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cordless mouse
by Syd Hancock 07 Dec '03

07 Dec '03

I'm thinking of getting a cordless mouse for the laptop. Has anyone here used one? From pictures, they seem to have a receiver at the laptop end, plugged into a usb port. Does this need to be line of site from the mouse? Also, is a purely h/w device or does it need drivers? TIA Syd

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Re: [ALUG] Microsoft and schools
by Ben Francis 07 Dec '03

07 Dec '03

Chris Walker wrote: > Dennis also mentioned that he had used Acorn machines and so there may be a > link to Linux. There is a RISC OS desktop available for most distros of > Linux, SuSe and BSD at http://rox.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/ which might enable > a seemless link between those few Acorn machines that still reside in schools > and to any companies that might want to run it. Acorns? Well there are 200 Computers in my school and there is one Acorn computer left. It sits in the corner of my Linux Lab (8 Linux Boxen - I am trying!!) quietly (actually it's quite noisy) and nobody even knows it's there, apart from the head of Geography who doesn't use it any more. The Acorn runs 24/7 displaying readings from the remains of the weather reading equipment on the roof. There used to be a lot of Acorns running in the technology department about 4 or 5 years ago - they're all PCs running Windows these days. -- Ben "tola" Francis 00101010 tola ^/. http://hippygeek.co.uk mailto:tola_at_imen.org.uk opinions expressed are of the voices in my head only

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Re: [ALUG] Microsoft and schools
by Dennis Dryden 07 Dec '03

07 Dec '03

On Sun, 2003-12-07 at 12:22, Chris Walker wrote: > Dennis also mentioned that he had used Acorn machines and so there may be a > link to Linux. There is a RISC OS desktop available for most distros of > Linux, SuSe and BSD at http://rox.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/ which might enable > a seemless link between those few Acorn machines that still reside in schools > and to any companies that might want to run it. > > I'm about to try it on my Mandrake 9.0 install although I'm typing this on a > genuine RISC OS machine. Well the few Acorns that were left were only used for one application(some old math program), so i don't think they wanted to get rid of the OS(along with the program). Maybe an emulator on a Linux Machine would be good but i don't see a Acorn running Linux + X and then running an emulator of itself. Seems like it would kill the old box'en. - Dennis Dryden

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Re: [ALUG] Microsoft and schools
by Tarquin Mills 07 Dec '03

07 Dec '03

Chris Walker wrote: > On Sun 07 Dec, Tarquin Mills wrote: > > Ben Francis wrote: > > > It's also harder for schools to get cheap support for a Linux system. > > > Technicians who can just about cope with a Windows NT/2000 network and > > > keep the printers topped up with ink are easy to come by and > > > relatively cheap to employ. A Linux system adminstrator is not. > > I disagree, IT people are plentiful in Norwich, and as IT jobs become > > more and more scarce this going to more so. > > I'm with Ben on this one. Sorry Tarquin :-) > > My employer has thousands of Microsoft desktop machines and almost as many > problems seemingly. The 'midrange' team that support Sun boxes amongst > others are quite knowledgeable whereas I wouldn't describe the other > mob in the same way and as a service engineer for twenty years it's easy > for me to compare. That is not bit I disargeeing with, the bit I disargee with is that they cannot find a "cheap" Linux SysAdmin. -- Tarquin Mills RUNG (RISC OS Users, Norfolk Group) http://speccyverse.homedns.org/rung/ (running on RISC OS) New domain name coming soon http://***.***********.**.**/

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Re: [ALUG] Microsoft and schools
by Craig 06 Dec '03

