It would be really nice to buy new flashy flat-screen iMacs....but we can't afford them. We have to make do...and 6 years is considered an "average" hardware cycle in education. This is not 5 year old hardware, these were machines bought in 2001-2002...
Here's a nice link showing iMacs being EOL'ed in March 2003...
So these are 2-3 year old machines. Dear GOD what putrid old hardware! We deserve to have hardware failures! I'm just irritated at all of you people that seem to think that Apple hardware is so wonderful, but when it fails, come up with some easy excuse.
It is well protected from lightning. Every computer has an Intermatic surge protector, and there are surge protectors upstream too. Yes, over the span of one year, I have had multiple ethernet cards fry in the Macs, which are on the same network switch as the PC's. Everybody seems to be just dying to mod me down and call me a troll, when I have done NOTHING different to the PC's...and they are holding up fine. This is in TWO different school districts, with a total of probably 500 of these machines, and the problems are the same all over the place.
Some of these machines are right at 3 years old...you're right...but I've had a slow trickle of hard drive failures from the minute we got them. Various plain-box PC's I bought in the same time frame had none of these problems.
These computers are not abused, severely or otherwise...and maintenance? Well, how do you maintain an integrated network card? We vacuum them on a regular basis, but other than that, how do you "maintain" a solid-state device? They are in a very well-ventilated, air-conditioned/heated room and have plenty of area on every side...they are in the same room that, again, my PC's have been flawless in.
I am not dumping on Apple for no reason; I am saying that in years past, they were held up as the Gold Standard of Hardware, and none of these problems would be happening. Saying that it was a bad batch would be stretching it a bit...
Here's a link
The fact is that they were poorly designed, and failed at terrifying rate.
I know I will get Karma-nuked for saying this, but Apple hardware has seriously gone down hill from years past. I have a half-dozen of the more recent blueberry iMacs in my school that have crashed hard drives and fried network cards...and eMacs? A neighboring school district had a 50% failure rate on video cards for awhile. Sure, this may have been a wire problem blah blah blah...but this would NOT have happened a few years ago. Apple's hardware is rapidly turning into the same glitzy plasicky crap that Dell and HP have been shoving out the door for years. I have switched to plain-brown-wrapper computers for my school...the Apples and Dells of the world offer no advantages in reliability, and I have the machines to prove it.
Abandon it.
Bluetooth was too little, too soon. Where tech executives saw people exchanging business cards with their PDA's, the real world saw a wireless connection with a range of 3 feet and a mere kilobits of bandwidth. I think it was more of a prolonged back-patting session for "Bluetooth Special Interest Group" members and less of a means of providing function to the customer.
I know the feeling. After I graduated, I worked at a sub-par job in Springfield and lived in a tiny, expensive apartment. I was basically treading water financially. Then I got a surprise job offer, which actually paid less, but was closer to "home." I worked there for awhile, and eventually got another job...which paid 50% more. Then I got another, which paid 50% more...and just recently I've been offered yet another, which pays 100% more. I will admit I graduated into a much better employment market than you did...but trust me, do good at whatever you do, and it will get better. It may take time, but you will prove yourself and be rewarded.
"Unlike GPLd software, the Java sources don't come with a viral infection clause that requires you to apply the GPL to your own code."
Sheesh! I didn't know that GPL code had a virus! Call USAMRIID! I feel so dirty now...covered with...microscopic...germs.
Seriously, though...I think that $2 billion has bought Microsoft a friend for life. Who says money can't buy love?
I am the Network Admin for the school district. In practice, that means I have to fix anything that is plugged into the wall, from TV's to computers to copy machines. Of course that includes managing the servers and 200 or so computers in the district. The pictures are all from the new school, which was built (or, IS being built) from the ground up with every solar/geothermal/insulating gadget they could find. I'm a 99 WIU grad myself...strangely enough in Industrial Technology.
The school that I work for just installed a huge 68,000 watt solar panel system to provide electricity. There are 21 "Sunny Boy" inverters that do the DC-to-AC conversion, and we have a breaker in place that disconnects us from the outside if there is so much as one phase lost...which prevents us from frying linemen. In addition, the inverters themselves will switch off within 30ms if there is a total power interruption. If you want to see some pictures, here is a link.
