i am a school teacher. my district is probably like many. our IT staff are morons. we don't/can't pay industry standards, so we get the bottom. plus, the jobs are secure, so we can't get rid of idiots. anyways...
a little story. a year or so back, district tech at my school brags about coming back from some microsoft conference, (mind you we are a novell network) and he's got freebies galore. XP pro ( no reg key copies), VS.NET, 2K server, office XP (no reg key), and other crap. thrown out like halloween candy. you think they're gonna cut off their source.
another story. 3-4 years ago, we were finishing the wiring at my school. so, the district tech head is there, yada yada. so i ask her about the servers, since we didn't even have a local file server for our one lab, (and I had lots of student work get lost), and she says the district goal is to consolidate on get this, "fewer, more powerful, servers". this at the time that when the industry was moving the opposite direction. and then she retires, and we're half way there, and there is just too much momentum to change. so we go ahead, and have a crappy, unscalable network, and we have win98 clients rather than 2k, because of a multitude of piss poor decisions, we have no money to spend on memory upgrades.
these people have the ears of the PHB's. and let's face it, if it needs 20 admins where another solution would need 10, and their input makes the call, what do you think they're gonna choose.
for those of you who don't quite understand school spending/funding, let me explain. every year, principals have an end of year "wish list", if there is money left over. why? if they don't spend it, they get less next year. so, saving money is specifically NOT DESIRED. in fact, deficits are preferred. don't ever expect linux to make it in this environment. i could go on. get the ear of your school boards. or vote their asses out.
if you weren't modded up already, i'd have modded you up. we/.ers, who seem to be so enamored and enthralled with science, seem so willing to accept pseudo-scientific nonsense so long as it fits our political philosophy. the whole global warming thing in never understood. take 5 billion years, evaluate the last 50, and suddenly you have a pattern? please. considering that there was an ice age, what, 100-200K years ago, when there were no people, and just 30 years ago (has it been that long!!) the scientific community was bemoaning the "global cooling". seems the crisis du jour mode coincides with the federal budgetary process!!
will they learn? this is our tax money at work. holy crap. we must demand better. can the cost of linux transition really be more than all the windows problems?
It was expected that the solution would be one involving Windows and written in Visual Basic...I don't think that I would have undertaken a task like this, where a computer is on the road, using anything but a robust operating system.
i think this is more a case of domestic politics, not wanting to send dollars, er, deutshmarks, overseas. it is a good thing in that it will show the enterprise capabilities of linux, etc. however, like the munich deal, their going with suse, which sounds more like keeping it home. but hey, more power to them.
plus, if i'm not mistaken, most major industries in europe are government subsidized, so, it was probably good politics to go local. (yes, i realize there are tons of subsidies in the US. i don't agree with it, i am just poitning out a fact. our governmetn tends to subsidize firms, like with boeing, buy making purchases and tax policy)
hate to say it, but you gotta know what you're buying. both used and new. maybe it will awaken some eyes to open source/open standards, what have you, but if you buy something you need to know if you can resell it (as opposed to a leasing, or trading in with the manufacturer), if that is your plan.
as a side note, my father worked for pitney bowes (they sell shipping,mailing, and postage systems) for many years. they did the same with their shipping systems and software. of course, most old PB systems got traded in for newer systems, there were few in the 2nd hand market. so it's not just in the IT world.
/. is home to open source advocates. most, i presume use windows for games or out of necessity (i.e. work), or maybe for penance. an article on a crappy OS, buggy, unstable, as wide open as a $2 whore, shit canned by microsoft a few years ago, that somebody has to cripple to get a fraction of the use of a similar sized linux distro. so i'll be the first to say:
1) we are a junior high. 7th and 8th graders. plus, most work need not be saved more than the length of the project. and no work would need to be carried over into the next year. it would have been temporary for the reesons just mentioned, and we ended up getting 30 new dell's (funny, most classes are 32, DOH!!) and they are set up so horribly with win98. they coul dhave at least tried to make win2k work. arghhhhh!!
