I learnt many thing using a PC. Things like programming, which helped me in my University courses. Things like Google that helped... well, it's Google, you know!
I understand your concerns, I just hope this will go well in spite of teachers.
If you really want to know, Myspace is not popular here. What's popular are the "fotologs" or "flogs". I think those are less customizable than myspace (so, hopefully, less aberrant web sites).
I've heard that the plan was to put the textbooks in the laptops, which, if done, is economically viable. Each textbook is around 200 pesos (8USD), each year you require 4 of them (sometimes more) and there's 5 years of schooling. That sums up to 160USD. The laptops may be a bit more expensive now, but I think the plan is to "recycle" them (once kid gets out of school, give the pc to a new student). Also, you're getting other advantages that plain old textbooks don't give, like net access, PC education, games...
There's a law (in progress, ie: not yet approved) that would require the public offices to use (as far as possible) OS software and force them to use open formats. So in that respect, the education that kids are getting is positive and useful. Up until now, Windows was taugth. Not to mention that not every school had PCs.
Also, other South American countries which are on very friendly terms with Uruguay (such as Venezuela) are too pushing OS into the public offices. In Venezuela's case, the law is in place already, and it will force everyone to switch before a set date (Uruguay's law will be a progressive change). Brasil also has a widespread use of Linux in bussiness.
A fun tale about this law: A few weeks before the law proyect was presented, Microsoft determined that ANEP (the public schools) owed them something like 500k USD in licenses based on the number of PCs and students that the schools had. After the proyect was presented, Microsoft gracefully donated those licenses.
I'd avise you to sue your company, evidently they're jamming your ideas. They'll probably try to accomodate you and send you to the street, where you'll have an infinite roof and therefore infinitely broad ideas.
In regards with the doorways, if you ever need to work in details, my recommendation is that you try to work under your desk. I've found that does wonders for your work. If you manage to find a tea table or some other short table consider yourself in heaven. The only limit here is the size of your head. I've heard of some indians that found a way to make your head smaller therefore making your detailed work even better.
(Pure especulation here) My guess is that they're doing something like Terminal Services or the typical Unix-like multisession, IE: two users login on the same pc. Notice it's been done for Windows before (sans the split screen thingy) and it is in Unix since... the beggining of time. Virtualization doesn't make much sense (much more expensive, no gains).
So, the savings turn out to be: - RAM. Processes share memory (DLLs and such) - Storage. Only one copy of everything. - Processor. Most of the time is sitting idle in single user systems. Now it'll be sitting idle in multi-user systems. - Monitor. Not a good thing to share. Everywhere you hear that multiple screens increase productivity... Guess what happens when you cut it in half:)
This is kinda offtopic, but I'm always amazed with what you call "old"/slow hardware. If all you do is surf the web and play solitaire, what kind of hardware do you think you need? Win95 was enough to run web browsers and solitaire! A Pentium I and 64Mb RAM is enough! I assure you that most tasks you do on a typical computer require less than 800Mhz to run perfectly fine. Sure, if you want to run the latest and greatest games, you do need a highest end PC, but for most people, that's not the case.
I wonder how much of this is caused by marketing and how much is caused by "buying ability" (ie: you buy because you can or because marketing makes you believe you need it?).
In my country we don't have that much extra money to buy a pc every year. Normally we buy computers every 5 to 10 years... And I dare say that with the latest procs it will be even further between updates (updating from a P2 to a P3 or P4 was a big change, updating an AMD 3000 to a 3600 isn't much difference).
Just so you know, WinXP minimal requirements are a P2 and 64Mb of RAM. And it actually runs quite well (better than win98 on the same hardware). I guess marketing makes people believe that unless you have 1GB of RAM and the latest proc it won't run fine...
Actually, using the ram is good. If it's Windows doing some caching it's great. I'd hate to have 4gb of RAM and be using only 70mb!
Don't get me wrong, I know that you're implying that maybe some app is loading on startup and seizing RAM (spyware or other more normal stuff). But I really don't get why most people assume that no free RAM = bad. RAM is cache.
If I remember correctly, Windows had some mysterious keys embedded into it. There was a slashdot history not so long ago (sorry, no link). Wouldn't that be kinda worrying for any military?
No, NO, NO! That's not the way to do it! That was the perfect oportunity to go and chat to somebody. It's the perfect excuse to socialize... Oh... Nerds...;)
Engineering is by it's very definition solving problems.
Solving problems requires either knowledge or the ability to come up with a new solution. Thus, you need to know both to think (to solve previously unsolved problems) and know-how (to rapidly solve known "old" problems).
But, it's kinda hard teaching how to think. Schools haven't had much success with that.
