Schools can buy into the "campus agreement" which is a rental of microsoft software and is based on FTE counts, not physical machine counts. You effectively have a site license and can legally intsall Windows and Office (and any other products you sign up for in this) as many times as you want. It also forever relieves you of the hassle of trying to keep track of what licenses go where. As long as you pay the huge sum yearly, you're covered. Soon as you stop, all of your copies are now unlicensed.
He claims that the state's remedies would set Windows back 10 years and freeze it there.
Come on Bill, you throw out a wild claim like that that has no foundation in reality and it makes all of your other claims suspect.
10 years ago, Windows 3.0 was out. The copy of Windows NT I got 5 years ago allowed me the option not to install IE and it ran fine without it.
He's sounding like a spoiled whining brat.
I guess he just can't tell the truth like "Yes, it'd be possible, but we'd have to spend about x amount of time and y amount of dollars to separate the page rendering code into a callable API to allow alternative browsers to link into it.
I *do* see a benefit to having the OS render HTML in a window of an app I build, and you can do this quite easily with IE currently. Removing it would break apps that expect this to be there. That wouldn't be a good thing. Why doesn't he explain that point instead of throwing a temper tantrum like "If you make us do it, we'll never release another version of Windows ever again, nyah, nyah, how do you like that?"
There are no entry-level unix jobs right now. There are plenty of entry-level MS jobs.
I'm not trying to be smart, but this proves my point. Do you really think it's wise to throw an entry-level microsoft admin into a role administering microsoft servers?
Sure, you may be able to install a w2k server and pick all the defaults for active directory and basically have it work, but an experienced admin understands not only the technical requirements of something like Active Directory, but the huge human issues surrounding it, like the need to push an organization to define its structure so as to better define a workable active directory structure that does a little more than just spit out random DHCP replies, answer DNS requests, and authenticate a few logons...
It doesn't matter if you bow before the great Unix or Microsoft God, you should have experienced as well as entry-level tech positions in an organization. Having a policy that excludes either set is short-sighted and foolish.
Computers only need "one good soul" to carefully explain to them "how it's done". After that, a paid labor force is no longer needed to accomplish that goal.
... unless they run a Microsoft OS. Thanks to a security hole every week being patched and the cowardice of the people I work for to make a bold switch away from Windows, my job security is all but assured...
I feel like a high-tech janitor. I just get to clean up shit all day long...:-(
Thanks to stupid ad campaigns and Microsoft saying that Windows servers are easy to administer and don't require expensive experts, it causes the worth of Microsoft Sys Admins everywhere to be cheapened. As someone who administers Microsoft servers, it pisses me off enough that my bosses don't understand the level of intelligence required to properly administer large systems. Now I have Microsoft saying to the top Chiefs in orgs basically that you can get your Microsoft sys admins much cheaper than Unix admins.
Gee, thanks a lot.
So you get what you pay for. You drive down the perceived value of a Microsoft sys admin and you fill these positions with poorly trained or MCSE certified test takers with no real grasp of the larger issues involving administer *any* IT site.
Any competent sys admin would ensure crap like this doesn't happen, no matter what the OS is.
And if the gap in pay and value between Unix and Windows sys admins is widened, who in their right mind coming out of a CS degree in college (not some fly-by-night certification course) is going to want to use their training to specialize in the market that pays the least?
Really... I also found it hilarious that the pages are loaded with shockwave ads and large 256 color gif files for simple border bits that could be done in 4 colors.
Oh well, maybe I'll write an article about how to reduce size of GIF files using a smaller color pallete and turning off dithering so it can compress better...:-(
This article needs to be shown to just about every web graphics shop out there, but not to us self-righteous nerds!:)
I was hired in 1982 to manage a new network of CP/M machines just purchased. The file server consisted of a 40 meg fixed drive and 10 meg removable platters. Cost for the unit was $30,000 and $100 for each 10 meg removable cartridge. Insane.
Later, in 1986, I bought an external 20 meg (HDSC20) for my Mac Plus for $1,200 and couldn't believe how cheap they had gotten. That same year I spent $700 for two one meg SIMMs for that computer.
I also remember around 1984 seeing my first b/w 2-bit porn pic on my Mac and being amazed at the quality!
The old days sucked, but it was also kinda nice to be around during that time. I can really appreciate how good I got it now. I just bought a 160 gig external firewire drive for $400 for example. Sweet...
No more backup worries either, I just buy firewire disks and tack on as needed, and rsync nightly...
