The University is ignoring FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act...
Link
It protects idle release of such information.
In my position in a school district, they can ask all they want...but records of who was doing what on which computer are protected by that statute. I would be waiting for a court order, and not just a "give us the goods!" letter.
Well the Novell Academic License "allows" us to get annual updates...and without the License we can't run their software at all. Don't forget that the "consultants" insist on those yearly updates...otherwise they refuse to work on the systems.
The constantly ABEND-ing systems ran print servers, e-mail servers, and a web server. I will say that file server-wise they were admirable...but certainly not what we used it for. Plain vanilla Linux runs circles around our old Novell setup.
I don't have any Linux and/or MS guys bothering me now...I set it up myself, and I take care of it myself. If I die or quit, maybe they'll have a problem...but that's all the more reason for them to keep me.
No, they wouldn't have HAD to hire me...but the $100,000 a year the "consultants" were sucking from the school district was a bit of a large pill to swallow. I have saved them a huge amount of money converting to systems that don't need annual license updates, nor constant reboots, nor babbling Certified people to fix them.
I was laughed at by some "consultants" that had formerly worked in my school district, when I started converting their Novell systems over to Linux. Now that it's done, and things work better than ever, Novell decides to convert itself over to Linux wholesale...who's laughing now?
Yup, I thought it up...I needed something with alliteration to complement Megahurtz Madness...so Buzzword Bufoonery sorta fit. I'm almost proud of myself.
You can use it as long as you pay my $699 fee! Hahaha! j/k
I'm releasing it under open source
For him, it was the ONLY criteria for his computer...that it be "the fastest" available. I have stocked a school with 1 to 1.4GHz machines, and they work fine...most of his time is spent browsing the internet and sending e-mails anyway...but not buying "the fastest" makes him feel dirty, at least that's the feeling I get from what he's said to me. That's the thing that drives me nuts about people like that...they believe the marketing hype over reality.
I had a conversation with a neophyte that was looking to "build their own computer" yesterday...He was obsessed with the idea that megahertz=performance...I tried to tell him that an FX-51, 52, or 53 would be a much better performer, all around, than any Pentium 4, "Extreme Gaming Edition" (as he put it) or not...but in the end, he was swayed by things like "Hyperthreading" and "Netburst"...AMD is having a hard time fighting against Megahurtz Madness and Buzzword Bufoonery.
I think most of this decision, while certainly positive for the world in general, was based on anti-American politics. Microsoft is in clear violation and I agree with the end results, but I detect a large amount of stick-it-to-the-Americans-ism in their rhetoric...No matter, though...perhaps Microsoft will abandon the European market rather than open its Windows Secrets?
It would behoove many companies to invest more in R&D and less in padding executives pocketbooks with $100's. HP, for example, has gutted their engineering ranks while simultaneously buying jets for the higher-ups. Closer to my region of the country, Caterpillar has outsourced waves of R&D people...and their executives are getting ever-higher bonuses.
Perhaps Microsoft's heavy-handed tactics against Lindows in Europe (and everywhere for that matter) will not go unnoticed by the European courts and/or regulators...
Sheesh...SCO is not just burning their bridges, they are nuking them and spreading radioactive cobalt behind them. Who in their right mind would now EVER contemplate doing ANY business with SCO? I mean, even Microsoft tries to hold on to customers, but SCO is just light years beyond idiocy in their most recent moves of litigating against CUSTOMERS.
As Keynes is supposed to have said...
"In the long run, we're all dead anyway."
Which is to say that in the long run, this may benefit the nation as a whole...but in the short run, it is crushing the little guy. Just remember...people vote for short-term gain...no matter how grandiose the promises of the globalisation proponents are, people feel pain, and vote accordingly. A little protectionism now could very easily prevent a huge amount of protectionism later...
Then again, confining yourself solely to "for-pay" endeavors is probably not the best thing in the world either...there is a balance to be struck somewhere...I can't believe that refusing to contribute to something just because it doesn't "pay in cash" is the best course of life. I mean, just think of where projects like Apache and Linux have gotten us...and just think where they could go if a few more people counted their "pay" in more than monetary terms. Sure, contributing to an open-source project is not likely to pay your bills, and for that reason I don't think a "free only" software world will work...but contributing to an open project now and then certainly cannot be as worthless of an effort as the letter-writer claims it to be.
