The meat of the article's question, which hasn't been addressed in the replies yet at least: is there an open source tool that makes generating forms (web based I would hope) as easy as you can do this in formmaker or access? For instance, is there a tool I can use to rapidly create data input screens with data validation or quickly throw together some screens that run queries with screen formatted results?
The backend shouldn't matter too much, there are plenty of great open source tools to store and query data, but what about the user interface side? So far I haven't found a good solution that doesn't require manual html/php/perl/etc coding. (Not that I won't do that if I have too, but I'd rather have something more like ms access if it exists in open source, even if it's not as polished). any ideas?
In the time you spend finding, installing and learning a fancy config tool, you could probably learn how to do it for yourself. The guys at the ldp have done an awesome job of gathering HOWTO's, guides and other information to make finding the info you need simple.
Another huge benefit to learning how to configure your system manually is that troubleshooting becomes much easier. In most cases you'll find in the long run that it's much faster to do things yourself once you know how. You might also find that the system can be configured more to your liking or discover new features and ways to use software by learning more about it.
why the fsck would a "mom-n-pop" user be running gentoo???
pop a knoppix cd in, i bet you have sound in less than a minute (just boot and play).
install xandros, you'll very likely have sound and a much easier to use enviroment, one intended for those who cannot or will not figure out how to configure things like sound for themselves.
if you use a distro designed for more advanced users, don't expect hold your hand features..
Webmin does not require you to "run httpd". It uses it's own internal webserver. Not sure that makes it any safer than using apache or similar, though.
I bought one of these too and was initially dissapointed. The software included sucks. However, after converting to Open Show Center, an open source interface for the device, I have been.. well *more* satisfied with it. Music works very well, and I am able to play some AVI, most Divx and all MPEG movies with it, all streaming off my linux samba server over 802.11b. The interface is easy to customize and even writing new modules is not difficult. Open Show Center is at http://openshowcenter.sourceforge.net
Maybe not a reason to shell out $300 for the device, but if you already have one, definately check it out.
Some of the things in my mailbox are sensitive, and my roommate and friends use my PC sometimes. I don't download my business mail at all, I use terminal sessions with my employers Citrix server or even Outlook Web Access in a pinch.
This has a nice side effect of allowing me to get into my mailbox from anywhere, not just home. Data is encrypted in transit and never stored locally.
Obviously this is only an option for those with corporate web mail or terminal servers available, but it works great for me.
One of the most common sources of silly arguments between my linux newbie friends is which distro is "better", whether at a particular task such as installing new software or just in general. Most of the arguments are pointless to someone who understands Linux well.
One of the best things about Linux (IMHO) is that you can choose a distro that does mostly everything for you, or a distro that expects you to know what you're doing in return for more involvement in the way the system works. I use both depending on the project at hand.. for example I choose a different distro if I'm building a webserver for a customer than I would use on my personal workstation.
When it comes down to it, a sufficiently skilled Linux hacker can make any distro do anything any other distro does. This reduces most valid comparisons to "what tools does distro A provide that make it easier to do X than the tools that distro B provides, and how difficult would it be to just add those tools to distro B."
In the end, I think people who really love and know Linux can make any distro into an environment they can thrive in, and those who chose to accept whatever enviroment is provided will always find a reason to switch to yet another distro.
Maybe the most revealing reviews would be of the reviewers themselves then, and not the distros?
I bought the nec lt240k after reading the review at projector central http://www.projectorcentral.com/nec_lt240k.htm
I am very pleased with this unit. It costs ~$2000, about twice the price of the entry level HT projectors that have been mentioned alot in this discussion.. but it's twice the projector in many ways.
It has 2000 lumens, which makes a big difference compared to the ~1000 lumen projectors. I project onto a flat white wall and the 12ft wide by 9ft tall image is decent during daylight and outstanding at night. I'm sure a real screen would improve daylight viewing.
People are very impressed by both the size of the image and the quality of the picture. You will need about 17 feet of distance from the screen to achieve a screen this size, but thanks to the many keystone and aspect correcting options you can put the projector very far off center. I actually have it mounted in the ceiling of a hallway thats almost 5 feet off center of my screen and it works great.
Its pretty quiet in normal mode, but it also has an econo mode which at night is still great viewing and VERY quiet. I'm assuming that it also saves on bulb life.
