If you use software that will be available, I give you 4-5 years. Windows 2008 and Office superxpplus will probably require a two gigahertz P4. The video card you need will cost you less than $100.
1. The people categorizing URL's and sites are not much better than trained monkeys. Just because a site gets blocked isn't part of a conspiracy. Just a TMIF (trained monkey input failure) event. Usually they correct it within a week.
I work for a company that delivers web based training & knowledge development. If one of our customers experiences an outage of a week because of some TIMF, the damage can not be repaired because of lost momentum. It could easily kill our company in a week.
Well, I work for a company that does MS office training (e-learning). While I'm not in the department, I can can edit your remarks a little:
The devil is in the details though... she can't understand Office XP very well at all, from a UI point of view.
All of her project schools are going to get Office XP, and all of her staff is undergoing training. The problem is that they have been using Office 95 for so long, they dcan't be "untrained" easily at all. She says the third graders pick up Office XP - piece of cake... but for the people in charge... teachers, administrators, etc, Office XP is counter-intuitive.
You wouldn't imagine this to be true, but the devil is in the details.
I get so tired from listening to people saying how easy windows is and how difficult linux is.
I don't understand either of them. I have installed them both on my computers. For both, I have to call someone or spend a lot of time looking if I have a problem.
I used to understand dos and windows 3.1. I knew my way around windows9x (I'm lost when it comes to that 'registry' stuf). But now I have to use windows 2000 and everything has moved. It looks alike, but I can't find anything anymore. And I'm absolutly more computer literate than all of my friends.
Joe user doesn't know the difference between internet explorer, netscape navigator, mozilla, opera or whatever. Joe user doesn't know the difference between star office, microsoft office or whatever. Joe user doesn't know the difference between windows95, windows 2000 or red hat 7.2. He or she will take whatever is installed on the computer and learn to live with that. If Joe user gets a word document sent to him that he or she can't open, he or she will panic and call the helpdesk:
simple solution: have them reply with the following message: I can not read your message. please use a different format like PDF or text.
A school can even impose a file format like star offices file format. It's not like you are going to offend customers.
What do you need (all of the following elements have to be fullfilled):
-Support from teaching staff: they must want it.
-Software to run this (you can buy it, create it yourself or use open source software).
-You need support for the software
-You need advice about creating on-line courses (You could just put the syllabus on-line, but then you're not creating on-line courses).
-You need someone who will keep the courses up to date.
-You need someone who will answer questions relating to the on-line courses.
The combination of all te preceding elements are quite costly if you are serious about it.
But then again you could simplify stuff a lot and just offer a combination of a forum / a file sharing environment/ e-mail listing.
Will you be teaching them to work with spreadsheets, word processing and presentation software?
Then your OK. Because a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet. A word processor is a word processor...
There's only minor differences. None of them influence the learning curve. Once you understand a spreadsheet you're fine. It doesn't matter very much which version you use (excel 95, 97, 2000, 2002, Lotus 1-2-3, starcalc,...
If you want to use a different spreadsheet you wil need a little adjustment, but not very much.
If you are learning how to drive a bus, you don't demand for the exact bus you will be driving later on. You just drive the bus the driving school gives you. And that's how you learn how to drive a bus. Every new bus you will be driving just takes a little time to adjust to, but not very much.
Do you want to teach excel 2002 users how to use new features? Use excel 2002.
Or do you want to learn them to maintain winboxes? Then of course you must use winboxes.
Do you want to teach them how to build a network? Use any network software you like.
Or do you want to learn them how computers work? Then you need computers. Period.
My stance on teaching stuff should be clear by now:)
I have never ever heard of this initiative (currently the website of the paper "Het Niuewsblad" doesn't mention the interview).
Taking taxpayers money to give away computers is not a good thing (very inefficient use of money). Unless you got an extremely good way of making sure the computers reach the right people:
-those that can't afford one.
-those that know how to use them (or want to learn).
-those that don't sell it next day.
