Circuit Rider - Version 5.0

by Jim Scheef

Linux on the Desktop

There are two reasons Linux has not been successful in the home or business desktop market. The first about which I have complained for years and which is finally getting better—there is no easy, automatic way to keep your Linux machine fully patched and up to date. If I’m wrong, please come to a Server and Networking SIG meeting prepared to show me such an update service.

The second reason is that most of the software we all know and love (to hate) is not available on Linux. Well, a resent news item made me think that might be changing. Last week Intuit released a new version of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. The news item made it sound like there is a Linux version. When I dug into the Intuit web site, I found that this is a multi-user version of QuickBooks and the database part is now available to run on a Linux server. Big deal! The client part still requires Windows.

If you know of any mainstream software that offers versions for both Windows and Linux, please let me know. Someday I’d like to be wrong about this.

While on this topic, I noticed that version 2.2 of Open Office has been released. OO continues its broad platform support (Windows, Linux x86 and PowerPC, Solaris x86 and SPARC, Mac OS X and FreeBSD). The article did not mention whether OO runs on 64-bit x86 under Windows or Linux. With the new user interface, Microsoft Office 2007 is no longer the familiar product we all know and love. This might be the chance Open Office needs to make real inroads in the business market. Remember, user friendly is what you know and OO may be closer to “user friendly” that Office 2007. We’ll see.

The FCC is at it again

The FCC is trying to measure the degree to which Americans have access to “broadband” Internet in a timely and reasonable fashion as required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As you recall, that act was intended to open our telecommunications industry to the rigors of competition. Ten years later we are beginning to see competition in some areas, but what the bill was intended to produce (widely available, inexpensive, fast Internet access for all Americans) has not happened. So, the FCC does what it does best and issued “things”—a Request for Information and a Notice of Proposed Rule Making. The following is from an eWeek.com news story: In a statement, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said, “While we have made progress recently, as I have said before, there is more we can do,” and “For example, the Commission is committed to obtaining the best information possible about the deployment, access and affordability of broadband services nationwide.” Meanwhile FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, agreeing with Martin, asked, "Can we finally agree that something drastic needs to be done?" Noting that the United States is 15th in the world in broadband penetration, and said the road was littered with "commercial and regulatory missteps."

"We can start by facing up to our problem and doing our level best to diagnose its causes. We need to know why so many Americans do not have broadband, and why those who do, or think they do, are paying twice as much for connections one-twentieth as fast those enjoyed by customers in some other countries," Copps continued in his statement. "This is not just an exercise in self-flagellation, though we certainly deserve that by now. Rather, it is the first step in coming up with some solutions that can start to reverse our nation's slide into technological and communications mediocrity."

Copps also suggested that the FCC's data gathering left a lot to be desired. In his comments about the NPRM, Copps said, "For several years now, I have been greatly disappointed by the Commission's broadband data-gathering and presentation. As scholars, industry and the [GAO] Government Accountability Office have documented, our semi-annual statistical reports currently fail to measure even basic concepts such as the extent of broadband deployment across the country, including in rural and tribal areas, and the degree of competition among broadband providers and modalities," Copps said.

Furthermore, Copps said, "Our statistical methodology seems almost calculated to obscure just how far our country is falling behind many other industrialized nations in broadband availability, adoption, speed and price…. Indeed, the lack of reliable government data on the present state of our broadband market is a fundamental obstacle to developing a national strategy to reverse our inexcusable broadband performance. Until we know where we stand today, how can we possibly build the broadband future that our nation deserves? And if the FCC doesn't gather this data, who will?"

OK. Now, if you read between the lines, you might get the idea that these commissioners do not see eye to eye on a few issues. Can you guess who is the Republican and who is not? If the FCC commissioners can’t agree on whether they actually have the information they need, then we get what we get—slow and expensive communications products offered by local monopolies. Certainly it wasn’t the FCC who concluded that our Internet access ranks 15th in the world!

FCC and the 2nd Circuit

In other news regarding the FCC, a recent decision from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals slapped the agency on the wrist for a “capricious and arbitrary” change in it’s rules (without any notice) regarding indecent speech on television when it fined the Fox network after Cher and Nicole Richie used the words f*** and s*** as casual expletives on live prime time broadcasts. I’m not sure who Nicole Richie is, and Cher is certainly everyone’s role model, and the program was on Fox, so why would anyone care? You can read the full story (and get a few chuckles at the irony) at http://tinyurl.com/25jf3e. The story includes links to the FCC statements as well as the decision from the 2ndCircuit.

DACS Financial Health

Elsewhere in this issue you will read much about our club’s financial future. Your board of directors has discussed this issue for many months with every director involved and participating. I support the decision to raise the dues. As President Rob Limbaugh explains, it is necessary if DACS is to survive. I hope you will understand and continue to support the club with your membership.



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