gaping holes

a student today was bragging about his ability to delete other users files. the major security flaw was caused during the upgrade last summer, in which out consultant copied all user folders to a new server.

now any copying or moving stuff on servers requires care as permissions on folders are affected differently. this is what had transpired. the copied folders had permissions allowing full access to anyone, so you just had to find a way of browsing to the compromised folder, a task microsoft word offers more tools for than most.

today i turned off the offending word feature via system policy [one click affects all student accounts] and ran a script assisted by a kindly mvp[ms valued professional] which automatically and beautifully[in a geeky sort of way] changed all the permissions to what they should have been in the first place. i feel sort of smugly satisfied now ... but i did stay on 'till 7pm.

i could easily 'live' computers i think. shame now i have other responsibilities at this point in my life. typical huh!

thanks to my commenting buddies: nikki-ann; graeme; jason & chloe-lynn.

weight loss

I've never heard of image weighting before. a link from this post on Meryls' site shows you how to squeeze that extra few bytes from your images using regional compression. very interesting!

nicole? - papa! ... not cleo - clie :: dummy!

a new palm device here at simpson towers is imminent! i'm so excited i've checked as many reviews as i can for the chosen device[a sony clie th55], checked two major palm forums [cliesource & brighthand] with specific th55 areas and read through all my PCPro back issues for pda related stuff.

right now i have 34 open firefox tabs of palm addict. [btw i had an honourable mention in yesterdays header for helping with a google search widget at the top of the site. it was something i requested after trying to search the site the long way with google site-search, and i ended up getting involved.]

my list of hopefuls was narrowed down to:

1. clie th55 [palm 5]
2. ipaq 2210 [pocket pc 2003]
3. tungsten c [palm 5]
4. tungsten t3 [palm 5]
5. dell axim x3 [pocket pc 2003]
6. toshiba e340 [pocket pc 2003]
7. Acer n10 [pocket pc 2003]

the tungsten c was no 1 on the list for a while, fast cpu, loadsa memory, mini keypad... but it's looking dated and the sound output is poor.
the t3 has a fabby landscape mode but then this may be unsupported for many new apps. the th55 is similar in many ways, but doesen't support landscape. it doesn't have a keypad but rather 3 methods of input: graffiti 2, onscreen keyboard and natural writing recognition. it's the latter i hope to use - otherwise i may have to shell out for a portable keyboard. it only takes sony memory sticks which is a let down. others support sd and cf i & ii...

watch tis space ...i'll let you know how i get on.

a computer literate world

i have my old pc set up next to mine for the kids to play on. it means we can do stuff on the main pc and the kids are happy to play next to us on thiers. ben really picks things up quick. i showed him how to use the mouse and now he's almost independant. he can't double click yet so i set the desktop to work on single click. he's now teaching me how to play his games. some of them work quite slowly and it's frustrating trying to navigate around for me, but ben really knows his way around, and exactly what button to press!

i know i'm biased, it's not like i have anything to compare with, but ben's logical skills seem really good. with the opportunities kids have today it makes me wonder what skills they'll have as adults.

we went to the library yesterday. libraries are great for kids now. we had a go on the pc which lives inside an elephant. they had some toddler games on there which looked superb. we have some whsmith vouchers to spend so this is what we'll spend them on.

i'm getting roped in so i'll have to go. hmmm ... maybe this plan isn't working *smiles*

DOWNLOAD: Audacity 1.2.0 [2.7M] Win98/ME/NT/2K/XP/MacOX10.1/Linux/Unix FREE

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

ooh ... forgot to mention ... i found this superb audio editing program today for editing .wav files. there's a hell of a lot of editing tools and the thing can even use vst plugins of the same format as the industry standard cubase.

i've 'dabbled with audio software before, and i found this very intuitive.

a kid had an audio cd she wanted the first track from to use as a powerpoint presentation sound-track. i loaded the single audio track into audacity, selected the bits before and after with the mouse and pressed delete. i then quickly selected a rough section at the beginning and at the end and applied a fade in and a fade out. i then exported it to mp3. jd!

