Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Learning Management Sys

  • New World

    Here is an attempt at a positive post with our new vendor, Desire2Learn. In the Old World, WebCT/Blackboard, my role was to develop install the application / databases, monitor for problems, automate systems to run without the need of humans, or to make it simple for humans to do. In the New World, Desire2Learn, my…

  • Mail Delivery Background Jobs

    Only 8 years into running this product and I still learn something new about it. Monday there was an event. Two nodes became responsive at about the same time. The other ten nodes did their jobs and transferred session information to the nodes taking on the sessions. Most were so busy they did not respond…

  • OrgCode Duplicate Filter

    I was asked to work my “Unix magic”. The problem? Duplicate courses were spooled and converted from the WebCT format to the Desire2Learn. The conversion process creates an import file using the WebCT SourcedId.Id as the OrgCode. The first time the OrgCode is used, it creates a course. The next and subsequent times, it duplicates…

  • One of Many

    ,

    The Learning Management System (LMS) has been a despised technology by some ever since I started working with one, WebCT, in 1999. At the time it was deemed crappy technology that had to improve or die. So today in 2012, about 13 years later, I have to roll my eyes at the pundits writing about…

  • Project Gutenberg Lorem Ipsum

    ,

    There is a Java vulnerability where an attacker can exploit the hash predictability. The exploit is apparently easier when the content is larger. So the workaround is to limit the size of HTTP POST requests. Weblogic’s 10.3 config.xml has a max-post-size which does this. The handling of when the condition is reached is pathetic. It closes…

  • Want to Work With Me?

    ,

    There are a bunch of new positions which were just posted. We need analysts, database administrators, and an operating system / hardware specialist. The list: Database Administrator SQL Server for us Desire2Learn, an eLearning system. We have other projects needing Oracle DBAs too. System Support Specialist Linux, Windows, VMWare. Includes Desires2Learn but also other projects. Business Systems…

  • Off the Wagon

    Just a month into a year of wanting to blog more, I missed a whole week. Like most resolution failures, I just got busy. Thankfully this was not a daily or weekly resolution. I have time to catch up. Maybe like my reading goals, I should push to get ahead so I can not worry…

  • Big Bad Blip

    I was at lunch last week when I saw pages about a failed monitoring checks on one of our sites. My coworkers were working on CE/Vista SP6 upgrades. Though it was one upgraded yesterday. When I returned to the office, I asked about it. Exactly 24 hours to the second after checking the license in…

  • Back Door Restore

    Humans make mistakes. Our clients’ administrators some times do very bad things without malicious intent. The “Deny Access” button is too close to the “Delete” one. About 160 student accounts were deleted. The hypothesis came to me that sections keep data when a student is removed. Maybe it keeps the data when a student’s account…