I have an old 5.25" lockable, swappable, IDE caddy. Since USB drives came out and are way better at hot plugging than IDE I no longer have a drive in it. I use it to store usb sticks, password list on paper, other bits of things. Keeps the PC stuff out of the desk drawer. I just checked and it doesn't fit DVD's. It normally hold a 3.5" drive and the area where the lock is is 'fixed' so a DVD can't be inserted.

I did my undergrad (upgrading from college) at UoP from 2000-2004. When I started they had something like 35,000 students. I met many of the same people as we progressed through the B.Science Business major. I learned TONS as I had never taken business before. It was all good and I really advanced my position in my firm by knowing HR, finance, accounting, etc. (Why would anyone study things they already know? I already knew IT, so I took business) As a Canadian living in the US I didn't qualify for any loans so paid cash for each course.

I took a 1st yr course in my last year to put me over the credit requirements. I was appalled. The students were lazy, couldn't read/write and were all given A's. The new UoP was 'pay your fees, and pass'. They expected to do nothing and pass. I was really annoyed that all my hard work was being wasted as UoP pursued expansion at all costs. They hit 250k students in 2006 I think.

I covered up my UoP BSB with a big buck MBA and haven't looked back. Am I happy with what I got from UoP? Yes. Would I enroll there today? Doubtful. Too bad, they took a great concept an ruined it for everyone...

The msft cost is probably amost free. They like lockin that way, until you have everything, then you get to pay full price.

In health care the individual departments often buy their own PC's (and pay for support)

The sad part here is that Microsoft has convinced most of IT that going with all Microsoft stack is an 'IT strategy'. They have succesfully perverted the entire 'business strategy aligns wtih IT strategy' that IT has been working for the last few decades. I see no need for the CIO of this organization to be 'at the table' when major business decisions are being made. After all, the IT 'strategy' is already set, right? No need for updating of for any correlation to the business strategy, ever.

The clowns running this organization should be ashaed of themselves for making such a clueless statement. Then again, welcome to public healthcare....

Do some basic research on IT strategy (hint: look for a pyramid shaped thingy) and ask the masters how 'windows shop' aligns with Business goals? Watch them struggle with the basic concepts....

Ultramon is not crap, and it does exactly what the OP wants.

So the question becomes: Is there a Linux tool like Ultramon?

lol, yeah, shut yourself off from the rest of the world. Screw internationl agreements. It's every country for themsleves now! That will definetly help security!

Americans generally can't get to Europe or Asia without flying over Canada. So does Canada get your name, address, phone number and drivers license number when you go to Europe? Great!

This will be settled ASAP by CRIA. They simply can't risk this case coming anywhere close to a decision. If they 'win' they set a precedent that borrwing files is OK. If they lose, well, they lose big!

When they settle, they will have strong 'proof' that they 'represent the artists' and will use that to help their cause. This will be over in weeks, the actualy lawsuit is just a bargaining tactic.

Moving on...

Having a 100Mbps link speed, doesn't mean you are passing data at 100Mpbs. The test here is, with NAT enabled (and other traffic shaping as desired), sustain a throughput of 50+ Mbps.

No way your 1Ghz Via can handle that. Once your CPU is pegged, your throughput is pegged...

I second the 'your are buying junk drives' issue. I will even use my own anecdote, per Slashdot tradition, to back it up:

    We have hundreds of IBm X300 laptops with 64G Samsungs in them. zero failures so far.