I LOVE you, John. Really. POPFile has turned spam into a very, very minor annoyance for me, and I get A LOT of it. 99.25% accurate with nary a false positive in recent history.
That "unnecessary" CalPIRG fee paid for the textbook pricing research that can hopefully lead to changes that save all students A LOT more per month. Keep it in perspective.
They are campus-wide votes. Every student votes, not just a subset of students. Again- it's usually the only fee that students directly choose to apply to themselves. And then even after going before a vote of the entire student body you can STILL choose not to pay.
Still, if you don't like them, you can organize your fellow students and get them booted off campus next time the vote happens.
The fact remains that it isn't an entitlement- on campuses where students cease to like them, they cease to be because students vote not to tax themselves with a fee for a statewide advocacy group.
Unusual funding system, yes. Calling a fee that students assess themselves via a campus-wide vote "spam" isn't even CLOSE to being a good comparison.
This is the ONE fee that students have direct control over on their tuition bills, and guess what! it's the one a lot of them complain the most about. What about all the useless fees (like athletics- this is slashdot, right?) you don't have any control over?
Some facts about PIRG fees:
PIRG doesn't get on a campus until students vote to tax themselves and fund a PIRG chapter. The PIRGs don't want folks to pay for advocacy activities they don't support, so it's set up so you can opt-out of supporting them if you wish.
Every student on a campus with a PIRG chapter has the ability to vote on whether or not to keep the chapter at least every 2 years. These votes aren't forced on the PIRGs, they choose to do them to keep students aware of how they got there in the first place and to hold themselves accountable. The PIRGs get voted off campuses regularly, that alone proves the accountability system works.
Conservative school administrators (the ones that want to treat students like products and universities like factories) HATE the PIRGs because they are one of the last groups that actually get students to advocate and do actual things besides talk about issues they believe in.
If you support PIRG, you have to support the idea that students have the right to assess themselves fees in campus-wide elections. Without a steady source of income, PIRG wouldn't be able to do what they do: fight for more affordable education, cleaner rivers, more civic participation and better government. They get stuff done.
Are they a perfect group? No, but they are one of the few, large progressive campus groups left that do anything of consequence.
FWIW, I've been working with non-profits, mostly in a technical capacity, for nearly a decade.
I agree with the parent, however, a couple of thoughts:
Some of the largest organizations are non-profits: Hospitals and universities. Not all non-profits are scrabbling for cash. I personally draw a mental distinction between "establishment" non-profits and "scrappy" ones that are membership- or donation-driven. I've worked with the scrappy ones.
I have a full-time job (and consult independently) doing web programming, linux networking and various and sundry linux projects, almost exclusively for non-profits. I don't really have too much trouble getting clients willing to go with OSS (after all, they are interested in results, not the way you get there), but I have heard from some consultancies that the reason they are Microsoft-only for servers and networks is that "Microsoft gives this stuff out for next to nothing to non-profits, so why shouldn't we use it?"
I think it's a shame- small non-profits generally don't have the technical capacity to manage windows servers securely, and the linux boxes and applications I install just run and run. Not that they don't need management, but a couple of minutes a month is usually all that's needed.
Non-profits are full of folks that are willing to "go against the flow" and use OSS, but in some situations I'm definitely seeing folks go with Microsoft just because they're giving their stuff away. If you want to see how cheap, go here.
Yes. Students make it hard on students. Read the post again.
Don't buy our XBoxes to make a linux box, 'cuz
on
Xbox Linux Cluster
·
· Score: 1
In conclusion, the XBOX functions well due to the work done by the XBOX Linux project. However the same or greater computing power could be obtained for an equal price, without the complications of modifying the XBOX. This makes the XBOX an unfit solution as a replacement for a personal computer or a cluster node.
- Microsoft
Kidding! Very nicely done, but this is exactly what they want- they want to sell games, not just consoles. Not a conspiracy theory, just an observation.
That's my guess, anyway. My feeling is that most *nix folks COULDN'T create anything than insecure intentionally, ever fibers of our being would scream in complaint.
We've got a roomba, and it's been nothing but good. It works as good as something it's size, with it's physical limitations possibly could, in my opinion. We've got two cats and it's a real boon.
