We wrote our own web-based application to deal with this, and it includes many, but not all of the features you are looking for.
We're using it day to day to run our business and keep adding things as we need/desire them. Just start with a simple soltution (the itch we scratched initially was timebilling) and get something basic out there.
It allows techs, users, customers and admins to login. It includes time billing, invoicing, and basic helpdesk system. Hours can be recorded against clients by the various techs, logged against helpdesk jobs, invoiced, etc. It's also possible to sell product through a PC Store which has a simple PC Configurator tool.
It stores information (including attachments) for customer hardware - for example, you can record purchase date/IP address of a firewall and upload the config files as an attachment - or just a handy place to put drivers or a copy of the original invoice.
Next, we added basic reporting - revenue per period, hours or billing per consultant/customer, configure default billing rates and all that stuff.
The problem with open source is that you can get the code for free. The great thing about open source is you can get the code for free!
Our company looked at developing and releasing open source products based on the "Tall Emu" public licence (for want of a better name).
The concept was basically to sell the product as a non-free solution until such time as milestones were met (revenue, units sold, whatever).
These terms were to be included in the licence.. something along the lines of "This licence will terminate and be replaced by the GPL licence once we have sold xyz units and you can see current sales at www.tallemu.com."
By thinking carefully about the licence, it is possible to "guarantee" that the company wouldn't be able to weasel out of it's obligations to release the source at some point, but also it could make money for a period of time.
The second part of the problem is to figure out a way that people just don't wait until your product becomes open source, so you wear all of the costs and non of the (financial) upside, or even worse, try and find a loophole in your licence.
I guess it also depends on your product. The Exchange Killer (TM) was the product that I wanted to write and use with the licence I describe above.
When my company merged with another of a similar size, everyone was excited and motivated. In my contract I was able to sell half my shares on day one.
Spirits were high, so were expectations for the future. We hired an expensive CEO. We hired an expensive marketing guy. We hired an expensive sales weasel.
Then the infighting started. Initially between the Swiss and Australian office. Then between the founders and the CEO. Then pretty much between the entire board of directors, founders, CEO and all of the employees.
With the benefit of hindsight, I should have gotten rid of half of my shares (to guarantee at least some return,) then gambled with the rest.
Never, never underestimate the ability of different cultures and values to screw up a good thing.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Amazon and at least 15 poster and picture stores violated copyright law by selling the digital images outright or allowing sales to occur through their sites. Corbis is seeking up to $150,000 for each work sold.
Just for those that can't be bothered reading it. It all seems reasonable to me.
How many of you could actually pitch exchange *out* of a client (or avoid putting it there in the first place) if such a version were available?
I think it would be easy to do this in smaller companies, where they don't have an IT department, or much IT experience. I suspect it would be somewhat harder in "I want a support contract" corporate environments.
You make the mistake of assuming that corps. will act logically. Now, if I could go in there with an OS exchange solution and just *slightly* undercut MS;)
I think you're right. I have a customer running NT4 and Exchange 5.x. We've just produced some software for them that uses the Firebird database, and when we looked at the server to install the database engine on we saw that it was old, poorly maintained, running out of disk space and plugged into the internet (running an MS firewalling product of some kind).
Now, in this case we can put in a nice Linux firewall (or appliance) for a very low cost. Since we are using Firebird, we have the *option* of using Linux as the OS as FB is cross platform. But, I would still need to replace their Exchange Server, Anitivirus software and several off the shelf business apps( which are the biggest challenge of all)
The thought of replacing Windows desktops with Linux is a fantasy. But,we can continue the creep with servers.
"it is good to have lots of operating systems and processors out there, anything else would be suicide. With proper diversity we could control both the virus and spam problems."
If I follow your logic, you could also make a case that having different taxation laws in every state, city and town would reduce tax evasion. More likely the same amount would go on, but it would be harder to detect and control and police. Who cares if some small guy from Assfuck, Idaho is cheating on his tax.