impressive!

cable guy

started the day with a two an a half hour hiccup. i had a call from admin at 8:30 to go and add a cable to a new office, as the cable guy had 'mistakenly' only fitted one network point, and now they needed another for today for a person starting at 9am [i had specified 2 points].

you don't have to be einstien to appreciate it's very cheap to install two cables at the same time. and a lot dearer to do it one at a time. and the cost of materials is pence.

so it was loft crawling for me in my smart clothes. i should have said no, but i'm stupid like that. and this is always how it seems to happen with this particular person. zero notice.

so the person who was wanting a pc setting up was waiting for me to get it sorted. this doesn't make me look good, and i was not in a good mood afterwards.

- - -

heather always checks up on the kids before we go to bed. this night we found emily sleeping at the side of her bed with her head under the bed and her bottom in the air ... ostrich like! if only we'd taken a picture!

thanks ... nikki-ann & graeme ... for your comments.

lastminute.gone

hectic end to an otherwise run-of-the-mill day. 'bin struggling for a couple of months with a problem with doubly securing files and folders. the teachers aren't trusted not to leave open - access to sensitive files & folders, so i was asked if a second level of pasword protection was possible. i immediately thought of having a web server to restrict access with the offending files residing on it, as i'd already made a database driven affair that logged information from forms that users would input into via a simple web page. this needs a little more tweaking to be perfect - but i don't have that much time spare ... ever!

another idea was to put everything within a zip file, which was then password protected. this is what we did instead of me creating a new form. the only problem being that a lot of the files were created in ms works, which we don't have installed on the system. you still with me? :). these files you can only open if you open say excel first, then open up the files from the open file dialogue. of course as the files were zipped, excel won'topen a zip! [you'd have to copy the file out first!] Aaaargh! meeting full of staff in training unable to open files!

the person in question has had the task of converting the files on a backburner for some time. so this was frustrating.

so then i rushed back to relieve my boss who was witing to go home. he mentioned a pre-built system that'd been around for some time. why, when i've said several times that there must be some system used by other schools, didn't anyone say anything? Grrrrr! so all this sweating and worying i've been doing over this problem could be solved with a one off payment fo a piece of ready made software!

also today, i've been fiddling with webweaver, a 375k personal web server [see my review here]. i'm trying to encourage a student to dive into web programming so it seemed a good choice. he can't have another pc at home, he isn't allowed to partition the drive and dual boot [this would be messy anyway], so this seems perfect. by 5:10pm we had php installed with working guestbook and helpdesk system up and running.

thanks ... nikki-ann, graeme [don't get too excited > gotta watch the old ticker mate:)] & mari ... for your comments.

thingamablog interim release

a new interim release of my favourite blogging tool ;) has just been released. this version adds in the facility to choose the length of you rss feeds.

roll on version 1.0! :)

btw. i don't know if you've noticed but thingamablog has been added to the option set on haloscan that generates the code to insert comments and trackbacks on your blog automatically! boy has thingamablog made the big time now!

wobbly cars and crowded trains

can i just get this off my chest ... we've got a french car, and i swear all french[all cars made by right hand driving countries] cars have the wheel camber set for french roads. so that when in france, you take your hands off the wheel and the car goes in a straight line. but then in the uk, driving on the left, you fight a constant battle to keep the things going straight. i've had 3 french cars now and two british, and the theory still stands. by the way i came up with this ingenious revelation on our road trip to france last year, when just having the wheels aligned, noticed that when driving down the motorways from calais the car drove differently.

spent this weekend at my parents. heather took the kids down early thursday, just because it's a rush on friday night when i finish, and it spoils the kids weekend, them being over-tired. i caught the train friday night. i got really soaked walking to work friday morning, but the train journey was a painless 3 hours. i hate the seats without tables. there's less room than on some aircraft. after shrewsbury it got packed so i had no room to open the newspaper. then a bloke sat next to me who stank of wee. on the leicester train from birmingam every double seat was taken by one person. years back i saw a photo in an exhibition of a london bus where all the passengers were sitting on thier own on a double seat. we thought that quite amusingt back then.

