I advise my son's elementary school concerning all things that are computer related. School districts are interesting entities - There are so many dynamics running around (and different turf wars) it isn't even funny.
1) Many teachers are computer illiterate. They don't like being shown up by their students who are mostly not computer jocks because they've grown up with them!
2) Software used on campus has to be approved for use by students. This is required because teachers need to be trained on the software, hardware & OS compatibility needs to be assured, and the appropriateness of the application need to be accessed. All this usually costs money.
3) The support staff has to know how to support the hardware and software that you already have. Someone earlier said - IT guys/gals are ALWAYS upgrading their knowledge. You probably don't work for a school district!
4) School districts typically under-estimate the cost of an IT infrastructure by orders of magnitude. They have extremely in-adequate support for staff, software, and hardware support issues. Our district has roughly 50 schools at the K-12 level. Assuming about 100 computers per site you are talking 5000 machines. The district has 5 staff people to support all of this. Further, they don't budget for the up-keep of anything.
These staff are responsible for the district internet infrastructure, the network infrastructure at each school (much of which was put in place by volunteers with no documentation), repair and up-keep of all computers both at each school site and the district office. Just 5 people do all this. Yeah -right.
Let's say you get a donation of 20 Macs - that's great. These machines are going can be expected to have a 10 year life time. There are still Apple II'c in use on my son's campus!
5) Planning a district infrastructure is a nitemare because school budgets are a moving target, you receive donations from all over the board. It's a true patch-work. It's amazing anything works!
So - I'm not suprised they turn something like this down!
Look - if you are going to jump ship -GREAT! Only be a little smart and find another job before you jump.
I know it would give you great satisfaction to flip off the boss and walk as a group. Yet, the economic reality today says that is a really dumb idea. If you don't like your current position, at least have another place to land before you toss it.
Further, it is HIGHLY suggested that even though you don't like the place, that you don't burn bridges. What are the chances you are going to work with some of the managers/people above you in the future (answer from 25 years in the business - 100%) Leave gracefully and your career will do better in the long run.
Haven't used TIVO, but I've found the replay inteface easy enough. Heck, even my wife can use it - and she definately CAN'T program the VCR.
I specifically bought the Replay for the commercial advance feature, and I enjoy it a whole bunch. That being said - the bit about Tivo being Hacker friendly may be true, but they aren't consumer friendly. Wasn't there an article just last week saying that they are selling user information?????? Replay explicitly won't do that - I find that "consumer friendly!"
A couple of things here - (I'm a ham for over 25 years too, i.e. since tubes were the "hot" technology;-) PC's CAN AND DO interfere with radios. The FCC requirements in effect today help alot, but you can still have cables, etc from the puter that cause grief.
Also - the author states that ham radio isn't dead. I'd counter that it is indeed sick at this point. The average age of amateurs is constantly rising. There is almost NO new blood coming into the hobby. When I first got licensed, I joined a ham club called the West Valley ARC (West San Fernando Valley) and the average age of the members was perhaps 20. Unfortunately, when I go to a ham club meeting, all I see is folks older than myself..and I'm an OLD FART! (For those not in the know, Old Fart is a technical term...means ancient as the hills).
The Internet and todays communications technology has taken all the magic out of ham radio. I don't see the genie being put back in the bottle easily either.
Odlly enough, there are alot or missionary workers and UN organizations that have email service because of HF packet systems. One of the commenters above says "It's good for short text messages." Yep!
So - it isn't going to replace broadband anytime soon. (Well maybe UHF packet will;-) but it has it's place for long haul text, etc.
For those of you that don't seem to know - the Hackers Dictionary was WRITTEN by ESR around 1990 if memory serves. Granted that he got most of it's content through requests for definition on Usenet, but he is STILL the original author - so if he chooses to add or delete from it, he is doing so to his own original work.
Sheesh!
Compared to the SCO versus the rest of the world fight going on right now - this is mouse nuts!
The thing you miss ( and I HATE defending SCO here) is that if the code is there --- It constitutes IP theft, which is the actionable part of the whole thing.
