Linux-related job postings - Hopkinton NH School District

Fred puissante at biz.puissante.com
Tue Jan 11 03:32:00 EST 2005


On Mon, 2005-01-10 at 23:24 -0500, Dan Jenkins wrote:
...
> One of our clients is an elementary-middle school. They have a few 
> hundred Windows desktops with three Linux servers and one Windows
> server.
> 
> They have ONE person who supports all of them - in addition to
> teaching 
> computer lab classes 4-6 hours per day, preparing grant requests,
> budget 
> proposals, sitting on tech committees, complying with federal, state
> and 
> SAU mandates, etc.
> 
> We help support them. We probably get paid for less than half what
> they 
> need. We "donate" the rest of our labor, when we can.
> 
> Their sole "IT" staffer has told us quite seriously if we ever stop 
> supporting them, she'll quit.
> 
> We have been considering switching them to Linux desktops (mainly to 
> alleviate the spyware/virus problems), but, of course, many folk have 
> some "must have" Windows application. (Internet Explorer is mandated
> by 
> their testing service for all students thrice a year.) And, there is
> no 
> money, and, as importantly, no time, to even start.
> 
> Good luck to anyone considering a tech career in education.

I've always wanted to teach computers to eager to learn individuals, but
the money element has never been there. 

If you can wean them off of IE and Outlook, most of their spyware
problems will become history from that alone. It amazes me that it isn't
common knowledge that IE with its support for Active-X is the great barn
door for spyware and lots of other ills. If they must use IE, at least
disable the Active-X support. Tis would be a nightmare to do, of course,
if you have a hundered workstations without any decent management
software pre-installed. Oh well.

I keep forgetting, of course, that most people don't even know what
Active-X is. I always get this dopey "duh, Really?" response. "Yes,
Virginia. Active-X is the active gateway to all the active ills that has
now rendered your computer inactive."

:-/

You know? I think Bush and Bill Gates have a lot in common. But let me
shut up now before I become guilty of starting another political debate.

-- 
-- Fred
You can lead a man to knowledge,
but you can't make him think.    -- Yours Truly.





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