Yeah, really. You'd think if they really did a full audit of their code during Februrary, there'd be a lot of new security notices and patches shortly thereafter to fix what they found.
When's the last time a security bulletin from them was prompted by something other than being forced by some evildoer from the outside discovering it first?
A few years ago, AOL bought Compuserve, the place where techies hung out, and turned it into their "value" (read: cheap throwaway) brand.
They quickly came out with Compuserve 2000 and encouraged all "classic" subscribers to upgrade. CIS 2000 was basically just a repackaged AOL using AOL dialups.
Compuserve Classic has been left out there to whither and die. I've had a compuserve account since the mid 80s (76347,1163).
They have no updated their "classic" software since coming out with this bastardized AOL clone.
I was hoping this was going to be a classic update, guess not.:(
...from the first season, where some people are terraforming a planet by pumping salt water out of the ground. Turns out, that salt water is used by some intelligent life forms to survive.
So what's the chances these bacteria the depend on this trapped hydrogen are sensient and intelligent and will move to wipe out the human race when we try this?!
Ah, but I can beat that in just my instance of Opera running.
[weave@homebox weave]$ uptime
9:59am up 265 days, 17:11, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
[weave@homebox weave]$ ps -fp 9399
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
weave 9399 9274 1 2001 ? 07:26:58 opera
I fired up Opera when I booted the computer, been running ever since. The only reason I shut it down last year was to go on vacation for two weeks and it seemed prudent at the time...
This is all true but a lot of useful information isn't available easily from the CLI without hunting down additional tools from resource kits or learning some scripting languages and all the COM interfaces or whatever it is called.
For example, I had a devil of a time figuring out how to do something simple like "quota username" to see how much quota someone is using without right-clicking the drive, picking quota tab, waiting to resolve 15,000 SIDs so I could find the username I was looking for. There is a perl script in the resource kit, but it runs forever (I stopped it in frustration after 15 minutes) since I assume it's trying to resolve SID to usernames and our NT domain controller has 15,000 accounts... (the server in question was a w2k member server, of a NT 4 domain).
But to get back to topic, I don't understand why. It's not easy moving from unix sys admin to windows or visa-versa. That's mainly why each camp hates the other platform. I'm more comfortable with UNIX admin, and I'm sure if I had the time to invest in learning Windows admin, I could easily throw the needed scripts together to get what I need out of the box.
Two days isn't going to cut it. Just go over basics in philosophy and try to avoid platform wars..
Microsoft's greatest strengths have always been the ability to see which way the ship is headed, and when it turns out they're going in the wrong direction, to turn on a dime.
OK, point taken, but I was talking about it from the perspective of a typical user. I've used Linux and Windows a lot. There's still no getting around how nice OS X is, in my opinion. I still think Linux is overwhelming for the average user. Yeah, it's nice, installs and only requires a single reboot. But then you hit the start menu, k menu, whatever, and a huge mess of cascading menus show up. It's quite intimidating to a novice. You then have to find the runlevel manager or whatever it's called and figure out where httpd is to enable it to start at boot and to start it then.
I've ridiculed the Mac for years, and as head of IT at my organization, led the effort to ban them at our place as "unsupported." I now believe I've been part of a horrible conspiracy. Now that I have a Mac in my home with my linux and windows boxes along with a w2k server, I'll take the opportunity to learn how to integrate them and possibly support them again.
btw, on that note, I can tell you right now that SMB support SUCKS WIND. It works, but no browsing. You have to enter an address like smb://domain.name;machine.name/share. Hopefully that will get fixed in a future release.
The lack of 2d hardware acceleration and goofy GUI are just about the worst things in the world for anyone deep into profesional print, web or multimedia design.
Goofier than the default cartoony interface that XP comes with?
The only negatives I see so far is the lack of right button and scroll wheel (easily fixed with a usb mouse which I will get if I can find one as cool looking as the shipped mouse), and the fact I paniced it once mucking with smb_util mounting several volumes on my w2k server in the basement.
I got the DVD-R drive and intend to play with that soon. I have a PVR on my 2 GHZ Dell and it re-encodes mpeg a/v at about 2X real time, so I'm curious to see how this 800 MHz G4 does with something like that...
On that topic, anyone know of any decent mpeg editing tools and something like Nero on the Mac? (Don't mention Toaster, I hate roxio due to headaches experienced with their crap under XP.) If not, I'll have to wait for Nero for the Mac, which according to
their home page should be sometime in Q2 (read: June 30).