The other part the arguement that you didn't seem to bring up is that SCO themselves have shipped this code in a Linux kernel under GPL which may remove the ability to claim theft.
Well -yeah, actually under current law the airwaves ARE considered public property. In some cases the "public" being the government has chosen to lease/sell the spectrum.
Consider that radio waves don't pay attention to boundaries such as state borders, but only obey the laws of physics. That being said - any use of this resource implies that it will impinge on an individual's physical space - Should the individual be able to control the entire radio environment within their immediate vacinity - or does that entire concept eliminate the concept of broadcast services? I think it does. If you have broadcast services, SOMEONE needs to play traffic cop -otherwise you have chaos, at which point no-one is happy. What we have today is evolved from that very situation.
Others argue that you can make better use of the spectrum we have. Probably so, though I think there are political, physical, and monetary reasons that things won't change as fast as desired.
Well - I see why you are an AC - you are apparently not too clever. People may not die if their TV doesn't work, but they WILL die when the ambulance can't get dispatched, or the fire truck has interference with it's base station.
Interference with emergency services communications fits the bill pretty well in comparing it to ATC.
The first question that needs clarification in my mind is - Is your company distributing open-source code that they have modified?
If that is the case - then if it is GPL'd code, you need to release it according to the license. If it is a BSDish license that isn't the case.
Probably the best piece of advice - get your company to emit a policy on the subject. You may not like the results, but at least it will be a definitive answer.
Well - DeVry REALLY has a place in the world - but what MIT is doing is more along the lines of what Polytechnic Universities have been doing all along.
I attended Cal Poly SLO as an EE and the difference between this school and the UC system at the time was 1) there were in-major courses as a freshman! 2) These classes had labs.
The first course was "Intro to EE" and did alot of the stuff MIT is introducing, i.e. told the in-coming Freshman what a career in EE is going to be about. From there, they go into intro circuit analysis classes with companion labs where they would learn about practical things like Polar capacitors and reasonable values for same.
All of this DOESN'T remove the need for a theoretical background. It just grounds the whole process with reality.
I think this is a good thing- MIT grads will be even more in demand than they already are!
I have some significant problems with - what is the difference between this concept and what was the original BIG problem with "BSD Style licenses" where you had to display the copyright notice at boot time/use time? Remember that??? The GPL people stayed away from BSD licenses because of this copyright clause. Now that the BSD licenses don't have the copyright notice they are perhaps "more free" that GPL since they don't have the "contribute the changes back" requirement!
Further - the whole concept behind BSD and GPL style licenses is that the user is free to change/modify/use the software as needed. A change to "give the author credit" is a definite usage requirement!!!! It isn't free then?!?!
Look - the authors have a right to put their code under ANY license requirement they like. If they choose to do this - well, I just don't think the software would then qualify as either Free or Open Source software in my mind.
This is a funny(strange) situation because normally I would be ranting about how people don't get the concept of freedom of speach, i.e. no-one said there isn't repercussions for saying things that other people don't like (see the response many of the Hollywood crowd is getting as an example). Freedom-of-speach means that the Government can't persecute you for things you say...uhm...DARPA being the government does tend to completely cancel my favorite argument.
How much does lifetime subscription service cost the company? (Not counting tech support which is MOSTLY just for getting things working the first time (and consequently not a recurring cost)).
Hmmm - for replay - there is phone subscriptions and net connections, there is the creation of the programming guide - that is about it.
So - you have recurring costs of supplying the guide data to the phone/internet connection. You have the guide creation cost - That's about it.
I don't imagine this is a really large part of thier over-all expenses.
Didn't the Chineese govermnment actually try to sue Google at one point for use of Chineese characters or some such - claiming that they had such stuff copyrighted??
Looks like more of the same game to control their populace to me.
See though, the problem is that the even though you start out with something reasonable, you draw a conclusion yourself with the SUV comment! From your writting, one would interpret this as the SUV culture is still killing the planet.
That's right up there with "What would Jesus drive."
Excuse me while I go on a camping trip in my 10mpg F250!
