Mars will now have a more reliable power grid than the eastern seaboard...thanks to the RUSSIANS, of all people!
Let's hope they don't outsource any of the components to Ohio.
You may be doomed and not know it for a year or 5
on
Solving a Wiring Mess?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There are way, way too many variables at work here for you to even think about doing this yourself.
Here's a situation - quite likely, actually, happens all the time:
You "fix" it. Somehow. By some miracle. You don't even seem to break anything.
Two years from now, the "Super-Duper Electrical Bonding Compound Series A-723A-P" that you used cannot handle the heat surge. There is a fire. There are several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage, or worse, a person dies.
A full investigation ensues. It is found that some idiot used Super-Duper Electrical Bonding Compound Series A-723A-P to join two wires when, of course, any competent licensed electrician knows perfectly well that since there is a Purple Snoklefactor drawing 23.3 amps off of main bus B, the specs call for Compound A-723-A-PqA-7! You idiot!
The investigators realize that only a talented layman who doesn't do it for a living would have made such a simple mistake. Armed with supeanea power, they swoop in, asking anyone and everyone "Have you ever seen anyone in that box?" Your company, is a desperate attempt to avoid being sued for MILLIONS - I am not exaggerating - of dollars, decides to finger you as the person who made unauthorized repairs, in an attempt to shift at least part of the liability on you. It won't suceed, of course, they will still have to pay something......but you will be the one on trial for manslaughter. Or criminal damage. You will plea bargain, successfully. You'll have a minor criminal record, and will only have a minimum of jail time - possibly only community service. If you're lucky, you'll only have to see the family of the dead fire victim once, at sentencing.......all because back in 2003 you decided that your employer would most likely be pissed with a $5000 bill for electrical work.
Is it really worth it? This type of stuff happens all the time. Electricity is simple, at heart - but the complex interactions that go on in the heart of commercial power should only be tampered with by those who know EXACTLY what they are doing. Otherwise, buildings burn, property is lost, and people die.
Free != good. GNUCash is a wonderful program to use, IF you can get it running. Unfortunately, installing it, due to RPM dependancy hell, is a nightmare - I don't know if it still says this, but their website used to say "Unless version 1.6 came with your distribution, it's most likely better to use 1.4 since there's so many dependancies."
I'm willing to pay the $40 or whatever Moneydance costs in return for a program that actually works. GNUcash worked great for me, for awhile, but they keep coming out with new features, features that sound wonderful, but that require me to spend HOURS trying to tweak everything to get the newer version to work until I gave up. And, by the time I give up, I can't get the older version to work anymore. I suppose if I slipped into hacker mode I could get it to work if I played with it long enough, but I just don't have time.
Simply put, I'm "bossing" no one. I have no power to do that. All I am doing is making suggestions that programmers may (or may not) find it wise to heed if they want the satisfaction of knowing that they have created something that many people find useful...and in the process, helped ensure that the platform they used to create it sticks around for a long time.
There's MORE to contributing to the success of Linux than writing code.
Writing code, right now, is not an option for me. So, I support Linux by swapping out Windows servers at my client sites when possible - or suggesting Linux servers to do things Windows servers can't. I wire up non-profits with decent little Linux servers, I don't charge them for the Linux work, and I talk about the advantages they are getting from running Linux. I don't explain tech details - I just show them, graphicly, how using Linux is a Good Thing(tm) that is also Saving Them A Lot Of Money. And these people walk away not knowing much about Linux other than that it is a Good Thing that Saves Them A Lot Of Money, and oh yeah, doesn't seem to bork up as much as those Windows servers.
That's my contribution. That, and occasionally paying money to worthy Linux supporters who do things that I can't. I buy Linux magazines even if I don't have time to read them. I take the time to always write (politely, mind you) manufacturers of software asking very politely when their Linux version is coming out. And, if that's not enough of a contribution for you, then I don't know what to say. Because, someday, if we don't get more people using Linux, Microsoft will mount a combined legal/technical attack on Linux that will make it just as relevant as BeOS, or OS/2, or AmigaDOS, or any number of great operating systems that are powerful and fun to play with and totally impractical to use to do day-to-day business.
EVERYONE is missing the point of the article.
on
Too Much Free Software
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The point is not that "Linux needs to conquer windows"
The point is not that "Linux needs to conquer windows"
The point is not that "Linux needs these things to be better"
The point is, quite simple, "Linux needs a double-digit desktop market penetration to survive"
Did everyone miss the line about Microsoft using legal tricks and lobbyists to make Linux illegal/irrelevant?
