Dennis: Allow me to play the Devil's Advocate for a minute.
This is a growing trend. A college requires the use of computers, and the administration consider them in much the same catagory as the text books, software, and other equipment they require students to purchase such as specific calculators. From their point of view allowing a PC to connect to their network, and use their backbone to access the internet, makes them responsible for the actions (or irresponsible inaction) of the computers connected via their network. In an ideal world they could push patches and virus scanner signitures and updates to every PC on their network. This would, in theory, be a good thing. However, in the real world, they lack the manpower, resources, money, and apparently the expertise, to bring this concept to fruition. I am getting a port scan every few seconds on my group at the AgCenter. All but a very few are from computers the LSU A&M campus IT group supports. The problem is that the A&M campus is not equally supported. Each college or department gets the level of support they can pay for in cold hard cash. Where the tires meet the pavement there is a tragic disconnect. Laying LSU A&M ideals aside, taking the tools of choice away from the geese that lay the golden eggs simply isn't going to happen. What OS you get to use in your department will be decided the same old way as always - If your department has the research and the stroke, you will do as you darn well please. I suspect you are quite safe Dennis. Let's be honest, in a Microsoft Shop, if you weren't good, and your faculty wasn't happy, your long-haired-OSS-hugging-bearded-self would have been skidding down the sidewalk sometime ago, no? You were in the last meeting sitting next me. I asked specifically, is their a policy against OSS, shareware, freeware, or any other software. Hell, they don't even care if we give bandwidth away to commercial distributed computing projects. They allowed they ought to care about the last, but don't have anything against it. You also have NIH (Not Invented Here) on your side. AgCenter IT instinctively distrusts LSU A&M Computer Services, because none of their ideas were invented here. Change from the outside is resisted instinctively by every human on the planet. IT shops are exceptionally prone to this syndrome. To be honest, LSU A&M Campus is not a lot of help in most cases, or Kappie would not have to waste three hours a month in a meeting bitching at them. Trust me, you're golden - you hippiefied, unix-hugging, Linux-loving, freak. Who would they blame for problems if you weren't there? I like Kappie. No bullshit from her. She answers her eamil and gives you her unvarnished opinion. I do not always agree, but I appreciate her frank, open, and no BS approach to IT. I understand your complaint, but if you want a service, in this case an education, from some entity, then you pay the piper. They call the tune, you dance, or go home. Life is not fair. If you are lucky, you at least get what you pay for. My 2 cents, US. As Always, Your Friend, Doug --- Dennis Rowe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, 2004-05-06 at 22:02, Shannon Roddy wrote: > > > > > > > This was taken from an LSU posting today: > > > > > >> IT-Folks, > > >> > > >> For the benefit of my own department, I > prepped a very brief set of > > >> notes > > >> (attached) to summarize today's meeting. > > > > > > <I snipped this from his notes> > > > > > > Topic: Laptop program > > > LSU is exploring a laptop requirement for > students at LSU. This would > > > work > > > in tandem with the likelihood that ALL Windows > computers at LSU will be > > > required to be an "Active Directory" > participant. Active Directory is a > > > Windows server component that centralizes > resources. It is seen as a > > > necessary > > > step toward securing the LSU network. > > > > > > </snip> > > > > As a full time systems administrator for Caltech > and a part time > > student at LSU, I would emphatically protest the > requirement to have a > > windows laptop as part of my enrollment. A laptop > requirement is fine, > > but *I* should be able to choose the OS, > especially if I have to buy > > the damn thing. Linux may not be the answer, but > I have found OS X to > > have the best of both worlds, especially for a > student. I wonder if I > > could sue the university? Hmm... laptop enters > campus, gets infected, > > I get home and it infects my network... You get > the idea. I think LSU > > has enough problems with Windows worms floating > around without 20,000+ > > students bringing them in from home. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > General mailing list > > [email protected] > > > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net > > I was at the above meeting, and the idea of having > "ALL" Windows > computers on the LSU Campus be part of LSU's Active > Directory, I found > to be crazy. Besides the fact it would be a > nightmare to move my 100 so > odd computers to another domain that I don't have > much control over and > the fact that LSU can't keep their domain > controllers up, there are > probably some privacy issues with forcing students > to add their > computers to the LSU Active Directory. If I was a > student at LSU, I > would have serious issues with giving control of my > computer over to > LSU, thats what they want? They want to have > control over a student's > computers so that they can install and change what > ever they think is > giving them "security" problems. I am still > confused on how this will > help security, are they going to take away the > rights of students to > install software on their personal computers? What > if I want to > un-install the MS patch the Computer Services put on > my computer because > it gives me problems (which has happened to me > personally)? The only > way I can see the above policy improving security, > is by taking away all > the rights of students to install software on their > personal computers, > and for some reason I don't see that going over so > well. A few more > holes could be poked in this policy, example the > wide open wireless > access, but thats for another time. The whole > laptop idea in general > scares me. The policy is seriously flawed. > > Dennis > -- > 1 + 1 = 10 > Louisiana State University > Biological and Agricultural Department > (www.bae.lsu.edu) > Computer Systems Administrator > Ph: 225.578.1072, E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net ===== Warmest Regards, Doug Riddle An opptimist thinks the glass is half full. A pessimist thinks it is half empty. A realist knows that someone is going to have to wash the glass. I am a realist. I buy plastic drink cups. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
