Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is a winner!
http://www.technologyrescue.com/welcome.html
Obsolete computers anchored by a Linux server is a cost effective winner.
Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is a winner!
Friday, February 17, 2006
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Posted by reinkefj
Asterix article makes me cautious about experiment
Friday, February 17, 2006http://mobile.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/02/09/1727256&from=rss
Quote:
Asterisk is free software that lets you create a fully functional, easily customizable, private branch exchange (PBX). Businesses like Asterisk because they can save money by using it, and because it is open source, they can add functionality to it easily and inexpensively. Asterisk is also becoming popular with home office users — so much so that it spawned a new project called Asterisk@Home, which released its 1.0 version last year. Now there’s even a version of Asterisk that runs on OpenWrt, a Linux distribution designed to run on your wireless router (see “OpenWrt nears prime time”). I found it to be worthwhile, but I wouldn’t depend on it for my home office.
Now that doesn’t inspire confidence. I’m not that much of a hero to risk failure. Additionally, I really want Asterix for the great PBX features. Maybe I need to go for a big implementation of Asterix on a spare box.
Hmmm?!?!
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Posted by reinkefj
What I tell every turkey that wanders in.
Friday, February 17, 2006Submitted for the consideration of ALL my favorite turkeys. The ideas below apply to all of you. You are certainly entitled to be like my wife and tell me I am full of myself or Barabara Sriesand. Although, she can say it anyway she pleases and I HAVE to like it. (“Thank you, dear! May I have another deflating?”). You on the other hand have to be nicer to me, since I am “free”. ;-)
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Sorry for the delay, but I have been incredibly overwhelmed in the past few days. I try to meet a personal target of 24 hour response. Don’t believe everything that XYZXYZXYZ tells you. Especially ANYTHING to do with when I was in high school. I was much smarter, stronger, and nerdier then.
I will send you asap some of my canned stuff. Please take a look at it and see if you like what you see. I’m an “injineer” and I’m kinda blunt. Some people don’t like that. Further, I have been accused of giving “turkeys” whiplash from trying to get them up to speed with my frenetic pace. Some people don’t like that. I tend to pontificate, talk like I’m up on the proverbial Mount, I don’t mean to, and your situation is yours. Not everything I suggest, do you have to adopt as if it came down from the Intelligent Designer of the Universe. I tend to act like an authority figure in my advice. My wife constantly reminds me, when I am “out”, “if you’re so good why ain’t you in?”, and when I am “in”, “if you’re so good, why ain’t you rich?”. So if my head becomes too large, feel free to deflate it.
Having said all that, I’ll tell you that I “help” people for free. I always tell people if someone wants money from you as a seeker, then you have to very very carefully recognize you are being “sold” something. It may be good (like execunet) but most times it’s bad (10k for a career counseling). So I’m “free”. But you get what you pay for. I currently am assisting 8 seekers so bear in mind that I tend to “share” stuff with them as a group. Some people don’t like that. So if you have something you DON’T want shared, please make sure that is obvious.
So with that introduction, Lesson 1 is complete!
See, gotcha. I do tend to try to “teach” (I was an adjunct prof in comp sci for four years) or “pontificate” (I went to lots of years of Catholic school) or “lecture” (I have lots of fables and anecdotes). You job is to filter what is useful to you, grab that, and let all the rest sluice by.
Good Luck,
fjohn
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Posted by reinkefj
Government Education (Think of the post office running learning!)
Friday, February 17, 2006We have deluded ourselves into thinking that the Government is our friend. Or, that is the only way. Or the best way to do “stuff”.
To have government run education makes no sense.
The failed Communist empire demonstrated that centralize planning dooms everyone. I could go on at great length about the systematic failure it represents.
Bottom line, as a Catholic with no kids, I object to the whole process. Faith based education can NOT compete when the government gives it away “free”. If I had kids, I probably would have to pay twice to get my kids educated the way I wanted — once for the government schools and once for where I wanted to send them. Since I have no kids, I object to overpaying to educate other people’s — I don’t pay to house, clothe, or entertain them — They are not mine, so why do I have to pay for them.
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Posted by reinkefj
The Karmic Law (What goes around, comes around!)
Friday, February 17, 2006I was an IT exec and some IBM guys were pitching poop. So, I took their techie to lunch and explained from my pov what they should be trying to do. The guy went back to his salesman, and gave him “his” spin on it. Sales guy was skeptical. But, he mentioned it. My boss’s boss jumped on it. They made the sale; the techie guy was feted for his “insight”.
A decade later I was “out” looking to get “in” and who do I run into. The techie. I tell him I was looking.
Shazzam.
I was hired about two weeks later. Talk about “chicken coming home to roost”.
He told me on my first day that he was always impressed with how I related to people who couldn’t help me. I never realized I was doing anything special. I was just trying to help.
“It does come around full circle.”
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Posted by reinkefj
Loyal Order of Turkeys
Friday, February 17, 2006I would be happy to advance your candidacy in the Loyal Order of Turkeys just as soon as I find the Membership Director. ;-)
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Posted by reinkefj
One turkey asked me how to handle their lack of a degree?
Friday, February 17, 2006Start a “University of Hard Knocks” alumni society for everyone you meet who is not degreed. Exchange how to overcome the perceived problem. You get the idea? It’s about connecting and turning what is perceived as a liability into a strength. Gates didn’t get a degree. He should be your “patron saint”. I used to tell AT&T-ers and USAF-ers to keep a careful list of all the classes they attended. I knew one fellow who used it to get advanced placement at a regular college. My special twist on it was to keep a brag book with certificates, papers, or “stuff” from the course. People are always impressed with “evidence”. With the recent trend to buy a degree, you may need that proof.
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Posted by reinkefj
ALLWAYSYNC trial ends; deleted
Friday, February 17, 2006Well, despite the advertisement that says “free for personal use”, I find that there is an interesting definition of “personal” use. My loveable luggable needs to disgourge its secrets each night to my home desktop via the wireless lan. Being the typical lazy guy, and after missing a few files, I thought let me consider a free utility for this duty. Google popped AllWaySync, so I looked at it first. It appeared to work ok. Although it did arm wrestle with outlook over who culd lock the pst file. It’s huge. And, it was the reason, I really got religion about backups when I had to spend the better part of a day kowtowing to redmond and reinputting all my email settings manually into LookOut when it barfed them into the bit bucket. I’m not sure I really ever really recovered from that episode. It convinces me more to leave the microsoft fold when vista comes along. Any way, allwaysync has a limit to the number of files and number of bytes you use for free. It says somehting nasty like you’re not a personal user. I am too. So off to the bit bucket with it and one to Karen’s Replicator.
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Posted by reinkefj
Reinke Faces Life 