From what I see, the enter key is badly misplaced. It's too damn far away from the home row. You'll have to move quite a bit to reach it. In my keyboard, the enter key is two keys away from the home row, and that's the furthest I've ever seen it. Most other keyboards have it only one key away. This keyboard has it *three* keys away, and down. I have problems typing on those keyboards with slim enter-key... So, for me, great idea, bad design:(
My university has exactly that as a requirement for graduation. The last course (which normally takes 1 whole year) is developing some software end to end. It's done at the last year of the career. They normally require that you develop something you have a client for. They've got contacts with busineses or non-for-profit organizations. For example, I remember one final project, it was developed for a public children's hospital (which had no resources available). It was some kind of management app for the health records. The most difficult thing about that proyect was that they didn't have any resources. So they had to develop something which would run on a pentium I or II, use Linux and other free stuff. The process of development is supervised by teachers, so the students must use proper procedures to get to the final result. This may not be what always happens in the real world, but it's what ideally should happen.
They've got this kind of requirement for other careers too. For example, in electronics engineering, the students developed an antenna for RFID tags which could be used at a distance plus some software to read what went through. The idea was to control cattle this way. My country is modernizing how we keep track of cattle, and now they're implating every cow/etc with a RFID tag. The idea of the antenna was to keep operators away from the cattle, so they would be safer. Other students developed a cheap (around 200USD) digital osciloscope for use with a PC.
I think it's a great idea, as you leave the university with some "work" experience already.
It's a "cold war" situation... Right now, if you have nukes and I don't, and I behave nasty, you nuke me. But if we both have nukes, you're going to think about nuking me a bit more, maybe afraid that I might nuke you. Balance of power, I guess. It's kind of a school-yard situation... The big bully isn't afraid of the little kids, but what if the little kid gets some defence? Althrough the big bully probably could still win, he's now more afraid of getting hurt in the process...
Yeah, right... Except that they invented OSes for a reason...
If I understood correctly your posts, much work will be duplicated (once for the host, twice for the app) which isn't practical. OSes are there to avoid reinventing the wheel in every app. For instance, most developers don't want to develop a network stack for every net-using app they develop.
Statical linked libraries aren't nice if you don't have much RAM.
I don't get your "Since you can virtualize anything, even VMs, you can get cross-platform apps and cross-platform platforms (Java,.NET, etc.) ". "Cross-plataform plataforms"? If you mean something like Java and.Net... well, it's done already!
Remember that Debian is (mostly) about stability, not feature-ness. A graphical installer doesn't add much, either. Just how much time does it take you to install it? Compare it to the time actually running linux... You spend a very very little time of your linux life installing systems. So, most polish there is just mostly wasted effort.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh my god is dead!
I learnt many thing using a PC. Things like programming, which helped me in my University courses. Things like Google that helped... well, it's Google, you know!
I understand your concerns, I just hope this will go well in spite of teachers.
Uruguay's software industry is already big and one of the top five income sources for the country. I wouldn't mind it becoming the number one source :)
If you really want to know, Myspace is not popular here. What's popular are the "fotologs" or "flogs". I think those are less customizable than myspace (so, hopefully, less aberrant web sites).
I've heard that the plan was to put the textbooks in the laptops, which, if done, is economically viable. Each textbook is around 200 pesos (8USD), each year you require 4 of them (sometimes more) and there's 5 years of schooling. That sums up to 160USD. The laptops may be a bit more expensive now, but I think the plan is to "recycle" them (once kid gets out of school, give the pc to a new student). Also, you're getting other advantages that plain old textbooks don't give, like net access, PC education, games...
There's a law (in progress, ie: not yet approved) that would require the public offices to use (as far as possible) OS software and force them to use open formats. So in that respect, the education that kids are getting is positive and useful. Up until now, Windows was taugth. Not to mention that not every school had PCs.
Also, other South American countries which are on very friendly terms with Uruguay (such as Venezuela) are too pushing OS into the public offices. In Venezuela's case, the law is in place already, and it will force everyone to switch before a set date (Uruguay's law will be a progressive change). Brasil also has a widespread use of Linux in bussiness.
A fun tale about this law: A few weeks before the law proyect was presented, Microsoft determined that ANEP (the public schools) owed them something like 500k USD in licenses based on the number of PCs and students that the schools had. After the proyect was presented, Microsoft gracefully donated those licenses.
I'd avise you to sue your company, evidently they're jamming your ideas. They'll probably try to accomodate you and send you to the street, where you'll have an infinite roof and therefore infinitely broad ideas.
In regards with the doorways, if you ever need to work in details, my recommendation is that you try to work under your desk. I've found that does wonders for your work. If you manage to find a tea table or some other short table consider yourself in heaven. The only limit here is the size of your head. I've heard of some indians that found a way to make your head smaller therefore making your detailed work even better.
(Pure especulation here) My guess is that they're doing something like Terminal Services or the typical Unix-like multisession, IE: two users login on the same pc. Notice it's been done for Windows before (sans the split screen thingy) and it is in Unix since... the beggining of time. Virtualization doesn't make much sense (much more expensive, no gains).
:)
So, the savings turn out to be:
- RAM. Processes share memory (DLLs and such)
- Storage. Only one copy of everything.
- Processor. Most of the time is sitting idle in single user systems. Now it'll be sitting idle in multi-user systems.
- Monitor. Not a good thing to share. Everywhere you hear that multiple screens increase productivity... Guess what happens when you cut it in half
You meant "One Laptop per 1.75 Child".
