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Hi folks, I was wondering what other schools are using to run A-Level Computing and/or Programming courses. We have been teaching it for three years now, but the teacher running it still hasn't decided what software they need for it to be completely successful. I've asked numerous times what software they require, but they just respond 'I don't know, programming and code don't really interest me to be honest'. An odd response from someone supposed to be teaching the thing, but enough of my moaning. What I have set up is: Windows 7 hosts computers, on the network with all the usual group policy restrictions in place. VirtualBox installed on each PC with a Windows 7 VM configured. The VMs are not connected to the internet or the school network, they have their network cards disabled, but students log on to Windows with admin accounts. Installed on the VirtualBox VMs are .net framework, C# developer and python. If a student does anything untoward on one of the VMs or installs anything they shouldn't, we just delete the VM and copy over a fresh one for them. The problem I have got is that our students want to use Visual Studio to put a nice front end on things. Whilst I can install it for them, it requires connectivity to the internet in order to launch each time. Given that these VM's are unrestricted, so that students can create and run their own code and batch files etc, the last thing I want to do is join them to my network or allow them out onto the internet. Does anyone have any suggestions or decent free alternatives to Visual Studio? thanks in advance.

I have a little sideline where I create and sell a product on eBay. I have purchased a cheap template and currently use it to sell product (see link below) SALICYLIC ACID BHA SKIN PEEL 30ml - Treating acne blackheads blemishes & spots | eBay It's pretty basic and doesn't allow too much modification, but does the job to a point. I'd like to make my listings more like this (see link below) but have little idea of how to go about it. Any ideas or suggestions of websites/services/books etc would be very much appreciated. SALICYLIC ACID SKIN PEEL 10% ACNE TREATMENT SPOTS STRETCH MARKS SCARS 30-ml! | eBay Many thanks

Hello. We've been having some trouble with a printer driver and wondered if there's anyone here who could write a script that would: 1- Stop the printer spool service 2- Remove a set of .dll files 3- Start the print spool service It must be simple to do this? It would need to be able to run at login using GPO and AD.

Just listening to RI Xmas lectures and heard an explanation of data compression which explained how numbers 0-31 can be represented in 5 bits (this followed an earlier explanation of natural binary showing 0-15 represented by 4 bits and 0-1023 by ten bits.) Since natural binary represents 0-31 in 5 bits, this does not seem a very convincing explanation of data compression. Does anyone know of a good, simple explanation of data compression? Don.

Here is an interesting take on he future of education and one that I think has a whole lot of merit. It is very simmilar to various ideas that I have had on ways to improve educational software (in learning terms rather than codewise). From Gamification to Intelligence Amplification to The Singularity | ACCELER8OR Primer Well worth a read and a think.

Hi, I'm trying to revise my "knowledge" in C++ and program probably worked is doing something stupid. Program should read from file First name then last name and finally mark that person got, then move to another person and so on. Next step program asks user to enter his score and compare this score with scores which read from file (Mark < Score) and display and write to file everyone who got higher mark than user. Instead of that program writes to file details of first person from file either she got higher score than user or not (doesn't follow program condition). Here is a code: // lab5_q1.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application. // fstream.cpp // #include #include #include using namespace std; void main() { ifstream InFile; ofstream OutFile; char FirstName[20], LastName[20]; int Score; int Mark; cout << "Please enter your mark: "; cin >> Mark; InFile.open("Records.txt"); InFile >> FirstName >> LastName >> Score; OutFile.open("HighScores.txt"); OutFile << FirstName << LastName << Score; while (!InFile.eof()) { InFile >> FirstName >> LastName >> Score; if (Mark < Score) { cout << FirstName << " " << LastName << " " << Score << endl; OutFile << FirstName << " " << LastName << " " << Score << endl; } } InFile.close(); OutFile.close(); system("pause"); } Note: if you want to test this code just create file records.txt with example names i.e John Doe 65 Jane Smith 42 Carl Young 59 Sarah Jones 77 Kevin Harris 68 Chris Billington 73 I bet it's simple but i'm groping. Thanks

Hi, I'm building a userform on an Excel database and have come across some problems. I've got a listbox that displays records from the database when searched for in the customer name text box on the form. Unfortunately, you have to search for the full customer name for it to recognize and return the data to the listbox. I need help to edit the code so that you can either search for full or part customer name. (the reason you have to search for full customer name is that it uses the autofilter function!) The way the listbox works is to display records for customers if there is more than under the same name. I look forward to hearing your replies... Thanks

Morning all, Been asked by an IT teacher about good sites that the kids can use to learn Java. Something they can do in class and at home in their own time if possible. We are currently using codeacademy.com for javascript and html/css which is fantastic, and a site I would recommend. Has anyone come across anything similar to this? Thanks

