The Official Status Thread



  • @Jaloopa said in The Official Status Thread:

    Play along for a bit, then start dropping hints that your home really needs a remodel. It's a bit unusual but you've been getting bored with all the yellowgray paint and the metal bars on the windows.



  • @izzion TASbot plays Brain Age is quite remarkable, even if the images get memey.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSFHKAvTGNk



  • Statusbolded text** Game Start!



  • @JazzyJosh
    I will admit that my assessment of that segment was largely colored by the fact that they were already running long, I was tuned in because I really wanted the following segment, and they did about 1,000,000,000 questions when they could have done about 50 and avoided repeating their gags.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    Status: If only there was another way to represent this...

    That’s saved our customers a combined total of 3 BILLION Megabytes of mobile data...



  • Status: My turn to bake something for the office tomorrow. This time something on the letter 'C'. As in chocolate, citrus, or cheesecake.

    In the end I settled for something to celebrate the failed Turkish invasion of Vienna. They're rising now.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said in The Official Status Thread:

    As in chocolate, citrus, or cheesecake.

    All of the above!



  • @Mikael_Svahnberg said in The Official Status Thread:

    In the end I settled for something to celebrate the failed Turkish invasion of Vienna.

    All in all, coffee is not a bad choice.


  • FoxDev

    @Maciejasjmj said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said in The Official Status Thread:

    In the end I settled for something to celebrate the failed Turkish invasion of Vienna.

    All in all, coffee is not a bad choice.

    baked coffee......

    :not_sure_if_doing_it_wrong.meme:


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @loopback0 said in The Official Status Thread:

    Status: If only there was another way to represent this...

    That’s saved our customers a combined total of 3 BILLION Megabytes of mobile data...

    There is, but plebs won't understand because who needs more than Megamanbytes?



  • Status: The new office has better chairs. It's cold though.



  • @Mikael_Svahnberg maybe I should have spaced them better...

    0_1484673764694_IMG_0392.JPG


  • FoxDev

    @Mikael_Svahnberg said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Mikael_Svahnberg maybe I should have spaced them better...

    0_1484673764694_IMG_0392.JPG

    yes, you should have. this batch is not fit for consumption.

    I, Accalia, on behalf of all humanity confinscate these failures, for the sake of all humanity and shall (nom) dispose of them (snarf) in the most humane (gobble) way possible.



  • Status: I may be receiving an official request to create a data aggregation app for my school - something relatively simple (yes, I'm well aware that "simple" and "easy" are not the same thing).

    Basically, we're still stuck in the era of "hand in forms made of paper" for quite a number of things, which leads to a lot of duplicate efforts (which in turn sometimes causes people to simply forget to hand in the forms).

    Case in point would be the fact that we need to keep tabs on the number of pupils which turn up late or not at all. This is handled differently for the several branches with the obvious results that it causes a lot of errors because no teacher is only teaching in one branch. I myself, for example, am teaching courses in 5 different branches.

    So, the basic idea is that every teacher gets access to an app where he simply calls up the current course, marks attendance and is done with it. No more shuffling paper around.

    The data base (which pupil goes to what course led by which teacher) is already available.

    The questions which remain to be answered: What does the syncing process look like, where is the actual data stored and how does one access it? Do we go with a central, common password (I vote no) or does everyone get his own? How do we deal with the (almost certainly necessary) encryption? And which platforms do we make available? Plus, not a minor consideration, how do we deal with the teachers who'll still want to use paper forms?

    I'm probably going for Xamarin as this will get out the broadest access route. iOS will likely still be out as development for that platform is still coupled to access to the hardware, as I understand it. I mean, for Windows and Android, access to the store is quite cheap and you could always sideload the app. With iOS however...

    Oh well. Will have to hammer out the requisites at some point at which it will also emerge what we're actually settling on.

    I mean, a simple "Take attendance" app I could probably hammer out in a day or so. It's the other stuff which will be interesting - I do hope I can avoid having to use an asymmetric encryption scheme.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    STATUS 🍹

    👴 We need this alexa app right away!
    👦 Will do boss! I just need a credit card to sign up to aws.
    👴 Just use your own.
    👦 I'll be delighted too...Like fuck! Give me the company card!
    👴 I feel like you're not loyal enough to this company.
    👦 I feel like I should start drinking before noon.

