matt40k

It uses the Windows token. Idea is the application will never prompt for your Windows password which could result in a man-in-the-middle attack and end up with your username and passwords being posted on pastebin along with tesco customers details.

It doesn't "Lessened security". It adds a false layer of security. You're generally find the SIMS password is something unbelievably simple, never changes and normally located on a piece of paper in the laptop back, a post note stuck to the monitor or failing that, known by class. Windows Key + L is the only way to secure "SIMS" not to mention if your only "protecting" SIMS you've already failed. [/rant]

We're currently at that stage where it all boils down to "you can lead a horse to water, but your can't make him drink". Basically schools are "rebelling" against the LA, if an LA states they must, the school will argue it's the wrong choice. This is why most LA have given the schools pretty much full control of their budget and gone, here's our recommendations, pick. Which is basically what the DfE has done with the MIS framework. In Suffolk I think we recommend uniservity, in Cambridgeshire it was SLG and others picked Frog, Moodle. They've come under fire because they were "useless". I've seen some really epic setups on each and I've seen some truly terrible ones as well. The key is the ones that work, the school was 100% behind in and invested the time and money in it - normally hiring a person(s) dedicated to it.

@GREED, is a LA gets a number of schools asking for something, and they get it regardless of if the LA provides it or not, it makes sense for the LA to get it then reduce costs and sure optimal TOC. PS: Not agreeing with the whole SLG thing, just why a LA might provide it.

SIMS wise you're ok, it's a site license.

Far as I was aware UAC affects all users. It basically means everything is ran as a restricted user token until you allow it to run with the elevated account. I think Microsoft choice of words were a bit off - "Run as administrator" doesn't mean run as administrator. It means run as your elevated user token. The bit where you have to enter a user\pass is the old RUNAS which has been in Windows since XP, actually, I think it was Windows 2000 If I'm wrong, it shouldn't matter that UAC is on!! My understanding of UAC is that you don't need administrator rights to surf the internet, so it runs your browser or whatever as sub-user with lowest rights possible. This way it limits the damage any malware\virus\trojan\whatever could do. I can't see how that is a problem that should be switched off. Capita SIMS is on Microsoft approved Windows Logo program, they are a Gold Partner so they really shouldn't be tell you to turn UAC off.

Log it with Capita as you shouldn't have to give users full control of anything in c:\program files or lower UAC or anything that would make your system less secure!

Try: private bool ResetUserPassword { get { try { // Create an Instance of DirectoryEntry. DirectoryEntry myDirectoryEntry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://domain.local"); myDirectoryEntry.Username = this.UserTxtbox.Text; myDirectoryEntry.Password = this.PwdTxtbox.Text; } catch (Exception) { return false; } return true; } }

The OEM COA license sticker is non-transferable. You will need to purchase a new (full not upgrade) license for each mac that is running windows in a virtualbox. You can confirm this with Microsoft licensing. PS: This topic is over 6 years old!!

Those are lovely servers, I think we use the 400 series here. 1x quad core will be ok. Not sure why you'd 136GB 15k SAS for the OS however? I'd though sata be better. RAID-5 or 10 for the data. More discs to split the tempdb and log file off -yer ok in enterprise world you would, but look at the extra costs\hassle vs the benefit of just having 2/3 SSDs - be worth checking prices.

Sorry, I've failed. So you spend a premium on a Mac because? (I know there are reasons), then spend another premium buying an additional OS (and I'm lost). I'm guessing it's not the performance impact - unless you're using it as excuse to upgrade or ditch SIMS lol! I know some places have a few macs that they would ideally like to use SIMS on, but the £100 a OS license fee gets the idea cancelled out. If they do RDS\RDP or even something like SLG makes more sense! Just to confirm you can't use the license under a schools microsoft agreement as that is an upgrade only, so you'd need to buy either retail licenses or OEM licenses then place the COA physical on the mac - sure this would cause some kinda curse to fall upon you of course. PS: Sorry to rain on your post

Nope, wasn't free at the time and it never made it very far here. My colleagues gave them a list of things they would need to be improved and I guess "they" were thinking it was a fully loaded drop-in replacement. Which it wasn't for us. The summary is the USA education market works differently to the UK market, so they need to make a UK version.

Oh no, I'm sure it's brilliant like all the other MIS systems (each with their own unique "features" of course). Let me put it this way, the last time @GREED was in our offices he was trying to sell us Aspen.

I'm in tears of laughter

Haha, not any more, I just get to point and laugh now whilst I wait for huge SQL jobs to complete... then spend the rest of the day pulling my hair out trying to unpick some god awful logic that makes SIMS look like plain english.

EduBase is manual far as I can tell.

Next you'll be telling me you just found out you can put a sims.ini in the application directory rather then Windows directory or passing a connect.ini location.

Last time I checked you hadn't won the lottery, so you've got bills to pay. So you need to be generating income some how... basically where is the large "contact us for independent consultancy" ad, otherwise I'll be thinking you got some back hand deal going on - we all know how to fudge figures and facts to make our friendly* supplier come out on top. Also how will this differ from the DfE (framework) work? * the one who's paying a nice referral fee

How will this differ from the DfE work? Just thinking someone will be paying you My understand was this was to bring all that data you already submit to the DfE under one roof rather then having individual pockets of data. So your school details on EduBase would get updated by School Census for example.

Fair enough if your careful and you have your processes in place - like you've created a dedicated read-only user\you use a backup copy of your database. But if you give out help to people who are less able who maybe shouldn't be dipping into raw tables because they aren't so careful, I call that pretty irresponsible. Sorry if that causes offence, it's just the fact of the matter.

Yer, you need to go down the business route or simplify it not add complexity, otherwise you'll just add to the damage when you leave, because everyone leaves (either for a new job or a grave).

As a parent, if a school is take public money to educate my child and they use that money to build a tool to enhance how they operate, I'm all for it. If the school is taking that money and investigate additional money beyond what they would gain from the tool on the bases that this tool would become self-supporting - ie as a business. I have an issue. That's risk. If they are sure it can make money, they need to find funding from somewhere other then the school. If bank won't lend them money to start it up as a separate business, and the DfE or LA won't sponsor it, I call that high risk. The grey area is where do you draw the line of cost vs benefit. There is no fix rule - we all know about the successful ones - like SIMS, but what about the others that have failed? I think the business arm is a good idea, as it means you don't get into the issue of what happens when the main dev leaves the school. For mean it should be the accidental business rather then having that as a goal. IE you do it, then the neighbouring school picks up on it and so on. Otherwise you need to do it as a business from day one and have a very good bond with the school.

That's a can of worms right there. Assuming your an Academy, which would be easier, the one of the problem would be ensuring that school isn't affect by reselling it. So they have a problem they get priority. Other problem would be is it ethical to use public money to create a commercial product, assuming you're developing it (even part) during office hours as part of your job. If you seriously believe it's worth selling you'll be better off getting a LA or a separate software development company onboard.

That's a dangerous road mately. It's like change control, no one likes it, most of the time you could get away from skipping it entirely or at least parts of it, but the facts stand up for themselves, almost all the major problems occur because someone skip the change control. Hey I don't need to use the API, I'll go direct, next time it's I'll use the 'sa' account, then it's I'll change that UPN because the UI won't let me (rather then waiting for the UPN tool from Capita), time after that it's delete\update statement.. only you forgot the where clause... and to do a backup before hand - bang goes this morning attendance marks.

@LosOjos Your in-house analysis system - is this open-source? Do other schools use it or is it just your place?