The crux of the story is this...
1. Critical machine knob was replaced by a "hidden" knob.
2. Company wanted to replace workers during strike
3. Machinist turned "hidden" knob to supar maximum full tilt
4. "Replacement" worker turns on machine
5. Very large, very powerful cutter flies at full speed into the bed of the machine (something that is NOT supposed to happen,) and his efforts to turn the real knob are fruitless
6. Hilarity and/or injuries ensue
An individual that I know that is retired from a factory did something similar; when the company wanted him to train some "temporary replacements" for a strike. He was a machinist and ran very expensive, very large machines. Among these was a Jig Bore, a very large machine something like a vertical mill. It had powered axes, but had been rigged by some electricians to have its vertical power axis control on the back of the panel. The original knob on the front was a "dummy" and not hooked to anything. This was fine, as he knew about it. He didn't tell his "replacement" about it, however, and when the strike ensued, he turned the machine off and put it on maximum down feed. When they came back from the prolonged strike, the machine had a huge chunk out of its bed...where someone had turned on the machine and watched helplessly as it rammed its cutter into the table.
Based on my R/C experience with Li-Poly batteries, I don't want to be around when one of these new batteries explodes...or, as some of the battery literature puts it, "violently decomposes."
Irrespective of the morality of the subject, when people experience hardship, they vote with their hearts, not their minds. This is how totalitarian governments get installed...when businesses run over the common worker. Whether or not the net effect to the country is positive, when Joe Sixpack loses his job, he'll vote for whatever wacky political candidate that says he'll help him get another.
I can't think that a terrified flock of irradiated chickens would produce more heat than something like a quantity of Pu-238 or Pu-240, the former of which is quoted as producing 1/2 watt of heat per gram...nor would they be as durable.
Okay, I'll elaborate a bit.
My first experiences with Novell were back in 1996 in college. Oh wow it does logins.
My first admin experiences were in 2000 on a Netware 4 box. My overwhelming impression was how proprietary it was. On a client machine, you could talk to the Novell box, as long as it was through the obtrusive Novell client. Later on, in my work as a NW5 and 6 admin, I was struck by the lengths that Novell had gone through to break compatibility...like no plaintext passwords and such (even where it would have been acceptble.) My feelings are that NW4, 5 and 6 are often proprietary for no good reason. 6 and its use of Apache was much better, and now, with their new version, they have embraced standards, openness, and interoperability as a design goal. I know that their attitude is changing my impression of them, and may even make me a customer again.
I would have thought that MS could have dropped the price a long time ago to spread out their enormous development budgets a bit...but then again, "cutting the prices until we make a profit" hasn't worked too good as a business strategy recently.
I dunno...I've seen a couple of Piccolos with Li-Poly batteries fly constantly for 30 minutes...I would certainly agree you're not gonna get much of an explosive punch out of what they can carry, though...Perhaps they could make the frame, skids, and canopy out of C4. Then again, with the Li-Polys, you're almost as likely to kill someone with a battery explosion alone.
Been done. The version at this link...
Link
Comes with fixed pitch, but can be upgraded to full collective (he's talking about collective pitch on a helicopter blade, not the Borg you Star Trek watching clod.) These things can do wild aerobatics, inverted flight, whatever you want. Putting a GPS receiver on it might be a bit of a challenge, as they will hardly lift anything...I imagine they could carry a grenade, too though.
I have read it and have had conversations with our lawyers about it. The RIAA calling us up and saying "Let us have a gander at your logs!" is not a valid judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena. Logs of computer usage are legally similar to attendance records, which fully meet the definition of "education records" and cannot be lightly handed over. The University is caving much too easily.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be really nice to buy new flashy flat-screen iMacs....but we can't afford them. We have to make do...and 6 years is considered an "average" hardware cycle in education. This is not 5 year old hardware, these were machines bought in 2001-2002... Here's a nice link showing iMacs being EOL'ed in March 2003... So these are 2-3 year old machines. Dear GOD what putrid old hardware! We deserve to have hardware failures! I'm just irritated at all of you people that seem to think that Apple hardware is so wonderful, but when it fails, come up with some easy excuse.
