I had this exact same problem at my last job. 120 employees, 1 IT guy, no funding for anything. My answer, which worked insanely well:
1 400MHz Celeron-based computer running SUSE Linux 9 (most recent version available at the time)
jabberd2 for the Jabber server, with a MySQL backend
Psi client for all the Windows users.
A PHP script to automatically add everyone to everyone else's contact list (yeah, I'm the guy who posted that).
Psi was great because it was easy to configure so that their application profile was stored on a network drive, so that no matter what computer you logged in to, you had your contact list immediately available. As well, it was really easy to install remotely (just copy the app directory and some shortcuts to the right places on the remote computer). The end result was a computer was saved from the dumpster and put to good use, and everyone got to chat without everyone asking everyone else "whats your jabber address".
Yes, this makes complete and total sense. Spyware makers definitely want to know what quests you're completing in order to direct their marketing to you, and make their software search ut Oblivion save games and files in order to gain the best information about your buying habits. The direct-to-mage advertising market is one of the biggest around, ya know.
Did I forget the sarcasm tags again?
Be thankful that you've had no problems with the game. Unfortunately, a lot of people do have problems with it, and the patch meant to fix it. Don't dismiss problems simply because you're not experiencing them.
This is, unfortunately, the exact reason why I haven't gotten into Oblivion yet. I loved Morrowind, but only got it after they released the extremely-patched super edition with the two expansions built in. That's the version of the game I'm waiting for before I step foot into Oblivion, and this patch-snafu is exactly why. I could see it coming a mile away, and that's sad.
Of course, anyone who subscribed to Nintendo Power during the original Gulf War will remember the story of the US soldier who had his barracks shelled while he was out on assignment. He sifted through the rubble, pulled out his Game Boy, and although the case was somewhat melted, the bloody thing still worked.
Seriously, this is a perfect example of why e-mail is so horribly, horribly mis-used in the modern workplace. WSJ, you were fracking frelled from the start.
If you have no project management methods other than checking e-mail threads, you're fracking frelled. Seriously, how hard is it to set up a file-server, and keep a couple text documents detailing project status? Or how about an intranet-style web server with a few wikis! Or, if you enjoy being fracking frelled, get yourself a few copies of Microsoft Project.
If you use your e-mail as a file storage mechanism, you're fracking frelled. Others have already commented on this, but seriously, what organization doesn't have a file server, or at the very least can't spend $300 putting together a shitty computer with a backup mechanism for network file storage.
If you use e-mail as a file transfer mechanism, you're fracking frelled. If you're actively working on a project with remote users, get yourself an FTP server, or some silly web-enabled file-access mechanism so that they can access the necessary work and actively collaborate.
On the same note, if you e-mail yourself, you're double-fracking-frelled, and should be taken out into a field and Office Spaced. For smegs sake, get yourself a bloody USB key drive, and stop being retarded.
If you use e-mail as a personal organizer, you're fracking frelled. Get yourself a bloody calendar, or a PDA, or something that actually is capable of bringing organization instead of the sticky mess that e-mail provides.
In short, WSJ, quit your whining, its your own fault. You were fracking frelled ages ago.
"# It must be demonstrably necessary in order to meet some specific need.
# It must be demonstrably likely to be effective in achieving its intended purpose.
# The intrusion on privacy must be proportional to the security benefit derived.
# It must be demonstrable that no other, less privacy-intrusive, measure would suffice to achieve the same purpose."
The law isn't going to pass if it doesn't meet those criteria, among others. I honestly don't see a problem. The only reason that this update is going through is to ensure that law enforcement have the same abilities, irregardless of the technology. They can already intercept telephone and fax communications lawfully, this just ensures tehy can do the same with TCP/IP traffic.
Remember back when 56k modems were first hitting the markets, and a lot of manufacturers were offering flash-upgrades to their 33.6k modems to make them 56k? Well, I can't remember the exact brand of modem my buddy had, but because said buddy is an idiot, he got tired of waiting for the manufacturer of his modem to release the flash upgrade that they had promised to release on their website, and instead he went to another manufacturer's website and downloaded the flash upgrade for their modem. He then tried to apply it to his own modem.
