~kjcole/edubuntu.cookbook-delete/wip : contents of lore/chap16.lore at revision 16

~kjcole/edubuntu.cookbook-delete/wip : (revision 16)
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  <title>Appendices</title>
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<h1>Appendices</h1>
</p>

<p>16.1. Business plan template
</p>

<p>The following may be used as a guideline when drawing up a
business plan for your Edubuntu lab. You need to submit a business
plan in order to apply for an Edubuntu lab from the Shuttleworth
Foundation. Please feel free to add any other information you
feel is applicable to the application or business plan.
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.1.1. Section 1: School information
</p>

<p>Please supply some general information about your school.
</p>

<p>* Background
* Mission
* Vision
* Achievements
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.1.2. Section 2: Goals and objectives for a computer lab (Edubuntu lab
or other)
</p>

<p>* What are your plans to promote open source software?
* How will lab use be integrated into the school timetable?
* What are your plans to involve the community? Please
address issues such as benefits and development
opportunities for the community.
* What are your plans regarding staff development using the
computer lab?
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.1.3. Section 3: State of readiness
</p>

<p>* Please provide a statement of needs, including your
current computer equipment, if any.
* Physical infrastructure --- current infrastructure as well
as outstanding requirements (see Section 16.2).
* Plan of lab --- i.e. size and layout of room, including
measurements (please supply a diagram).
* Do you have a Computer Committee already established?
* Who is the Facilitator?
* Please detail your roll-out strategy: financial plans and
actual work in measurable terms
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.1.4. Section 4: Opportunities and Risks
</p>

<p>* What are the risks involved for you with establishing a
lab? Address e.g. financial considerations, burglary as
factor, etc.
* How will you be addressing possible risks?
* What specific opportunities will be created for you if you
have a computer lab.
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.1.5. Section 5: General
</p>

<p>* How do you plan to sustain the Edubuntu lab? For example, do you
have a network of volunteers, will you be establishing an
internet cafe or service bureau, etc.
* What types of skills transfer do you envisage?
</p>

<p>Should you require any further assistance please contact:
</p>

<p>Casey-Lea Olson Open Source Project Administrator
Tel. 021 970 1232 |
Fax. 021 970 1233
<casey@shuttleworthfoundation.org>
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.2. Edubuntu lab School Criteria
</p>

<p>Schools are selected, and the project implementation
initiated, based on fulfilment of the following minimum
criteria and expectations.
</p>

<p>The School will be required to:
</p>

<p>* Complete an initial survey activities;
* Submit a business plan including its initial plans to
introduce the Edubuntu lab into school;
* Establish a computer committee;
* Ensure that a representative participates in the
establishment of two Edubuntu labs prior to selection, as well
as participation in at least two labs post installation;
* Identify a room to house the Edubuntu lab;
* Secure the room with mesh window bars, safety gates and an
alarm;
* Ensure that the electrical system is suitable and
sufficient electrical points are available;
* Install trunking for networking cable;
* Provide a cabinet to securely protect server and
networking switch;
* Install a telephone line for telephonic support and e-mail
connectivity;
* Ensure that desk space and seating is available;
* Ensure participation from the educators and learners
during the installation process;
* Appoint or employ a facilitator for training and on-site
support for a one-year period;
* Actively play a role in the successful operation of the
cluster unit;
* Attend a monthly Edubuntu lab meeting; and
* Open the Edubuntu lab at least one Saturday of each month for an
"Open day".
</p>

<p>Additional criteria may be set for each school.
</p>

<p>Based on successful selection, the exact terms of this project
will be outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding.
</p>

<p>Should you have any further queries with regards to the above
requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us.
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.3. Credits
</p>

<p>This book is a real open source project, and in writing it I
have incorporated work from a number of other people. Here is
a short list in alphabetical order. I'm sure I've missed some
people, so please let me know.
</p>

<p>* Jonathan Carter, for his excellent Troubleshooting Guide.
* Jason Hudson, for the outline that started off this book.
* Alistair Otter (XXX?) for his Edubuntu labs book
* Andy Rabagliati, for various documents on the
http://wizzy.org/ site.
* Hilton Theunissen and Casey-Lea Olson, for various policy
and operating procedures documents on the
http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org site.
_________________________________________________________
</p>

<p>16.4. Glossary
</p>

<p>Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ( ADSL)
ADSL is a technology for transmitting digital data
across normal copper phone lines at high speeds. It is
a short-range technology, requiring subscribers to be
within a few kilometres of the exchange providing the
service. It is called Asymmetric because download
speeds are configured to be far higher than upload
speeds (you can receive more quickly than you can
send).
</p>

<p>Application Programming Interface (API)
Just as a program has a range of menus, icons and
buttons with which a user can control it, it can have a
set of method calls and data structures that can be
used by other programs to control it. This is the API.
</p>