Linux is a great system. We all enjoy playing with it. However, we also need to web browse, we need to be able to buy things online, we need to be able to communicate. If Microsoft manages to get more and more companies making websites that don't work with Linux, if Microsoft lobbies and succeeds in getting laws passed that require software to have strange, undocumented backdoors, keys or encryption, then Linux is dead. Period. A few odd people may play with it, it will be a good learning tool, but that's it. The massive development that marks big apps will be impossible.
And, the only way to prevent this from happening is to get MORe non-techies using Linux. The magic 10% of desktops. As the article points out, a company can cheerfully deploy a website that 2% of users can't access. Cutting off 10% is a different matter.
Here's just one example. I own an ISP. I have to partner with Qwest. To test a line for DSL qualification, I need to use a Windows machine or use Konquerer with user-agent spoofing, because they have designed their ISP-interface website to specifically reject any non-Microsoft browser. It's not that the website doesn't work - it fools you by saying, this browser is not recommended, lets you try to proceed, and then kicks you out saying your browser is incompatible. Funny thing, you change the user agent string and the same browser that was "incompatible" 30 seconds ago now works fine. We're going to see more and more of this crap.
If we want to be able to continue to use Linux, or any other OS/software that allows us to modify it, we need non-techies on Linux. Period. We need a non-technical base of people who will protest when poorly-written or MS dependant crap kicks out their Mozilla.
Linux needs: * to drop the elitist "RTFM" attitude. * Better cut and paste, in ALL GUI's / window managers, whatever * Better selection of software - we need some kid's software, better written - we need to be able to do TurboTax or something like that. We need - gasp - GREETING CARD software. Sound goofy? Get a suburban housewife hooked on a greeting card package and she'll stick with it for life. * Better font handling. * BETTER INSTALLATION ROUTINES. RPM sucks. Period. Either it's fundamentally broken, or 75% of the people using it to package apps aren't using it right - I can't tell. Dependancy hell makes troubleshooting Windows problems look logical. It is WAY to hard to install most Linux programs. Developers, you can code. I can't. My skills have atrophied, I haven't coded in years. I love you all for the great software you give us. I love that it's free. But, I would love it more if I could actually USE it. I'd love it if it would actually INSTALL. I would pay a fee for that. Most people would. I'm a technician, and I can't figure out how to get some of this crap to run, short of compiling from source - and if you want non-techies to install it, forget it. Developers, PLEASE, when you think your project that you've slaved over for months is finished, pause. Pause and spend ust one more week, or even one more day, polishing it. I mean...come on, why does the KDE dialer tell me to delete a stinking PID file when it crashes and I reopen it? Why doesn't the KDE KPPP dialer ust say "Your previous dialup connection may have ended improperly. Would you like me to start a new one? (Click ADVANCED for a detailed description of this problem)"? That would be smart. The end user would mindlessly click yes and it would work. The hacker could click on the advanced tab and find out what's going on with the stupid PID fil
Appgen used to make Moneydance - did they buy it from Sean Reiley, and then sell it back? Moneydance has always had a decent reputation and has been around since 1998 as far as I know, quite possibly longer.
Appgen makes MyBooks...I've been trying that off and on for two years..quite cool in that it is cheap, source code is available (no GPL tho) for extra $$$, and it runs on Linux, Mac & Windows, and the licenses are good for any mix of machines...a 5 user license will run on a Linux server with Mac, Windows, and Linux clients all at the same time...quite uncool in that it's rather unpolished in places and awkward to use at times, and getting the thing to print invoices is a royal pain. You can use Appgen's scripting language to make invoices, but the program was originally designed to print invoices on pre-printed forms. Yuck.
Appgen sales-types are helpful and eager to let tech support help people who are evaluating, and they say that they were writing big accounting apps on UNIX heavy metal for 20 years or so. I don't know, I'm a bit worried about the rumors in this thread about Appgen's finances. I am still considering purchasing MyBooks but am in no rush.
GNUCash is a joke. I had no problem using it as of release 1.4 for personal finances, and I've heard it's quite feature rich now at 1.8. A joy to use. The problem is it's practically impossible to install. GNUCash has a reputation for being the epitome of dependancy hell. I'm sorry, I love hacking around as much of the next person but 60+ shared libraries is too much for me. At one point the website actually said "Don't try to install this unless your distribution comes with it". Sigh. A wonderful product, GNUcash, if you can actually get it to work. I'm at the point now where I need my computer to actually work and spending hours trying to solve the dependancies for GNUCash is too much. I cannot understand why they put so much work into something that is so difficult to install.
