I set up a Linux box for my parents (in their 70s). It's running WindowMaker with wmppp, Netscape Communicator, and gicq on the dock. I added a docked shutdown command (sudoed) and put enough games and Maxwell (a wordprocessor) on the menus to satisfy them. Their user training consisted pretty much of, "click the right button to get the menus," "click the big X icon to shutdown, then wait till the screen says system halted to turn the computer off," and showing what each application did. My sisters want me to put Windows on the box because they don't know how to operate it, but my parents are happy as clams.
I get the impression that none of the commenters have actually gone to Force's website and looked at their press release. They're going to offer Linux on their CPCI-730 single-board computer initially, and eventually across their product line.
Force makes Compact PCI and VME bus single-board computers in 3U and 2U form factors. I know this because we have a rackmount system based on their Centellis 4000 chassis with the CPCI Sparc card in it. These "tiny" systems aren't the wearable or PDA systems you seem to think they are. In general, industrial systems aren't designed for extreme miniaturization, but for high availability and environmental robustness.
Forget about slim chassis; how about no chassis? Take a look at Beowulf on StrongARM boards for $2000. These folks are looking at building 6 StrongARM processors with RAM and the necessary "glue" onto a single PCI card. Since easily obtainable PCs have 3 PCI slots in them, you should be able to set up an 18 node beowulf cluster inside one box (the PC itself acts as the controller). Can you usefully cluster a bunch of these (a cluster of clusters)? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.
We have a mailing list, seul-edu, and a website, http://www.seul.org/edu/ that are dedicated to fostering educational applications for Linux. We have a number of programs both pedagogical and administrative and documents (HOWTOs, on-line texts) under development which I think you might find interesting. We can always use help and feedback. Please take a look at what we're doing and then join us!
I don't have time to correct all the mistakes you've made here. Get a copy of "Computer Security Basics," by Deborah Russel and G. T. Gangemi Sr., from O'Reilly & Associates and read it, then come back and we'll talk.
In the above example of a RA file with no textual companion, it would seem logical to me that the solution is to develope a speech-to-text browser plug-in, not to mandate that the site in question pre-translates the audio.
And which browser does your plug-in work with? Please don't say, "all," because that's not believable. The point is to make the page content available to all regardless of the browser used. That pretty much requires the accessability features mentioned.
Well, it's definitely faster that VB5 on a Linux system. And without getting into a religious war about whether VB is better/worse than whatever other language we're talking about, my point isn't just to get better performance out of the VB apps (although I consider your opinion about VB5's performance unlikely) but to get rid of VB entirely as it just isn't a viable non-MS OS possibility.
Doug Loss
Vb apps already work under Linux
on
Learning Perl/Tk
·
· Score: 1
I know about this. It's a Java applet, IIRC, so it requires java to be installed on the machine. Also, being binary only it will run VB code, but it doesn't convert it to something native to the system it's running on. That would mean that any maintenance or modification to the VB app itself would still have to be done in VB, and the use of VB is what I'm trying to get away from.
I don't disagree with anything you've said. What I'm talking about is something to take existing VB programs generated by people who used VB to get some need-specific job done (and who probably couldn't have programmed in any other language anyway) and convert it to Perl/Tk (or Python, or anything other than VB). Would it generate ugly code? Almost undoubtedly. However, it would have moved all their proprietary stuff to a non-Windows OS. It could then be cleaned up as needed. The upshot is that if they have to rewrite their VB apps in a better language, they won't do it and they won't move to Linux. As I said earlier, that's the point of the convertor, to get them to move.
Does anyone know of any programs to convert Visual Basic programs to Perl/Tk programs automatically, or at least semi-automatically? Something like that would be very handy to remove one of the major arguments small shops have against moving away from MS OSs. If their in-house VB programs can be automatically moved to Perl/Tk and run faster to boot, moving to Linux or FreeBSD would be a much easier sell.
Actually, it was NT 3.50 that was certified at an Orange Book C2 level on a specific hardware platform (I don't remember just what platform).
There are many different publications from the National Computer Security Center. The Orange Book (properly called "Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria") is used for NCSC's Trusted Product Evaluation Program (TPEP). The Orange Book only addresses single-system security. In an effort to extend Orange Book evaluation classes to networked systems NCSN published the Red Book ("Trusted Network Interpretation of the Trusted computer System Evaluation Criteria"). The Red book is used for TPEP network evaluation. No Microsoft OS has ever been put through this evaluation, so far as I know.
There are many other color books, such as the Lavender Book for trusted database management systems, the Venice Blue Book for security subsystems, the Pink Book for the Rating Maintenance Phase Program (this is what Microsoft should have been working with to extend the C2 rating to later versions of NT), and the Purple book for formal verification systems.
You can find out more about these sorts of things in the O'Reilly book "Computer Security Basics," by Deborah Russell and G. T. Gangemi Sr.
Finally, the man who sheperded NT through the formal security evaluation process is Ed Curry. For his efforts and his attempts to play by the rules both the Federal gov't and Microsoft laid down, Microsoft destroyed his consulting firm and put him and his family in a precarious financial position. He's still trying to make sure the government knows the exact status of NT security, but seems to be meeting with substantial counter-efforts by both Microsoft and (oddly enough) the Feds themselves. Do a web search for Ed Curry, familiarize yourself with the issues, and help him in whatever way seems best; I advise helping however Ed asks for help. It's in all our best interests to keep the government open to the truth. (Apologies to non-US readers.)
Slashdot Mirror
I set up a Linux box for my parents (in their 70s). It's running WindowMaker with wmppp, Netscape Communicator, and gicq on the dock. I added a docked shutdown command (sudoed) and put enough games and Maxwell (a wordprocessor) on the menus to satisfy them. Their user training consisted pretty much of, "click the right button to get the menus," "click the big X icon to shutdown, then wait till the screen says system halted to turn the computer off," and showing what each application did. My sisters want me to put Windows on the box because they don't know how to operate it, but my parents are happy as clams.
