rnmartinez - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Yet another Canadian immigration scam ... (Score 5, Informative) 316

by rnmartinez on Monday January 16, 2012 @11:59PM (#38721238) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Open Source vs Proprietary GIS Solution?

Hi Tom, just a bit about our group. We don't run any immigraton scams, and certainly aren't looking to have people buy dead people's businesses. We don't even deal directly with immigrants (i.e. we are not immigration consultants). Our focus is to work with rural communities that have ageing demographics and help them attract immigrants to take over businesses where an ageing owner is looking to retire but may have no clear successor. Our ideal immigrant is one that has already been in the country for a period of about 2 years. Essentially, we are trying to stop smaller communities from suffering mass business closure, and this technology piece will play a large part. I hope that this helps to clarify.

Submission + - mysql vs. ms-sql dliemma (oinweb.ca) 6

Submitted by

rnmartinez

on Monday January 16, 2012 @11:42AM

rnmartinez writes: "As the Project Manager for a non-profit looking to implement a tech project, I am running into a few dilemma's and as a casual slashdotter I could really use some help. I'll start with a brief explanation of the project.

We research issues in Canadian Immigrants, and found that there was a lack of recent, unaggregated information. As we dug further, we found that some data was available, but there was no central repository. Therefore, we are building a web based service to collect this data, with the intent of having it display in google maps and then be downloadable as a csv file that is readable in GIS software such as ESRI Arcsoft, so that data may be visualized.

To date, we have relied on a lamp box with drupal as the front end to help provide a more social experience. However, it seems that MS SQL offers more functions with regards to geometry built in then MYSQL, and my devs (good guys, but MS guys at heart) want me to switch to .net NUKE/MsSQL and ditch the open source stuff. As a believer in open source and a non-profit, I am having some moral issues with this (I try and run linux and open source on everything I reasonably can).

So here is my dilemma: do I dump $20K into moving everything to an MS solution that in the short-medium term might make the geometry functions (i.e. show me all the hospitals within a 20km radius of this cluster of immigrants) or do I get him to spend the same amount writing something similar for MYSQL? The only issue there, is that I am not too fond of Oracle having ownership of MYSQL. Should I be directing $20K into replicating these functions into something like MariaDB? Might be a longshot but again, as a non-profit I'd like to see something go back to everyone, not just my group.

Really, I am open to any flexible, creative open and reliable solutions. Sorry if my knowledge is limited or if I am grasping at straws, and if I am being terribly biased, but I trust Oracle with opensource about as much as I trust MS."

Comment Fate worse than death? (Score 1) 388

by rnmartinez on Friday June 20, 2008 @09:55AM (#23872503) Attached to: Internet Pirates In France To Lose Broadband

So if I read the summary correctly (of course, like a good /.er I didn't RTFA) then if you get busted under this law no more broadband? So that means dial-up is your only option? Isn't that curel and unusual punishment? :-)

Submission + - Open Wifi Hardware Project

Submitted by

rnmartinez

on Monday July 16, 2007 @12:38PM

rnmartinez writes: "I have been a Linux "newbie" for close to 10 years now. Sounds like a long time to be a novice user, but I find that one application or piece of hardware brings me back to Microsoft applications. I am trying to finally get away from MS completely, but my current dilemma seems to be with wireless. I am trying to encourage my employer to move away from MS solutions, but several factors, like the ones I encounter personally seem to get in the way.

My most recent headache was when my wireless adapter, that worked out of box with Ubuntu 7.04 physically broke. Trying to find a replacement has not been easy, and while I have compiled drivers before, it is such a struggle and this time I was not able to get it to work.

I would like to see a permanent solution to this, so does the slashdot group think that it would be worthwhile to try and either purchase:

A) an 802.11 a/b/g/n design — have someone make one from the ground up for a group or company x, and completely open it up

or
B) purchase a small or struggling semi conductor manufacturer (as part of a group effort — it could be run as a profit or non profit)

And try and come up with an open solution? I know that manufacturers like Intel have excellent driver support, but they do not have PCMCIA, USB or PCI solutions (unless if you use some type of adapter, which I am going to do for now). Ideally I would like to see an open USB wifi dongle, that would have completely open driver support and eventually be submitted into the kernel. If this were to be successful, then of course other types of hardware, i.e. webcams, RAID, etc... could also be considered.

Is this too ambitious a project? Has it already been done? Any comments and criticisms are welcome. While my knowledge of Linux and open projects in general is a bit limited, I think that something like this makes business sense. I feel that outside of Canada and the U.S. there is an enormous market for Linux and other open source projects, and by removing the hindrance of hardware many other things could fall into place.

I only need to look at my frustration as a consumer trying to completely replace a mainstream o/s with Linux, and feel that there must be many more in the same situation. (if anyone replies to this, I'd also be glad to tell you about my RAID woes, but that might be best for another project/post).

Thank you.

P.S. I haven't invested in a domain or a site of any type for this yet, but if there is some interest, I would definitely move forward. If this makes it to Slashdot and the feedback is good, then I will come up with a url somewhere."

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