If you want a larger and brighter screen than the $1000 units, consider this one. You do get alot more for the extra cash, and at $2k its still cheaper than a decent "little" 50 something inch rear projection tv. You don't mind the fact that it only weighs about 7 lbs when you have to move either!
Ethereal or tcpdump are great when you know what you're looking for or need to record packets over time. Sometimes I also like to use iptraf (CLI realtime packet summary) or etherape (X based, not as powerful as iptraf but cooler looking). These tools let you see realtime displays of connections which is often useful alongside a packet logger. iftop is another similar tool for realtime CLI display. There are also many protocol specific realtime tools like dnstop or arpwatch that come in very handy.
I don't think anyone can be sure why MS released this code, but wouldn't it be great to embrace their code and "extend" it to run under say KDE and install rpm,.deb, or whatever package mangler is cool today? It would probably be alot of work and not the best way to install apps on a *nix system anyway, but it would be a novelty to run MS code to install apps on my Linux box.
It also might make Windows users a little more comfortable to see a familiarish looking/feeling install process.
As more people use the net, of course there will be more stupid people using it to communicate with each other in stupid ways. This is because there are many many stupid people in this world and it's only natural that the net reflects this.
What can anyone do about it? Should anyone do anything about it? What are you proposing?
DNS already turns numbers into descriptive names, it's called reverse DNS. I believe this is the type of thing the article is talking about. For instance now I can use tools like nslookup to query DNS for the hostname of a particular IP address: 'nslookup 66.35.250.10' tells me that's ns1.osdn.com. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do a lookup on a upc or rfid and get back a descriptive name for the product? Possibly also pricing and availability info, etc. This is possible and would work just like reverse DNS works now.
I believe the true power here is the distributed nature of DNS and the delegation of authority to the respective owners of "chunks" of upc space. If each manufacture can create and maintain its own zones containing product info mapped to upc's, DNS can make it very simple to create clients that use DNS to lookup product info. Want to know if there's a recall for your kids carseat? Wave the magic thingy over the barcode. Wonder the MTBF on that new hard drive you bought? Wave the magic thingy... etc,etc..
I am wondering if having an AP without wep and using a default SSID would be of benefit should the RIAA come a'knockin... living in a densely populated area or a large apartment building, could they prove it was you that downloaded 20,000 mp3s? And do I become responsible even if it really wasn't me? I'm sure there are precedents in other areas, but it seems buying an AP at your local walmart and just plugging it in will create quite a liability or defense, depending. Anyone know?
I don't pay for software from companies who *do* own it, so this is a no brainer.
But seriously, my question is this: How the heck does SCO expect to determine who is or is not using "linux" at home?
Given that anybody can through together a distro and there are already loads of them, and that you can even install the kernel, etc yourself if you're really determined without using any distro... how could they ever possibly know short of a physical search of your house?
Is SCO hoping that people will just mail them a check because "it's the right thing to do"?. these same people who don't bat an eye at "borrowing" that MS OFfice CD or burning copies of the latest game are actually going to pay SCO?
Honestly, I think most of the same benefits can be had by using a higher res on one monitor. I have tried multi-mon, when I first discovered you could get more than one monitor working on a PC, of course I had to spend a week connecting every monitor I could get my hands on to my PC. Even with (just) two monitors, the extra work involved in keeping track of which program is where and moving them where you want them is distracting. I vastly prefer simply having the res to display as much info as I need on a single display.
One thing you might be missing if, like me, you prefer to do everything in a shell:
Webmin makes it easy for you to provide limited admin access to the other IT guys in your department who don't know Unix.
If you're anything like me, you are probably getting used to being stuck doing boring adminstrative crap on the Unix boxes because noone else is willing to invest the time to learn how to do it. Webmin will set you free!
Between the built in modules and the ability to add "custom commands" (really a simple interface that allows CLI challenged folks to pass some arguments to a command and see the results) you can enable any moron to do basic unix system administration tasks.
No more phone calls to reset a password, change an MX record, or restart the web server! Create user accounts that limit the modules available, pass out some logins, and all the Windoze guys see is a web interface with buttons, no more scary unix shell.