And by giving away a lot of computers you destroy distribution networks of computermakers or sellers that don't win the massive order.
Did I say anything about certified? Or secure for that matter.
Known vulnerabilities that have not been patched are gross negligence. They cause harm by not keeping up to date. They should be kicked of the internet (and should pay for damage done if they can't be kicked of the internet).
And this applies as much for proprietary software as for free software.
I do not think you have got a case against Microsoft. I guess all the vulnerabilities that have been used, have been patched. The only people at fault are:
-sysadmins (or dumb users) that let this mess propagate.
-ISP's that don't cut them of.
Perhaps you can threaten the ISP with a civil suit. Maybe they will consult their lawyers and perhaps they will realize that they might be liable.
It sure as hell beats whining about it and doing nothing.
If those boxes cause you a problem (lost time, lost work, lost bandwith, distress,...) you have every right to sue the operators of these (unattended?) boxes.
You might also ask their ISP's to shut down their internet connection for these reasons. If they dont comply sue them.
Adverisers are pissing of people who watch television too. You get used to it (or have you stopped watching television?). It is the price to pay for getting free content.
Somebody has to pay for the content. And nobody watches banners that you don't have to watch.
That's none of your concern. The other people might be running some software pretending to be infected IIS for all you know.
You should sue people causing damage to you. Then they can find out if they can sue Microsoft for supplying a non bulletproof webserver (which they can't succesfully).
They warned the users of IIS to patch their software didn't they? So I guess the only people responsible for this mess are the ones running unpatched servers. They should be sued.
There is no agreement between you and the owner of the unpatched server, so they can be sued. And they will learn that:
-buying from Microsoft is not a safe option ("nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft")
-having a knowledgeable system administrator around is very usefull
B.T.W. if someonen attacks you from an unpatched server, it doesn't matter what license agreements you have signed. You have not signed the license agreement of the unpatched server, so you are not bound by it.
The only people you can sue succesfully are the people running unpatched IIS. Everyone has to agree that they a guilty of gross negligence, pure an simple.
You watch television don't you? The only way to attract attention is to interrupt what you are reading/watching.
A little anecdote: at the end of the eighties I visited the US. They had these programs on television that stopped a least 5 times for an ad break. I was disgusted, I had never ever seen an ad break before. I thought I would never watch programs like that.
Nowadays we too got programs that stop for ad breaks two to three times (plus an ad before and after). Hey I watch those programs now, it doesn't even bother me much any more.
If a court asks you to remove some content for some of their citizens, it is not beyond the capability of any busines to do so.
A lot of companies are currently offering services worldwide and most of them are capable of complying with local standards. It's not because you are an internet venture that things become impossible.
As to the matter of finding out someones place of residence it quite simple: ask them. It's not your fault that they would be lying.
When you offer a worldwide service, your aim is the whole world.
Yahoo offers its service in France. If they don't like French laws then they shouldn't offer their services to people who live in France. Problem solved. (1 question on registration: Do you live in France? yes/no).
Analogy 1: if I set up a site in kwikelikwakkie that violates rules set out by the SEC (e.g. public sale of some bogus financial instruments to US citizens) I problably would get arrested upon entry in the US. My assets would get targeted too I guess
Analogy 2: if I set up a site in Russia circumventing some copy protection, I would get arrested in the US. Next step is to seize property my company owns in the US.
If you want to offer services worldwide, you should compy with standards worldwide. US standards alone just don't cut it.
Slashdot Mirror
Boies is a lawyer. Need I say more.
3 Good meals a day.
I don't think so.
It's impossible to get a good meals in the Netherlands.
+The prison is in the Netherlands.
==>It's impossible to have 3 good meals in a Dutch prison.
If you use software that will be available, I give you 4-5 years. Windows 2008 and Office superxpplus will probably require a two gigahertz P4.
The video card you need will cost you less than $100.
I work at a company where the person responsible for buying hardware will never ever buy Compaq. We are 100% Dell.
Why would that be?