I want to second the bit about discipline. We were terribly inconsistant, for that matter almost spoiling our son. We went to the Dr. when he was maybe 20 months old and the Dr. told us that we REALLY needed to turn the tables on our kid, i.e. we needed to be the boss -not him! That same week I saw a show on ABC 20-20 where they followed a mom around for 24 hours, then showed it to her. There was this scene at the breakfast table where Mom would say - stop that or I'll (whatever) over and over again, then wouldn't follow through with the threat. The kids ran over her. Things changed that nite - we now have a pretty well behaved 10 year old that is a pleasure to be around (most of the time;-) He says "Yes sir", and "Yes mam" to adults. He knows that when I say "Don't do X or bad things will happen." that I mean what I say - usually he then chooses the right course of action.
Bottom line - and you are a couple years away from this - if you threaten discipliine - DO IT! Also know that you're going to make mistakes here - accept them and move on. You'll get better as the child gets older. Then they turn into teenagers and all bets are off;-)
Nahh - what else are you going to do at 2AM while you are waiting for the bottle to warm up?
Seriously - 1) You will not get much sleep the first few weeks/months - this too will pass...but it takes awhile. 2) Every kid is different! 3) Babies are sacks of potatos till maybe 4 months old. 4) The first time they actually smile or chuckle will absolutely melt your heart(even a geek) 5) Once you bring the baby home - the first likely problem is feeding them. Mom may not have her milk come in for upto 5 days after the baby is born, and some babies don't really do a great job of latching on to Mom. Either one will leave you with a screaming baby and you'll have no real idea how to deal with it... patience and formula help. 6) Keep the baby on Mom's milk as long as possible. 6 months isn't too long - and all the things I've read say that is really the minimum. The baby gets alot of it's immune system from Mom's milk. 7) If your wife pumps here breasts - you'll be able to help her feed the baby and she'll get some sleep. There are very small battery powered pumps that can fit in her purse that work great. Freeze the spare milk - you warm it up at 2AM while Mom sleeps and feed the baby. Mom will periodically need to feed the baby or pump her breasts - maybe once every 3-4 hours anyway cause they'll get to full otherwise. We used the Gerber baggy like bottles. We'd fill the baggies up with 4 ounces of milk initially and put a rubber band around it and freeze it. You just drop this into a pan of warm water (hot tap water works) to defrost it. 8) Avoid getting the baby used to really warm milk - it just takes that much longer to prepare and there is no evidence the milk MUST be warm for the baby. 9) Supplement Mom's milk with formula when necessary. 10) Teach the baby to hold their own milk bottle as early as possible. 4-5 months isn't to early from what I understand. 11)Get a baby bag at Toy-R-Us or similar (also a good place to get deals on baby formula) Something that comes with a changing blanket would be good. 12) I'd advise use of disposable diapers - it IS easier. We also used baby wipes to great advantage. You CAN actually get use to this process;-) 13) Good Luck - it'll change your life for the better!
I've done alot of disaster scenario planning for emergency service providers - and we come up with some really wild stuff, but the above is perhaps the best advice I've seen here so far. Don't worry about the aliens hijacking the data center, worry about the data center resources not being available for whatever reason.
The concept of breaking down the recovery phases is the best recovery advice I can give you. Worry about things in sort of a concentric ring of problems much as the previous poster presented. Start with the simplest broken piece and move on to the more compilicated.
The things companies went through due to the WTC going poof is a true real-world example of the worst case scenario occuring - Not only the data center disappeared, so did the staff that ran IT there!
Of the recovery efforts I've read about - the guys that had deals with hot-standby facilities out of the immediate area came back the quickest.
Well - they would have to buy the rights from Replay I would imagine. The replay's are hardcoded to specific addresses/phone numbers to get this info - along with a specific format.
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I advise my son's elementary school concerning all things that are computer related. School districts are interesting entities - There are so many dynamics running around (and different turf wars) it isn't even funny.
1) Many teachers are computer illiterate. They don't like being shown up by their students who are mostly not computer jocks because they've grown up with them!