I'm thinking about taking SQL Ledger for a spin, a bit troubled by comments some of its developers made a while back thinking that user security wasn't that big a deal, but looks like a nifty product...
There's a site out there run by some guy that has about 15 accounting programs both GPL & propietary...I can't find it tho...
Anyhow...just rambling - if anyone can post the history of both Appgen & Moneydance I'm sure that others besides myself would appreciate it.
Is it just me or does the intro to this article bear little relation to the body? The "summary" uses the words "overblown, outdated and obsolete" while the review itself goes on to rave about how wonderful the book is. Quite odd.
John Belushi spent hours studying you as Kirk in preparation for his famous Saturday Night Live skit. He reportedly was not only very proud of it, but somewhat in awe of you as well. Did you ever see that skit and what did you think of it?
Space & noise. And set up. And redundancy. We already use Linux servers to provide DNS & file sharing. I suppose we could just pile it all on one Linux box, but if we did that, the Linux server is just one more single point of failure. We use jet directs, too, and we could run that off the Linux server if we wanted to...but if the server crashes, we still have Internet & printing, if the Linksys crashes, a simple line change on the server activates DHCP and we're still up internally, although we have no Internet...you get the picture. Short version, we're on a budget and we don't want a pile of power-hungry computers when a litte Linksys does what we want to, and quite nicely. And, in a pinch, we could always fire up the proxy functions of the server. Hasn't happened yet, though. We've had server hard drives die, but we've never had a Linksys fail in the lab - although one or two have been DOA.
I had an early post in this thread pointing out the popularity of this router in non-profit and educational settings to run labs - since this router is vulnerable to this attack from the inside or outside, (outside only if remote management is enabled), it should still be patched - because even if remote mgt is disabled some idiot delinquent on the inside can bring down the whole facility just by cutting & pasting into the URL of their browser if they are behind the router. I support several labs that have people silly enough to do just that for kicks.
The default Linksys in the article has 4 ports, true, but they can actually support 254 clients if you connect them to a switch. Furthermore, the BEFSR11 is a one-port, designed to be connected to a switch or hub, and has proven very popular in labs of anywhere from 10-30 workstations, although it can actually support up to 254 clients. Consequently, there are those out there who may get a sick kick out of kicking schools, non-profit organizations and other institutions offline.
The BEFSR11 is truly cool. $50 gets you a box that barely draws any power and routes requests quite nicely for 254 machines and functions as a DHCP server to boot. Practically maintenance free. Most of mine already have upgraded firmware, but you can bet that I - and several other admins who oversee non-profit and educational sites - will be busy checking firmware versions for a while.
not quite a pbx, but you could use VOCP to do things like page a pager when a certain voicemail box has a message, accept credit card numbers, and run perl scripts to do whatever you want.
www.vocpsystem.com
I'm trying to get it to work for my business so that it pages me depending on which mailbox a message is left in. I know that in theory I can link it into a credit card validator and a bunch of other things but I'm not there yet.
Well, I got there too late...guess the guy doesn't read slashdot - here's all his site says:
Swimming pool control with Linux
Something happened Saturday, February 9, 2002, resulting in this Web site getting hammered with hits and overloading the server. Why is my site
getting 10,000s of hits this morning?
Was there a provocative link posted somewhere?
Please someone email me about this at:
kinch@truetex.com
Richard J. Kinch
Guess the guy's mailbox is gonna get full now, too...hehe
Training costs for the average bookkeeper-level user: $200-$400 / day
Number of days required to train a user on any well-written accounting program: 2
Not having to pay money for excessive Windows support costs: Priceless
Actually, if you do the training yourself, figure $100-$200 / day for the data entry people and $3-400 / day for the higher-ups...and that's all salary.
I talked with Appgen, and they said there is a way to customize the invoices. I haven't tried that yet, though. The incredibly ugly invoices bugged me, too, but my conversations with Appgen have been brief and while they told me what was and wasn't possible, they didn't tell me HOW (I wasn't asking the HOW right then, tho.)
I don't know. I'd like to know which version of MyBooks you tried, I used the Windows Demo version (although I'm gonna install the Linux server) and it was VERY easy to set up, with the standard walk-throughs and hand holding. Perhaps the Linux server is not as polished, but the install on Windows certainly is.
