kingswood

That's how we were taught it at a recent MCSA course I attended. The user with ownership- the creator of the file/folder/object- can even assign take ownership rights to user 'b' should they wish to. This is built in to the NTFS system by default. You can of course be "explicit" about assigning NTFS permissions- and that would be what happens when you "explicitly" deny someone take ownership or special permissions on a resource that is shared. That's a whole different ball-game though, because the key to that is in the wording- "explicit". That's how I read it anyway :? Paul

LOL. Yeah- I can understand the hesitation. But it isn't like they are navigating to the C: directory from whence it lives and then just deleting it. They can- if LM is alive and well- simply go to the tools menu and choose (by themselves) to delete local access database. Voila! DB gone. Then when they reopen the application it is recreated. If it were that easy I would tell them to do it. Normally LM bombs out with DB errors so they can't actually do it. So we go round and delete the local DB file manually (and by our lonesomes) so that the system can get back to...normality? I understand though. I hear hammers work wonders....

We don't use quotas. A certain third-party told the school (before I got there) that they were bad, bad, bad. Mmmmmm. Then you look at all the trash they put in their areas and you wonder. I think Tony is right though- upgrading to Server 2003 R2 gives much better control over quota allocation and file management than the previous incarnation.

I keep missing these BCS events. There's one soon in our area (Northampton) and I have thought about going. Are they any good?

Thanks for that. I have asked for a SupportNet login, so hopefully they will grant my wish and let me in. :?

http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productdetails.asp?ProductID=2767&categoryid=259 If it's just to use your existing stuff it wouldn't be *that* bad. And by the way- you*do* know who ASROCK are a spinoff from... "Who is ASRock? ASRock is a spin-off company created by the well-known ASUS to compete with the more "price sensitive" market, i.e. system/OEM sector. Asus is quite clever in doing so, as they do not have to "lower" their position in order to compete with ECS and the likes. ASRock K7S41GX is the successor to their previous model, K7VM4, based on Via KM400 chipset. Let us see how SiS741 chipset improves upon the proven integrated K7 solution." from: http://www.overclockers.co.nz/ocnz/review.php?id=04boardviakm400shootoutsisvsvia0106 So buy an ASROCK and get to use your hardware (read: it'll at least work). And from what I have read they really are pretty good for budget level motherboards. Quoting you: "I basically just wanted a motherboard that would be able to use the RAM and graphics card and cpu I have." :-)

Staff can delete the local database file using the tools menu (IIRC)- but only if you can get access to the blasted thing. We delete the local LessonMonitor DB file and then relaunch the module. This makes it rebuild the DB locally and then it should synchronise properly. As Shane has said- there is an issue (for us) with permissions, but the two problems aren't necessarily related. You can get the DB corruption just from someone turning the machine off with SIMS still running. Not that staff do that sort of thing. No precious. We wants them not to- don'ts us. :-)

Just wanted to say thanks to you all for the feedback. Sorry I took so long- been off for three days with the flu. In any case I'm going to chew over everything that has been said/suggested and take it from there. Thanks!

Is that who ever cant hide the fastest Russ It's just plain weird really- but have you noticed that technicians can never hide fast enough ;-)

Get a different one ;-)

We have five PE Servers and they are brilliant. :-)

If we wanted to get .ICT out to reinstall our SIMS SQL Server, how hard would this be in the great scheme of things (backups of data etc being equal)? I have been advised that this is not possible- but I want to check with you guys and gals first before bowing. Our SIMS SQL Server has less than 1GB on the C: drive left, we are getting constant errors in our data and it's dog slow. It hasn't been defragged for three years and there's crap on there I wouldn't feed to DOS or WfW 3.11! My advice has been to look at the possibility of getting a clean install, upgrading to Server 2003, and then making the system gel from scratch. Does this sound too problematic? Thanks. :oops:

I've had the same situation where I am for two years. It's horrible. THis year I got promoted *over* my NM to Senior Systems Manager- I think in the hope that he would calm down and think carefully about his position. Not. He is worse! He still tells me what to do, works part-time, and SIMS (traditonally his baby) has become a complete nightmare and I have to support it now woth no training, passwords and many access rights for my account just not there. Try that. So now my workload has quadrupled and my pay only risen by a small amount- for all the stress, sleepless nights, and hassle I get during the week!! I feel for ya. The network doesn't belong to any of us- if it is the possession of any one entity that would be the school. If IT wasn't hard enough already in schools it's made harder by paranoid technicians and NMs who worry more about whether they look *geekier* than the next technician over in "that other place". You see it in some schools too- "we're the technical people here- so bow" and it's crap. Because if people have to act like that they aren't who they say they are anyway. Me.Close() Sorry for the rant. This topic rubs me up the wrong way :-(

You could (if you use Macs) just buy a .Mac subscription. Makes uploading podcasts a breeze and is fully integrated with the OS.