With diverse operating systems, there will be precisely the same number of dickheads out there writing malware, but that each would be more focussed for an OS, and perhaps more difficult to detect.
A Windows trojan is news. There are a gajillion desktops out there to attack. Who is interested in reporting a virus for a niche operating system with a few thousand users? Certainly not the mainstream. What about Antivirus tools, etc. Who is going to write them?
As for this solving spam... As far as I was aware, the internet is already built using open, diverse (and exploitable) mail protocols.
I guess my point is that even if I deploy a "superior" web server, such as Apache, this is ultimately pointless as the client will most likely have invested time and money into Cold Fusion or ASP development. They don't want to throw away their $10,000 web site because Mike tells 'em Apache serves content better.
Similarly, if I have invested in some commercial off the shelf products that use, for example, SQL Server, I cannot throw those away just because Firebird is a free database.
(incidentally, if you want to write your Access clone, consider firebird as the database - open source and cross platform. Develop your product in Delphi/Kylix too and you've have cross platform access.
Have a conversion wizard from the Windows version (to convert access to your product) and you are just *beginning* to have something that could *start* to replace MS on the desktop.
Howto: Replace Commercial with Open source
on
Technology Buying Slump
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
OK, so take the challenge. Which Open Source applications (client and server) can *really* be used in place of other expensive solutions.
Remember, companies like their Outlook for Calendar, contacts and email - hooked up to an expensive Exchange box running on Win2k.
Then we need a web server, say, Apache, but unfortunately the existing content may be written in ASP or Cold Fusion.
Of course, this is probably all connected up to SQL Server or MSDE.
What about backup utilities (remember boys and girls, there's still Windows on the desktop) and we need Antivirus too.
Now, suppose that I am the manager of a company and I want to do all that, to SAVE me money, but I want everything I had before. Unreasonable? Nope, I am a typical customer.
Yeah, the kid was a dickhead. I could probably go into the shop while his dad was there and be signed up in no time.
Still, it served to illustrate the point (I hope) that simple barriers can put people off consuming content, whereas simple accessible media is, umm. simply accessed:)
I have an ADSL connection at home, and I could imagine that if my ISP had a video-server (meaning that I could get almost the full download speed due to few hops) then I would probably rent (or buy) more content than I do now.
Had a passport, phone bill and lordy knows what else. But, as an English guy it is pretty hard to present an Australian passport as proof of address (doesn't even have address on it anyhow!)
I should get myself an Aussie drivers licence. However, I am on an English licence at the moment, so when I drive overseas it's like diplomatic immunity:) Hire Car in switzerland, speed in France and then back to Oz with my English licence:):)
There's an RTA proof of Age card which is frankly silly for a 29 year old. The easiest option is just go to another video shop.
... I would certainly pay for accessible, reasonably priced, good quality music and video.
I don't have an Australian Drivers licence, and my local video store requires *australian* photo ID. So, that counts me out as a video consumer. The last time I bought a CD was for *one* song I liked. I'd use ITunes if it were available out here.
Sadly, I doubt that the companies will wake up and smell the coffee...
Why not just sign up with a different ISP, such as Ihug? for $2xx per month, you can get an unlimited fast connection. For someone with a lower budget (like me) you can also get unlimited downloads at a slower speed for about $99
... we were a three-person team in a department that was soley responsible for several mission critical systems at a major company.
Short version.. they stuffed us around with our contract, (not seriously, just a power-play) and after many, many discussions we walked out.
They called us at the golf course a few hours later, and we were back at work the next day. We worked for them for another few years and all was well. Our company expanded and contracted in synch. with the dot com boom (including the ultimate implosion and death phase sadly).
Would I walk out in todays economy? Nope. I'll still walk away from bad business, but I won't walk out on a secure contract unless I have another alternative.
Want to protest snooping? Install PGP (or open src equivalent) and encrypt every email you send.
Write a simple installer so that my mum can install it easily as well and I'll tell her to use it too.