2) Software used on campus has to be approved for use by students. This is required because teachers need to be trained on the software, hardware & OS compatibility needs to be assured, and the appropriateness of the application need to be accessed. All this usually costs money.
3) The support staff has to know how to support the hardware and software that you already have. Someone earlier said - IT guys/gals are ALWAYS upgrading their knowledge. You probably don't work for a school district!
4) School districts typically under-estimate the cost of an IT infrastructure by orders of magnitude. They have extremely in-adequate support for staff, software, and hardware support issues. Our district has roughly 50 schools at the K-12 level. Assuming about 100 computers per site you are talking 5000 machines. The district has 5 staff people to support all of this. Further, they don't budget for the up-keep of anything.
These staff are responsible for the district internet infrastructure, the network infrastructure at each school (much of which was put in place by volunteers with no documentation), repair and up-keep of all computers both at each school site and the district office. Just 5 people do all this. Yeah -right.
Let's say you get a donation of 20 Macs - that's great. These machines are going can be expected to have a 10 year life time. There are still Apple II'c in use on my son's campus!
5) Planning a district infrastructure is a nitemare because school budgets are a moving target, you receive donations from all over the board. It's a true patch-work. It's amazing anything works!
So - I'm not suprised they turn something like this down!
Look - if you are going to jump ship -GREAT! Only be a little smart and find another job before you jump.
I know it would give you great satisfaction to flip off the boss and walk as a group. Yet, the economic reality today says that is a really dumb idea. If you don't like your current position, at least have another place to land before you toss it.
Further, it is HIGHLY suggested that even though you don't like the place, that you don't burn bridges. What are the chances you are going to work with some of the managers/people above you in the future (answer from 25 years in the business - 100%) Leave gracefully and your career will do better in the long run.
Does that mean that Linus will finally get rich off of Linux?
Haven't used TIVO, but I've found the replay inteface easy enough. Heck, even my wife can use it - and she definately CAN'T program the VCR.
I specifically bought the Replay for the commercial advance feature, and I enjoy it a whole bunch. That being said - the bit about Tivo being Hacker friendly may be true, but they aren't consumer friendly. Wasn't there an article just last week saying that they are selling user information?????? Replay explicitly won't do that - I find that "consumer friendly!"
A couple of things here - (I'm a ham for over 25 years too, i.e. since tubes were the "hot" technology ;-) PC's CAN AND DO interfere with radios. The FCC requirements in effect today help alot, but you can still have cables, etc from the puter that cause grief.
Also - the author states that ham radio isn't dead. I'd counter that it is indeed sick at this point. The average age of amateurs is constantly rising. There is almost NO new blood coming into the hobby. When I first got licensed, I joined a ham club called the West Valley ARC (West San Fernando Valley) and the average age of the members was perhaps 20. Unfortunately, when I go to a ham club meeting, all I see is folks older than myself..and I'm an OLD FART! (For those not in the know, Old Fart is a technical term...means ancient as the hills).
The Internet and todays communications technology has taken all the magic out of ham radio. I don't see the genie being put back in the bottle easily either.
Odlly enough, there are alot or missionary workers and UN organizations that have email service because of HF packet systems. One of the commenters above says "It's good for short text messages." Yep!
;-) but it has it's place for long haul text, etc.
So - it isn't going to replace broadband anytime soon. (Well maybe UHF packet will
Thanks for the correction - though ESR significantly enhanced the whole effort during the mid-80's and published as a book.
Last time I looked - he was the author of the Jargon File!
For those of you that don't seem to know - the Hackers Dictionary was WRITTEN by ESR around 1990 if memory serves. Granted that he got most of it's content through requests for definition on Usenet, but he is STILL the original author - so if he chooses to add or delete from it, he is doing so to his own original work.
Sheesh!
Compared to the SCO versus the rest of the world fight going on right now - this is mouse nuts!
The thing you miss ( and I HATE defending SCO here) is that if the code is there --- It constitutes IP theft, which is the actionable part of the whole thing.
