The Innovation Bug October 2, 2008
Posted by Kurt in : Classes , add a commentSo last Friday I had a sore throat and felt crappy. I was coming down with something. And while at that moment I might have been able to make it to work, I realized that before long, I wouldn’t be getting anything done, and I’d be spreading what I had around (turn out, it seems others did that for me). Before the day was out, I was realizing what a wise decision I had made. I felt awful.
Saturday, I wake up and the sore throat is gone. Completely. Instead, I had an all-day sinus headache and fever. I tried to spend a lot of time unconscious. Not a runny nose, but lots of sinus pressure. Awesome.
Sunday, sinus pressure is mostly gone, most of the pain is gone. Except now it’s migrated to my lungs. Chest congestion. Awesome. Lots of fever still. At some point between Saturdays and Sundays fever adventures, I thought of myself as Captain Water Balloon. I’d spend a while bundling as tightly as I could (head covered and all) trying to be as warm as possible… and then *bloosh*, my bed is sweat soaked when my fever breaks. I actually started paying more attention at one point so I could flip the covers off as soon as it broke. 
Monday, the fever seems mostly gone, but I’m just rundown and feeling poorly. So I figure this day is toast, call in, and figure I can rest and be back Tuesday. Ha.
Tuesday, I take out the trash, get in the shower. When I get out, before I get dressed, I am trembling and feeling awful, and my stomach is unhappy. Of course. I realize that if I’m trembling before I even get dressed, the commute is going to totally do me in, and there is no point. I call in for Tuesday.
Wednesday, finally back to work. I won’t say I’m totally over it, I’m figuring I’m going to have some minor congestion for the next week or so as my body finishes shaking it off, but I fell so much better than I did. Although by the end of the day, I usually end up feeling sicker and worn down. Which is not that unusual for any time I get something that moves into my chest.
It was interesting though, for most of the weekend, I had no interest in touching a computer. Not for anything. No looking stuff up, no games, nothing. I just wanted to be unconscious and bundled up. I actually knew I was starting to be on the mend, when I started looking things up on the internet out of idle curiosity.
Dear Software Vendors October 2, 2008
Posted by Kurt in : Computers , add a commentPlease do not make it hard for me to make your software available to my faculty and students.
As awful as I find the whole flexlm license server thing to be, it is much better than other methods. Dongles are bad for client systems. In a university, you are just asking for the helpful little bit to be stolen. And if some idiot suggests I glue the dongle in, then your software will just never make it onto my systems.
What brings this on? This quarter, faculty requested getting some new software on the lab image. No problem, I think. It installed fine. However, the licensing is butt stupid. It is MAC address locked. I know it is considered clever, but it’s not. MAC addresses really aren’t immutable. And what it really means, is that my normal proces of cloning machines doesn’t work for this software. So I can clone it in a non-functional state. But to make it work, I have to gather MAC addresses for 80-something lab machines (and no, not enough licenses for all of our machines anyway), and get 80-something licenses issued. I then have to wrangle 80-something licenses onto each machine individually (And that’s assuming when I get these licenses issued, I don’t have to do them one at a time, which I am afraid I will have to do so, instead of some sort of sane thing where I can paste them all in at once).
Seriously, system administrators work hard, and are the key to getting your software out to the users. ESPECIALLY in an academic environment. Why would you make it hard for me? Because someone might steal it? I’m sorry. I know you think your software is super-special in the area it addresses, but really, I don’t think that my students will bother stealing it. And honestly, if they did somehow, the students in my department are software engineers, going to all sorts of influential companies. Oh no! One lost sale! Except our graduates are more likely to get your software used in the real world. So, to keep a student from having the software (who was *not* going to shell out money on your tool, let’s be honest), you’ve sacrificed many potential sales at their big future employer. Good job.