thanks guys... nikki-ann & graeme [you figured out that mp3 player yet?]

fast teach ripoff

speed is beginning to return to this website. as soon as i can i'll restore my links proper. maybe tidy my layout a bit. try and make it more logical.

had the opportunity to take a little class the last couple of days, covering for absences. cover teachers were present but they're quite content to take a back seat if i start helping the kids. i have a really good relationship with the kids in that situation. it's nice to inspire them, take the micky a bit as is my style, and encourage them too. i'm not too hot on discipline though. if a kid were ever to decide to play me up i'm not sure how i'd cope. i sort of play on the fact that i'm not ultimately in charge, which has worked so far :). i've done lots of classroom assistance in the last three years. i wouldn't want to do more than a few lessons a week though. it can get very draining. especially going over the same thing twice with different classes in the same week. i suppose that's why a teachers' day is so short - you just couldn't do it for any longer.

today i thought i'd ask our [only] support company to come in at easter for a couple of days to re-build one of my systems. i have the whole thing thoroughly documented and last time i did it [one lonely unpaid weekend], it took me 16 hours straight. they want to charge us £1950.00 to do the same thing - using my documentation. they said this was a special price as they'd normally charge £2550.00. whilst talking to them the idea struck me to buy a couple of extra hard disks to bung into these boxes that constantly need re-building so that in the future, i could just image a virgin installation back from the master i'd create on this next install. i was going to get them to do this [hardware would be extra!]. but i think the school could do without the bill at the moment, so i think i'll be doing it alone again.

i've been advised to remove a section from the preceeding post. i really shouldn't be spouting sensitive information like that.

thanks friends... nikki-ann & graeme [i think i may just get an mp3 player instead ... boohoo:(]

money x3

end of financial year spending time at the zoo. although this year is slightly different in that money has been spent *and then some* already. so it's just essentials i need to stock up on this time. most schools seem to leave the bulk of the it purchasing till the end of the financial year. not this one. we decide early what we want, like spoilt kids in a sweet shop, then we keep spending! [hope the governors aren't reading this!:)]. this is all fine and dandy, but in actual fact this means wishes are cast, stuff is ordered and then delivered towards the end of the summer holidays, so that right at the last minute muggins has to do a rush install that then usually means we're not ready for the new acedemic year. 'normal' schools, ordering april time, have the stuff delivered in the spring and have it installed before the summer holidays, when the techs dissapear to 'wherever they dissapear to' for six weeks.

last week i arranged for our supplier to visit and repair a dead machine yesterday - monday. no one turned up so today i phoned ... [ c e n s o r e d ] whilst i sympathise with thier plight i think they're acting against the terms of the warranty. i'm blacklisted in that i cannot even have a job raised against my name on their system. that's how bad things have gotten. trouble is it's me - the bottom rung that gets a bad name because machines aren't working. wall - head - hit ...

i have an unnatural craving to have a pda at the moment. i ^desire^ an mp3 player, then i thought i could really use a voice dictation feature, then i decided note taking and to do scheduling would be very useful ... i want to lie down until the feeling goes away. i've downloaded a palm simulator and loads of freeware apps for it so i can give it a run and see if i like it. there are a few i could go for: the tungsten c or e, the ipaq 1940, dell axim or toshiba [???] ... though pocket pc 2003 looks chic i think 2 hours running time is a joke. can anybody help me here?

thankyou guys for making my day... nikki-ann, Nick, graeme & technodaddy

twiddle

fixed a few things with my templates. the posts now group in days - never noticed i hadn't done that before. thought it made sense though to group posts in categories for later reference and linking for other people, should anyone ever wish to do so ... here's hoping :) . made a few tweaks to the first and last templates on the styles list, plus the matrix style. a few more tweaks to go then that wil be it for this round of changes!

