There is a difference between milking the cow with sensible management and long term milk production and butchering the cow for a quick feast and assuming there will always be another cow.
25 years ago this morning I was huddled next to a tiny fire with a few other grimy, cold and tired soldiers in brief respite from a long training mission when our Lt. walked up to us with a stricken look on his face to tell us that the space shuttle Challenger had blown up just after lift off. He said "The shuttle blew up." and walked off and we just looked at each other and tried to figure out if what he said was real or not. Training continued.
A few days later, back at the barracks watching a recording of the event, I realized it happened on my otherwise forgotten 21st birthday. I count this day among others of personal significance like November 11th and December 7th.
If a painter sells a work for a million dollars, does the paint manufacturer seek out an "equitable share"? Does the canvas producer say that the painter clearly built upon his product and without which the finished work could not have been done?
Clearly the artist could not work without the materials of his medium and the paint and canvas and brushes were paid for, but the value of those things are not dependent on the value of the final work.
I do not equate people with paint, but I believe the analogy holds true. The images and sounds that Kutiman uses are beautiful (or not) each in their own right and the final work could not exist without them, but to express value for them as a function of the value of the finished work is nonsensical.
The idea that anyone should be sued for the creation of art is absurd and is only credible because of the desire for profit at any cost.
I hope that each contributor is given recognition in some fashion, but also that each contributor in turn recognizes the creation of an artistic work beyond the scope of any of the individual samples.
What then is fair compensation? Who can really calculate the value of art? Take a picture of me and sell it for a million, should I get a share? Would I care if it was sold for only a dollar? I did not buy the camera, the film or release the shutter; I took no risk, should I still be entitled to the reward?
If I cut pictures out of a magazine and create a collage, should the magazine publisher feel entitled to sue me? The photographers? The newsstand where I bought the magazine? If my child does this for a school assignment should I fear litigation? Should you?
I differ with you on a number of issues. Linux or if you insist, GNU/Linux is an excellent operating system. It does precisely what an operating system should do and does it very well. I think what you are confusing is the support for proprietary file formats and applications that are being bundled or not bundled with particular distributions. Generally, proprietary file formats are not standards at all but rather a method of confining consumers to a particular way of doing things for the benefit of the creators of the proprietary format. By continuing to offer support for the old closed format rather than newer (and just as capable) open standards, distributions do nothing to further consumer choice.
I believe you are wrong when you say that offering support for these closed formats is giving consumers what they want. I think it is fair to say that for the majority, no one cares what format the content arrives in, so long as it works when and how they expect it to.
If support for open formats were to suddenly take off, then more content producers will use them and the whole argument that working with closed format vendors is somehow beneficial evaporates. If there is a way of doing something that is beneficial to many as opposed to a few, is that not a better way?
I am by no means a Linux zealot, but I must take exception to your characterization that Microsoft is somehow considered the enemy by only them. Microsoft should be considered the enemy of all free thinking people regardless of their choice of operating system, simply because Microsoft would remove that choice had they their way. I believe you can find many historical and well documented cases where various judicial systems agree that Microsoft is in every case attempting to reduce consumer choice to but a single and not often beneficial one.
As to being an activist, it is precisely in following what I believe, without regard for the opinions of those who disagree with me that that allows me to continue my existence with sufficient dignity and self respect that my moments of misery are reduced to such a number that they only add needed poignancy to an otherwise happy life. Activism is a simple thing and it has great rewards, much like courtesy.
This is obviously the newest training method for terrorists. It must be that Nintendo and Rockstar are pawns of Al Qaeda and USA Today is doing a service for the weak and ever shrinking US government by bringing horrible tool of destruction to their attention.
Seriously, it seems like ever since kids stopped playing semi violent games (cops and robbers, cap guns, and a host of others) they are more prone to actual violence. But whatever sells papers I guess.
I don't like easy answers because they all too often gloss over issues and make things seem so simple.
I am thinking that the OP wanted to highlight that a company that goes out of its way to show that is uses Linux on the back end, still doesn't support Linux users on the front end. Once the stage is set he then asks is this usual and when if ever is this likely to change?
I don't like to think that companies can court Linux users on the one hand by touting how much they use and understand Linux and then still refuse to support Linux using customers on the other without some issues arising. I don't think that this is a matter of financial problems either. If they are only concerned with a non-technical, non-Linux using customer base, then why go to the trouble of advertising their use of Linux and GPL compliance?
