If you were going to travel with one of these, you'd want to go through the steps at checkin that you would go through with a real firearm, or perhaps a more realistic comparison, with a paintball gun. Have it in a locked, hard container, and let them decide that it's okay. I'd never even consider taking a pistol-shaped object through the regular x-ray line. I don't care how benign it's supposed to be. I travel with guns from time to time, and I must say, it's pretty easy to do. You just have to follow the TSA instructions, and the instructions the airline gives you.
This thing is a "toy gun" as far as the TSA will consider it, and that seems like a reasonable designation to me. So go to the checkin agent, and explain to them, "I have a toy gun in my checked baggage." You'll have a much better experience than if you surprise the X-Ray folks with it. This is as straightforward a process as it could be, with a *real* gun. Occasionally there is a stressful moment, when the agent at the counter takes your gun out and holds it up where people in line behind you can see it. You can tell it freaks them out.
What you don't do, is head right to the X-Ray line with anything that's going to be seen as unusual, especially if it's shaped like a pistol! You might as well walk into the airport with your pistol out, yelling "nobody move, I have a gun", racking the slide, and pointing it in random directions. Not recommended.
I had a habit of setting a lit cigarette directly on the number pad of my TRS-80. It had lots of burn marks and a couple of melted keys. I liked it like that.
TRS-80 Model I's got HOT. And the heat would convect through the vent at the rear and rise up straight through the keyboard. What went through the back would reflect off the monitor and the desk, and you'd feel it on your face. After about 10 hours, it was unbearable. I'm sure it would cook cheese. Yuck.
I had a MS Natural keyboard that I hated, and it eventually got tossed in a crate with a bunch of other crap and left in the elements. Stayed there through an Arizona summer, and through a monsoon season. Hottest, dryest weather you can imagine, followed by the most severe rainstorm you've ever seen, followed by dust.
I found this thing when I was cleaning up to move house, and the sumbitch worked, at least as a PS2 keyboard. The USB part did not work.
It didn't tempt me to stop using my Model M, though.
I've heard the rumors that the average toilet seat is cleaner than the average computer keyboard.
Twice since it was purchased new, in 1988, I've cleaned my IBM model M keyboard. The last cleaning was recent, just a few weeks ago.
I have to say that the rumor about toilet seats is not only correct, but should go further. The average toilet seat in a Juarez jail is probably cleaner than my keyboard was.
"While it might be difficult to prove, this would open Microsoft up to accusations of assimilating GPL code in to Windows."
Or the other way around, along the lines of what SCO accused IBM of doing, only, perhaps in Microsoft, it could lead to a case that actually has merit, and also favors Microsoft.
"What's not debatable was that the offending MoG article was totally over the line."
"The line" itself is debatable; it's quite arbitrary. I don't like the MoG article I read, and I need no other reason than that she puts an accent grave on "crème".
So I draw "the line" there, and Pamela Jones draws it somewhere else, and a court of law considering a case of libel will have yet another place to draw "the line."
Guess I could have checked for myself before posting. I just assumed there would be a MSDN release. So how the hell are we supposed to test for this target? Buy a retail copy? By the time THAT happens in my shop, it'll be as old as WIN95 is now.
Oh but if the taxpayers become aware that money is being wasted, they are playing a dangerous game. Local politics can be a harsh mistress. The status quo can turn on a dime in local politics. Everything is just hunky dory, and then somebody says the wrong thing at a picnic, and it's all over for the councilman from a certain district, or a certain school board member...
Local politics actually tend to be directly accountable to local voters, who are sometimes few enough in number that they can observe the difference they make.
I grew up in a tiny town, and saw the phenomenon on a terriffic scale. Today I live in a relatively large city, but I find that the local politics operate on almost as small a scale as in my hometown. Some races are decided by the votes of 200 or 300 voters. Few enough that you could, if you cared about an issue, actually meet them all and share with them your point of view.
I don't personally know if "voting matters" on national races. But if you plug in at the local level, you can actually observe as your work makes a difference.
No, it doesn't... But, it compares pretty well to Photoshop Elements, and there are some things Gimp can do that Elements cannot.