2) student needs. internet and word processing, and some powerpoint stuff. plus, art could have used gimp, etc. we have 1600 students, (still) one computer lab. yes, every classroom has at least one computer. some have 2-3. this helps the teacher, but does nothing for the students.
well. here are two of the solutions. one, we had a "PC" lab for three years wothout any file server, although we were promised one. i suggested as a temporary solution setting up a samba server, since we a) already had the hardware, and b) it was free. i can't tell you how much student work was lost being saved locally. reasonable?
two. we have tons, like over 125 old pentium 120-166's with 32 mb ram. real creamers, huh. they sit, totally unused. now, some were trying to be used, but when you couple running windows, zenworks, norton, novell client, et al., then try to run even IE, well, it chokes. so i proposed an ltsp type solution. we could do two labs for $3000-4000. (the server cost alone. we had the boxen, the cables, etc.) reasonable?
we "upgraded" to SASI XP. it is horrible. the UI is about as unintuitive as possible, it is dog slow, inputting grades is a PITA since you can't easily tab and key them in, the import/export is crap, i could go on. we only used dos sasi in the office, while teachers scantroned in attendance and grades, we jumped right into sasi xp, and i wonder if it is a beta?
it is william s. hart district in southern californa. at least you got the guy to let you play with linux. i run linux on my laptop, and our tech comes into my room once (about 2 years ago), and sees me accessig the internet from my linux laptop, and asks how, since "novell doesn't support linux." i tell him it's just tcp/ip, and he gives me a blank look. arghhhhh. i later brought my P3 in to run my old laptop as an X client, and set up a few old P120's to run X off it as well. i demo'd it to the district tech dept. head and our principal because we have tons of old hardware that sits. she, the principal, was positive, he was not. his comment was "oh yeah, all those hackers love linux". arghhhh.
also, our grade/attendance program, SASI, which btw, is a POS, runs nicely under wine. they were baffled. i can mount all my novell shares using ncpmount and run the stuff fine. you made some progress. keep it up.
i have been trying to get my school district to look at linux for a variety of solutions. i get the same anti-linux crap. my district is a novell shop, from netware to gropwise, etc. i feel justified. almosty makes me want to send the idiots the articles. why the hell not. i teach history. they can't fsck with me.
okay, besides the damn animated clippy thingy, what "technology" have they actually created? hmmm...let's see
gui, nope
any useful protocol, nope
optical mouse, nope
spreadsheets, nope
word proc., nope
hardware, umm, nope
virus proliferation, yes
somewhere there's a web site that tries to find microsoft technology that was ms original. forgot it right now. anyways, microsoft has NEVER invented. they usually just wait to see the market direction, then jump in. and most times, they will either buy or copy whatever they need. they are rather like the Japanese some years ago, much better at replication than innovation. (though the Japanese are innovative today). apple, sun, ibm, those ar technology companies. when microsoft enters at market it does one of two things, either floods it with second rate, inexpensive crap (3.1 vs. os/2, and nt vs. netware) and uses their sheer weight to redirect, or when it sees a market, it will offer up vaporware to deter investors. that is their modus operandi. i admire their business acumen, just don't have much respect for their product. they are simply not a technology company. hell, they can't even keep their IP problems in place. (SQL server, remember) dell also is not a tech company. they are a great business model, and i'm sure many an mba thesis was based upon mikey d's assemblage and delivery model, however, i would hardly classify them as anything more than fancy peddlers. just think about it this way. think how bad all the win9X's were for all those years. all those attempts and they still couldn't get it right. people grew accostmed to crap. now that's marketing brilliance. technology:? hardly.
1) if the poor and middle class move the economy, are you going to a poor person for a job?
2) redistribution of wealth a good thing? when you earn your money, you will feel otherwise, and besides, we live in the US, bound by the constitution, where is the congressional authority?
3) capiatlism is the only system that allows someone making 7000 to have the chance to make 700,000. you won't be earning 7K forever, and if you are, then it is your fault.
now, i understand idealism. this is/., right? but, trust me, when you have a real job, earning real money, and you have a family, a house, a mortgage, bills, etc., you aren't going to want the gov't to bud into your business (and by the way, wife and i are school teachers), you're jsut going to want them to get out of your way. we pay a shitload in taxes. some i understand, car tax, gas tax( though it is too high, because most goes into general funds, not highways, damn corrupt pols). but for those that make more than me, if they did it legally, more power to them.
