Blender thoughts !!

[bigtime5001]

Hi guys

 

Just wanted some advice really, the ICT Teacher at our school wants blender installed on all the pc's in the ICT suite.

 

Not a problem I have checked it and seems ok, the only issue I have is installing Python onto these machines. We do have some very bright students who allready managed to write there own program from the iTalc source code gaining access to any pc that had it installed.

 

Should I be worrying about them using the python scripting for other "Projects" on the network ??

 

Thanks for any replies

 

Matt

[CyberNerd]

Should I be worrying about them using the python scripting for other "Projects" on the network ??

 

If your computers are horribly insecure then you should worry. I would encourage this sort of programming behaviour, esp in a school.

[bigtime5001]

Dont get me wrong I have no problem with them learning the scripting language and experimenting, but I have to draw the line when there are a few who will use it to try and gain access to area's on the network or interupt the learning of other students.

[Jamo]

I would also look at blenders file gui. Its not standard so watch out if it defaults to the root C. I doubt they could do much with it bar fill up the hard drive with blender models.

 

You don't need python to run blender, it runs fine without, you just lose the ability to import models and a few higher level functions not required for most uses.

 

I have uploaded my lunchtime effort

[6Foot2]

I have come across Blender and I am not intrigued. Staff have been bugging me for ages to find an animation package and this is now at the front of the queue to fill that post.

 

Things weighing against Blender:

 

• Package complexity [i am not familiar with it and it does look quite complicated and it is likely that Year 7 will be asked to use it ]
  
• New version is coming on stream Version 2.5 is being built from the 'ground up' Is it worth waiting for 2.5 to be released?]
  
• Does it obey Group Policy? [i have seen OpenSource software allow access to the root of C:\]

 

Does anyone have any input/advice in connection with any of these items?

 

Many thanks.

[CyberNerd]

Package complexity [i am not familiar with it and it does look quite complicated and it is likely that Year 7 will be asked to use it ]

 

yes, quite complex for yr7 imo

Does it obey Group Policy? [i have seen OpenSource software allow access to the root of C:\

 

does it matter? whats the worst that can happen? a student has read access to system files. big deal.

[6Foot2]

It would appear to be a non-starter anyway: Our Staff users [the users with the most freedom apart from our Technicians and administrators] can't use it as it crashes as soon as it is run.

[somabc]

How about Google SketchUp

[6Foot2]

How about Google SketchUp

 

Hadn't thought of that. I will have a look.

 

Busy on other stuff at the moment so I have two questions about SketchUP:

 

1. Is is supplied as an MSI [will be checking this myself anyway]
   
2. Does it support the creation of animatied clips? [asked for by a member of staff]

 

These questions aside I probably would not have looked at SketchUp as a possible solution to this problem so thanks for the idea.

[flyinghaggis]

 

does it matter? whats the worst that can happen? a student has read access to system files. big deal.

 

I'll bet there isnt a school computer in the whole country that doesnt have several files/folders in "programs files" and the "windows" folder set to read/write for all users to get around limitations of old outdated software.

 

We've refused programs that allow pupils to browse the C drive freely before as it means they could potentially trash specific programs for other pupils. They could also amend ini files/etc to redirect stuff when programs are run/etc. Plus it allows pupils to copy the entire contents of a local PCs hard drive onto a memory stick/etc so they could effectively steal all your software!

[roty80]

Hadn't thought of that. I will have a look.

 

Busy on other stuff at the moment so I have two questions about SketchUP:

 

1. Is is supplied as an MSI [will be checking this myself anyway]
   
2. Does it support the creation of animatied clips? [asked for by a member of staff]

 

These questions aside I probably would not have looked at SketchUp as a possible solution to this problem so thanks for the idea.

 

If you use Google Sketchup 6 instead of 7 you can run it over the network. No need to deploy it.

 

That's what we do here. Installed in a folder in a software share on our applications server and shortcut put on the start menu (ours are redirected so just one shortcut to create).

 

Just install once

 

Not sure if it does animated clips. Only used it a couple of times to design rooms.

Edited March 10, 2010 by roty80

[ricki]

If you use Google Sketchup 6 instead of 7 you can run it over the network. No need to deploy it.

 

 

This is what I do.

 

Richard

[6Foot2]

If you use Google Sketchup 6 instead of 7 you can run it over the network. No need to deploy it.

 

I do this with several other applications so this is not a new concept to me. I was not aware that Google Sketchup would do this so thanks.

 

Does leave the question of animations hanging in the air though.

 

Anyone?

[CyberNerd]

I'll bet there isnt a school computer in the whole country that doesnt have several files/folders in "programs files" and the "windows" folder set to read/write for all users to get around limitations of old outdated software.

 

We've refused programs that allow pupils to browse the C drive freely before as it means they could potentially trash specific programs for other pupils. They could also amend ini files/etc to redirect stuff when programs are run/etc. Plus it allows pupils to copy the entire contents of a local PCs hard drive onto a memory stick/etc so they could effectively steal all your software!

 

Notwithstanding the software stealing, you'd be better securing your files (assuming windows is that insecure by default) than relying on security by obscurity. If you ban software that allows c: drive visibility, you could easily ban software which is actually insecure and allows it's files to be amended...

[pete]

It would appear to be a non-starter anyway: Our Staff users [the users with the most freedom apart from our Technicians and administrators] can't use it as it crashes as soon as it is run.

 

So use Procmon and work out how to make it run for them.

[Hightower]

I have SketchUp 7 package that works on CC3 here if anyone would likey.

[flyinghaggis]

Notwithstanding the software stealing, you'd be better securing your files (assuming windows is that insecure by default) than relying on security by obscurity. If you ban software that allows c: drive visibility, you could easily ban software which is actually insecure and allows it's files to be amended...

 

In an ideal world we would but at the time we migrated to Windows XP virtually all our software was Windows 98 based and simply wouldn't run without doctoring permissions. Software that had it's own (or used the old windows 3.11 file manager) was in the minority so wasn't such a problem to refuse a couplf of apps but if we'd turned down every app that required write permissions at the time we wouldnt have had any software on our network apart from MS office!

 

We're moving to Windows 7 soon which is inherently better able to deal with old programs that write to locations they shouldn't as it can redirect it on the fly. That plus App-V should mean we don't have to make compromises with file permisions again in future.