<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> James P. Kinney III wrote: <blockquote cite="mid1201964762.6663.210.camel@merlin.localnetsolutions.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On Fri, 2008-02-01 at 16:18 -0800, Hung Phan wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">WOL is something we are working on too for the lab but the current issue is to send the login credential to 40 remote systems. The teacher wants to log into 40 systems at the beginning of every testing period to save time. We accomplish something like this on the Mac by scripting but not sure about Linux. May be someone have a better solution? We are open to all solution: open source, script, or commercial. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><rant> At the risk of sounding like a jerk, why are the teachers incapable of instructing the students on how to log into the machines. It takes all of 15 seconds and is a valuable part of the learning process. I've seen first graders happily logging into their own account using a username and password. I've also seen teachers unable to access their email because they can't remember to look at the caps-lock key. </rant> </pre> </blockquote> Gotta agree there. Remember, folks, kids today are growing up with computers the same way that my generation grew up with televisions and VCR's. Even the youngest of schoolchildren today have no problem putting in a username and password. <blockquote cite="mid1201964762.6663.210.camel@merlin.localnetsolutions.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">If the teachers can't make that work just setup the machines for autologin and do a wake on LAN startup. Now they are always running and ready for use by anyone who sits down. If the schools are going to be able to effectively use this tremendous technology upgrade to Linux thin clients (or Linux at all) the technologists who make it happen have to raise the bar on the knowledge expectations of the teachers. The kids will generally be running circles around the teachers in a week on new tech in the classroom. The teachers MUST step up and gain at the barest minimum a functional foundation of computers. Linux systems are extremely powerful tools and training of teachers of good practices and habits is mandatory. </pre> </blockquote> It never ceases to amaze me how teachers preen themselves with their pedigrees, but then will nearly-violently refuse to learn to use a new tool, claiming, "waaah, it's too hard!" Then their "uneducated" kids walk up to it and use it with aplomb.... Case in point. Just last month I popped a 12-year-old kid in front of a CentOS 5 box. He had never even *heard* of Linux or GNU before. Within seconds, he had Firefox up and was otherwise moving around the computer like there was nothing to it. Here's another: I know a high school kid whose English teacher was getting all upset and bent out of shape because "THE COMPUTER'S NOT WORKING!" She was all set to take this up the chain of command. Well, without saying a word, this kid walked up to the computer, pressed the button marked "POWER", and the computer magically started working. Did she thank him? Nope. On the contrary, she gave him what he described to me as a most baleful, nearly hateful, look. Right then, he lost all respect for her, and I don't blame him. --TP </body> </html>