I think VA lost out because of pricing. I spec'd identical dual-processor servers from VA, Dell, and Compaq a couple of years ago. VA was several hundred dollars higher than Dell and Compaq. This was the Dell Poweredge and Compaq Proliant lines, not their commodity desktops, so they had excellent hardware (probably better than VA's was in most cases). I ended up going with Dell for that purchase. We've since loaded several Proliants with Debian Linux and have been very happy with them. I just couldn't justify the higher price from VA.
Same here, but I had a little fun with the guy that called. I told him I thought my domains were registered with Dotster. He said they were, but DSG wanted to make sure I registered in.info as well to keep from losing my domain. How I could lose a domain that wasn't even registered was beyond me. When I finally convinced him that I wasn't interested, he tried to sell me web design services. I told him it should be obvious that I already knew how to do that since I had several domains registered which was the original purpose of the call. There is nothing quite as satisfying as finally getting a telemarketer to quit his spiel without having to hangup on them.
Did you pay them first? I work for a school system and never sign off on bills to be paid until the work is complete to my satisfaction. You'd be surprised at what vendors will do to make you happy and meet the bid specs when they have a large outstanding bill.
In college, a friend's Tandy had the floppy drive go bad. The local Radio Shack wanted $125 parts and labor to replace the drive. I stuck in a $28 floppy (this was in about 1994) and did it for free.
I don't know how it is now, but when the bidirectional printers came out, they wouldn't work on the cheap parallel cables. You had to buy the IEEE cables for the printers to work properly. I didn't believe it either until I swapped a couple that fixed the printing problems the user was having.
Groupwise has lots of options to disable mail relaying, allow only certain users to relay, use SMTP authentication, etc. All the options that standard mail servers have are there as well as NDS authentication and security.
The kicker is that for "hobbyists" like Ian, just fighting this would probably bankrupt him. It's unfortunate, but that's life in our "sue-happy" society these days.
They are choosing not to include it because that was the terms of the settlement from the last Sun lawsuit. MS either had to remove their proprietary extensions or not include Java at all with Windows. They chose the latter and I can't say I blame them. It's like Sun is suing them to add something back that they demanded MS remove!
This depends on the bank you are dealing with. We started trying to get a merchant account with our local Bank of America. I couldn't get them to understand exactly what we do, so they wouldn't let us get an account through them. I tried another local bank and had the account setup in less than a day. We've been using them for well over a year now and only process online transactions. There are no special requirements like you mention in your post.
Thankfully though, their servers still use this "wacky" hardware. They are the most reliable machines I've ever used. We have 30+ Compaq servers and have never had a single part in them fail or act strange. Some of them have uptimes measured in years! We have lots of Apple hardware too, and that gives them a similar advantage over the build-your-own PC with the latest and cheapest hardware that some companies use. It is all tested and make to work together reliably. That's worth paying a premium in my opinion at least.
Robomail was the best QWK reader ever made. It was not free though, so not a lot of people used it. I still have it on my computer since I copy it over every time I update. There are lots of messages in my copy. It uses a relational database to store the messages and is VERY quick. It will definitely do what you want.
Re: have a tough NUt to crack--Are you retarded?
on
Apple PDA?
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My iPaq display works as well in the sunlight as in the dark, so you are mistaken there. I think the others may have problems in direct light, but not the Compaq.
What type of machine were you running it on? I just received a new Powerbook G4 (550/512MB) and it runs great on it. Very stable and fast. It has taken me a few days to find out where everything is, but I really like it once I got used to it. I'm a PC user, but Apple really tempted me with their notebook design and the promise of a great GUI on top of *nix. I think they delivered in spades. I've already compiled Apache/PHP4/MySQL on it and have a backup of my main site running so that I can test different things. It's a great combo. Add Airport (which I did) and I can work on development anywhere in and around my house.
To test their claims, I've plugged my digital camera and digital video camera in it and was pleasantly surprised that no drivers were needed and the correct apps popped up automatically. iTunes is a great MP3 ripper and manager as well. My wife and I played with iMovie this weekend and found it to be a great entry level movie editor. It even connects to my Samba server and WinXP desktop with no add-ons. Very cool, everything just works!
The same reason people use Windows/MS Office.. they are the standard. There are people like you who use other products of course. However, many users will always want to use products with the highest market shares. Especially when they produce items that will be shared with others (higher market share means more people to trade with).
