My Life With IT

I’m looking at Agent Monitor (DAF) by Joerg Reck. I like the fact that I don’t have to go to the databases to amend the codes so that the agent monitor can work. Sweet. I just click on Add Database and the system does all the necessary additions.

I’m still trying to figure out the Administration section though. I’m not sure why the information is mostly of the Agent Monitor. It took me some time to figure how to get to it, I had to click on Actions, Tool -> Administration. As I don’t have a development server to test the function, which is a real pity, I encountered this prompt in German. How very friendly. Thank goodness I understood the Formula used.

The next thing I’m trying to figure out is why there’s a web version of it. I can’t load it using local no matter what I tried. In the past, I thought it was something to do with FrontPage. Here, I have no use for FrontPage, so I can’t figure out why my Domino is unable to load the system for me to see the interface. Again, there are some information in German. So, why wasn’t it highlighted in the description?

I wanted to change the design so that it will notify more than 1 email but can’t seem to make it work. I think the rationale behind allowing to monitor some agents and not all to be sent via email makes sense. There are critical agents that do need to be monitored but not all of them needs to be emailed.

This monitor purges the log every 7 days by its scheduled agent. Once I manage to figure out how to make it from settings instead of by the agent itself, I shall have to see how I can make this work in the server.

I like its way of adding agents without having to amend the codes in the existing databases. Imagine having to modify 65 existing databases. I can faint.

A quick look at the UI of the USD100 laptop by Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror. I was wondering what sort of UI that Mr Negroponte had in mind and Jeff has kindly provided the screenshot of the UI. I have read about this being mass built for the kids in Libya, if my memory serves me correct.

The one thing that sticks to my mind is that Mr Negroponte stated in the article the following:

“In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint,” Negroponte wrote in an e-mail interview. “I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools.”

Which I didn’t realise until he stated his main objective behind making the One Laptop campaign. The kids are being taught Word, Excel and PowerPoint, software that we are using now. The kids are only 7 to 10 and they are being trained to be office workers 10 years ahead.

I wonder if there are any kids being taught to learn Java or JavaScript from age 7 onwards. I wonder if we’re moving towards a society of nothing but office automation humans who don’t know how to enjoy the simple life any more.