And regardless of whether it's better or not better, there are happy people using it successfully.
I don't find it to be slow, doing layered edits on 8MP images from my camera. Wish it had RAW conversion and white balance and colorspace mapping and stuff like that, but for RGB work it's not bad at all.
At least that step is in line with my opinion of the helpless attitude that always gets thrown around when people in the trenches don't understand the motivations of those who make decisions that they must live by.
Become successful and attain a position of decision making authority, and then make the decisions you think are best.
If you can't do that, then at least take responsibility for your problems, instead of insulting everyone who *did* do step 1 (become successful and attain a position of decision making authority).
Hint: You're not taking responsibilty for your problems if you assert that your boss is stupid, is a PHB, etc. You're so much smarter, why do you work for him and not the other way round?
"A bigger worry though is the formal Certificate in IT that students study for as part of the basic IT course in year 9 or 10 as it is based on Microsoft products. "
And that's so that they can enter into a workforce that needs these specific skills for crappy jobs, as opposed to entering the unemployed workforce. And this is for *NOW* when it's a safe bet that any work environment you're likely to encounter, involves some contact with a standard PC running Windows, often with some vertical application or another.
They aren't training the people for "some time in the future" when Apple becomes dominant, or when Linux or Gnu drive a cultural revolution, or anything else. And the few who find the motivation to discover these alternatives, will discover them anyway.
I don't like it one bit, but it's not hard to comprehend.
"I hear lots of terrible tales about Microsoft and the BSA, but usually there's no one willing (or able) to go public or provide concrete evidence."
The story is never accompanied with credible supporting evidence. Why go public with tale of woe, if you won't even take it to the first level and force them to hold a hearing before taking legal action.
One thing that even the smallest business people seem to get right, is they know the basic extent of their legal rights and responsibilities. A public school, even more so, since everything is driven by legislated bureaucracy.
I can't imagine a business owner not being precisely aware of where their property line begins and ends, and under what circumstances they must permit action to be taken on their premises.... and very few who don't have the number of an attorney who knows them, handy.
I never see these stories accompanied by a cite, a press report, or a court transcript. I tend to dismiss them as exaggerations.
I really don't believe an elementary school is going to let anyone barge in the door unreasonably without triggering homeland security crap if nothing else. And if you're talking about the teachers' credit union and not the school itself, even more so, since you get into fiduciary considerations in addition to basic security and protection of rights.
"This incident was the fault of the school rep who gave MS the finger. Never, ever, let any of your suppliers know 1) who your other suppliers are, 2) how much you buy from the other suppliers 3) when your purchasing decisions have to be made. "
If they were able to understand this concept, they would have gone into business in some other industry besides primary education. Don't blame them for being poor poker players. They couldn't have known what they were getting into.
And, that said, they deserve the consequences of their failure.
"This is quite erroneous. Microsoft has a brilliant strategy in that it sells it software to schools for rock bottom prices."
Yep. Turnkey solutions. Educational pricing. Widely understood to be the de-facto standard. Where's the story here? Were we talking about Linux? Linux is great. It's also a bitch, even for the very highly motivated. (Don't even try to argue this with me, I've been running linux since 0.99).
Okay, sure, there are lots of applications where there really *are* turnkey linux solutions, which can run on yesterday's hardware, etc.
The only area where I start to have a problem, is *exclusive* agreements that *require* single vendor solutions. But that's on the head of the person who signs the contract. And I'll imagine he's accountable to voters. On a local level, where a small problem can cost your career, unlike national politics which is a fustercluck.
>...schools are often not [frugal]. And this is >despite tight budgets being the norm across the >board.
Then the budget isn't really tight, is it? Not tight enough to motivate a behavior change. There is money enough coming in to enable waste. So be it.
It sounds to me that there are people making financial decisions who are not bound to anything like a fiduciary relationship, or even compensated based on their ability to optimize performance versus costs. And there seems not to be anyone in the system who is motivated to renegotiate the status quo in order to pursue improvement.
You have authority because you were smart enough to take it, and successful enough to keep it, and wise enough to take responsibility for your problems, instead of merely insulting your management and trying to make them own your problems.