We have been trialling it for a week now. Install went well (MSI) and it seems to offer tracking of abuse and misuse that is going to be useful. It's scary watching the violation reports growing- mostly chat sessions from Meebo and stuff. We have already had a couple of possible bullying related incidences. Would we buy it? The Head is keen to do something about network abuse and is looking to Securus as part of our ongoing network changes that will bring about as secure a network for students and staff as possible. It's expensive (coming in at about £5000). Is it worth it though? That's what the next two weeks are about- testing it and seeing where it can fit in. Alongside updated AUPs and better group policy schemes we are thinking it will make our job easier and use of the network safer. Might just be a utopian thought :-)

I use HamachiX on my Mac to do this. Might be worth a look. I think you can get a Windows/Linux version too.

I had this conversation with someone in the past week..they thought that hiding the SSID helped. It doesn't. In fact Windows can be real funny if you hide the SSID.

Yeah. Quite true. And I think was a basis for Eric Raymond's "bazaar" model. Would it work quite so well with something as important as an MIS system for schools though? Well, I mean, it would have to match or exceed the support currently given to schools that use SIMS.net; and it would have to offer the same feature extensions and upgrades (especially ones that break the bloody system) and updated documentation ;-) I understand what you are saying- I'm just cynical. Again, it's just an ideal world situation, and one that I would love to see come about but might never. And I have to admit to being a little wary of this concept of "community" and support models from third parties and using it to promote the idea that OSS is cheaper. Would it be cheaper if we turned to a service delivery model and offered software and hardware for free or reduced price? Well, I'm not really qualified to say much more on this. But thanks for making your points- interesting discussion and one we all will be involved in more as the years progress I think (especially when SIMS is at version 13.7 and *still* not working properly Paul

I think we agree Ric- at least in principle again. Choice is a different topic- and that's important. SIMS. Sensible. Now I never said *that* :-)

I agree. In an idealistic "community driven" model this would work wonderfully. Eric Raymond's "bazaar" would be open and we all could pick and choose and collaborate and world would be a whole better place without mega-software houses pushing us (the small guy) around and foisting expensive software applications down our skinny systems' administrator necks...back in the real world, many of these projects *seem* excellent at the outset but cost so much in support time and re-training that they just aren't as cheap as they were supposed to be. And that community you talk of is a testosterone driven beast of its own where programmers and scripters rule simply because they write the code. The end user is secondary. So if I were a government representative in this real world I have pictured above, how would you answer me if I asked where support would come from and how we would (as schools) deliver census returns and reports and digitial information back to central government? And how would you answer me if I asked about training for these community driven applications? You used Moodle as an example- and I think its a wonderful piece of software. But have you actually read some of the forums there? It sounds a lot like the kinds of forum banter you get on proprietary software forums, except you are at the mercy of a "community" as coder rather than a company. And companies tend to carry a lot more of a legal obligation to fulfill SLAs and other service principles than open source communities ever would agree to. And therein lies the biggest problem. When dealing with sensitive data (as an MIS system does often), and when dealing with modules for which different people need varying levels of training and documentation to master; and when dealing with the inevitable support issues that arise from using something as complex as an MIS system- where would the buck stop? Who is this "community"? Whou could us non-programmers aim our guns at and complain to when things don't work? At least with SIMS we know where to go to for that. There is- in a corporate way- some liability. Some support. And that, in the end, can be worth the cost!

Obviously. But that isn't the point. With the government asking for increasingly more digitised and complex data information from schools and with systems such as SIMS.net having the resources to deliver those, I find it hard to believe that FreeMIS (as good as it no doubt it) will tame the beast. FreeMIS whips SIMS.net on price, but after looking at the on-line demo I don't think it's anywhere near the feature set of SIMS.net. So I don't think that proof of the competence of FreeMIS can come by the fact that one desperate local authority has chosen to allow it to be used in schools where they are. I think it does what it does and no doubt well- but even with the foibles of SIMS.net I have encountered over the last two weeks, I would prefer SIMS. It's simply more polished, better able to cope with the mass of data it has to store and offers a richer feature set. Don't agree? Fine. Use FreeMIS then. Put your network where your mouth is :-) Paul

Assuming of course you have the knowledge and resources to tinker. I think that most OSS projects that tout this as an advantage project only towards the programmer- amateur or otherwise- and Im no programmer; so inevitably I try look to other parts of the software. And FreeMIS on that basis wouldn't float my boat. There has to be more to OSS. For me support and documentation and training are therefore top requirements. Most open source software projects fail badly here. But you raise some good points.

It covers: Assessment * Asset Management * Attendance * Home School Communications * Communication Between Staff * Finance * HR/Personnel * Pupil Data * Report Writing * Self Evaluation/Review * SEN Management * Planning for Learning & Teaching * Timetable Construction Not sure if it would do what we need it to do at our school. And then that's without looking at support, documentation and training. All things .ICT are pretty good at when it comes down to it. FreeMIS may fit a small niche market but I don't think it's going to supplant a more structured and supported SIMS.net any time soon...

No problem. At least it's sorted!