budgester

Where would I get the SIF agents for the above from ? Free, Commercial ? Any links ?

What I would like to see in the MIS arena and I'm sure it wouldn't take to long to do. 1. LiveCD that creates a server with Open Source Solutions for the Schools Interoperability Framework on it. Get an old PC and install. There you go a nice free open source ZIS. 2a. SIMS Command Reporter report that will output the basic details required for SIF into an XML file. (This report can be scheduled to be run easily) 2b. Something Similar for CMIS and other MIS systems. 3. A small application that will read the above generated XML file and connect to the ZIS as a SIF agent. 4. Some SIF clients e.g: a. AD account provision b. Moodle course integration c. zimbra account creation d. You idea here.... The plan here is to basically make it the easiest method for other applications to start to use ZIS as the chosen method of data transfer. So anyone with me on this ?

Need to upgrade the database to 2008 first then will try SOLUS 3, gave it a go last year, but had some issues with S drive mapping.

For the new prices in London see page 9 of the following booklet.http://www.lgfl.net/services/New-Era-Services/Documents/Announcing%20the%20new%20LGfL.pdf

So you know whats on my job list for the next couple of weeks the :-) The bit that is really annoying, is I've seen the VLE costs coming and tried to push a sefl hosted Moodle, but SLT were taken in by the LEA's assurance and free training of the LGFL's chosen VLE, so now we either have to swallow the £6.5k for the VLE or try and find a way to transfer all our resources , and re-train the staff (which will go down well I'm sure).

Went to a meeting at our LEA yesterday, they will no longer be subsidising our VLE and LGFL costs. Looks like the cost to us is going up from £3799 for both LGFL and Fronter to £16382 for LGFL and £6500 for fronter or inc vat £27458, the harnessing technology grant has gone which we got about £4K, so it looks like we are likely to be around £30K short in the coming financial year. Ouch.

How have you implemented the intranet ? If it's something knocked up in dreamweaver or the like, then it will likely die slowly. If you've used a content management system such as Drupal, Wordpress or the like then the intranet can ususally be used with plugins and the like to create a portal. i.e. RSS feeds from your VLE, edugeek, Galleries of school photos etc. Especially if the intranet is enforced as people's homepages, using GPO's (if you use windows).

Hopefully this will not be restricted to those that pay an additional license fee.

Totally agree, it's nice to hear from a Serco Technical Person, and the comment actually gave me more information that I was able to glean from the stand at BETT. 100 engineers is certainly slightly different to 100 developers, and it's good to know that hopefully there will be a decent database schema. As for the API, I assume we are talking about a web service, something like SOAP, XML-RPC, Rest ? What about the migration strategy ? Assessment templates, events, reports etc. For those of us that have puts years of work into getting the system working as we want it too, to fit our environment, the possibility of having to throw all that work away and start again is pretty appalling. User syncronisation, links to AD, training, embedded knowledge, links to MIS and various other software systems that'll have to be re-written. It can sometimes feel that it is a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water, when a supplier turns round and says we are re-writing the whole application from the ground up.

In fact a huge concern, if there is a flood/fire that takes out the comms room, chances are the school is going to be closed. If my internet connection goes down somewhere between my premises and the data centre then I can't do registration, I have no contact details for parents/carers. So unless I keep paper based records up to date as well as the remote server, there is a good chance I will have to send students home as soon as my internet connection goes down. Whereas currently in a pinch I can run CMIS from a laptop if I want to. And my LAN is always going to be more stable than a load of random hops over the internet. And if you think the the web is not less reliable than anything else, I think it's time for you to re-take your fundamental networking classes again.

Chatted to the Serco people on the stand at BETT, lets say I was less than impressed, two static pages, and that was it, and apparently it will be based on the the same database as the current one, and anyone who has prodded the old database knows that it was probably designed by crack monkeys. They claimed to have one hundred developers working it, so that sounds like none of them has ever read Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man month. So in reality, I reckon it's just a new version of eportal that has been expanded, and they are throwing out the C++ front end.

