I recently looked into switching from cable to Versizon DSL - the service agreement was so restrictive, and I let them know it and said no thanks. Some items:
They have a no linking policy - how can an ISP even think of supporting that?
They jumbled up a bunch of rules usually left for message board/chat etiquette, and put them in as hard fast rules like 'can't make a screen scroll faster than the other user, can't use auto-responders, cant violate any rule from any OTHER server provider (how the hell is anyone supposed to know other ISP rules?), cant generate excessive amount of traffic, all with no explanation, just that you cant do that. No web server of any kind. So even though almost every computer today comes with a personal web server built in, and web cameras etc, have their own servers built in, I can't use any of it?
We will monitor your computer settings (yeah right!)
And my favorite: 'shall comply with all local, state, national and international laws and regulations, including those related to data privacy, international communications, and exportation or technical or personal data.'
So now I would either need a law degree or keep an international export lawyer around.
I am tired of highspeed ISPs bragging about what you can do on their service and using pictures of space shuttles taking off in their commercials to emphasize this, only to get there and you find out you really can't do anything but respectfully use their email and their message boards.
As for this article though, I do hope they mean it and I wish them luck.
The FBI is taking a serious notice on Wardriving.
Here's a SecurityFocus article on how they are setting up Honeypots, FBI stings to catch warchalkers, although it claims they are just trying to get a feel for whats really out there.
I like the fact that it has a built in microphone, so it acts as a mini tape recorder, but you don't have to spend any time converting to MP3 (like if you want a little clip of something for a web page) and I can't tell you how many times I wish I had a recorder handy when I'm listening to the radio, not just for music, but for something funny they are saying or some strange trivia question I'll never hear the answer to because I'm on my way into work. With this thing you just hit record. You ever notice that there has never been a record button in your car? My Dad told me that a law was passed in the 50s/60s that didn't allow tape recorders in automobiles because ppl would record (steal) the music. I can't find a record of this law, but I wonder if this little thing violates it (if it is still in effect, that is)
I never understood why the USPS didn't get involved in email from the get-go. It is mail, after all, and that's what they do. It seemed to me that they should have been at the forefront of this idea, instead of lagging behind as they are now. The USPS is the only federal division that has been self sufficient and does not use tax payer money. They maintained their own budget and had been profitable from stamp sales up until a couple of years ago. Email and electronic bill paying is a serious threat to them (as was fax machines at one time). It just seems you should know who your competition is, before they pull they rug out.
What a moron. I guess I should have a reduced expectation of privacy in the bathroom if it is in regards to the brand of toilet paper I use, or my preferred bar soap.
Well, if you use a store card for groceries, or a credit card, they already know what kind of products you use and how often. Remember Stop and Shops 'Smartmouth' service? You could go there and see not only all of the foods you bought, but it was broken down for you to let you know how much fatty, high cholest foods you were buying. Gotta start writing my opt-out letters now.
If you have this or any program locally, then you should ask your school how it is funded. Most schools have continual fund raisers for this type of thing. Corporations usually provide donations in the form of software, food for spagetti suppers and such, and sometimes even airfare. National competitions mean a lot of traveling for a lot of students. Parents usually invest a pretty penny. Which is actually more of a concern to me, because it means that a lot of poorer kids will never get involved.
It's great to have another player in robotics for education. The FIRST program was started by Dean Kamen, the Segway Human Transporter inventor, as a way to promote science and engineering to students. It starts with Lego robotics and has been around for several years. It's usually found in the K-8 grades and is a staple at MIT. Students learn how to write technical procedures, mechanical design, programming and engineering, and of course teamwork. For everything they do there is an attempt to align the tasks with other curriculum such as math, english and science. I volunteer for a middle school robotics club; a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
For the high school students the FIRST program (usfirst.org) gets serious. Here students build real robots designed to meet a specific challenge. AutoCAD and other software companies provide software grants to high schools so the students are getting the real thing. Local businesses involved in engineering usually provide volunteers to mentor the students. It can cost 1 school over 30K to compete at this level. rhodewarrior.org is a site from a high school in RI that has been involved from the beginning and scores pretty well.
The more the merrier, I think, when it comes to this kind of stuff. There has been some concern though, of making sure the students are truly meeting a challenge, and not just building something for the sake of going out and destroying things. The FIRST robotics programs usually involve designing a claw or figuring how many ping-pong balls you can pick up and get into a basket.