    This brainfart appears to be dead in the water already. In other news I think I'm becoming a lippy and alcoholic Wally.



  • @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    Status: I may be receiving an official request to create a data aggregation app for my school - something relatively simple (yes, I'm well aware that "simple" and "easy" are not the same thing).

    Basically, we're still stuck in the era of "hand in forms made of paper" for quite a number of things, which leads to a lot of duplicate efforts (which in turn sometimes causes people to simply forget to hand in the forms).

    Case in point would be the fact that we need to keep tabs on the number of pupils which turn up late or not at all. This is handled differently for the several branches with the obvious results that it causes a lot of errors because no teacher is only teaching in one branch. I myself, for example, am teaching courses in 5 different branches.

    So, the basic idea is that every teacher gets access to an app where he simply calls up the current course, marks attendance and is done with it. No more shuffling paper around.

    The data base (which pupil goes to what course led by which teacher) is already available.

    The questions which remain to be answered: What does the syncing process look like, where is the actual data stored and how does one access it? Do we go with a central, common password (I vote no) or does everyone get his own? How do we deal with the (almost certainly necessary) encryption? And which platforms do we make available? Plus, not a minor consideration, how do we deal with the teachers who'll still want to use paper forms?

    I'm probably going for Xamarin as this will get out the broadest access route. iOS will likely still be out as development for that platform is still coupled to access to the hardware, as I understand it. I mean, for Windows and Android, access to the store is quite cheap and you could always sideload the app. With iOS however...

    Oh well. Will have to hammer out the requisites at some point at which it will also emerge what we're actually settling on.

    I mean, a simple "Take attendance" app I could probably hammer out in a day or so. It's the other stuff which will be interesting - I do hope I can avoid having to use an asymmetric encryption scheme.

    Speaking as a fellow teacher (and someone who has developed an app for school purposes), wouldn't a web app be easier? That takes care of the synchronization problem and authentication sounds be easier to handle.

    We have a contract with a company that handles ours, but even if you could use it (not being in the US), I wouldn't recommend it. It's a total kludge.


  • FoxDev

    @Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:

    Speaking as a fellow teacher (and someone who has developed an app for school purposes), wouldn't a web app be easier? That takes care of the synchronization problem and authentication sounds be easier to handle.

    And it would get iOS support without requiring sending Apple $54738950275843907253489027584390254873902 in fees 🙂



  • @Benjamin-Hall School web access is, in my experience, fairly bad.



  • @RaceProUK said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:

    Speaking as a fellow teacher (and someone who has developed an app for school purposes), wouldn't a web app be easier? That takes care of the synchronization problem and authentication sounds be easier to handle.

    And it would get iOS support without requiring sending Apple $54738950275843907253489027584390254873902 in fees 🙂

    Yeah. That $99/year (individual developer price) is annoying. I wrote a simple day-planner app (our school schedule is...special) and am maintaining it. Got me most of my professional development hours for this 5-year block though.



  • @DogsB WTF? The company asked you to pay for company infrastructure with your own money?



  • @Magus said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Benjamin-Hall School web access is, in my experience, fairly bad.

    But then anything that relies on network synchronization is going to be painful. We're an all-apple (one-to-one iPad, ugh) private school and the kids do most of their stuff online. The network goes down and lots of things come to a shuddering halt. Our IT staff is actually pretty good about keeping our side of things up. The outsourced company that handles all the admin software...not so much. I guess I'm lucky.



  • STATUS:

    Colleague has described in minute detail how, as a kid, he carefully lured and shot dead his neighbor's dog. Also how he shot neighbor's speaker through the window because it was playing too loud.

    I'll keep my volume lower in the future.



  • @Magus said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Benjamin-Hall School web access is, in my experience, fairly bad.

    We're actually inside a Triple-NAT. Don't ask me why.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    The questions which remain to be answered:

    You skipped over a bunch of other questions:

    1. What platform is it on?
    2. Do all teachers have a device on that platform? If no, who is providing it to them?
    3. What do you do when the wifi is down, or not accessible in Room 302 (aka the concrete room with no windows), or when the teacher doesn't have the 4 minutes it takes to log in, find the class, and start tapping
    4. What happens when a PRESENT is entered when they meant NOT PRESENT, how do you correct that?
    5. What happens when NOT PRESENT is entered and then the kid shows up?
    6. Seriously, are you expecting everyone to carry around an extra device and ensure it's charged and be responsible for it even though it's school property?
    7. What happens when the battery fails?
    8. What is your fallback when the whole system fails in a way Lorne hasn't mentioned yet? Do all teachers need paper backups of attendance, just in case? If so, why have you just duplicated the work they have to do?

