kingswood

I am planning on using Sharepoint, but all this talk of Moodle got me interested. Since I tend to steer clear of IIS and use Apache anyway (even in school for the current test intranet) I decided to install Moodle on an XP machine at home and use the XAMPP control panel to run with the Apache, MySQL and PHP stuff. I am amazed at how easy Moodle is to get up and running. The only problem I did encounter was actually unzipping the Moodle install files. On a P4 3GHz with 1.5GB RAM it was maxing out the processor. So I copied the file to my G5 and unzipped it there and then copied the Moodle folder over-- putting it into the htdocs folder. Fired up the localhost/moodle page and went ahead and ran a basic configuration. Voila! It's actually looking very promising. It's easy to configure courses and users, and the forum component on its own is worth its weight in gold (virtual gold obviously since it's a virtual environment ;-) Gonna have a real test of this *before* I think any further about Sharepoint. Question is- if I download Mandriva Linux 2006 will this install and configure as easily? ...I'll let ya know. :-)

Didn't mean to send that then... anywazy, registry import didn't work. Had to memorise the whole code (easy) and then manually type it in. Macromedia/Adobe were useless.

We had trouble with a bug in Studio MX 2004 that meant the site license wouldn't register with the clients. Bummer. Tried an admin install (MSI), Prism Deploy, and then went with prism to actually push out the application and a registry export to get the license in. Paul

Is this another volunteer? The stall's scrounger? hmmm ... I've suddenly got visions of The Great Escape ... I'm off for another lie down before my next lesson (yes ... they finally caught up with me and have me teaching ... but at least it is only media and with sixth formers!) Tony! You have made the ultimate sacrifice friend. I honour you with my worldly goods. Well, not really. But I think you're a brave man in any case. Sixth formers now.... Year 7 within a year. Then it's all over for you. "Never underestimate the power of the dark side of the force" (Head Teacher, 2006 to Tony Sheppard) :-)

LOL! Yes- blocking iTunes is something we have done too. And those pesky chatrooms...Mmmmmm...love blocking them ;-)

No problem with iTunes on Windows or Mac here. It does use some bandwidth- but think about what you are asking it to do: download a file (or lots of them at once if you are me) and save them to your disk for listening to later. I download/update around 20 podcasts at once with no problem. While I'm surfing the internet and listening to music (through the same iTunes...) :-)

Could be good for me actually...I'll actually be getting time off then. Woohoo! Aherm. Yes. Anyway, give us the gore (where etc).

And thirded. Is that a word?

We stopped e-messenger sites by blocking their IP range. The students thought they were being intelligent by prefacing the URL with the name of a city, but IIRC e-messenger relies on only a handful of IP addresses to resolve these... Even so- that's a fantastic find and I will be using that tomorrow. Chat is THE biggest problem on our LAN by far. I love making their life tougher (read: promoting a lesson in which they actually do some work) rather than leaving them to enjoy a few chat sessions with their mates. Then again, it's hard for me. I have an IT Technician who thinks he's a hacker! lol! :-)

Too true. Or for when they send Powerpoint presentations (some approaching 100MB) to little old HP 2200 LaserJets that are meant for word documents and moan because the "printer is broke". Yeah? Well too bloody right it's broke!

lol! OK. I admit. It was me.

ouch! Thanks for that. We aren't near that number yet, but growth is coming and I'll file that one...

Good points again. After I said too much I looked at Word for Mac OS X. Mmmmm. Completely different interface. And then I thought again about what MS are doing with their new release of Office. Interface change. This time a radical one too. So I understand everything that Tony was saying and even think he has a very good point. What the hack. Make them sweat :-)

We will be moving to Sharepoint this year. I looked at other solutions but couldn't find one as polished or as well integrated with Office or AD. :-)

Good points from all. Tony, you said: "Don't teach the kids to use an application ... teach them lots of different applications and how to adapt to use the different interfaces. We don't want everything to look the same ... we want them to learn how to adapt." Yep- I agree. Transferable skills and adaptation are all important things to target in education and I'm not sure we are doing enough to help. However, you can only do this if the staff and technical support bods have the time to teach all these different applications you would like them to use. And from what I see staff at schools (meaning teaching staff) have finite time already and some who teach ICT are stretched to the limit learning what they need to teach the things they have to *now* without telling them they also need to learn and teach this, that, or the other word processor, spreadhseet, OSS application etc etc. Whether we like it or not, (and it isn't that bad) MS Office is the standard in business right now. When the students leave school, the skills they learn using MS Office (macros, access, word processing) will stand them well when they enter university or college and want to use those skills to support them through the next phase of the education. On top of that if some of them enter the work-place they will find that the skills they were given in school are fully transferable to office life because they use the same applications. I would love to see Open Office move mainstream. I would love Linux to be in the core group of skills the curriculum needs to pass on. OS X? I think you will know what I think about that. But in the real world- right now- what we all need to do is pass on the skills that the curriculum has targeted as the basis for an underlying skills set in ICT. And that includes MS Office. So- why have RM changed all that? lol! If the staff are having to re-train themselves and the students to take tests that are based on a curriculum that supposedly tests their ability in ICT at KS3- why the hell are RM re-writing the rules and trashing the interface the students will work with for several years of their lives and have probably already used (even Works has a similar interface to Word)? So, what is happening (and what I am reading here) is that staff and students are spending their time getting to grips with the testing interface instead of assessing the level if ICT knowledge a student has and using that information to target areas that need to be improved. Me.Close