The PROGRAMMER's QUICK GUIDE TO THE LANGUAGES The proliferation of modern programming languages (all of which seem to have stolen countless features from one another) sometimes makes it difficult to remember what language you're currently using. This handy reference is offered as a public service to help programmers who find themselves in such a dilemma. TASK: Shoot yourself in the foot. C: You shoot yourself in the foot. C++: You accidentally create a dozen instances of yourself and shoot them all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is impossible since you can't tell which are bitwise copies and which are just pointing at others and saying, "That's me, over there." FORTRAN: You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until you run out of toes, then you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out of bullets, you continue with the attempts to shoot yourself anyways because you have no exception-handling capability. Pascal: The compiler won't let you shoot yourself in the foot. Ada: After correctly packing your foot, you attempt to concurrently load the gun, pull the trigger, scream, and shoot yourself in the foot. When you try, however, you discover you can't because your foot is of the wrong type. COBOL: Using a COLT 45 HANDGUN, AIM gun at LEG.FOOT, THEN place ARM.HAND.FINGER on HANDGUN.TRIGGER and SQUEEZE. THEN return HANDGUN to HOLSTER. CHECK whether shoelace needs to be re-tied. LISP: You shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds... FORTH: Foot in yourself shoot. Prolog: You tell your program that you want to be shot in the foot. The program figures out how to do it, but the syntax doesn't permit it to explain it to you. BASIC: Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On large systems, continue until entire lower body is waterlogged. Visual Basic: You'll really only appear to have shot yourself in the foot, but you'll have had so much fun doing it that you won't care. HyperTalk: Put the first bullet of gun into foot left of leg of you. Answer the result. Motif: You spend days writing a UIL description of your foot, the bullet, its trajectory, and the intricate scrollwork on the ivory handles of the gun. When you finally get around to pulling the trigger, the gun jams. APL: You shoot yourself in the foot, then spend all day figuring out how to do it in fewer characters. SNOBOL: If you succeed, shoot yourself in the left foot. If you fail, shoot yourself in the right foot. Unix: % ls foot.c foot.h foot.o toe.c toe.o % rm * .o rm:.o no such file or directory % ls % Concurrent Euclid: You shoot yourself in somebody else's foot. 370 JCL: You send your foot down to MIS and include a 400-page document explaining exactly how you want it to be shot. Three years later, your foot comes back deep-fried. Paradox: Not only can you shoot yourself in the foot, your users can, too. Access: You try to point the gun at your foot, but it shoots holes in all your Borland distribution diskettes instead. Revelation: You're sure you're going to be able to shoot yourself in the foot, just as soon as you figure out what all these nifty little bullet-thingies are for. Assembler: You try to shoot yourself in the foot, only to discover you must first invent the gun, the bullet, the trigger, and your foot. Modula2: After realizing that you can't actually accomplish anything in this language, you shoot yourself in the head.

I'm sure someone knows the HP beep codes by heart. I'm getting 5 beeps and that by definition from HP say "BIOS recovery successful". It does this every time upon start up. What i'm thinking is who cares, it was successful, no need to let me know with 5 loud beeps every time I start the computer. Or is it just that every time the computer gets shutdown the BIOS is failing and every time it starts up it's recovering. Computer is working flawless by the way, just the annoying beep code. Any way to get rid of? *besides a new mobo* So that's when I come to you guys asking for help or suggestions, I'm not very knowledgeable in HP beep codes or BIOS failures/recoveries. Edit: HP Brand Desktop. Model Slipped my mind. Resolution: I was able to fix it by resetting all ram and resetting the bios.

Link 1: Boy, 14, cracks national intelligence agency code in just over an hour | JOE.co.uk Link 2: 75th Anniversary Commemorative Coin | Australian Signals Directorate

Hi All Has anyone got JAva,html,asp, flash code that will show house points/atenadance figures etc on a web page We want to put the total figures on a web pages for pupils to see and i want to be able to have some update totals and the graph chart change automatically. Thanks Stuart

Does anyone know what the different error codes mean in SIMS when you cannot log on? I am getting 'reason 0' but cannot seem to find what it actually means! I have also come across 'reason 3' and 'reason 5' before, too.

How do I get the excellent mu editor to be the default editor for .py files? (i.e to allow users to double click on a .py file and it open up directly in mu?) Note, the usual 'open with... option is not seeing mu as a a list of potential software to open the file in.

Hi, I've just taken over the school website and have just updated Joomla to 1.6, but now I've done that, some of the scripts aren't staying on everytime I place a HTML script into the code and click save, it will automatically disappear. Does anyone know why this is happening? any help is muchly appreciated

Hi! I am trying to make a simple 'choice page' where our students can pick a maximum of 3 things they are interested in and it brings back results based on their choices... e.g Student chooses 'making things' and 'discovery' and it brings back the results: Art Club, Magazine Club and Cooking Club Is there a REALLY simple way to do this? For some reason my brain can't grasp the concept today!