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alex_ponosov_en
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "alex_ponosov_en" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:35 am
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About this journal
Disclaimer
This LJ blog is a translated copy of the original LJ blog of Alexander Ponosov, which is available at http://alex-ponosov.livejournal.com/
Alexander Ponosov does not have anything to do with this blog except for providing the original material in his own, which later on appears here in translated form.
I try to translate all the entries as close to the original as possible. However, IANL and I have trouble translating all the material concerning courts, orders, prosecution, etc.
Since English is not my native language, there are obviously mistakes in the text as well.
At present I have no time work on the translations. If you are interested in keeping this journal up-to-date, please send me a message.
Thanks!
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12:26 am
[Link] | Serious people invite me to the Capital. I think this time something useful can come out. If someone wants to meet me in Moscow, give me your mobile number. I will call you when I get there. Though I am sure I won't have much free time.
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01:20 pm
[Link] | Collected links from comments. Discussion about using free software in education goes full ahead. There are a lot of resources, so the question is whether to choose one of them or create a new one. In the latter case one needs to know precisely how different it is going to be from the existing ones. It is the same with Linux distros :-)
http://linuxed.ru/
http://lug-wiki.nnov.ru
http://www.linux.edu/
http://school.openkazan.info/
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12:10 am
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Surviving separately
Today I was talking to a teacher of informatics from one of the Vereschaginsk schools. Two weeks ago he was in Perm for some courses, and asked an official Microsoft dealer about buying licenses for schools. He was told that there would not be any discounts for educational institutions anymore. So their headmaster plans to buy boxed versions of Windows XP and install Open Office.
Actually, there is no money in school budget for software. They ask to move some money from other accounts (visual aids). The teacher himself was talking to me about migrating to Linux.
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01:29 am
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Russian internet forum
http://connect.rif.ru/prog2007/98
Almost time to write a paper "How I did not go to it" :)
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12:38 am
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Software for education
Quotes from the newspaper "1st of September"
How to chose an operating system for school.
http://ps.1september.ru/articlef.php?ID=200700504
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12:28 am
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Convicted: found or appointed?
On 29th of January the judge decided to hear regional representative of Microsoft Alexey Potapov. He claimed that corporation already found a person responsible for installation of pirated programs on computers that were sent to Sepych schoo. Alexey Potapov did not name the person but said that it is a “worker of a computer company” and also said that this person was fined for 10 thousand roubles. However, Microsoft did not back off its claims against the headmaster of the regional school. And insists on the sum of compensation equal to 266 thousand roubles”.
http://ps.1september.ru/articlef.php?ID=200700304
By the way, this 'company' is called 'Instar Technology'. And it was not named by Potapov, because from May of 2006 (?!) it is a registered Microsoft partner. And also Potapov acknowledged that some entrusted person is working for this company. Probably, Mr. Potapov regretted many times the fact his tongue moves faster than his corporation reacts.
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11:16 pm
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What happens after pleading guilty
A very similar case was half of the step ahead in the neighboring Sivinsk district. (The indictment against me was copied from the Sivinsk's one).
Director of Sivinsk timber industry enterprise was accused of using unlicensed MS software. Computers were bought with preinstalled software. Installation and training was conducted by the sales company. After the audit of the prosecution office the usage of these programs has stopped, licensed software was purchased. Director pleaded guilty, sent an official apology letter to the MS corporation. The court found that Sivinsk timber industry enterprise inflicted a 100330 roubles damage to OOO Microsoft (Software for 8 computers). Court found the director guilty according to article 146 p. 2 and fined him to the amount of 3500 roubles. The director appealed against the destructions of hard drives, and his complaint was satisfied. At my case he met with Mr. Potapov and Strakh (MS lawyers). They assured him that won't start a civil case against his company.
And so I have this 'claim' to OAO 'Sivinsk timber industry enterprise' from a Microsoft copyright representative on the territory of Povolzhye, Potapov A.V.: “until 9 of March, 2007 we demand an immediate compensation with the sum of 200061 rouble, 36 kopeks... In case your written assurance of such transaction is not received until the date, Microsoft corporation reserves the right to initiate legal proceedings against your company according to the copyright law of the Russian Federation”. This letter was received on the 30th of March, 2007.
I wonder, how would the regional education office like the 500000 roubles compensation claim if I pleaded guilty?
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08:48 pm
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Grown-up problems of child institutions
Vereschaginsk's district newspaper published an article with this title interviewing director of district educational administration, A.G. Nohrin. Here are some quotations.
Vereschaginsk district was in a center of attention for a long time due to 'Sepych's case'. Peoples opinions on this matter are mixed. What can you say about this?