The other part the arguement that you didn't seem to bring up is that SCO themselves have shipped this code in a Linux kernel under GPL which may remove the ability to claim theft.
Well -yeah, actually under current law the airwaves ARE considered public property. In some cases the "public" being the government has chosen to lease/sell the spectrum.
Consider that radio waves don't pay attention to boundaries such as state borders, but only obey the laws of physics. That being said - any use of this resource implies that it will impinge on an individual's physical space - Should the individual be able to control the entire radio environment within their immediate vacinity - or does that entire concept eliminate the concept of broadcast services? I think it does. If you have broadcast services, SOMEONE needs to play traffic cop -otherwise you have chaos, at which point no-one is happy. What we have today is evolved from that very situation.
Others argue that you can make better use of the spectrum we have. Probably so, though I think there are political, physical, and monetary reasons that things won't change as fast as desired.
But that's just me.
Well - I see why you are an AC - you are apparently not too clever. People may not die if their TV doesn't work, but they WILL die when the ambulance can't get dispatched, or the fire truck has interference with it's base station.
Interference with emergency services communications fits the bill pretty well in comparing it to ATC.
The first question that needs clarification in my mind is - Is your company distributing open-source code that they have modified?
If that is the case - then if it is GPL'd code, you need to release it according to the license. If it is a BSDish license that isn't the case.
Probably the best piece of advice - get your company to emit a policy on the subject. You may not like the results, but at least it will be a definitive answer.
You forgot to put the smiley face after your post - after all - that REALLY is a joke. Using the TV as a camera - right... wink wink - nod nod.
Well - DeVry REALLY has a place in the world - but what MIT is doing is more along the lines of what Polytechnic Universities have been doing all along.
I attended Cal Poly SLO as an EE and the difference between this school and the UC system at the time was 1) there were in-major courses as a freshman! 2) These classes had labs.
The first course was "Intro to EE" and did alot of the stuff MIT is introducing, i.e. told the in-coming Freshman what a career in EE is going to be about. From there, they go into intro circuit analysis classes with companion labs where they would learn about practical things like Polar capacitors and reasonable values for same.
All of this DOESN'T remove the need for a theoretical background. It just grounds the whole process with reality.
I think this is a good thing- MIT grads will be even more in demand than they already are!
I have some significant problems with - what is the difference between this concept and what was the original BIG problem with "BSD Style licenses" where you had to display the copyright notice at boot time/use time? Remember that??? The GPL people stayed away from BSD licenses because of this copyright clause. Now that the BSD licenses don't have the copyright notice they are perhaps "more free" that GPL since they don't have the "contribute the changes back" requirement!
Further - the whole concept behind BSD and GPL style licenses is that the user is free to change/modify/use the software as needed. A change to "give the author credit" is a definite usage requirement!!!! It isn't free then?!?!
Look - the authors have a right to put their code under ANY license requirement they like. If they choose to do this - well, I just don't think the software would then qualify as either Free or Open Source software in my mind.
This is a funny(strange) situation because normally I would be ranting about how people don't get the concept of freedom of speach, i.e. no-one said there isn't repercussions for saying things that other people don't like (see the response many of the Hollywood crowd is getting as an example). Freedom-of-speach means that the Government can't persecute you for things you say...uhm...DARPA being the government does tend to completely cancel my favorite argument.
DAMN!
How much does lifetime subscription service cost the company? (Not counting tech support which is MOSTLY just for getting things working the first time (and consequently not a recurring cost)).
Hmmm - for replay - there is phone subscriptions and net connections, there is the creation of the programming guide - that is about it.
So - you have recurring costs of supplying the guide data to the phone/internet connection. You have the guide creation cost - That's about it.
I don't imagine this is a really large part of thier over-all expenses.
Didn't the Chineese govermnment actually try to sue Google at one point for use of Chineese characters or some such - claiming that they had such stuff copyrighted??
Looks like more of the same game to control their populace to me.
See though, the problem is that the even though you start out with something reasonable, you draw a conclusion yourself with the SUV comment! From your writting, one would interpret this as the SUV culture is still killing the planet.