But... The whole idiom of using personal computers in education is still in its infancy! It's just now getting to the point where adoption can be taken for granted somewhat.
They've barely had time since dipping their toe in the water, to get up to having both feet wet, and now suddenly the current status quo is The Way It Must Be And Forever Remain?
Well, one measure of progress isn't always an advantage to everyone. I remember using spirit duplicators that could turn out a dozen or so pages per second. I've never actually seen a photocopier that could come close to it. I think about that sort of thing a lot. Sure, the lead time of making the stencil was a problem, and it was frustrating, and every time you passed out something to a class, the kids tried to get high on it (you couldn't get high sniffing methanol-based ink!), but as far as being a system where, in just a couple of minutes, you could make a handout or a test for a class of 50, we've really taken a step backwards with photocopiers and laser printers.
Don't even get me started about trading chalk for whiteboard markers.
> If the school/district doesn't spend all their > "technology money", they will get less of it the > following year.
Why don't the people responsible for this arrangement renegotiate it then? They are supposed to be intelligent and wise people; after all, they are entrusted with executing the plan for eductation.
It sounds more like a recipe for pork than an optimal system.
>Welcome to public education funding in the United > States.
>So those points you like so much are wrong, and >won't be "sinking in" here anytime soon.
You're bargaining again. I gave you my point of view. By definition, it *Can't* be wrong. I don't care what you do, as long as you think about what you're doing and are happy with the results.
But your response to me is all about *me*, and I already have my opinion, and I've shared it with you. It's nothing to do about me, and bargaining with me doesn't help you. You've missed the point.
I didn't see any posts about how the MSDN version behaves. I'm not moved to check it myself, but I do think it would be very interesting to know. If devs have to get oddball hardware in order to develop and test this platform, that's quite inconvenient. How does it do under VMWare?
Slashdot Mirror
If you were going to travel with one of these, you'd want to go through the steps at checkin that you would go through with a real firearm, or perhaps a more realistic comparison, with a paintball gun. Have it in a locked, hard container, and let them decide that it's okay. I'd never even consider taking a pistol-shaped object through the regular x-ray line. I don't care how benign it's supposed to be. I travel with guns from time to time, and I must say, it's pretty easy to do. You just have to follow the TSA instructions, and the instructions the airline gives you.
This thing is a "toy gun" as far as the TSA will consider it, and that seems like a reasonable designation to me. So go to the checkin agent, and explain to them, "I have a toy gun in my checked baggage." You'll have a much better experience than if you surprise the X-Ray folks with it. This is as straightforward a process as it could be, with a *real* gun. Occasionally there is a stressful moment, when the agent at the counter takes your gun out and holds it up where people in line behind you can see it. You can tell it freaks them out.
What you don't do, is head right to the X-Ray line with anything that's going to be seen as unusual, especially if it's shaped like a pistol! You might as well walk into the airport with your pistol out, yelling "nobody move, I have a gun", racking the slide, and pointing it in random directions. Not recommended.
I had a habit of setting a lit cigarette directly on the number pad of my TRS-80. It had lots of burn marks and a couple of melted keys. I liked it like that.
"you've got slowly drying, sticking syrup throughout your keyboard, and you really just can't ever get it entirely clean."
Did you try acetone and an eyedropper?
TRS-80 Model I's got HOT. And the heat would convect through the vent at the rear and rise up straight through the keyboard. What went through the back would reflect off the monitor and the desk, and you'd feel it on your face. After about 10 hours, it was unbearable. I'm sure it would cook cheese.
Yuck.
I had a MS Natural keyboard that I hated, and it eventually got tossed in a crate with a bunch of other crap and left in the elements. Stayed there through an Arizona summer, and through a monsoon season. Hottest, dryest weather you can imagine, followed by the most severe rainstorm you've ever seen, followed by dust.
I found this thing when I was cleaning up to move house, and the sumbitch worked, at least as a PS2 keyboard. The USB part did not work.
It didn't tempt me to stop using my Model M, though.
I've heard the rumors that the average toilet seat is cleaner than the average computer keyboard.
Twice since it was purchased new, in 1988, I've cleaned my IBM model M keyboard. The last cleaning was recent, just a few weeks ago.
