When I read the statement:...the software splits every file you backup into small slices, any majority of which can be used to perfectly recreate all the original data. The software is also very scalable, allowing you to run your own backup grid on a single desktop or across thousands of machines.
I was immediately visualizing a Borg Cube regenerating after a hit from the Enterprise.
I'll base these on what other people send documents to us and say we *should* have these in order to do business.
Internet Explorer - You just cant use the important parts of the internet without it (at least that's what many of the webmasters of sites that refuse to be more compatible say.
Microsoft Outlook - So you can open all those winmail.dat files people send you.
Microsoft Excel for Windows - Exspecially for those sheets with macros using active-x components, they insist thier stuff just would just suck without those gems.
Microsoft Publisher - At work we regularly get.pub documents with the creators getting indignant when we say we can't open it. Of course depending on the sender, they expect you to have the version of publisher THEY have, not always particularly the latest version.
Microsot Access - Here it is the panacea of all data needs, just about every agency with accidental techies have islads of productivityware using access (ignoring the fact there is no easy way to integrate all these these different islands)
Webshots - just about every Windows workstation I see in or office runs Webshots, must be an essential utlity.
The thing that makes smiley icons and patterned backgrounds in Outlook Second to webshots are the outlook emails with all the HTML and embedded gifs, which also advertise the utility that will turn your oulook browser into a similar productive environment.
Turbo Tax, Tax Cut or Quicken Taxes - apparently we can't do our home taxes without them
Besides more vertical market "canned applications" for accounting and such that's about it.
Im my day Linux wasn't invented yet so we had to make it up each day and hand assemble it on paper then coding it all into POKEs on our calculator keyboard 4k PETs (cassette tape deck busted, couldn't save). Yeah it was a pain in the butt back then, though it ran better than the original Microsoft BASIC on that PET.
I think it cheapens the Mac platform as a whole, so much for being better. I was actually hoping Apples Intel gusto was to open up to a more diverse x86 GNU/Linux operability than to the Windows legacy/marketing mess.
Many of us appreciate Mac OS for it's lack of cruft and bad stuff. Boot Camp just opens it up so Mr. Pointy Haired Boss, Lame School Administrator, Uncle Jon or the new boyfriend to bully in and install windows and use that (with all that comes with it) instead of a more than perfectly good OS.
I expect a few years down the line it will go into Apple's History as one of the top bad business moves on thier part right next to offering Mac Clones did for them in the 90s. (the Clones were good for us, but not for Apple's profits)
Because there's bux in saying "open source" out of one side of your mouth and selling "solutions" on the other.
My observations at LinuxWorld SF 2005 was:
All the Windows vendors trying to put a Linux spin on ther services (while covering the windows logo) and all the video projectors adjusted to hide the Start menus on the presenter's desktops.
Everybody at the.org pavilion, Twiki, and LTSP were really great. MySQL's presentation on clustering was informative. Some nice goodies at the Vendors (and loads of GNU/Linux books to check out!).
Lots of diverse Linux users, enthusiasts and interested parties to talk to (without the blank stare of absolutely no clue.)
Beware the presentations that offer "discussions" but only present sales pitches.
Return from the Strars was the first book of his I discovered (very interesting), later the Cyberiad (fun). I finally saw Solaris - the 2000ish remake, I hope the book is better than the movie adaptation.
He certainly could tell a good tale, I'm sure he'll be missed.
After the class action suit is settled I'm sure Sony will be suffering... having to offer caliments $2.50 off for one of 20 popular Sony music titles... which expires in three months.
Meanwhile German jails will be going bankrupt due to large number of jail sentences for teens and college kids involved in copyright theft (which most likely is not paid for by the music or movie industry).
Good installation documenation with Postgres is pretty sparse. It's not too complicated but it's not easy to find answers. This mainly includes how to properly setup pg_hba.conf which is vague at best on how to configure.
It might be better in newer installs but in RHEL3 I was just scraping along.