If you find yourself wishing you had this when you were in school, then ask around at your local school district - folks are always looking for volunteers.
This may hold a grain of truth, but it depends on how you look at it. It has generally been my experience that no matter how big or important the company, the Dept Heads and VPs will always prefer a Mac, while those in cubicle land can't wait to get their hands on the latest PC/Unix box. Yeah, they have more education and obviously make a ton more $$ than those on the floor, but often have no idea what the Apple key or menu is for. If a techie doesn't put them in a point-and-click environment, then they are usually lost.
Side Note: I have nothing against Macs, and think they rule in the music and graphics world.
"To qualify, a Webcaster must be licensed by an agency such as ASCAP and must ink an agreement with the record labels."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but with all of the other DCMA and CARP issues, haven't we already learned that most webcasters already have ASCAP agreements and pay royalties, it's the record labels that have been either holding out or demanding outrageous fees? It seems absurd that any law can force two bodies to form a contract, and I can't see how this can benefit webcasters at all. Seems like another, 'You'll do it our way, or no way at all', while getting the senetors behind them.
It has been that way for some time. In fact there are already many schools who do not say the pledge in the morning. During the first days of schools teachers instruct students on what the time is for - the pledge and moment of silence. They are also told that it is NOT a requirement, but the will be expected to be quiet during this time. They are told they can use the moment of silence to say a quiet prayer if they choose, or just think about the rest of day or the tv show they watched the night before. Although many schools handle this slightly differently, if you are curious, then call your local school and ask their policy.
I work in public schools and since 9/11 children have been respecting the flag, singing the National Anthem, and writing poems about peace. The timing of this decision is baffling. For many years now the pledge has been optional, and prayer has been replaced with a moment of silence. Teachers only ask that students stand quietly during this time, although it is difficult to find anyone who does not have a hand to heart and speaks the words proudly. Even exchange students from many nations and religions stand quietly with respect for the country that has welcomed them. To start your day with respect for your country, your school, and each other - why is that such a bad thing?
Can you describe your backup solutions? And in that vein, has there ever been a time when a critical hard drive or system crashed, calling for an all-nighter? (What has been your worst nightmare?)
Interesting. If they can pull this off, it won't mean the gov't has to stop using MS right away. Our govt works very slow, they'll probably make up some sort of 5-year plan to get them through. But it did remind me of a time when I was a contractor supporting the govt. The OS was Win3.1 and the word processor WordPerfect 5.1. (wordperfect for win had just come out and was being installed in some places)
When they finally switched to Office 4.2, it was my understanding that we were not allowed to keep wordperfect much longer anyway, because the govt is not allowed to support the same vendor for too long, thus encouraging the vendor to become a monopoly. I have always thought the govt would move away from MS eventually, because it is time. When DC used wordperfect, all other govt agencies will do as DC does. When it switched to office, so did all other branches (over a 3 year period). They've done it before, they can do it again.
(I never saw this policy in writing, it was just sort of 'known by all'. I wonder if this changed, or is in writing somewhere)
Anyone in the tech field, looking for a new direction, look to education. Schools are clamoring for K-12 and secondary technology educators. You won't find yourself making 100K a year, but the rewards are tremendous. If you have your act together, your summers are for you alone to pursue side jobs and consulting gigs (otherwise you will find yourself in classes and working on the cirriculum you'd like to teach). There are also stipends for starting up things like robotics and computer clubs. These things are incredibly fun and satisfying, to the point that you almost don't miss a higher pay elsewhere.
Good luck!
"Music creators have the right to protect their property from theft, just like owners of any other property,"
Yeah, and I have the right to put up a fence around my house to protect myself. But if I decide to cement broken glass along the top, and someone tries to get in and inevitably cuts themselves, they can sue me.
This is a pretty indepth report. A lot to go over, and many references. With all of the crap with RIAA, CARP, DMCA, CIPA, etc, I am at least glad that a member of the FCC realizes the communication potential of the internet and all that it has brought to us, and is making an effort to communicate processes or ideas via this site.