I, like the OP wonder if lip service to Linux customers will continue to be the normal practice, even while companies benefit enormously from Linux.
Perhaps one day the monopoly will fail and open standards will prevail, but until then, how do I get support for my Linux machines? If all of us Linux users simply roll over and say we aren't worth the trouble, then maybe we aren't. I do like seeing the question voiced though and I will be happy to add mine, ever hopeful that one day Linux users will be seen as commonplace enough to warrant support.
So many posts here defending the police; saying the girl was stupid for doing what she did. How can so many people get so far from common sense? What if she had become indignant and made some silly protestation as to her rights and had been shot for it. Would a dead student still be blamed for not exercising good judgment in attire? Would the police still be praised for making a rational and correct assessment of the situation? I think according to many of the sentiments I read here that it would be just so.
Perhaps I am being unreasonable when I expect that those persons charged with the preservation of good order and the safety of those around them be exceptional people, capable of sound judgments. I know I was not on the scene at the time, but I do know that there were alternatives that could have been chosen. I cannot believe that what occurred was the least violent method for dealing with a young person at an airport wearing odd clothing and a poor attitude.
For so many others to apparently express the belief that this was a reasonable action by the police, I can only assume a wholesale abandonment of reason. I should hope that such a descent into madness is not an inevitability.
(Disclaimer to hopefully stop some baseless rebuttals before they are made: I am both an Infantry combat veteran and a former armed security professional. I have been extensively trained and experienced in the use of deadly force, both on the giving and receiving end. When I say that there were means of dealing with this situation other than what actually happened, even without having been there, I'm not just speaking out of my ass.)
I've already been taxed. Sales tax when I bought the game, universal access fees on my ISP, and I am sure a host of other taxes that go into making my online experience one of the worst in the world. I'll pay taxes on virtual items when those taxes go towards getting me my free 100Mbps in home connection that I can use for anything at anytime. And I will be sure that every penny I paid in taxes, access fees, game costs and so on is a deduction.
My father had MS http://www.multiplesclerosis.com/ and found using a mouse to be very difficult. As his disease progressed he found that trying to move the mouse into position and then click it was a very difficult combination of movements to coordinate and typing was just as arduous for him. What he did do was to use a track ball with a very large ball that he could take his time to get in just the right spot and then lift his hand completely from it and then click. This allowed him to effectively interact with many programs that would normally require some degree of precision with the mouse. I cannot imagine him or anyone with a similar condition having the dexterity to move the mouse with sufficiant precision to activate this type of interface in any meaningful way. I know that had my father been exposed to such, he may never have spent as much time on the computer as he did. It may be that there is some combination of conditions where this clickless interface would be a boon to those using it, but I just can't see it.
The article is about kids that enjoy and are confident about their math class actually do poorly in math especially when compared to kids who are in classes that don't try to coddle them and make them feel smart when they aren't.
It isn't about how math heads relate to other people, or about how some people do better at math than others, it isn't really about people at all, but rather about policies that try to make math "fun" and "engaging" fail at teaching math.
BTW, I love math, but then I live at the extreme end of the bell curve.
http://xoblite.net/
Granted it's not been updated for almost a year now, but I use it at work for the very same reason. I use the edge flipping and mousewheel plugins with the pager so I have a lot of flexibility in how I move from desktop to desktop. It gives me Unix like interface and with Cygwin (which also has an option to run X windows but I've not played with it much) augmenting my command line, I'm almost happy with it.
I've used various Blackbox for Windows branches, and xoblite seems to be the best of them. Fast and stable; the only times I've had problems with it, could be traced back to another program.
Plus there is the added bonus that my Windows only co-workers can't figure out how to navigate around my machine.
2. Can use smaller airports for domestic flights...less time in security and most smaller airports have car rental agencies right at the airport or serve them regularly.
This is not correct. There is NO time spent in security. If you own, fractionally or otherwise, a plane, you go directly to it, no security at all. As far as travel to and from the airport goes, there is a private limo to pick you up and drop you off.... from curb to aircraft (again, no security check points there).
I did some consulting work for (a company that became) NetJet and you would be surprised at the number of clients they have. Companies small and large as well as individuals all enjoy the speed and convenience of their own personal aircraft.
I got laid off a few years ago along with many thousands of other mid-career IT engineers. The market where I am was flooded and my options for leaving the area continue to be severly limited due to family concerns.
