Now, this mostly comes down to the fact that Windows doesn't have anything nearly as nice as real package management(WSUS for MS apps and drivers only is the closest they really come),
System Center Configuration Manager is a step in that direction.
Actually, it would be better to abolish the ideas of political right and left. There is no way to determine where a person's views are on a scale where the end points are not defined.
Better would be a scale based on the amount of government influence (interference?) in the citizens' lives.
The ideal would be to be in the "balanced center" of that scale, i.e., the point where there is just enough government to what is _needed_ but not so much that it infringes on individual liberties.
This just happened to me. I ordered some software which was shipped via UPS. UPS's site claimed that it had been delivered on Tuesday at 11:00a. The site even said that it had been left at my front door. (My wife was home all day and the UPS truck didn't even drive past our house.) I finally got the package this morning. It was sitting in front of my front door when I left for work.
I guess mail order still has its UPS and downs.:-)
They're exercising their "freedom" because of the protests they had - not from any moral decision
Perhaps. We can guess at Yahoo!'s true reasons utill we're blue in the face but I suspect that they may have been using these protests as an excuse. People have been complaining about porn on Yahoo! for a long time and Yahoo! didn't seem to care one way or another. Oh well.
I ask you to elaborate on the "moral principles" to which we should return...
I would like to see us return to priciples such as these:
That the family is the central unit of society and that we should avoid things that tear it apart.
Honesty seems to be a disapearing trait in some circles. People are taught that "Dishonesty is the best policy" by those that should be the most honest. (Government officials for example.)
Respect for others as human beings regardless of their background. I admit that this wasn't perfect before.
There are others but this should give you an idea.
what you perceive the dangers of porn to be.
For many people porn is addictive. For one of these people the addiction drives them to more frequent "use" of harder and harder porn. Eventually, (yes this is an extreme case) it can drive that person to having an affair. Now, most people will not get that far. What's more likely is you have one partner sneaking around to get porn while trying to keep it secret from his/her spouse. This can (an probably will) hurt a marriage and lead to other problems.
I believe that long time users of pronography and younger (<21 years) begin to lose respect for people (or maybe just a gender) as people and start treating them as sex objects. This dehumanization can lead to ideas that restrict the "Unalienable rights" of citizens.
Another problem I see has to do more with the porn industry rather than the users of porn. There are people in the industry that are very exploitive of the people (mostly young women) that they use in their publications. (Yes, there are some "good" porn producers who have women flocking to them but they are few compared to the number of producers world wide.)
I find it interesting that a complany "gives-in" to the protests from "the fringe" and switches to a OSS solution over a closed solution is cheered by the/. community yet when it happens in another field (porn for example) it is attacked.
Now to my point. Most of us seem to agree that a person or organizaion should be allowed publish (or not) whatever they want on their web site. We may disagree with what is published (sometimes quite loudly) but we should not attack their choice to not make their system (or parts thereof) available to publish something they don't want on the site. That is their choice. We should not be attacking Yahoo! because they exercised their freedom a bit.
At the same time, "fringe" groups need to realize that while thier views may be "better" then someone else's, that other person has the right to voice their opinion. (Except where prohibited by law see official rules for details.:) ) This includes posting porn, bashing Linux or sharing their code.
On a more personal note (let the flames begin) I think Yahoo! made the correct choice here. I believe that a great many of the problems in the USA are the result of a decline in the moral principles of our society as a whole. I believe that if we, as a society, return to those priciples, then many of the problems we face will nearly solve themselves in two or three generations. I don't mean that we should become "Bible-thumping whacos" but that we should try to embrace qualitys like honesty and loyalty.
It seems to me that something like this might be good as the main display area in the portable market.
For example, use this as the display for a laptop. You could have a detachable keyboard for "regular" use. When detached, the display would work sort of like a PADD from Star Trek. Just slip a stylus in for good messure.
It's not like the Constitution is divinely revealed wisdom.
Well, actually...There are groups that believe exactly that. For example, the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day Saints believes that the Constitution was devinely inspired. There are several revelations in their Doctrine and Covenants that state that. (See this article for example.)
PerlStalker "I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
For calendaring and such, take a look at phpGroupWare. They are listed on SourceForge as well. It may not have everything you want, (What does?) but it's a start. Keep in mind that it is still beta (though getting close to release) but most of the obvious bugs have been fixed.
