It sounds like someone is trying to build an empire in your organisation based on an ERP implementation.
Being seen as being attached to the current hardware will mean being seen as being attached to the current software as well - and if that needs replacing, that's not a good place to be. Strategic decisions should be made on costs and benefits - but all too often it's a fashion decision taken to help someone's career along.
It is possible to run Windows systems reliably and securely, but don't underestimate what it costs in terms of hardware and handholding.
If the proposed ERP is well-known then there'll be plenty of info around - try and find people who've had good and bad implementation experiences. Any horror stories there may help any case that you might want to (by accident of course) want to make for the hardware.
How about WinPT ("Windows Privacy Tray") for your Windows relatives? It front-ends gpg with something that sits in the system tray. Can encrypt from the clipboard or the foreground window.
I've mentioned this before here in this context, but it does sound like a near perfect-fit (only "near" because it is cheap rather than free and is Windows-only). Basically, keep all the things that you work on as items in a list (which can be imported from a text file). Each item has various attributes (such as project) and you can "focus in" on a particular set (e.g. project) to just work on that.
Some things can be fixed to start at a certain time but the way that you work it's easier just to have everythign floating and scheduled by priority. A log file is written describing when something was started and how long was spent. To work out how much time is spent on a project or subproject, just total it up.
It's available from http://www.1soft.com/ - and other than being a customer many years ago, I'm in no way affiliated.
You missed out the bit about no room for luggage on Virgin trains, a seat booking system that doesn't understand the concept of flexible tickets, no decent food and no idea of "getting there on time".
Comparing Virgin's service through Derby with Central Trains' is like comparing a 747 with a Cessna - Virgin's is a long distance service from the Southwest to the Northeast of the country, whereas Central go about as far as Manchester airport, and run what are essentially buses with big wheels.
Have a look at "long distance operators" (page 16) here: http://www.sra.gov.uk/pubs2/performance_statistics /Nat_trends_yearbook/Nat_Year.pdf (yes it's a PDF - I know, I'm sorry). Guess which two "services" are at the bottom of the list... It can't all be pinned at Network Rail's door because the company that shares half the route is top.
Personally I'd rather a train run by a bus company (Midland Mainline - the competitors on the route) than an idiot full of hot air (Branson).
(and, for what it's worth, I'm not affiliated with any of the above companies - just someone who gets the train occasionally).
It's easy to say things like "Under no circumstances..." in a Slashdot post, but maybe not so easy to carry them out - especially when it's not that difficult to see a time when there is no more "offline".
Realistically people will weigh the costs of the hassle of registration (and actual financial cost of purchase) with the benefits of whatever it is that they are getting. They do this all the time, in all sorts of industries, and it's difficult to see why the software industry should be any different. Sometimes a "purchase" option can come into the market after the "rent" one and still clean up - Digital TV in the UK is an example there, albeit the market is skewed by the fact that the "purchase" option is subsidised by the flat tax that all users pay anyway.
In the case of a lot of software there already exist free alternatives (MS Office is the perfect example here).
Software companies will only move to "software as a service" if customers will let them - but they'll look at actual sales rather than Slashdot posts when determining if customers will accept it or not.
(not supposed to be flamebait - but mod how you see fit! I just felt that lots of people were shooting the messenger).
Not everywhere. Some slightly more enlightened jurisdictions have laws that still apply no matter what the EULA says. One example is the distance selling regulations - but that's only one example.
Sounds odd. What version of Netware is it, and can you mount the Netware drives on Windows clients that don't have IPX installed? If you can, then it should be possible to do the same from Linux - maybe using the Novell Linux client, that someone else suggested. If it doesn't work on Gentoo straight off, you could maybe try a Suse live CD.
There are plenty of good technical solutions to source code control, messaging, mail, etc. (lots of which are posted already) that allow you to work together, but to actually work together effectively yet remotely you need to get to know the people who you are working with - and this means meeting face to face semi-regularly.
If you don't do this, then you'll always be two development teams - "us" and "them".
Yes, that'd work, and when I had to work with an IPX-only server a few years ago that was what I did. You probably don't need to read much further than http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/IPX-HOWTO.html (although that dates from 1988 - I suspect that the "caldera.com" links may not be helpful any more).
However - does the server that you're working with really only run IPX? I've encountered quite a few Novell (Groupwise) systems over the last couple of years - some Windows, some Linux, but most Netware. None of them has been IPX-only. Even Novell don't recommend installing IPX with Netware these days, and if it does support TCP/IP why not use that?
