michael2k6

You can't be needing anything out of it other than basic Exam data, assessments, bits of behaviour and personal details. You're not going to need to format it particularly well are you as long as you can get at it? So just create yourself a database in access and dump it all into there. Or pay someone to do it. If you gave someone the data in spreadsheets and said put this into access and make a few reports that do X, you'd get it a lot cheaper than that license fee.

Doesn't sound like you're really missing anything. Ensure that the db ports are open in the firewall, that's the most common issue, but if it's connecting at all you'd assume they're correct. Is it just Facility? Or are you only noticing with Facility due to the amount of network throughput? Could it be something like flakey NIC drivers? Try an open ping to the server, or copying a few huge files from / to it as a test to rule out the app / db. Keep us posted.

I'm no longer there. I was a pupil there 1999-2004 and then worked there as data manager until 2006. The school were then a client as I moved to Serco and I kept in touch with a lot of staff. I'm at Southfield Grange now in Bradford, so already use smoothwall as part of BLN. The Outwood Grange Academy is now the founding academy of Grange Academy group which has various academies within its 'federation', including, I believe, doncaster, blackpool and Leeds. Outwood Grange were the first school in the country (i believe) to take on an Academy as prt of the intiative of merging failing schools and reopenning the as academies, which started iwth David Young Community Academy in leeds, where I helped to implement some ICT and MIS for Ros, the head of the new build. outwood grange were one of the first to convert by choice with an 'outstanding' ofsted rating, headed by Michael Wilkins who is now the exec of the trust. Loads of random info for you there, sorry for thread hijacking!

I can confirm the plexi glass bubble isn't there any more, that area was rebulit in 2002 ish, the plexiglass is now a corridor, and ironically that area is down the corridor from the server room and in the middle of 4 ICT suites so if there were to be a fire, short of it being in the science block (which used to be there but is now compeltely separate, which is perhaps why they could remove the bubble), it would probably be there. The bubble wasn't really fit for purpose as it was about 2/3 the size of a normal corridor and connected the two main parts of the biggest building (built as a bridge between the first floor of each building). It meant that people used to get a little bit stuck in there, it was a bit of a bottle neck most of the time. Since then, the rest of the school has grown massively and it's still one of the biggest in the UK in terms of land and space, so that's only one very small section of a much bigger picture now.

Hi all, I didn't really know whether to post this in hardware or AV so feel free to move it... I have inherited in my new role a couple of JVC HDV720p GY-HD201 video cameras. They have firewire on them (firewire 400). No the book basically says don't let static get to them and otherwise, off you go. But when I plug either of the cameras into a mac or a PC, nothing interesting happens. They don't show up in device manager on the PC, or in the more info bit on the mac. They don't show up in movie maker, or in iMovie. I have another camera which I've tried (a tiny little canon MD205), which is the mini version of firewire 400. I've not had any sucess with this either. In the PC it does nothing, in the MAC, the list under firewire changes to 'unable to list firewire devices'. When the Canon is unplugged it switches to 'up to 800mb/s' which is just the default text for the controller in the mac. I can't find any drivers online anywhere for the device and I'm pretty certain with them being firewire and just streaming they don't need one? The PC i'm using is a Windows 7 32bit device with a PCI Firewire card I bought this week. The cables are new and multiple, and I've tried them all. What the hell am I missing? Thanks Mike

I might be able to set you up with something voluntary in the short term for a school in Wakefield, but I'll have to look into it for you. PM me your contact details and I'll get in touch.

Hi there. I used to work for Serco (now advanced) and can give you a bit of advice here - I did write a nice reply but had an issue with my edugeek account which would actually let me post it. If your current server is running two ePortals, then doing the manual update is more or less the same as adding a third, just with the registration of a service - or are you saying you have two servers, each running one eportal? Either way you can put multiple ePortals on the same box but it's a bit of a pain, especially when it comes to updates. I'll PM you a proper reply tomorrow though. Mike

What teejay said. I have an ankle issue and a knee issue and take these, and it does seem to help quite a bit

The log book / V5 is the registration document stating the owner and registered address. If you never filled one out, you don't own the car. Not informing the DVLA of a new owner is illegal and lying about the date is probably too, but if you've nver done this (presumably it belongs to family?) then what about exporting it now in their name and then changing the owner once it's out there?

Sounds OK to me. Bear in mind that during peak assessment times etc you might want to keep an eye on the cores assigned and (I don't know HyperV all that well) potentially assign extra processor to it dynamically? I'd recommend you run nearer to the 16gb mark -the recommended spec is 8cores and 8gb RAM as a minimum - dependant on how many students you have, datasets in the database and staff accessing it, whether you've got Behaviour Management installed and how heavily you use it for assessments - if you're a school with 800 kids and no behaviour management, 4 cores and 8gb will be fine, but if you've got 1600 kids and use all of the above heavily, you might need to assign it more. Obviously if it's on something currently really outdated and poorly spec'd, the only way is up

