Linux in russian schools

I just read a news article that told me Russia is planning to use Linux in all its schools from 2009. Absolutly brilliant or a risky move?

My answer: Absolutly brilliant. Using Linux teaches people how to us Computers, not how to use a specific piece of software, therefore in educatuion Linux should definently be used.

<rant speculation=’true’>In coming generations if everyone knows how to use computers, what wonders could be achieved? If we can send man to the moon with the aid of a computer less powerful then a pocket calculator… You see the potential for human development? </rant>

Negatives? May take a little while for teachers to get up-to-speed using the software with enough precifienty to teach… but the long term benefits of this small spurt of effort far outway the costs.

Talking about costs… I would rather the publics’ tax dollers/pounds contribute to better teaching and opportunities for children and students rather then paying licencing fees to multi-billion pound coorporations who get enough money milking businesses anyway!

Thank you Russia for taking this risky bold move, hopefully people will follow once the success has been quantified in years to come.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7034828.stm for further details.

layering on a web form

How nice would it be to have layers on an ASP web form?

“What do you mean”, I antisapate you thinking…

well here is a simple example i keep annoyingly coming across, when wanting to have a required field validator and a custom validator validating one field on a web for they must be placed side by side, or below each other which leads to a messy form if you have many fields each having two validator controls… So using layers (the same concept photoshop has) would enable me to have one required field validator with Zorder 1 and the other 2 meaning both can be at the same position on the page (assuming these validations are mutually exclusive otherwise hungarian may occur lol).

If this deature were present on the next major release of ASP.NET, all I can say is WOW – what amazing possabilities! semi-transparwent images on top of each other….etc… this is needed for web apps to be true web apps IMO.