1. The people categorizing URL's and sites are not much better than trained monkeys. Just because a site gets blocked isn't part of a conspiracy. Just a TMIF (trained monkey input failure) event. Usually they correct it within a week.
I work for a company that delivers web based training & knowledge development. If one of our customers experiences an outage of a week because of some TIMF, the damage can not be repaired because of lost momentum. It could easily kill our company in a week.
They offer the answer to the question: 'What can I do within the bounds of copyright?'
You want an answer for the question can I get away with doing something 'illegal' and what happens when I get caught. That's a different game.
The devil is in the details though... she can't understand Office XP very well at all, from a UI point of view.
All of her project schools are going to get Office XP, and all of her staff is undergoing training. The problem is that they have been using Office 95 for so long, they dcan't be "untrained" easily at all. She says the third graders pick up Office XP - piece of cake... but for the people in charge... teachers, administrators, etc, Office XP is counter-intuitive.
You wouldn't imagine this to be true, but the devil is in the details.I get so tired from listening to people saying how easy windows is and how difficult linux is.
I don't understand either of them. I have installed them both on my computers. For both, I have to call someone or spend a lot of time looking if I have a problem.
I used to understand dos and windows 3.1. I knew my way around windows9x (I'm lost when it comes to that 'registry' stuf). But now I have to use windows 2000 and everything has moved. It looks alike, but I can't find anything anymore. And I'm absolutly more computer literate than all of my friends.
Joe user doesn't know the difference between internet explorer, netscape navigator, mozilla, opera or whatever.
Joe user doesn't know the difference between star office, microsoft office or whatever.
Joe user doesn't know the difference between windows95, windows 2000 or red hat 7.2. He or she will take whatever is installed on the computer and learn to live with that.
If Joe user gets a word document sent to him that he or she can't open, he or she will panic and call the helpdesk:
simple solution: have them reply with the following message: I can not read your message. please use a different format like PDF or text.
A school can even impose a file format like star offices file format. It's not like you are going to offend customers.
You can put the money in on-line education.
What do you need (all of the following elements have to be fullfilled):
-Support from teaching staff: they must want it.
-Software to run this (you can buy it, create it yourself or use open source software).
-You need support for the software
-You need advice about creating on-line courses (You could just put the syllabus on-line, but then you're not creating on-line courses).
-You need someone who will keep the courses up to date.
-You need someone who will answer questions relating to the on-line courses.
The combination of all te preceding elements are quite costly if you are serious about it.
But then again you could simplify stuff a lot and just offer a combination of a forum / a file sharing environment/ e-mail listing.
Do they advertise this on the demo CD's? Or should they?
Sounds like a good setup.
...
:)
It all depends on what you will be teaching:
Will you be teaching them to work with spreadsheets, word processing and presentation software?
Then your OK. Because a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet. A word processor is a word processor...
There's only minor differences. None of them influence the learning curve. Once you understand a spreadsheet you're fine. It doesn't matter very much which version you use (excel 95, 97, 2000, 2002, Lotus 1-2-3, starcalc,
If you want to use a different spreadsheet you wil need a little adjustment, but not very much.
If you are learning how to drive a bus, you don't demand for the exact bus you will be driving later on. You just drive the bus the driving school gives you. And that's how you learn how to drive a bus. Every new bus you will be driving just takes a little time to adjust to, but not very much.
Do you want to teach excel 2002 users how to use new features? Use excel 2002.
Or do you want to learn them to maintain winboxes? Then of course you must use winboxes.
Do you want to teach them how to build a network? Use any network software you like.
Or do you want to learn them how computers work? Then you need computers. Period.
My stance on teaching stuff should be clear by now
I live in this country.
I have never ever heard of this initiative (currently the website of the paper "Het Niuewsblad" doesn't mention the interview).
Taking taxpayers money to give away computers is not a good thing (very inefficient use of money). Unless you got an extremely good way of making sure the computers reach the right people:
-those that can't afford one.