Re:Missing X tools...
on
Unix Isn't Dead
·
· Score: 3, Informative
X-Window systems was not installed by default.
X can be easily installed (from what I've been told, I intend to try it tonight). Go to fink.sourceforge.net. Their stuff is pre-compiled and packaged using dpkg.
The one thing about OS X from user viewpoint is that you just don't see Unix or can even tell it's there... I had to hunt in the app folder to find the terminal app to open up a shell. Not that that was difficult, but the box I saw in the store had terminal in the dock.
Well, since OS X was mentioned, I gotta say I went out and bought a new LCD iMac Friday and absolutely love it. I quickly figured out how to enable the root account and turn on a more normal boot sequence (that makes it look like a real unix system booting). Loads of good info at www.darwinfo.org.
I was pretty blown away when I went into the "sharing" control panel, clicked on web sharing, and apache started up, all ready configured and eager to go. Then there's "remote terminal login" which fired up sshd (and not telnetd thank god).
Next stop, the
fink site so I can install a rootless X server and all the GNU and other tools which are missing from it.
Basically, the best of all worlds. Unix, the slick Apple GUI, and even IE and Microsoft Office.
Why do you say that? Why do you think this? Disney had a problem with moving a heckuva lot of mob-level crowds between different areas. Getting back and forth between Epcot and Magic Kingdom is pretty easy due to monorail. For other places in the park, they have hundreds of city transit buses.
When I was there, I thought the monorail did quite well. When the water/fireworks show in Epcot let out, for example, the bus area was a mess and the monorail hauled all manner of people out of the area quickly...
This is a place you can fly in, get a shuttle into the park, stay all week, get around, and never need to rent a car. I think it works well...
After reading the comments here so far, I have to agree with the few posters who think this may not be such a bad deal. Microsoft gives away spec, people improve upon it, Microsoft may then want to take those improvements and put them back into Windows. Under GPL, they couldn't. Under a BSD type license, they could.
I also liked the idea posted about separating the CIFS code into a separate library. Then GPL code could link it in.
It's a shame, however, that thinking rationally probably doesn't count when it comes to Microsoft. Knowing Microsoft's history, this probably isn't about these things, but is some devious plot to divide and conquer the various open/free source crowds and to introduce FUD.
Shame it's come to this, isn't it? Kind of like a mate of yours who betrays you over and over and then when they finally may be telling the truth, you just can't come to believe it's possible.
Hauppauge's WinTV with MPEG-[12] support isn't much better. The software sucks, my w2k box and later XP crashes a lot in ixvideo.ix -- in explorer of all things. I've updated their drivers and everything.
The mpeg-2 it produces is horrible too. It works fine with it's own video player, but using any other codec and it's "squashed" so I only record in VCD quality (mpeg-1). Even that is horrible. If I bring it into a video editing program like Cyberlink's PowerDirector, the audio and video slowly get out of sync. From what I can tell by doing google searches, it's because Hauappauge encodes some sort of proprietary sync markers into their a/v streams and other vendor mpeg editing tools don't grok it.
They did finally release an mpeg editing tool that just allows "cuts only" to edit out commercials, but it then re-encodes the entire file. I bought PowerDirector mainly because it doesn't re-encode the entire file and now it's all but useless to me.
So, in summary, their competitor isn't much better, if at all. The A/V capture market sucks it seems..
Let's not rewrite history. Netscape was never worried about standards that much before Mozilla. I remember well the knashing of teeth whenever netscape 2, 3, and 4 came out and their "here's a new tag, we've submitted it to w3c for consideration." -- just like Microsoft does these days...
Back in the mid 90s, the web was full of sites that had "best viewed with netscape" messages everywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Schools can buy into the "campus agreement" which is a rental of microsoft software and is based on FTE counts, not physical machine counts. You effectively have a site license and can legally intsall Windows and Office (and any other products you sign up for in this) as many times as you want. It also forever relieves you of the hassle of trying to keep track of what licenses go where. As long as you pay the huge sum yearly, you're covered. Soon as you stop, all of your copies are now unlicensed.
Come on Bill, you throw out a wild claim like that that has no foundation in reality and it makes all of your other claims suspect.
10 years ago, Windows 3.0 was out. The copy of Windows NT I got 5 years ago allowed me the option not to install IE and it ran fine without it.
He's sounding like a spoiled whining brat.