<p>Basic In/Out System ( BIOS)
A small program in non-volatile storage that is
executed immediately after a computer is powered up.
Normally, it passes control to the boot loader of the
selected boot media as soon as possible. However, it
also displays some diagnostic information while
executing, including a prompt to enter configuration
mode. While in configuration mode, you may set various
basic properties of the computer, such as the time of
the system clock and the selected boot media (e.g.
CD-ROM, hard disk, or network).
</p>

<p>boot
When a computer is powered up, control immediately
passes to the BIOS. The BIOS finds the program code
that should be executed to continue the startup
process, until the operating system is up and running.
The whole procedure is called booting up, from the
expression "pulling yourself up by your bootlaces".
Picture a cartoon figure on flat land, grabbing hold of
his bootlaces and pulling himself up into the air until
he's flying. A computer manages something similar, when
it changes from an inert lump of plastic to a running
system.
</p>

<p>Central Processing Unit ( CPU)
The CPU is the core of the computer. It's one of the
smaller pieces, consisting of a flat square of silicon,
but it contains most of the computer's complexity, in
the form of millions of transistors. When the computer
is executing programs, all of the instructions as well
as the data are fetched from RAM and processed by the
CPU.
</p>

<p>Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
This is a specification for calling scripts that are
triggered through the web. The CGI standard specifies
what data must be passed to the script.
</p>

<p>daemon
A program that runs on a server, waiting for requests
and servicing them. The program runs permanently, as
long as the service should be offered.
</p>

<p>Document Object Model ( DOM)
When a web browser parses an HTML page, it doesn't just
write out text to the screen and have done with it. It
needs to hold on to the entire structure in order to be
able to rewrite it using Javascript, changing parts of
the page in-place and reflowing the resulting document
immediately. This internal structure is called the
Document Object Model. You can read all about it at the
World Wide Web Consortium's Document Object Model page.
</p>

<p>Domain Name System ( DNS)
The Domain Name System is part of the core
infrastructure of the internet. It consists of a
massive globally distributed database that matches IP
addresses (e.g. 216.239.57.99) to domain names that
humans like to remember (e.g. google.com). As long as
they keep to the rules, anyone can run a DNS server to
resolve local address and to cache global addresses. No
DNS server needs to store all the domain names on
earth: the job is distributed among ISPs who each take
responsibility for different sections of the namespace.
If your local nameserver doesn't know an IP address, it
knows who to ask to get an answer.
</p>

<p>If DNS is unavailable, all the services that depend on
it (such as web browsing and email) don't work.
</p>

<p>Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ( DHCP)
See Section 9.2.
</p>

<p>Etherboot
See PXE in Section 16.4.
</p>

<p>Internet Service Provider ( ISP)
A business which provides internet access to its
customers. The nature of this service may vary widely,
from dialup access and email for home users to wireless
broadband and website hosting for big media companies
and everything in between.
</p>

<p>platform independence
A platform is a short name for the entire software
environment which a specific program requires in order
to run. Programs may target an operating system (the
Windows, Linux or Macintosh platforms), or a virtual
machine (the Java platform, which is available across
operating systems). Increasingly, web applications such
as Google's Gmail email service target the web browser
as platform.
</p>

<p>When a program is capable of being run on many
different platforms, it is called cross-platform. In
this case, it either needs to be rather self-contained,
not making use of any special capabilities of any
specific platform, or it needs to contain alternative
implementations for all the platforms it caters for.
</p>

<p>Power On Self Test ( POST)
The POST is a series of hardcoded self-tests that a
computer's BIOS performs to see whether basic resources
such as its CPU, memory, and keyboard are present and
functional.
</p>

<p>Pre-boot eXecution Environment ( PXE)
A small program on the network card that allows a
computer to boot from the network. The PXE takes care
of finding a server from which to boot, and
transferring the boot loader from the server to the
client across the network.
</p>

<p>Programmable ROM ( PROM)
This is a kind of memory that can be written exactly
once. After it's been written, its contents is fixed.
It's generally used for things like network cards with
the facility to boot from the network. Such cards can
be used in many different environments, requiring
different software. However, once deployed in some
environment, it normally stays there. Therefor the
required software can be written to a PROM on the card,
effectively locking down the card to the deployed
environment.
</p>

<p>Media Access Control address ( MAC address)
In computer networking, a MAC address is a code on most
forms of networking equipment that allows for that
device to be uniquely identified.
</p>

<p>Network File System ( NFS)
A local filesystem reads data from a hard disk. NFS is
a protocol that allows a remote filesystem to be
mounted on a path of the local filesystem, so that data
read from files on that path is not read from a local
disk, but from a server on the network.
</p>

<p>netmask
In Section 8.4 networking, the netmask specifies all
the IP addresses that belong to a particular network.
</p>

<p>RAM disk
A physical hard disk stores data on magnetic platters.
A RAM disk emulates a hard disk using the computer's
memory. Whereas a hard disk stores data permanently
until it is rewritten, a RAM disk only exists as a
running program, and goes away when the program stops
or the computer is powered down.
</p>