In the interim period, between then and now (I run an IT department now) I drove pizza, sold cell phones, did landscaping, sold fur coats, and as much free lance work as I could convince mangers to pay for. What I learned about myself was that I really love IT work, and sysadmin work in particular.
When I got laid off, I was the lowest earner of my group of friends and I was making just a few thousand short of six figures a year. I make half that now, as do most of those same friends from three years ago. I could have re-trained myself to some other field, but when working at some nothing job to make rent, I found my conversations always going to what computer systems people had at home or at the office. I was always giving out free advice and business cards hoping for something to come out of it that would get me back to my field.
The bottom line is that if I was in it for the money I would have switched fields and never looked back. The adverts you see that say how great the job field is and how much money you will make, well those are from schools aren't they? IT is like any other field now, if you love what you do and you work hard at it you will succeed. Outsourcing is not as much of threat to your career as you are.
As I recall, Microsoft offered free support and customizations to those ISP's that chose to offer IE as part of their initial package. Microsoft through the small independant ISP's that they supported for free, in my opinion, more heavily influenced the market than anything else. As more and more sites were optimized for IE, more and more people switched, because that was what worked best. Standards aside, MS was able to create enough of a difference that people wanted IE, or at least the free support that using IE would get them. Unfortunately, unlike WINS, the people with the most influence in adopting MS technology were not the ones who understood it.
I have managed a number of migrations of various size and complexity and they were always affairs of long planning between all the affected parties. Thus, it is very hard for me to conceptualize a computer professional, no matter how limited in scope they may be, attempting to solicit expertise from a "news for nerds" web site about such a complex undertaking as a complete restructuring of a business infrastructure to a completely different platform.
His initial article made is it seem as if he was wanting to do it all at once in one fell swoop to an unfamiliar operating system with apparently no attendant concerns for training, data migration, licensing, or support issues, not to mention a myriad of other concerns particular to that business.
I just couldn't help but notice that taken out of context, the majority of posts essencially said don't switch, it is too complex and what you have is working. Perfect fodder for the MS FUD machine, especially if you replace the concept of switching busness infrastructure in the generic to a specific Windows to linux migration.
...for Microsoft to generate a lot of responses as to why it would be bad to switch to Linux from Windows. Never mind that in general, any unplanned attempt to radically change a business infrastructure is a bad idea, this particular thread makes it seem that it's just not a good idea to switch from Windows.
I just wonder what was the real point of this article.
1 million accounts doesn't really begin to explain what kind of solution you need. How many data centers do you have, what is your existing infrastructure, what kind of support will you be expected to provide to end users, to administrators, do you have special security needs to address (HIPPA, etc) et c....
You really need to determine what your needs are for the immediate future, then figure in growth, before you can start thinking about which solution or set of solutions (more likely I would think) is appropriate.
I could of course go into far greater detail, but then I would be looking for a piece of the action...
My oldest son would sit on my lap and he would shoot and jump and I would control the movements. It was a great way for us to spend a little time together.
I'm a computer professional and spend many hours a day in front of a computer both at the office and at home. This was a way for him to share in my daily activities and give me a much needed break from work. We would also go outside and play; fly kites together, go camping, nerf and water gun battles, hiking, play chess, cards, and lots of other things.
Today, 5 years later, he still plays computer games and he still goes outside to play. He has also combined the two, when he plays outside with his friends sometimes he will pretend to be some of the characters from the games, just like other kids would pretend to be comic book characters when I was young.
I and everyone who meets him thinks he is a well rounded, polite, responsible kid and he has demonstrated to me beyond any paternal pride that he is an outstanding person.
A few hours a week in front of the computer isn't going to hurt him at all and his familiarity with common UI's may even help him. I am a bit lucky as he is starting to show an interest in how the games work and I will likely start him with basic programming skills soon, if his interest continues.
He has a younger brother five years behind him and I will very likely do just the same thing.
You will just have to watch your kids and pay them attention. If you do that it won't matter if they spend a more time in front of a computer or digging in the dirt, so long as it is time spent with you, that is what really counts.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't matter if the original owner doesn't want to sell, for a price it can be made available.
There is a difference between milking the cow with sensible management and long term milk production and butchering the cow for a quick feast and assuming there will always be another cow.
