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Blackboard buys Elluminate and Wimba

figaro — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:19:21 +0000

Now that Elluminate and Wimba are owned by the evil empire I wonder if all the Moodle disciples will stop using them? It’s going to be real funny watching the all those BB haters using Elluminate at their next Moodle developers meeting…and it will be even funnier when Moodle finally realizes it can’t keep up and BB owns them within the next couple of years

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In a fact sheet about the purchases, Blackboard officials promised to continue to support both products, including their compatibility with rival course-management systems and open-source systems. “We’ll honor all existing contracts for Elluminate and Wimba clients,” the company adds in the fact sheet.

Employees from the two companies will be part of a new division of Blackboard called Blackboard Collaborate, which will be led by Elluminate’s current president, Maurice Heiblum. READ MORE HERE…..

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WordPress 3.0 Upgrade — Problems?

figaro — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:26:02 +0000

It looks like quite a few people are having problems after upgrading, or attempting to upgrade, their WordPress sites to 3.0. If you are having problems, then first scan the forums here:

http://wordpress.org/support/view/all-topics

Also, you may want to look under the upgrade category on this site to make sure you go about upgrading in a manner so that you will be able to recover if you do run into problems.

If you have exhausted your options and are still stuck with a broken site after attempting to upgrade, then contact me with details and I’ll give you a reasonable quote to fix your site.

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WordPress 3.0 Released — Nice Features

figaro — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:48:58 +0000

WordPress 3.0 was just released and it’s a very nice version. I think the best feature in this release is the merging of WordPress and WordPress Mu (multi-user). I just upgraded this site to 3.0 and, as usual, the upgrade was smooth, quick, and problem-free.

I’ve been hosting a multi-user site for the past few years that currently has around 500 blogs, so I’ll be moving that site to WP 3.0 in the next few weeks. Of course, I’ll be doing some testing first, but as I do the transfer, I’ll create a video to document the process and publish it here.

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Another “Interesting” Moodle Site Hacked

figaro — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:09:44 +0000

I noticed a post in the moodle.org forums today that grabbed my attention for a few reasons:

It is reporting yet another Moodle site being hacked…that’s about a bazillion and counting now
It’s not just any Moodle site…it’s actually a site set-up specifically for a Moodle Moot (a type of Moodle conference that typically attracts a hand full of Moodle evangelist)
It was hacked the same day the Moot was scheduled to take place — Ouch!

Here is an excerpt from the person making the post…

This is a very low traffic site. (www.XXXXXXXX.com) that is used for a Moot we held yesterday. I don’t know if someone decided to be cute by hacking the site on the day of the Moot or what but if that is the case I guess it is quite imperative to figure out how.

But what really caught my interest is that he has made several posts about this in the forums and not a single “expert” over there has pointed out that this PHM, who is hosting a Moodle Moot, of all things, is actually running Moodle version 1.9.4 on his site…a version that is around 18 months old. Someone needs to help this poor guy out and tell him he needs to upgrade…of course, that may not help prevent his site from being hacked, but at least the version won’t show in the footer of his Moodle site any longer. You see, Moodle HQ removed that info a few months ago when I pointed out that one of their largest official Moodle partners was hosting sites (and still is, by the way) that were even more out-of-date than this one

Moodle Security — An oxymoron if there ever was one!

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BP Moodle Site Hacked

figaro — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:01:34 +0000

As if BP didn’t have enough trouble to deal with at the moment, it seems they were running a Moodle LMS site that was hacked and private data (or data that was supposed to be private) was compromised. While this is pretty amusing and I’m sure it’s not on the top of anyone’s list at BP, it does point out one thing any organization running Moodle should be aware of…if someone really wants to hack your Moodle site, it’s typically not a difficult thing to do.