I guess he just can't tell the truth like "Yes, it'd be possible, but we'd have to spend about x amount of time and y amount of dollars to separate the page rendering code into a callable API to allow alternative browsers to link into it.
I *do* see a benefit to having the OS render HTML in a window of an app I build, and you can do this quite easily with IE currently. Removing it would break apps that expect this to be there. That wouldn't be a good thing. Why doesn't he explain that point instead of throwing a temper tantrum like "If you make us do it, we'll never release another version of Windows ever again, nyah, nyah, how do you like that?"
I'm not trying to be smart, but this proves my point. Do you really think it's wise to throw an entry-level microsoft admin into a role administering microsoft servers?
Sure, you may be able to install a w2k server and pick all the defaults for active directory and basically have it work, but an experienced admin understands not only the technical requirements of something like Active Directory, but the huge human issues surrounding it, like the need to push an organization to define its structure so as to better define a workable active directory structure that does a little more than just spit out random DHCP replies, answer DNS requests, and authenticate a few logons...
It doesn't matter if you bow before the great Unix or Microsoft God, you should have experienced as well as entry-level tech positions in an organization. Having a policy that excludes either set is short-sighted and foolish.
I feel like a high-tech janitor. I just get to clean up shit all day long... :-(
Gee, thanks a lot.
So you get what you pay for. You drive down the perceived value of a Microsoft sys admin and you fill these positions with poorly trained or MCSE certified test takers with no real grasp of the larger issues involving administer *any* IT site.
Any competent sys admin would ensure crap like this doesn't happen, no matter what the OS is.
And if the gap in pay and value between Unix and Windows sys admins is widened, who in their right mind coming out of a CS degree in college (not some fly-by-night certification course) is going to want to use their training to specialize in the market that pays the least?
Oh well, maybe I'll write an article about how to reduce size of GIF files using a smaller color pallete and turning off dithering so it can compress better... :-(
This article needs to be shown to just about every web graphics shop out there, but not to us self-righteous nerds! :)
According to a disclaimer in the story in that magazine, Business 2 is owned by AOLTW...
Later, in 1986, I bought an external 20 meg (HDSC20) for my Mac Plus for $1,200 and couldn't believe how cheap they had gotten. That same year I spent $700 for two one meg SIMMs for that computer.
I also remember around 1984 seeing my first b/w 2-bit porn pic on my Mac and being amazed at the quality!
The old days sucked, but it was also kinda nice to be around during that time. I can really appreciate how good I got it now. I just bought a 160 gig external firewire drive for $400 for example. Sweet...
No more backup worries either, I just buy firewire disks and tack on as needed, and rsync nightly...
When's the last time a security bulletin from them was prompted by something other than being forced by some evildoer from the outside discovering it first?
They quickly came out with Compuserve 2000 and encouraged all "classic" subscribers to upgrade. CIS 2000 was basically just a repackaged AOL using AOL dialups.
Compuserve Classic has been left out there to whither and die. I've had a compuserve account since the mid 80s (76347,1163).
They have no updated their "classic" software since coming out with this bastardized AOL clone.
I was hoping this was going to be a classic update, guess not. :(
So what's the chances these bacteria the depend on this trapped hydrogen are sensient and intelligent and will move to wipe out the human race when we try this?!
[weave@homebox weave]$ uptime
9:59am up 265 days, 17:11, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
[weave@homebox weave]$ ps -fp 9399
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
weave 9399 9274 1 2001 ? 07:26:58 opera
I fired up Opera when I booted the computer, been running ever since. The only reason I shut it down last year was to go on vacation for two weeks and it seemed prudent at the time...
For example, I had a devil of a time figuring out how to do something simple like "quota username" to see how much quota someone is using without right-clicking the drive, picking quota tab, waiting to resolve 15,000 SIDs so I could find the username I was looking for. There is a perl script in the resource kit, but it runs forever (I stopped it in frustration after 15 minutes) since I assume it's trying to resolve SID to usernames and our NT domain controller has 15,000 accounts... (the server in question was a w2k member server, of a NT 4 domain).
But to get back to topic, I don't understand why. It's not easy moving from unix sys admin to windows or visa-versa. That's mainly why each camp hates the other platform. I'm more comfortable with UNIX admin, and I'm sure if I had the time to invest in learning Windows admin, I could easily throw the needed scripts together to get what I need out of the box.
Two days isn't going to cut it. Just go over basics in philosophy and try to avoid platform wars..
Ding Ding: What is innovation?
