Hi,
Chris Sawtell and I took on the job of contacting the
school, and here is the update.
There is an issue of respecting Lyttelton West school, and not discussing
their situation on a public forum. Consequently, none of what you read
below is attributable to them.
Chris and I have also contacted a number of teachers, listened to the
stories of various children we know, and generally, tried to learn as much
as possible.
I have taken Chris' comments, merged them in with his, so here goes.
-- if I failed in the merge, apologies to Chris.
-- the words below are not related to comments from Lyttelton West school.
Further, I may have broken the thread browsing with this letter (re,
hijacked the thread)... Sorry guys.
Further, Nick found a way of getting his comments added.
===============================================================
*The Min Ed provides things like windows and office licenses.
A country-wide licence has been purchased by the MoE for every State
school in the country. This covers just about every client app. which MS
sells. The last agreement did not cover the windows o/s itself, but since
then a special licence for schools and computer re-cyclers has been
introduced.
*The Min Ed provides anti virus stuff.
Similar deal, we suspect.
*Various teachers have gone off and bought windows software to do things.
They will be 100% annoyed to find that software "unusable".
*It is is the little things that get you. Take for example, mice.
The mice are hard to use, cause noone has been around and cleaned them.
The optical ones are very much better, but at 60x20 ($1200) to upgrade
all the mice, the money is better spent elsewhere.
*One teacher noted that with XP machines crash much less frequently.
We suspect the primary problem faced by schools is system administration.
They have 60 machines in their network (one per classroom for students,
each teacher has their own personal laptop, and a computer lab). Who
maintains them, keeps the software up to date, etc etc.
Put it another way. Teachers have no desire to do sys admin.
Money is only part of the problem. Indeed, their are ministry grants etc
to help out. There is plenty of it slushing around if you know how to tap
into it. In some ways too much.
For a LTSP roll out to work, we have to find a school with a linux
friendly staff who are prepared to work with us.
The bottom line question one has to ask the school is this:- Have you got
a defined plan for the computers to aid the educational process? If the
answer is not a positive one, then both of us will walk away from the
situation.
================
Nick's 8 year old is comfortable with linux or win98, but prefers windows
for the games (not tried getting any going under wine)
Perhaps - secondary schools are a softer target
* most have full time computer admins (Hamish McBrearty and Craig
Falconer on this list for example)
* they are into more "serious" uses by then, ie things to you can
equally do in Open Office, any web browser etc.
Derek/Chris/Nick.
P.S. Chris, apologies to you for deleting some of your hard worked
sentences.
===============================================================
On Mon, 2 Aug 2004, Nick Rout wrote:
> good work....
>
> On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 15:38:58 +1200 (NZST)
> Derek Smithies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > Just got through.
> >
> > The best person to contact is not currently in.
> > He will be in Wednesday, and I will contact him then.
> >
> > Please leave this to me - I don't want the school innundated with phone
> > calls from clug members.
> > If you want to do it, well, contact me off list.
> >
> > Derek.
> >
> > On Mon, 2 Aug 2004, Nick Rout wrote:
> >
> > > Thas pretty typical of small schools. if the secretary is not there all
> > > the teachers are in the classroom....
> > >
> > > On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 14:59:40 +1200 (NZST)
> > > Derek Smithies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > > yeah, I just tried to ring them and got the answering machine.
> > > >
> > > > http://www.whitepages.co.nz/quick/search?key=lyttelton+west&lkey=&loc=CH&x=0&y=0&listing_type=ALL&exact_spelling=0
> > > >
> > > > ============
> > > >
> > > > Certainly, a set of second hand machines would be the basis of the network
> > > > machines. You would have issues like,
> > > > not enough memory & disk,
> > >
> > > no disk required for our job...
> > >
> > > > reliability.
> > >
> > > I understand from my reading that a good video card is on the list of
> > > priorities too.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > However, given they are dumb terminals, it would be a case of replacing
> > > > a failed machine with a going machine. So, you would leave them 13 nodes
> > > > (for a 10 node network). Then we would be responsible for fixing the ones
> > > > that went dead.
> > > > This is a situation we have to prepare for, if we do a ltsp rollout.
> > > >
> > >
> > > it is easier too if the machines are homogenous, saves setup and
> > > replacement hassles.
> > >
> > >
> > > > Derek.
> > > > ===============================================================
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, 2 Aug 2004, Nick Rout wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 14:20:34 +1200
> > > > > Christopher Sawtell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 11:36, Derek Smithies wrote:
> > > > > > > Hi,
> > > > > > > I received the message below from Simon Knight.
> > > > > > > Thankyou Simon for this informative message.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Having read (skimmed through) the requirements for a server, and looked
> > > > > > > at
> > > > > > > the overview, it is clear that the ministry of ed is not fixated on
> > > > > > > windows.
> > > > > > > They explicity accept linux servers, and quote redhat linux 9 and suse.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > However, it is clear also that doing a LTSP network is going to be work
> > > > > > > work work and dollars dollars dollars.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Comment ?
> > > > > > While installing an LTSP net is not as easy as falling off a log and
> > > > > > holding
> > > > > > out your paw for a couple of grand, it's nothing like as difficult as I
> > > > > > think
> > > > > > you are inferring.
> > > > >
> > > > > it dies take time, a fair chunk of money (if it is to be worthy of
> > > > > showing off) and ongoing time for maintenance. Forget the couple of
> > > > > grand.
> > > > >
> > > > > I see the ministry's standard for networking includes a gigabyte
> > > > > connection from the server to the backbone.
> > > > >
> > > > > The server recommendations for a LTSP network (again we would want it to
> > > > > be worthy of showing off) are pretty steep.
> > > > >
> > > > > Getting a load of maintenance free terminals is a mission, the cheapest
> > > > > terminals will be second hand boxes of dubious history. Its true we'd dump
> > > > > their hard drives, but that doesn't mean they are never going to pack up.
> > > > >
> > > > > Has anyone contacted the school (Lyttelton West) that already has an
> > > > > LTSP network? I emailed Chris B, but he hasn't got back to me (neither
> > > > > might I if I was on a years holiday in France LOL)
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Sincerely etc.,
> > > > > > Christopher Sawtell
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Derek Smithies Ph.D. This PC runs pine on linux for
> > > > email
> > > > IndraNet Technologies Ltd. If you find a virus apparently
> > > > from me, it has
> > > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] forged the e-mail headers on
> > > > someone else's machine
> > > > ph +64 3 365 6485 Please do not notify me when
> > > > (apparently) receiving a
> > > > Web: http://www.indranet-technologies.com/ windows virus from me......
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Derek Smithies Ph.D. This PC runs pine on linux for email
> > IndraNet Technologies Ltd. If you find a virus apparently from
> > me, it has
> > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] forged the e-mail headers on someone
> > else's machine
> > ph +64 3 365 6485 Please do not notify me when
> > (apparently) receiving a
> > Web: http://www.indranet-technologies.com/ windows virus from me......
>
>
--
Derek Smithies Ph.D. This PC runs pine on linux for email
IndraNet Technologies Ltd. If you find a virus apparently from me,
it has
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] forged the e-mail headers on someone
else's machine
ph +64 3 365 6485 Please do not notify me when
(apparently) receiving a
Web: http://www.indranet-technologies.com/ windows virus from me......