25 years ago this morning I was huddled next to a tiny fire with a few other grimy, cold and tired soldiers in brief respite from a long training mission when our Lt. walked up to us with a stricken look on his face to tell us that the space shuttle Challenger had blown up just after lift off. He said "The shuttle blew up." and walked off and we just looked at each other and tried to figure out if what he said was real or not. Training continued. A few days later, back at the barracks watching a recording of the event, I realized it happened on my otherwise forgotten 21st birthday. I count this day among others of personal significance like November 11th and December 7th.
It would appear that this is a great time to start a for profit fire department there.
If a painter sells a work for a million dollars, does the paint manufacturer seek out an "equitable share"? Does the canvas producer say that the painter clearly built upon his product and without which the finished work could not have been done?
Clearly the artist could not work without the materials of his medium and the paint and canvas and brushes were paid for, but the value of those things are not dependent on the value of the final work.
I do not equate people with paint, but I believe the analogy holds true. The images and sounds that Kutiman uses are beautiful (or not) each in their own right and the final work could not exist without them, but to express value for them as a function of the value of the finished work is nonsensical.
The idea that anyone should be sued for the creation of art is absurd and is only credible because of the desire for profit at any cost.
I hope that each contributor is given recognition in some fashion, but also that each contributor in turn recognizes the creation of an artistic work beyond the scope of any of the individual samples.
What then is fair compensation? Who can really calculate the value of art? Take a picture of me and sell it for a million, should I get a share? Would I care if it was sold for only a dollar? I did not buy the camera, the film or release the shutter; I took no risk, should I still be entitled to the reward?
If I cut pictures out of a magazine and create a collage, should the magazine publisher feel entitled to sue me? The photographers? The newsstand where I bought the magazine? If my child does this for a school assignment should I fear litigation? Should you?
I differ with you on a number of issues. Linux or if you insist, GNU/Linux is an excellent operating system. It does precisely what an operating system should do and does it very well. I think what you are confusing is the support for proprietary file formats and applications that are being bundled or not bundled with particular distributions. Generally, proprietary file formats are not standards at all but rather a method of confining consumers to a particular way of doing things for the benefit of the creators of the proprietary format. By continuing to offer support for the old closed format rather than newer (and just as capable) open standards, distributions do nothing to further consumer choice.
I believe you are wrong when you say that offering support for these closed formats is giving consumers what they want. I think it is fair to say that for the majority, no one cares what format the content arrives in, so long as it works when and how they expect it to.
If support for open formats were to suddenly take off, then more content producers will use them and the whole argument that working with closed format vendors is somehow beneficial evaporates. If there is a way of doing something that is beneficial to many as opposed to a few, is that not a better way?
I am by no means a Linux zealot, but I must take exception to your characterization that Microsoft is somehow considered the enemy by only them. Microsoft should be considered the enemy of all free thinking people regardless of their choice of operating system, simply because Microsoft would remove that choice had they their way. I believe you can find many historical and well documented cases where various judicial systems agree that Microsoft is in every case attempting to reduce consumer choice to but a single and not often beneficial one.
As to being an activist, it is precisely in following what I believe, without regard for the opinions of those who disagree with me that that allows me to continue my existence with sufficient dignity and self respect that my moments of misery are reduced to such a number that they only add needed poignancy to an otherwise happy life. Activism is a simple thing and it has great rewards, much like courtesy.
This is obviously the newest training method for terrorists. It must be that Nintendo and Rockstar are pawns of Al Qaeda and USA Today is doing a service for the weak and ever shrinking US government by bringing horrible tool of destruction to their attention.
Seriously, it seems like ever since kids stopped playing semi violent games (cops and robbers, cap guns, and a host of others) they are more prone to actual violence. But whatever sells papers I guess.
I don't like easy answers because they all too often gloss over issues and make things seem so simple.
I am thinking that the OP wanted to highlight that a company that goes out of its way to show that is uses Linux on the back end, still doesn't support Linux users on the front end. Once the stage is set he then asks is this usual and when if ever is this likely to change?
I don't like to think that companies can court Linux users on the one hand by touting how much they use and understand Linux and then still refuse to support Linux using customers on the other without some issues arising. I don't think that this is a matter of financial problems either. If they are only concerned with a non-technical, non-Linux using customer base, then why go to the trouble of advertising their use of Linux and GPL compliance?
I, like the OP wonder if lip service to Linux customers will continue to be the normal practice, even while companies benefit enormously from Linux.