Application Support
As mentioned there are some great apps, but there are just are not many applications supporting Postgres, most web apps are LAMP (with M being very much in represntation). I think it would help Postgre if there is a comprehensive PHP-PGSQLPHP-MYSQL conversion equivelants document/tool to help developers either to transition or at the least open up the cross-platform support for multiple DB engines.
Documentation
Recently there have been a growing number of updated books on Postgres including those which work along with PHP, so that situation is improving, the books I had to work with were circa 2000 or earlier before schema support.
So, yes, I tried it, for a while, almost got there, but I just wasn't achieving as much progress as I had hoped. Maybe later I'll go back when conditions get better.
I my world, Rural California, they just don't seem to be available.
I've never touched an eBook. I don't know if the manuals and such I like could be put on ebooks. And until I see tools for getting what I have to an ebook or something compelling about an ebook that makes me forget about the first reason, I don't think I'm going to be interested.
I have bunches of novels, manuals and tech guides, many PDFs, scads of ascii files and such, I would like to have them more manageable in an eBook, you know, something that works like a (generic) MKP3 player, where I can encode my stuff, download it to my ebook and off I go.
Thought Reader (I think that is the right spelling) looked cool when I saw it at Liux World but I have yet to get the app to work on my Linux Box (Haven't tried to hard wither) I think a lot of that is I'm sick and tired of asking for "permission" to do the same things I already do, especially to read manuals I already own on paper or free content from the internet.
But I encourage all those out there developing the technology to keep plugging, eventially you will get it right.
New version of Acrobat from 4 or 5 to 6 or later? Now it's standard stuff that was included are now a lot more extra.
Norton Utilities for Mac version3 included many features including a great backup utility. All gone in the later versions, and in some more problematic of what features remain.
PrintShop Deluxe for Mac 68000 included a graphics exporter which alowed you to export the PSD graphics into Adobe Illustrator, Quickdraw PICT or EPS. No longer included with the newer PrintShops.
Microsoft Office 98 for Mac included among other features an agenda Wizard, not in 2001 or 2004, though you can still use it in the newer versions if you copy it over.
Microsoft Office 2004 now only ofers Max (the Mac computer) as your assistant, no more clippit or professor (Max was the coolest anyway).
I'm sure there are many more. Partly I think it is beacuse the programmers that originally built some of the software were not there to do the upgrading, many times I have seen virtually new adaptations of the same program in an upgrade (PrintShop) as it seems evident they changed programming teams or development platforms.
I can't be all the consumers, only myself, so I listed what 'I' would want out of what Linux has:
Less licensing muck (counting copies, reg keys, EULAs) Affordable No pre-loaded marketing crap (no AOL, no preloaded AV tie-ins, etc.) A feature rich desktop environment (KDE) Advanced application deployment environments (i.e. web apps) Solid security Time proven multi-user environment (from desktop userspaces to LTSP, its all there) A truly creative environment - Inkscape - Gimp - Scribus - 3D - Video - Audio (audacity, Rose Garden, etc.) Access to lots of good example source code (learning/doing friendly environment) No worms No viruses
Toy Story was more of a Pixar production than a Disney one, which is one of the points of buying Pixar from Jobs, without it they'd still be stuck in cell animation and cinderella sequels.
Most of thier "property" is still hanging on a thread thanks to the copyright extensions they sucessfully lobbied for in the past few years.
All they have been doing recently is remakes and sad 'me-toos' of more popular computer/animation films from other companies. And the sequel much of Slashdot would really want to see (Tron) doesn't seem to be going anywhere (which might be a good thing given thier recent releass they'd probably mess it up anyway).
I don't work at a college but when young adults enter college they have to assume a lot of respnsibility. Don't take it away from them, they need to learn this stuff too, and don't go half assed, buy into it - this is an important change here.
So treat these as hypothetical (since you posted on Slashdot, expect a lot of these to be purely hypothetical)
How did you handle software licensing, especially for high-priced apps?
- a) They are called acedemic versions, or acdemic licensing, talk to your college bookstore. - b) Tell Microsoft, Adobe, Etc. you are going to specify Linux and FOSS apps because of the high costs involved.... Or actually specify Linux because of the high costs involved. Keep this decision maker informed of this stuff (especially costs and logistics), keep them well in the loop.