If you're a "media house" (whatever that is) then you've probably got a larger portion of Macs in the audience (dirty or otherwise) than would be usual.
If you're familar with Quicktime Broadcaster there's less chance of you looking like idiots in front of potential customers using that than on a rental XP box (no pressure if that breaks in the middle of a webcast...).
One thing though - make sure that you use an actual URL so that people don't have to rely on a poxy browser plugin that probably won't be there or work properly.
That said, from a customer's point of view I will personally on any link that is an alternative to a Quicktime one. There are several reasons:
o I dislike being hassled about Quicktime Pro. Even my Windows XP version "will expire and 5 days". No doubt I'll be inflicted with shovelware and it'll steal all the file associateions if I need to reinstall it after that time.
o The user interface of the standalone player is horrible. I want a media player, not a link to some movie trailers.
Don't assume that everyone will who does not already have a Quicktime player installed will be able to navigate Apple's download screen successfully. I've just tried it on a couple of machines - from Firefox on Windows XP I get a blank screen with a search box (Noscript is installed; but the web site should at least detect that Javascript is disabled and say something), whereas from Firefox on an old Linux box it "can't tell what OS I'm running because I have Javascript disabled" (I haven't) and offers me a choice of Windows XP or Mac.
Never mind Windows Vista, the stadium's running late too. The builders have said that they won't make any money from it, and recent "new build" history in England has not been good (Pickett's Lock, Millennium tent?).
Still, let's hope they get it finished in time for the 2006 FA Cup. It's embarrassing having that played in a neighbouring country (albeit a relatively friendly one).
Some of that stuff's available now - my bedside radio also has an alarm that you can set to not go off at weekends, is tuned digitally, and because it understands RDS and has the traffic news turned on, is louder in the morning than the evening.
The probably is a market for what you're talking about, but if the price point turned out to be much more than a cheapo clock radio from your local Electricals R us I don't think that it'd be that big.
The big difference between now and and when I (at least) was 5 is that you do have the option to do it yourself, using cast-off PC bits. It won't be particularly elegant (at least until current generation of smaller PCs and handhelds get chucked out), but it'd have all the functionality you're asking for.
Somewhat off-topic here, but perhaps, before Microsoft decide on a name they ought to check just what that sounds like in some of the major English-speaking markets.
What they've done is actually extremely useful - they've provided a perfect example of what Shockwave is NOT useful for.
The non-Shockwave version of the Lindisfarne Gospels work quite well (assuming that you open multiple pages in browser tabs, and zoom in and out of images as required).
If you had a Linksys card before connecting to a Linksys access point you may have just entered a "passphrase" from which the 4 full hexadecimal keys are generated. Linksys cards (at least the one that I had) allowed entry of either the passphrase or one of the full keys.
My experience with Windows XP SP2 (on a different machine with a built-in Intel WLAN card) is that the full hex key needs to be entered. I've always found XP's native WLAN support frustrating to use and stuck with the Intel software (i.e. don't "let Windows manage my wireless connections") - but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work.
It might be useful to give details about the network cards in the laptops and driver versions for them and the WAP ("latest versions" is fine but doesn't make it easy to compare version numbers).
As an example, I work from home at the end of an ADSL line. Being able to take a copy of a dataset (varies in size, but let's say 4Gb once compressed) for testing is useful. You don't have to do that too many times to use up 30Gb.
There's some crossover there, (e.g. Green Day) but no Mariah Carey.
The poster of the previous comment above mentions Audioscrobbler, and this reply was really prompted by that.
If you're not familiar with either - Audioscrobbler works out links between different artists based on what people play (via music player plugins) and last.fm is an online radio station that uses that information.
Imagine if we'd been using "quadrance" and "spread" for years - and then some bright spark suggested calculated using sines and cosines. Which would people see as easier?
Even with this version, you still have to keep an eye on it. Having a software firewall that stops it connecting to sites that you don't want it to is still a good idea...
And there's always mplayer if that's an option for you. Listening to the Peel tribute prog from BBC 7 that way right now.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like someone is trying to build an empire in your organisation based on an ERP implementation.
Being seen as being attached to the current hardware will mean being seen as being attached to the current software as well - and if that needs replacing, that's not a good place to be. Strategic decisions should be made on costs and benefits - but all too often it's a fashion decision taken to help someone's career along.
It is possible to run Windows systems reliably and securely, but don't underestimate what it costs in terms of hardware and handholding.