Appgen makes MyBooks, which is very similar to quickbooks, and can be purchased with development modules. This is made by the same people who do Moneydance.
$99 for 5 users -- I have a detailed list of questions about this product submitted to Appgen, which I am currently evaluating as a possible recommendation for clients. So far, the demo looks good.
I have a dedicated CD-Burning machine. It has an IDE removable caddy in it. I am setting it up so that my server, late at night, sends a wake-on-lan signal to the burner, powering it up, and then dumps a backup to the CD-burner. The CD burner then dumps the backup to the removable hdd. I have 2 hdd's in caddies, and plan to rotate them offsite. That way, there is always one backup offsite. There's no need to use a CD-burner for the backup machine; I just find it convienient to have a machine used for nothing but burning and backups.
Without the EFF and other organizations fighting for free speech, we would never find out about the suffering children in the first place. Our happy-happy-joy-joy consumerist soceity is geared towards suppressing unpleasant things and anything that takes people's mind off of shopping...
oh, and I'm a right-wing Republican, too. Doesn't stop me from thinking that corporations have bought off our government...and would love to clamp down on free expression when it gets in the way of profits. I applaud Wil for publicizing the EFF.
The Senate version does not have the same sunset provisions as the House. The House version expires automatically in a couple of years unless renewed; the Senate version has one section that expires in 2004, I believe, unless the president decides it's "not in the National Interest" and then it doesn't expire until 2006.
The House is on the verge of scrapping their version for the Senate version, too.
Obviously, we'd much rather pass feel-good legislation than actually kill the bastards who did this to us. Obviously, we rather throw away our freedom rather than fight to preserve it.
I called two clear channel stations and they said they had no list, either. They could be lying, but other than the Underground article (I forget the URL) and the FC article, there seems to be no other confirmation of this.
Slashdot Mirror
For what it's worth, I called.
I suggest everyone do the same.
-Steve
Mars will now have a more reliable power grid than the eastern seaboard...thanks to the RUSSIANS, of all people!
Let's hope they don't outsource any of the components to Ohio.
There are way, way too many variables at work here for you to even think about doing this yourself.
...but you will be the one on trial for manslaughter. Or criminal damage. You will plea bargain, successfully. You'll have a minor criminal record, and will only have a minimum of jail time - possibly only community service. If you're lucky, you'll only have to see the family of the dead fire victim once, at sentencing.... ...all because back in 2003 you decided that your employer would most likely be pissed with a $5000 bill for electrical work.
Here's a situation - quite likely, actually, happens all the time:
You "fix" it. Somehow. By some miracle. You don't even seem to break anything.
Two years from now, the "Super-Duper Electrical Bonding Compound Series A-723A-P" that you used cannot handle the heat surge. There is a fire. There are several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage, or worse, a person dies.
A full investigation ensues. It is found that some idiot used Super-Duper Electrical Bonding Compound Series A-723A-P to join two wires when, of course, any competent licensed electrician knows perfectly well that since there is a Purple Snoklefactor drawing 23.3 amps off of main bus B, the specs call for Compound A-723-A-PqA-7! You idiot!
The investigators realize that only a talented layman who doesn't do it for a living would have made such a simple mistake. Armed with supeanea power, they swoop in, asking anyone and everyone "Have you ever seen anyone in that box?" Your company, is a desperate attempt to avoid being sued for MILLIONS - I am not exaggerating - of dollars, decides to finger you as the person who made unauthorized repairs, in an attempt to shift at least part of the liability on you. It won't suceed, of course, they will still have to pay something...
Is it really worth it? This type of stuff happens all the time. Electricity is simple, at heart - but the complex interactions that go on in the heart of commercial power should only be tampered with by those who know EXACTLY what they are doing. Otherwise, buildings burn, property is lost, and people die.
Make sure you patent these "glasses".
That way, you can go after all those evil infringers.
Free != good.
GNUCash is a wonderful program to use, IF you can get it running. Unfortunately, installing it, due to RPM dependancy hell, is a nightmare - I don't know if it still says this, but their website used to say "Unless version 1.6 came with your distribution, it's most likely better to use 1.4 since there's so many dependancies."
