kevinmcaleer

Just to let you know, He read this post! FITS doesn't cost anything to administer. If your serious about providing the best technical support for your school you would be using FITS. I did, our support improved immensly. In fact it improved so much that I got another job on the back of the level of performance I achieved there. FITS is based on ITIL, ITIL is the IT Information Library; the industry standard was of delievering IT support. Its recognised as the best way to provide the best support to your organisation. When creating FITS, it was recognised that schools wouldn't be able to easily implement ITIL because its quite a large set of documentation to get through and its also quite intensive to read. FITS on the other hand is easy to read and can be implemented in a reasonable amount of time without to much hassle (I've been there and done that). As for cost, FITS costs less than posting to EduGeek. the time its taken you to find this post and read it, you could have read the Service Desk process. The whole point of a SPOC (Single Point of Contact) is to enable you to focus on fixing problems rather than dealing with staff face to face. The SPOC can be anyone in the school who spends most of their time next to a phone. Its not like there is a lot of extra work for them to do, its just a matter of writing down (on paper is fine) the details of the call and then passing this on to the technical support staff. Thats is. -Kev FITS Evangelist to the stars & FITS OM Author

Russ, 'Can' being the operative word! I guess I'm just a nice guy, I hate being 'funny' with suppliers; I just put it to them in plain English, If they don't deliever the goods, I don't use them again. Simple really. They usually comply. Those that don't, don't get business. It also helps to explain how much positive 'influence' you have over other schools and customers. -Kev

Just out of interest take a look at: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5944617.html There is a UK company reselling Microsoft Volume Licenses from Insolvent or downsizing companies with Microsoft's blessing. There are specific conditions that have to exist to be able to sell your volume license and it doesn't apply to OS licenses. Its legal because there is a statement in the terms and conditions that allows licenses to be transfered under special circumstances, combined with a 'loophole' in British insolvency law. I'm not aware of any other software manufacturer that allows resale of their volume licenses. -Kev

To be fair to companies such as RM and Viglen, if your school bought a network 'system' that provides services such as user admin and software deploy, it might not be 'right' for your school when a newer network manager with more experience is employed. I had an RM connect network, and for many years it provided the school with exactly what they wanted. However shortly after I had been employed I decided that I could provide a more advanced network for probably less money than was being spent on the RM system. I could also provide a better support service, as i was onsite 5 days a week. However, this doesn't mean that all of a sudden the RM connect system is a load of rubbish. Its still a great product, and there are many happy customers. If it was a load of rubbish, RM wouldn't still be selling it because there would be no customers. Basic Market Economics. I understand that sometimes it's very frustrating if you want to do something on your network that you are prevented from doing because the system doesn't let you, but the point of a network system from RM or Viglen is that its a known system. If anyone could do anything to the system, it would be very difficult to support and maintain. By its very nature its quite rigid in design and use. Once you have matured beyond the need for this type of system, maybe its time you implemented a 'vanilla' network more suited to the needs of your school. -Kev

I think you have to think very carefully about naming a company and saying that you 'should avoid them like a deadly illness'. Defamation or Libel is also something you want to avoid like a deadly illness. Its also dangerous to your career if you cause problems between companies and your employer, you can end up looking like the bad guy; uncooperative and awkward. To be fair to Coniston Computers, I'm sure this was an isolated incident and not representative of their service as a whole. They have been around since 1982 which means there are a very mature computer company. I find working closely with suppliers and account managers helps enormously. It always pays to be a good customer. I'm not saying you should accept poor service, but you shouldn't act unprofessionally in reporting that poor service. -Kev

If you want to host shadow copy on another volume, you'll have to invest in Microsoft Data Protection Manager http://www.microsoft.com/dpm Its kind of shadow copies big brother, used for disk based backup and remote storage. -Kev

According to Microsoft, if you have a PC stolen, you are legally entitled to install the software you purchased originally on the new replacement pc. http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/buy/software/faq.mspx If the software box and license itself was stolen, you need to put a new insurance claim in for that aswell. -Kev