Now hopefully the next version plugs itself when it's done and does stairs. ..It'd be nice if it could learn your rooms, too. ..But for a first gen product at $200, it's as good as it possibly could be, I think.
I tried going to Movielink to check it out. Apparently, Massachusetts (or maybe just my hometown of Lynn) has seceded from the union, because it's telling me I don't live in the US.
Re:Why you shouldn't trade your ibook for a vaio
on
Sony PCG-U1
·
· Score: 1
1) Yes. 2) Redhat 7.2. 3) No tricks related to the wireless, though there were tricks related to getting the CD-ROM to work. (I solved that by booting from the CD, letting it lock up, and then CTRL-ALT-DELETE'ing it to warm reboot. Worked fine after that. ..)
On redhat 7.2, you'll need to get the Intel VE driver from intel's site, you're internal network will continuosly lock up until you-
1) install the updated intel linux driver, or
2) upgrade your kernel.
I chose 1, and everything is peachy-keen now.
As for ACPI- yeah, there's someway to get it to work. Do a google search for "vaiobat" and you'll be able to at least check your battery level. This is the one sore spot for me, I figure the distros just need some time to catch up to Sony's wierdo implementation of this.
Re:Why you shouldn't trade your ibook for a vaio
on
Sony PCG-U1
·
· Score: 3, Informative
My Vaio SRX77 has built in wireless that works in linux, too.
Ethernet, Firewire, modem, and USB all work in redhat too. The memory stick is VERY useless, I agree (but it works, though I don't know what it's good for. . )
Can't comment on getting to the harddrive- not like you replace it that often. Dropping in new memory took like 5 minutes, pretty simple.
Honestly, I think the keyboard is excellent, myself. Took me an hour or so to get used to it, but it's about as good a keyboard as I've used on a laptop. ..
From my experience, Vaio's are MUCH better now than what you had. . .
I tried out the iBooks, but I thought that OSX was way too slow, especially for all the stuff I do in the shell. OSX was really sluggish in the shell. . . I'm very glad I went with my VAIO.
Sony rocks
on
Sony PCG-U1
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm typing this on a Sony SRX77 running Redhat 7.2 right now. IT'S AWESOME! 2.76 pounds, 4 hours of battery life, 1-1.5 inches thick, and fast as hell in linux.
The install was kind of a pain, but the end result is a fast, super-portable linux box that makes iBook folks drool. I've run Apache, MySQL, and mod_perl for client demos on this, and it's pretty impressive. ..
I honestly wouldn't want a smaller laptop than the SRX77, though.
Slashdot Mirror
I LOVE you, John. Really. POPFile has turned spam into a very, very minor annoyance for me, and I get A LOT of it. 99.25% accurate with nary a false positive in recent history.
Keep it up!
Oops. That was supposed to be "semester", not "month."
That "unnecessary" CalPIRG fee paid for the textbook pricing research that can hopefully lead to changes that save all students A LOT more per month. Keep it in perspective.
They are campus-wide votes. Every student votes, not just a subset of students. Again- it's usually the only fee that students directly choose to apply to themselves. And then even after going before a vote of the entire student body you can STILL choose not to pay.
Still, if you don't like them, you can organize your fellow students and get them booted off campus next time the vote happens.
The fact remains that it isn't an entitlement- on campuses where students cease to like them, they cease to be because students vote not to tax themselves with a fee for a statewide advocacy group.
Unusual funding system, yes. Calling a fee that students assess themselves via a campus-wide vote "spam" isn't even CLOSE to being a good comparison.
This is the ONE fee that students have direct control over on their tuition bills, and guess what! it's the one a lot of them complain the most about. What about all the useless fees (like athletics- this is slashdot, right?) you don't have any control over?
Some facts about PIRG fees:
Are they a perfect group? No, but they are one of the few, large progressive campus groups left that do anything of consequence.
Nothing that can't already done with any number of form automation/templatting systems already out there. And where's the docs?
I'll stick to mod_perl, CGI::Application, HTML::Template and CGI.pm. But that's my opinion. Everything I could possibly need for dynamic forms with flexible presentation.
