[school-discuss] more about sif

[Les Richardson <les@celery.richtech.ca>]

Hi,

I write and have written admin software. I agree with Mike; go ahead and
focus on your own needs and get or make some software that you can have
some control over (ie. source). Forget about "runnin' with the big boys".

Let's face it...the administrative needs of most schools is SIMPLE. It's
not complicated stuff to write. Pick yer technology and write it. Keep it
simple and focus on flexibility of data structure and design.

The real problem in writing the software is the variance in how things are
done school to school....

Les Richardson
Open Admin for Schools


On Sun, 16 Mar 2003, mike eschman wrote:

> hello,
> 
> i tried to sew my lips shut, but i have to comment on s.i.f.  about 2 years 
> ago i met with a s.i.f. vendor (products incorporated s.i.f. protocol) on 
> behalf of caddo school district in louisiana.
> 
> the vendor was ignorant of computing infrastructures in general, arrogant, 
> microsoft-centric and his demo application was a bus scheduling system with 
> one route that had less than a dozen pick-ups.
> 
> so we started to dig in s.i.f.  it pretty quickly became evident that we had 
> met the top of the heap, and would have to head "down hill" or forget about 
> s.i.f.
> 
> everything we found was glossy, over-priced and under-powered.
> 
> in general, protocols aimed at the education market specifically are about as 
> trust-worthy as those e-mails "will you share your account with me?  i have 
> millions and millions in a Nigerians bank ...", just with less moral courage.
> 
> people who are good at protocols have no interest in the education market.
> they have no respect for the intellects or pocketbooks of the education 
> community.  (because they are breathing).  those that do target education, 
> literally "target" education, with half-baked techies that washed out in the 
> real world (IF YOU'RE LUCKY) and salesmen with no i.t. background whatsoever.
> 
> spend your time on j-boss, soap and other broad target infrastructure 
> middleware, stop obsessing about that next certification that's going to get 
> you a raise to more than minimum wage (those jobs are gone), and in 3 to 5 
> years you'll have something.  spend your time on s.i.f. you'll have an empty 
> pocket.
> 
> s.i.f. is half-baked, and pitched at the clueless.  the desperate love it 
> because it eschews technical jargon - that's a big part of the s.i.f. 
> marketing focus, to let the clueless think they can have integration and stay 
> brain-dead to infra-structure issues.  well, if you believe that, you deserve 
> whatever happens to you - two times.
> 
> and don't worry about hearing more from me on s.i.f., my e-mail filter will 
> move anything with s.i.f. in the subject straight to trash where it belongs.
> 
> it's nauseating to see the snake-oil guys have there way with the rubes.
> 
> but in large part the rubes deserve to get screwed, it's why they're here.
> 
> mike eschman, etc ...
> http://www.etc-edu.com
> "Not just an afterthought ...
> -- 
> in the time it takes to answer that question, i could have made another audio 
> book!
> 

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