I was in the room when he tried to do this, all the while telling him he was just gonna screw up his modem and he'd have to re-flash it with the disc that came with the modem. He hit the Enter key, the flash upgrade process started, and then we both heard an explosion from inside his computer case. When we opened it up, we found that the modem was on fire. You never forget the smell of burning circuit-board.
I work as an IT support person in a university, and I'm under very similar circumstances. Me and one other guy were hired on in a division where there previously was no centralized IT support, and quite frankly the entire division was in complete chaos. However, we didn't have any 'official' authority to say how to use computers properly, or how to centralize different services such as file sharing. The best thing we found was to just do what needed to be done, and then explain your reasoning, and the consequences of what they were doing previously, to the users afterwards. If your boss complains, ask him to clarify why exactly he hired you if he won't let you do your job. You can't expect management without any IT training to make informed decisions regarding the computing environment, you have to do it yourself.
I've worked as a camp counsellor at Compucamp, a summer computer camp for kids, for the last two years, so I know exactly what you're doing here. (see www.compucamp.ca)
This is how our program works: The camps are one week long, and each has a "theme". They're broken up by age groups.
The preschoolers and kindergarteners basically just play games all week, but we introduce them to some basic drawing and word processing programs (try to get them to see just how big you can make a font in MS Write). The drawing program we use, Drawing For Children, is absolutely great for the really young ones, and can be found at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~markov/kids/draw/.
The age 7-9 group learn basic Frontpage skills and throw together a webpage, as well as learn the basics of Paint Shop Pro. We also open up Nerf Arena Blast to them, which is a game based on the Unreal Tournament engine, but with nerf weapons. Really nice game.
The most popular camp so far is the graphics camp, where the entire camp is divided into two groups, and they actually produce their own short movie (usually about 1:30 in length). They learn to use morphing software, advanced Paint Shop Pro, and video editing using Videowave. We also let them have some fun with an old version of Bryce 3d.
However, the one key element to all of this: don't put them on the computer for 8 hours straight!!! The way we worked was we had 16 computers and usually 30 kids (maximum per camp was 32). While one half was on computer, the other half was playing games outside, doing crafts, and other things. We took them swimming every Thursday, we had a water fight every Friday. If they're on the computers too long, it gets very nasty!
Beyond that, I hope you have fun as a camp counsellor. Please feel free to e-mail me here if you have any other concerns about your camp, as I've seen it all.:-)
If you want recordability, hack a Tivo/HD recorder. Use that to record, connect it via Ethernet to your pooter, and burn DVDs. Its a bit pricy, but you can't beat the ultra coolness factor.:-)
I'm a 3rd year student at the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada. For 3 years, the first year classes have been in Java, and I see no big deal at all (true, the JVM is a bit slow, but given all the work it has to do, I can't see it getting much faster).
I took QBasic and Pascal in my high school CS classes in Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Those were a waste of time as I saw it, so I took it upon myself to teach myself a bit of C/C++ before entering University. I had never seen Java before my 1st year, and being that I knew about C++, it truly was a cinch. Java (as a language) is just C++ without the operator overloading, pointer logic, and a slight bit of different structure to class description. Its really a simple language, and I can easily see why it was the 1st year language, especially since most people entering the CS program at the U of S have little/absolutely no previous programming experience.
As a review, here's the language/class breakdown at the U of S as I have taken it (through the software engineering option, this may vary if you take different classes):
1st year: Java
2nd year: Eiffel, Prolog, and MIPS Assembler
3rd year: Java for the first software engineering class (there are two next term I haven't taken yet), C/C++, Prolog, plus the introduction of the OpenGL and Renderman APIs.
As a nice little side note, a few years back a grad student at the U of S devoloped a new 3d-rendering engine/language as his grad project, named it Renderman, then sold it to Disney, founded Pixar, and created Toy Story.:-)
This really ticks me off. When showing the comparison in quality at the beginning of the article, they show the first Matrix shot in MPEG-2, in an uncompressed JPEG. Then they show the MPEG-4 shot in a very compressed, horrible quality JPEG. They also do the same thing with the James Bond shot later in the article.