I'm willing to pay the $40 or whatever Moneydance costs in return for a program that actually works. GNUcash worked great for me, for awhile, but they keep coming out with new features, features that sound wonderful, but that require me to spend HOURS trying to tweak everything to get the newer version to work until I gave up. And, by the time I give up, I can't get the older version to work anymore. I suppose if I slipped into hacker mode I could get it to work if I played with it long enough, but I just don't have time.
You are quite free with the term "boss around".
Simply put, I'm "bossing" no one. I have no power to do that. All I am doing is making suggestions that programmers may (or may not) find it wise to heed if they want the satisfaction of knowing that they have created something that many people find useful...and in the process, helped ensure that the platform they used to create it sticks around for a long time.
Sigh.
You don't get it.
There's MORE to contributing to the success of Linux than writing code.
Writing code, right now, is not an option for me. So, I support Linux by swapping out Windows servers at my client sites when possible - or suggesting Linux servers to do things Windows servers can't. I wire up non-profits with decent little Linux servers, I don't charge them for the Linux work, and I talk about the advantages they are getting from running Linux. I don't explain tech details - I just show them, graphicly, how using Linux is a Good Thing(tm) that is also Saving Them A Lot Of Money. And these people walk away not knowing much about Linux other than that it is a Good Thing that Saves Them A Lot Of Money, and oh yeah, doesn't seem to bork up as much as those Windows servers.
That's my contribution. That, and occasionally paying money to worthy Linux supporters who do things that I can't. I buy Linux magazines even if I don't have time to read them. I take the time to always write (politely, mind you) manufacturers of software asking very politely when their Linux version is coming out. And, if that's not enough of a contribution for you, then I don't know what to say. Because, someday, if we don't get more people using Linux, Microsoft will mount a combined legal/technical attack on Linux that will make it just as relevant as BeOS, or OS/2, or AmigaDOS, or any number of great operating systems that are powerful and fun to play with and totally impractical to use to do day-to-day business.
The point is not that "Linux needs to conquer windows"
The point is not that "Linux needs to conquer windows"
The point is not that "Linux needs these things to be better"
The point is, quite simple, "Linux needs a double-digit desktop market penetration to survive"
Did everyone miss the line about Microsoft using legal tricks and lobbyists to make Linux illegal/irrelevant?
Linux is a great system. We all enjoy playing with it. However, we also need to web browse, we need to be able to buy things online, we need to be able to communicate. If Microsoft manages to get more and more companies making websites that don't work with Linux, if Microsoft lobbies and succeeds in getting laws passed that require software to have strange, undocumented backdoors, keys or encryption, then Linux is dead. Period. A few odd people may play with it, it will be a good learning tool, but that's it. The massive development that marks big apps will be impossible.
And, the only way to prevent this from happening is to get MORe non-techies using Linux. The magic 10% of desktops. As the article points out, a company can cheerfully deploy a website that 2% of users can't access. Cutting off 10% is a different matter.
Here's just one example. I own an ISP. I have to partner with Qwest. To test a line for DSL qualification, I need to use a Windows machine or use Konquerer with user-agent spoofing, because they have designed their ISP-interface website to specifically reject any non-Microsoft browser. It's not that the website doesn't work - it fools you by saying, this browser is not recommended, lets you try to proceed, and then kicks you out saying your browser is incompatible. Funny thing, you change the user agent string and the same browser that was "incompatible" 30 seconds ago now works fine. We're going to see more and more of this crap.
If we want to be able to continue to use Linux, or any other OS/software that allows us to modify it, we need non-techies on Linux. Period. We need a non-technical base of people who will protest when poorly-written or MS dependant crap kicks out their Mozilla.
Linux needs:
* to drop the elitist "RTFM" attitude.
* Better cut and paste, in ALL GUI's / window managers, whatever
* Better selection of software - we need some kid's software, better written - we need to be able to do TurboTax or something like that. We need - gasp - GREETING CARD software. Sound goofy? Get a suburban housewife hooked on a greeting card package and she'll stick with it for life.
* Better font handling.
* BETTER INSTALLATION ROUTINES. RPM sucks. Period. Either it's fundamentally broken, or 75% of the people using it to package apps aren't using it right - I can't tell. Dependancy hell makes troubleshooting Windows problems look logical. It is WAY to hard to install most Linux programs.
Developers, you can code. I can't. My skills have atrophied, I haven't coded in years. I love you all for the great software you give us. I love that it's free.
