Blog Entries - February 2008

Open Source in schools could save the taxpayer billions

jspencer — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

In a previous 2005 report the Government quango Becta showed that schools could effect considerable savings by making use of Free Open Source software such as Open Office. In their study they simply looked at 'like for like' software replacement using existing networks and computers.

Since this study we have seen the emergence of the new breed of ultra-portable Linux-based computers aimed squarely at the education sector and the inexorable build of Web 2 services such as Google Apps [...]

Howto: 100% Search engine friendly URLs in Joomla!

tcallway — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Implementing 100% SEF URLs in Joomla! can be a little tricky so we've written a step-by-step guide that includes how to correctly configure your LAMP server.

There are some differences in implementing SEF URLs in Joomla! 1.0.* and 1.5, principally the requirement for third-party plugins.

We'll deal with the generic LAMP server configuration issues first and then deal with the [...]

Freewash, fake beards, and the enclosure of the software commons

mtaylor — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The 20th February 2008 was one of those 'Microsoft moments', when suddenly, the world changed. Just like when they 'got' the network (and we got NT), or they 'got' the Internet (and we got 'Internet Explorer'). This time they 'got' Open Source and Open Standards and the company is about to make another of their legendary radical transformations... or so they would [...]

Linux will dominate UK schools within 5 years

jspencer — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Yes, it does seem unlikely doesn't it? Windows has been the only reality for several generations of computer users. But is the tide finally beginning to turn?

At the Education Show held in February 2007, the talk was of 'sustainable' computing and how schools could use technology to reduce their 'carbon footprint'. Nobody had any idea of what was to come – a host of Linux-based, ultra-portable, incredibly cheap and very green personal laptops.

Glyn Moody's "Open..." Blog, 18/02/2008:

In the face of this evid [...]

SCO: it's not about winning but continuing the FUD

tcallway — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

ITPro 15/02/2008:

Merely weeks after warning its shareholders that it's Unix litigation against Novell and other vendors may leave them with nothing, SCO late yesterday revealed it had received a potential $100-million (£50.8-million), private equity bailout offer..[from Stephen Norris & Company Capital - SNCP]

Groklaw 15/02/2008:

It's a takeover, whereby they give SCO $5 million, a [...]

Becta Blocker

jspencer — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:00:00 +0100

This report analyses BECTA's procurement frameworks and concludes that they have placed school ICT in the hands of only a few of the biggest suppliers and that this is now acting to the detriment of school computing.

ICT has been part of schools for the past thirty years. During this time the number of computers per pupil has risen from vanishingly small to 1:3.9 and is set rise to 1:1 in the near future. [...]

School's ICT energy consumption - Room 25

tcallway — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Room 25, where I sit now, is one of my school's computer rooms and has been since 1976; we go back a long way. Once it was a geography classroom and once I was a young teacher and once we hadn't thought about global warming. The story starts not so long ago, but before Windowstm before HIV-AIDS before RM, before mobile phones.... For those you who just want me to get to the point read the paragraph far belo [...]