It is well protected from lightning. Every computer has an Intermatic surge protector, and there are surge protectors upstream too. Yes, over the span of one year, I have had multiple ethernet cards fry in the Macs, which are on the same network switch as the PC's. Everybody seems to be just dying to mod me down and call me a troll, when I have done NOTHING different to the PC's...and they are holding up fine. This is in TWO different school districts, with a total of probably 500 of these machines, and the problems are the same all over the place.
Some of these machines are right at 3 years old...you're right...but I've had a slow trickle of hard drive failures from the minute we got them. Various plain-box PC's I bought in the same time frame had none of these problems. These computers are not abused, severely or otherwise...and maintenance? Well, how do you maintain an integrated network card? We vacuum them on a regular basis, but other than that, how do you "maintain" a solid-state device? They are in a very well-ventilated, air-conditioned/heated room and have plenty of area on every side...they are in the same room that, again, my PC's have been flawless in. I am not dumping on Apple for no reason; I am saying that in years past, they were held up as the Gold Standard of Hardware, and none of these problems would be happening. Saying that it was a bad batch would be stretching it a bit... Here's a link The fact is that they were poorly designed, and failed at terrifying rate.
I know I will get Karma-nuked for saying this, but Apple hardware has seriously gone down hill from years past. I have a half-dozen of the more recent blueberry iMacs in my school that have crashed hard drives and fried network cards...and eMacs? A neighboring school district had a 50% failure rate on video cards for awhile. Sure, this may have been a wire problem blah blah blah...but this would NOT have happened a few years ago. Apple's hardware is rapidly turning into the same glitzy plasicky crap that Dell and HP have been shoving out the door for years. I have switched to plain-brown-wrapper computers for my school...the Apples and Dells of the world offer no advantages in reliability, and I have the machines to prove it.
Former Boss? Is that you?
Abandon it. Bluetooth was too little, too soon. Where tech executives saw people exchanging business cards with their PDA's, the real world saw a wireless connection with a range of 3 feet and a mere kilobits of bandwidth. I think it was more of a prolonged back-patting session for "Bluetooth Special Interest Group" members and less of a means of providing function to the customer.
I know the feeling. After I graduated, I worked at a sub-par job in Springfield and lived in a tiny, expensive apartment. I was basically treading water financially. Then I got a surprise job offer, which actually paid less, but was closer to "home." I worked there for awhile, and eventually got another job...which paid 50% more. Then I got another, which paid 50% more...and just recently I've been offered yet another, which pays 100% more. I will admit I graduated into a much better employment market than you did...but trust me, do good at whatever you do, and it will get better. It may take time, but you will prove yourself and be rewarded.
"Unlike GPLd software, the Java sources don't come with a viral infection clause that requires you to apply the GPL to your own code." Sheesh! I didn't know that GPL code had a virus! Call USAMRIID! I feel so dirty now...covered with...microscopic...germs. Seriously, though...I think that $2 billion has bought Microsoft a friend for life. Who says money can't buy love?
I am the Network Admin for the school district. In practice, that means I have to fix anything that is plugged into the wall, from TV's to computers to copy machines. Of course that includes managing the servers and 200 or so computers in the district. The pictures are all from the new school, which was built (or, IS being built) from the ground up with every solar/geothermal/insulating gadget they could find. I'm a 99 WIU grad myself...strangely enough in Industrial Technology.
The school that I work for just installed a huge 68,000 watt solar panel system to provide electricity. There are 21 "Sunny Boy" inverters that do the DC-to-AC conversion, and we have a breaker in place that disconnects us from the outside if there is so much as one phase lost...which prevents us from frying linemen. In addition, the inverters themselves will switch off within 30ms if there is a total power interruption. If you want to see some pictures, here is a link.