Perhaps one day the monopoly will fail and open standards will prevail, but until then, how do I get support for my Linux machines? If all of us Linux users simply roll over and say we aren't worth the trouble, then maybe we aren't. I do like seeing the question voiced though and I will be happy to add mine, ever hopeful that one day Linux users will be seen as commonplace enough to warrant support.
So many posts here defending the police; saying the girl was stupid for doing what she did. How can so many people get so far from common sense? What if she had become indignant and made some silly protestation as to her rights and had been shot for it. Would a dead student still be blamed for not exercising good judgment in attire? Would the police still be praised for making a rational and correct assessment of the situation? I think according to many of the sentiments I read here that it would be just so.
Perhaps I am being unreasonable when I expect that those persons charged with the preservation of good order and the safety of those around them be exceptional people, capable of sound judgments. I know I was not on the scene at the time, but I do know that there were alternatives that could have been chosen. I cannot believe that what occurred was the least violent method for dealing with a young person at an airport wearing odd clothing and a poor attitude.
For so many others to apparently express the belief that this was a reasonable action by the police, I can only assume a wholesale abandonment of reason. I should hope that such a descent into madness is not an inevitability.
(Disclaimer to hopefully stop some baseless rebuttals before they are made: I am both an Infantry combat veteran and a former armed security professional. I have been extensively trained and experienced in the use of deadly force, both on the giving and receiving end. When I say that there were means of dealing with this situation other than what actually happened, even without having been there, I'm not just speaking out of my ass.)
It's not like anyone is going to bomb us for being hateful and derisive of other people and their beliefs. Right?
I've already been taxed. Sales tax when I bought the game, universal access fees on my ISP, and I am sure a host of other taxes that go into making my online experience one of the worst in the world. I'll pay taxes on virtual items when those taxes go towards getting me my free 100Mbps in home connection that I can use for anything at anytime. And I will be sure that every penny I paid in taxes, access fees, game costs and so on is a deduction.
as SCO didn't work out too well as a M$ puppet, they are looking for a new approach.
My father had MS http://www.multiplesclerosis.com/ and found using a mouse to be very difficult. As his disease progressed he found that trying to move the mouse into position and then click it was a very difficult combination of movements to coordinate and typing was just as arduous for him. What he did do was to use a track ball with a very large ball that he could take his time to get in just the right spot and then lift his hand completely from it and then click. This allowed him to effectively interact with many programs that would normally require some degree of precision with the mouse. I cannot imagine him or anyone with a similar condition having the dexterity to move the mouse with sufficiant precision to activate this type of interface in any meaningful way. I know that had my father been exposed to such, he may never have spent as much time on the computer as he did. It may be that there is some combination of conditions where this clickless interface would be a boon to those using it, but I just can't see it.
The article is about kids that enjoy and are confident about their math class actually do poorly in math especially when compared to kids who are in classes that don't try to coddle them and make them feel smart when they aren't.
It isn't about how math heads relate to other people, or about how some people do better at math than others, it isn't really about people at all, but rather about policies that try to make math "fun" and "engaging" fail at teaching math.
BTW, I love math, but then I live at the extreme end of the bell curve.
http://xoblite.net/
Granted it's not been updated for almost a year now, but I use it at work for the very same reason. I use the edge flipping and mousewheel plugins with the pager so I have a lot of flexibility in how I move from desktop to desktop. It gives me Unix like interface and with Cygwin (which also has an option to run X windows but I've not played with it much) augmenting my command line, I'm almost happy with it.
I've used various Blackbox for Windows branches, and xoblite seems to be the best of them. Fast and stable; the only times I've had problems with it, could be traced back to another program.
Plus there is the added bonus that my Windows only co-workers can't figure out how to navigate around my machine.
is the worlds most common and least forgivable form of stupidity.
2. Can use smaller airports for domestic flights...less time in security and most smaller airports have car rental agencies right at the airport or serve them regularly. This is not correct. There is NO time spent in security. If you own, fractionally or otherwise, a plane, you go directly to it, no security at all. As far as travel to and from the airport goes, there is a private limo to pick you up and drop you off .... from curb to aircraft (again, no security check points there).
I did some consulting work for (a company that became) NetJet and you would be surprised at the number of clients they have. Companies small and large as well as individuals all enjoy the speed and convenience of their own personal aircraft.
Billy, Do you retain ownership of the voice characterizations you create or does that go to your employer?
