Year 9 Laptops

[theDarkHorse]

Originally Posted by skootyloops

Someone should rock up with osx86 running on their netbook

Thought Apple is banhammering Atom Hackintoshes with their latest update?

[skootyloops]

Originally Posted by theDarkHorse

Thought Apple is banhammering Atom Hackintoshes with their latest update?

You could still use other versions

[Smoke87]

So you configure it to boot off USB? Big deal. What do you get? A laptop you can't use at school. The moment staff notice this, they take the laptop, give to me, I format, rebuild and neglect to backup your data.

Let's say you aren't somehow caught not being able to do any of your school work, as I understand the situation (Not being a TSO but a techie);

1) You won't be able to authenticate with the wireless network in the school

2) You won't be able to use domain resources

3) You won't have access to licensed DET software

4) The BIOS will eventually call home and the DET network will go "What the fuck? This hasn't been connected to our network in months! Better report it stolen so that the GPS can be tracked by the police".

[skootyloops]

You can boot it off USB at home to allow yourself access to an unrestricted operating system. I can see that as a massive bonus.

[theDarkHorse]

Originally Posted by Smoke87

So you configure it to boot off USB? Big deal. What do you get? A laptop you can't use at school. The moment staff notice this, they take the laptop, give to me, I format, rebuild and neglect to backup your data.

Let's say you aren't somehow caught not being able to do any of your school work, as I understand the situation (Not being a TSO but a techie);

1) You won't be able to authenticate with the wireless network in the school

2) You won't be able to use domain resources

3) You won't have access to licensed DET software

4) The BIOS will eventually call home and the DET network will go "What the fuck? This hasn't been connected to our network in months! Better report it stolen so that the GPS can be tracked by the police".

Aww that's lame.

When I was in senior high school, I did use a laptop on a regular basis in class (though I was the only one to do so). Some teachers were more accommodating than others. It probably won't be too different now every Yr9 student has one: some teachers will feel comfortable with it, some won't.

What I'm currently not convinced with is how these are integrated into the syllabus. I'm guessing, badly.

[cs-cam]

Originally Posted by theDarkHorse

What I'm currently not convinced with is how these are integrated into the syllabus. I'm guessing, badly.

They're not... yet. As it stands they're a massive waste of money. Yeah sure, some schools are probably pushing new curriculum and trying to be on the edge but most aren't bothering and the staff aren't interested or savvy enough to know how.

Buying equipment for hospitals doesn't create jobs though, the laptop program and the NBN create a shitload of jobs which will appear to be a proactive move against the fantasy financial crisis.

[SLATYE]

Originally Posted by skootyloops

You can boot it off USB at home to allow yourself access to an unrestricted operating system. I can see that as a massive bonus.

But then you're running the OS from USB, which would be extremely slow. Better to just buy an old $50 P4 system and use that at home.

[LINUX]

Originally Posted by matthudson

Yep, that's a DER laptop booting from USB. They are incredibly easy to get into.
I installed both Maple and Google Chrome. Portable Apps also seemed to work

Nice .

I'm doing my 2nd teaching prac right now and haven't thought of any way to include them in my classes. Thankfully I don't have year 9 so it's not a big deal.

The other teachers have been giving them a fair go though. The current year 9 topic is linear equations and as such all the teachers have been learning Geogebra and including it in their lessons.

What is needed though is a way to monitor the students. I've heard of a system which gives the teacher a VNC session (or something like it) to every machine in the room and allows them to see everybody's work, close programmes etc. Properly implemented this would allow student monitoring above and beyond any traditional method. However, it's currently not used. AFAIK it's not installed on the DET laptops and the teacher's aren't supplied with machines with which to do the monitoring anyway. At least the potential is there.

At the first assembly after the holidays the AP announced that several year 9 netbooks had been stolen. It was hard not to laugh as he describe how they all have tracking devices etc and how they were useless to whoever took them. Kind of made me want to take one just to test them . What sort of "tracking device" would they have? If it's GPS based you just:

1) steal
2) Drive to an underground carpak, walk into a tin shed etc.
3) unsolder/snap off the GPS module
4) Profit.

What else would it be? An app which takes photos of you with the webcam? Nothing Gaff can't fix. Something which transmits something when connected to the 'net? Run a firewall.

Maybe I can start handing out ebook copies of Hacking: The Art of Exploitation just to get people interested... Shame this is such a gutter trash school, I might have had fun with a more educated student base.

Edit: Just read that removing the GPS module will probably cause the laptop to self destruct. At least it's a source of GPS modules. Are they ones which speak NMEA?