I suck at putting HTML on Slashdot...what can I say. Is there a MAN page somewhere about what is allowed and what isn't?
The crux of the story is this... 1. Critical machine knob was replaced by a "hidden" knob. 2. Company wanted to replace workers during strike 3. Machinist turned "hidden" knob to supar maximum full tilt 4. "Replacement" worker turns on machine 5. Very large, very powerful cutter flies at full speed into the bed of the machine (something that is NOT supposed to happen,) and his efforts to turn the real knob are fruitless 6. Hilarity and/or injuries ensue
An individual that I know that is retired from a factory did something similar; when the company wanted him to train some "temporary replacements" for a strike. He was a machinist and ran very expensive, very large machines. Among these was a Jig Bore, a very large machine something like a vertical mill. It had powered axes, but had been rigged by some electricians to have its vertical power axis control on the back of the panel. The original knob on the front was a "dummy" and not hooked to anything. This was fine, as he knew about it. He didn't tell his "replacement" about it, however, and when the strike ensued, he turned the machine off and put it on maximum down feed. When they came back from the prolonged strike, the machine had a huge chunk out of its bed...where someone had turned on the machine and watched helplessly as it rammed its cutter into the table.
Based on my R/C experience with Li-Poly batteries, I don't want to be around when one of these new batteries explodes...or, as some of the battery literature puts it, "violently decomposes."
That's an electron beam, not a microwave beam. It won't cook your dinner. It might show you bacteria growing on your food, though.
Irrespective of the morality of the subject, when people experience hardship, they vote with their hearts, not their minds. This is how totalitarian governments get installed...when businesses run over the common worker. Whether or not the net effect to the country is positive, when Joe Sixpack loses his job, he'll vote for whatever wacky political candidate that says he'll help him get another.
I can't think that a terrified flock of irradiated chickens would produce more heat than something like a quantity of Pu-238 or Pu-240, the former of which is quoted as producing 1/2 watt of heat per gram...nor would they be as durable.
I'm glad to see that the EU has broken the U.S. monopoly on wacky, mindless computer lawsuits!
Okay, I'll elaborate a bit. My first experiences with Novell were back in 1996 in college. Oh wow it does logins. My first admin experiences were in 2000 on a Netware 4 box. My overwhelming impression was how proprietary it was. On a client machine, you could talk to the Novell box, as long as it was through the obtrusive Novell client. Later on, in my work as a NW5 and 6 admin, I was struck by the lengths that Novell had gone through to break compatibility...like no plaintext passwords and such (even where it would have been acceptble.) My feelings are that NW4, 5 and 6 are often proprietary for no good reason. 6 and its use of Apache was much better, and now, with their new version, they have embraced standards, openness, and interoperability as a design goal. I know that their attitude is changing my impression of them, and may even make me a customer again.
I would have thought that MS could have dropped the price a long time ago to spread out their enormous development budgets a bit...but then again, "cutting the prices until we make a profit" hasn't worked too good as a business strategy recently.
Novell is slowly changing my opinion of them...
Is there a "jail event horizon"...I mean a point where everything in the world becomes a jail, and all of its residents are incarcerated?
I dunno...I've seen a couple of Piccolos with Li-Poly batteries fly constantly for 30 minutes...I would certainly agree you're not gonna get much of an explosive punch out of what they can carry, though...Perhaps they could make the frame, skids, and canopy out of C4. Then again, with the Li-Polys, you're almost as likely to kill someone with a battery explosion alone.
Been done. The version at this link... Link Comes with fixed pitch, but can be upgraded to full collective (he's talking about collective pitch on a helicopter blade, not the Borg you Star Trek watching clod.) These things can do wild aerobatics, inverted flight, whatever you want. Putting a GPS receiver on it might be a bit of a challenge, as they will hardly lift anything...I imagine they could carry a grenade, too though.
I have read it and have had conversations with our lawyers about it. The RIAA calling us up and saying "Let us have a gander at your logs!" is not a valid judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena. Logs of computer usage are legally similar to attendance records, which fully meet the definition of "education records" and cannot be lightly handed over. The University is caving much too easily.