Finding something Open Source that does payroll is going to be harder. It's often said that OSS comes about because someone was scratching their own itch. Most programmers have very little need for HR and Payroll stuff. (phpGroupWare had an HR mod back in the day, but it's not in the more recent versions. If you get the urge one day, write up a mod for phpGroupWare (or whatever) that does what you want.)
As an aside, when we wanted to switch away from our old, manual time clock, we setup an old Win95 laptop with some shareware punch clock SW and then put the numbers from there into Quickbooks to print the checks. The moral is: use what works best for you. Even if it runs on Windows and is Closed Source.
Very interesting article on the state of the BSD community. I jumped into the BSDs (and unix in general) with BSD/OS when I took over the SysAdmin duties at the ISP where I work. Because of this I tend to lean on the side of the BSDs over Linux.
That said, I think it's good for everyone involved to cooperate on one level or another. As a community, the BSD users are beginning to see beyond Free, Open and Net to BSD as a whole. Most users I see are looking past the animosity that was stirred up between core members of the different BSDs and are trying to work together to promote BSD in general. Take a look at the Open Packages Project that is attempting to create a unified package system for the BSD (and Solaris and Linux).
The comments about the GNU/Linux community are interesting as well. I dislike those who go about spouting the mantra "It's GNU so it must be better" and then bash every open source project that not GNU. (Many of them (conveiniently (sp?)) forget that Apache is not GNU.) This can drive people away from open source because they don't want to grouped with such people.
The good news is, many people from both Linux and BSD are realizing that they can work together to improve their OS. The cooperation between camps can only help. Linux and BSD will become more equal (in performance, apps, etc.) in general and admins (and users) will be able to choose the OS that fits their needs best. For example, a user won't have to pick an OS just because the app is not supported on the OS they want to use.
I work for a rural ISP that does wireless in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. The problems we run into are mountains (duh) and range.
Since we're in a valley, mountains are not much of a problem accept around the fringes. However, range is a problem. Many of the schools that we have wired are between 20 and 30 miles from our towers. This creates all sorts of problems and usually begins to limit performance. Under 20 miles, we can usally get up to T1 speeds.
They don't have the perfect platform either, but they do have one overarching principle which rings very real to me: The Federal Government has specific duties, and they must only be allowed to do those duties, and no more. Everything else can be slugged out where it belongs, on the State and Local levels. At least this puts most issues in play where people can reach them - state and local legislators are far more approachable, and responsive, in my experience.
That's why the Constitution was written the way it was. Most people are luck if they ever see their Federal representitives in person and if they do, they probably won't be able to talk to them.
State reps are usually better. (Though it was almost imposible to talk to my state rep. to ask them to support our local "Constitution Week.") Most them have are around their constituants more and have a feel for what they want and need.
We need a population of voters that are educated in the principles of the Constitution as stated be the Founders themselves. The National Center for Constitutional Studies has programs that we can use help teach these principles. With a better educated voter base, it will be less likely that we'll end up with Socialists getting through the Primaries to run for President.
I'm not as interseted is finding one as I am in "starting" one. I work for an ISP in Colorado and am looking into the feasabliity (sp?) of cutting over to IPv6. I'm not worried about our servers since I run FreeBSD on them but I am worried about our Portmasters. Lucent doen't have anything (that I see) that can handle IPv6.
Are there any ISPs that are using something like this to provide dialup IPv6 access? I ask because no one is going to want to deploy IPv6 commercialy until a fair number of users are using IPv6.
When choosing a candidate, one should do one's best to select one who will uphold the Constitiution.
In this election we have a choice between a Communist and a Socialist. Doesn't sound like fun to me. The candidates who actually support the Constitution and the principles therein never get enough support in the primaries to stand a chance. Why? Because they say things that people don't want to hear. Things like "Parents are resposible for their children's behavior." Something to think about.
I want to leave this last thing with you. If you don't vote, you have no right to complain.
The art things were rhetorical. I don't think they're porn but current filters might. What I'm worried about is my 5 or 6 year old folling a link that some is a disguised porn site. At that age they are rarely ready. When the get to Junior High, I'm not as worried about it because at that point, most kids are mature enough to handle it.
I'd rather have the kids come talk to me or their mother if they have questions like that. I don't want to have them exposed to it before their even curious. That's part of the reason elementary school libraries don't have books with sex in them.