There. It is now "somewhat difficult" for the authorities to randomly snoop on every email. Of course, with the appropriate search warrants they can make you give up the keys, but that is another issue.
When you order goods from any country from the UK, you may have to pay import duties and VAT. The level of the VAT will vary depending on which member state you are in.
Similarly, in Australia I may have to pay import duties and GST (a form of VAT)
I would imagine that if you import goods into the USA there are already import duties and some form of sales tax that should be paid.
Enter the internet, and people just don't pay. Especially for intangible goods. Certainly at my old company I ordered software from the USA and haven't paid any import duties or GST, despite my legal obligation to do so. Nothing has changed, it's just easier to avoid the tax where goods don't physically pass through customs.
Better to comply than have some "man in the middle" electronically snooping on e-commerce
The nice thing about a book is that it doesn't have a power switch - it's actually relaxing to sit there and read it.
If it were possible to obtain a high speed printer capable of printing out "e-books" in the same form-factor as a normal book (ie double sided pages, standard size, neatly bound) then I for one would pay for *lots* more books (and paper, and ink.)
Re:What "cheap, high speed cable access" ?
on
Copyright Defeats?
·
· Score: 1
Here in Sydney I pay about $80 (about US40) per month for a 512 ASDL connection. I have a cap of about 4GB per month, after that I am hit with excess use charges.
For me, that isn't bad value compared to about A$30 per month for dialup, and the associated call charges (25c local calls here) and the ability to speak and surf at the same time.
Of course, I work from home and am on the net all day so in my case the value is definately there.
Do ADSL/Cable plans in the US have caps on usage and excess fees?
Slashdot Mirror
We wrote our own web-based application to deal with this, and it includes many, but not all of the features you are looking for.
We're using it day to day to run our business and keep adding things as we need/desire them. Just start with a simple soltution (the itch we scratched initially was timebilling) and get something basic out there.
It allows techs, users, customers and admins to login. It includes time billing, invoicing, and basic helpdesk system. Hours can be recorded against clients by the various techs, logged against helpdesk jobs, invoiced, etc. It's also possible to sell product through a PC Store which has a simple PC Configurator tool.
It stores information (including attachments) for customer hardware - for example, you can record purchase date/IP address of a firewall and upload the config files as an attachment - or just a handy place to put drivers or a copy of the original invoice.
Next, we added basic reporting - revenue per period, hours or billing per consultant/customer, configure default billing rates and all that stuff.
Mike
The problem with open source is that you can get the code for free. The great thing about open source is you can get the code for free!
Our company looked at developing and releasing open source products based on the "Tall Emu" public licence (for want of a better name).
The concept was basically to sell the product as a non-free solution until such time as milestones were met (revenue, units sold, whatever).
These terms were to be included in the licence.. something along the lines of "This licence will terminate and be replaced by the GPL licence once we have sold xyz units and you can see current sales at www.tallemu.com."
By thinking carefully about the licence, it is possible to "guarantee" that the company wouldn't be able to weasel out of it's obligations to release the source at some point, but also it could make money for a period of time.
The second part of the problem is to figure out a way that people just don't wait until your product becomes open source, so you wear all of the costs and non of the (financial) upside, or even worse, try and find a loophole in your licence.
I guess it also depends on your product. The Exchange Killer (TM) was the product that I wanted to write and use with the licence I describe above.
When my company merged with another of a similar size, everyone was excited and motivated. In my contract I was able to sell half my shares on day one.
Spirits were high, so were expectations for the future. We hired an expensive CEO. We hired an expensive marketing guy. We hired an expensive sales weasel.
Then the infighting started. Initially between the Swiss and Australian office. Then between the founders and the CEO. Then pretty much between the entire board of directors, founders, CEO and all of the employees.
With the benefit of hindsight, I should have gotten rid of half of my shares (to guarantee at least some return,) then gambled with the rest.
Never, never underestimate the ability of different cultures and values to screw up a good thing.
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst case.
From the article on CNET....