But, I would love it more if I could actually USE it. I'd love it if it would actually INSTALL. I would pay a fee for that. Most people would. I'm a technician, and I can't figure out how to get some of this crap to run, short of compiling from source - and if you want non-techies to install it, forget it. Developers, PLEASE, when you think your project that you've slaved over for months is finished, pause. Pause and spend ust one more week, or even one more day, polishing it. I mean...come on, why does the KDE dialer tell me to delete a stinking PID file when it crashes and I reopen it? Why doesn't the KDE KPPP dialer ust say "Your previous dialup connection may have ended improperly. Would you like me to start a new one? (Click ADVANCED for a detailed description of this problem)"? That would be smart. The end user would mindlessly click yes and it would work. The hacker could click on the advanced tab and find out what's going on with the stupid PID fil
I am so confused.
Appgen used to make Moneydance - did they buy it from Sean Reiley, and then sell it back? Moneydance has always had a decent reputation and has been around since 1998 as far as I know, quite possibly longer.
Appgen makes MyBooks...I've been trying that off and on for two years..quite cool in that it is cheap, source code is available (no GPL tho) for extra $$$, and it runs on Linux, Mac & Windows, and the licenses are good for any mix of machines...a 5 user license will run on a Linux server with Mac, Windows, and Linux clients all at the same time...quite uncool in that it's rather unpolished in places and awkward to use at times, and getting the thing to print invoices is a royal pain.
You can use Appgen's scripting language to make invoices, but the program was originally designed to print invoices on pre-printed forms. Yuck.
Appgen sales-types are helpful and eager to let tech support help people who are evaluating, and they say that they were writing big accounting apps on UNIX heavy metal for 20 years or so. I don't know, I'm a bit worried about the rumors in this thread about Appgen's finances. I am still considering purchasing MyBooks but am in no rush.
GNUCash is a joke. I had no problem using it as of release 1.4 for personal finances, and I've heard it's quite feature rich now at 1.8. A joy to use. The problem is it's practically impossible to install. GNUCash has a reputation for being the epitome of dependancy hell. I'm sorry, I love hacking around as much of the next person but 60+ shared libraries is too much for me. At one point the website actually said "Don't try to install this unless your distribution comes with it". Sigh. A wonderful product, GNUcash, if you can actually get it to work. I'm at the point now where I need my computer to actually work and spending hours trying to solve the dependancies for GNUCash is too much. I cannot understand why they put so much work into something that is so difficult to install.
I'm thinking about taking SQL Ledger for a spin, a bit troubled by comments some of its developers made a while back thinking that user security wasn't that big a deal, but looks like a nifty product...
There's a site out there run by some guy that has about 15 accounting programs both GPL & propietary...I can't find it tho...
Anyhow...just rambling - if anyone can post the history of both Appgen & Moneydance I'm sure that others besides myself would appreciate it.
Is it just me or does the intro to this article bear little relation to the body?
The "summary" uses the words "overblown, outdated and obsolete" while the review itself goes on to rave about how wonderful the book is. Quite odd.
John Belushi spent hours studying you as Kirk in preparation for his famous Saturday Night Live skit. He reportedly was not only very proud of it, but somewhat in awe of you as well. Did you ever see that skit and what did you think of it?
Space & noise. And set up. And redundancy. We already use Linux servers to provide DNS & file sharing. I suppose we could just pile it all on one Linux box, but if we did that, the Linux server is just one more single point of failure. We use jet directs, too, and we could run that off the Linux server if we wanted to...but if the server crashes, we still have Internet & printing, if the Linksys crashes, a simple line change on the server activates DHCP and we're still up internally, although we have no Internet...you get the picture. Short version, we're on a budget and we don't want a pile of power-hungry computers when a litte Linksys does what we want to, and quite nicely. And, in a pinch, we could always fire up the proxy functions of the server. Hasn't happened yet, though. We've had server hard drives die, but we've never had a Linksys fail in the lab - although one or two have been DOA.
I had an early post in this thread pointing out the popularity of this router in non-profit and educational settings to run labs - since this router is vulnerable to this attack from the inside or outside, (outside only if remote management is enabled), it should still be patched - because even if remote mgt is disabled some idiot delinquent on the inside can bring down the whole facility just by cutting & pasting into the URL of their browser if they are behind the router. I support several labs that have people silly enough to do just that for kicks.
