But there’s a problem. The school encourages students to bring in their own laptop computers (and I think they have a supply of simple netbooks for any student that doesn’t want to bring in their own) but the school board refuses to help students get on the wireless network.

On top of that, the school board requires that student computers have up-to-date antivirus software (if Windows; Mac OS computers are exempt from that requirement). The board has configured the network to require a WPA key to get online, and to use a proxy server for access to the Internet (which isn’t unreasonable).

The proxy server is configured to check that the computer meets the antivirus requirement before letting the user log in to the network. This check is done by way of a software agent that the student must download and install onto their own computer. The agent listens on a number of TCP ports and reports to the proxy server whether the computer is “safe” and can be allowed onto the network.

Once the proxy server has verified that the computer’s antivirus is working and up to date, the proxy server lets the request get a little farther and prompts for a login. Each student has their own login, so that network traffic is traceable back to the originator. Once the student logs in – presto, they’re online.

Now, if you’re not already, think to yourself, “how many ways could this possibly go wrong?”

The principal mentioned that they were having some technology troubles and I volunteered to help. I’ve been by the school a few times now and each time there are more laptops waiting for me to take a look at. I’m amazed at the number of ways that this configuration can go wrong.

For example. Did you catch that the board requires that the computers have up-to-date antivirus software? And did you catch that the board requires that the student download a program and run it so that the proxy server can check to make sure the antivirus software is running? Some of the students had problems where the antivirus software had quarantined the security agent, and prevented the students from running it.

The network uses a proxy autodiscovery script to inform the clients where to locate the proxy server. But the autodiscovery pointed at the wrong server, so most computers needed to override it. This is a misconfiguration on the part of the school board and I’m hoping that can be resolved without too much trouble.

Some students would download the 32 bit version of the agent instead of the 64 bit version, or vice versa, and get an error message that they didn’t understand.

One system I looked at would bluescreen when trying to install the agent. The second time through, it installed, and the system got online no trouble after that. Strange.

Another system has a problem where the wireless status shows that it’s online, but the computer doesn’t have an IPv4 address. Windows seems to think the IPv4 stack isn’t bound to the wireless adapter. Reinstalling the network driver may fix that, but I’m afraid to try it without knowing for sure that the wireless driver will reinstall correctly – I don’t want to break anyone’s computer.

Another system, the local firewall was blocking the proxy’s request back to the security agent. The agent apparently requires ports 8192, 8193, and 8194 be open.

This is bad.

I can understand the school board’s reluctance to take ownership of problems on student laptops. But the combination of the proxy server, the antivirus requirement and the security agent requirement has created a system that users won’t encounter anywhere else and aren’t going to be able to resolve on their own.

But you know, I’ll bet there are a lot of techies out there that wouldn’t mind spending an hour at a school helping kids with computer problems. Many schools have equipment that they need help using, or could be making better use of if they only knew how. The question is, how to connect those dots.

I can understand having some in the store somewhere, probably with the VHS tapes and blank floppy disks, but the cash register aisle is prime real estate. On the other hand, Wal-Mart is a master merchandiser, so either they’re there because they sell, or because Kodak is paying them good money to put them there.

I wonder which it is.

The film I was looking at was $9 for 3 rolls of film. Developing those 3 rolls of film is probably another $10/roll, so someone buying that item is spending $39 on film and prints. Digital cameras give you the freedom to take lots of pictures and delete the ones you don’t like, so even if the cost of prints is the same (and I don’t think it is), film would still be a waste of money.

I guess there are old school camera users out there who take so few pictures that a roll lasts them a year or two and then they get prints and put most of them in an album. For those folks maybe it doesn’t make sense to upgrade. But I haven’t seen one of these people out on the streets with a camera in years. Look around; it’s a digital camera world. It’s hard to believe there are that many people using film cameras in 2008.

Which would mean that it’s Kodak paying for the shelf space for their film. Why would Kodak do that?

Not many companies show a straight downward trend on the 10 year chart. Maybe they’re having a hard time letting go.

SNL is a tough gig because it’s Live TV and some of it is improv. John McCain was on SNL a few years ago, and he was funny. He did a good job. After seeing Obama do comedy at some big fundraising dinner a few days ago, I’m not looking forward to seeing him on SNL, but at least he tried.

