That looks great. One question for you. It appears from the photos that you just have one power cable. How are you powering the motherboard? I can't quite see it because the memory and the ribbon cable for the hard drive are covering it up.
Going to Kinkos? Yeah, it's a bit pricey, but not totally out of bounds.
If he's at a large university, some other department might have one of these. Xerox doesn't charge for scans when you lease the machine. They only charge for how many prints or copies are made, so it would be essentially free for another department to allow him use their machine. It doesn't even require any additional setup, since you can enter any email address into the machine and have it send the document there directly from the copier. (assuming the SMTP server has been set on the machine)
Xerox bundles OCR as a software add-on. It works well when you get it all set up at your company. By the time you get back to your desk, the document is open and ready to be OCR'd with a drag and drop.
It obviously wouldn't be so convenient if he had to go to Kinkos, but they might have it set up on one of their machines. (Yeah, I doubt it, too.)
We have a Xerox WorkCentre Pro 65 at my school. It can scan at around 50-60 pages per minute, and will do double-sided. It will do PDF output, too. (and email it or FTP it to you, if so configured)
Our teachers use them for exactly the purpose described. If you don't have one of these type machines around anywhere, then definitely give Kinkos or some similar establishment a try.
And you probably stuff every freeware piece of crap known to man into them... which is likely -causing- the problem. Same for games. Load old games on a Mac OR a PC and you're in for a ride from hell.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing with our production systems here. I didn't think the kids had enough Flash web games, so I thought I'd load up some more. Actually, the apps that give us the most grief are MS Office, especially Equation Editor, and Inspiration.
That was OS 9 baby. Error Type 2 simply means that your app ran out of RAM.
Wrong. Perhaps that's one possible reason for it to happen, but technically means that some program tried to write in a space of RAM that it was not allocated. That's a GPF. There's alot of other reasons why it happens, but running out of memory might be one of them. Though, I usually get more specific errors when that happens.
OS 9 machines can run as Admin/Student and operate without problems indefinitely. 10.2 machines can get home directories from anywhare you want.
Yes, OS X can pull the usernames from our LDAP directory, but we have too much old hardware right now to go OS X everywhere. Next year, though, that's what we'll do. I don't think it's workable to put 500 individual student accounts on every OS 9 machine. We could use a generic Student account, but that goes back to what I was talking about...if you are willing to give up functionality of everyone having their own accounts, Macs work.
And Assimilator, Lan Commander, Net Octopus and Apple's Remote Desktop. Even Software Update can be run remotely by SSH. You didn't look into this at all.
Not true. Software Update is the only one that works anything like what I need. The others would work in a lab environment where all the machines are really identical, but not where the machines are personalized for teacher users. Assimilator in our Mac lab was the biggest nightmare I've ever encountered. We tried it for 2.5 months and had to abandon it for manually loading images with Apple Software Restore.
With 280 Macs in the school I have never bought Apple parts, so I wouldn't know. The drives are standard, the ram is standard, the rest is on warranty. Big deal.
True. Drives, RAM are standard. Our newest machines, eMacs, have a one year warranty that is up now. Yes, we could buy an extended warranty, but Macs aren't supposed to cost more than PCs, right?
Again, You didn't look into this at all. We have 690 GB of Server space that gets used up constantly, by macs, so those people must be connecting somehow.
Yes, we have about the same. And, I've had to learn Applescript programming to make it work.
I never claimed that Macs could not do all these things. I said it's harder to make them do these things.
So, if you use Macs, you don't need support staff. But if you have a support staff, there is no need for Macs. I think you've hit the nail on the head.
This is true if you are willing to give up capabilities. I find it hard to believe that the teachers at my school could set up a reliable file server with home directories for 600 users that are accessible easily from any computer at the school and remotely at home. However, if you just want to plug the computer in and get internet and a few apps, you're right. The Mac without the support would probably work. Though the computer experience would likely become inconsistent across machines over time, which may be confusing to some users.
1. No, I hadn't heard of Macsbug. Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.
2. This checkbox is not a viable solution for more than a few users. There's no way to have your own separate home directories that get mapped. You have to reboot the machine to make the log in window come back up, or teach people to drag the shares to the trash and map again with Chooser. (or perhaps an alias to the share on the desktop...but then users will try to drag it to the trash with the shares, probably) If you reboot and don't log in, the log in window will go away after awhile. You need a way to easily log in and out. Like I said, it's possible to map shares on the Mac, but it's not easy. Right now, I'm using an Applescript program to duplicate the functionality of a Windows login.
3. What happens if a server has to be rebooted? What happens if a network switch fails? I don't have money to stockpile extra switches around, so it might be 24 hours before I get an acceptable replacement. So, people just can't use any programs until then? I guess they can just go over and use the PCs. We do use network installs for some of our applications, but I can't imagine it for everything. Three hundred computers pulling all their apps from the server seems like an unnecessary burden on the network. I agree with you that installing programs on a Mac is easier than on a PC for the average user like a teacher, but for an administrator, it's roughly the same, so there's no benefit in our circumstance, really. Our teachers have me install all their programs. Also, what if I need to customize the install? Drag and drop installs usually set themselves up the first time they are run.