<p>Random Access Memory ( RAM)
Memory that stores code and data only as long as the
computer is powered up. At the first hint of a power
interruption, RAM becomes as blank as a beach washed
clean by the tide. RAM can be written to, and during
execution, programs are continuously rewriting its
contents.
</p>

<p>Read Only Memory ( ROM)
Memory that stores code and data permanently, whether
or not the workstation is powered up. It cannot be
written to: every time it's read, it's exactly the
same.
</p>

<p>Read the FINE Manual ( RTFM)
Linux is a self-documenting system. All Linux programs
come with technical documentation, and most commands
accept a --help option that will start you off. The
information is sometimes cryptic, or just very dense,
but if you don't read it two, three, four or five
times, you'll find yourself asking the same questions
again and again, and never progressing beyond the
basics.
</p>

<p>You'll also find that people answer your questions with
a terse " RTFM!", meaning that the answer is right
there in the manual. Don't take offence, look it up.
</p>

<p>root
Linux systems loosely use a tree metaphor to explain
some aspects of their structure. So, for example, the
user who is the system administrator, with all
privileges to make or break the system, is the root
user. The root user can create other users and groups
with more limited privileges, like the branches of a
tree that are separate and thinner than the trunk.
</p>

<p>root filesystem
The filesystem is an hierarchical tree structure. The
directory which contains all the others is called the
root, and is written like this: /. This is a
subdirectory of the root directory: /etc. This is a
file in that subdirectory: /etc/hosts.
</p>

<p>shell
Another metaphor used to express the structure of a
Linux system is that of a nut containing a kernel. The
kernel is hidden inside, it is surrounded by a shell.
As user you can't interact with the kernel directly,
you interact with a shell program. This is a program
which accepts commands and gives feedback, all via a
textual command line interface. The shell has a number
of builtin commands, but it also does job control,
starting and stopping programs that run under its
control.
</p>

<p>The shell has a full complement of flow control
structures, so that it can be used to write programs.
These are called shell scripts. Shell scripts are most
often used to coordinate the execution of other
programs.
</p>

<p>Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ( SMTP)
When you send an email, your mail server looks at the
headers of the mail to see where it should be
delivered. It then uses DNS to look up the IP address
of the mail server on the receiving end. When it knows
whom to contact, it starts an SMTP conversation with
the remote mailserver. It asks the server what version
of the protocol it supports (so that it knows how to
encode the mail, if necessary) and whether the server
is accepting mail for the user you want to reach. When
the two servers have gotten to know one another, the
mail is transferred and queued for the remote user to
read.
</p>

<p>symbolic links
A file can only be stored in one place on a disk. If
you want it to appear to be in other places as well,
you can make a symbolic link from there to the real
location of the file. By most commands, the link will
be transparent: it will be treated exactly as though
the file really exists in that location.
</p>

<p>Notes
</p>

<p>[1]
</p>

<p>See Chapter 5.
[2]
</p>

<p>This consensus is reflected in standards, such as the Portable
Operating System Interface ( POSIX).
[3]
</p>

<p>Source for the following paragraphs:
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/schools.html
[4]
</p>

<p>This paragraph is from
http://wizzy.org.za/article/articleview/4/1/3.
[5]
</p>

<p>See Edubuntu lab room layout from the Shuttleworth Foundation's
site.
[6]
</p>

<p>See Infrastructure and Security
[7]
</p>

<p>See Chapter 8 for an explanation of what switches do.
[8]
</p>

<p>http://wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/5/1/2/
[9]
</p>

<p>http://wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/5/1/2/
[10]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.org.za/article/articleview/18/1/3
[11]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.org.za/article/articleview/4/1/3
[12]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.org.za/article/articleview/18/1/3
[13]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/19/1/2/
[14]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.com/wizzy/mail.html
[15]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.com/wizzy/batch.html
[16]
</p>

<p>For more information, see http://www.k12ltsp.org/install.html
[17]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/19/1/2/
[18]
</p>

<p>See http://wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/23/1/2/
[19]
</p>

<p>Incidentally, this emphasises the importance of a public
domain. Current legislation in the United States effectively
allows work to be kept out of the public domain indefinitely.
This is bad news for future generations.
[20]
</p>

<p>The following overview comes from the first edition of
TUX&GNU@school
[21]
</p>

<p>Of course, it's always possible to trick someone into running
a script that will damage their data. This is how many viruses
work. Rather than trying to manage this through technology, in
the classroom situation it's probably better to teach learners
that it's better to help one another (and keep backups in case
things go wrong).
[22]
</p>

<p>This section incorporates the Edubuntu lab Troubleshooting Guide by
Jonathan Carter (version 1.0, December 2004).
[23]
</p>

<p>GRUB is the Grand Unified Bootloader, so called because
various alternatives existed with different strengths and
weaknesses. GRUB was written to try and take the best from
them and make the choice of a bootloader less of an issue.
</p>

<p>Briefly, the bootloader is the first software program that
runs when a computer starts. It is responsible for loading and
transferring control to the operating system kernel (see
Section 3.1.2). You can read more about GRUB in the FSF
software directory.
_________________________________________________________

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