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Amazon and at least 15 poster and picture stores violated copyright law by selling the digital images outright or allowing sales to occur through their sites. Corbis is seeking up to $150,000 for each work sold.
Just for those that can't be bothered reading it. It all seems reasonable to me.
How many of you could actually pitch exchange *out* of a client (or avoid putting it there in the first place) if such a version were available?
;)
I think it would be easy to do this in smaller companies, where they don't have an IT department, or much IT experience. I suspect it would be somewhat harder in "I want a support contract" corporate environments.
You make the mistake of assuming that corps. will act logically. Now, if I could go in there with an OS exchange solution and just *slightly* undercut MS
I think you're right. I have a customer running NT4 and Exchange 5.x. We've just produced some software for them that uses the Firebird database, and when we looked at the server to install the database engine on we saw that it was old, poorly maintained, running out of disk space and plugged into the internet (running an MS firewalling product of some kind).
Now, in this case we can put in a nice Linux firewall (or appliance) for a very low cost. Since we are using Firebird, we have the *option* of using Linux as the OS as FB is cross platform. But, I would still need to replace their Exchange Server, Anitivirus software and several off the shelf business apps( which are the biggest challenge of all)
The thought of replacing Windows desktops with Linux is a fantasy. But,we can continue the creep with servers.
"it is good to have lots of operating systems and processors out there, anything else would be suicide. With proper diversity we could control both the virus and spam problems."
If I follow your logic, you could also make a case that having different taxation laws in every state, city and town would reduce tax evasion. More likely the same amount would go on, but it would be harder to detect and control and police. Who cares if some small guy from Assfuck, Idaho is cheating on his tax.
With diverse operating systems, there will be precisely the same number of dickheads out there writing malware, but that each would be more focussed for an OS, and perhaps more difficult to detect.
A Windows trojan is news. There are a gajillion desktops out there to attack. Who is interested in reporting a virus for a niche operating system with a few thousand users? Certainly not the mainstream. What about Antivirus tools, etc. Who is going to write them?
As for this solving spam... As far as I was aware, the internet is already built using open, diverse (and exploitable) mail protocols.
I'm all in favour of that!
Before running this VIRUS you must accept the terms of our End User Licence agreement.
[Accept] [Decline]
I guess my point is that even if I deploy a "superior" web server, such as Apache, this is ultimately pointless as the client will most likely have invested time and money into Cold Fusion or ASP development. They don't want to throw away their $10,000 web site because Mike tells 'em Apache serves content better.
Similarly, if I have invested in some commercial off the shelf products that use, for example, SQL Server, I cannot throw those away just because Firebird is a free database.
(incidentally, if you want to write your Access clone, consider firebird as the database - open source and cross platform. Develop your product in Delphi/Kylix too and you've have cross platform access.
Have a conversion wizard from the Windows version (to convert access to your product) and you are just *beginning* to have something that could *start* to replace MS on the desktop.
OK, so take the challenge. Which Open Source applications (client and server) can *really* be used in place of other expensive solutions.
Remember, companies like their Outlook for Calendar, contacts and email - hooked up to an expensive Exchange box running on Win2k.
Then we need a web server, say, Apache, but unfortunately the existing content may be written in ASP or Cold Fusion.
Of course, this is probably all connected up to SQL Server or MSDE.
What about backup utilities (remember boys and girls, there's still Windows on the desktop) and we need Antivirus too.
Now, suppose that I am the manager of a company and I want to do all that, to SAVE me money, but I want everything I had before. Unreasonable? Nope, I am a typical customer.
Question is, can it be done??
Yeah, the kid was a dickhead. I could probably go into the shop while his dad was there and be signed up in no time.
:)
Still, it served to illustrate the point (I hope) that simple barriers can put people off consuming content, whereas simple accessible media is, umm. simply accessed
I have an ADSL connection at home, and I could imagine that if my ISP had a video-server (meaning that I could get almost the full download speed due to few hops) then I would probably rent (or buy) more content than I do now.