  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:

    We have a contract with a company

    I bet it's a barely usable piece of shit.

    @Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:

    I wouldn't recommend it. It's a total kludge.

    Called it.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @cartman82 said in The Official Status Thread:

    Colleague has described in minute detail how, as a kid, he carefully lured and shot dead his neighbor's dog. Also how he shot neighbor's speaker through the window because it was playing too loud.

    You work with Jason Bateman?



  • @Lorne-Kates said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:

    We have a contract with a company

    I bet it's a barely usable piece of shit.

    @Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:

    I wouldn't recommend it. It's a total kludge.

    Called it.

    I may have written a rant post about the HTML quality. Something about tables within tables...bad memories. The rest of it isn't any better, but it works. Sort of. Most of the time. Except when it times out (on a good connection). Oh, and don't ask about the mobile experience.



  • @Lorne-Kates said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    The questions which remain to be answered:

    You skipped over a bunch of other questions:

    1. What platform is it on?
    2. Do all teachers have a device on that platform? If no, who is providing it to them?

    All of our class rooms have at least one PC.

    1. What do you do when the wifi is down, or not accessible in Room 302 (aka the concrete room with no windows), or when the teacher doesn't have the 4 minutes it takes to log in, find the class, and start tapping

    All the class room PCs have a wired connection. I'm also not sure why there would be such a time pressure. After all, one of the things everyone does here first upon entering the room is to turn on the PC (if it's not turned on already). Also, almost every class room has a smartboard instead of a chalk board, so lessons don't really start anyway until the PC has booted.

    1. What happens when a PRESENT is entered when they meant NOT PRESENT, how do you correct that?

    Since we didn't write the data on a slab of stone, I guess I'll simply flip the boolean from true to false?

    1. What happens when NOT PRESENT is entered and then the kid shows up?

    Then it gets changed to a IS_PRESENT_BUT_LATE(5) ?

    1. Seriously, are you expecting everyone to carry around an extra device and ensure it's charged and be responsible for it even though it's school property?

    See No. 2

    1. What happens when the battery fails?

    In that case, we'd have a blackout. Also, there's still pen&paper.

    1. What is your fallback when the whole system fails in a way Lorne hasn't mentioned yet? Do all teachers need paper backups of attendance, just in case? If so, why have you just duplicated the work they have to do?

    I'm not sure why a temporary reversal to the way we're already doing it would be such a catastrophe?



  • @cartman82 said in The Official Status Thread:

    @DogsB WTF? The company asked you to pay for company infrastructure with your own money?

    Presumably he would submit an expense report and be reimbursed. Still, not everyone has the available cash to give their employer an interest-free loan while Accounts Payable processes the payment, and it's not reasonable to consider that disloyalty.



  • Status:

    1. System S creates file format F.
    2. S does not implement all parts of F that we need, so we have to extend it.
    3. S receives data in an XML variant, while F is proprietary.
    4. F has a strange database system with keys, while S has different keys which are almost always different than the resulting keys in F, because F may get objects from other places, and therefore cannot trust keys produced by S in general.
    5. S has a system to override the key generation and have its keys used in F, but only for specific objects, because they didn't want customers to shoot themselves in the foot. If they expand this, we have a solution implemented that will work for all cases.
    6. We have discussed embedding keys in string fields, running through S, then stripping those keys from F and doing the required logic now that we have the mapping figured out, but this would be messy and not everything has string fields.

  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    All of our class rooms have at least one PC.

    Then why are you talking about an app?

    So this is a keyboard-and-mouse thing then? I dare you to see how long it takes to fill out a bubblesheet with a pencil vs. clicking "present/not present/etc" 30 times.

    I'm also not sure why there would be such a time pressure.

    ... really?