How do you do software installs/upgrades? What do you do for resource-hungry apps (e.g. CAD, 3D rendering)?
- That's where you specify the the "minimum system requirements" in the printed pre-registration materials and you attach those laptop requiring college decision makers names to it if students have issues with it.
What about traditional lab configuration issues like anti-malware software, classroom restrictions on IM/P2P/network gaming, standard configuration options, etc. that would seem impossible to do with computers you don't own?
- Specify in the software requirements, make an installer CD of reccomended (freeware or bulk licensed) apps. - Lock down your servers (use Linux, or something non-vulnerable, scan EVERYTHING, put up multiple firewalls and IP filters), anything you institite that is dpendednt solely on the students would be just foolhardy. - Put a disclaimer that the college is not responsible for them failing because they caught something on thier computer from outside the school servers as they are responsible for attending class they are responsible for completing assignments and operation of their own computer. (And don't set yourself up for failure by trying to fix all thier self-induced problems all the time, only what is created from your side, that will keep you busy enough)
I know that many other colleges have done this sort of thing, but what about *art schools* or other colleges with high-end needs but mostly non-technical users, and where something like Photoshop is considered a 'core' application more than MS Office?
- Sorry to break it to you but to require the students have their own laptops puts "technical-skills" on the student's requirements, either as prerequisite or learn as you go. Again, don't hold thier hand on this. Especially if they are takijng courses in something like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. They still have to manage thier files, it's not like paper and charcoal (well actually it is, even with that you need to keep your paper clean and your charcoal pencils tidy, sharp and in usable lengths.) Maybe have more introduction to computers courses for the noobs to start off with.
Also, I'm especially interested in info about much more/less support staff the laptop approach requires; my intuition says that 1000 unsecured laptops will take more work to support than 300 locked-down desktops, but I need data.
- You are going to need a bunch of security guys and sysadmins and at least one with good programming skills to help rewsolve/fix flaws in school systems. - Since laptops are very stealable you will have to think about on campus theft/liability issues as well. - It depends on how you plan to handle it: * First priority is managing the fact that 1000 potentially unsecured systems will be accessing your internal systems and making sure it's going to withstand that. * Second as you will have many people with different configurations, Make the systems as platform independent as possible, web based (not requiring IE or some other dead-end platform specific application or codec) this will elimiate a lot of (why donesn't X run on my computer. If you get it generic enough then you
In apartment, running or can be in a moments notice.
Commodore PET 4032 (at present, 10 others in storage) w/SFD 1001 and 2031LP Commodore 64w/SuperCPU, RR-Net Ethernet and CMD Hard Drive Commodore 128 w/RAMLink and Hard Drive Commodore 138D Commodore SX 64 Commodore B128 Commoeore P500 Strawberry iMac (wife's) Blue & White Mac G3 No Name P4 w/ubuntu No Name AMD Ath 1600+ w/ubuntu No Name budget Cyrix box (? OS) Commodore 286 Laptop DSL with Netgear stuff and sufficient wiring
1. Lack of updated (signed) hardware drivers fo Vista. 2. Expensive software updates for those versions that don't run on Vista. 3. The search and expense for alternatives programs and hardware that will never be ported to Vista. 4. "Better Virus support.?" So, MS expects to still have viruses? 5. A boatload of lousy Windows programs that will (unfortunately) still run on Vista. 6. New and improved licensing schemes, activation, and shiny new rate plans. 7. Microsoft Access Vista (and the PHBs who will say it should replace your relational DB) 8. A new round of "Well business X is sending us Vista documents, so we need to upgrade too." 9. New technology, new training, new TA ("Hey, dude, where do I find Run on the menu?") 10. New Technology new Servers.
And Number 11...
Microsoft generated FUD on Windows XP and earlier technology.
Slashdot Mirror
I was immediately visualizing a Borg Cube regenerating after a hit from the Enterprise.
regardless, it sounds cool.
Ran fine for me, thanks for putting it up!
