SteveBentley

It depends on how the package needs to interact with the database. The install guide will tell you how to do it, for example https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Joomla specifies mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES ON joomla.* TO 'yourusername'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword'; Some packages are more specific, such as PHPMyAdmin requires a user with very specific rights on the main mysql database, and has different rights on each table. Probably because it is the main mysql database and if you leave it too loose you could compromise the whole server.

If you go the unix route, there's a PHP class called ADLDAP which you can use. Works very nicely.

We had such a situation a little while ago where we were expecting more people to turn up for a public lecture than our lecture theatre could accommodate. Solution we came up with was to use a video/audio over Cat5 extender and patch a network point in the room where the action was taking place directly into a suitable point in the overspill room. Then we were able to feed a camcorder directly to a projector in the other room. This meant there was no delay to deal with and no issues with network performance, buffering etc. We went a step further and borrowed a vision mixer from the media dept and used that to superimpose the laptop TV out in the corner of the the camcorder output so that the slides were clearly legible. Using one of those small DVD players that has a TV-input on it, I was able to have a feed of the mixer output so I could see where the overlaid graphics were and frame my shots accordingly, rather than using the camcorder's viewfinder/screen. You could probably mount a dome type CCTV camera under the projector, but I think a camcorder with a competent operator following the action will give much more acceptable results in the overspill room than a fixed wide shot.

I fear somebody has misunderstood the meaning of the word "mobile"

Not a fan of Guinness but I may have a celebratory Magners or two.

I used to have the Garmin i3, I found it told you what you were doing far too late for you to be able to do it (if that makes any sense!) so you'd nearly have stopped at a roundabout before you knew which way you were going, and inevitably you'd be in the wrong lane. Have they improved that in recent models?

TomTom's software is great. Bear in mind that rather than being a black box piece of kit it's just software that sits on a glorified Windows PDA that has a GPS receiver. This means that if you can run additional apps on the same unit. I use an app on mine that logs the position, so I can use it on battery and take it with me when walking, and I have some software that will tie up the timestamp on the GPS log with the EXIF on photos and geotag them.

Maybe you could use some of the content from archive.org - Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive This stuff is mainly Creative Commons licensed, so very usable.

How are you feeding the screens? Would it be possible to grab RSS feeds from appropriate news sites and do a headlines screen?

Or open the pps in Open Office (might need to rename it back to ppt) and save it as Flash, but be aware that you lose a lot of the animation effects. Naturally the kid will have ensured that all of the images in the file are from sources for which there is appropriate copyright clearance, because otherwise you couldn't put it on the website...

Beatles - Hard Day's Night (...and I've been working like a dog) Irish Rover (getting tenuous now!)

Being described as a "whipper-snapper" at the age of 30 is a welcome surprise!

How about this: Batch file which pipes ipconfig to a file and then uses command line FTP to upload that to the web server, and then the public page parses the file to get at the IP address.

Depends where the server is - if it's within the LEA it should pick up the 10. address, if you go via a proxy to get to it then it'll show you as having the proxy's IP which will screw things up.

How about a web page that contains a PHP script which grabs $_SERVER(REMOTE_ADDR) - this is the client IP address - and writes it to a file on the server. This script needs to have a really random name so that nobody else will find it. There may be better ways to do the security on this if you feel it's necessary. Put a shortcut to it in your startup folder, and maybe have the script redirect to your normal homepage. Then have a public page that will read the file, work out where you are based on the IP address - the explode() function is good for this, using . as the delimiter - and display something appropriate. You could also have a version of the first script which you manually run when you are leaving site which clears the file, so that the second script can show that you're off-site/travelling/at home with your feet up.

Hmm must have set my privacy preferences to be too restrictive for the bot to post it - it's my 30th today

I was getting "Connection Refused" not long ago.

I don't know why that makes me feel old when I'm only 2 years older!

There used to be a weatherman in one of the ITV regions called Michael Hunt who apparently took great pains to make it clear that he shouldn't be introduced as Mike.

I shocked one of our lecturers, who graduated herself fairly recently when I showed her Turnitin, the plagiarism detection system. "I didn't believe that existed, I always thought it was something the lecturers made up to scare us"

The other advantage of the web form is that it might get more use than email. If you do manage to set something up to anonymise emails, the students only have your word for it that their details have been stripped out of it, which would goes against everything they know about how emails work. On a web form, as they're not putting their name in they may be more inclined to believe it is anonymous.

Could a web based form do the job? It wouldn't have to ask the student's name and would send all emails from a specified address, such as the teacher's own.

Do I detect an ulterior motive to this post, as GMail is currently down?

Probably not going to do the job, although maybe for your admin network, but I'll mention it anway - you can get a (domestic type) router that has a USB port into which you can plug a 3G dongle, and it can switch between the network and 3G if there is a failure. Buy Edimax 3G-6200wg wireless 3G / DSL router 3G-6200Wg from CCL - Online Retailer of the Year 2008, 2007 & 2006 for laptops, desktops and computer hardware

Grr. Windows 7 should be a free upgrade from Vista, as it's basically a bug fix. *FX: Pigs flying past Steve's window*