book shmook

found the answer to a long standing problem today with file syncronising errors. the answer was a simple click on the shared folder on the server to select "don't cache files". i've searched high and low for that answer since september when we set up the system. expert advice from the consultant hired to install the system and several ms mvp's via technet was fruitless. it was a fellow school tech who came up with the answer in the end. real world experience is usually far more valuable than book learned methods...

woW

WoW! - thingamablog author bob tantlinger just mailed me a modded verion of the main program file with long rss feed implemented. wow. isn't that just amazing! he was thinking of implementing customisable length of feed in the next version. so look forward to that too. wow! =)

no bad day

great day today. my contract was extended to a full 52 weeks from 48, with the proviso that any extra hours worked could be taken off as leave [during school holidays of course], and outstanding payment for extra hours worked between september and december last year would be paid for. i'm starting to feel appreciated!

i found a students' website containing defamatory material on school staff and presented all evidence, along with the parents details from a whois lookup, to the school management team.

and found some neat floppy disk imaging software today[which i'm sure you wouldn't be interested in!] which i used to create several copies of my valuable boot floppy collection.

i heard today some anecdotal gossip that the young chap on the recieving end of the bullying the other day regularly spent his £2.20 per day lunch money on chocolate alone from the schools canteen. [i think he's ok otherwise ... with regard to his beating i mean] a good reason to bring back the old school meals system i think!

thankyou people... for your comments on bullying. it certainly makes you think. nikki-ann, chloe-lynn, graeme & technodaddy [it's not yet possible automatically on this blogging system [damn - missed that one!] - but i've asked that question of the author ...]

shameless plug

thingamablog - the software i use to maintain this blog - has just updated a point and added [among other *nifty* things] blog service pinging - woohoo! no more visiting dougal gunters to use his excellent pinging service ('tho i'll no doub't check back to see if there are any services i'm missing!) every time i update my blog. now all i need is an automated mailing list and there will be no difference between this method of blogging and using server side technology. except of course remote publishing. i could upload the blogging tool and the database to pull down from anywhere ... hmmm.

and another thing ... the thingamablog site now has a page of users blogs titled "notable blogs" where this site is featured! *chuffed strut* hehe! i think i'm 'lovin it' =)

little darlings

nasty fight at school today. a bit one sided i'm afraid, a bullied kid getting a kicking from another 'child'. the victim could hardly walk afterwards. i hate any sort of violence. his sister was really shocked when she saw the state of him afterwards. i am feeling really sad about the whole thing now :(

i know his sister has complained about bullying before, and the lack of support from the school. i have heard from elsewhere that the school was in denial about the bullying issue. it's something that really needs addressing well. there's a resource issue of course, isn't there always. but kids need to feel safe in my humble opinion, and we should do everything in our power to make school feel a safe place to be.

to top my day off, three kids were calling me names on the way home. walking home i've decided to take the back route to avoid confronting any kids. i had a word and told them to show me the respect that i show them. these were pretty dumb kids so they shouted at me again when they were out of sight. i now know why teachers live away from the schools in which they teach.

thanks kind commenting ones... nikki-ann, chloe-lynn & graeme

kill & destroy

friday, while i was working in the server room, i heard what sounded like a mouse being bashed on a desk a couple of times. this is unusual 'coz you rarel'y hear anything above the noise of the servers. i ventured out into the classroom and right at the far end of the classroom a kid shouted and gave the tower of his pc such a slap that it actually moved 18"/ half a meter across the desk. i, being unable to controll myself, shouted really loudly at him which seemed to affect the desired response - his complete reversal of mood from insanely annoyed to suddenly remorseful. he was complaining that the computers were "crap and slow" [these are a room full of P4 2.4's with 512ram and radeon 9600's etc....]. what was actually happenning was that he was surfing the internet and a site was loading really slowly.

i don't know what it is but abuse of components like this really bugs the hell out of me. i suppose i spend my working life trying to get the best i can for the schoolkids, and then some have the attitude that it's to be trashed like anything else that's publically owned. why these kids are allowed to even touch the computers after doing something like this i can't understand. this weekend i'm going to draught a letter to the head, and ask if he can't be removed from gcse it, denied any further access to school computers and sent a bill home for a new hard disk drive [around £50 i estimate], as the HD's without doubt sustained irrepairable damage.