I have to say that the rumor about toilet seats is not only correct, but should go further. The average toilet seat in a Juarez jail is probably cleaner than my keyboard was.
"While it might be difficult to prove, this would open Microsoft up to accusations of assimilating GPL code in to Windows."
Or the other way around, along the lines of what SCO accused IBM of doing, only, perhaps in Microsoft, it could lead to a case that actually has merit, and also favors Microsoft.
Your plan will work out a lot better in Tucson than in Seattle or Baltimore.
"What's not debatable was that the offending MoG article was totally over the line."
"The line" itself is debatable; it's quite arbitrary. I don't like the MoG article I read, and I need no other reason than that she puts an accent grave on "crème".
So I draw "the line" there, and Pamela Jones draws it somewhere else, and a court of law considering a case of libel will have yet another place to draw "the line."
Guess I could have checked for myself before posting. I just assumed there would be a MSDN release. So how the hell are we supposed to test for this target? Buy a retail copy? By the time THAT happens in my shop, it'll be as old as WIN95 is now.
Oh but if the taxpayers become aware that money is being wasted, they are playing a dangerous game. Local politics can be a harsh mistress. The status quo can turn on a dime in local politics. Everything is just hunky dory, and then somebody says the wrong thing at a picnic, and it's all over for the councilman from a certain district, or a certain school board member...
Local politics actually tend to be directly accountable to local voters, who are sometimes few enough in number that they can observe the difference they make.
I grew up in a tiny town, and saw the phenomenon on a terriffic scale. Today I live in a relatively large city, but I find that the local politics operate on almost as small a scale as in my hometown. Some races are decided by the votes of 200 or 300 voters. Few enough that you could, if you cared about an issue, actually meet them all and share with them your point of view.
I don't personally know if "voting matters" on national races. But if you plug in at the local level, you can actually observe as your work makes a difference.
> First gimp doesnt even come close to photoshop.
No, it doesn't... But, it compares pretty well to Photoshop Elements, and there are some things Gimp can do that Elements cannot.
And regardless of whether it's better or not better, there are happy people using it successfully.
I don't find it to be slow, doing layered edits on 8MP images from my camera. Wish it had RAW conversion and white balance and colorspace mapping and stuff like that, but for RGB work it's not bad at all.
> 1. Become manager of IT at a high school
At least that step is in line with my opinion of the helpless attitude that always gets thrown around when people in the trenches don't understand the motivations of those who make decisions that they must live by.
Become successful and attain a position of decision making authority, and then make the decisions you think are best.
If you can't do that, then at least take responsibility for your problems, instead of insulting everyone who *did* do step 1 (become successful and attain a position of decision making authority).
Hint: You're not taking responsibilty for your problems if you assert that your boss is stupid, is a PHB, etc. You're so much smarter, why do you work for him and not the other way round?
"A bigger worry though is the formal Certificate in IT that students study for as part of the basic IT course in year 9 or 10 as it is based on Microsoft products.
"
And that's so that they can enter into a workforce that needs these specific skills for crappy jobs, as opposed to entering the unemployed workforce. And this is for *NOW* when it's a safe bet that any work environment you're likely to encounter, involves some contact with a standard PC running Windows, often with some vertical application or another.
They aren't training the people for "some time in the future" when Apple becomes dominant, or when Linux or Gnu drive a cultural revolution, or anything else. And the few who find the motivation to discover these alternatives, will discover them anyway.
I don't like it one bit, but it's not hard to comprehend.
"I hear lots of terrible tales about Microsoft and the BSA, but usually there's no one willing (or able) to go public or provide concrete evidence."
The story is never accompanied with credible supporting evidence. Why go public with tale of woe, if you won't even take it to the first level and force them to hold a hearing before taking legal action.
One thing that even the smallest business people seem to get right, is they know the basic extent of their legal rights and responsibilities. A public school, even more so, since everything is driven by legislated bureaucracy.
I can't imagine a business owner not being precisely aware of where their property line begins and ends, and under what circumstances they must permit action to be taken on their premises.
>...did they let the BSA in in the first place?