To the idiot fool (by DysonSphere on Wednesday June 12, @03:22PM (#3688884)) who wrote this:
"I actually did intentionally "crash" a box once. Our VP of Accounting refused to save data on our file server (netware at the time), even after we warned her repeatedly that she would lose data. One night another tech and I walked into her office, removed her hdd, and replaced it with a blank drive. Then next morning we came in early, and endured the fireworks, p1 ticket, and verbal diarrhea from the PHB (of course the "failure" was our fault....) After several hours (and a great game of Quake) we announced that we had (with great care and effort) recovered her data. We restored the data to her user dir, and re-installed all of her software on the new drive.
Kudos all around, and no more problem.
Mommy. What's a karma whore?"
Apparently you are Dyson, a bad karma one at that
This is right up there with setting a house on fire, so you can go put it out, then come out looking like a hero. Extremely unethical, and yeah, it's against the law. The fact that there were two of you schemeing this one is even scarier, each one convincing the other that it would be a perfectly acceptable thing to do. I hope she finds out and fires your ass. And I'll bet you wouldn't pull that crap if your 'VP' (which stands for Vice President, by the way, which makes her a very important and highly paid person, who if it wasn't for her you probably wouldn't have that sorry-ass job where you think you can bite the hand that feeds you anyway).....if your VP, was a man.
I'm late posting as usual, don't know if anyone will ever even see this, but here goes.
After skimming through the comments, it seems most veered way off the path of 'SMALL OFFICE'. All of these RAID solutions and ARC servers are obviously not what this poster is looking for.
Very simple - On your server, make a folder called backups and share it so all the folks can get to it with read/write access. On each desktop, micrsoft has always included a little backup utility. Read the help, it's not too hard. Setup the backup on each desktop to select the data folder on their C: drive (the My Docs or Work or Data folder), and on the 'Backup to' option, select the Backup folder you made on the server. Don't worry about backing up the OS, if a system crashes, you're rebuilding anyway. It's the data you want. Save this, then copy/make a shortcut of this saved backup file to the desktop. All a user has to do is double click this saved profile to start the backup. (this was actually a lot easier in Windows 95, you may have to actually click the start button to begin the backup in 98) Show the users how to use it. It takes around 1 to 2 minutes to backup their data to the server this way. For the 1st couple of weeks you may have to remind them. Ask them, if they lost 1 days work, how long would it take them to re-create the day? This is answer can very widely depending on the tasks they do. Some ppl only put about an hours worth of data on their hard drives, other a full days worth. If the data is critical, tell the user to double click that shortcut everyday. Other, doing it once or twice a week may be fine. When I put on my coat at the end of the day, I would shout across the room 'You guys backup yet?' After a few reminders they'll get it.
On the server, again read the help. Just set it up to do full backup daily (if a full of the server wont fit on one tape, concentrate on the data). Get 5 tapes and lable them Mon, Tues, etc. If it's Wednesday, put in Wednesday, etc. You can pop in a tape quarterly (QRT1, 2, 3, 4) if you want. Now you're backing up the backup. That's all.
Remember, even if no server is present; the idea is to get the data off the hard drive and onto another location. 2 PCs, each with a shared drive. User A backups up to User B, etc. Can even be done with a simple copy/paste
I'm thrilled that the CIPA was shot down. As a public school employee, who was forced to install a filter last summer lest we lose federal funding (quite a strong-arm move IMO), this is great news. Now, I certainly do not want our kids anywhere porn, or to be accosted with hate speech and gambling ads, but to enact such a stringent law cannot be the way. Our filter, which claims to be the best, stops most of the porn yes, but I have long lost track of the good things it also blocks. For some reason I can't to most site with flash or java in the name. And I was once doing research on child protection/internet safety and was blocked by most sites that came up. There is a form that pops up to let you submit the site for 'their determination', but since you couldnt see it, you dont know yet, and you certainly dont want to be accused of trying to get a porn site legitmized with your school district. So you write it down and go home. Lo and behold, the site is perfectly fine, you cant even figure out why it would be blocked. But now you are not near the form to submit it. You go this route a couple of times and you know what happens, you just give up because its too much work. Also, since the inception of the filter, we still have had several incidents of porn activity (we didnt have that many to begin with), and in one case a student actually downloaded an entire porn flick. I know this is a serious problem, and we do our best to ensure the teachers are fully educated about what their students online. How silly to threaten us by taking our funds away. Public schools always to as their states or fed gov asks, they do not need to make this a law. My further 0.02 - use limited filtering in the K-7 environments and propose cirriculum that delves deeper into safety online issues and educating the parents and community. I really like the 'teach them to swim analogy' and that has always worked for us in the past.
