I received my undergraduate degree from a classroom-only college where, in the majority of classes, the only interaction among students was to see each other enter and leave the classroom. Although I have attended various graduate-level classroom courses, I obtained my MBA from the University of Phoenix online. I found the experience extremely valuable and can attest that there is more educational interaction among students in the online environment. Yes, some graduate courses include group work, and meeting in person can be helpful. However, even in classroom courses, student groups use e-mail and instant messaging extensively to collaborate.

Furthermore, most of the online courses at the University of Phoenix require students to read other students' discussion-forum posts and papers. In a classroom environment, students normally get feedback only from the teacher.

I agree that many online IT educational institutions suffer from a stigma, but it is not deserved.

Steve Delahunty, Executive Director
Network Professional Association
steve.delahunty@npa.org



Windows-Free PCs
Don MacVittie's BuzzCut "Warning: Linux Desktops Ahead" (June 26, 2003) is great. I've been trying to migrate myself and fellow staff members to Linux. I prefer Mandrake Linux and am using version 9.1 on my laptop.

The biggest obstacle I find to migrating users is the inability to run the few vertical applications on which our business operates: Boardtown Platypus and Crystal Reports. I've tried using Wine and CrossOver and have had poor results for the apps I've deployed.

MacVittie comments that there is no Linux or open-source application comparable to Visio. Visio is another application we use and need, and somehow I don't see Microsoft porting it to Linux.

I'd like to see an article concerning the difficulty of purchasing computers for Linux without also having to purchase a Microsoft OS. Although Dell will sell servers without a Microsoft OS, I have not been able to find a major computer company that will sell laptops and desktops without an installed OS.

Dan Watts, Director of Information Technology
G4 Communications
dwatts@g4.net



SOAP Secrets
Regarding the "How We Tested" section in Lori MacVittie's article "Serving UP SOAP" (April 3, 2003), how did you build the client test benches from the WSDL? Can Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and MindElectric GLUE generate a client application based on a WSDL description?

Wilbert Blake, Engineer
Tyco Safety Products
wiblake@tycoint.com

Lori MacVittie responds: MindElectric GLUE can generate a client Java application based on WSDL. It's not a GUI, of course, but a command-line client. Using wsdl2java, you give it the WSDL file and specify any options, and it will generate the proxy and client class automatically. Compile and go crazy. It should be easy to make a GUI and use the generated classes to deal with input and output.

In Visual Studio .Net, you add a "Web Reference" to the project. Specify the WSDL, and Visual Studio .Net will add the Web service. From there, you can place two controls on a form--a button to execute the Web service and a label to display the output. In the function called when the button is clicked, you call the Web service and put the result in the label.

Another test client I've often used is NuSOAP. It's PHP-based, so you can build a quick Web-based client to access services.



The 'IT' in Security
Great column, Greg Shipley ("In Need of a New Deal"). I have always been an advocate of IT being at the table--the boardroom table and senior executive committee. Why is it so hard to understand that IT is just as fundamental to the success of an organization as are marketing, accounting, finance, operations and legal. In many companies, IT reports to one of these heads of department while its influence is felt enterprisewide. As for information security, Shipley is correct in stating that it falls on IT's shoulder. IT is expected to initiate, research, design and implement security and, more frequently than not, do this without upper management's heart in it. Although IT is a major part of information security, it really needs to be advocated by upper management in the form of a security policy.

Richard A. Fedora, Director of Information Technology
Incept Corp.
richardf@inceptcorp.com



Correction
In "VA Scanners Pinpoint Your Weak Spots" (June 26, 2003), we published incorrect report-card scores for several products because of errors made in reporting the products' vulnerability detection. As a result, the vulnerability-detection ratios for several products have been revised upward, resulting in slightly higher scores for those products. Updated report-card and vulnerability-detection charts can be found here.



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