[Smoke87]

Originally Posted by skootyloops

You can boot it off USB at home to allow yourself access to an unrestricted operating system. I can see that as a massive bonus.

oh so you're not using it to write over the local hard disk? Interesting...I'll have to double check the laptops before we roll them out. Still, when you go to class, your teacher is going to pickup that you're unable to download and submit your class work...did you read the statutory declaration and agreement you entered into in receiving the laptop?

[Smoke87]

Originally Posted by LINUX

What is needed though is a way to monitor the students. I've heard of a system which gives the teacher a VNC session (or something like it) to every machine in the room and allows them to see everybody's work, close programmes etc. Properly implemented this would allow student monitoring above and beyond any traditional method. However, it's currently not used. AFAIK it's not installed on the DET laptops and the teacher's aren't supplied with machines with which to do the monitoring anyway. At least the potential is there.

There is a program for this, we used at one site where the kids were little shit heads and drop kicks...3 out of every class of 30 actually studied for the 2009 HSC, there are about 200ish kids in the Year 12 class for this quite highly regarded school...

Can't recall the name of the software, but it's out there, useless in any case, as students pay no attention to a teacher sitting down in a corner of the room rather that at the front screaming at them.

Thankfully at my new site, every student is hand picked for entry, haven't spotted a single student-created problem with the network or classes yet.

Originally Posted by LINUX

At the first assembly after the holidays the AP announced that several year 9 netbooks had been stolen. It was hard not to laugh as he describe how they all have tracking devices etc and how they were useless to whoever took them. Kind of made me want to take one just to test them . What sort of "tracking device" would they have? If it's GPS based you just:

1) steal
2) Drive to an underground carpak, walk into a tin shed etc.
3) unsolder/snap off the GPS module
4) Profit.

What else would it be? An app which takes photos of you with the webcam? Nothing Gaff can't fix. Something which transmits something when connected to the 'net? Run a firewall.

There are like a dozen levels of security that work for the police in locating these laptops and I can assure you that should a laptop be interfered with the police have been directed by the state government to come down hard because it would be the media frenzy the labor government would love.

You should also be aware that the DET runs scans on social pages for keywords associated with the security of their systems, I've seen it pick up a breach in security once already.

[oohms]

You sound like a school techie

I think if a random ocau user can boot off a usb device on one, they really aren't that secure. Nothing is foolproof.

[skootyloops]

Originally Posted by Smoke87

oh so you're not using it to write over the local hard disk? Interesting...I'll have to double check the laptops before we roll them out. Still, when you go to class, your teacher is going to pickup that you're unable to download and submit your class work...did you read the statutory declaration and agreement you entered into in receiving the laptop?

At what point did I say I received the laptop? And how is a teacher going to pick up that you have used a USB device to boot an OS at home?

[tensop]

Originally Posted by Smoke87

So you configure it to boot off USB? Big deal. What do you get? A laptop you can't use at school. The moment staff notice this, they take the laptop, give to me, I format, rebuild and neglect to backup your data.

Let's say you aren't somehow caught not being able to do any of your school work, as I understand the situation (Not being a TSO but a techie);

1) You won't be able to authenticate with the wireless network in the school

2) You won't be able to use domain resources

3) You won't have access to licensed DET software

4) The BIOS will eventually call home and the DET network will go "What the fuck? This hasn't been connected to our network in months! Better report it stolen so that the GPS can be tracked by the police".

Snapshot the image into a VM. the bios itself does not call home at all(nor does is it even remotely close to the capaibility)


KCC will normally ignore abstraction changes and it will still function within an ldap enviro

You should also be aware that the DET runs scans on social pages for keywords associated with the security of their systems, I've seen it pick up a breach in security once already.

No you have not, you're a school tech.

[SLATYE]

Originally Posted by skootyloops

And how is a teacher going to pick up that you have used a USB device to boot an OS at home?

I don't think that they'd mind you doing this, as long as you don't modify what's installed on the laptop (because that creates more work for them). However, the point still stands: booting from USB will be slow, and it'd be much better to just get a cheap second-hand P4 system for use at home.

[Ogre]

Tracking is not GPS based

To unsolder the tracking "part" would result in a motherboard without a bios.

I dont see why people would waste time trying to crack these laptops, most people here would have there own laptop/computer at home which they can do anything they like with.

If booting off a USB works then more power to you, I personally havent tried it. As long as nothing changes to the existing system/hardware no one will know or care.

Smoke87 are you a TSO or just a school techie/teacher?