4. Yes, I could buy G3s off eBay, but it's a time issue again. Actually, I do stockpile all the half-broken G3s for parts, and this works most of the time. But for the PCs, I'm down to the local computer parts store and back in an hour.
I'm the sysadmin at a school that uses both Macs and PCs. We have both kinds of labs, and teachers get to pick which platform they prefer. I can tell you that from an administrator point of view, the Macs are the biggest bane of my existence. Now, before parroting the "but Macs don't break" line, hear me out.
The following things are trivial on a PC and cannot be easily done on a Mac. (Most of this refers to MacOS 9, but let's compare to Windows 98 to be fair.)
1. Debugging a system failure of some kind, like a GPF. (YES, they do happen on Macs...it's called "error type 2".) It's impossible to retrieve meaningful information on a Mac.
2. Login/Logout with mapping of drives to a network share location. (this is easier in OS X, but we have old machines...not an option)
3. Installing applications remotely. In the labs, it's not such a problem; we can slam a new image down to install new apps. But on teacher PCs, I can install programs remotely with about 20 different management utilities (we use ZENworks), while nothing similar exists for the teacher Macs. (except sneakernet)
4. Replacement of basic parts. We had to have the apple store replace power supplies on two of our G3s last year at a cost of about $200 each. (parts and labor) This is a job I could have easily done if the power supply wasn't a non-standard size.
Even though they make my work more difficult, I don't hate Macs. In fact, I think OS X is wonderful, and I recommend Macs as home computers to friends regularly. But, in a network environment where you need them to play well with others, Macs fail miserably compared to PCs. Yes, yes. I know, they CAN connect to shares, they CAN do login/logout. But, on the PC, these are effortless. As for security patches and updates, I understand this is a issue for home users, or users without proper support. But for us, it's not a problem. I can easily make an update and send it out to all our PCs in an hour.
Macs are easier to maintain if you don't have anyone on your staff who knows how to manage/fix computers, it's true. But, once you have someone who can, that argument is gone because the PC allows a knowledgeable user to take care of it. The Mac may "take care of itself" more often, but when it fails to do so, there is nothing anyone can do but throw their hands up and say, "Damn that Mac!"
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That looks great. One question for you. It appears from the photos that you just have one power cable. How are you powering the motherboard? I can't quite see it because the memory and the ribbon cable for the hard drive are covering it up.
Thanks.
Going to Kinkos? Yeah, it's a bit pricey, but not totally out of bounds.
If he's at a large university, some other department might have one of these. Xerox doesn't charge for scans when you lease the machine. They only charge for how many prints or copies are made, so it would be essentially free for another department to allow him use their machine. It doesn't even require any additional setup, since you can enter any email address into the machine and have it send the document there directly from the copier. (assuming the SMTP server has been set on the machine)
Xerox bundles OCR as a software add-on. It works well when you get it all set up at your company. By the time you get back to your desk, the document is open and ready to be OCR'd with a drag and drop.
It obviously wouldn't be so convenient if he had to go to Kinkos, but they might have it set up on one of their machines. (Yeah, I doubt it, too.)
We have a Xerox WorkCentre Pro 65 at my school. It can scan at around 50-60 pages per minute, and will do double-sided. It will do PDF output, too. (and email it or FTP it to you, if so configured)
Our teachers use them for exactly the purpose described. If you don't have one of these type machines around anywhere, then definitely give Kinkos or some similar establishment a try.
And you probably stuff every freeware piece of crap known to man into them... which is likely -causing- the problem. Same for games. Load old games on a Mac OR a PC and you're in for a ride from hell.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing with our production systems here. I didn't think the kids had enough Flash web games, so I thought I'd load up some more. Actually, the apps that give us the most grief are MS Office, especially Equation Editor, and Inspiration.
That was OS 9 baby. Error Type 2 simply means that your app ran out of RAM.
Wrong. Perhaps that's one possible reason for it to happen, but technically means that some program tried to write in a space of RAM that it was not allocated. That's a GPF. There's alot of other reasons why it happens, but running out of memory might be one of them. Though, I usually get more specific errors when that happens.
OS 9 machines can run as Admin/Student and operate without problems indefinitely. 10.2 machines can get home directories from anywhare you want.
Yes, OS X can pull the usernames from our LDAP directory, but we have too much old hardware right now to go OS X everywhere. Next year, though, that's what we'll do. I don't think it's workable to put 500 individual student accounts on every OS 9 machine. We could use a generic Student account, but that goes back to what I was talking about...if you are willing to give up functionality of everyone having their own accounts, Macs work.
And Assimilator, Lan Commander, Net Octopus and Apple's Remote Desktop. Even Software Update can be run remotely by SSH. You didn't look into this at all.