Eduacting children about sex and having the fall into hardcore porn are two different things. I want to be able to tell my children about sex WHEN THEY ARE READY. When that time comes I can tell them about it in a way best suited for that child. I don't want to have to explain why she saw a naked woman sucking on a horse on the Internet while she was doing a project on horses. I can control that while she's at home but I can't do a thing about it while she's at school.
As for the other topics, you're right. They are more easily defined than sex. It's also easier to talk about. Parents tell kids before their first birthday that they shouldn't hit and to be nice to people and so on. Those are easier concepts for a child to understand. Most people will agree on those basic priciples as well.
Porn is harder to define. Is the painting "The Birth od Venus" pornographic? What about Michelangelo's statue of David? Kids are getting on the Internet at a young age. My toddlers already recognize the modem sound and happily proclaim that "Dad's checking email." By 5, most kids can use a computer resonably well. Many schools are trying to get kids on the 'Net as soon as they can. (Which I think is a good thing.) The teachers try their best to help keep the kids out of porn and such so the teacher doesn't have to try to explain it to the kids. (Remember, it's the parent's job to teach the kids about what is moral, not the teacher's.)
Personally, I will be voting agains any filtering software in schools and libraries because, at this point, they don't work. I will not install one at home even if they were perfect. I am saying that if a community chooses to do so, that should be their choice. Their choice only effects their city and has no effect on other cities in the area that may choose to ban filters in all forms from their schools and libraries.
The best defence is to teach your children well and hope that if they do fall into it, thay will be strong enough to get out. If you want the material filtered in the schools, etc. then get the majority of the community together to agree on a way to do it.
It's not easy. Moral decisions like this rarely are. I wish I had all of the answers.
The catch is that while Parents are the "fillters" they are not around all the time. Even the best behaved and well mannered teen-aged boy is going to be curious about sex and such. The odds are that he'll try to find some porn and the easies way to do that is on the 'Net. Thus, a "perfect" filter would be able to help protect the teen.
I responed to this in another reply, but basically, yes it is a fimily's decision to use filters in the home. But if the community wants to put filters in schools or libraries, then that is the choice of the community.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, this mostly comes down to the fact that Windows doesn't have anything nearly as nice as real package management(WSUS for MS apps and drivers only is the closest they really come),
System Center Configuration Manager is a step in that direction.
For point of sale, try OpenTaps [http://www.opentaps.com/]. Open source ERP+CRM
See Trango.
Actually, it would be better to abolish the ideas of political right and left. There is no way to determine where a person's views are on a scale where the end points are not defined.
Better would be a scale based on the amount of government influence (interference?) in the citizens' lives.
0% ----------|---------- 100%
-OR-
(anarchy)----------|----------(Total gov. control)
The ideal would be to be in the "balanced center" of that scale, i.e., the point where there is just enough government to what is _needed_ but not so much that it infringes on individual liberties.
This just happened to me. I ordered some software which was shipped via UPS. UPS's site claimed that it had been delivered on Tuesday at 11:00a. The site even said that it had been left at my front door. (My wife was home all day and the UPS truck didn't even drive past our house.) I finally got the package this morning. It was sitting in front of my front door when I left for work.
:-)
I guess mail order still has its UPS and downs.
PerlStalker
Perhaps. We can guess at Yahoo!'s true reasons utill we're blue in the face but I suspect that they may have been using these protests as an excuse. People have been complaining about porn on Yahoo! for a long time and Yahoo! didn't seem to care one way or another. Oh well.
I would like to see us return to priciples such as these:
- That the family is the central unit of society and that we should avoid things that tear it apart.
- Honesty seems to be a disapearing trait in some circles. People are taught that "Dishonesty is the best policy" by those that should be the most honest. (Government officials for example.)
- Respect for others as human beings regardless of their background. I admit that this wasn't perfect before.
There are others but this should give you an idea.what you perceive the dangers of porn to be.
For many people porn is addictive. For one of these people the addiction drives them to more frequent "use" of harder and harder porn. Eventually, (yes this is an extreme case) it can drive that person to having an affair. Now, most people will not get that far. What's more likely is you have one partner sneaking around to get porn while trying to keep it secret from his/her spouse. This can (an probably will) hurt a marriage and lead to other problems.
I believe that long time users of pronography and younger (<21 years) begin to lose respect for people (or maybe just a gender) as people and start treating them as sex objects. This dehumanization can lead to ideas that restrict the "Unalienable rights" of citizens.