Anything in the Logs ? This usually sounds like a DNS setting, i.e. trying redirect to a server, that has had it's IP address changed or something similar. Log onto a machine locally. The logs will normally give you a clue.

Sounds like my bad luck, I must have just run up against the majority of militant vegetarians. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone, must be my bah humbug christmas spirit. Normal service will be resumed soon. Well as normal as I get anyway.

Lets let these animals go extinct then, in fact why do we need animals at all ? No milk, eggs, wool, food, etc etc If you read the thread you can see I am against factory farming. But not farming in a humane way. If the OP had posted the video, with a link to the petition then we can do something about it if we choose. Don't just give me problems, I need solutions or at least some method of influencing the outcome. And the whole planet going vegetarian is not it. But there is no need to just post the video. I love the bit that is highlighted in bold on that petition, it is more of a petition against local farmers losing their livelyhood than against the farm farm. Educate the americans on their farming practices, get the organic free range movement going over there. Of course there is the freedom of speech issue, and the OP is welcome to post whatever they want, but everyone else is also entitled to that same freedom.

I am in complete agreement with you, so why do people feel the need to post videos about factory farming on a technical site ? And then imply that me eating a bacon sandwich is wrong ? This is what makes me angry.

That I know, and fully understand, and have been on both sides of the fence, having been a vegetarian at one point, but I have yet to see hunting videos posted on sites such as this, whereas vegetarian ones keep popping up. Why ? The argument there is about the cruelty, of the final blow, there are humane methods of slaughtering animals, in the same way as there is inhumane ways. The market is there for it, it's about the money, again I say the best way to change animal cruelty is buy choosing to buy products with the highest welfare standards. The reason why it is an issue now, well lets look at some history, when did factory farming come about, I would suggest after the second world war when we were in dire need of food (hence the rationing). Before that there were lots more small local farms, and chemicals, food supplements etc, were not used organic free range was the norm. But after that it was quicker,cheaper and easier to breed/farm in an intensive way with no regard to welfare. However now we are finding out what was/is done and we are able to make a choice, Vegetarianism, Vegan, Factory, Free range, Organic etc. But the more ethical choices are more expensive, and we have got used to meat being cheap. And I gotta ask the question why are so many processed vegetarian products made to replicate meat ? I absolutely agree, having had an allotment in the past, and growing some of my own food in my garden now, I believe we should be more concious about what we put in our bodies, and I applaud people like Jamie Oliver for school dinners thing he did. But on the other hand I have no problem with mass slug genocide. And that works both ways, as we all know nothing is black and white, which is what always bothers me about the general vegetarian/vegan etc attitude. It is very black and white. Vegetarianism = good. Meat = Bad. How many people eat breakfast cereals ? These are carbohydrates with no vitamins or minerals in them at all, and have to have them artificially added. Mmmmm food.. I love thinking about food, more so I love eating it. But does the system always allow us too ? That's the problem with believing everything you are told and read. Do all the nike shoes have a label in them saying "Made in a far eastern sweatshop". Obviously missing a trick there then :-). But surely the farm animals help with fertilizing the ground, they are able to graze on areas where we are unable to produce viable crops, are are able to sustain families without large tracts of land that would be required to provide a varied diet. It's all part of the ecosystem, take one part away at your peril. If you believe that being a vegetarian is the panacea to the worlds problems then yes I am calling you a hypocrite, why not go all the way become a vegan, live a self supporting lifestyle shun money and live in a barter economy. But your not, your sat on the internet, burning fossil fuels, in an industrialised 1st world country. I can't prove to you that I have done the reading, so lets not argue that point. Would I have quite happily sat there on my allotment with a gun shooting pigeons that came down to eat the seeds I had just planted. Yes. Would I have then eaten them pigeons that I had just killed. Yes. In fact I think that preferable to just dumping the carcases. So I ask myself is that any different to eating free range organic meat ? And I personally can't see any ethical difference. Can you ?