How am I supposed to tell what kind of quality MPEG-4 provides when I'm looking at it through a lossy screenshot. That's sad. I'd expect better out of Tom's Hardware.
- Brent 'Goose' Towsley -
I thought this product sounded familiar, then I remembered the Kerbango (www.kerbango.com), which was released about 6 months ago, with and embedded Linux OS. Still nice to see products like this making news though, even though the fee is technically outrageous.
Slashdot Mirror
- 1 400MHz Celeron-based computer running SUSE Linux 9 (most recent version available at the time)
- jabberd2 for the Jabber server, with a MySQL backend
- Psi client for all the Windows users.
- A PHP script to automatically add everyone to everyone else's contact list (yeah, I'm the guy who posted that).
Psi was great because it was easy to configure so that their application profile was stored on a network drive, so that no matter what computer you logged in to, you had your contact list immediately available. As well, it was really easy to install remotely (just copy the app directory and some shortcuts to the right places on the remote computer). The end result was a computer was saved from the dumpster and put to good use, and everyone got to chat without everyone asking everyone else "whats your jabber address".Yes, this makes complete and total sense. Spyware makers definitely want to know what quests you're completing in order to direct their marketing to you, and make their software search ut Oblivion save games and files in order to gain the best information about your buying habits. The direct-to-mage advertising market is one of the biggest around, ya know.
Did I forget the sarcasm tags again?
Be thankful that you've had no problems with the game. Unfortunately, a lot of people do have problems with it, and the patch meant to fix it. Don't dismiss problems simply because you're not experiencing them.
This is, unfortunately, the exact reason why I haven't gotten into Oblivion yet. I loved Morrowind, but only got it after they released the extremely-patched super edition with the two expansions built in. That's the version of the game I'm waiting for before I step foot into Oblivion, and this patch-snafu is exactly why. I could see it coming a mile away, and that's sad.
Of course, anyone who subscribed to Nintendo Power during the original Gulf War will remember the story of the US soldier who had his barracks shelled while he was out on assignment. He sifted through the rubble, pulled out his Game Boy, and although the case was somewhat melted, the bloody thing still worked.
On the same note, if you e-mail yourself, you're double-fracking-frelled, and should be taken out into a field and Office Spaced. For smegs sake, get yourself a bloody USB key drive, and stop being retarded.
In short, WSJ, quit your whining, its your own fault. You were fracking frelled ages ago.
Thank you Micheal Geist, for blowing something this routine out of proportion.
Thankfully, Canada has one of the most online governments on the planet. Here's exactly what they, and the public that responded to the governement, had to say about the Lawful Access updates. Of particular note is the Privacy Commissioner's comments:
The law isn't going to pass if it doesn't meet those criteria, among others. I honestly don't see a problem. The only reason that this update is going through is to ensure that law enforcement have the same abilities, irregardless of the technology. They can already intercept telephone and fax communications lawfully, this just ensures tehy can do the same with TCP/IP traffic.
Remember back when 56k modems were first hitting the markets, and a lot of manufacturers were offering flash-upgrades to their 33.6k modems to make them 56k? Well, I can't remember the exact brand of modem my buddy had, but because said buddy is an idiot, he got tired of waiting for the manufacturer of his modem to release the flash upgrade that they had promised to release on their website, and instead he went to another manufacturer's website and downloaded the flash upgrade for their modem. He then tried to apply it to his own modem.
:-P
I was in the room when he tried to do this, all the while telling him he was just gonna screw up his modem and he'd have to re-flash it with the disc that came with the modem. He hit the Enter key, the flash upgrade process started, and then we both heard an explosion from inside his computer case. When we opened it up, we found that the modem was on fire. You never forget the smell of burning circuit-board.
Said buddy is no longer a buddy, obviously.
www.ncix.com
Great deals on pre-built machines and custom parts.