Not true. Software Update is the only one that works anything like what I need. The others would work in a lab environment where all the machines are really identical, but not where the machines are personalized for teacher users. Assimilator in our Mac lab was the biggest nightmare I've ever encountered. We tried it for 2.5 months and had to abandon it for manually loading images with Apple Software Restore.
With 280 Macs in the school I have never bought Apple parts, so I wouldn't know. The drives are standard, the ram is standard, the rest is on warranty. Big deal.
True. Drives, RAM are standard. Our newest machines, eMacs, have a one year warranty that is up now. Yes, we could buy an extended warranty, but Macs aren't supposed to cost more than PCs, right?
Again, You didn't look into this at all. We have 690 GB of Server space that gets used up constantly, by macs, so those people must be connecting somehow.
Yes, we have about the same. And, I've had to learn Applescript programming to make it work.
I never claimed that Macs could not do all these things. I said it's harder to make them do these things.
So, if you use Macs, you don't need support staff. But if you have a support staff, there is no need for Macs. I think you've hit the nail on the head.
This is true if you are willing to give up capabilities. I find it hard to believe that the teachers at my school could set up a reliable file server with home directories for 600 users that are accessible easily from any computer at the school and remotely at home. However, if you just want to plug the computer in and get internet and a few apps, you're right. The Mac without the support would probably work. Though the computer experience would likely become inconsistent across machines over time, which may be confusing to some users.
1. No, I hadn't heard of Macsbug. Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.
2. This checkbox is not a viable solution for more than a few users. There's no way to have your own separate home directories that get mapped. You have to reboot the machine to make the log in window come back up, or teach people to drag the shares to the trash and map again with Chooser. (or perhaps an alias to the share on the desktop...but then users will try to drag it to the trash with the shares, probably) If you reboot and don't log in, the log in window will go away after awhile. You need a way to easily log in and out. Like I said, it's possible to map shares on the Mac, but it's not easy. Right now, I'm using an Applescript program to duplicate the functionality of a Windows login.
3. What happens if a server has to be rebooted? What happens if a network switch fails? I don't have money to stockpile extra switches around, so it might be 24 hours before I get an acceptable replacement. So, people just can't use any programs until then? I guess they can just go over and use the PCs. We do use network installs for some of our applications, but I can't imagine it for everything. Three hundred computers pulling all their apps from the server seems like an unnecessary burden on the network. I agree with you that installing programs on a Mac is easier than on a PC for the average user like a teacher, but for an administrator, it's roughly the same, so there's no benefit in our circumstance, really. Our teachers have me install all their programs. Also, what if I need to customize the install? Drag and drop installs usually set themselves up the first time they are run.
4. Yes, I could buy G3s off eBay, but it's a time issue again. Actually, I do stockpile all the half-broken G3s for parts, and this works most of the time. But for the PCs, I'm down to the local computer parts store and back in an hour.
I'm the sysadmin at a school that uses both Macs and PCs. We have both kinds of labs, and teachers get to pick which platform they prefer. I can tell you that from an administrator point of view, the Macs are the biggest bane of my existence. Now, before parroting the "but Macs don't break" line, hear me out.
The following things are trivial on a PC and cannot be easily done on a Mac. (Most of this refers to MacOS 9, but let's compare to Windows 98 to be fair.)
1. Debugging a system failure of some kind, like a GPF. (YES, they do happen on Macs...it's called "error type 2".) It's impossible to retrieve meaningful information on a Mac.
2. Login/Logout with mapping of drives to a network share location. (this is easier in OS X, but we have old machines...not an option)
3. Installing applications remotely. In the labs, it's not such a problem; we can slam a new image down to install new apps. But on teacher PCs, I can install programs remotely with about 20 different management utilities (we use ZENworks), while nothing similar exists for the teacher Macs. (except sneakernet)
4. Replacement of basic parts. We had to have the apple store replace power supplies on two of our G3s last year at a cost of about $200 each. (parts and labor) This is a job I could have easily done if the power supply wasn't a non-standard size.
Even though they make my work more difficult, I don't hate Macs. In fact, I think OS X is wonderful, and I recommend Macs as home computers to friends regularly. But, in a network environment where you need them to play well with others, Macs fail miserably compared to PCs. Yes, yes. I know, they CAN connect to shares, they CAN do login/logout. But, on the PC, these are effortless. As for security patches and updates, I understand this is a issue for home users, or users without proper support. But for us, it's not a problem. I can easily make an update and send it out to all our PCs in an hour.
Macs are easier to maintain if you don't have anyone on your staff who knows how to manage/fix computers, it's true. But, once you have someone who can, that argument is gone because the PC allows a knowledgeable user to take care of it. The Mac may "take care of itself" more often, but when it fails to do so, there is nothing anyone can do but throw their hands up and say, "Damn that Mac!"
House Bill 03-1303
The technical name is cognitive dissonance.