During a monitoring audit at Sepych school the prosecution office detected a fact of unlicensed software usage. After this the action was brought. Federal law makes responsible those, who sold it, and those, who used it. A school is a juridical person. So the director of an educational institution turned out to be responsible according to the law and school regulation.
But the subject of the case went beyond the educational institution. This problem is relevant not only for one school, and not only for an educational system, but for the whole of Russia. Low level of education in this field does not let people differentiate a licensed product from an unlicensed one. Since computer world evolves quickly and has drawn a lot of interest, the reaction that followed was boisterous as well. Different organizations got involved – ex president of USSR M. Gorbachev, Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, Minister of Education of Perm Region and many others.
As a constitutor, we are happy with the court's decision: educational institution does not carry material sanctions, and its headmaster does not get prosecuted under the Criminal law.
A headmaster is a leader of pedagogical team. And his prime duties is not an ability to use computers, but an ability to manage his or her team with pedagogical ethics.
We are uncomfortable for this incident. I, as a director of district's educational administration, would like to apologize to Microsoft for big fuss around this case. We would like to assure, that this problem was not created by our office.
Now everything depends on the position of the headmaster: to finish the case and go on with his main duties – getting the school ready for unified state exams.
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09:06 pm
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Vereschaginsk court has decided on the retrial date
Retrial of the case will take place in Vereschaginsk court on the 3rd of May, 10am local time.
The judge is Tiunova Valentina Fateevna.
The prosecutor is not appointed yet
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10:12 pm
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Court Case: Afterword by Major-General G.N.Zaytsev
Mar 22, 2007. Ponosov's case. Afterword... Commander of 'Alfa'* tells the court case details
You can only agree with the comments made by media that this story turned into a Mexican soap opera, where even the country's President had his role. The story of the historical court case in Vereschagin is told by Gennady Zaytsev, a Hero of the Soviet Union. As a commoner he was present at all sessions and has his point of view on the verdict.
http://www.samstar.ru/article/2476/?XTORESID=0c77b91fd7ad926cbaa2c2da3ecf2de1
(Transl. note: Alfa is a Russian elite anti-terrorist unit)
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11:22 pm
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Fairytale is a lie...
Every book gets to hands not by pure chance. About to sleep, I decided to skim through 'Fairytales' by M. Soltykov-Schedrin. I laughed to my heart's content though it is not the first time I read it.
"- There, that's what public opinion means!", mourned Toptygin, clearing his snout with a paw, "And then, it seems, I'll get down in history with... Siskin"
"Bear Voevode"
Real analogies come to mind. Little changed in Russia in one hundred and twenty years, at least its people...
"Damn the time, which with help of great misdeeds creates a citadel of civil accomplishment, but shameless, shameless, thousand times shameless the time, which thinks to reach the same goal with the help of shameless and small misdeeds!"
"Bear Voevode"
Translator's note:
Yet another famous quote by A. Pushkin:
Fairytale is a lie, but with a hint,
For good men to learn a lesson
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10:48 pm
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One can't harness a horse and a fallow-deer to a carriage... *
'Killed' an evening to install Linux in parallel to Windows, while keeping the latter intact. I have some reasons to keep Windows on it.
Win occupied the whole hard drive with NTFS partition. I halved it, put whole Suse on the freed space, worked with settings (studying the user guide at the same time). Everything seems OK, both systems work. Only boot loader needs some tweaking.
Using KDE, one can pass it for Vista :-) I hope some 'interested parties' do not get to know about this.
Translator notes:
* - a famous phrase attributed to Alexandr Pushkin
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06:02 am
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School Headmaster's Status: Getting at the root
One question remains: why were never found those that installed pirated copies? End user is closer and more helpless.
School headmaster is responsible by definition (instructions). He is responsible for law-abiding behavior at the school's territory. His everyday job – solving of unsolvable contradictions. For a few years in a row around first of September* we can read troubling news about how many schools are not ready to take students back after summer holidays after failing fire and health service inspections. But school start their educational year on time. It is headmasters that get squashed between Ministry of education and fire inspectors.
And this regional educational office, the ones that should give headmaster an opportunity to work, instead threatens to fire him, take bonuses away. And when he finally reaches a compromise with everyone, he is warned: if something happens, it is his responsibility. The responsibility for dangerous conditions of buildings, for outdated electric wiring, for old desks, and poor school lunches, for absence of computers at school, for presence of them, but with pirated programs, and for the fact that floor covering in computer class does not satisfy the norms of health service.