When they get it fixed (notice I'm not going to take the MS line and say IF) it will benefit us all...but more importantly, it will make it much easier for other German cities to simply use Munich's template and switch themselves...If a "custom" version of Windows could somehow be made (and it can't) then it certainly wouldn't be share-able with other municipalities...MS would try to get "custom" fees from everyone. Ten years from now, Munich will be looking back on this period of transition and laughing at all of the licensing fees they didn't have to pay. They have a "first-mover disadavantage."
I did the same thing in my search for a camera, but I tend to believe sales clerks less than most people. I went out and compared features, prices, etc, and spent hours reading forums on both cameras. I looked at several Canon models, and the "high end" Kodak, the 6490. I wanted high zoom capability, manual capability, and a big LCD. The Kodak had what I wanted, and I could not be happier with it. I have used some other Canons and Minoltas, and they feel a little heavier and well-built, frankly....But the Kodak does exactly what I want, and has picture quality (4 mpx) and color definition that beats the others. It doesn't have interchangable lenses...but it has the capability to go from 38-380mm equivalent zoom, so that's enough for me. Kodak DOES make some ultra-high-end cameras for $$$ that equal or exceed their competition...but I think most of it is the name...people associate Kodak with easy-to-use point-and-shoot cameras like their Advantix series, not good digitals. But I tried them, and am very satisfied! Give an American company a chance!
I would definately agree that altrism and charity is all too often met with feelings of entitlement and laziness. But I don't feel that altruism necessarily means doing work for someone; putting things in the public domain is a different way of contributing to the public good. But, as things often go, altruistic things are often swalloed by someone with little or no altruistic feelings, and eventually turned to profit and destruction.
I am basing my assertions on two things:
The Gartner (they are good when they bring up pro-Microsoft "studies", right?) paper talked about below, and the fact that Windows 95 was delayed, delayed some more, and then delayed some more still. Microsoft does not have a good track record of on-time deliveries, even if their "release dates" are simply targets, even more so if they are still 2-4 years out. Longhorn, if it fits the shoe being crafted for it by MS PR, is much more earth-shattering than Windows 95 was in its day. We're talking about a greater effort than launching people to the moon... after all...
Register Link
One good thing about formerly GPL'ed software...companies can't retroactively go back and say that you have no right to use it...and, more than likely, the community isn't going to force you into using it (ala Longhorn circa 2008)...
Huge corporations and their CEO's and the like wouldn't exist without the working stiff at the bottom...but in your arguments I see little appreciation for that fact. If it were possible to move to India, I imagine a lot of unemployed Americans would. But unlike the aforementioned corporations, that is impossible for them. So you are left with "upgrading." Which means what...getting an education? What do you tell a 54-year-old guy that just got laid off from his job of 35 years? Go to college for four? The pain of many people is often left behind in the cause of macroecomomic advancement...and while in the lesser sense, companies like HP and such have greater profits, in the greater sense, our country is that much poorer for it. If you are going to try to make people feel better by using the "at least you're still alive" argument, well at least nobody in this country has been nuked yet...I'm sure that makes everyone feel much better too. As I said before...lots of people are pro-globalization...until it happens to them.
Sheesh, stop assuming so many things about me, I'm trying to have a civil discussion. I am not against insternational trade or similar exportation/importation...but when it devastates economies and communities, you bet I am. That's what's happened to the town I am from, and many other towns...economic destruction in the name of "efficiency" and "profits." Just once, perhaps we should think about the little guy at the bottom, losing his job, and not the corporate CEO getting a bonus for making another profit target. The fact is that if my job is sent overseas, no matter how many cheap machine tools flood the market, it has affected me, personally, in a negative way. Perhaps my children or my grandchildren will be around to see the benefits...but in the mean time you have displaced me and ruined my life.
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The University is ignoring FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act... Link It protects idle release of such information. In my position in a school district, they can ask all they want...but records of who was doing what on which computer are protected by that statute. I would be waiting for a court order, and not just a "give us the goods!" letter.