Another problem I see has to do more with the porn industry rather than the users of porn. There are people in the industry that are very exploitive of the people (mostly young women) that they use in their publications. (Yes, there are some "good" porn producers who have women flocking to them but they are few compared to the number of producers world wide.)
I find it interesting that a complany "gives-in" to the protests from "the fringe" and switches to a OSS solution over a closed solution is cheered by the /. community yet when it happens in another field (porn for example) it is attacked.
Now to my point. Most of us seem to agree that a person or organizaion should be allowed publish (or not) whatever they want on their web site. We may disagree with what is published (sometimes quite loudly) but we should not attack their choice to not make their system (or parts thereof) available to publish something they don't want on the site. That is their choice. We should not be attacking Yahoo! because they exercised their freedom a bit.
At the same time, "fringe" groups need to realize that while thier views may be "better" then someone else's, that other person has the right to voice their opinion. (Except where prohibited by law see official rules for details. :) ) This includes posting porn, bashing Linux or sharing their code.
On a more personal note (let the flames begin) I think Yahoo! made the correct choice here. I believe that a great many of the problems in the USA are the result of a decline in the moral principles of our society as a whole. I believe that if we, as a society, return to those priciples, then many of the problems we face will nearly solve themselves in two or three generations. I don't mean that we should become "Bible-thumping whacos" but that we should try to embrace qualitys like honesty and loyalty.
It seems to me that something like this might be good as the main display area in the portable market.
For example, use this as the display for a laptop. You could have a detachable keyboard for "regular" use. When detached, the display would work sort of like a PADD from Star Trek. Just slip a stylus in for good messure.
"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
Well, actually...There are groups that believe exactly that. For example, the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day Saints believes that the Constitution was devinely inspired. There are several revelations in their Doctrine and Covenants that state that. (See this article for example.)
PerlStalker"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
For calendaring and such, take a look at phpGroupWare. They are listed on SourceForge as well. It may not have everything you want, (What does?) but it's a start. Keep in mind that it is still beta (though getting close to release) but most of the obvious bugs have been fixed.
Finding something Open Source that does payroll is going to be harder. It's often said that OSS comes about because someone was scratching their own itch. Most programmers have very little need for HR and Payroll stuff. (phpGroupWare had an HR mod back in the day, but it's not in the more recent versions. If you get the urge one day, write up a mod for phpGroupWare (or whatever) that does what you want.)
As an aside, when we wanted to switch away from our old, manual time clock, we setup an old Win95 laptop with some shareware punch clock SW and then put the numbers from there into Quickbooks to print the checks. The moral is: use what works best for you. Even if it runs on Windows and is Closed Source.
PerlStalker
"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
What do you mean that I can't tape porn any more?
"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
Ha ha ha. Somebody had to :-)
"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
Very interesting article on the state of the BSD community. I jumped into the BSDs (and unix in general) with BSD/OS when I took over the SysAdmin duties at the ISP where I work. Because of this I tend to lean on the side of the BSDs over Linux.
That said, I think it's good for everyone involved to cooperate on one level or another. As a community, the BSD users are beginning to see beyond Free, Open and Net to BSD as a whole. Most users I see are looking past the animosity that was stirred up between core members of the different BSDs and are trying to work together to promote BSD in general. Take a look at the Open Packages Project that is attempting to create a unified package system for the BSD (and Solaris and Linux).
The comments about the GNU/Linux community are interesting as well. I dislike those who go about spouting the mantra "It's GNU so it must be better" and then bash every open source project that not GNU. (Many of them (conveiniently (sp?)) forget that Apache is not GNU.) This can drive people away from open source because they don't want to grouped with such people.
The good news is, many people from both Linux and BSD are realizing that they can work together to improve their OS. The cooperation between camps can only help. Linux and BSD will become more equal (in performance, apps, etc.) in general and admins (and users) will be able to choose the OS that fits their needs best. For example, a user won't have to pick an OS just because the app is not supported on the OS they want to use.
Did I actually get a first post?
PerlStalker
"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"
I work for a rural ISP that does wireless in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. The problems we run into are mountains (duh) and range.
Since we're in a valley, mountains are not much of a problem accept around the fringes. However, range is a problem. Many of the schools that we have wired are between 20 and 30 miles from our towers. This creates all sorts of problems and usually begins to limit performance. Under 20 miles, we can usally get up to T1 speeds.
All I can say is good luck.
PerlStalker
Here's my choice for president.
