budgester

First thing I would do is actually get a handle of what connections you actually have. I.e. Core Cab 80 Ports Cab1 80 Ports 2xMultimode fibre to core Cab 2 2xMultimode fibre to core etc. What you are aiming for is a star with as few hops between switches as possible. If you have any hubs whatsoever pull em out and replace them with a switch, doesn't have to be expensive. If you can get decent switches everywhere, then you have the option of aggregating your fibre pairs, to give you 2gb instead of 2 * 1gb, this will allow better burst capacity. There are lots of other considerations, i.e what is generating the traffic, is the specific places where you have bottlenecks. Regards Budgester

So your sending out HTML emails with links to images etc. Did you not try and tell the powers that be, that this is not a nice thing to do ? Apart from the fact this is going to get marked as spam in so many mail clients. Email should be nice simple text. Send out a email with a web address to download a newletter. Regards Budgester

I bugged my RM rep about this when he was in last week, basically saying if they offered Moodle support, I'd buy it (probably wouldn't use it, but I would buy it) I suggested that they make a linux box in the same way as they do the Cache box. If someone like RM joined the Moodle community I'm sure they could make a bucket load of cash out of it.

My current build process for a Linux box is: Stick Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server on it. Do the boring things all Linux boxes need on them (samba, winbind, nscd, ntp). Surely thats what cfengine is for ?

Seems like things are hotting up in the VLE space http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007012520202052

Put Linux on em, I don't suppose upgrading(downgrading ?) from Linux would be covered as a competive upgrade ? Didn't microsoft do something weird like that back in the day ?

Agreed that CMIS is full of bugs, we use it here, and I have written a bunch of php/sql scripts to get required information directly out of the database. I'm considering making our scripts into the beginnings of an open source project. Any interest ? What I'd really like to see is some sort of FLOSS MIS, schooltool is a good start, how many schools are there in the UK ? This could probably be developed for a 10th of the cost that we all currently pay. And if the DFES wanted changes then they could implement a module themselves. Any back to reality

30 or so users? That's seems a bit less doesn't it? I mean, I'm looking at a potential 1500 users, does that mean 1500/30 = 50 Servers? 8O That'd be active users I would suppose. So do you have 1500 PC's to replace ?

How ridiculous is it that there is even such a thing. Certified Licensing Specialist, shouldn't this be "lawyer". Regards Budgester

Personally I use GIMP, as it's nice to use the same application on Linux and Windows. The same reason I use firefox and gaim. We have GIMP and Photoshop Elements both installed. Then people decide what they want to use. Regards Martin.

resolve.conf is the file that you enter the dhcp servers that you use. So enter the ip address of the Windows 2003 dns server. Only really need if you don't use dhcp on this box.

You could be right, we went for the full everything as they are the only switches we use now, I'd check with HP.

That would be the holy grail :-) But slowly we are all getting there, what would be nice to see would be the examination companies, QCA etc creating the basic schemes of work as a SCORM resource. Fully agree about the evangelising, it can get old and tired after a while. Running an free software project myself, I know about the cost of free software all to well. I also know the cost of my sanity when using non-free solutions (free = freedom) as I have been banging my head against CMIS 2.8 for a couple of weeks now. Bring on schooltool. What should be done with any project within ICT (in fact most things in life) is to make decisions based on needs and specified criteria. And occasionally hitting them with a cluebat. Regards Budgester

wtf? Exactly why we don't use much open source. The staff turn their noses up at it let alone the kids. We have a member of staff (office manager) who cant use word. EVERYTHING she does is in publisher. When you are facing that level of IT Compentency it would be almost impossible to try and implement an open-source alternative. But I bet they use google.

Don't really do putting the kettle on, but I do a mean line in opening bottles of wine. :-) Anyone for a glass ?

If you have it in your budget get the procurve manager software as well. It make life so much nicer when you make configuration changes.