Doug Loss
I get the impression that none of the commenters have actually gone to Force's website and looked at their press release. They're going to offer Linux on their CPCI-730 single-board computer initially, and eventually across their product line.
Force makes Compact PCI and VME bus single-board computers in 3U and 2U form factors. I know this because we have a rackmount system based on their Centellis 4000 chassis with the CPCI Sparc card in it. These "tiny" systems aren't the wearable or PDA systems you seem to think they are. In general, industrial systems aren't designed for extreme miniaturization, but for high availability and environmental robustness.
Doug Loss
Forget about slim chassis; how about no chassis? Take a look at Beowulf on StrongARM boards for $2000. These folks are looking at building 6 StrongARM processors with RAM and the necessary "glue" onto a single PCI card. Since easily obtainable PCs have 3 PCI slots in them, you should be able to set up an 18 node beowulf cluster inside one box (the PC itself acts as the controller). Can you usefully cluster a bunch of these (a cluster of clusters)? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.
Doug Loss
We have a mailing list, seul-edu, and a website, http://www.seul.org/edu/ that are dedicated to fostering educational applications for Linux. We have a number of programs both pedagogical and administrative and documents (HOWTOs, on-line texts) under development which I think you might find interesting. We can always use help and feedback. Please take a look at what we're doing and then join us!
Doug Loss
I don't have time to correct all the mistakes you've made here. Get a copy of "Computer Security Basics," by Deborah Russel and G. T. Gangemi Sr., from O'Reilly & Associates and read it, then come back and we'll talk.
Doug Loss
In the above example of a RA file with no textual companion, it would seem logical to me that the solution is to develope a speech-to-text browser plug-in, not to mandate that the site in question pre-translates the audio.
And which browser does your plug-in work with? Please don't say, "all," because that's not believable. The point is to make the page content available to all regardless of the browser used. That pretty much requires the accessability features mentioned.
Doug Loss
Umm, the US Navy is at 336 ships and dropping. Pretty soon it'll just be a branch of the Coast Guard.
Doug Loss
Well, it's definitely faster that VB5 on a Linux system. And without getting into a religious war about whether VB is better/worse than whatever other language we're talking about, my point isn't just to get better performance out of the VB apps (although I consider your opinion about VB5's performance unlikely) but to get rid of VB entirely as it just isn't a viable non-MS OS possibility.
Doug Loss
I know about this. It's a Java applet, IIRC, so it requires java to be installed on the machine. Also, being binary only it will run VB code, but it doesn't convert it to something native to the system it's running on. That would mean that any maintenance or modification to the VB app itself would still have to be done in VB, and the use of VB is what I'm trying to get away from.
Doug Loss
I don't disagree with anything you've said. What I'm talking about is something to take existing VB programs generated by people who used VB to get some need-specific job done (and who probably couldn't have programmed in any other language anyway) and convert it to Perl/Tk (or Python, or anything other than VB). Would it generate ugly code? Almost undoubtedly. However, it would have moved all their proprietary stuff to a non-Windows OS. It could then be cleaned up as needed. The upshot is that if they have to rewrite their VB apps in a better language, they won't do it and they won't move to Linux. As I said earlier, that's the point of the convertor, to get them to move.
Doug Loss
Does anyone know of any programs to convert Visual Basic programs to Perl/Tk programs automatically, or at least semi-automatically? Something like that would be very handy to remove one of the major arguments small shops have against moving away from MS OSs. If their in-house VB programs can be automatically moved to Perl/Tk and run faster to boot, moving to Linux or FreeBSD would be a much easier sell.
Doug Loss
Actually, it was NT 3.50 that was certified at an Orange Book C2 level on a specific hardware platform (I don't remember just what platform).
There are many different publications from the National Computer Security Center. The Orange Book (properly called "Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria") is used for NCSC's Trusted Product Evaluation Program (TPEP). The Orange Book only addresses single-system security. In an effort to extend Orange Book evaluation classes to networked systems NCSN published the Red Book ("Trusted Network Interpretation of the Trusted computer System Evaluation Criteria"). The Red book is used for TPEP network evaluation. No Microsoft OS has ever been put through this evaluation, so far as I know.
There are many other color books, such as the Lavender Book for trusted database management systems, the Venice Blue Book for security subsystems, the Pink Book for the Rating Maintenance Phase Program (this is what Microsoft should have been working with to extend the C2 rating to later versions of NT), and the Purple book for formal verification systems.
You can find out more about these sorts of things in the O'Reilly book "Computer Security Basics," by Deborah Russell and G. T. Gangemi Sr.
Finally, the man who sheperded NT through the formal security evaluation process is Ed Curry. For his efforts and his attempts to play by the rules both the Federal gov't and Microsoft laid down, Microsoft destroyed his consulting firm and put him and his family in a precarious financial position. He's still trying to make sure the government knows the exact status of NT security, but seems to be meeting with substantial counter-efforts by both Microsoft and (oddly enough) the Feds themselves. Do a web search for Ed Curry, familiarize yourself with the issues, and help him in whatever way seems best; I advise helping however Ed asks for help. It's in all our best interests to keep the government open to the truth. (Apologies to non-US readers.)
Doug Loss
Here are links for:
RealTimeBattle
GNU Robots
Both run under Linux, both are GPLed.
Doug Loss
If you can't afford Great Expectations, try Wood Computer Cases. They print high-quality photos of woodgrain on regular cabinets.
Doug Loss
Take a look at Great Expectations. They make furniture-quality wooden computer cases and accessories.
Doug Loss