Thanks for the review. I've been looking for a good lego book. I am part of a lego robotics club at the middle school where I work, and the Mindstorms kits are at the heart of this program. The kids compete at an annual Robotics Park in events like chain-reaction (sort of the old mouse trap game where you put a ball in and a series of events happen) and of course the robot competition. We had a heck of a time this year trying to find good examples of claws. We needed one where the robot would drive out, pick up a sponge, then drive back to base. We managed and did ok. Came in 5th out of 28.
For all of you lego fans out there - keep your local schools in mind. If they are involved in a program like this (many are), then they need as many lego parts and gears and motors as possible. Also the plastic bins to keep everything. Most schools are also crying for volunteers. We have the kids lined up to join, but not enough adults to take this on. It is a committment, but a very rewarding one. Esp if you like building robots, cause then you have scheduled time to do it and get to teach the kids along the away. Before selling any of your old lego or construx parts at a yard sale, think of donating them first. thanks!
From http://www.lapl.org/central/guides/copyrights.html , What cannot be copyrighted?
"Titles, names, slogans and phrases cannot be copyrighted. Other items that cannot be protected by copyrights are: ideas, methods, procedures and common knowledge such as a calendar. If the work has not been fixed in a tangible form, it cannot be copyrighted."
Emphasis on 'methods, procedures and common knowledge'. The key words in a FAQ are 'frequently asked', by humans, to humans. FAQs tell us how to do something, provide a method for understanding, or give us specific procedures. The same questions are going to have the same answers, even if written slightly different, and thus should not be copyrightable.
Here an interpretation from http://questy.com/tech/inet6.htm
"A fact cannot be copyrighted. A list of facts cannot be copyrighted. However, when I write a document that lists the facts, but also includes my opinions or add original content in addition to the facts, I can copyright that document."
Imagine being able to copyright that a corn seed should be planted at 2inches then watered.
Now if I were to write 'Unique Questions that Only I have the Answer To', maybe I could do something with that.
Slashdot Mirror
I recently looked into switching from cable to Versizon DSL - the service agreement was so restrictive, and I let them know it and said no thanks. Some items:
They have a no linking policy - how can an ISP even think of supporting that?
They jumbled up a bunch of rules usually left for message board/chat etiquette, and put them in as hard fast rules like 'can't make a screen scroll faster than the other user, can't use auto-responders, cant violate any rule from any OTHER server provider (how the hell is anyone supposed to know other ISP rules?), cant generate excessive amount of traffic, all with no explanation, just that you cant do that.
No web server of any kind. So even though almost every computer today comes with a personal web server built in, and web cameras etc, have their own servers built in, I can't use any of it?
We will monitor your computer settings (yeah right!)
And my favorite: 'shall comply with all local, state, national and international laws and regulations, including those related to data privacy, international communications, and exportation or technical or personal data.'
So now I would either need a law degree or keep an international export lawyer around.
I am tired of highspeed ISPs bragging about what you can do on their service and using pictures of space shuttles taking off in their commercials to emphasize this, only to get there and you find out you really can't do anything but respectfully use their email and their message boards.
As for this article though, I do hope they mean it and I wish them luck.
no sig here
The FBI is taking a serious notice on Wardriving. Here's a SecurityFocus article on how they are setting up Honeypots, FBI stings to catch warchalkers, although it claims they are just trying to get a feel for whats really out there.
Because it records!
I like the fact that it has a built in microphone, so it acts as a mini tape recorder, but you don't have to spend any time converting to MP3 (like if you want a little clip of something for a web page) and I can't tell you how many times I wish I had a recorder handy when I'm listening to the radio, not just for music, but for something funny they are saying or some strange trivia question I'll never hear the answer to because I'm on my way into work. With this thing you just hit record. You ever notice that there has never been a record button in your car? My Dad told me that a law was passed in the 50s/60s that didn't allow tape recorders in automobiles because ppl would record (steal) the music. I can't find a record of this law, but I wonder if this little thing violates it (if it is still in effect, that is)
I never understood why the USPS didn't get involved in email from the get-go. It is mail, after all, and that's what they do. It seemed to me that they should have been at the forefront of this idea, instead of lagging behind as they are now. The USPS is the only federal division that has been self sufficient and does not use tax payer money. They maintained their own budget and had been profitable from stamp sales up until a couple of years ago. Email and electronic bill paying is a serious threat to them (as was fax machines at one time). It just seems you should know who your competition is, before they pull they rug out.