I fully agree with you on this point, the same is true for all VLE's I think we need to clear up how we are using the word free. All the costs you mentioned are going to effect pretty much any VLE someone chooses to use. Lets no forget the freedom the the gpl license gives you (this the license that moodle is under). See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html but you really need to sit down with a coffee and think about what this is saying. Surely a VLE is just that, a Virtual Learning Enviroment, not an email server, or a document repository. Let the email people do email, and the VLE people do VLE's As long as you can plug in your communications solution, be it email, sms, voip etc, to your VLE. Surely thats the point, people like those you mentioned above, are pushing the boundries of teaching and learning, and are willing to share their experiences. Can we name any high profile users of other VLE's, or can we talk to a vibrant user community. I'm not overly enlightened of the different types/methods of pedagogy but I'm pretty sure that moodle is able to flex and fit around most types, and if not you have the freedom to modify it, and then share them changes. I sure Martin from Moodle will also say that moodle isn't designed to meet all of our needs, but it surely has to be the market leading VLE. Regards Budgester

There's the problem, the website doesn't give much information other than the usual marketing blurb, No demo, So we can't even see what we are getting. The moodle site runs on moodle, so we can see what is possible. If you want a specific feature in fronter, you have to hope and pray that the company will find it in there interest to add it in. And when we say moodle is free, don't forget that it's not only free of cost (to acquire the software, of course there is a cost for server, maintainence etc) but it it free to do whatever you want to it. I.e. open source, (see http://www.gnu.org) so if I want to add SMS texting with a link to my MIS system I can code it up and give that away free as well. So is this a good VLE ? I really couldn't say. Is this good software ? Check out the way the links to pages on there website work, I have never seen anything quite so odd. Is there a community of thousands of people around the globe using with information and courses being shared ? Is the LGFL going to share the process of chosing the VLE ? Becta only released there recommended VLE providers a few days ago, but thats another story. Is there a range of books and companies that help with training and support ? How many other Universities and Schools use the product so that skills are transferable for staff and students ? Do you want me to go on ? probably not, I'll try and shut up now. Regards Budgester

Oh, I'm so excited I can't sit still. I wonder if this is gonna get completely ignored in the same way as the LGFL digitalbrain. Because of course schools were consulted on this by ...... no one. The most popular vle in the uk is ........ I guess moodle. 1548 registered sites in the UK. I enjoyed helping out on the BETT stand on friday, but there seems to be so many clueless idiots making decisions about educational ICT. So for anyone at the LGFL reading this, I am not impressed. But I'm sure it'll all be okay when we all go away and ICT is outsourced with BSF. Disclaimer: These are my opinions not my employers.

The OU degree is hard work, not technically hard, you just have to get used to doing assignments on deadlines. I'm personally end up doing the reading a week before the deadline and spending two evenings doing the assignment. Which reminds me I've got an assignemt coming up at the start of feb, must start the reading. Regards Budgester

Being part way through a OU Computing degree (Started it at 31), I'm gonna disagree with you here. I've worked in IT since I was 20, and thought that degrees were worthless as some of the graduates I'd worked with were clueless. However if you put experience together with education, then things start to get interesting. The degree part is introducing me to concepts that in the past I would have passed over. As an example I didn't really 'get' Object Orientated programming and all the fun stuff with testing, boundry checking until I did the course, before that I was very much a nike coder (just do it). But now I have options. Logic trees, binary searching, stacks vs arrays and many other weird computing theory things. And of course there is the writing element. By writing degree level assignments you learn a lot about how to get ideas across and answer questions with relevant information. So don't knock degrees, however they only seem to get interesting in what would be the second and third year of a full time degree course. The first year seems to be just getting everyone up a to level to do the second and third year. Regards Budgester

As far as I am concerned, moodle would be the only sensible choice. It is in use worldwide, so skills are transferable. It is getting bigger all the time, it won't be going away any time soon, if moodle inc. went bankrupt it's still available. It's free software(libre), with an excellent amount of support available. The people developing it are passionate about the concept, rather just being a money making scheme. There is an excellent moodlemoot every year in the UK, and some of the things people are doing is astounding.

How about a nice moodle course set up with a bunch of questions for the assesment. Why re-invent the wheel ? Then schools could just upload it to an existing moodle installation. Maybe with a syncronise module that sends the results to a central server. If there results are marked instantly then a CTF with the results could be produced to go straight into the MIS system.

We have two 5406zl for our core. We did a complete network overhaul for around 40000k This included 21 2600 series switches 5 3400 series swithes 2 5400 series switches including all the fibre modules, and network design. I started by getting HP to design and quote, then they passed us to a local partner who were exceptionally good, they took the HP design which was overengineered to the max, and visited our site and reworked the design . HP Network design (free) http://h41111.www4.hp.com/procurve/uk/en/services/design_center/index.html Our supplier. http://www.atc.co.uk/

How about one of these ? https://secure.dnuk.com/systems/rs6360-64.php