-those that know how to use them (or want to learn).
-those that don't sell it next day.
And by giving away a lot of computers you destroy distribution networks of computermakers or sellers that don't win the massive order.
Here in Leuven, Belgium I've got a choice of
2 physically different cable providers (chello and telenet)
and
DSL service (hardware by belgacom, several service providers to choose from).
all 35-40 $ a month.
Did I say anything about certified? Or secure for that matter.
Known vulnerabilities that have not been patched are gross negligence. They cause harm by not keeping up to date. They should be kicked of the internet (and should pay for damage done if they can't be kicked of the internet).
And this applies as much for proprietary software as for free software.
I do not think you have got a case against Microsoft. I guess all the vulnerabilities that have been used, have been patched. The only people at fault are:
-sysadmins (or dumb users) that let this mess propagate.
-ISP's that don't cut them of.
Perhaps you can threaten the ISP with a civil suit. Maybe they will consult their lawyers and perhaps they will realize that they might be liable.
It sure as hell beats whining about it and doing nothing.
You could try the class action thing
If those boxes cause you a problem (lost time, lost work, lost bandwith, distress, ...) you have every right to sue the operators of these (unattended?) boxes.
You might also ask their ISP's to shut down their internet connection for these reasons. If they dont comply sue them.
You do live in the U.SA. don't you?
Adverisers are pissing of people who watch television too. You get used to it (or have you stopped watching television?). It is the price to pay for getting free content.
Somebody has to pay for the content. And nobody watches banners that you don't have to watch.
That's none of your concern. The other people might be running some software pretending to be infected IIS for all you know.
You should sue people causing damage to you. Then they can find out if they can sue Microsoft for supplying a non bulletproof webserver (which they can't succesfully).
Who causes damage to you?
Did Microsoft cause damage to you?
They warned the users of IIS to patch their software didn't they? So I guess the only people responsible for this mess are the ones running unpatched servers. They should be sued.
There is no agreement between you and the owner of the unpatched server, so they can be sued. And they will learn that:
-buying from Microsoft is not a safe option ("nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft")
-having a knowledgeable system administrator around is very usefull
B.T.W. if someonen attacks you from an unpatched server, it doesn't matter what license agreements you have signed. You have not signed the license agreement of the unpatched server, so you are not bound by it.
The only people you can sue succesfully are the people running unpatched IIS. Everyone has to agree that they a guilty of gross negligence, pure an simple.
They cause(d) the damage, they should pay.
You watch television don't you? The only way to attract attention is to interrupt what you are reading/watching.
A little anecdote: at the end of the eighties I visited the US. They had these programs on television that stopped a least 5 times for an ad break. I was disgusted, I had never ever seen an ad break before. I thought I would never watch programs like that.
Nowadays we too got programs that stop for ad breaks two to three times (plus an ad before and after). Hey I watch those programs now, it doesn't even bother me much any more.
Free as in complying with US rules.
There are good historical and cultural reasons why other countries have different rules.
If a court asks you to remove some content for some of their citizens, it is not beyond the capability of any busines to do so.
A lot of companies are currently offering services worldwide and most of them are capable of complying with local standards. It's not because you are an internet venture that things become impossible.
As to the matter of finding out someones place of residence it quite simple: ask them. It's not your fault that they would be lying.
When you offer a worldwide service, your aim is the whole world.
Yahoo offers its service in France. If they don't like French laws then they shouldn't offer their services to people who live in France. Problem solved. (1 question on registration: Do you live in France? yes/no).
Analogy 1: if I set up a site in kwikelikwakkie that violates rules set out by the SEC (e.g. public sale of some bogus financial instruments to US citizens) I problably would get arrested upon entry in the US. My assets would get targeted too I guess
Analogy 2: if I set up a site in Russia circumventing some copy protection, I would get arrested in the US. Next step is to seize property my company owns in the US.
If you want to offer services worldwide, you should compy with standards worldwide. US standards alone just don't cut it.