Plus, no issues with the video being out either.
I know what the plan is. Install IE and set the homepage as Goatse. Cure people of *any* desire to eat.
I can't imagine *internet* as a huge, huge priority. Emailing relatives "Yes, I am still hungry, homeless and the boys have dysentry again".
Perhaps more useful would be basic infrastructure for communications in general, electricity, clean water and so on.
hehehe... I only steal DVD's :)
Had a passport, phone bill and lordy knows what else. But, as an English guy it is pretty hard to present an Australian passport as proof of address (doesn't even have address on it anyhow!)
I'm living in the Australia where there's a dickhead schoolkid at the local video store that wants two types of Australian Photo ID :)
I should get myself an Aussie drivers licence. However, I am on an English licence at the moment, so when I drive overseas it's like diplomatic immunity :) Hire Car in switzerland, speed in France and then back to Oz with my English licence :) :)
There's an RTA proof of Age card which is frankly silly for a 29 year old. The easiest option is just go to another video shop.
... I would certainly pay for accessible, reasonably priced, good quality music and video.
I don't have an Australian Drivers licence, and my local video store requires *australian* photo ID. So, that counts me out as a video consumer. The last time I bought a CD was for *one* song I liked. I'd use ITunes if it were available out here.
Sadly, I doubt that the companies will wake up and smell the coffee...
... you just made me log into ICQ so I could remember my number!
Why not just sign up with a different ISP, such as Ihug? for $2xx per month, you can get an unlimited fast connection. For someone with a lower budget (like me) you can also get unlimited downloads at a slower speed for about $99
... we were a three-person team in a department that was soley responsible for several mission critical systems at a major company.
Short version.. they stuffed us around with our contract, (not seriously, just a power-play) and after many, many discussions we walked out.
They called us at the golf course a few hours later, and we were back at work the next day. We worked for them for another few years and all was well. Our company expanded and contracted in synch. with the dot com boom (including the ultimate implosion and death phase sadly).
Would I walk out in todays economy? Nope. I'll still walk away from bad business, but I won't walk out on a secure contract unless I have another alternative.
..and bandwith!
Want to protest snooping? Install PGP (or open src equivalent) and encrypt every email you send.
Write a simple installer so that my mum can install it easily as well and I'll tell her to use it too.
There. It is now "somewhat difficult" for the authorities to randomly snoop on every email. Of course, with the appropriate search warrants they can make you give up the keys, but that is another issue.
damn straight! I've seen your girlfriend and she has a bigger adams apple than me!
probably as well as the old ray-tracing programs ;)
When you order goods from any country from the UK, you may have to pay import duties and VAT. The level of the VAT will vary depending on which member state you are in.
Similarly, in Australia I may have to pay import duties and GST (a form of VAT)
I would imagine that if you import goods into the USA there are already import duties and some form of sales tax that should be paid.
Enter the internet, and people just don't pay. Especially for intangible goods. Certainly at my old company I ordered software from the USA and haven't paid any import duties or GST, despite my legal obligation to do so. Nothing has changed, it's just easier to avoid the tax where goods don't physically pass through customs.
Better to comply than have some "man in the middle" electronically snooping on e-commerce
... is paper. Seriously.
The nice thing about a book is that it doesn't have a power switch - it's actually relaxing to sit there and read it.
If it were possible to obtain a high speed printer capable of printing out "e-books" in the same form-factor as a normal book (ie double sided pages, standard size, neatly bound) then I for one would pay for *lots* more books (and paper, and ink.)
Here in Sydney I pay about $80 (about US40) per month for a 512 ASDL connection. I have a cap of about 4GB per month, after that I am hit with excess use charges.
For me, that isn't bad value compared to about A$30 per month for dialup, and the associated call charges (25c local calls here) and the ability to speak and surf at the same time.
Of course, I work from home and am on the net all day so in my case the value is definately there.
Do ADSL/Cable plans in the US have caps on usage and excess fees?