06 Dec '03

On 6 Dec 2003, at 11:15, Chris Walker wrote: >> You are right there. I just felt that I need to watch the show just to >> see what the BBC put together. It just seems that TV still never get >> the point across about computers in general etc. > > Such short memories but then since I don't know your age, it's entirely > possible that you weren't watching tv when the BBC did their series on > computers in the very late 70's and early 80's. That's when they > sponsored > the build of a computer - remember the BBC A and B models that were > everywhere, including most schools? I'm 24 ;) Okay, you're older than me heh. Yeah I remember those BBC computers.. old sk00l ;) > Sinclair were most upset when they weren't awarded the contract. > Instead it > went to Acorn who were visited by a certain Mr. Gates who tried to > sell them > his version of BASIC. They pointed out to him that theirs was quicker > and > could run on a network, to which he is quoted as asking 'what's a > network?' > so not much changes does it? Acorn are no more and Gates has ripped > off even > more ideas in the meantime. Wow. Bill Gates actually said that? Well well well.. there is no end to this. Frankly, Bill Gates is in fact a sales person more than a computer buff anyway. And a particularly evil one at that ;) C -- - Craig - http://www.wizball.co.uk "Simplicity, the best way to approach life"

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Re: [ALUG] Microsoft and schools
by Wayne Stallwood 06 Dec '03

06 Dec '03

On Saturday 06 December 2003 11:18, Chris Walker wrote: > There is a third and final show new week comparing Tiger Woods and Beckham > <yawn> so you'll be able to find out then unless it gives out that > information on the BBC web site. The website is- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/worlds_most_powerful/ But I can't find any reference to a production company, can't bear to watch the next eposide, Tiger Woods should win but you just know it's going to be Beckham. Why Tiger Woods ... a. Google says so, "Tiger Woods" catches 1,370,000 pages, "David Beckham" catches 528,000. b. There is no David Beckham's football computer game, but I recall a couple of Tiger Woods golf games. See with five minutes of very scientific work I have saved the BBC the bother of airing this program. The Question is already answered. :o)

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Microsoft and schools
by nick daniels 06 Dec '03

06 Dec '03

Microsoft boss Bill Gates has promoted laptops for pupils Schools across the UK could save up to £50m on Microsoft software over the next three years. The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, said Microsoft had reached an agreement with the government's educational technology agency, Becta. "This kind of agreement shows the advantages in co-ordinated procurement for schools across the country." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3291279.stm Regards Nick Daniels

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wi-fi in libraries plan
by Syd Hancock 06 Dec '03

06 Dec '03

Gov plans to make every library a wi-fi hotspot http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/34352.html Syd

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SMTP daemon popularity
by MJ Ray 05 Dec '03

05 Dec '03

Can anyone direct me to figures about number of installations for the different SMTP daemons? I'm quite interested in estimated % share of sendmail, but other servers are also interesting. I don't think netcraft collect the numbers any more.

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Re: [ALUG] Microsoft and schools
by Dave Briggs 05 Dec '03

05 Dec '03

On Friday 05 December 2003 09:16, Craig wrote: > Speaking about this.. anyone seen that show last night on BBC2? Bill > Gates 'won' ;) > > 'Bill Gates won because his software is everywhere' > > True however but I felt as always the BBC doesn't research far enough. I think these sort of programmes are a real waste of time, and don't actually teach us anything new. An obvious way to sort out who was more 'powerful' (however you define that) between Gates and Jobs would just to do a quick poll on who had heard of Gates, and who had heard of Jobs. Gates would be a clear winner, it would take 5 minutes and then we could get on with the rest of our lives. However, the whole exercise is fatuous in the extreme. On Dec 4 and 5 2003, nick daniels wrote: > Microsoft boss Bill Gates has promoted laptops for pupils > Schools across the UK could save up to £50m on Microsoft software over > the next three years. The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, said > Microsoft had reached an agreement with the government's educational > technology agency, Becta. "This kind of agreement shows the advantages in > co-ordinated procurement for schools across the country." > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3291279.stm > > Sorry I meant to add on the bottom " how much would the > saving be if open source was adopted" Exactly. £50m saved must mean an awful lot more than that is being spent, which at the end of the day is our money, as taxpayers. They should ditch all propriatory software in schools, and switch to OSS. Part of the savings could be spent on providing hard up families with computers, again fully installed with OSS. The rest can be spent on (gasp) books. If kids at school are using the software, they will want to be able to use it at home. Sufficient numbers will then be clued up when they go into the workplace, and can help business save some money too. Dave

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