Archive for July, 2009

• Review of Microsoft Family Safety Usage

  Date: 2009.07.30 | Category: family safety, microsoft, review | Response: 0

  This is an extension of my review of Microsoft Family Safety, in Part 1 you may remember I decided Family Safety’s installation process is too complication for the average parent therefore I pretty much gave it a big fat FAIL.

  I felt I should review the entire product or at least try to understand its positives and negatives. I’m not going to write about what it does, go read Microsoft’s site for that.

  I’m not sure that a google search for “girl” should be blocked.. but oh well, I will ask in person to get it opened..

  The ask in person process works quite well, would be nice if it auto refreshed the “This page is blocked” once a parent has approved a site..

  Interesting that if I goto images I get the images I want but if I click next to goto page 2 I have to re-request access.

  I could of allowed all of google.co.uk but that’s not what I want.

  Also interesting I could get to photobucket from that site.. So far its a big fat fail, however ads are getting blocked which is nice..

  So it doesn’t filter content as I expect, lets see if I can get to some sites I want to get to..

  I can get to most educational sites, that’s nice.. http://primarygamesarena.com and http://primaryschoolict.com worked, I’m guessing that’s because I have basic mode.

  To summarize, Microsoft Family Safety is a resource heavy monster that restricts your child’s usage however it does show a certain sense of responsibility taken by you as a parent. You can use it however you want, it is fully customizable.

  Do NOT make the mistake of thinking Microsoft Family Safety is the only thing you need to do. Speaking to your child is the key ingredient to all of this, they will not always have a filtered environment so teach them about responsibility internet usage.

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• Quick start developing for Android using SDK

  Date: 2009.07.29 | Category: android, cheat sheet, developer, developing, example, hello world, mobile, phone, sdk, simple | Response: 0

  1. Download Android SDK from http://developer.android.com/ (.180MB file)

  2. Extract to c:\android

  3. Download Eclipse IDE for Java EE dev from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ (.180MB file)

  4. Extract to c:\eclipse

  5. Start – Run – type: cmd

  6. Type –> Cd \ – CD android – CD tools

  7. Type –> android create avd –target 2 –name my_avd

  8. Hit enter

  9. Right click My computer – properties – advanced – Environment Variables – Under System Variables add ;c:\android\tools

  10. OK / OK

  11. Run c:\eclipse\eclipse.exe

  12. Click OK

  13. Click Help

  14. Click Install new software

  15. Add

  16. Name = Android

  17. Location = https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

  .18. OK

  19. Wait for it to finish “Pending”

  20. Click Developer Tools

  21. Click Next

  22. Click Next

  23. Read the T&C’s

  24. Click I accept

  25. Click Finish

  26. Click yes to Restart Eclipse

  27. Click OK

  28. Click Windows – Preferences

  29. Click android

  30. Click browse

  31. Browse to c:\android

  32. Click Apply/OK

  33. Click File/New/Project/Android/Android project

  34. Package Name: hello

  35. Select Android 1.1

  36. Applicationame = helloworld

  37. PackageName = hello.world

  38. Create Activity = hello

  39. Min SDK Version: 2

  40. Expand out Hello > src > Hello.World > Hello.Java

  41. Paste over the current code visible in the centre of the screen:

  package Hello.World;

  import android.app.Activity;

  import android.os.Bundle;

  import android.widget.TextView;

  public class hello extends Activity {

  /** Called when the activity is first created. */

  @Override

  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

  TextView tv = new TextView(this);

  tv.setText(“Hello, Android”);

  setContentView(tv);

  }

  }

  42. Click Run / Run / Android Application

  43. Click Yes to save changes

  44. Wait quite a while – Tada…

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• The Dark Restaurant – Review

  Date: 2009.07.29 | Category: dark, dark restaraunt, dark restaurant, restaurant | Response: 0

  Eating in the dark is a weird experience, so is drinking. So when we were invited to a dark restaurant in Poland I figured I’d give it a bash..