Slashdot Mirror
The meat of the article's question, which hasn't been addressed in the replies yet at least: is there an open source tool that makes generating forms (web based I would hope) as easy as you can do this in formmaker or access? For instance, is there a tool I can use to rapidly create data input screens with data validation or quickly throw together some screens that run queries with screen formatted results? The backend shouldn't matter too much, there are plenty of great open source tools to store and query data, but what about the user interface side? So far I haven't found a good solution that doesn't require manual html/php/perl/etc coding. (Not that I won't do that if I have too, but I'd rather have something more like ms access if it exists in open source, even if it's not as polished). any ideas?
"It's craptacular"
I would like to plug some of my company's products too.
http://www.tldp.org
In the time you spend finding, installing and learning a fancy config tool, you could probably learn how to do it for yourself. The guys at the ldp have done an awesome job of gathering HOWTO's, guides and other information to make finding the info you need simple.
Another huge benefit to learning how to configure your system manually is that troubleshooting becomes much easier. In most cases you'll find in the long run that it's much faster to do things yourself once you know how. You might also find that the system can be configured more to your liking or discover new features and ways to use software by learning more about it.
why the fsck would a "mom-n-pop" user be running gentoo??? pop a knoppix cd in, i bet you have sound in less than a minute (just boot and play). install xandros, you'll very likely have sound and a much easier to use enviroment, one intended for those who cannot or will not figure out how to configure things like sound for themselves. if you use a distro designed for more advanced users, don't expect hold your hand features..
Webmin does not require you to "run httpd". It uses it's own internal webserver. Not sure that makes it any safer than using apache or similar, though.
#1 use for machine learning in a web browser: Convert every website into porn.
I bought one of these too and was initially dissapointed. The software included sucks. However, after converting to Open Show Center, an open source interface for the device, I have been.. well *more* satisfied with it. Music works very well, and I am able to play some AVI, most Divx and all MPEG movies with it, all streaming off my linux samba server over 802.11b. The interface is easy to customize and even writing new modules is not difficult.
Open Show Center is at http://openshowcenter.sourceforge.net
Maybe not a reason to shell out $300 for the device, but if you already have one, definately check it out.
Some of the things in my mailbox are sensitive, and my roommate and friends use my PC sometimes. I don't download my business mail at all, I use terminal sessions with my employers Citrix server or even Outlook Web Access in a pinch. This has a nice side effect of allowing me to get into my mailbox from anywhere, not just home. Data is encrypted in transit and never stored locally. Obviously this is only an option for those with corporate web mail or terminal servers available, but it works great for me.
One of the most common sources of silly arguments between my linux newbie friends is which distro is "better", whether at a particular task such as installing new software or just in general. Most of the arguments are pointless to someone who understands Linux well. One of the best things about Linux (IMHO) is that you can choose a distro that does mostly everything for you, or a distro that expects you to know what you're doing in return for more involvement in the way the system works. I use both depending on the project at hand.. for example I choose a different distro if I'm building a webserver for a customer than I would use on my personal workstation. When it comes down to it, a sufficiently skilled Linux hacker can make any distro do anything any other distro does. This reduces most valid comparisons to "what tools does distro A provide that make it easier to do X than the tools that distro B provides, and how difficult would it be to just add those tools to distro B." In the end, I think people who really love and know Linux can make any distro into an environment they can thrive in, and those who chose to accept whatever enviroment is provided will always find a reason to switch to yet another distro. Maybe the most revealing reviews would be of the reviewers themselves then, and not the distros?
I bought the nec lt240k after reading the review at projector central http://www.projectorcentral.com/nec_lt240k.htm I am very pleased with this unit. It costs ~$2000, about twice the price of the entry level HT projectors that have been mentioned alot in this discussion.. but it's twice the projector in many ways. It has 2000 lumens, which makes a big difference compared to the ~1000 lumen projectors. I project onto a flat white wall and the 12ft wide by 9ft tall image is decent during daylight and outstanding at night. I'm sure a real screen would improve daylight viewing. People are very impressed by both the size of the image and the quality of the picture. You will need about 17 feet of distance from the screen to achieve a screen this size, but thanks to the many keystone and aspect correcting options you can put the projector very far off center. I actually have it mounted in the ceiling of a hallway thats almost 5 feet off center of my screen and it works great. Its pretty quiet in normal mode, but it also has an econo mode which at night is still great viewing and VERY quiet. I'm assuming that it also saves on bulb life. If you want a larger and brighter screen than the $1000 units, consider this one. You do get alot more for the extra cash, and at $2k its still cheaper than a decent "little" 50 something inch rear projection tv. You don't mind the fact that it only weighs about 7 lbs when you have to move either!