That's right up there with "What would Jesus drive."
Excuse me while I go on a camping trip in my 10mpg F250!
I do believe the new team members are both hams!
This is ALL good advice!
;-) He says "Yes sir", and "Yes mam" to adults. He knows that when I say "Don't do X or bad things will happen." that I mean what I say - usually he then chooses the right course of action.
;-)
I want to second the bit about discipline. We were terribly inconsistant, for that matter almost spoiling our son. We went to the Dr. when he was maybe 20 months old and the Dr. told us that we REALLY needed to turn the tables on our kid, i.e. we needed to be the boss -not him! That same week I saw a show on ABC 20-20 where they followed a mom around for 24 hours, then showed it to her. There was this scene at the breakfast table where Mom would say - stop that or I'll (whatever) over and over again, then wouldn't follow through with the threat. The kids ran over her. Things changed that nite - we now have a pretty well behaved 10 year old that is a pleasure to be around (most of the time
Bottom line - and you are a couple years away from this - if you threaten discipliine - DO IT! Also know that you're going to make mistakes here - accept them and move on. You'll get better as the child gets older. Then they turn into teenagers and all bets are off
Nahh - what else are you going to do at 2AM while you are waiting for the bottle to warm up?
;-)
Seriously -
1) You will not get much sleep the first few weeks/months - this too will pass...but it takes awhile.
2) Every kid is different!
3) Babies are sacks of potatos till maybe 4 months old.
4) The first time they actually smile or chuckle will absolutely melt your heart(even a geek)
5) Once you bring the baby home - the first likely problem is feeding them. Mom may not have her milk come in for upto 5 days after the baby is born, and some babies don't really do a great job of latching on to Mom. Either one will leave you with a screaming baby and you'll have no real idea how to deal with it... patience and formula help.
6) Keep the baby on Mom's milk as long as possible. 6 months isn't too long - and all the things I've read say that is really the minimum. The baby gets alot of it's immune system from Mom's milk.
7) If your wife pumps here breasts - you'll be able to help her feed the baby and she'll get some sleep. There are very small battery powered pumps that can fit in her purse that work great. Freeze the spare milk - you warm it up at 2AM while Mom sleeps and feed the baby. Mom will periodically need to feed the baby or pump her breasts - maybe once every 3-4 hours anyway cause they'll get to full otherwise.
We used the Gerber baggy like bottles. We'd fill the baggies up with 4 ounces of milk initially and put a rubber band around it and freeze it. You just drop this into a pan of warm water (hot tap water works) to defrost it.
8) Avoid getting the baby used to really warm milk - it just takes that much longer to prepare and there is no evidence the milk MUST be warm for the baby.
9) Supplement Mom's milk with formula when necessary.
10) Teach the baby to hold their own milk bottle as early as possible. 4-5 months isn't to early from what I understand.
11)Get a baby bag at Toy-R-Us or similar (also a good place to get deals on baby formula) Something that comes with a changing blanket would be good.
12) I'd advise use of disposable diapers - it IS easier. We also used baby wipes to great advantage. You CAN actually get use to this process
13) Good Luck - it'll change your life for the better!
I've done alot of disaster scenario planning for emergency service providers - and we come up with some really wild stuff, but the above is perhaps the best advice I've seen here so far. Don't worry about the aliens hijacking the data center, worry about the data center resources not being available for whatever reason.
The concept of breaking down the recovery phases is the best recovery advice I can give you. Worry about things in sort of a concentric ring of problems much as the previous poster presented. Start with the simplest broken piece and move on to the more compilicated.
The things companies went through due to the WTC going poof is a true real-world example of the worst case scenario occuring - Not only the data center disappeared, so did the staff that ran IT there!
Of the recovery efforts I've read about - the guys that had deals with hot-standby facilities out of the immediate area came back the quickest.
Well - they would have to buy the rights from Replay I would imagine. The replay's are hardcoded to specific addresses/phone numbers to get this info - along with a specific format.