  To quickly summarize:

  1. Tell the waiter what you don’t eat – tell him what you want to drink.
  2. Enter a pitch black room
  3. Get served food you don’t know what it is
  4. Eat & try guess what you are eating.. (I recommend eating with fingers..)
  5. Get told what you ate (optional).

  The only food I didn’t want was squid.. Everything else is fine by me..

  The experience is great with 2 couples, we had a fantastic time, the food was average to good but because one of our key sense was crippled we talked a lot more and had great fun not knocking things over.

  The set meal in Poland was 70Z which is about £15 for 3 courses… In the UK its probably about £40.

  I strongly recommend a dark restaurant as a one off experience, I don’t think I will be going back there again though, the novelty is now done..

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• Microsoft SESP Licensing – The reality

  Date: 2009.07.29 | Category: becta, ict, licensing, microsoft, reality, schools, sesp | Response: 0

  I read through all the Becta and Microsoft schpeil on their new licensing model (SESP) and how it is the best thing since sliced bread for education so I wanted to put it through its paces.

  The first Edular I worked with refused point blank to quote me on SESP as it wasn’t in their system etc. They knew nothing about SESP – even its existence was a shock to them.

  I went back to my MS licensing contact at Microsoft via Twitter and asked him if he had a recommendation on another Edular to try.. I also recommended he managed communication and training better with future education licensing models, he agreed.

  The second Edular admitted they knew nothing but said they would investigate. A few days later after hearing nothing I rang them back to ask for an update, they sent me through a Select quote but not a SESP one so I emailed and rang back requesting SESP, 4 days later, still no quote….. On the 5th day I vented my frustration online and a third Edular (I didn’t know so many existed…) got in touch via twitter saying they can help and dropped me through ane email asking what I was looking for so I sent them an email with my requirements.

  On the 7th day I was told by the Edular they were having some problems getting the actual pricing from Microsoft.

  12 days later I still didn’t have a quote so I wrote a few tweets online which were picked up by some Microsoft people who then scurried away to ask the licensing team why Edulars couldn’t provide a quote.

  14 days later I eventually have a price, thanks to Richard from Bechtle for all their hard work in helping me obtain these prices.

  One of the things that’s different between Select and SESP if that you need to know the total amount of devices, amount of pupils and teachers inside of the school – as far as I’m aware with select licensing you just need machine count.

  
  

  I have requested 2 pricing structures: Select & SESP.

  For this experiment I’m supplying the Edular with machine and pupil counts for an average size 2 form entry Primary School in Bradford (480 pupils – 28 staff members) and requested the following licensing:

  • 2x server 2k8 standard licenses
  • 30x office 2k7 standard
  • 90x XP desktop cals

  Basically in this model it works out at 5 pupils to 1 device. At this point in the article I think we should consider the value of this licensing prior to reading on to find out the actual costs..

  Please take a few moments to think to yourself what you would pay for these licenses…

  If you are like me you will want to pay about £30 per office license, £100 per server and £1 per CAL so a total of £1190. You will also take into consideration that in 3/5 years time your school may need to spend this level of money again to relicense newer versions.

  With the SESP licensing you must annually renew each license.

  The pricing I recieved was (rounded up/down):

  £50 per standard server license

  £13 per Office Enterprice license

  £1.15 per CAL

  So my total costs were:

  £100 on servers per year

  £390 on office per year

  £103.5 on desktop cals

  Total annual cost of a school licensing model (excluding any oem licenses) is £593.50.

  
  

  These licenses include software assurance which is basically spin for recieve the latest version free.

  
  

  To summarize:

  
  

  Over a 5 year period schools under a SESP agreement will be paying £3,000 on licensing where as before they were paying between £1200-£1600.

  Hopefully someone has made an error on pricing and I can update this article…

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• Review of Imax Bradford (Short)

  Date: 2009.07.23 | Category: bradford, imax | Response: 0

  1. Too hot, crowded & close to screen on front rows (I found out this is the same in IMAX cinemas worldwide)
  2. Not enough parking (But this is Bradford, you can be creative!)
  3. Overpriced (But worth the £2 extra than the other options which is awful!)

  Great experience never the less. Imax, Bradford

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