I understand all of this and was not claiming that vegetarians do not notice suffering, but I do claim that the majority of vegetarians do end up getting all preachy about it and claiming superiority because of there choices. I eat meat, and as far as I can do buy from a local organic/free range butcher. Not only because I personally believe that it reduces the unessecary suffering of the animals, it supports my local economy, and it tastes better. As I am sure you are aware our methods of producing crops are far from perfect as well, and it's not only insects that are killed, (which can be tasty as well). Go take a look in a stream, when there is fertilizer wash off, monoculture crops impacting on bio diversity. Nope, you just proposed that, I said nothing of the sort. Personally I think the main issue is with the quality of life that factory farmed animals are given, and I totally against it, I think the best way that you can change animal welfare, is to conciously buy Free Range Organic Meat. By boycotting it all together you have no impact on the farming industry, by buying and possibly paying extra for responsibly farmed animals you will change the market, and hence the animal welfare. No I don't but I try to, and where does all the fruit and veg comes from, shall we talk about food miles in this debate as well. Which bit, the fact that I like salad in my burger or that I used to cram into a tube train ? (P.S. That may have been a bit of humour in my first posting, the sort of dark humour you get after having spent a couple of hours spent crammed onto a london tube train) That was my point exactly, how do you draw a line ? All you are doing is appeasing your own conscience. What level of suffering am you able to put up with and still feel good about yourself. I try and make informed decisions, and affect change. But when someone posts a video about animal suffering, without proposing to do something sensible about it, that's just scare tactics. Why not ? Lets call it survival of the fitest, evolution, natural selection, free market, anarchy, stick it to the man. It just seems to mean that vegetarianism is often presented as the solution that will solve all the worlds problems. Global Warming, Poverty, Corruption, Windows Crashing. I'm not argueing against vegetarianism, it your choice, but why post a video about american factory farms which the clips said was one company, and the other had made changes, on an education IT forum, whats the agenda ? Why do all vegetarian arguments end up with "Try reading....." or "Try watching...." been there done that, got over the hype, and started using my own brain.

The thing that bugs me with vegetarians is that they fail to see the suffering they also inflict on animals due to crop harvesting, pesticides etc. it's hidden and so no one notices it, whereas a big slab of steak in the super market is obviously a dead animal. I really wouldn't want to be a family of field mice when the combine harvester comes through.... Intensive farming, I'm totally against, there really is no need for that sort of cruelty, and thats why we have laws in this country, and methods of marking packaging, but then if you think of somewhere like wales there really isn't that many places where you are gonna be able to grow and harvest crops in an easy manner but I have seen sheep in some of the most inaccesable areas. If you really want to see cramped conditions.... get on a tube in london at rush hour. Personally I think it's matter of gaining balance, i.e. I like salad in my burger :-) with some chips as well. I was vegetarian once in my youth, but then couldn't work out where to stop, do I throw away all my leather boots, should I stop using oil based products, get rid of my car, live in a cave, wearing only a handwoven loin cloth ? I think vegetarianism is pretty much the trendiest form of hypocrisy, lets sort out the injustices and cruelty that is currently being carried out against humans first. In fact sod it. Lets all get together and hug a tree.

What about iWallpaper ? or maybe an iDuvet,

Heres how I do it... Write a user report in SIMS with an export to XML. Drop it onto a server. Parse the XML file with a program of your favourite language, also link to your AD, compare the two then take an approriate action. I email myself any difference between AD and SIMS so I can make a choice if I want to delete or not. Schedule daily. I can post scripts etc if you want. Personally I find that most of the time the people in charge of SIMS/CMIS never get starters/leavers staff/students up to date quick enough.

Why would you want to lock yourself into a censored restricted cyber-ecosystem ?

Please don't get me started...

how to use ssh to run shell script on a remote machine? - Stack Overflow But you'll need to configure the ssh keys.

Have a look at some splicecom kit.

Try it in the search box put "test; INSERT into telephone...... 'the rest of the insert statement';" Or be evil to yourself and try "test; DROP Table telephone;" Read AskBee.NET | php | SQL Injection | sql injection and PHP: mysql_real_escape_string - Manual You might also want to look at permissions on the database etc... Welcome to the nasty world of web based sql. Have fun. Now the question you have to ask is... do you care ?