If the proposed ERP is well-known then there'll be plenty of info around - try and find people who've had good and bad implementation experiences. Any horror stories there may help any case that you might want to (by accident of course) want to make for the hardware.
How about WinPT ("Windows Privacy Tray") for your Windows relatives? It front-ends gpg with something that sits in the system tray. Can encrypt from the clipboard or the foreground window.
And yes, I did preview it first. Obvious while not awake, though
I've mentioned this before here in this context, but it does sound like a near perfect-fit (only "near" because it is cheap rather than free and is Windows-only). Basically, keep all the things that you work on as items in a list (which can be imported from a text file). Each item has various attributes (such as project) and you can "focus in" on a particular set (e.g. project) to just work on that.
Some things can be fixed to start at a certain time but the way that you work it's easier just to have everythign floating and scheduled by priority. A log file is written describing when something was started and how long was spent. To work out how much time is spent on a project or subproject, just total it up.
It's available from http://www.1soft.com/ - and other than being a customer many years ago, I'm in no way affiliated.
Er - that doesn't quite fit with my experience...
s /Nat_trends_yearbook/Nat_Year.pdf (yes it's a PDF - I know, I'm sorry). Guess which two "services" are at the bottom of the list... It can't all be pinned at Network Rail's door because the company that shares half the route is top.
You missed out the bit about no room for luggage on Virgin trains, a seat booking system that doesn't understand the concept of flexible tickets, no decent food and no idea of "getting there on time".
Comparing Virgin's service through Derby with Central Trains' is like comparing a 747 with a Cessna - Virgin's is a long distance service from the Southwest to the Northeast of the country, whereas Central go about as far as Manchester airport, and run what are essentially buses with big wheels.
Have a look at "long distance operators" (page 16) here:
http://www.sra.gov.uk/pubs2/performance_statistic
Personally I'd rather a train run by a bus company (Midland Mainline - the competitors on the route) than an idiot full of hot air (Branson).
(and, for what it's worth, I'm not affiliated with any of the above companies - just someone who gets the train occasionally).
It's easy to say things like "Under no circumstances..." in a Slashdot post, but maybe not so easy to carry them out - especially when it's not that difficult to see a time when there is no more "offline".
Realistically people will weigh the costs of the hassle of registration (and actual financial cost of purchase) with the benefits of whatever it is that they are getting. They do this all the time, in all sorts of industries, and it's difficult to see why the software industry should be any different. Sometimes a "purchase" option can come into the market after the "rent" one and still clean up - Digital TV in the UK is an example there, albeit the market is skewed by the fact that the "purchase" option is subsidised by the flat tax that all users pay anyway.
In the case of a lot of software there already exist free alternatives (MS Office is the perfect example here).
Software companies will only move to "software as a service" if customers will let them - but they'll look at actual sales rather than Slashdot posts when determining if customers will accept it or not.
(not supposed to be flamebait - but mod how you see fit! I just felt that lots of people were shooting the messenger).
Not everywhere. Some slightly more enlightened jurisdictions have laws that still apply no matter what the EULA says. One example is the distance selling regulations - but that's only one example.
Sounds odd. What version of Netware is it, and can you mount the Netware drives on Windows clients that don't have IPX installed? If you can, then it should be possible to do the same from Linux - maybe using the Novell Linux client, that someone else suggested. If it doesn't work on Gentoo straight off, you could maybe try a Suse live CD.
/ data/acjxc7b.html describes a bit about the Novell TCP/IP options. If you really need to go IPX, then follow the other links (ncpfs etc), but routing will be a lot more limited.
Also, http://www.novell.com/documentation/nw65/tcpipenu
There are plenty of good technical solutions to source code control, messaging, mail, etc. (lots of which are posted already) that allow you to work together, but to actually work together effectively yet remotely you need to get to know the people who you are working with - and this means meeting face to face semi-regularly.
If you don't do this, then you'll always be two development teams - "us" and "them".
Yes, that'd work, and when I had to work with an IPX-only server a few years ago that was what I did. You probably don't need to read much further than http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/IPX-HOWTO.html (although that dates from 1988 - I suspect that the "caldera.com" links may not be helpful any more).
However - does the server that you're working with really only run IPX? I've encountered quite a few Novell (Groupwise) systems over the last couple of years - some Windows, some Linux, but most Netware. None of them has been IPX-only. Even Novell don't recommend installing IPX with Netware these days, and if it does support TCP/IP why not use that?
If you're a "media house" (whatever that is) then you've probably got a larger portion of Macs in the audience (dirty or otherwise) than would be usual.