I took the much, much easier and cost-effective route and learned to admin a Linux box.
Well the Novell Academic License "allows" us to get annual updates...and without the License we can't run their software at all. Don't forget that the "consultants" insist on those yearly updates...otherwise they refuse to work on the systems. The constantly ABEND-ing systems ran print servers, e-mail servers, and a web server. I will say that file server-wise they were admirable...but certainly not what we used it for. Plain vanilla Linux runs circles around our old Novell setup. I don't have any Linux and/or MS guys bothering me now...I set it up myself, and I take care of it myself. If I die or quit, maybe they'll have a problem...but that's all the more reason for them to keep me.
No, they wouldn't have HAD to hire me...but the $100,000 a year the "consultants" were sucking from the school district was a bit of a large pill to swallow. I have saved them a huge amount of money converting to systems that don't need annual license updates, nor constant reboots, nor babbling Certified people to fix them.
I was laughed at by some "consultants" that had formerly worked in my school district, when I started converting their Novell systems over to Linux. Now that it's done, and things work better than ever, Novell decides to convert itself over to Linux wholesale...who's laughing now?
I thought of that after I clicked submit But Google doesn't list "Buzzword Buffoonery" either
No offense taken...I would agree completely. My thought is that if he isn't willing to listen to reason and fact, then he gets what he deserves.
Yup, I thought it up...I needed something with alliteration to complement Megahurtz Madness...so Buzzword Bufoonery sorta fit. I'm almost proud of myself. You can use it as long as you pay my $699 fee! Hahaha! j/k I'm releasing it under open source
For him, it was the ONLY criteria for his computer...that it be "the fastest" available. I have stocked a school with 1 to 1.4GHz machines, and they work fine...most of his time is spent browsing the internet and sending e-mails anyway...but not buying "the fastest" makes him feel dirty, at least that's the feeling I get from what he's said to me. That's the thing that drives me nuts about people like that...they believe the marketing hype over reality.
I had a conversation with a neophyte that was looking to "build their own computer" yesterday...He was obsessed with the idea that megahertz=performance...I tried to tell him that an FX-51, 52, or 53 would be a much better performer, all around, than any Pentium 4, "Extreme Gaming Edition" (as he put it) or not...but in the end, he was swayed by things like "Hyperthreading" and "Netburst"...AMD is having a hard time fighting against Megahurtz Madness and Buzzword Bufoonery.
I think most of this decision, while certainly positive for the world in general, was based on anti-American politics. Microsoft is in clear violation and I agree with the end results, but I detect a large amount of stick-it-to-the-Americans-ism in their rhetoric...No matter, though...perhaps Microsoft will abandon the European market rather than open its Windows Secrets?
Nothing can stop me now -- except microscopic germs. But we won't let that happen, will we, Smithers?
It would behoove many companies to invest more in R&D and less in padding executives pocketbooks with $100's. HP, for example, has gutted their engineering ranks while simultaneously buying jets for the higher-ups. Closer to my region of the country, Caterpillar has outsourced waves of R&D people...and their executives are getting ever-higher bonuses.
Perhaps Microsoft's heavy-handed tactics against Lindows in Europe (and everywhere for that matter) will not go unnoticed by the European courts and/or regulators...
Sheesh...SCO is not just burning their bridges, they are nuking them and spreading radioactive cobalt behind them. Who in their right mind would now EVER contemplate doing ANY business with SCO? I mean, even Microsoft tries to hold on to customers, but SCO is just light years beyond idiocy in their most recent moves of litigating against CUSTOMERS.
As Keynes is supposed to have said... "In the long run, we're all dead anyway." Which is to say that in the long run, this may benefit the nation as a whole...but in the short run, it is crushing the little guy. Just remember...people vote for short-term gain...no matter how grandiose the promises of the globalisation proponents are, people feel pain, and vote accordingly. A little protectionism now could very easily prevent a huge amount of protectionism later...