    The lesson is only x minutes long to begin with. It starts right away with a deficit because you have to wait for the PC to boot. Now the teacher also has to open the app, log in, find the class they're doing the attendance for. That's a couple more minutes. Now they have to use the app and enter attendance. See my point about it taking longer to enter data. Do you have ~75 minute periods? Well, now ~5 minutes is dedicated to doing a task in a harder way.

    Since we didn't write the data on a slab of stone, I guess I'll simply flip the boolean from true to false?

    Uh-huh. So you'll personally do that each time? How does the teacher get the request to you? Dropping by your desk? An email? Or do you program in an 'edit attendance' feature. How do you comply with all rules and regulations about who can edit a submitted attendance? How is it easier than telling the kid "go to attendance office and get late slip".

    Then it gets changed to a IS_PRESENT_BUT_LATE(5) ?

    See above about modifying submitted data.

    I'm not sure why a temporary reversal to the way we're already doing it would be such a catastrophe?

    My point is that you can't replace pen&paper. The only way to ensure the data can be recorded is to have that as a backup. Meaning you need a way for people to enter pen&paper data into the system. Which means all you're doing is creating an alternate path into the existing system. Which means that it's just easier to keep doing pen&paper rather than forcing yet another technical responsibility onto other people.

    Pen&paper, by the perspective of your end users (teachers) is:

    • fast
    • known
    • redundant (unless someone literally burns the sheet of paper, nothing is going to erase it or lose the half-done attendance they started)
    • has built-in backup (again, that paper isn't going anywhere)
    • has no extra layers of complexity
    • already established rules, regulations

    OH OH OH and one more thing. You just said "class doesn't start until computer boots up". Well, guess what-- you wanna bet what the teachers are doing while the computer boots up? They'd doing attendance. So you've now doing Task X and Task Y (booting & attendance)-- which only takes as long as one of those tasks because they're parallel-- and turns it into however long X+Y takes.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Magus said in The Official Status Thread:

    Status:

    1. System S creates file format F.
    2. S does not implement all parts of F that we need, so we have to extend it.
    3. S receives data in an XML variant, while F is proprietary.
    4. F has a strange database system with keys, while S has different keys which are almost always different than the resulting keys in F, because F may get objects from other places, and therefore cannot trust keys produced by S in general.
    5. S has a system to override the key generation and have its keys used in F, but only for specific objects, because they didn't want customers to shoot themselves in the foot. If they expand this, we have a solution implemented that will work for all cases.
    6. We have discussed embedding keys in string fields, running through S, then stripping those keys from F and doing the required logic now that we have the mapping figured out, but this would be messy and not everything has string fields.

    F this S.



  • @Lorne-Kates I couldn't agree more.



  • @accalia said in The Official Status Thread:

    baked coffee......
    :not_sure_if_doing_it_wrong.meme:

    You get baked, then you need coffee.

    You're not doing it wrong 😉



  • @Lorne-Kates Oh man, just shut the fuck up. You have no idea how a school works from the perspective of a teacher.

    Just. Shut. Up.

    You have no clue and you're waffling on about something you know nothing about. Idiot.

    For instance, this:

    How do you comply with all rules and regulations about who can edit a submitted attendance?

    Jesus. Schools may be bureaucratic sometimes but we're not that bureaucratic. Listen, we're talking about Germany here. Maybe your US-American schools have successfully created only absolute morons everywhere but over here, we don't have strict "rules and regulations" for that. We have guidelines and every school can decide for themselves how they handle those in detail.

    If I'm taking attendance I can also edit attendance myself.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    You have no idea how a school works from the perspective of a teacher.

    You may continue to believe that. it isn't true, but you may believe it. (ps: it isn't true).

    Maybe your US-American

    You are fitting a lot of "untrue" into your statements there.

    we're talking about Germany here ... we don't have strict "rules and regulations"

    And now you've just gone completely off the deep end.



  • @Lorne-Kates Okay, for instance this notion of yours here:

    I dare you to see how long it takes to fill out a bubblesheet with a pencil vs. clicking "present/not present/etc" 30 times.

    Why on earth would I select every single pupil? The default is "present" and thus I only need to register pupils who are "not present".

    I repeat: You're insistent on being so contrarian that you're unable to get the notion into your head that there are other solutions which don't involve paper. Which, by the way, gets thrown away at the end of the semester. After it is painstakingly typed into a computer application by the unlucky bastard who now has to pull in notes from 20+ papers.