A default domain profile- if it exists- will be used when users log on to a machine rather than the default local profile. Using roaming profiles (if that's what you mean) you would have to set two GPO settings to make them *kind of mandatory*: 1. "Delete cached copies of roaming profiles" This takes out everything. It has downsides though- like slow links, server going down, laptop users (they would get temporary profiles--yuck!) 2. "Prevent roaming profile changes from propagating to the server" If a machine has a local profile in existence when you logon with a roaming profile, the OS merges the two profiles. This might not be what you want, so set this one and make sure any merge doesn't propagate to the server. You could set a third, and important, GPO setting: 3. "Wait for remote user profile" It won't use a locally cached (or local) profile. It will (as it says) wait for the remote profile. Caveat? Have slow links? Ouch! I still think there is an argument for roaming profiles and I see that people like CSE are implementing these in schools now. However, mandatory offers a much simpler way of setting things as you want them and not worrying about changes to profiles. Or you could use a "forced super-mandatory" profile: make sure your user gets *ony* the profile you set up for them and never gets the chance to log on locally. OK. Well, if it's changes to settings you are worried about try out both on test machines. But to answer your question directly- what gets deleted is everything inside the profile that is stored locally on logoff. Like I said, test it and see if it does what you want it to do. Paul :-)

I had a severe run-in with my Systems Manager about this yesterday! Thanks for posting this one. Anyway, what I prefer to do for staff laptops is give them a local account with at least Power Users membership. That way (other than things that change system files) they can generally do *enough*. For some that hasn't been enough, and so with trepidation I gave out local admin accounts to several (they *all* have stuff they need to do on the machines at home) with encumbent warning that if they mess it up they cannot come crying to me. Well, Systems Manager does not like this at all. He doesn't want them being local admins on laptops, period. And I caught the rough end of this yesterday. I think I'll stick to Power User and pass on the others to "the boss". Even so, having a domain account and a local account seems sensible to me if the laptops are (obviously?) going off site and in some cases simply being used at home as a com-puter. Still got a bit of ass left.... :-(

There's a good discussion over on this forum if you're interested (from a little while back but the principle is still the same): http://seclists.org/lists/security-basics/2003/Aug/0497.html I remembered it because I want to do the same thing.

Hahaha! Love it. What with Tony's service to geekdom award and your change Netman, it's been a good day! :-)

That's a "Geek ®" mark for you then Tony. Retired geeks are still handy though... Just thinking what for really.... :-)

I trialled NetSupport Schools 8 this week. It's very nice and has lots of cool features. The application blocking/internet blocking features alone are probably worth the money. But with discount and for our machine it would cost nearly £8000.00!! That's a *lot* of money. They either know it's good, or they are over-charging. Considering they know schools are strapped for cash and this is the target audience of the package perhaps a look at the price would be good for them to do. In any case we are still looking at it. I'm having the head of ICT stress testing it in his room all month. One thing's for sure- it makes the students desperate to get on the net! They tried pulling out the ethernet cable from the master machine, turning it off, even tried accessing the machine while staff weren't around (they thought) ;-) It was fun watching it.

iPod stuff isn't *too* bad to buy- I'm more worried about the price of the new Mac Mini and the fact that it has that horrible shared memory architecture intel 950 graphics chip!!! Apple made me sad yesterday. I'm scarred for life now. I even bought a new Dell desktop this week. Forgive me Steve...

I am part through an HND in Network Management- my HNC was in Computer Support and Maintenance. I'm working towards a degree (BSc)- but that'll be another two years away. The school paid for my HND! I was gobsmacked really- since I only asked them to pay some(thing) towards it. My wife has started a degree with the OU in Computer Science- and from what I have seen once you get to level two and three materials things get heavy and concentrate on abstract principles of the job or societal impact of technology- or even- programming (brrrrr!). However, a degree (I think) is still worth more than a vendor-specific certificate (and lasts longer too). With an MCSE you have that so long as MS don't change the tests and upgrade the OS (which thankfully they *do*). Same with CCNA or whatever. A degree in an IT subject not only lays a good foundation for your career but suggests other things to prospective employers too- not just your academic level. It means more to an employer than some of us realise. This April I'm studying for an MCP in Server 2003 management. It's good to do, because it's specific to my tasks at work. Even so, my HND/BSc will be the mainstay of my study for the future because it will *last* the future. The MCP (if I pass) will be relevant for a time and then need upgrading. Once out of dat, it won't look so big on a CV. I think it depends on the individual, but I would definitely go with the degree option. A good BSc in Computer Science or Technology in general would stand you in good stead- especially considering the experience you have in IT anyway. It would be the icing on that experience rather than a proof of that experience! Paul

Failing all that look on http://www.gpanswers.com - they have been great when I have gotten stuck on a particular Group Policy thingy...

Damn! We go back on that day... I'm at a Server 2003 course the first week of the easter break and then we are having 60 new desktop system delivered the week after- and guess who has to install them? Damn again!