Sarah didn’t try. Her first appearance, during the opening skit, was mostly her reacting to what Lorne and Alex were doing, and her second appearance, during Weekend Update, didn’t even try to hide the fact that she wasn’t going to try to act. She basically said she decided not to do the skit she was going to do and let Amy did it instead.

It was a disappointing appearance, because we really didn’t get to see Sarah Palin at all.

(Here’s John McCain on SNL, and here’s Sarah Palin on SNL last night).

Sarah Palin did better than I expected. From the Katie Couric interviews, my expectations were pretty low, but she seemed like a solid candidate.

Joe Biden did better than I expected. I was expecting someone boring, but he turned out to be a pretty good debater and gave the impression of having a real depth of experience.

When Joe answered a question, his answer was better, more often than Sarah. Sarah dodged the question in a few cases, once even saying she wasn’t going to answer the question “the way you want me to” (which was, to answer it at all). And I don’t think in that case it was an unfair question (I don’t remember offhand what it was, but Joe had an answer).

Joe’s answers seemed to go one level deeper than Sarah’s. I felt like I learned something from Joe; Sarah just said stuff I already knew.

So in my opinion, advantage: Joe Biden.

I also ordered some Wisconsin White Birch popping corn, since I discovered while checking Amazon reviews of popcorn makers that the popcorn you use makes a difference.

This is good stuff.

The popcorn maker works well. No wasted popcorn, no mess. And the popcorn itself is very good – strangely white, but light with a good texture, and noticeably different from the usual popcorn that I get at the grocery store.

This makes me wonder how much variety there really is in different types of popcorn? I’m tempted to order this sampler.

It’s also interesting that for $15 you can get a popcorn maker that looks like the one pictured above, but sucks, and for another $15 you can get one that works remarkably well. And guess which one tends to be in stores.

The thing that lets these businesses survive is the DMCA, strangely enough. Thanks to the DMCA, I can let a user upload videos to my site and basically close my eyes to what gets uploaded. If someone uploads something that they don’t have rights to, it’s not my problem – it’s up to the copyright owner to notice that it’s there and send me a takedown notice. Until that happens, I can let users view that video.

Here’s the text from the DMCA itself:

Under the knowledge standard, a service provider is eligible for the limitation
on liability only if it does not have actual knowledge of the infringement, is not aware
of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent, or upon gaining
such knowledge or awareness, responds expeditiously to take the material down or
block access to it.

This gives entrepreneurs the freedom to build companies based on copyright infringement, doesn’t it? Nice thing about the Internet is that there are enough users out there willing to pirate material that if one of them uploads something and it gets taken down, there are 20 more people waiting to re-upload the same content.

This is what Mygazines seems to be depending on. Mygazines is a YouTube for Magazines. But unlike YouTube, there isn’t even the pretense that the site exists for sharing legal material. It’s a place to upload magazines for other users to view them for free, until they get pulled.

What will be the next ludicrous, obviously-illegal business to start using this same loophole? I’m guessing a commercial software sharing site that lets you upload ISO images of commercial software for other users to download. Or has someone done that yet?

Too bad they haven’t come up with any good ones.

The best one seems to be this one, but I think an Excel spreadsheet works better.

Let’s say it was Khorium Ore. Buddy logs in, buys up all the Khorium that’s for sale for less than a certain amount, and then lists it for sale at the higher price.

Every day he does this, so that now he’s effectively re-priced Khorium at the rate he has chosen.

The people mining Khorium are happy – someone is buying all the Khorium they can mine. Buddy’s happy, because he’s making a profit on every sale. It’s everyone else on the server that’s getting ripped off by his activites.

Now, substitute oil for Khorium, speculators for my buddy manipulating prices, and consumers for the people getting ripped off.

Is that what’s going on? And, how does it end?

In Warcraft, it would eventually end because the supply would increase to the point where buddy couldn’t possibly buy it all. But the supply of oil is limited, both artificially (by OPEC) and by the existing capacity to pull the stuff out of the ground.

Either the speculators know something that we don’t – that supply is about to be naturally constrained by a real shortage – or they’re creating a bubble, that will eventually collapse when supply outstrips their ability to buy it.

So put up your family tree, watch some old episodes of Family Ties, and spend some time with your family. That is, if you’re not one of the 40% of people who still has to work on Family Day.