First Job -- IT Dept. says IE 6 Only

[ThreeDee]

I should have added that he allowed us to install Firefox on the PC's, but said he didn't support it and that it would be removed if people started to abuse it. Forgot about that big part of the story.

The thing is, some kids fooled around and reduced the productivity of everyone else. I do know that those kids got in trouble for that.

I do know that we could have a choice of what to use, may it be OS X, Linux, Windows, or whatever, but the school budget doesn't allow for it. Some school programs were cancelled due to the lack of funds.

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam I'd hate to see the same thing happen with education and religion, which is what vouchers would do.

I think the key to a voucher system would be stringent standards set by the government on must-have curriculum coverage, and standardized tests to make certain they were being met. Failure to meet them would lose a billing number required for repayment of vouchers.

[cwtnospam]

I doubt that would work. The reason for vouchers in the first place is to place more money into privately run schools, and they all have their own agendas. Don't get me wrong, I went to a private high school, but I wouldn't want that school getting government funding.

The real difference between public and private schools is that private schools don't have to accept you, and they can kick you out any time they like. Give public schools the same ability and you'll see a big improvement. Maybe that's too much free market for some people.

[capitalj]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian I think the key to a voucher system would be stringent standards set by the government on must-have curriculum coverage, and standardized tests to make certain they were being met. Failure to meet them would lose a billing number required for repayment of vouchers.

All schools should already be held to the same educational standards. Sadly, at least in the U.S., private schools are not required to administer the standardized tests required of public schools.

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam I doubt that would work. The reason for vouchers in the first place is to place more money into privately run schools, and they all have their own agendas.

For many supporters of vouchers, it's as much about taking money away from public schools as it is about putting it into private schools.

The policy makers who've never set foot in a public school, who deny accepted standards of medicine and science, whose grasp of the Constitution is weak... these policy makers should not be questioning the value of public education. The public should be questioning the value of the education of the policy makers, and the value of their contibution to society.

[ArcticStones]

.

Quote: Originally Posted by capitalj The policy makers who've never set foot in a public school, who deny accepted standards of medicine and science, whose grasp of the Constitution is weak... these policy makers should not be questioning the value of public education. The public should be questioning the value of the education of the policy makers, and the value of their contibution to society.

That’s a pretty powerful statement! And a very interesting argument chain.

I had the opportunity to attend a well-know private high school, full scholarship, but turned it down. Why? I checked it out thoroughly, but did not like the "values" that I was sensing from the teachers there. I’m saying no more than that was my experience...

[tlarkin]

I was actually in Private school as a young kid, and thankfully I left to go to public school. I knew when I was very young being forced to wear a uniform every day at school was going to make me go crazy.

[capitalj]

Quote: That’s a pretty powerful statement! And a very interesting argument chain.

Thank you. Occasionally I reach the level of clarity to which I strive.

Quote: I had the opportunity to attend a well-know private high school, full scholarship, but turned it down. Why? I checked it out thoroughly, but did not like the "values" that I was sensing from the teachers there. I’m saying no more than that was my experience...

I come from an Irish Catholic background. All of my parents' generation went to parochial school, and they are well educated. I'm not opposed on principal to private or religious education. I am opposed to the propagation of ignorance and bigotry.

[Phasma Felis]

Retcynnm mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I'm not sure anyone noticed: you need Firefox Portable. Run Firefox off a USB flash drive, including all bookmarks, passwords and extensions; it never touches your hard drive.

Also, depending on how much you want to piss off your IT department, I'm pretty sure you can install Firefox on an unsecured Windows machine and simply copy the entire program directory to your work box. That doesn't work with all Windows software (depending on registry use, DLLs, and so forth), and it may not work with current versions of Firefox, but I've done it with 1.0 before.

(I've only skimmed the rest of this thread, so apologies if this was discussed already and I missed it.)

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Phasma Felis Retcynnm mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I'm not sure anyone noticed: you need Firefox Portable. Run Firefox off a USB flash drive, including all bookmarks, passwords and extensions; it never touches your hard drive. Also, depending on how much you want to piss off your IT department, I'm pretty sure you can install Firefox on an unsecured Windows machine and simply copy the entire program directory to your work box. That doesn't work with all Windows software (depending on registry use, DLLs, and so forth), and it may not work with current versions of Firefox, but I've done it with 1.0 before. (I've only skimmed the rest of this thread, so apologies if this was discussed already and I missed it.)

FF portable, great idea! I totally forgot that ever even existed.

You know that he could probably install it since windows users all pretty much log in as admins. However, I was curious if they were using deep freeze or another similar technology? How are they locking down your system? Is it policy pushed out via AD, or some third party app like deep freeze?

[Phasma Felis]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin FF portable, great idea! I totally forgot that ever even existed. You know that he could probably install it since windows users all pretty much log in as admins.

Only on personal machines. Business workstations almost always have limited-access user accounts that don't allow software installation. They don't usually lock out general hard drive access, however (although it is possible), so you can work around it with a bit of ingenuity and a full-access Winbox at home.

(Is it just me, or does "Windows users always run as admin" sound like one of those rumors like "Macs can't run games" or "Macs can't use two-button mice"?) Sorry...

[cwtnospam]

Quote: Originally Posted by Phasma Felis Business workstations almost always have limited-access user accounts that don't allow software installation.

And yet they still need firewalls and AV protection. Doesn't sound like a system that's ready for business to me. It sounds more like a system that generates money for IT and IT consultants, which of course is why the OP is locked into this system at work.