You can't be expected to use your own personal mobile for work related business. Personally I never gave out my mobile number to anyone other than friends. I certainly never gave it to SMT. I did have to register my mobile number with the school office, "just in case", but in 7 years they never used it. The cost of mobiles is reasonably low enough now that many schools do provide their technical support staff with them. But just remember that if you are expected to be 'on call', it should be reflected in your contract of employment and your salary. -Kev

Competition is always a good thing. Drives you to create the best online community for educational professionals that there is. Personally I think Edugeek is the best. Look how fast its grown in only 6 months. -Kev

We had several: Intel Microscope thing Denford Project Micromill machine Video conferencing kit Lots of 'essential' curriculum software Wacom tablet heads laptop ICT coordinators Pocket PC 'this things will solve all my organisational problems' cashless catering system photocopying card system avansis cd server thing I could go on, seriously! -Kev

You could probably do it, but just the one time. -Kev

You get it at last. This is the reason you can't sell on your Macromedia license. . It was Windows and the invention of the PC that destroyed the old unix market. Instead of paying thousands for mainframes (that ran unix) companies could instead buy cheap PC networks running cheap server operating systems. Once the deathnell for unix had been heard the unix providers could only hope to keep on support contracts with their ever diminishing customer base. Once linux was on the scene as a free stable unix platform, it became viable once again to support unix as a server operating system. But, a lot of companies are quite happy to keep on running Windows & other paid software for their networks because of an important issue, that is mitigation. When you buy software from a company, it has to abide by the law; the software can not contain anyone elses code, that may infringe patents or other copyrights. If they do, they'll be sued. If on the other hand you use software that is open source, you may, unknowingly be using copyrighted material that is buried deep within the software. You may also be the one who is liable for this as you have not formed a binding contract when you purchased (or rather didn't purchase) the software. Eweek carries the full story:http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1729412,00.asp Now I'm not saying that all open source software contains copyrighted material. But the point is you don't have any protection if it does. Your making a huge sweeping statement here. All new software is not rehashed old ideas. Some new software is cutting edge, take Apples Dashboard for example. There is nothing like it on any other platform. Its built straight into the OS. Its also extremely stable. Apple is a "big boy" in the industry. I give Apple a lot of credit, they deserve it. They use opensource software, yet you still have to buy the parts that they have developed themselves. You can download darwin for free: http://developer.apple.com/darwin/ So Macromedia are not respecting their obligations to society because you can't sell your software license? . Disagree with you on this one. There will always be a place for commercial software in these industries, as the commercial drive means that companies will always look to the next innovation to sell to customers. Take Windows Server for example. Microsoft are not going to go bust anytime soon, their server product is highly innovative. They understand that customers want both innovation and low cost (but doesn't have to be free) in their software. Commerical software is typically a lot quicker to respond to customers needs. In the school environment for example, common MIS solutions such as SIMS only run on the Windows platform. They are unlikely to write it so that it runs on every linux variant because they cost is prohibitive. Because schools choose their workstation platforms because they support the key applications they use, they aren't going to ditch Windows anytime in the forseeable future. Its also true of educational software writers. They are going to continue to write software for the most common platform: Windows. It will take a very very long time to change this. -Kev