thankyou commenting people... nikki-ann, chloe-lynn & graeme

my gloom

oh my god wot a day! virus woes again this morning. I had a meeting all afternoon and a visitor to collect from newtown train station at 10:45. so i thought may as well re-image the infected pc - it takes half an hour max - far quicker than troubleshooting etc.:

1. prepared the source pc & attached the hard drive to the duff pc
2. tried to boot from a bootable floppy to wipe the destination drive - no-go. five backup bootable floppies later - wipe drive
3. tried to boot from ghost floppy - no-go. 3 backup ghost floppies later - still no-go.
4. was told another pc was now surplus to requirements - so quickly improvised temporary solution: use new spare pc and revive image source pc. install printers and join users to network from new machines.

the head advised me that i'd be getting a substantial upgrade, backdated to january. which of course i'm really happy about. how much difference that'll actually make to my take home pay is unknown ... my WFTC [working family tax credit] allowance will no doubt reduce by a corresponding amount. ah ~ WFTC - the great leveller! =) - i suppose it'll be nice not to be so dependant on the state.

the schools tech staff mtg was more relaxed than usual for some reason. strange that because for the first time ever we're all firefighting virus problems. it's probably due to the relief of having some time out of the furnace ...

thankyou ... graeme [it's not the kids - i don't let them use email. the infected attachments were body.scr and readme.exe - both from friends of the recipient. i've had loads of .pif's too. our authorities' email virus filters' halo is slipping!] & nikki-ann [a lot of virus' are relatively painless. just wait 'till he gets a really nasty one that makes him lose data]

mydoom-a : not by id software :(

i let ben go to bed with his rucksack type bag inb tonight. what do you think ... should i have made him take it off? i figured why ipset him - it'll fall off anyway and he'll learn for himself. bear in mind i'm a very novice grade - still a white belt i think =)

fun at school today. one pc was infected with mydoom-a which prompted the county [our direct host] to temporaarily sever our link. [no internet! - aargh! =)] i'd just scanned the pc the day before because i'd suspected something. i thought "ah - no internet - can't get any updates then..." when the boss pulled out the new update cd from his bag! we're all happy again now. i did make a big thing of being extra vigilant about opening extensions to emails. i think the message has sunken in now!

thankyou ... graeme [yeah - too right!] & nikki-ann [we'd have to forgo another day's leave 'coz we're not allowed any more hols! hehe]

don't shoot tha messenger

set up a basic messaging system [beta 0.0.1] at school today. mainly so that the withdrawl room staff, who are all but isolated except for their mobile phones, can have a basic communication channel back to the main office. instant messaging has great potential at the school. our peculiar problem is that it isn't compatable with our thin client system. we need a system that picks up the client name of the host computer rather than the machine name. [thin client works like a mainframe where terminals are 'dumb' and the 'computer' is actually the server sitting in the middle. so the computer name of a 'thin client' is actually the server - and lots of people use the same server ... see the problem?]. if anyone has any suggestions of help ...

ben saw a specialist today who has referred him for extra tests, and therapy to help him in areas where he's weak. he needs help with speech and physical progress. it's great nowadays that so many aspects in children are recognised and dealt with early on in order to correct them. there's a nagging devil lurking in the back of my mind, however, that fears the worst. i suppose that's only natural. i think doctors and medical professionals could help a lot by offerring openly information. i think this is slowly changing in this 'information age'.

thanks ... nikki-ann [*sounds of dummy being sucked*] & graeme [just you! no-one else ... :)]

cake & daffodils

from what i hear there really is a serious intention to make st. davids day a public holiday! seems a nice ideaa to me :). today at school the canteen staff treated us to bara and welsh cakes. the staff dining table was decorated with green and red napkins and there were large bunches of daffodils in vases. really nice.

thanks for commenting ... nikki-ann [yeah, Nemo's out now on dvd. i want to see the screen saver ...]