Slashdot Mirror
i am a school teacher. my district is probably like many. our IT staff are morons. we don't/can't pay industry standards, so we get the bottom. plus, the jobs are secure, so we can't get rid of idiots. anyways...
a little story. a year or so back, district tech at my school brags about coming back from some microsoft conference, (mind you we are a novell network) and he's got freebies galore. XP pro ( no reg key copies), VS.NET, 2K server, office XP (no reg key), and other crap. thrown out like halloween candy. you think they're gonna cut off their source.
another story. 3-4 years ago, we were finishing the wiring at my school. so, the district tech head is there, yada yada. so i ask her about the servers, since we didn't even have a local file server for our one lab, (and I had lots of student work get lost), and she says the district goal is to consolidate on get this, "fewer, more powerful, servers". this at the time that when the industry was moving the opposite direction. and then she retires, and we're half way there, and there is just too much momentum to change. so we go ahead, and have a crappy, unscalable network, and we have win98 clients rather than 2k, because of a multitude of piss poor decisions, we have no money to spend on memory upgrades.
these people have the ears of the PHB's. and let's face it, if it needs 20 admins where another solution would need 10, and their input makes the call, what do you think they're gonna choose.
for those of you who don't quite understand school spending/funding, let me explain. every year, principals have an end of year "wish list", if there is money left over. why? if they don't spend it, they get less next year. so, saving money is specifically NOT DESIRED. in fact, deficits are preferred. don't ever expect linux to make it in this environment. i could go on. get the ear of your school boards. or vote their asses out.
is linux enterprise ready?
if you weren't modded up already, i'd have modded you up. we /.ers, who seem to be so enamored and enthralled with science, seem so willing to accept pseudo-scientific nonsense so long as it fits our political philosophy. the whole global warming thing in never understood. take 5 billion years, evaluate the last 50, and suddenly you have a pattern? please. considering that there was an ice age, what, 100-200K years ago, when there were no people, and just 30 years ago (has it been that long!!) the scientific community was bemoaning the "global cooling". seems the crisis du jour mode coincides with the federal budgetary process!!
no duct tape?
will they learn? this is our tax money at work. holy crap. we must demand better. can the cost of linux transition really be more than all the windows problems?
download this security update
30 minutes interest on gates' portfolio?
Is anyone else skeptical? Or is it just me?
yes, an undisclosed number of us are.
did the deed to the brooklyn bridge come with the license as well?
It was expected that the solution would be one involving Windows and written in Visual Basic...I don't think that I would have undertaken a task like this, where a computer is on the road, using anything but a robust operating system.
hey steve, start booking that flight!!!
i think this is more a case of domestic politics, not wanting to send dollars, er, deutshmarks, overseas. it is a good thing in that it will show the enterprise capabilities of linux, etc. however, like the munich deal, their going with suse, which sounds more like keeping it home. but hey, more power to them.
plus, if i'm not mistaken, most major industries in europe are government subsidized, so, it was probably good politics to go local. (yes, i realize there are tons of subsidies in the US. i don't agree with it, i am just poitning out a fact. our governmetn tends to subsidize firms, like with boeing, buy making purchases and tax policy)
hate to say it, but you gotta know what you're buying. both used and new. maybe it will awaken some eyes to open source/open standards, what have you, but if you buy something you need to know if you can resell it (as opposed to a leasing, or trading in with the manufacturer), if that is your plan.
as a side note, my father worked for pitney bowes (they sell shipping,mailing, and postage systems) for many years. they did the same with their shipping systems and software. of course, most old PB systems got traded in for newer systems, there were few in the 2nd hand market. so it's not just in the IT world.
/. is home to open source advocates. most, i presume use windows for games or out of necessity (i.e. work), or maybe for penance. an article on a crappy OS, buggy, unstable, as wide open as a $2 whore, shit canned by microsoft a few years ago, that somebody has to cripple to get a fraction of the use of a similar sized linux distro. so i'll be the first to say:
who gives a fsck.
They pay the bills, and you work for them. Is that why they blocked /. on the firewall?
1) we are a junior high. 7th and 8th graders. plus, most work need not be saved more than the length of the project. and no work would need to be carried over into the next year. it would have been temporary for the reesons just mentioned, and we ended up getting 30 new dell's (funny, most classes are 32, DOH!!) and they are set up so horribly with win98. they coul dhave at least tried to make win2k work. arghhhhh!!