Ethereal or tcpdump are great when you know what you're looking for or need to record packets over time. Sometimes I also like to use iptraf (CLI realtime packet summary) or etherape (X based, not as powerful as iptraf but cooler looking). These tools let you see realtime displays of connections which is often useful alongside a packet logger. iftop is another similar tool for realtime CLI display. There are also many protocol specific realtime tools like dnstop or arpwatch that come in very handy.
I don't think anyone can be sure why MS released this code, but wouldn't it be great to embrace their code and "extend" it to run under say KDE and install rpm, .deb, or whatever package mangler is cool today? It would probably be alot of work and not the best way to install apps on a *nix system anyway, but it would be a novelty to run MS code to install apps on my Linux box.
It also might make Windows users a little more comfortable to see a familiarish looking/feeling install process.
I love the new DARPA design. It makes everything you do on a PC easier, faster, and more fun. -A
As more people use the net, of course there will be more stupid people using it to communicate with each other in stupid ways. This is because there are many many stupid people in this world and it's only natural that the net reflects this. What can anyone do about it? Should anyone do anything about it? What are you proposing?
DNS already turns numbers into descriptive names, it's called reverse DNS. I believe this is the type of thing the article is talking about. For instance now I can use tools like nslookup to query DNS for the hostname of a particular IP address: 'nslookup 66.35.250.10' tells me that's ns1.osdn.com. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do a lookup on a upc or rfid and get back a descriptive name for the product? Possibly also pricing and availability info, etc. This is possible and would work just like reverse DNS works now. I believe the true power here is the distributed nature of DNS and the delegation of authority to the respective owners of "chunks" of upc space. If each manufacture can create and maintain its own zones containing product info mapped to upc's, DNS can make it very simple to create clients that use DNS to lookup product info. Want to know if there's a recall for your kids carseat? Wave the magic thingy over the barcode. Wonder the MTBF on that new hard drive you bought? Wave the magic thingy... etc,etc..
I am wondering if having an AP without wep and using a default SSID would be of benefit should the RIAA come a'knockin... living in a densely populated area or a large apartment building, could they prove it was you that downloaded 20,000 mp3s? And do I become responsible even if it really wasn't me? I'm sure there are precedents in other areas, but it seems buying an AP at your local walmart and just plugging it in will create quite a liability or defense, depending. Anyone know?
I don't pay for software from companies who *do* own it, so this is a no brainer. But seriously, my question is this: How the heck does SCO expect to determine who is or is not using "linux" at home? Given that anybody can through together a distro and there are already loads of them, and that you can even install the kernel, etc yourself if you're really determined without using any distro... how could they ever possibly know short of a physical search of your house? Is SCO hoping that people will just mail them a check because "it's the right thing to do"?. these same people who don't bat an eye at "borrowing" that MS OFfice CD or burning copies of the latest game are actually going to pay SCO?
Honestly, I think most of the same benefits can be had by using a higher res on one monitor. I have tried multi-mon, when I first discovered you could get more than one monitor working on a PC, of course I had to spend a week connecting every monitor I could get my hands on to my PC. Even with (just) two monitors, the extra work involved in keeping track of which program is where and moving them where you want them is distracting. I vastly prefer simply having the res to display as much info as I need on a single display.
One thing you might be missing if, like me, you prefer to do everything in a shell: Webmin makes it easy for you to provide limited admin access to the other IT guys in your department who don't know Unix. If you're anything like me, you are probably getting used to being stuck doing boring adminstrative crap on the Unix boxes because noone else is willing to invest the time to learn how to do it. Webmin will set you free! Between the built in modules and the ability to add "custom commands" (really a simple interface that allows CLI challenged folks to pass some arguments to a command and see the results) you can enable any moron to do basic unix system administration tasks. No more phone calls to reset a password, change an MX record, or restart the web server! Create user accounts that limit the modules available, pass out some logins, and all the Windoze guys see is a web interface with buttons, no more scary unix shell.