From this page:
FWIW, I've been working with non-profits, mostly in a technical capacity, for nearly a decade.
I agree with the parent, however, a couple of thoughts:
Some of the largest organizations are non-profits: Hospitals and universities. Not all non-profits are scrabbling for cash. I personally draw a mental distinction between "establishment" non-profits and "scrappy" ones that are membership- or donation-driven. I've worked with the scrappy ones.
I have a full-time job (and consult independently) doing web programming, linux networking and various and sundry linux projects, almost exclusively for non-profits. I don't really have too much trouble getting clients willing to go with OSS (after all, they are interested in results, not the way you get there), but I have heard from some consultancies that the reason they are Microsoft-only for servers and networks is that "Microsoft gives this stuff out for next to nothing to non-profits, so why shouldn't we use it?"
I think it's a shame- small non-profits generally don't have the technical capacity to manage windows servers securely, and the linux boxes and applications I install just run and run. Not that they don't need management, but a couple of minutes a month is usually all that's needed.
Non-profits are full of folks that are willing to "go against the flow" and use OSS, but in some situations I'm definitely seeing folks go with Microsoft just because they're giving their stuff away. If you want to see how cheap, go here.
When it comes from the Economist, of course.
Yes. Students make it hard on students. Read the post again.
- Microsoft
Kidding! Very nicely done, but this is exactly what they want- they want to sell games, not just consoles. Not a conspiracy theory, just an observation.
And creating it was part of his exam.
That's my guess, anyway. My feeling is that most *nix folks COULDN'T create anything than insecure intentionally, ever fibers of our being would scream in complaint.
That sucks!
We've got a roomba, and it's been nothing but good. It works as good as something it's size, with it's physical limitations possibly could, in my opinion. We've got two cats and it's a real boon.
Now hopefully the next version plugs itself when it's done and does stairs. . .It'd be nice if it could learn your rooms, too. . .But for a first gen product at $200, it's as good as it possibly could be, I think.
I tried going to Movielink to check it out. Apparently, Massachusetts (or maybe just my hometown of Lynn) has seceded from the union, because it's telling me I don't live in the US.
I've GOT to start paying attention to the Globe!
1) Yes. 2) Redhat 7.2. 3) No tricks related to the wireless, though there were tricks related to getting the CD-ROM to work. (I solved that by booting from the CD, letting it lock up, and then CTRL-ALT-DELETE'ing it to warm reboot. Worked fine after that. . .)
On redhat 7.2, you'll need to get the Intel VE driver from intel's site, you're internal network will continuosly lock up until you-
1) install the updated intel linux driver, or
2) upgrade your kernel.
I chose 1, and everything is peachy-keen now.
As for ACPI- yeah, there's someway to get it to work. Do a google search for "vaiobat" and you'll be able to at least check your battery level. This is the one sore spot for me, I figure the distros just need some time to catch up to Sony's wierdo implementation of this.
My Vaio SRX77 has built in wireless that works in linux, too.
.
Ethernet, Firewire, modem, and USB all work in redhat too. The memory stick is VERY useless, I agree (but it works, though I don't know what it's good for. . )
Can't comment on getting to the harddrive- not like you replace it that often. Dropping in new memory took like 5 minutes, pretty simple.
Honestly, I think the keyboard is excellent, myself. Took me an hour or so to get used to it, but it's about as good a keyboard as I've used on a laptop. .
From my experience, Vaio's are MUCH better now than what you had. . .
I tried out the iBooks, but I thought that OSX was way too slow, especially for all the stuff I do in the shell. OSX was really sluggish in the shell. . . I'm very glad I went with my VAIO.
I'm typing this on a Sony SRX77 running Redhat 7.2 right now. IT'S AWESOME! 2.76 pounds, 4 hours of battery life, 1-1.5 inches thick, and fast as hell in linux.
.
The install was kind of a pain, but the end result is a fast, super-portable linux box that makes iBook folks drool. I've run Apache, MySQL, and mod_perl for client demos on this, and it's pretty impressive. .
I honestly wouldn't want a smaller laptop than the SRX77, though.