PerlStalker
That's why the Constitution was written the way it was. Most people are luck if they ever see their Federal representitives in person and if they do, they probably won't be able to talk to them.
State reps are usually better. (Though it was almost imposible to talk to my state rep. to ask them to support our local "Constitution Week.") Most them have are around their constituants more and have a feel for what they want and need.
We need a population of voters that are educated in the principles of the Constitution as stated be the Founders themselves. The National Center for Constitutional Studies has programs that we can use help teach these principles. With a better educated voter base, it will be less likely that we'll end up with Socialists getting through the Primaries to run for President.
PerlStalker
I'm not as interseted is finding one as I am in "starting" one. I work for an ISP in Colorado and am looking into the feasabliity (sp?) of cutting over to IPv6. I'm not worried about our servers since I run FreeBSD on them but I am worried about our Portmasters. Lucent doen't have anything (that I see) that can handle IPv6.
PerlStalker
Are there any ISPs that are using something like this to provide dialup IPv6 access? I ask because no one is going to want to deploy IPv6 commercialy until a fair number of users are using IPv6.
Are companies adding IPv6 to their RAS servers?
PerlStalker
When choosing a candidate, one should do one's best to select one who will uphold the Constitiution.
In this election we have a choice between a Communist and a Socialist. Doesn't sound like fun to me. The candidates who actually support the Constitution and the principles therein never get enough support in the primaries to stand a chance. Why? Because they say things that people don't want to hear. Things like "Parents are resposible for their children's behavior." Something to think about.
I want to leave this last thing with you. If you don't vote, you have no right to complain.
PerlStalker
The art things were rhetorical. I don't think they're porn but current filters might. What I'm worried about is my 5 or 6 year old folling a link that some is a disguised porn site. At that age they are rarely ready. When the get to Junior High, I'm not as worried about it because at that point, most kids are mature enough to handle it.
I'd rather have the kids come talk to me or their mother if they have questions like that. I don't want to have them exposed to it before their even curious. That's part of the reason elementary school libraries don't have books with sex in them.
Eduacting children about sex and having the fall into hardcore porn are two different things. I want to be able to tell my children about sex WHEN THEY ARE READY. When that time comes I can tell them about it in a way best suited for that child. I don't want to have to explain why she saw a naked woman sucking on a horse on the Internet while she was doing a project on horses. I can control that while she's at home but I can't do a thing about it while she's at school.
As for the other topics, you're right. They are more easily defined than sex. It's also easier to talk about. Parents tell kids before their first birthday that they shouldn't hit and to be nice to people and so on. Those are easier concepts for a child to understand. Most people will agree on those basic priciples as well.
Porn is harder to define. Is the painting "The Birth od Venus" pornographic? What about Michelangelo's statue of David? Kids are getting on the Internet at a young age. My toddlers already recognize the modem sound and happily proclaim that "Dad's checking email." By 5, most kids can use a computer resonably well. Many schools are trying to get kids on the 'Net as soon as they can. (Which I think is a good thing.) The teachers try their best to help keep the kids out of porn and such so the teacher doesn't have to try to explain it to the kids. (Remember, it's the parent's job to teach the kids about what is moral, not the teacher's.)
Personally, I will be voting agains any filtering software in schools and libraries because, at this point, they don't work. I will not install one at home even if they were perfect. I am saying that if a community chooses to do so, that should be their choice. Their choice only effects their city and has no effect on other cities in the area that may choose to ban filters in all forms from their schools and libraries.
PerlStalker
The best defence is to teach your children well and hope that if they do fall into it, thay will be strong enough to get out. If you want the material filtered in the schools, etc. then get the majority of the community together to agree on a way to do it.
It's not easy. Moral decisions like this rarely are. I wish I had all of the answers.
PerlStalker
The catch is that while Parents are the "fillters" they are not around all the time. Even the best behaved and well mannered teen-aged boy is going to be curious about sex and such. The odds are that he'll try to find some porn and the easies way to do that is on the 'Net. Thus, a "perfect" filter would be able to help protect the teen.
Ce le gere.
PerlStalker
I responed to this in another reply, but basically, yes it is a fimily's decision to use filters in the home. But if the community wants to put filters in schools or libraries, then that is the choice of the community.
PerlStalker
I say "ditto" to Stonehand.
Then again, I don't think that the Federal Government should be funding anything except the military and such things as outlined in the Constitution.
PerlStalker