dhicks

What sort of thing is it you're trying to do, and using what language? I don't know what your situation is like, but I find trying to get any sort of "proper" software developmnent done in a school setting is tricky - for any functionality that needs more than a quick one-off script thrown together, getting the time to sit and concentrate properly can be difficult.

The term you're looking for is "code refactoring", which might give you something to Google for at least. Splitting a large, monlithic program up into smaller chunks is what various language features are for - different languages are going to have different facilities available, but you could try: - Splitting functionality into functions in the same, single script file - still makes for a large wodge of code to view all in one go, but might make it easier to get your head round one function at a time. - Object-orientated features - put the functionality into classes, much the same as with functions but encapsulates the data structure along with the code to manuipulate it. - Pile everything off into a library - can reduce the amount of code crammed onto one screen. - Write a domain-specific langiage - more a feature of particular languages, and probably overkill here. For scripts I've written for school functionality (stuff like integrating with our MIS), I've tended to write stuff in Python, with the actual technical bits (parsers for XML files, etc) away in a library, then the main scripts become nice operation-by-operation lists of stuff-to-do - open file, apply transform, save file, etc.

Check that the 30 watt speakers support the PoE you are using - according to Wikipedia, 802.3af supports 13w and 802.3at supports 25w: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet#Standard_implementation Yes, the speaker seems to work well - we've given it a test a couple of times with the room fairly crowded with noisy children, and it seemed okay to me. It does auto-adjust to the ambient sound, too. We also have a SNOM PA1: https://www.snom.com/broadcasting/public-address-system/ For really noisy areas you can hook that up to powered speakers, but of course you will need a power outlet nearby. You could do your couple of really noisy areas with those and use cheaper solutions (really, the phones with the handsets off work very well, and were something like £30 each...) in less noisy areas.

In our dining hall, where we have a lot of noisy children at various times during the day, we put an Algo 8186: Algo IP Horn Speaker | SIP | Loudspeaker Paging System | Loud Ringer | POE Elsewhere, we simply got cheap telephones, took off the handsets and permanently stuck down the hook switch, set them to listen to audio being transmitted on a given IP address and nailed those up in corridors around the school.

Did you find a solution? The same question has just come up here - we have a nice new stage area with a low ceiling, adding a projector to the lighting bar to project on to the back wall of the stage is going to be tricky as the projector body will wind up in the line-of-sight to the back wall (and, also, neatly at head-height). We could consider a video wall made from multiple screens, although that might get a bit pricy.

From a software development point of view, trying to implement your own encryption mechanism / library / whatever is probably not the solution. If you use standard, tested tools (e.g. curl), hopefully somewhere along the line, someone who knows a lot more about encryption than you do has been involved and ironed out the bugs. Storing a plain-text file on your SIMS server, in an otherwise carefully permissions-controlled folder, is okay from an application point of view, although at your end you could of course encrypt the hosting VM and/or the drive or folder at the operating system level. Tools like curl should, of course, be kept up-to-date in case of issues, and should be checking the certificate received from the Clarion server each transaction to make sure it's valid.

Hmm, almost - the new GoPro range is out, the low-end model is £180: https://shop.gopro.com/EMEA/cameras/hero7-black/CHDHX-701-master.html

If bandwidth (either for your in-school network / WiFi and / or Internet connection, or for mobile data if PE are away somewhere from the main school) isn't too much of an issue, then we've been uploading media files to Google Drive with no particular problems - we have around 4TB of assorted images and videos at the moment, with no storage costs. Easy to share resources, but sharing / access can be audited, so you can check who has permission and who has been doing what. Another similar thread today: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/199656-encrypted-cameras-no-longer-working.html If there isn't already a neat all-in-one solution for pointing an Android device at some sports activity and having it go straight to Google Drive, not being stored on either the device or any intermediate server, then I can see about writing one.

Not necessarily - DaVinci Resolve is free, and very much at the "professional" end of things. Of course, Blackmagic Design are trying to use it as a hook to sell you one of their very nice cameras: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk If the software is free, a spare £1,000 or so might be found for a snazzy new 4K cinema-quality camera for the GCSE / A-level film students...

Searching for "trivantis-inline.js" on Google brings up some results that might be helpful, several threads from supports forums (although mostly from around 2011). Have you checked that wherever trivantis-inline.js is served from is not blocked by a gateway filter? We've had several sites' CSS / JS files blocked as these days that sort of thing often gets hosted on a dedicated CDN, some of which also serve ads, and therefore tend to get blocked by the average school web filter.

https://www.pythonanywhere.com/ Their offices are in London, I don't know if they actually work from there or if that's a registered office.

Cloud Ready, who do a installable version of ChromeOS for non-Chromebooks, also do a version of "ChromeOS" but for Office 365 - basically like ChromeOS but with O365 integration instead. That might be an option. Just anecdotally, when it comes to login integrations I tend to see more sites offering Google logins than I do O365 currently, although more sites (especially education-related ones) do now seem to be offer O365 login integration.