Alex Trebeck: Bwahahahahahhahahahha...
I've ridiculed the Mac for years, and as head of IT at my organization, led the effort to ban them at our place as "unsupported." I now believe I've been part of a horrible conspiracy. Now that I have a Mac in my home with my linux and windows boxes along with a w2k server, I'll take the opportunity to learn how to integrate them and possibly support them again.
btw, on that note, I can tell you right now that SMB support SUCKS WIND. It works, but no browsing. You have to enter an address like smb://domain.name;machine.name/share. Hopefully that will get fixed in a future release.
Goofier than the default cartoony interface that XP comes with?
The only negatives I see so far is the lack of right button and scroll wheel (easily fixed with a usb mouse which I will get if I can find one as cool looking as the shipped mouse), and the fact I paniced it once mucking with smb_util mounting several volumes on my w2k server in the basement.
I got the DVD-R drive and intend to play with that soon. I have a PVR on my 2 GHZ Dell and it re-encodes mpeg a/v at about 2X real time, so I'm curious to see how this 800 MHz G4 does with something like that...
On that topic, anyone know of any decent mpeg editing tools and something like Nero on the Mac? (Don't mention Toaster, I hate roxio due to headaches experienced with their crap under XP.) If not, I'll have to wait for Nero for the Mac, which according to their home page should be sometime in Q2 (read: June 30).
X can be easily installed (from what I've been told, I intend to try it tonight). Go to fink.sourceforge.net. Their stuff is pre-compiled and packaged using dpkg.
The one thing about OS X from user viewpoint is that you just don't see Unix or can even tell it's there... I had to hunt in the app folder to find the terminal app to open up a shell. Not that that was difficult, but the box I saw in the store had terminal in the dock.
I was pretty blown away when I went into the "sharing" control panel, clicked on web sharing, and apache started up, all ready configured and eager to go. Then there's "remote terminal login" which fired up sshd (and not telnetd thank god).
Next stop, the fink site so I can install a rootless X server and all the GNU and other tools which are missing from it.
Basically, the best of all worlds. Unix, the slick Apple GUI, and even IE and Microsoft Office.
Why do you say that? Why do you think this? Disney had a problem with moving a heckuva lot of mob-level crowds between different areas. Getting back and forth between Epcot and Magic Kingdom is pretty easy due to monorail. For other places in the park, they have hundreds of city transit buses.
When I was there, I thought the monorail did quite well. When the water/fireworks show in Epcot let out, for example, the bus area was a mess and the monorail hauled all manner of people out of the area quickly...
This is a place you can fly in, get a shuttle into the park, stay all week, get around, and never need to rent a car. I think it works well...
I also liked the idea posted about separating the CIFS code into a separate library. Then GPL code could link it in.
It's a shame, however, that thinking rationally probably doesn't count when it comes to Microsoft. Knowing Microsoft's history, this probably isn't about these things, but is some devious plot to divide and conquer the various open/free source crowds and to introduce FUD.
Shame it's come to this, isn't it? Kind of like a mate of yours who betrays you over and over and then when they finally may be telling the truth, you just can't come to believe it's possible.
The mpeg-2 it produces is horrible too. It works fine with it's own video player, but using any other codec and it's "squashed" so I only record in VCD quality (mpeg-1). Even that is horrible. If I bring it into a video editing program like Cyberlink's PowerDirector, the audio and video slowly get out of sync. From what I can tell by doing google searches, it's because Hauappauge encodes some sort of proprietary sync markers into their a/v streams and other vendor mpeg editing tools don't grok it.
They did finally release an mpeg editing tool that just allows "cuts only" to edit out commercials, but it then re-encodes the entire file. I bought PowerDirector mainly because it doesn't re-encode the entire file and now it's all but useless to me.
So, in summary, their competitor isn't much better, if at all. The A/V capture market sucks it seems..
This story is hilarious... I half expected to see it posted so we could get in our usual Microsoft bashing in for the day...
As I write this, they still don't have that wehavethewayout.com web site working yet.
Also, be sure to check out wehavethewayin.com site....
Anyway, Bush announced the feds were giving Governors Island back to NYC. I was sitting there waiting for him to say APRIL FOOLS SUCKERS.....
Dude, that is so funny. Too bad your trollness posts at -1 :-)
Oh the gems one occasionally finds when reading at a -1 level.... Tis a shame moderators don't read at -1...
Back in the mid 90s, the web was full of sites that had "best viewed with netscape" messages everywhere.