Then again, confining yourself solely to "for-pay" endeavors is probably not the best thing in the world either...there is a balance to be struck somewhere...I can't believe that refusing to contribute to something just because it doesn't "pay in cash" is the best course of life. I mean, just think of where projects like Apache and Linux have gotten us...and just think where they could go if a few more people counted their "pay" in more than monetary terms. Sure, contributing to an open-source project is not likely to pay your bills, and for that reason I don't think a "free only" software world will work...but contributing to an open project now and then certainly cannot be as worthless of an effort as the letter-writer claims it to be.
When they get it fixed (notice I'm not going to take the MS line and say IF) it will benefit us all...but more importantly, it will make it much easier for other German cities to simply use Munich's template and switch themselves...If a "custom" version of Windows could somehow be made (and it can't) then it certainly wouldn't be share-able with other municipalities...MS would try to get "custom" fees from everyone. Ten years from now, Munich will be looking back on this period of transition and laughing at all of the licensing fees they didn't have to pay. They have a "first-mover disadavantage."
I did the same thing in my search for a camera, but I tend to believe sales clerks less than most people. I went out and compared features, prices, etc, and spent hours reading forums on both cameras. I looked at several Canon models, and the "high end" Kodak, the 6490. I wanted high zoom capability, manual capability, and a big LCD. The Kodak had what I wanted, and I could not be happier with it. I have used some other Canons and Minoltas, and they feel a little heavier and well-built, frankly....But the Kodak does exactly what I want, and has picture quality (4 mpx) and color definition that beats the others. It doesn't have interchangable lenses...but it has the capability to go from 38-380mm equivalent zoom, so that's enough for me. Kodak DOES make some ultra-high-end cameras for $$$ that equal or exceed their competition...but I think most of it is the name...people associate Kodak with easy-to-use point-and-shoot cameras like their Advantix series, not good digitals. But I tried them, and am very satisfied! Give an American company a chance!
I would definately agree that altrism and charity is all too often met with feelings of entitlement and laziness. But I don't feel that altruism necessarily means doing work for someone; putting things in the public domain is a different way of contributing to the public good. But, as things often go, altruistic things are often swalloed by someone with little or no altruistic feelings, and eventually turned to profit and destruction.
If only more people in the world were motivated by altruism rather than the almighty dollar...
I am basing my assertions on two things: The Gartner (they are good when they bring up pro-Microsoft "studies", right?) paper talked about below, and the fact that Windows 95 was delayed, delayed some more, and then delayed some more still. Microsoft does not have a good track record of on-time deliveries, even if their "release dates" are simply targets, even more so if they are still 2-4 years out. Longhorn, if it fits the shoe being crafted for it by MS PR, is much more earth-shattering than Windows 95 was in its day. We're talking about a greater effort than launching people to the moon... after all... Register Link
One good thing about formerly GPL'ed software...companies can't retroactively go back and say that you have no right to use it...and, more than likely, the community isn't going to force you into using it (ala Longhorn circa 2008)...
Huge corporations and their CEO's and the like wouldn't exist without the working stiff at the bottom...but in your arguments I see little appreciation for that fact. If it were possible to move to India, I imagine a lot of unemployed Americans would. But unlike the aforementioned corporations, that is impossible for them. So you are left with "upgrading." Which means what...getting an education? What do you tell a 54-year-old guy that just got laid off from his job of 35 years? Go to college for four? The pain of many people is often left behind in the cause of macroecomomic advancement...and while in the lesser sense, companies like HP and such have greater profits, in the greater sense, our country is that much poorer for it. If you are going to try to make people feel better by using the "at least you're still alive" argument, well at least nobody in this country has been nuked yet...I'm sure that makes everyone feel much better too. As I said before...lots of people are pro-globalization...until it happens to them.
Sheesh, stop assuming so many things about me, I'm trying to have a civil discussion. I am not against insternational trade or similar exportation/importation...but when it devastates economies and communities, you bet I am. That's what's happened to the town I am from, and many other towns...economic destruction in the name of "efficiency" and "profits." Just once, perhaps we should think about the little guy at the bottom, losing his job, and not the corporate CEO getting a bonus for making another profit target. The fact is that if my job is sent overseas, no matter how many cheap machine tools flood the market, it has affected me, personally, in a negative way. Perhaps my children or my grandchildren will be around to see the benefits...but in the mean time you have displaced me and ruined my life.