Python 3.7. Technically, Python 2 and Python 3 and different languages, so there's /also/ a latest version of Python 2, Python 2.7.15. However, if you're school is just starting out with Python you might as well avoid any update issues and go straight for Python 3.7. I've just this minute received an email from Python Anywhere to say their new Python 3.7 image is ready. They do hosted servers for development, so if you think you are going to have issues with pupils working on local workstations that might be a better solution for you. I'm not sure quite what their deal is for schools, but I understand they are keen to work with schools, so it might be an idea to contact them.

If I understand correctly, a number of media production houses are moving to DaVinci Resolve as part of their video-editing workflows - if one of the considerations for what package to use is "what is industry using" then that's an option. It's free, unless you need support for things like 8k video. I don't know how user-friendly it is or if it's suitible for whatever age range of pupils you are catering for. I also haven't tried installing it on multiple machines, so I don't know if it packages up properly or not, but at least licensesing shouldn't be an issue. For something simpler but capable, perhapse more for younger pupils, then I have used WeVideo - web-based, logins integrated with GSuite so user management is easy. Might need checking as to how much bandwidth you need to run it - might not actually be as much as you think, but something to check beforehand.

I get that your original issue has been solved, but just thought I'd add for future reference that for web-scripting issues such as described above, Apify might come in handy: https://www.apify.com/ It lets your run and automate browserless Chrome instances, so even if there's no available (or documented) API for you to use you can still write a script that automates pressing buttons / sliders / etc to get what you want done.

We manage our Chromebooks via Google's Admin Console - you pay a one-off fee of around £18 per device for a license to add a device to the console, you just remember to add that to the price of the device when purchasing. We sync user data from Active Directory to both GSuite and Office 365 - I've not investigated integrating Chromebooks directly with Active Directory, the management facilities given by the GSuite Admin Console seem fine. We have 250-odd Asus C100PA "flip" Chromebooks that have screens that rotate fully around to turn into (rather chunky) tablets. They've proven pretty robust over about a year and a half in a private prep school, with less than 10% suffering broken screens and similar from general usage (they aren't taken home by the pupils, but are carried around by them during the day). We wren't that impressed by the warrenty provision - when we do have a broken screen we fix it ourselves on-site. Different types of school might have different usage patterns, of course.

Hmm - we have a bunch of Lock-'n'-Charge cabinets in classrooms, and no teacher has yet reported an issue with the handles. The devices are mostly used within the classrooms, being removed individually from the cabinet, so the carriers aren't used to lug stuff around the school much. These were installed last year, so it could be we have a more recent version that doesn't have the issue. Something to check, though, as our teachers don't always report issues.

We're using Insync to sync drives between local storage and Google Drive: https://www.insynchq.com/ That's not a backup as such, but it gives you a local drive you can backup from. Also, in case of Google Drive issues, you also have a local copy of your files, and you can share the drive to users so you can have synced local/remote drives. You could also use rclone in a similar manner to give you a local copy of your files - it now supports Team Drives, and is free.

...rig it up to an Alexa skill or similar and you could have voice-controlled projector on/off...

I'd add: check the standard of PoE used - Ubiquiti seem to manage to produce equipment (CCTV cameras / wireless access points) where one model uses one standard and another model uses the other. Adding inline converters isn't too much of an issue, but worth checking beforehand.

Also, consider the noise level of your switch - we use HP's 2920 PoE edge switches, which are fine but quite loud - you notice the fans whirring away as you walk around the corridors. Placing them in an accousticly-dampened cabinet seems to work okay - I was worried about the heat retention, but it doesn't seem to have been an issue (network now 4 years old, I think), and it cuts the noise level down to pretty much zero. I'd echo previous comments about how good SwitchShop are, and if looking at a new network I'd be also looking at Ubiquiti switches, with their neat web-based control panel.

We use Logitech K400 wireless keyboards with integrated touch pads for our hall and touch screens with OPS PCs - stops the mouse roaming off separatly. Range seems okay (not measured it), although the receiver is an ultra-small USB dongle. On a couple of our touch screens the receiver sits behind the (solid, mostly metal) screen, so we had to add a short USB extension cable to poke the receiver out from behind and get a good signal - could be a similar issue you're having?

There's already cloud-based Active Directory, and last time I worked with it SIMS worked just fine (better, if anything) over a remote connection.

I'd aim to make each of the modules stand-alone, with a common authentication / file storage backend. That way people can pick-and-choose functionality as needed. Are you writing this as something intended to be hosted on a school's on-site server, or are you intending to write this as web-hosted services of some kind? Are you writing an authentication and storage backend yourself, or are you integrating with existing services (OAuth for authentication, Google Drive / Onedrive / etc for storage)?

We're a prep school, we find the younger children can struggle with password changes (they're generally fine by year 4, though).