Super easy movie maker

I have to give credit to E-Ducator in Adelaide South Australia for finding this site. It is a very easy way to make flash movies. Choose a background and sky, 2 characters, a basic plot. Then just type in the lines for each character in the scene. You can add more than one scene. It make an animated cartoon that reminds me a lot of Brainpop. This would be great for teaching how to tell a story through dialogue.

I even made a quick one.

Check out Dvolver

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Progress on Edbuntu thin client lab

I’m stuck in the same place I was stuck before with Edubuntu thin clients.

I could get GDHCPD to work this time. I finally got Webmin to work through the browser. After installing it I typed in the address https://localhost:10000, and it worked! This allows me to configure the DHCP server without having to drop to the command line level or use a text editor to edit configuration files. Yipee!  If I get an error, I go to System –> System logs –> File /var/log/syslog.  The error message below came from the syslog.I tried adding the package Ubuntu LTSP management GUI.  This is the LTSP GUI management tool to set up, modify and manage an
Ubuntu LTSP server Thin Client installation. It guides you through
the Thin Client chroot installation and enables you to adjust dhcp
settings on the server. It also allows you to tweak specific settings
for the Thin Clients.  However, I can’t figure out how to get it to run.  It looks like it is version 0.0.2.  Maybe it’s just not ready.

I found advice for this problem on the Ubuntu forums at
Fail to start DHCP server - no subnet declaration - Ubuntu Forums
WARNING: This post is loaded with Geekspeak, so proceed at your own risk.

I can’t get the DHCP server to start up. I have 2 ethernet cards with eth0 going to the switch for the thin clients and eth1 to the internet gateway.  Thank you to those who have offered advice.  Below is some more specific information.

Here is what the syslog says.

No subnet declaration for eth0 (172.16.10.1).May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: ** Ignoring requests on eth0. If this is not what
May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: you want, please write a subnet declaration
May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: in your dhcpd.conf file for the network segment
May 19 16:06:59 tag2513 dhcpd: to which interface eth0 is attached.

So, the problem is that the DHCP server won’t start because it says I haven’t declared a subnet.I found a pretty good explanation for setting up thin client network subnet. Using webmin.  I think I set it up according to the directions.

The DHCP.config file says

default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

# Ubuntu Server
host TAG2513 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option host-name “tag2513″;
fixed-address 172.16.10.1;
}
# Ubuntu DNS zone
zone Ubuntu.edu. {
primary 172.16.10.10;
key ;
}
# LTSP subnet
subnet 172.16.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 172.16.10.2 172.16.10.20;
pool {
range 172.16.10.2 172.16.10.20;
}
}

The ipaddr command gives the following output

2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 00:48:54:65:bf:ca brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.16.10.1/24 brd 172.16.10.255 scope global eth0

/etc/default/dhcp3-server says

INTERFACES=eth0

It looks to me like it should work.  Why doesn’t it?

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Edubuntu Thin Client Classroom Experiment

I talked to our Tech Director after doing talking to some people. (see previous blog post) He suggested we put a server and a couple clients in the back of my room right now and see whether they will work. If they work, then I can show my principal that they work and how I would use them.

I have the newly released Edubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) installed on a server in my room. I used the Ubuntu-alt download cd and installed the LTSP option (press F4 on the install menu).  It installed nicely, but I had trouble getting a connection to the internet gateway. Our network manager figured out the gateway was on ETH1, fixed it, and then it worked fine. I could not get the Edubuntu 8.04 cd to read, so I just installed it via Synaptic Package Manager.  It took a while, but installed just fine….So far so good.

I was just about to this point at home. It’s installed on the server and hooked up to the thin clients through an 8 port switch. The clients will preboot with a PXE enabled network card (very cool!). This is better than my home set-up because I don’t have to boot from floppy. It still gives pretty much the same message at home.

Boot from (N)etwork or (D)isk
Searching for server (DHCP)
<sleep>

Boot from (N)etwork or (D)isk

It’s still not connecting.

Marshal, the network manager asked whether the DHCP was running. <:-{ I told him didn’t know since I hadn’t done anything but install the Linux OS.

I installed Webmin from Synatic.  Webmin is a DHCP server control panel that is accessible through the web browser on http://localhost:10000.  However, we couldn’t access it.

Marshal deduced that the plug on the end of the cable was the culprit. He didn’t have the tool with him to fix it, so we’re stuck until Monday.

I’ll let you know if we get it to work.

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Hide the Blogger “Next blog–>” Nav Bar

Hi…my name is James…and I have used Blogger…

Hi James

This is my Blogger story…

I made a blog with Blogger.  It is sponsored by Google. It is very easy to start, but…

it has one flaw. 

It has a navigation bar at the top of the blog. It seems very innocent.   It has a simple link that says Next Blog». I clicked the link. It took me to another blog. I clicked it again. It took me to another blog. I clicked it three more times. It took me to a porn blog. That was when I decided that I would not use it in my school or recommend it to other teachers.

I have been looking for a solution for a long time. I found Blogger’s salvation. It is the code that hides the navigation bar. I found it on the web site for an eMINTS teacher. (I don’t remember who.) That let me this blogspot actually gave me the code to hide/unhide the nav bar. That was fancier than I wanted. I just wanted to get rid of it, so this blogspot worked better. Edit the HTML on the layout part of the dashboard and paste in this code after the template section:

#navbar-iframe {display: none !important;}

I once again feel safe in recommending Blogger to fellow teachers as a starting blog. I don’t have to worry about the navigation bar. Thanks for the code!

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

no comments yet.

Hide the Blogger “Next blog–>” Nav Bar

Hi…my name is James…and I have used Blogger…

Hi James

This is my Blogger story…

I made a blog with Blogger.  It is sponsored by Google. It is very easy to start, but…

it has one flaw. 

It has a navigation bar at the top of the blog. It seems very innocent.   It has a simple link that says Next Blog». I clicked the link. It took me to another blog. I clicked it again. It took me to another blog. I clicked it three more times. It took me to a porn blog. That was when I decided that I would not use it in my school or recommend it to other teachers.

I have been looking for a solution for a long time. I found Blogger’s salvation. It is the code that hides the navigation bar. I found it on the web site for an eMINTS teacher. (I don’t remember who.) That let me this blogspot actually gave me the code to hide/unhide the nav bar. That was fancier than I wanted. I just wanted to get rid of it, so this blogspot worked better. Edit the HTML on the layout part of the dashboard and paste in this code after the template section:

#navbar-iframe {display: none !important;}

I once again feel safe in recommending Blogger to fellow teachers as a starting blog. I don’t have to worry about the navigation bar. Thanks for the code!

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

no comments yet.