I am in the Third World. The wife of a friend was working on her software engineer degree, and had to go into the world to get some practical experience. Then, after maybe five years of experience, she had to do a final thesis project. Her adviser told her he wanted her to write a utility which would let two clients of a server access any authorized file on the server, BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME.
Then, he added, "Um, do it in Linux."
Panic mode. She had no background at all in Linux. And, here you must pay for anything, even someone to teach you Linux.
When she told her husband, he reminded her that I had given him some CD's, including several versions of Knoppix, and CentOs.
She struggled with it a bit, then I came back. I think it was maybe four sessions, and she had almost all she really needed. A brilliant woman who learned like a sponge sucks up water. When I showed her the output of strace on a command, I didn't even need to explain, she knew at a glance what it was doing, and commented that would be very practical.
They almost fell down with surprise when I told them I would not take a cent for teaching her. I have an adequate pension check, at least as long as I stay in the Third World, and simply could not sleep nights if I took money from people who have much less than I have.
At one point, her adviser told her the utility was correct and adequate, but he wanted her to give the same presentation to the entire computer faculty. I told her as a general rule, professor assigned projects are usually for his/her own benefit, not just proving your abilities. I haven't seen either to find out if she finally got her diploma, but am confident.
I don't know if such a project is adequate, but I do know a few weeks ago, a system admin in Windows posted a question on Google Answers looking for just such a utility to keep important corporate files from being changed simulataneously by more than one person.
Well, dumb or not, you must admit it is a suggestion.
