skunk

Please tell me that Capita are not asking for db files containing student's UPN numbers, date of birth, home addresses, whether the child is looked after by the local authority, ex-directory phone numbers, teachers contact and contract details, unencrypted, over a public network????? I can't put my finger on it but something, and I not sure what, makes me (and Gordon Brown probably) a tiny bit twitchy about this. Skunk P.S. What's wrong with sftp?

You have to bear in mind that when teachers are interviewed they are asked before the interview if they are still firm candidates. If they do not answer yes, thats it, interview over. Often teachers do not understand that the real world doesn't work like that. Sorry, but things usually work out for the best. Skunk

We need to set it up with rules based on AD users and groups but don't know if it needs to be part of a domain to do this or do we tell it to get authentication info from the AD controller? How do we move lists of allowed URLs from ISA 2000 to ISA 2006? Thats for starters Skunk

We are having problems setting up ISA 2006, is there anyone in the South Cumbria / North Lancs area that has this installed and working as a web proxy? If so would anyone be prepared to chat with one of our technicians or perhaps have them visit to look at the setup? Here's hoping. Skunk

We use SIMS. Am I 100% happy with it? No. Would I swap? No. The Local Authority support us and although the quality of support has declined over the last 18 months it is still fairly good. Two local schools have recently changed to Serco and then gone back to SIMS, how bad the Serco system must have been to make them think that changing back to SIMS was a good idea I have no idea. There is no golden MIS for schools, we just don't pay companies enough to deliver it, they are too complex and the government keeps putting ludicrous demands on the suppliers. It is just a case of finding one and trying to force it to fit what you want to do with it. As for SIMS Assesment Manager, it is a central database that all staff have access to, it's pretty good. It exports to Excel and imports from Excel so you don't have to try to perform anything more complex than a simple Mean calculation. If you do want to use the more complex calculations then be prepared to spend a LOT (I mean aeons) of time getting it right. Anyway, good luck. Skunk

This looks great, but am I right in thinking it will only work with IIS6? I have no experience with .asp, or attempting to get it to run on open source products. On another note, can you search the requests for key words? Cheers Skunk

Try putting the SIMS server ip address and hostname in the hosts file. I recall this is how I stopped this error in the past.

The reason and solution is documented on the Captia SupportNet - KB72234 But basically could be: Excessive network traffic. Incorrect connect.ini configuration. Firewall problems General network problems with this machine. Instead of reinstalling, delete the Sims.NET folder under program files and run the install again. Hope this helps. Skunk

£80 for a replacement 8O , I think a nice long piece of steel wire to whip the people that lost them. We didn't need any new projectors / computers / servers this year anyway :x skunk

We have an awful lot of projectors in the school and it appears that we have considerably less remote controls for them. Does anyone know if there is a generic remote which can be purchased as a replacement or are we going to have to track down lots of different makes. On a related note, does anyone do anything to secure their remote controls from theft, accidental breakage and user incompetance? Such chain them to the wall, large nail through them, staple them to users, etc? Cheers Skunk

The staff at your school should be aware that the school owns all electronic communications made from the school and that the Head and their appointed repesentatives (you) have access to their electronic communications. It is nice that you log it, but not strictly necessary. The other staff should assume you behave in a professional manner just as you assume they do. Or to put it another way, just because they behave in an unprofessional fasion does not mean everyone else does. You should have an ICT Acceptable Use Policy, agreed by the governors, SMT and Unions, within the school which covers all of this. If not suggest the school contacts their LA for a recommended one. Skunk

As far as I am aware Office 2007 is not supported as it uses a different XML format from Office 2003. Am running August Upgrade with SQL 2000, will do the upgrade when the SQL 2005 software turns up. Skunk

I get Exams Organiser to work by doing the following: Export all results to Excel and then do all analysis on them there. Exams Organiser does not include all qualifications in the calculations, i.e. BTEC Intorductory Cert (2x GCSE D-F Grades), BTEC Intorductory Diploma (4x GCSE D-F Grades), CPWL (Cert in Preparation for Working Life - 1/2 GCSE). For some reason this year it was also including the results from students who had left the school, weird. So I prefer to do it myself. Skunk

Firefox will keep all the pages you have opened in every tab in memory so that you have faster back/forward navigation. At last count colleague had firefox using 1.6Gb of RAM. skunk

So no-one else just restarts the SQL database then? Works a treat. Skunk

Here in Cumbria our RBC (CLEO) have committed to providing moodle with integration to MIS systems. I don't know how they plan to go about this but they probably have the financial clout to think about licencing and producing a module for moodle/SIMS integration. I know, I know, I am an optimist, but we shall see how that all goes anyway. skunk