This is kinda offtopic, but I'm always amazed with what you call "old"/slow hardware. If all you do is surf the web and play solitaire, what kind of hardware do you think you need? Win95 was enough to run web browsers and solitaire! A Pentium I and 64Mb RAM is enough! I assure you that most tasks you do on a typical computer require less than 800Mhz to run perfectly fine. Sure, if you want to run the latest and greatest games, you do need a highest end PC, but for most people, that's not the case.
I wonder how much of this is caused by marketing and how much is caused by "buying ability" (ie: you buy because you can or because marketing makes you believe you need it?).
In my country we don't have that much extra money to buy a pc every year. Normally we buy computers every 5 to 10 years... And I dare say that with the latest procs it will be even further between updates (updating from a P2 to a P3 or P4 was a big change, updating an AMD 3000 to a 3600 isn't much difference).
Just so you know, WinXP minimal requirements are a P2 and 64Mb of RAM. And it actually runs quite well (better than win98 on the same hardware). I guess marketing makes people believe that unless you have 1GB of RAM and the latest proc it won't run fine...
Duel boot? Oh, my... Those uncivilized OSes shooting each other, will they never learn?
Mod +1 Touching
Can I get modded troll? (For pushing it too far, maybe? :P )
"Scheduled defrags without third party software"
AFAIK, winXP runs defrags (or something similar) while the system is idle.
Actually, using the ram is good. If it's Windows doing some caching it's great. I'd hate to have 4gb of RAM and be using only 70mb!
Don't get me wrong, I know that you're implying that maybe some app is loading on startup and seizing RAM (spyware or other more normal stuff). But I really don't get why most people assume that no free RAM = bad. RAM is cache.
If I remember correctly, Windows had some mysterious keys embedded into it. There was a slashdot history not so long ago (sorry, no link). Wouldn't that be kinda worrying for any military?
No, NO, NO! That's not the way to do it! That was the perfect oportunity to go and chat to somebody. It's the perfect excuse to socialize... Oh... Nerds... ;)
I haven't yet found any symbolic (free) calculator. The kind that do integrals and derivatives. Any suggestions?
Engineering is by it's very definition solving problems.
Solving problems requires either knowledge or the ability to come up with a new solution. Thus, you need to know both to think (to solve previously unsolved problems) and know-how (to rapidly solve known "old" problems).
But, it's kinda hard teaching how to think. Schools haven't had much success with that.
From what I see, the enter key is badly misplaced. It's too damn far away from the home row. You'll have to move quite a bit to reach it. In my keyboard, the enter key is two keys away from the home row, and that's the furthest I've ever seen it. Most other keyboards have it only one key away. This keyboard has it *three* keys away, and down. I have problems typing on those keyboards with slim enter-key... So, for me, great idea, bad design :(
My university has exactly that as a requirement for graduation. The last course (which normally takes 1 whole year) is developing some software end to end. It's done at the last year of the career. They normally require that you develop something you have a client for. They've got contacts with busineses or non-for-profit organizations. For example, I remember one final project, it was developed for a public children's hospital (which had no resources available). It was some kind of management app for the health records. The most difficult thing about that proyect was that they didn't have any resources. So they had to develop something which would run on a pentium I or II, use Linux and other free stuff. The process of development is supervised by teachers, so the students must use proper procedures to get to the final result. This may not be what always happens in the real world, but it's what ideally should happen.
They've got this kind of requirement for other careers too. For example, in electronics engineering, the students developed an antenna for RFID tags which could be used at a distance plus some software to read what went through. The idea was to control cattle this way. My country is modernizing how we keep track of cattle, and now they're implating every cow/etc with a RFID tag. The idea of the antenna was to keep operators away from the cattle, so they would be safer. Other students developed a cheap (around 200USD) digital osciloscope for use with a PC.
I think it's a great idea, as you leave the university with some "work" experience already.
Well... Maybe because there's not much eye candy you can fit into 16 colors...
Back then, there was no processing power available for eye candy.
It's a "cold war" situation... Right now, if you have nukes and I don't, and I behave nasty, you nuke me. But if we both have nukes, you're going to think about nuking me a bit more, maybe afraid that I might nuke you. Balance of power, I guess. It's kind of a school-yard situation... The big bully isn't afraid of the little kids, but what if the little kid gets some defence? Althrough the big bully probably could still win, he's now more afraid of getting hurt in the process...
Yeah, right... Except that they invented OSes for a reason...
.NET, etc.) ". "Cross-plataform plataforms"? If you mean something like Java and .Net... well, it's done already!
If I understood correctly your posts, much work will be duplicated (once for the host, twice for the app) which isn't practical. OSes are there to avoid reinventing the wheel in every app.
For instance, most developers don't want to develop a network stack for every net-using app they develop.
Statical linked libraries aren't nice if you don't have much RAM.
I don't get your "Since you can virtualize anything, even VMs, you can get cross-platform apps and cross-platform platforms (Java,
Remember that Debian is (mostly) about stability, not feature-ness. A graphical installer doesn't add much, either. Just how much time does it take you to install it? Compare it to the time actually running linux... You spend a very very little time of your linux life installing systems. So, most polish there is just mostly wasted effort.