Right, that is just misinformation and sour grapes to Microsoft. To test this, I left mine running from Friday afternoon to Monday morning while we were gone for the weekend. It was using Dead or Alive 3 in the auto-fight mode. The XBox was enclosed in my entertainment center the whole. It was still going strong Monday morning when we got back.
Their corporate products are MUCH nicer than the Presario junk they sell consumers at Radio Shack and the like. Their servers are pure heaven from a reliability/performance standpoint. The Armada series of laptops are very nice, and nothing beats the case design for their Deskpros.
Say "Hi" to X-Box, you can network four of them together via Ethernet already for multiplayer capabilities.. up to 16 people in Halo (four on each X-box).
I thought the Pronto was expensive too, until I bought one after installing a full home theatre system. With the complete customization and programming ability, you can make your system do anything YOU want. I have programs set so that you press one button to switch receiver inputs, switch TV inputs, change audio settings, etc. when changing to a different source. Press "Watch a DVD" for example and the TV switches to the DVD input, the receiver switches to the DVD input, the receiver switches to Dolby Digital mode, the DVD player comes on (if it is off) and starts the movie. You could also have it dim the lights and do other things if you'd like. Awesome, and you do it all with one (virtual) button. Much easier for my wife and family to operate. Ecost.Com is the cheapest I have found for buying them.
You are wrong. The computer I ordered doesn't have Passport information on it at all. The computer I placed the order from did, but it has since been formatted.
I used it once to order a new Dell back in December. They had a special deal where you got 20% refund (I think) if you used Passport to submit your info. Made no sense why, but I got a $500 check shortly thereafter.
As a constituent in his district, I can say that he isn't just pandering. He has been instrumental in getting high-speed Internet access in this area. Even though this is a very rural area, we have access speeds and technology available that would be the envy of many larger urban areas. He really does seem to get it.
I'm also in his district and agree that you can't find a much better politician anywhere. He was instrumental in getting high-speed Internet access in my rural area. The access here is now so good that Bruce Perens has moved all his servers here. I'm the technology manager for a school system that has a DS3 feed with links to each school no slower than T1. It would've never happened without Boucher.
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I think VA lost out because of pricing. I spec'd identical dual-processor servers from VA, Dell, and Compaq a couple of years ago. VA was several hundred dollars higher than Dell and Compaq. This was the Dell Poweredge and Compaq Proliant lines, not their commodity desktops, so they had excellent hardware (probably better than VA's was in most cases). I ended up going with Dell for that purchase. We've since loaded several Proliants with Debian Linux and have been very happy with them. I just couldn't justify the higher price from VA.
Jason
Same here, but I had a little fun with the guy that called. I told him I thought my domains were registered with Dotster. He said they were, but DSG wanted to make sure I registered in .info as well to keep from losing my domain. How I could lose a domain that wasn't even registered was beyond me. When I finally convinced him that I wasn't interested, he tried to sell me web design services. I told him it should be obvious that I already knew how to do that since I had several domains registered which was the original purpose of the call. There is nothing quite as satisfying as finally getting a telemarketer to quit his spiel without having to hangup on them.
Jason
Did you pay them first? I work for a school system and never sign off on bills to be paid until the work is complete to my satisfaction. You'd be surprised at what vendors will do to make you happy and meet the bid specs when they have a large outstanding bill.
Jason
In college, a friend's Tandy had the floppy drive go bad. The local Radio Shack wanted $125 parts and labor to replace the drive. I stuck in a $28 floppy (this was in about 1994) and did it for free.
Jason
I don't know how it is now, but when the bidirectional printers came out, they wouldn't work on the cheap parallel cables. You had to buy the IEEE cables for the printers to work properly. I didn't believe it either until I swapped a couple that fixed the printing problems the user was having.
Jason
Groupwise has lots of options to disable mail relaying, allow only certain users to relay, use SMTP authentication, etc. All the options that standard mail servers have are there as well as NDS authentication and security.
Jason
The kicker is that for "hobbyists" like Ian, just fighting this would probably bankrupt him. It's unfortunate, but that's life in our "sue-happy" society these days.
Jason
They are choosing not to include it because that was the terms of the settlement from the last Sun lawsuit. MS either had to remove their proprietary extensions or not include Java at all with Windows. They chose the latter and I can't say I blame them. It's like Sun is suing them to add something back that they demanded MS remove!