    @Lorne-Kates said in The Official Status Thread:

    Then why are you talking about an app?

    Because I was also thinking of going multi-platform - all our school PCs have Windows 10 on them and thus I could use Xamarin to create one App for the school PCs and for the teachers' mobiles and tablets.
    And because, just to show you that I did think of an "but what if!" scenario, it's a bit easier to do an offline-sync (or rather: If offline cache changes and upload them when online again) with an app than with a website.



  • @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    I repeat: You're insistent on being so contrarian that you're unable to get the notion into your head that there are other solutions which don't involve paper. Which, by the way, gets thrown away at the end of the semester. After it is painstakingly typed into a computer application by the unlucky bastard who now has to pull in notes from 20+ papers.

    As he should be: You should always think hard about a thing you're going to produce so you don't waste time producing something no one wants. Starting out as critical as possible is a very good thing.



  • @Magus said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    I repeat: You're insistent on being so contrarian that you're unable to get the notion into your head that there are other solutions which don't involve paper. Which, by the way, gets thrown away at the end of the semester. After it is painstakingly typed into a computer application by the unlucky bastard who now has to pull in notes from 20+ papers.

    As he should be: You should always think hard about a thing you're going to produce so you don't waste time producing something no one wants. Starting out as critical as possible is a very good thing.

    No. He's contrarian, not critical. I mean, about half his scenarios are "What if Armageddon happened" types of "counter arguments" and could be answered by "not applicable here".



  • @Rhywden Did anyone but you have the context to know that they were not applicable? Oh, they didn't? So it's all your fault?

    Wow, that's cool. Gotta stick it to him so he doesn't do unjust things like that to you.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    After it is painstakingly typed into a computer application by the unlucky bastard who now has to pull in notes from 20+ papers.

    So instead let's offload that to 20+ other people who will take 2-3x as long to do that guy's job. 👍


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    No. He's contrarian, not critical.

    😆

    Yes, I'm totally talking completely out of my butt about this, and not from first/second hand experience with the exact type of app you're trying to build. But please, continue to annoy your co-workers by wasting their time on your pet project. It'll go over swimmingly.



  • @Lorne-Kates said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    After it is painstakingly typed into a computer application by the unlucky bastard who now has to pull in notes from 20+ papers.

    So instead let's offload that to 20+ other people who will take 2-3x as long to do that guy's job. 👍

    Again: No fucking clue as to how it currently works and thus no fucking clue as to what the time savings actually would be.

    Bravo.



  • @Magus said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden Did anyone but you have the context to know that they were not applicable? Oh, they didn't? So it's all your fault?

    Wow, that's cool. Gotta stick it to him so he doesn't do unjust things like that to you.

    Then he could have ASKED instead of going off half-assed and assuming things he doesn't have a fucking clue about.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    Again: No fucking clue as to how it currently works and thus no fucking clue as to what the time savings actually would be.

    😆

    (that's me laughing in your face about how wrong you are about your assumptions of what I do and don't know about technology and the education system).

    😆



  • @Lorne-Kates said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    Again: No fucking clue as to how it currently works and thus no fucking clue as to what the time savings actually would be.

    😆

    (that's me laughing in your face about how wrong you are about your assumptions of what I do and don't know about technology and the education system).

    😆

    Do you know the German system? Pretty sure the answer is No.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    Do you know the German system? Pretty sure the answer is No.

    Do Germans take attendance in way that's completely different and alien from every other attendance taking way in the entire world?

    You aren't a ❄ and your idea is stupid.



  • @Lorne-Kates said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden said in The Official Status Thread:

    Do you know the German system? Pretty sure the answer is No.

    Do Germans take attendance in way that's completely different and alien from every other attendance taking way in the entire world?

    You aren't a ❄ and your idea is stupid.

    Strangely enough, it wasn't my idea and strangely enough, the other teachers approached me.

    Not the other way around.

    One other thing you assumed.



  • @Rhywden Bro, maybe when you tell a story, you should start closer to the beginning than the end. Still, it's a cool story.



  • @Magus said in The Official Status Thread:

    @Rhywden Bro, maybe when you tell a story, you should start closer to the beginning than the end. Still, it's a cool story.

    I didn't know that I signed a contract requiring full disclosure.


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