This hack was posted on moodle.org and the very first response, from a Moodle Business partner of course, was well, “They must have modified it (Moodle) and screwed it up.” That pretty much sums up the attitude of corporate Moodle toward security. There are several lessons here, but one of the biggest is, if you are a trillion dollar company, then why in the world would you go with web software that has been proven time and time again to have security holes large enough to drive an 18-wheeler trough just because you can get it “free”? Ever hear of Blackboard?

The blog post:

http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2010/06/going-after-bp/

The Moodle security vulnerability:

http://www.xssed.com/mirror/67152/

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Google Launches New Course-Scheduling System

figaro — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:19:04 +0000

Last week was a big one for Google fans in higher education. Google Wave opened its doors, and Google Voice now lets students get calls forwarded from their old numbers to their new phones. Google made one more announcement last week—about a new course-scheduling system, CloudCourse—that could potentially have implications for higher education. READ THE REST HERE.

And see the second comment in the comments section of the article…that’s coming and it’s a death sentence to the rigid, out-of-date LMS systems like Blackboard and Moodle. Blackboard may survive as it’s evolving into a full-fledged campus management system, but Moodle, being nothing more than a document repository, gradebook, and discussion forum, is well on its way to extinction.

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How to waste $39.99?

figaro — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:29:18 +0000

Purchase a Moodle 1.9 Extension Development book…

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=149501

…released on the same day Moodle 2.0 “Preview 1″ is released.

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=149513

Didn’t someone spend the last 2 years completely rewriting the entire codebase for 2.0?

The phrase ”A day late and a dollar (or $39.99) short” comes to mind. But, that’s about par for anything coming out of remote-Learner.

Here’s an idea…take your $39.99, go down to the local book store, rummage through the discount bins and buy a bunch of Windows 95 books for 99 cents each…if you’re into outdated stuff at least you’ll get more for your money

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Moodle 2.0 wherefore art thou?

figaro — Tue, 04 May 2010 00:56:00 +0000

Moodle 2.0…the Godsend to LMS users worldwide…under development for over 2 years now…

Someone emailed me today asking: O 2.0, O 2.0 wherefore art thou 2.0?

He/she may have even posted here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=145632

Actually, that is a very good question, but one that doesn’t really concern me. The person who emailed me (why he/she emailed me is a mystery) stated that Martin (you know, king of the disciples), stated at the recent UK moot that he has decreed Moodle 2.0 Stable will be out in July so all in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to upgrade before school starts in the fall.

Really?

I mean, REALLY?

1. It’s May and there is not even a beta,

2. Have you downloaded what is there now? I have and it’s not pretty, and

3. Anyone who upgrades their campus site to 2.0 this summer (alleged stable or not) should be fired for gross incompetence.

Given Moodle’s abysmal track record with security, privacy, and FERPA compliance the real question people should be asking is O 2.0, O 2.0, how secure art thou Moodle 2.0? The answer to that question remains to be seen…but then again, I may know someone willing to help answer that one

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WordPress Hacked — more than once — at Network Solutions

figaro — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:29:49 +0000

Update: See comment by Network Solutions in comments area.

It seems Network Solutions and WordPress may not be playing well together and, as usual with tech geeks, they’re both pointing the finger at each other. I don’t have the time or interest to follow all the links on the net to figure this one out, but if you are hosting WP (or any other php app for that matter) on a network solutions, then you may want to do a little research on this one…here are a few links to get you started.

http://news.techworld.com/security/3221030/network-solutions-hacked-again-after-mass-wordpress-blogs-attack/

http://blog.networksolutions.com/2010/we-feel-your-pain-and-are-working-hard-to-fix-this/

and, of course, it could just be you

http://www.security-faqs.com/wordpress-vs-network-solutions-vs-you-who-is-to-blame-and-is-your-blog-at-risk-from-a-database-hack.html

Oh, and on another note…look Moodle devs…long lines of text in this post with no spaces that actually wrap…welcome to 2010…keep working on it…you’ll eventually get there

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How to Embed YouTube Video into PowerPoint 2007

figaro — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:50:15 +0000

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