What a moron. I guess I should have a reduced expectation of privacy in the bathroom if it is in regards to the brand of toilet paper I use, or my preferred bar soap.
Well, if you use a store card for groceries, or a credit card, they already know what kind of products you use and how often. Remember Stop and Shops 'Smartmouth' service? You could go there and see not only all of the foods you bought, but it was broken down for you to let you know how much fatty, high cholest foods you were buying. Gotta start writing my opt-out letters now.
If you have this or any program locally, then you should ask your school how it is funded. Most schools have continual fund raisers for this type of thing. Corporations usually provide donations in the form of software, food for spagetti suppers and such, and sometimes even airfare. National competitions mean a lot of traveling for a lot of students. Parents usually invest a pretty penny. Which is actually more of a concern to me, because it means that a lot of poorer kids will never get involved.
It's great to have another player in robotics for education. The FIRST program was started by Dean Kamen, the Segway Human Transporter inventor, as a way to promote science and engineering to students. It starts with Lego robotics and has been around for several years. It's usually found in the K-8 grades and is a staple at MIT. Students learn how to write technical procedures, mechanical design, programming and engineering, and of course teamwork. For everything they do there is an attempt to align the tasks with other curriculum such as math, english and science. I volunteer for a middle school robotics club; a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
For the high school students the FIRST program (usfirst.org) gets serious. Here students build real robots designed to meet a specific challenge. AutoCAD and other software companies provide software grants to high schools so the students are getting the real thing. Local businesses involved in engineering usually provide volunteers to mentor the students. It can cost 1 school over 30K to compete at this level. rhodewarrior.org is a site from a high school in RI that has been involved from the beginning and scores pretty well.
The more the merrier, I think, when it comes to this kind of stuff. There has been some concern though, of making sure the students are truly meeting a challenge, and not just building something for the sake of going out and destroying things. The FIRST robotics programs usually involve designing a claw or figuring how many ping-pong balls you can pick up and get into a basket.
If you find yourself wishing you had this when you were in school, then ask around at your local school district - folks are always looking for volunteers.
This may hold a grain of truth, but it depends on how you look at it. It has generally been my experience that no matter how big or important the company, the Dept Heads and VPs will always prefer a Mac, while those in cubicle land can't wait to get their hands on the latest PC/Unix box. Yeah, they have more education and obviously make a ton more $$ than those on the floor, but often have no idea what the Apple key or menu is for. If a techie doesn't put them in a point-and-click environment, then they are usually lost.
Side Note: I have nothing against Macs, and think they rule in the music and graphics world.
"To qualify, a Webcaster must be licensed by an agency such as ASCAP and must ink an agreement with the record labels."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but with all of the other DCMA and CARP issues, haven't we already learned that most webcasters already have ASCAP agreements and pay royalties, it's the record labels that have been either holding out or demanding outrageous fees? It seems absurd that any law can force two bodies to form a contract, and I can't see how this can benefit webcasters at all. Seems like another, 'You'll do it our way, or no way at all', while getting the senetors behind them.
It has been that way for some time. In fact there are already many schools who do not say the pledge in the morning. During the first days of schools teachers instruct students on what the time is for - the pledge and moment of silence. They are also told that it is NOT a requirement, but the will be expected to be quiet during this time. They are told they can use the moment of silence to say a quiet prayer if they choose, or just think about the rest of day or the tv show they watched the night before. Although many schools handle this slightly differently, if you are curious, then call your local school and ask their policy.
Nobody is forced - saying the pledge is completely option in every school in the United States and has been for many years.
I work in public schools and since 9/11 children have been respecting the flag, singing the National Anthem, and writing poems about peace. The timing of this decision is baffling. For many years now the pledge has been optional, and prayer has been replaced with a moment of silence. Teachers only ask that students stand quietly during this time, although it is difficult to find anyone who does not have a hand to heart and speaks the words proudly. Even exchange students from many nations and religions stand quietly with respect for the country that has welcomed them. To start your day with respect for your country, your school, and each other - why is that such a bad thing?