I bet your door has a beautifully rendered teapot or chessboard on it! -Kev

I think FAST would disagree! Theft of copyrighted material is stealing and possesion is 9/10s of the law. So I'd have to disagree with you on that one. I think the reason copyrights are so long is because unlike most physical goods, ideas last forever. Once someone has thought or said something, it can't be unthought or unsaid. (ok you can retract a statement, but you know what I mean). Because of this, if you have an original idea and write about it, without copyright anyone else could copy that and make money out of it leaving you behind. The idea of copyright is to protect your ideas from theft and allowing the originating author the chance to make a fair living out of his/her works. So its not surprising that copyrights are closely linked to average life expectancy. I would agree with you about extending them any further. I think that once a company has made a fair profit (difficult to define that one!) the idea should become public domain. As for criminal charges and punishment, I think the 10 years and unlimited fines is a little harsh for the dodgy guy on the street corner selling copied DVD's. I think Apple made a lot of changes to the industry with iTunes, making buying songs much easier (and one hell of a lot cheaper). Before iTunes, you had to buy either an album or a single, singles at about £2-£4 each were ridiculously expensive, whereas albums were better value for money, but may have contained 'filler' tracks. iTunes changed all this because now you can buy the exact tracks you want for a fair price. I'd agree up to a point. Its worth noting that the majority of 'free' or open source software is quite old. Take Linux. Unix is getting on a bit, 25-30 years old. So they're making it free isn't really going to kill Unix manufacturers out there. Whereas cutting edge software, utilising new ideas and new code has probably had considerable investment in it, so its only fair that company should get back that investment and some profit for its effort. Just because some opensource developers give away their quality software for free doesn't mean that all companies are bad for wanting to make profit. We live in a capitalist country, its the way it is. I'd have to agree with you here. I think that them going after small time filesharers is missing the point. Their sales system is out of date. People wouldn't be stealing songs if they could buy them legally online for a reasonable price. Its just an example of how corporations don't always keep up with technology or understand its potential. Sony and its rootkit is another good example of a big player backing the wrong horse. My own personal opinion with software licensing for schools is that most of the software schools use should be given freely. If every school uses product X from company Y, they are more likely to want the company they eventually get a job with to use product X from company Y. The only problem with this is that some companies only exist to write software for schools. They can't give their software away because they wouldn't make any money. Making money from support and training is only viable when you have large volumes of use of the software. -Kev

I think Macs will remain 'different' even though they use Intel chips. I know what you mean though, having a completely different chip than the average PC owner does make you feel special. You'll have to start saving for an SGI workstation! They use MIPS processors. http://www.sgi.com/products/workstations/ -Kev

In what way is it a basic given right that you can steal software? Do you think copyrights are against human rights? Tell that to any author, song writer or programmer I'm sure they'd have something to say about that. If you think about it, how else can you sell software? As a programmer you want to be fairly paid for your work. Most people would argue that the more people buy your work the more successful you should become. Intellectual property is a thorny issue. One idea put forward was to patent software http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/question8.htm but this again is not of much use because of legal definitions. Licensing is the only real solution to making money from writing software. On a related note, I was interested to hear that Martin Luther Kings famous speech "I had a dream" was copyrighted. This caused controversy because he made the speech publicly and under the laws at the time anything said in public was said to be in the "public domain" and could be published without infringing any copyright. However this was later changed because it was argued that the actual content of what was said was copyrighted not the performance of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_have_a_dream It's this kind of subtle legal issues that make licensing seem unfair at times. But you have to consider the people on the other side of the equation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also have issues with EULA's: http://www.eff.org/wp/eula.php What sections in the EULA do you take issue with? -Kev

Sorry; Irrelevant. I've read the 2003 amendment and it makes no reference to software licensing, or licensing in general. Its more to do with making a better definition of what is considered 'fair' with respect to a certain number of cases (such as stairlift maintenance extended warrenties for example). I think you miss understand what a 'licence' actually is. A licence is a "legal permission" granted by an authority or entity to a named individual or organisation. Think about other licenses that are in operation: Drivers Licence, TV Licence, License to sell intoxicating liquor. Its not possible to sell your drivers licence, or TV licence, its nonsense to think that someone else would want to buy it. Software licenses are exactly the same. You (or your organisation) are/is legally granted permission to install and use a certain version of software on a specified number of computers if you purchase a software license. They are non transferable by the very nature. Two places that are worth a click from a legal point of view are: http://www.bsa.org/uk/ http://www.fast.org.uk/ If you are saying that you consider Macromedia (Now Adobe) is not actually "fair dealing" with you, you can always contact the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) at: http://www.oft.gov.uk/ It may also be of use to you to check out the term 'Libel': http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+libel&meta= -Kev