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Phasma Felis Only on personal machines. Business workstations almost always have limited-access user accounts that don't allow software installation. They don't usually lock out general hard drive access, however (although it is possible), so you can work around it with a bit of ingenuity and a full-access Winbox at home. (Is it just me, or does "Windows users always run as admin" sound like one of those rumors like "Macs can't run games" or "Macs can't use two-button mice"?) Sorry...

Well, our users are allowed to install software on their system but if it is software that we don't support we just don't support it. And yes, you pretty much have to run every user as admin to run apps and install things. In fact, recently in the latest version of Windows (vista), MS wanted to lock the kernel down finally and two very large software companies complained so MS still allows them access to their kernel hooks. MS isn't the biggest software company out there.

I was asking if the OP's work station was running somethng like deep freeze, which really locks down the system making it all read only except for a writeable seperate partition for data.

[johngpt]

I'm so glad someone mentioned that there's a portable version of firefox! I hadn't known such a thing existed. I'm so tired of using IE on our work's win computer, always having to open new windows rather than tabs.

I've just googled firefox portable, read up on it, but one question is unanswered (so far).

Would anyone have a recommendation for the storage capacity of the usb drive on which it'll be used? I'd primarily be using it to monitor my gmail, and for quickly researching something.

Gotta tell ya, this is making me grin hugely!

[ThreeDee]

Portable Firefox doesn't take up much space at all. The guy who developed it is starting to make other portable stuff, like OpenOffice, Nvu, VLC, even ClamAV. I fit the whole suite (with lots of room to spare) on a 512 MB stick. Firefox doesn't use much space at all.

You can download the suite, or add whatever apps you want/need manually: http://portableapps.com/suite

[johngpt]

Thanks ThreeDee. That's the site at which I was reading about the suite. I had the impression that it wouldn't take up much space, depending upon what was being created. For example, if one were to be creating a slew of documents using the openoffice suite, then one would need a larger drive.

It's valuable to hear that you're doing the lot of the portable suite on a 512. Starting with just the firefox app, I could go out and get whatever is cheapest.

I was reading that the portable suite has been optimized for fewer writes to the drive. I hadn't known that there are a finite number of writes to those usb drives.

I regularly use an extremely old usb drive (pre usb 2.0) to copy what I've scanned from my ancient umax scanner hooked via installed card onto my old hp pavilion (pre usb 2.0) running windows 98, to my mac. The old hp won't recognize any usb drive more recently made.

So it's a race now, to see what fails first...
the old umax scanner, the old hp computer, or (now that I know) the old usb drive! Then I'll finally have to get a usb scanner.

Unless there's a device which could convert the hookup of the old serial port scanner to usb.

Dang, can I digress, or what? I started out just thanking you for your input!

[AHunter3]

Is your ancient UMAX scanner more ancient than mine?

3-pass SCSI flatbed RGB, model UC 630

[johngpt]

Quote: Originally Posted by AHunter3 Is your ancient UMAX scanner more ancient than mine? 3-pass SCSI flatbed RGB, model UC 630

I'm not sure, I got it from a local egghead software, in 1997, when my hp was running win95.

Here are the specs which I just googled:

Quote: Astra 1200S Technical Specifications Type Color Flatbed Method Single-pass, 30-bit color with BET Element Color CCD Light Source Cold Cathode Lamp Hardware Resolution 600 dpi x 1200 dpi Maximum Interpolated Resolution 9600 dpi x 9600 dpi Maximum Scan Size 8.5" x 14" Document Size Legal, Letter, A4, A5, B5, Business Cards Speed Color: 74 seconds|B/W: 17 seconds|(@ 300 dpi and 8.5" x 11") I/O Buffer 512K Scan Modes 30-bit color|10-bit gray scale|1-bit halftone|1-bit line art Hardware Interface SCSI-2 Power Consumption 25 Watts Voltage 100-240VAC Frequency 50/60Hz Dimensions 21.1" x 12.9" x 4.1" Net Weight 12.8 lbs. System Support Mac OS 8.0 to 9.1|Windows 95/98/98SE/NT/ME/2000/XP

[johngpt]

Quote: Originally Posted by AHunter3 Is your ancient UMAX scanner more ancient than mine? 3-pass SCSI flatbed RGB, model UC 630

Looking up the UC 630, I found an article about it dated from 1993, and the specs at umax show it ran on win3x. I guess the UC 630 pre-dates the astra.

Are you still using it?

[Wee_Guy]

Quote: Originally Posted by chabig Visit a few porn sites and let your computer get really infected with viruses and spyware. Then call the help line...

How about this?

[Phasma Felis]

Quote: Originally Posted by johngpt I'm so glad someone mentioned that there's a portable version of firefox! I hadn't known such a thing existed.

You're welcome.

Quote: I'm so tired of using IE on our work's win computer, always having to open new windows rather than tabs.

To be fair, IE has had tabbed browsing capability for a couple of years now. It's still broadly inferior, of course.

Quote: Would anyone have a recommendation for the storage capacity of the usb drive on which it'll be used? I'd primarily be using it to monitor my gmail, and for quickly researching something.

For Firefox alone, any drive on the market today should be fine. You need enough to install the software, plus a few megs left over for browser cache; 64MB should be sufficient for that, and I don't think they even make them that small anymore. Anything more is just gravy (and extra storage space).