I never see these stories accompanied by a cite, a press report, or a court transcript. I tend to dismiss them as exaggerations.
I really don't believe an elementary school is going to let anyone barge in the door unreasonably without triggering homeland security crap if nothing else. And if you're talking about the teachers' credit union and not the school itself, even more so, since you get into fiduciary considerations in addition to basic security and protection of rights.
"This incident was the fault of the school rep who gave MS the finger. Never, ever, let any of your suppliers know 1) who your other suppliers are, 2) how much you buy from the other suppliers 3) when your purchasing decisions have to be made.
"
If they were able to understand this concept, they would have gone into business in some other industry besides primary education. Don't blame them for being poor poker players. They couldn't have known what they were getting into.
And, that said, they deserve the consequences of their failure.
"This is quite erroneous. Microsoft has a brilliant strategy in that it sells it software to schools for rock bottom prices."
Yep. Turnkey solutions. Educational pricing. Widely understood to be the de-facto standard. Where's the story here? Were we talking about Linux? Linux is great. It's also a bitch, even for the very highly motivated. (Don't even try to argue this with me, I've been running linux since 0.99).
Okay, sure, there are lots of applications where there really *are* turnkey linux solutions, which can run on yesterday's hardware, etc.
The only area where I start to have a problem, is *exclusive* agreements that *require* single vendor solutions. But that's on the head of the person who signs the contract. And I'll imagine he's accountable to voters. On a local level, where a small problem can cost your career, unlike national politics which is a fustercluck.
Plus, isn't this story about Australia?
>...schools are often not [frugal]. And this is
>despite tight budgets being the norm across the
>board.
Then the budget isn't really tight, is it? Not tight enough to motivate a behavior change. There is money enough coming in to enable waste. So be it.
It sounds to me that there are people making financial decisions who are not bound to anything like a fiduciary relationship, or even compensated based on their ability to optimize performance versus costs. And there seems not to be anyone in the system who is motivated to renegotiate the status quo in order to pursue improvement.
You have authority because you were smart enough to take it, and successful enough to keep it, and wise enough to take responsibility for your problems, instead of merely insulting your management and trying to make them own your problems.
Congratulations. You get it.
"The biggest block is resistance to change."
But... The whole idiom of using personal computers in education is still in its infancy! It's just now getting to the point where adoption can be taken for granted somewhat.
They've barely had time since dipping their toe in the water, to get up to having both feet wet, and now suddenly the current status quo is The Way It Must Be And Forever Remain?
Well, one measure of progress isn't always an advantage to everyone. I remember using spirit duplicators that could turn out a dozen or so pages per second. I've never actually seen a photocopier that could come close to it. I think about that sort of thing a lot. Sure, the lead time of making the stencil was a problem, and it was frustrating, and every time you passed out something to a class, the kids tried to get high on it (you couldn't get high sniffing methanol-based ink!), but as far as being a system where, in just a couple of minutes, you could make a handout or a test for a class of 50, we've really taken a step backwards with photocopiers and laser printers.
Don't even get me started about trading chalk for whiteboard markers.
> If the school/district doesn't spend all their
> "technology money", they will get less of it the
> following year.
Why don't the people responsible for this arrangement renegotiate it then? They are supposed to be intelligent and wise people; after all, they are entrusted with executing the plan for eductation.
It sounds more like a recipe for pork than an optimal system.
>Welcome to public education funding in the United
> States.
Wasn't the story about Australia?
You win, do what you want. I shared my opinion, you attacked my opinion instead of your problem. No big deal from where I sit.
>So those points you like so much are wrong, and
>won't be "sinking in" here anytime soon.
You're bargaining again. I gave you my point of view. By definition, it *Can't* be wrong. I don't care what you do, as long as you think about what you're doing and are happy with the results.
But your response to me is all about *me*, and I already have my opinion, and I've shared it with you. It's nothing to do about me, and bargaining with me doesn't help you. You've missed the point.
I didn't see any posts about how the MSDN version behaves. I'm not moved to check it myself, but I do think it would be very interesting to know. If devs have to get oddball hardware in order to develop and test this platform, that's quite inconvenient. How does it do under VMWare?