Can you describe your backup solutions? And in that vein, has there ever been a time when a critical hard drive or system crashed, calling for an all-nighter? (What has been your worst nightmare?)
Interesting. If they can pull this off, it won't mean the gov't has to stop using MS right away. Our govt works very slow, they'll probably make up some sort of 5-year plan to get them through. But it did remind me of a time when I was a contractor supporting the govt. The OS was Win3.1 and the word processor WordPerfect 5.1. (wordperfect for win had just come out and was being installed in some places)
When they finally switched to Office 4.2, it was my understanding that we were not allowed to keep wordperfect much longer anyway, because the govt is not allowed to support the same vendor for too long, thus encouraging the vendor to become a monopoly. I have always thought the govt would move away from MS eventually, because it is time. When DC used wordperfect, all other govt agencies will do as DC does. When it switched to office, so did all other branches (over a 3 year period). They've done it before, they can do it again.
(I never saw this policy in writing, it was just sort of 'known by all'. I wonder if this changed, or is in writing somewhere)
Anyone in the tech field, looking for a new direction, look to education. Schools are clamoring for K-12 and secondary technology educators. You won't find yourself making 100K a year, but the rewards are tremendous. If you have your act together, your summers are for you alone to pursue side jobs and consulting gigs (otherwise you will find yourself in classes and working on the cirriculum you'd like to teach). There are also stipends for starting up things like robotics and computer clubs. These things are incredibly fun and satisfying, to the point that you almost don't miss a higher pay elsewhere. Good luck!
"Music creators have the right to protect their property from theft, just like owners of any other property,"
Yeah, and I have the right to put up a fence around my house to protect myself. But if I decide to cement broken glass along the top, and someone tries to get in and inevitably cuts themselves, they can sue me.
This is a pretty indepth report. A lot to go over, and many references. With all of the crap with RIAA, CARP, DMCA, CIPA, etc, I am at least glad that a member of the FCC realizes the communication potential of the internet and all that it has brought to us, and is making an effort to communicate processes or ideas via this site.
To the idiot fool (by DysonSphere on Wednesday June 12, @03:22PM (#3688884)) who wrote this: "I actually did intentionally "crash" a box once. Our VP of Accounting refused to save data on our file server (netware at the time), even after we warned her repeatedly that she would lose data. One night another tech and I walked into her office, removed her hdd, and replaced it with a blank drive. Then next morning we came in early, and endured the fireworks, p1 ticket, and verbal diarrhea from the PHB (of course the "failure" was our fault....) After several hours (and a great game of Quake) we announced that we had (with great care and effort) recovered her data. We restored the data to her user dir, and re-installed all of her software on the new drive. Kudos all around, and no more problem. Mommy. What's a karma whore?" Apparently you are Dyson, a bad karma one at that This is right up there with setting a house on fire, so you can go put it out, then come out looking like a hero. Extremely unethical, and yeah, it's against the law. The fact that there were two of you schemeing this one is even scarier, each one convincing the other that it would be a perfectly acceptable thing to do. I hope she finds out and fires your ass. And I'll bet you wouldn't pull that crap if your 'VP' (which stands for Vice President, by the way, which makes her a very important and highly paid person, who if it wasn't for her you probably wouldn't have that sorry-ass job where you think you can bite the hand that feeds you anyway).....if your VP, was a man.