There are a few rules to follow when creating a new database in SQL. It's changed slightly since the last recommended document which John's right in saying I did write. I'm up to speed on the new bits though so I'll if you both PM me your email addresses i'll send you instructions on Thursday when I'm back at work. I used to be the guy who you'd get migrating if if you paid for consultancy, so I can tell you a few of the bits to watch out for too. I can also divulge that they do still offer migration as a paid for service. They can do that remotely or on site but there's quite a big price difference. They have a few new guys on support so they may not be up to speed with that yet. I'll give you a few tips now though so you can get building your boxes - Once thing to consider which i'll mention now is please, please don't put your database files in a virtual drive on a SAN full of other virtual drives, you'll kill it. Bear in mind it uses tempdb a lot too so make sure that you set the default install path in 2008R2 for data files to go to a non SAN disk. You find that the DB runs better on disks physically attached to the host, but if you've something like an EMC SAN which is running several RAIDS, people tend to put the O/S on a mirrored RAID and the DB on a RAID 5 array. I'd keep them on their own disks if you can though, a RAID 5 attached directly to the host works best. Make sure you're using SAS 10 / 15k too, don't use SATA. Also bear in mind that tomcat will only use one core, and dataserver will use a core (and a maximum of 2gb RAM each as they're only 32bit services), then if possible have 2 for the O/S too. So 6gb RAM for ePortal box is plenty. If you stick SQL on the same box, try and give it 6 - 8 cores, if you're putting SQL on a different box, give it 4 cores or more. If SQL is on the same box, try and give it 8gb RAM upwards, if it's on a separate one, give ePortal 6gb and SQL 6gb upwards. Mic

I just spotted we're on page 665 of general chat... I wondered if this post would tip it to 666?

You might find some help on here but Advanced Learning won't help you code. The idea is they provide the framework for the API and then you use SOAP to interface with it. I think our plan will be to pay someone to do this and leave us the source in the hope that future editing we can work out, without having to do it all from scratch. It's really not something I'd take on without some fair amount of experience. That might not be the answer you want, but just an opinion; it might be better to start planning for that now than maybe coming to that realisation later on when you're really pushed for time.

Cheers for sharing, Mark, I look forward to borrowing your reports for a speedy take up on implementation and hopefully contributing in the near future Nice to hear some positivity about Progresso too, especially so close. Communication since ACS have taken over does seem to have improved, especially considering the flack they're getting for mistakes made prior to their acquisition.

Greg, Thanks for introducing yourself. I worked for Serco and then Advanced for 6 years up until March this year which I joined a school again full time. I shan't say too much on a public forum, but there are a couple of points I'd like to make regarding our own delayed go live, which I'll send you by email. Thanks, Mark for bringing a little more balance. In my previous role I've implemented a couple of schools during a crisis stage and they've been absolutely fine, because they had whatever they needed to overcome the problems, had a can do attitude, and were aware of the level of commitment needed to make such a project work. There will always be some things which you can't get around if the issue exists; a bug is a bug, and performance issue is too, and neither of those can be overcome by an organised school. But if those have workarounds and you can ensure people stay positive (through seeing the benefits the software brings, which will only happen if correctly implemented), these things will work themselves out eventually. Mike Sanderson

Protect the speech onto the wall opposite you. No one will see it. You're a geek after all. Also, I think I will probably say one thanks to everyone in joint, mention that the wife is quite passionate about speaking for herself then sit down and turn to her as if she should stand up. Lets hope she brings her sense of humor.

Excellent. *slits throat now*

What psydii said is absolutely true. I assumed you'd already got that far. Let us know what you chose!

I'm not using it live (yet although it's planned) but used to work for Advanced Learning. To the best of my knowledge, though I don't speak on their behalf, they are focussing on performance and reliability between now and the new academic year (which is when I'll be using it). So I expect this might be better by then, if there are still issues now. The trick is to run it in whatever browser is specified as supported and then you won't have an issue. From what I remember, stick compatibility mode on and the problems disapear. This can be pushed out by policy or login script for that site, so you shouldn't have an issue. Ultimately you also have to ask can you base the decision of the MIS you'll use for the next how ever many years based on a couple of months of browser issue?

With only reading the title and nothing else.... Lock em in?

Mine (K882) had B9 WOW on it and went back to K882 after 8 years.

Consider using document storage in ePortal / Facility. You could use a markbook style assessment for inputting, and then produce form reports in Facility which automatically save attached to the student record. As long as you've got the permissions and configuration correct, ePortal can then display these for parents as PDFs. Many people use this method of pushing information out now so you're not stuck with the format ePortal delivers the results in. It also means that the parents have something they can physically print ready in a nice format with your headed logo on etc, should they want to.

Thanks for that, I'll check it out. I'm going on wha tI've been told from above in my replies, so when that person first tried it, it can't have been around. Thanks for the update, we'll leave it as is for now and if we go to paid for apps, we'll stick it in place first.

They aren't paid for apps. There is no way to buy multiple licenses for a single piece of software in the UK with an Apple device. There is in the states. So if in future I need to put an app on more than once device, and they've given me the option to sync across devices, without building a licensing functionality into that, and are giving us no way of managing it, then it's kinda tough. I'm not going to turn off syncing of all the free apps just so the one paid for app doesnt break it's license agreement, after all it's their technology feature which breaks the agreement. In reality, I don't think they'll ever have paid for apps on.

Hi all, Just incase any one else revisits this thread in future and needs an answer; I've now resolved it. The only way I could find to do it is to fully reset the Ipad - erase all contents and settings. No other intermediary resets worked. As the Ipads were brand new anyway it wasn't too much of a hardship. All of the settings looks the same now as they did before but they now store the automatic download settings as on without reverting to off. I can also say that I couldn't find a way to enter the proxy settings on the initial boot up for the activation. So you can't activate without internet connection and can't enter proxy settings prior to activation. it's like having to phone your phone company to report your phone not working. I've had to tether it to my phone's 3g to avoid the proxy. Pffft. All resolved now, though. Mike