I don't get it, why do they fully detail a web cool app without a live demo??
Are there any examples of this in action?
Was a yellow-green now looks like its changing to a deep purple.
Internet Explorer - You just cant use the important parts of the internet without it (at least that's what many of the webmasters of sites that refuse to be more compatible say.
Microsoft Outlook - So you can open all those winmail.dat files people send you.
Microsoft Excel for Windows - Exspecially for those sheets with macros using active-x components, they insist thier stuff just would just suck without those gems.
Microsoft Publisher - At work we regularly get .pub documents with the creators getting indignant when we say we can't open it. Of course depending on the sender, they expect you to have the version of publisher THEY have, not always particularly the latest version.
Microsot Access - Here it is the panacea of all data needs, just about every agency with accidental techies have islads of productivityware using access (ignoring the fact there is no easy way to integrate all these these different islands)
Webshots - just about every Windows workstation I see in or office runs Webshots, must be an essential utlity.
The thing that makes smiley icons and patterned backgrounds in Outlook Second to webshots are the outlook emails with all the HTML and embedded gifs, which also advertise the utility that will turn your oulook browser into a similar productive environment.
Turbo Tax, Tax Cut or Quicken Taxes - apparently we can't do our home taxes without them
Besides more vertical market "canned applications" for accounting and such that's about it.
Im my day Linux wasn't invented yet so we had to make it up each day and hand assemble it on paper then coding it all into POKEs on our calculator keyboard 4k PETs (cassette tape deck busted, couldn't save). Yeah it was a pain in the butt back then, though it ran better than the original Microsoft BASIC on that PET.
Yeah, kids today just have it sooo easy!
Many of us appreciate Mac OS for it's lack of cruft and bad stuff. Boot Camp just opens it up so Mr. Pointy Haired Boss, Lame School Administrator, Uncle Jon or the new boyfriend to bully in and install windows and use that (with all that comes with it) instead of a more than perfectly good OS.
I expect a few years down the line it will go into Apple's History as one of the top bad business moves on thier part right next to offering Mac Clones did for them in the 90s. (the Clones were good for us, but not for Apple's profits)
My observations at LinuxWorld SF 2005 was:
All the Windows vendors trying to put a Linux spin on ther services (while covering the windows logo) and all the video projectors adjusted to hide the Start menus on the presenter's desktops.
Everybody at the .org pavilion, Twiki, and LTSP were really great. MySQL's presentation on clustering was informative. Some nice goodies at the Vendors (and loads of GNU/Linux books to check out!).
Lots of diverse Linux users, enthusiasts and interested parties to talk to (without the blank stare of absolutely no clue.)
Beware the presentations that offer "discussions" but only present sales pitches.
He certainly could tell a good tale, I'm sure he'll be missed.
"You see that?! Your Stupid Minds!
Stupid! Stupid!"
Meanwhile German jails will be going bankrupt due to large number of jail sentences for teens and college kids involved in copyright theft (which most likely is not paid for by the music or movie industry).
Installation
Good installation documenation with Postgres is pretty sparse. It's not too complicated but it's not easy to find answers. This mainly includes how to properly setup pg_hba.conf which is vague at best on how to configure.
It might be better in newer installs but in RHEL3 I was just scraping along.
Application Support
As mentioned there are some great apps, but there are just are not many applications supporting Postgres, most web apps are LAMP (with M being very much in represntation). I think it would help Postgre if there is a comprehensive PHP-PGSQLPHP-MYSQL conversion equivelants document/tool to help developers either to transition or at the least open up the cross-platform support for multiple DB engines.
Documentation
Recently there have been a growing number of updated books on Postgres including those which work along with PHP, so that situation is improving, the books I had to work with were circa 2000 or earlier before schema support.
So, yes, I tried it, for a while, almost got there, but I just wasn't achieving as much progress as I had hoped. Maybe later I'll go back when conditions get better.
Keep up the good work, I'll be watching.
I my world, Rural California, they just don't seem to be available.
I've never touched an eBook.
I don't know if the manuals and such I like could be put on ebooks.
