is not a legitimate complaint, I still nonetheless need to play (and screw-up;) on a non-production test machine to keep my Linux skills honed. Unfortunately, my NT skills are well practiced.
At the moment, I can't purge the NT machines from my network, but I am working toward that goal. Since we are a school system, the money saved by using Linux over NT saves us mucho money. Why should I buy client licenses if I can spend a small amount of time learning Linux and Samba?
I'm not a programmer so the Open Source part of Linux isn't very important to me. Its nice, yeah, but not high on my "why should I buy it" list. As a one person IT department, RELIABILITY is important. The cost of learning Linux is small in comparison with the cost of the hours of keeping NT servers running. I've got hundreds of other issues to content with during the course of my job - keeping enterprise and departmental servers up and running under normal use shouldn't be one of them.
Just a thought here but has anyone thought of getting a large number (>100) of mirrors organized around the world to combat this sort of absurdity?
Specifically, if you had a couple of hundred sites that could, on a moments notice, post the DVD hack (or any other cause), imagine what that would do to the enemy? They'd never be able to keep up! In fact as one site was "ordered" off and then complied, two more could pop up to replace it. Think of the effect! (Can you say exponential growth?)
Call 'em Freedom Mirrors that fight against the stupidity of the corporate legal departments. The power of the Internet could turn the tide against this sort of ridiculous behavior and the little guy could finally win.
Put together a small committee that decides what to fight against (a Slashdot poll?;) and let it rip! If we don't start fighting this sort of behavior NOW it'll be a part of our every day life sooner than you think.
Is there any chance that Corel Linux and Wordperfect be offered to schools for free? RedHat is doing that in the UK and it would be nice to see an easy-to-install, useful Linux setup being offered to educational institutions. One package that the non-tech types that are usually in charge of school technology can install without a headache. Remember, the kids that will be using your free Linux will someday be the ones making the decisions in the corporate world (and that's not really that far off from now). That's how Apple Computer got its initial market share. It just forgot to make the products useful for business, too. Besides, the PR of helping schools out would be well worth its weight. And its just a decent thing to do, too! WIN-WIN and everyone is happy.
Slashdot Mirror
Small point here...
Separation of church and state simply means that the state cannot promote/demote any belief over another. It does not mean you can't have religious people in power.
Anybody know of the Excel in OfficeXP network file save bug fix? When saving an excel file to a network drive, you occasionally (an unpredicably) get the unable to save temp file error. It also manifests itself as a file is in use error.
I've turned off oplocks on my SMB servers and it occurs less often but still rears its head on occasion. Anti-virus turned off, client oplocks turned off, etc... still same problem.
Clues????
Linux answers are 10-15 minutes away in the majority of the cases via the Web. You can wait that long just to access the MS home page! (slight exaggeration ;)
My "comparison" as it was called was merely my view of the two OSes. Use the right tool for the job, of course. Linux takes time to learn but its worth it. Win2K is easier out of the box but easy ain't always better.
I've found that a lot of kids think that programming is cool until they find out how much there is to learn and that it requires discipline.
What I've found that really works well is to get them involved in a real world project like networking (many of my students have gone on to make $$$ doing this for small local businesses - nothing like empowerment, eh?), building a school intranet (will be working on this one this year), and computer repair (had a bunch of kids got their A+ certification as part of the class).
What this does is a) helps the kids feel that their efforts aren't wasted, b) helps the school because you now have a trained army of student tech assistants, and c) the school looks damn good because you're helping kids learn skill that help them make a living and possibly a career.
It works, its easy to do, and the kids don't get bored. Oh yeah, and the ones that do well get to learn Linux next year (the perverbial carrot).
- fini -
The quote says it all...
Gun manufacturers don't make bad products, bad parents do.
Is there any chance that Corel Linux and Wordperfect be offered to schools for free? RedHat is doing that in the UK and it would be nice to see an easy-to-install, useful Linux setup being offered to educational institutions. One package that the non-tech types that are usually in charge of school technology can install without a headache. Remember, the kids that will be using your free Linux will someday be the ones making the decisions in the corporate world (and that's not really that far off from now). That's how Apple Computer got its initial market share. It just forgot to make the products useful for business, too. Besides, the PR of helping schools out would be well worth its weight. And its just a decent thing to do, too! WIN-WIN and everyone is happy.