2) student needs. internet and word processing, and some powerpoint stuff. plus, art could have used gimp, etc. we have 1600 students, (still) one computer lab. yes, every classroom has at least one computer. some have 2-3. this helps the teacher, but does nothing for the students.
well. here are two of the solutions. one, we had a "PC" lab for three years wothout any file server, although we were promised one. i suggested as a temporary solution setting up a samba server, since we a) already had the hardware, and b) it was free. i can't tell you how much student work was lost being saved locally. reasonable?
two. we have tons, like over 125 old pentium 120-166's with 32 mb ram. real creamers, huh. they sit, totally unused. now, some were trying to be used, but when you couple running windows, zenworks, norton, novell client, et al., then try to run even IE, well, it chokes. so i proposed an ltsp type solution. we could do two labs for $3000-4000. (the server cost alone. we had the boxen, the cables, etc.) reasonable?
we "upgraded" to SASI XP. it is horrible. the UI is about as unintuitive as possible, it is dog slow, inputting grades is a PITA since you can't easily tab and key them in, the import/export is crap, i could go on. we only used dos sasi in the office, while teachers scantroned in attendance and grades, we jumped right into sasi xp, and i wonder if it is a beta?
it is william s. hart district in southern californa. at least you got the guy to let you play with linux. i run linux on my laptop, and our tech comes into my room once (about 2 years ago), and sees me accessig the internet from my linux laptop, and asks how, since "novell doesn't support linux." i tell him it's just tcp/ip, and he gives me a blank look. arghhhhh. i later brought my P3 in to run my old laptop as an X client, and set up a few old P120's to run X off it as well. i demo'd it to the district tech dept. head and our principal because we have tons of old hardware that sits. she, the principal, was positive, he was not. his comment was "oh yeah, all those hackers love linux". arghhhh.
also, our grade/attendance program, SASI, which btw, is a POS, runs nicely under wine. they were baffled. i can mount all my novell shares using ncpmount and run the stuff fine. you made some progress. keep it up.
i have been trying to get my school district to look at linux for a variety of solutions. i get the same anti-linux crap. my district is a novell shop, from netware to gropwise, etc. i feel justified. almosty makes me want to send the idiots the articles. why the hell not. i teach history. they can't fsck with me.
automatically update your computer without even being asked. oh wait, too late.
all right, then drag and drop text it is. oh yeah, speaking of word, how 'bout smart quotes. really help on that save as html thing...
okay, besides the damn animated clippy thingy, what "technology" have they actually created? hmmm...let's see
- gui, nope
- any useful protocol, nope
- optical mouse, nope
- spreadsheets, nope
- word proc., nope
- hardware, umm, nope
- virus proliferation, yes
somewhere there's a web site that tries to find microsoft technology that was ms original. forgot it right now. anyways, microsoft has NEVER invented. they usually just wait to see the market direction, then jump in. and most times, they will either buy or copy whatever they need. they are rather like the Japanese some years ago, much better at replication than innovation. (though the Japanese are innovative today). apple, sun, ibm, those ar technology companies. when microsoft enters at market it does one of two things, either floods it with second rate, inexpensive crap (3.1 vs. os/2, and nt vs. netware) and uses their sheer weight to redirect, or when it sees a market, it will offer up vaporware to deter investors. that is their modus operandi. i admire their business acumen, just don't have much respect for their product. they are simply not a technology company. hell, they can't even keep their IP problems in place. (SQL server, remember) dell also is not a tech company. they are a great business model, and i'm sure many an mba thesis was based upon mikey d's assemblage and delivery model, however, i would hardly classify them as anything more than fancy peddlers. just think about it this way. think how bad all the win9X's were for all those years. all those attempts and they still couldn't get it right. people grew accostmed to crap. now that's marketing brilliance. technology:? hardly."How much would that be worth to Microsoft?"
.22 shorts. subsonic, real quiet, and close in, does what needs to be done. yeah, that's the ticket.
about $2, or the cost of a box of
a few questions:
/., right? but, trust me, when you have a real job, earning real money, and you have a family, a house, a mortgage, bills, etc., you aren't going to want the gov't to bud into your business (and by the way, wife and i are school teachers), you're jsut going to want them to get out of your way. we pay a shitload in taxes. some i understand, car tax, gas tax( though it is too high, because most goes into general funds, not highways, damn corrupt pols). but for those that make more than me, if they did it legally, more power to them.
1) if the poor and middle class move the economy, are you going to a poor person for a job?
2) redistribution of wealth a good thing? when you earn your money, you will feel otherwise, and besides, we live in the US, bound by the constitution, where is the congressional authority?
3) capiatlism is the only system that allows someone making 7000 to have the chance to make 700,000. you won't be earning 7K forever, and if you are, then it is your fault.
now, i understand idealism. this is