I'm late posting as usual, don't know if anyone will ever even see this, but here goes. After skimming through the comments, it seems most veered way off the path of 'SMALL OFFICE'. All of these RAID solutions and ARC servers are obviously not what this poster is looking for. Very simple - On your server, make a folder called backups and share it so all the folks can get to it with read/write access. On each desktop, micrsoft has always included a little backup utility. Read the help, it's not too hard. Setup the backup on each desktop to select the data folder on their C: drive (the My Docs or Work or Data folder), and on the 'Backup to' option, select the Backup folder you made on the server. Don't worry about backing up the OS, if a system crashes, you're rebuilding anyway. It's the data you want. Save this, then copy/make a shortcut of this saved backup file to the desktop. All a user has to do is double click this saved profile to start the backup. (this was actually a lot easier in Windows 95, you may have to actually click the start button to begin the backup in 98) Show the users how to use it. It takes around 1 to 2 minutes to backup their data to the server this way. For the 1st couple of weeks you may have to remind them. Ask them, if they lost 1 days work, how long would it take them to re-create the day? This is answer can very widely depending on the tasks they do. Some ppl only put about an hours worth of data on their hard drives, other a full days worth. If the data is critical, tell the user to double click that shortcut everyday. Other, doing it once or twice a week may be fine. When I put on my coat at the end of the day, I would shout across the room 'You guys backup yet?' After a few reminders they'll get it. On the server, again read the help. Just set it up to do full backup daily (if a full of the server wont fit on one tape, concentrate on the data). Get 5 tapes and lable them Mon, Tues, etc. If it's Wednesday, put in Wednesday, etc. You can pop in a tape quarterly (QRT1, 2, 3, 4) if you want. Now you're backing up the backup. That's all. Remember, even if no server is present; the idea is to get the data off the hard drive and onto another location. 2 PCs, each with a shared drive. User A backups up to User B, etc. Can even be done with a simple copy/paste
I'm thrilled that the CIPA was shot down. As a public school employee, who was forced to install a filter last summer lest we lose federal funding (quite a strong-arm move IMO), this is great news. Now, I certainly do not want our kids anywhere porn, or to be accosted with hate speech and gambling ads, but to enact such a stringent law cannot be the way. Our filter, which claims to be the best, stops most of the porn yes, but I have long lost track of the good things it also blocks. For some reason I can't to most site with flash or java in the name. And I was once doing research on child protection/internet safety and was blocked by most sites that came up. There is a form that pops up to let you submit the site for 'their determination', but since you couldnt see it, you dont know yet, and you certainly dont want to be accused of trying to get a porn site legitmized with your school district. So you write it down and go home. Lo and behold, the site is perfectly fine, you cant even figure out why it would be blocked. But now you are not near the form to submit it. You go this route a couple of times and you know what happens, you just give up because its too much work. Also, since the inception of the filter, we still have had several incidents of porn activity (we didnt have that many to begin with), and in one case a student actually downloaded an entire porn flick. I know this is a serious problem, and we do our best to ensure the teachers are fully educated about what their students online. How silly to threaten us by taking our funds away. Public schools always to as their states or fed gov asks, they do not need to make this a law. My further 0.02 - use limited filtering in the K-7 environments and propose cirriculum that delves deeper into safety online issues and educating the parents and community. I really like the 'teach them to swim analogy' and that has always worked for us in the past.
Thanks for the review. I've been looking for a good lego book. I am part of a lego robotics club at the middle school where I work, and the Mindstorms kits are at the heart of this program. The kids compete at an annual Robotics Park in events like chain-reaction (sort of the old mouse trap game where you put a ball in and a series of events happen) and of course the robot competition. We had a heck of a time this year trying to find good examples of claws. We needed one where the robot would drive out, pick up a sponge, then drive back to base. We managed and did ok. Came in 5th out of 28. For all of you lego fans out there - keep your local schools in mind. If they are involved in a program like this (many are), then they need as many lego parts and gears and motors as possible. Also the plastic bins to keep everything. Most schools are also crying for volunteers. We have the kids lined up to join, but not enough adults to take this on. It is a committment, but a very rewarding one. Esp if you like building robots, cause then you have scheduled time to do it and get to teach the kids along the away. Before selling any of your old lego or construx parts at a yard sale, think of donating them first. thanks!
From http://www.lapl.org/central/guides/copyrights.html , What cannot be copyrighted?
"Titles, names, slogans and phrases cannot be copyrighted. Other items that cannot be protected by copyrights are: ideas, methods, procedures and common knowledge such as a calendar. If the work has not been fixed in a tangible form, it cannot be copyrighted."
Emphasis on 'methods, procedures and common knowledge'. The key words in a FAQ are 'frequently asked', by humans, to humans. FAQs tell us how to do something, provide a method for understanding, or give us specific procedures. The same questions are going to have the same answers, even if written slightly different, and thus should not be copyrightable.
Here an interpretation from http://questy.com/tech/inet6.htm
"A fact cannot be copyrighted. A list of facts cannot be copyrighted. However, when I write a document that lists the facts, but also includes my opinions or add original content in addition to the facts, I can copyright that document."
Imagine being able to copyright that a corn seed should be planted at 2inches then watered.
Now if I were to write 'Unique Questions that Only I have the Answer To', maybe I could do something with that.