Director takes sole responsibility for admitting children to school. It makes him very comfortable to manage – he always have violations, for which he can be tried or blackmailed
Nataliya KLUCHAREVA, Ludmila RYBINA, Novaya Gazeta
Transl. note: * - The day school year starts in the Russian Federation
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05:26 am
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Teaching Informatics: To Begin Again From the Beginning
The main document which defines the results of education, is GOS (State Educational Standard). So, GOS does not even hint a possibility of studying software products of some specific company. For those interested, take a look and make your own conclusion whether we can fulfil GOS Informatics requirements using free software.
And those of you who categorically think "only Linux", pay attention to the following part of GOS:
Computer as a mean of automation of information processes
Hardware and software of a computer. Architecture of modern computers. Variety of operating systems.
Choosing computer configuration appropriately for a given task.
Software for creating informational objects, organization of personal information space, information protection.
Software and hardware equipment in a variety of professional activities.
http://www.school.edu.ru/attach/8/321.doc
http://www.school.edu.ru/attach/8/399.doc
http://www.school.edu.ru/attach/8/323.doc
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06:12 pm
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About the case, past, and present
I am reading a book by A. Kucherena “Between a nation and a state. 30 centuries of civil society”. Interesting, logically built thoughts, many factual material, citations from different works of social science. I will cite two, close to the topic.
...establishing the rule of law – is the problem of a state. To solve it, the state should first of all to prepare lawyers. Bringing the lawyers up, which take legislation seriously, will renew society somewhat by itself. Of course, court officials are the most important, especially judges and independent barristers (the latter should be really independent – this is the only guarantee that they will serve the law, but not the government in power). For justice to take place, besides that, many other civil servants are needed. All of them have to be brought up in a spirit of serving objective truth, to the interests of justice that relies on law, and nothing else. In peaceful times it is impermissible for them to follow neither 'higher' interests, nor any interests of the state. Bringing up these people is a huge task, which will take years.
Carl Popper
- What about re-education of current civil servants 'in the spirit of serving to objective justice? :)
- Years, year... 'It is a pity that neither me nor you will live in these wonderful times.' :)
We have to 'arm' every citizen with 'safety weapon' against arbitrariness. Humanity knows only one mechanism. That is legal system. Court, and not press or higher government echelon is this 'weapon', using which a citizen is capable of protecting his or her rights from any infringement. Court, which is present even in the middle of nowhere; court, which does not report to any power, except for power of Law; court, independent from any powerful figures, no matter what they have in their coats – party membership card or check book; court, free from political, national or other bias or prejudice; court, not affected by emotions of masses; court, qualified, quick with no rush, meticulous with no drag; court, equally accessible for everyone and equally respected by all. Such court will be capable of protecting freedom, guarding property, supporting lawfulness. Without such court all wonderful words of the second chapter of Constitution will stay only on paper.
Sergey Kovalev.
I do not leave the hope that all dots above 'i' will be done in Vereschaginsk's court, that all charges will be cleared strictly by law, and not because of stick and carrot policy games.
I do not want to blame Vera Stanislavovna Barakina at all. Who knows, what would any of us do in such situation. We are all humans. Let God give next judge enough bravery to step further, wisdom to make purely independent and qualified ruling.
For soul it is good to think about people better than they are and be mistaken, then the other way around.
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05:12 pm
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Experience with mixing and matching OS within one school
Novosibirsk: school experience of migration to GNU licensed products
MOU (Note: Educational Organization) school #167 of Octyabrsky district of Novosibirsk has been applying informatization program since 2002. The goal of the program is to create a unified information space in the organization. Meanwhile the network is available only in one computer class. As a regional playground for experimental techniques in education, our school was one of the first to install openSUSE Linux 10.1 in a computer class. It is an English version that Novell offers to download for free from the site http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse
OpenSUSE was chosen for its simplicity in administration and high reliability.
http://uchim.info/spoor/st4/lin-novsb.htm
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10:08 pm
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Who said that pEnguin was stupid?
Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops
http://soft.compulenta.ru/310871/
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117374336173334742-0t8WLwdFNFNhmcynmJ8dS7hIX1g_20070320.html
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09:59 pm
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Reflection time
If you must pirate, use counterfeit Windows
A senior Microsoft exec has admitted that some software piracy actually ends up benefiting the technology giant because it leads to purchases of other software packages.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/13/ms_piracy_benefits/
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12:56 pm
[Link] | This blog is now translated into English. Thanks very much for the initiative. Unfortunantely, as I understood, comments are not translated.
And the main value of my posts is actually in a collective discussion.
And how to translate something is not said but implied?
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