If you're familar with Quicktime Broadcaster there's less chance of you looking like idiots in front of potential customers using that than on a rental XP box (no pressure if that breaks in the middle of a webcast...).
One thing though - make sure that you use an actual URL so that people don't have to rely on a poxy browser plugin that probably won't be there or work properly.
That said, from a customer's point of view I will personally on any link that is an alternative to a Quicktime one. There are several reasons:
o I dislike being hassled about Quicktime Pro. Even my Windows XP version "will expire and 5 days". No doubt I'll be inflicted with shovelware and it'll steal all the file associateions if I need to reinstall it after that time.
o The user interface of the standalone player is horrible. I want a media player, not a link to some movie trailers.
Don't assume that everyone will who does not already have a Quicktime player installed will be able to navigate Apple's download screen successfully. I've just tried it on a couple of machines - from Firefox on Windows XP I get a blank screen with a search box (Noscript is installed; but the web site should at least detect that Javascript is disabled and say something), whereas from Firefox on an old Linux box it "can't tell what OS I'm running because I have Javascript disabled" (I haven't) and offers me a choice of Windows XP or Mac.
Never mind Windows Vista, the stadium's running late too. The builders have said that they won't make any money from it, and recent "new build" history in England has not been good (Pickett's Lock, Millennium tent?).
Still, let's hope they get it finished in time for the 2006 FA Cup. It's embarrassing having that played in a neighbouring country (albeit a relatively friendly one).
Don't we get this story every few months? About half the time it's this outfit in York, and the other half it's someone else.
Fair play to their PR people - they seem to be doing a good job - but surely this is in the "never going to happen" category?
Some of that stuff's available now - my bedside radio also has an alarm that you can set to not go off at weekends, is tuned digitally, and because it understands RDS and has the traffic news turned on, is louder in the morning than the evening.
The probably is a market for what you're talking about, but if the price point turned out to be much more than a cheapo clock radio from your local Electricals R us I don't think that it'd be that big.
The big difference between now and and when I (at least) was 5 is that you do have the option to do it yourself, using cast-off PC bits. It won't be particularly elegant (at least until current generation of smaller PCs and handhelds get chucked out), but it'd have all the functionality you're asking for.
Somewhat off-topic here, but perhaps, before Microsoft decide on a name they ought to check just what that sounds like in some of the major English-speaking markets.
(wonder what Symantec means in other languages?)
What they've done is actually extremely useful - they've provided a perfect example of what Shockwave is NOT useful for.
The non-Shockwave version of the Lindisfarne Gospels work quite well (assuming that you open multiple pages in browser tabs, and zoom in and out of images as required).
If you had a Linksys card before connecting to a Linksys access point you may have just entered a "passphrase" from which the 4 full hexadecimal keys are generated. Linksys cards (at least the one that I had) allowed entry of either the passphrase or one of the full keys.
My experience with Windows XP SP2 (on a different machine with a built-in Intel WLAN card) is that the full hex key needs to be entered. I've always found XP's native WLAN support frustrating to use and stuck with the Intel software (i.e. don't "let Windows manage my wireless connections") - but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work.
It might be useful to give details about the network cards in the laptops and driver versions for them and the WAP ("latest versions" is fine but doesn't make it easy to compare version numbers).
Train the parrots to clean the PC.
And this is insightful how, exactly?
As an example, I work from home at the end of an ADSL line. Being able to take a copy of a dataset (varies in size, but let's say 4Gb once compressed) for testing is useful. You don't have to do that too many times to use up 30Gb.
> Note prominent and primary emphasis on luscious product porn of new iPod Nano.
Some people really ought to get out more.
http://www.last.fm/charts/
a
There's some crossover there, (e.g. Green Day) but no Mariah Carey.
The poster of the previous comment above mentions Audioscrobbler, and this reply was really prompted by that.
If you're not familiar with either - Audioscrobbler works out links between different artists based on what people play (via music player plugins) and last.fm is an online radio station that uses that information.
As an example:
http://www.last.fm/explore/?artistname=chumbawamb
Does that work without IE?
It looks like it uses IE for rendering to me.
I'd look it up in a book of tables, actually...
Imagine if we'd been using "quadrance" and "spread" for years - and then some bright spark suggested calculated using sines and cosines. Which would people see as easier?
Even with this version, you still have to keep an eye on it. Having a software firewall that stops it connecting to sites that you don't want it to is still a good idea...
And there's always mplayer if that's an option for you. Listening to the Peel tribute prog from BBC 7 that way right now.