The default Linksys in the article has 4 ports, true, but they can actually support 254 clients if you connect them to a switch. Furthermore, the BEFSR11 is a one-port, designed to be connected to a switch or hub, and has proven very popular in labs of anywhere from 10-30 workstations, although it can actually support up to 254 clients. Consequently, there are those out there who may get a sick kick out of kicking schools, non-profit organizations and other institutions offline.
The BEFSR11 is truly cool. $50 gets you a box that barely draws any power and routes requests quite nicely for 254 machines and functions as a DHCP server to boot. Practically maintenance free. Most of mine already have upgraded firmware, but you can bet that I - and several other admins who oversee non-profit and educational sites - will be busy checking firmware versions for a while.
not quite a pbx, but you could use VOCP to do things like page a pager when a certain voicemail box has a message, accept credit card numbers, and run perl scripts to do whatever you want.
www.vocpsystem.com
I'm trying to get it to work for my business so that it pages me depending on which mailbox a message is left in. I know that in theory I can link it into a credit card validator and a bunch of other things but I'm not there yet.
Damnnit. I meant to mod this up and accidentally modded it as Flamebait. Opps. Sorry.
Well, I got there too late...guess the guy doesn't read slashdot - here's all his site says:
Swimming pool control with Linux
Something happened Saturday, February 9, 2002, resulting in this Web site getting hammered with hits and overloading the server. Why is my site
getting 10,000s of hits this morning?
Was there a provocative link posted somewhere?
Please someone email me about this at:
kinch@truetex.com
Richard J. Kinch
Guess the guy's mailbox is gonna get full now, too...hehe
Training costs for the average bookkeeper-level user: $200-$400 / day
Number of days required to train a user on any well-written accounting program: 2
Not having to pay money for excessive Windows support costs: Priceless
Actually, if you do the training yourself, figure $100-$200 / day for the data entry people and $3-400 / day for the higher-ups...and that's all salary.
I talked with Appgen, and they said there is a way to customize the invoices. I haven't tried that yet, though. The incredibly ugly invoices bugged me, too, but my conversations with Appgen have been brief and while they told me what was and wasn't possible, they didn't tell me HOW (I wasn't asking the HOW right then, tho.)
I don't know. I'd like to know which version of MyBooks you tried, I used the Windows Demo version (although I'm gonna install the Linux server) and it was VERY easy to set up, with the standard walk-throughs and hand holding. Perhaps the Linux server is not as polished, but the install on Windows certainly is.
Appgen makes MyBooks, which is very similar to quickbooks, and can be purchased with development modules. This is made by the same people who do Moneydance.
$99 for 5 users -- I have a detailed list of questions about this product submitted to Appgen, which I am currently evaluating as a possible recommendation for clients. So far, the demo looks good.
www.appgen.com
I have a dedicated CD-Burning machine. It has an IDE removable caddy in it. I am setting it up so that my server, late at night, sends a wake-on-lan signal to the burner, powering it up, and then dumps a backup to the CD-burner. The CD burner then dumps the backup to the removable hdd. I have 2 hdd's in caddies, and plan to rotate them offsite. That way, there is always one backup offsite. There's no need to use a CD-burner for the backup machine; I just find it convienient to have a machine used for nothing but burning and backups.
Without the EFF and other organizations fighting for free speech, we would never find out about the suffering children in the first place. Our happy-happy-joy-joy consumerist soceity is geared towards suppressing unpleasant things and anything that takes people's mind off of shopping...
oh, and I'm a right-wing Republican, too. Doesn't stop me from thinking that corporations have bought off our government...and would love to clamp down on free expression when it gets in the way of profits. I applaud Wil for publicizing the EFF.
Disclaimer: Yes, Microsoft sucks.
However, many Linux developers will admit something - Microsoft made the proliferation of cheap, cloned hardware economically feasable.
This in turn increased the pool of potential Linux developers.
It wasn't MS's intention, but that was the effect. Leave it to Bill to claim credit for a totally unintentional by-product of his company's sucess...
The Senate version does not have the same sunset provisions as the House. The House version expires automatically in a couple of years unless renewed; the Senate version has one section that expires in 2004, I believe, unless the president decides it's "not in the National Interest" and then it doesn't expire until 2006.
The House is on the verge of scrapping their version for the Senate version, too.
Obviously, we'd much rather pass feel-good legislation than actually kill the bastards who did this to us. Obviously, we rather throw away our freedom rather than fight to preserve it.
I called two clear channel stations and they said they had no list, either. They could be lying, but other than the Underground article (I forget the URL) and the FC article, there seems to be no other confirmation of this.