And until I see tools for getting what I have to an ebook or something compelling about an ebook that makes me forget about the first reason, I don't think I'm going to be interested.
I have bunches of novels, manuals and tech guides, many PDFs, scads of ascii files and such, I would like to have them more manageable in an eBook, you know, something that works like a (generic) MKP3 player, where I can encode my stuff, download it to my ebook and off I go.
Thought Reader (I think that is the right spelling) looked cool when I saw it at Liux World but I have yet to get the app to work on my Linux Box (Haven't tried to hard wither) I think a lot of that is I'm sick and tired of asking for "permission" to do the same things I already do, especially to read manuals I already own on paper or free content from the internet.
But I encourage all those out there developing the technology to keep plugging, eventially you will get it right.
it was a pain to figure out how to set up
It was a pain to properly configure (never did to my satisfaction, not much good documenation on editing the users file).
It was a pain to get programs that support it to work with it (eWiki) and then not all the features worked when I did (embedding images).
And then if I wanted to do clustering or distributed DBs and such down the road, it was turning out to be a pain finding information about that also.
I liked what I saw, the DB features make sense, and looks great but there's just not enough documentation support to keep me interested.
New version of Acrobat from 4 or 5 to 6 or later? Now it's standard stuff that was included are now a lot more extra.
Norton Utilities for Mac version3 included many features including a great backup utility. All gone in the later versions, and in some more problematic of what features remain.
PrintShop Deluxe for Mac 68000 included a graphics exporter which alowed you to export the PSD graphics into Adobe Illustrator, Quickdraw PICT or EPS. No longer included with the newer PrintShops.
Microsoft Office 98 for Mac included among other features an agenda Wizard, not in 2001 or 2004, though you can still use it in the newer versions if you copy it over.
Microsoft Office 2004 now only ofers Max (the Mac computer) as your assistant, no more clippit or professor (Max was the coolest anyway).
I'm sure there are many more. Partly I think it is beacuse the programmers that originally built some of the software were not there to do the upgrading, many times I have seen virtually new adaptations of the same program in an upgrade (PrintShop) as it seems evident they changed programming teams or development platforms.
You mean Michael Jackson knew way back in the 80s?
I can't be all the consumers, only myself, so I listed what 'I' would want out of what Linux has:
Less licensing muck (counting copies, reg keys, EULAs)
Affordable
No pre-loaded marketing crap (no AOL, no preloaded AV tie-ins, etc.)
A feature rich desktop environment (KDE)
Advanced application deployment environments (i.e. web apps)
Solid security
Time proven multi-user environment (from desktop userspaces to LTSP, its all there)
A truly creative environment
- Inkscape
- Gimp
- Scribus
- 3D
- Video
- Audio (audacity, Rose Garden, etc.)
Access to lots of good example source code (learning/doing friendly environment)
No worms
No viruses
Toy Story was more of a Pixar production than a Disney one, which is one of the points of buying Pixar from Jobs, without it they'd still be stuck in cell animation and cinderella sequels.
All they have been doing recently is remakes and sad 'me-toos' of more popular computer/animation films from other companies. And the sequel much of Slashdot would really want to see (Tron) doesn't seem to be going anywhere (which might be a good thing given thier recent releass they'd probably mess it up anyway).
I don't work at a college but when young adults enter college they have to assume a lot of respnsibility. Don't take it away from them, they need to learn this stuff too, and don't go half assed, buy into it - this is an important change here.
So treat these as hypothetical (since you posted on Slashdot, expect a lot of these to be purely hypothetical)
How did you handle software licensing, especially for high-priced apps?
- a) They are called acedemic versions, or acdemic licensing, talk to your college bookstore.
- b) Tell Microsoft, Adobe, Etc. you are going to specify Linux and FOSS apps because of the high costs involved.... Or actually specify Linux because of the high costs involved. Keep this decision maker informed of this stuff (especially costs and logistics), keep them well in the loop.
How do you do software installs/upgrades?
What do you do for resource-hungry apps (e.g. CAD, 3D rendering)?