Andrew_C, I'm afraid your wrong. No, there are several statuary rights protected by law. Including resale. Macromedia can stuff their EULA. Its not Macromedia's EULA that is the case in point here, its the UK law: Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 states: The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to copy the work (Section 16). That means it is illegal to copy software without the copyright owner's permission. With regard to software, the copyright owner is the software developer / publisher. Breaking the law could have serious consequences for you and the organisation you work for, threatening both your own and your employer's reputation and future prosperity. The legal penalties include unlimited fines and up to ten years in prison following the Copyright, etc. and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002. Personally, you could lose your reputation, promotion prospects or even your job. There are no mitigating circumstances and no organisation would condone or defend either illegal copying or the use of unauthorised software. I know that might seem frustrating, but you only purchased a license to use the software, not the actual software itself. All you actually own is the phyiscal media the software was sent to you on, and the box it came in along with the paper manuals. -Kev

Emacs have been recently discontinued, instead there is the new iMac G5, with iSight. The only real problem with video editing in schools, is the question of how do you deal with the large files video capture and manipulation involves. Ideally, it would be perfect if you could logon anywhere and edit your video without any kind of delay. In reality, you'll probably have to use the same machine everytime with the video saved to the local hard disk. Its not really practical to edit video over a normal school network, usually because the data throughput requirements would not be feasible. So then the question is how do you deal with large files saved locally, without people being able to delete other peoples work etc. I'm sure there are good solutions to this, but I was always put off with them as they seemed to be less than adequate. -Kev

*** Obviously edugeek doesn't support or condone software piracy. *** I think the idea that intel based macs will be buggy is rather strange. Apple have always engineered their hardware and software to work together well. Most problems with software that people see as bugs are usually due to either 3rd party drivers or software, or the fact that the operating system has to run on an almost unlimited number of configurations. Only Apple makes Apple hardware, so the chances that their software will have less bugs and problems is much much higher. Incidentally, since the release of Mac OS X in 2000, Apple has been working in secret with Intel based Macs: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=1314325 So its not like its a new product. Its a mature 5 year old product. As for the comparison between Motorola chips and Intel chips ,I don't think one is more buggy than another. Thats my 2 cents. -Kev

I've noticed that most people have posted about 'what software should I use' in this thread. With an effective help desk, the process you use is far more important than any single piece of software. I set up a successful help desk in my school and all we used was a pen and some paper to take down details during a call or visit from staff. Excel to keep tabs on which calls had been dealt with etc and Outlook to assign tasks to technical staff. For a guide to setting up a service desk in a school see http://www.becta.org.uk/fits it can seriously make a big difference. I can't rant on about this enough. So just remember, its not the tool, its the process that matters! -Kev

Right click on an OU in group policy and its there (top of the list, if I remember correctly). As a general rule, its better to apply any kind of changes to a group, then just add people to that group. If the person with elevated permissions leaves or changes position in the school its easier to change them back to a normal user again and give them to another user. This is true with file permissions also. (Apart from the home directory of course). -Kev

So Modest! -Kev

My old school were using PodCasting as part of the Women in ICT (WICT) project. I'm not sure how far they got with it. They were using an Apple eMac to capture the audio. Garageband to mix audio tracks (Music and vocal) and Quicktime to convert the audio to MP3 or AAC. -Kev

There may be a case for you to return the new software license to the reseller and ask for an upgrade since you already own a license for a previous version. Our school did this within the 28 days you are normally allowed to return goods. Licensing is always a tricky subject. If in doubt contact either your local authority or failing that the supplier or manufacturer. I can recommend RM for advice on software licensing. They have specialists who deal with licensing and they sell many applications to schools. You don't have to buy through them, but as a source of information its a good starting point. -Kev