Jason
This depends on the bank you are dealing with. We started trying to get a merchant account with our local Bank of America. I couldn't get them to understand exactly what we do, so they wouldn't let us get an account through them. I tried another local bank and had the account setup in less than a day. We've been using them for well over a year now and only process online transactions. There are no special requirements like you mention in your post.
Jason
Compaq's Linux support has been excellent since we switched to them over 5 years ago. All hardware has been supported with no problems at all.
Jason
Thankfully though, their servers still use this "wacky" hardware. They are the most reliable machines I've ever used. We have 30+ Compaq servers and have never had a single part in them fail or act strange. Some of them have uptimes measured in years! We have lots of Apple hardware too, and that gives them a similar advantage over the build-your-own PC with the latest and cheapest hardware that some companies use. It is all tested and make to work together reliably. That's worth paying a premium in my opinion at least.
Jason
Some links:
Jason
My iPaq display works as well in the sunlight as in the dark, so you are mistaken there. I think the others may have problems in direct light, but not the Compaq.
What type of machine were you running it on? I just received a new Powerbook G4 (550/512MB) and it runs great on it. Very stable and fast. It has taken me a few days to find out where everything is, but I really like it once I got used to it. I'm a PC user, but Apple really tempted me with their notebook design and the promise of a great GUI on top of *nix. I think they delivered in spades. I've already compiled Apache/PHP4/MySQL on it and have a backup of my main site running so that I can test different things. It's a great combo. Add Airport (which I did) and I can work on development anywhere in and around my house.
To test their claims, I've plugged my digital camera and digital video camera in it and was pleasantly surprised that no drivers were needed and the correct apps popped up automatically. iTunes is a great MP3 ripper and manager as well. My wife and I played with iMovie this weekend and found it to be a great entry level movie editor. It even connects to my Samba server and WinXP desktop with no add-ons. Very cool, everything just works!
Jason
The same reason people use Windows/MS Office .. they are the standard. There are people like you who use other products of course. However, many users will always want to use products with the highest market shares. Especially when they produce items that will be shared with others (higher market share means more people to trade with).
Jason
Right, that is just misinformation and sour grapes to Microsoft. To test this, I left mine running from Friday afternoon to Monday morning while we were gone for the weekend. It was using Dead or Alive 3 in the auto-fight mode. The XBox was enclosed in my entertainment center the whole. It was still going strong Monday morning when we got back.
Jason
We just buy them all spec'd with no OS. I don't trust anyone to pre-load my servers .. whether they are NT, Novell, or Linux .. we do it all ourselves.
Jason
Their corporate products are MUCH nicer than the Presario junk they sell consumers at Radio Shack and the like. Their servers are pure heaven from a reliability/performance standpoint. The Armada series of laptops are very nice, and nothing beats the case design for their Deskpros.
Jason
Say "Hi" to X-Box, you can network four of them together via Ethernet already for multiplayer capabilities .. up to 16 people in Halo (four on each X-box).
Jason
Right, we buy OfficeXP Pro for about $50/copy on the Academic Select program.
Jason
I thought the Pronto was expensive too, until I bought one after installing a full home theatre system. With the complete customization and programming ability, you can make your system do anything YOU want. I have programs set so that you press one button to switch receiver inputs, switch TV inputs, change audio settings, etc. when changing to a different source. Press "Watch a DVD" for example and the TV switches to the DVD input, the receiver switches to the DVD input, the receiver switches to Dolby Digital mode, the DVD player comes on (if it is off) and starts the movie. You could also have it dim the lights and do other things if you'd like. Awesome, and you do it all with one (virtual) button. Much easier for my wife and family to operate. Ecost.Com is the cheapest I have found for buying them.
Jason
You are wrong. The computer I ordered doesn't have Passport information on it at all. The computer I placed the order from did, but it has since been formatted.
I used it once to order a new Dell back in December. They had a special deal where you got 20% refund (I think) if you used Passport to submit your info. Made no sense why, but I got a $500 check shortly thereafter.
Jason
As a constituent in his district, I can say that he isn't just pandering. He has been instrumental in getting high-speed Internet access in this area. Even though this is a very rural area, we have access speeds and technology available that would be the envy of many larger urban areas. He really does seem to get it.
Jason
I'm also in his district and agree that you can't find a much better politician anywhere. He was instrumental in getting high-speed Internet access in my rural area. The access here is now so good that Bruce Perens has moved all his servers here. I'm the technology manager for a school system that has a DS3 feed with links to each school no slower than T1. It would've never happened without Boucher.
Jason