I got laid off a few years ago along with many thousands of other mid-career IT engineers. The market where I am was flooded and my options for leaving the area continue to be severly limited due to family concerns.
In the interim period, between then and now (I run an IT department now) I drove pizza, sold cell phones, did landscaping, sold fur coats, and as much free lance work as I could convince mangers to pay for. What I learned about myself was that I really love IT work, and sysadmin work in particular.
When I got laid off, I was the lowest earner of my group of friends and I was making just a few thousand short of six figures a year. I make half that now, as do most of those same friends from three years ago. I could have re-trained myself to some other field, but when working at some nothing job to make rent, I found my conversations always going to what computer systems people had at home or at the office. I was always giving out free advice and business cards hoping for something to come out of it that would get me back to my field.
The bottom line is that if I was in it for the money I would have switched fields and never looked back. The adverts you see that say how great the job field is and how much money you will make, well those are from schools aren't they? IT is like any other field now, if you love what you do and you work hard at it you will succeed. Outsourcing is not as much of threat to your career as you are.
As I recall, Microsoft offered free support and customizations to those ISP's that chose to offer IE as part of their initial package. Microsoft through the small independant ISP's that they supported for free, in my opinion, more heavily influenced the market than anything else. As more and more sites were optimized for IE, more and more people switched, because that was what worked best. Standards aside, MS was able to create enough of a difference that people wanted IE, or at least the free support that using IE would get them. Unfortunately, unlike WINS, the people with the most influence in adopting MS technology were not the ones who understood it.
True; perhaps I should have said poorly planned.
I have managed a number of migrations of various size and complexity and they were always affairs of long planning between all the affected parties. Thus, it is very hard for me to conceptualize a computer professional, no matter how limited in scope they may be, attempting to solicit expertise from a "news for nerds" web site about such a complex undertaking as a complete restructuring of a business infrastructure to a completely different platform.
His initial article made is it seem as if he was wanting to do it all at once in one fell swoop to an unfamiliar operating system with apparently no attendant concerns for training, data migration, licensing, or support issues, not to mention a myriad of other concerns particular to that business.
I just couldn't help but notice that taken out of context, the majority of posts essencially said don't switch, it is too complex and what you have is working. Perfect fodder for the MS FUD machine, especially if you replace the concept of switching busness infrastructure in the generic to a specific Windows to linux migration.
...for Microsoft to generate a lot of responses as to why it would be bad to switch to Linux from Windows. Never mind that in general, any unplanned attempt to radically change a business infrastructure is a bad idea, this particular thread makes it seem that it's just not a good idea to switch from Windows.
I just wonder what was the real point of this article.
1 million accounts doesn't really begin to explain what kind of solution you need. How many data centers do you have, what is your existing infrastructure, what kind of support will you be expected to provide to end users, to administrators, do you have special security needs to address (HIPPA, etc) et c. ...
You really need to determine what your needs are for the immediate future, then figure in growth, before you can start thinking about which solution or set of solutions (more likely I would think) is appropriate.
I could of course go into far greater detail, but then I would be looking for a piece of the action...
Good luck on finding what you need.
In combination with the recent deregulation of DSL , the less than feasable idea to track wifi phones what is a person supposed to think?
Pirate wireless anyone?
My oldest son would sit on my lap and he would shoot and jump and I would control the movements. It was a great way for us to spend a little time together.
I'm a computer professional and spend many hours a day in front of a computer both at the office and at home. This was a way for him to share in my daily activities and give me a much needed break from work. We would also go outside and play; fly kites together, go camping, nerf and water gun battles, hiking, play chess, cards, and lots of other things.
Today, 5 years later, he still plays computer games and he still goes outside to play. He has also combined the two, when he plays outside with his friends sometimes he will pretend to be some of the characters from the games, just like other kids would pretend to be comic book characters when I was young.
I and everyone who meets him thinks he is a well rounded, polite, responsible kid and he has demonstrated to me beyond any paternal pride that he is an outstanding person.
A few hours a week in front of the computer isn't going to hurt him at all and his familiarity with common UI's may even help him. I am a bit lucky as he is starting to show an interest in how the games work and I will likely start him with basic programming skills soon, if his interest continues.
He has a younger brother five years behind him and I will very likely do just the same thing.
You will just have to watch your kids and pay them attention. If you do that it won't matter if they spend a more time in front of a computer or digging in the dirt, so long as it is time spent with you, that is what really counts.