- That's where you specify the the "minimum system requirements" in the printed pre-registration materials and you attach those laptop requiring college decision makers names to it if students have issues with it.
What about traditional lab configuration issues like anti-malware software, classroom restrictions on IM/P2P/network gaming, standard configuration options, etc. that would seem impossible to do with computers you don't own?
- Specify in the software requirements, make an installer CD of reccomended (freeware or bulk licensed) apps.
- Lock down your servers (use Linux, or something non-vulnerable, scan EVERYTHING, put up multiple firewalls and IP filters), anything you institite that is dpendednt solely on the students would be just foolhardy.
- Put a disclaimer that the college is not responsible for them failing because they caught something on thier computer from outside the school servers as they are responsible for attending class they are responsible for completing assignments and operation of their own computer. (And don't set yourself up for failure by trying to fix all thier self-induced problems all the time, only what is created from your side, that will keep you busy enough)
I know that many other colleges have done this sort of thing, but what about *art schools* or other colleges with high-end needs but mostly non-technical users, and where something like Photoshop is considered a 'core' application more than MS Office?
- Sorry to break it to you but to require the students have their own laptops puts "technical-skills" on the student's requirements, either as prerequisite or learn as you go. Again, don't hold thier hand on this. Especially if they are takijng courses in something like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. They still have to manage thier files, it's not like paper and charcoal (well actually it is, even with that you need to keep your paper clean and your charcoal pencils tidy, sharp and in usable lengths.) Maybe have more introduction to computers courses for the noobs to start off with.
Also, I'm especially interested in info about much more/less support staff the laptop approach requires; my intuition says that 1000 unsecured laptops will take more work to support than 300 locked-down desktops, but I need data.
- You are going to need a bunch of security guys and sysadmins and at least one with good programming skills to help rewsolve/fix flaws in school systems.
- Since laptops are very stealable you will have to think about on campus theft/liability issues as well.
- It depends on how you plan to handle it:
* First priority is managing the fact that 1000 potentially unsecured systems will be accessing your internal systems and making sure it's going to withstand that.
* Second as you will have many people with different configurations, Make the systems as platform independent as possible, web based (not requiring IE or some other dead-end platform specific application or codec) this will elimiate a lot of (why donesn't X run on my computer. If you get it generic enough then you
From my frantic adjusting on 10.3 it's on by defaulkt, on 10.2 it looks like it's off by default.
In apartment, running or can be in a moments notice.
Commodore PET 4032 (at present, 10 others in storage) w/SFD 1001 and 2031LP
Commodore 64w/SuperCPU, RR-Net Ethernet and CMD Hard Drive
Commodore 128 w/RAMLink and Hard Drive
Commodore 138D
Commodore SX 64
Commodore B128
Commoeore P500
Strawberry iMac (wife's)
Blue & White Mac G3
No Name P4 w/ubuntu
No Name AMD Ath 1600+ w/ubuntu
No Name budget Cyrix box (? OS)
Commodore 286 Laptop
DSL with Netgear stuff and sufficient wiring
(Flipping trhough Payers Handbook) Are you sure they are'nt copper or gold pieces? If they are bronze, what good are they. (grin)
I can hardly wait....
1. Lack of updated (signed) hardware drivers fo Vista.
2. Expensive software updates for those versions that don't run on Vista.
3. The search and expense for alternatives programs and hardware that will never be ported to Vista.
4. "Better Virus support.?" So, MS expects to still have viruses?
5. A boatload of lousy Windows programs that will (unfortunately) still run on Vista.
6. New and improved licensing schemes, activation, and shiny new rate plans.
7. Microsoft Access Vista (and the PHBs who will say it should replace your relational DB)
8. A new round of "Well business X is sending us Vista documents, so we need to upgrade too."
9. New technology, new training, new TA ("Hey, dude, where do I find Run on the menu?")
10. New Technology new Servers.
And Number 11...
Microsoft generated FUD on Windows XP and earlier technology.
Drag your user folder into blank CDR icon or external USB/Firewire drive. Done.
I don't think Microsoft is offering anything near to a full system restore backup with thiers either.