I work as an IT support person in a university, and I'm under very similar circumstances. Me and one other guy were hired on in a division where there previously was no centralized IT support, and quite frankly the entire division was in complete chaos. However, we didn't have any 'official' authority to say how to use computers properly, or how to centralize different services such as file sharing. The best thing we found was to just do what needed to be done, and then explain your reasoning, and the consequences of what they were doing previously, to the users afterwards. If your boss complains, ask him to clarify why exactly he hired you if he won't let you do your job. You can't expect management without any IT training to make informed decisions regarding the computing environment, you have to do it yourself.
I've worked as a camp counsellor at Compucamp, a summer computer camp for kids, for the last two years, so I know exactly what you're doing here. (see www.compucamp.ca)
This is how our program works: The camps are one week long, and each has a "theme". They're broken up by age groups.
The preschoolers and kindergarteners basically just play games all week, but we introduce them to some basic drawing and word processing programs (try to get them to see just how big you can make a font in MS Write). The drawing program we use, Drawing For Children, is absolutely great for the really young ones, and can be found at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~markov/kids/draw/.
The age 7-9 group learn basic Frontpage skills and throw together a webpage, as well as learn the basics of Paint Shop Pro. We also open up Nerf Arena Blast to them, which is a game based on the Unreal Tournament engine, but with nerf weapons. Really nice game.
The most popular camp so far is the graphics camp, where the entire camp is divided into two groups, and they actually produce their own short movie (usually about 1:30 in length). They learn to use morphing software, advanced Paint Shop Pro, and video editing using Videowave. We also let them have some fun with an old version of Bryce 3d.
However, the one key element to all of this: don't put them on the computer for 8 hours straight!!! The way we worked was we had 16 computers and usually 30 kids (maximum per camp was 32). While one half was on computer, the other half was playing games outside, doing crafts, and other things. We took them swimming every Thursday, we had a water fight every Friday. If they're on the computers too long, it gets very nasty!
Beyond that, I hope you have fun as a camp counsellor. Please feel free to e-mail me here if you have any other concerns about your camp, as I've seen it all. :-)
If you want recordability, hack a Tivo/HD recorder. Use that to record, connect it via Ethernet to your pooter, and burn DVDs. Its a bit pricy, but you can't beat the ultra coolness factor. :-)
I'm a 3rd year student at the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada. For 3 years, the first year classes have been in Java, and I see no big deal at all (true, the JVM is a bit slow, but given all the work it has to do, I can't see it getting much faster).
:-)
I took QBasic and Pascal in my high school CS classes in Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Those were a waste of time as I saw it, so I took it upon myself to teach myself a bit of C/C++ before entering University. I had never seen Java before my 1st year, and being that I knew about C++, it truly was a cinch. Java (as a language) is just C++ without the operator overloading, pointer logic, and a slight bit of different structure to class description. Its really a simple language, and I can easily see why it was the 1st year language, especially since most people entering the CS program at the U of S have little/absolutely no previous programming experience.
As a review, here's the language/class breakdown at the U of S as I have taken it (through the software engineering option, this may vary if you take different classes):
1st year: Java
2nd year: Eiffel, Prolog, and MIPS Assembler
3rd year: Java for the first software engineering class (there are two next term I haven't taken yet), C/C++, Prolog, plus the introduction of the OpenGL and Renderman APIs.
As a nice little side note, a few years back a grad student at the U of S devoloped a new 3d-rendering engine/language as his grad project, named it Renderman, then sold it to Disney, founded Pixar, and created Toy Story.
- Brent 'Goose' Towsley -
This really ticks me off. When showing the comparison in quality at the beginning of the article, they show the first Matrix shot in MPEG-2, in an uncompressed JPEG. Then they show the MPEG-4 shot in a very compressed, horrible quality JPEG. They also do the same thing with the James Bond shot later in the article. How am I supposed to tell what kind of quality MPEG-4 provides when I'm looking at it through a lossy screenshot. That's sad. I'd expect better out of Tom's Hardware. - Brent 'Goose' Towsley -
I thought this product sounded familiar, then I remembered the Kerbango (www.kerbango.com), which was released about 6 months ago, with and embedded Linux OS. Still nice to see products like this making news though, even though the fee is technically outrageous.