Ditto

I was just posting about this film having watched a couple of days back. I thoroughly enjoyed it, including the twists and turns. Not for the faint-hearted and it divided critics, but for me it's up there with Parasite.

Those spikes must be sharp

I hope a solution is found that is secure, deals with all data protection requirement and keeps all parties content. However, it does remind me of the argument as to who owns 'the lifetimes work'. When employed as a programmer/software engineer, contracts were very clear about this. Didn't the early history of SIMS get wrapped up in this whole saga?

The affordability kills it for all bar a trivial minority in educational settings, so perhaps wryly, we're going to have to rely on educating people be data savvy.

I have nothing that suggests pupil names are being submitted. In the most active case, the teacher is teaching A' Level computing and conversations suggest the teacher is more than capable of using an API and GDPR aware, but I agree there is a wider danger here. Some pro-active education via the DPO would be sensible.

I asked ChatGPT for an opinion of the licensing. Seems a fair summary...

I know teachers are using ChatGPT for lesson planning, test question setting and other stuff. I know someone paying about £30 per month for personal use of ChatGPT, but in truth for business purposes. Given those options are out there, I can't see an educational environment sign up 300+ users to the product. It's still relative niche and mostly for enthusiasts. I can't think of another niche product requiring everyone in a corporation to pay for a license where in truth a small number of employees will be actively using it. I suspect the pricing model will change dramatically as the product matures, as the proposed model is insanity.

I do recall both Advanced and Progresso being combined, but I thought that got resolved at some point. Pinging @bringmoredata in case he's around and can advise.

In the 3 year SIMS contract thread there is a post that includes a link to BringMoreData info about MIS market share. See /forums/mis-systems/224774-ess-sims-3-year-contracts-68.html#post2019431 The data suggests there are 51 schools reporting that they are still using Progresso. I didn't think that was an option - has anyone more insight to the situation?

As a former Progresso admin, I'm baffled by the remaining 51. My understanding was that Advanced shut the whole lot down, including the cloud based servers (AWS I believe) holding data and code. Indeed the global login page at https://www.progresso.net/home/logon offers nothing. Certainly several schools rushed to a new MIS and as far as I know remaining on the old system wasn't an option. I wonder if the 51 is just bad data. I believe the information ultimately comes via census submissions, which makes it more odd, but there must be more behind this number. *** EDIT - the only other thing that comes to mind, wasn't there a product called Facility that was also labelled Advanced? Although I thought that got fixed to allow Progresso and Facility numbers to be seen independently? ***

Ouch - that must hurt!

So in just a few days, the government coronavirus dashboard will be decommissioned. For someone with a passion for data and it's interpretation, it's been and interesting and at times disturbing journey. But things, as always, move on. For those that wish to keep an eye on the data, a new dashboard targeted at a broader range of respiratory diseases is available and will continue to cover coronavirus. https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/

Just seemed like the right time to post this emoji.

No, but happy to hear of any suggestions. As it turned out, the PC that I first give spec on went for fifty pounds shy of £1500 - too high for me and ultimately the machine is over specced for our needs. Besides, I reckon I could build the same spec for less with a mixture of new and used parts.

Looks like the targeted PC is going to be too expensive. If you were buying a gaming PC new (self-build and option but for simplicity probably going for built), what suppliers would you recommended. For example, this from ebuyer, who I have used for components before, is £900 would seem to be well spec'd. e.g. AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

More seriously, Yr 12 son had online parent's evening yesterday, covering computing and maths. He received a comment/criticism about reusing code. It was his own code and he had built it in a modular way and dealt with that topic admirably! Credit to the teacher for allowing the discussion to proceed, but also focussing on continuing with one's creativity. The teacher asked if we had any questions. I raised the topic of using AI tools for code generation. My son explained many in his class do. The teacher was mildly surprised so many did, but had also explored the topic too. It was a really interesting, if brief discussion, where ultimately the teacher said the skill in using AI effectively is the key. My son said for simple tasks it was OK. The teacher said AI often generated code that wasn't too readable. My son explained for more complex code, going in to some depth with the functional code requirements before the AI is set loose was key. The code generated could then be tweaked - quicker than writing from scratch. I have to give the teacher huge credit for supporting a mature and exploratory approach to coding - there was no 'Don't use AI'. He even admitted to using AI for setting homework for young group lessons. I think they will enjoy the next couple of years! What experiences are others seeing within the school setting - dinosaurs or evolutionary explorers?

I'll start with this link - Google's Gemini article by the BBC. It has to be done - Google are perhaps being a little two-faced with their Gemini representation :mad:

Thread for discussing all things around the rapidly evolving Artificial Intelligence

Colleagues have implemented a MS Forms solution to collect data. The requirement then leads to maintain the data in sheet and includes simply deleting some records. Keeping the Form data and Excel sheet in sync appears to be a bit of a pain - possible with Power Apps options. I have to admit I still don't understand why the sheet view and form view aren't just windows to the same dataset but heyho! My recollection was Google Forms was much simpler! Anyway, a little research suggested moving to MS Forms Professional, which leads MS Dynamics. Has anyone trodden this path and got any insights? I had considered MS Access, but the mention of it alone would send colleagues running!

This has drifted somewhat from the OP's thread topic of SIMS and 3 year renewals, so happy for MODS to move elsewhere, but... For the second link, I'd suggest continuing the discussion at https://bromcom.com/cloud-computing-in-2023-and-the-schools-mis-market where it is already ongoing from November. Not a lot there and be aware it's not 'cuddly, warm and welcoming!'. BTW, that's a correction of your link which needs a little tidying. It's probably me, but the 'Marketing' part of your username the makes my perhaps unreasonably cynical - please forgive as I intend no offence. However, I'm thinking 'those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'. Personally, and I believe most edugeekers, it's clear that the leading established cloud based MIS product providers are leagues ahead of the one that is the topic of this thread, but public criticism from a competitor, even if only implied, is likely to lead to kickback. On topic of performance, peaks etc., given the number of comments from other Edugeeker's about Bromcom performance issues, are they now all understood and have been addressed. I think many of us would be delighted to hear the details and how it relates to good cloud computing methodology.

I wonder what percentage of the £40 million will be spent of glitzy marketing?

That's a really good point. I hadn't given it a thought yet, but might be something to look at next April (birthday) if the purchase goes. I'll probably be back then if things pan out!

Big bro' does most of that and the younger is fairly self-sufficient! Both of them (14 & 16) are doing a fair bit of programming in Python already - I've trained them well!

Thanks. They buyer would be me/my son as an Xmas present - with my sons savings being the bigger contribution. It's local collection only which helps reduce competition - and avoids damage in transit!

Just looking for some thoughts on value of second hand PC with specs along the lines of: Ryzen 7 5800X3D 32GB DDR4 ASUS RTX 3090 Ti ASUS X570-F Board# A couple of SSD giving 1.5 TB PSU CORSAIR 1000W