Deploying PowerTeacher Gradebook on 10.8

Part of what I do involves managing Pearson PowerSchool, our Student Information System (SIS). One of the common annoyances teachers have had in years past with PowerSchool is opening it's gradebook. The gradebook is a Java application that requires logging into PowerTeacher and downloading a JNLP file every time you want to open it up if you're on a Mac (as all of our staff are).

With PowerTeacher Gradebook 2.6 Pearson has created a new Gradebook application that can be installed into the Applications folder and initiate the Gradebook (including future updates to the Java app itself). Unfortunately the app isn't signed and thus cannot be opened on 10.8 when initially dragged to the Applications folder with the default Mac App Store and identified developers setting in Gatekeeper. For teachers that have administrative access to their machine, walkthroughs aleady exist for resolving this issue but for those of us who are administering our deployments through a management suite such as Casper this takes some strategic thinking.

My goal was to avoid setting Gatekeeper to be wide open in order to accomodate this one application. Initially I started to follow the method outlined on Charles Edge's excellent blog Krypted. This method utilizes the scptl command to create a label for the Gradebook and whitelist it. This is how the security assessment policy subsystem of OS X manages rules for application security. Unfortunately this didn't resolve the problem when attempting to open the Gradebook application. According to Charles's post, the scptl framework isn't perfect and feels like it's still just a start to Apple's security framework management with Gatekeeper. This is all I can chalk my outcome of the process to at the moment but let's head onward and upward to the resolution.

I called JAMF support to see what insight they could offer. Let me just say that JAMF support is astounding and they have some brilliant engineers who understand OS X deeply. After reading this Apple Knowledgebase article JAMF support found that the error message we were receiving was related to the OS thinking that the application had been modified by someone other than the developer. Stepping back from the situation for a minute I'm really unsure how this isn't a bigger issue that Pearson has had to address. The application itself was downloaded directly from their teacher portal once logged into our account so the permissions were inherited upon that download but that's neither here nor there. If you're in a similar situation, the fix may be to change the ownership of the application to root:wheel using the change ownership command below.

*sudo chown -R root:wheel /Applications/Gradebook.app*

This worked successfully for me and allowed our teachers to open the application with standard accounts and for me to push it out to our teachers through Casper without a problem.

When It Pours, It's Obviously Raining

At the beginning of June I wrote about the ebb and flow of client work all coming in at once. I wrote the following thinking it wouldn't prove true:

I look forward to testing the theory in another 6 weeks.

Here we are 7 weeks and 2 days later and I can report that it happened again, but differently. This time it was my day job and my side work that found themselves intertwined into an insane set of circumstances for which I was expected to resolve and support. A client of mine had a switch and 3 computer's network cards get fried from a nearby lightning strike. At work our teachers are back in full swing getting prepared for the year and there is still so much to be done including preparation of this historic beast of a building before school starts next Thursday.

Funny how things work. Another 6 weeks perhaps?

Efficient Production: How Tesla Builds Cars

Watching this video has made me want to buy a Tesla vehicle just to support the amazing efficiency and new technology they've created to build their cars. It's like watching a work of art create a work of art. There's a huge similarity to Apple's videos about how they build technology. I think if Apple did build cars this is exactly how they would approach it. Very impressive.

via The Verge

This is it.

This is really it. It’s happening and there’s no stopping it. [1]

Ever since I joined Boy Scouts my mother has believed I’d grow to lead in some way. That’s something that’s great about Boy Scouts, it brings out talents that might not have been noticed in young men. This is accomplished through challenge. Being challenged to make decisions, to trust, and to participate in the world. To make plans and follow them through to completion. To make your community a better place.

The Boy Scout Oath reads:
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

The Boy Scout Law reads:
A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

Striving to exemplify these skills has always driven my work ethic in my career. In looking forward I draw upon these values to help lead me in my most critical role for the entirety of my life. Becoming a father.

  1. Not as though I’d want to stop this. It was planned; I can assure you.  ↩

A Cure for the Summer Heat

It’s summertime and here in Memphis that means serious heat. It also means summer blockbusters. I would categorize myself as a content junkie when it comes to TV and movies. For TV there’s Netflix but not everyone is aware of a similar service for movies still out in the theater.

Recently I’ve mentioned my subscription with Moviepass to a few friends and they wanted to know more so I thought I’d share about it here. The service charges a flat monthly fee (currently $35 in Memphis but it ranges depending on your primary market) which gets you the ability to see any movie in almost any theater. I originally signed up for Moviepass when they initially went into beta back in 2011 but at the $50/month price tag I quickly found I wasn’t getting enough value from the service to justify what I was spending. The service has gone through a few reboots of sorts trying to find the sweet spot for both it’s customers and the theaters they want to participate in the service. When I received an email giving me $20 off the first month to try the service’s third major relaunch a few months back at $30/month I decided to give it another try.

Moviepass works by:
1. Using your mobile phone’s GPS to verify that your at the theater.
2. Using the mobile web site, iOS or Android app you select the movie and showtime you’re there for.
3. Completing it validation of your location and activating the MoviePass branded Discover card to make the purchase.[1]

So far it’s been 3 months and with the summer release ramp up of new movies I’ve started to use it a ton. Summertime really is the best time for a service like Moviepass with so many new movies coming out there is always something to go see. It also makes those decisions about movies that you’re just not sure you’ll love that much easier.
For me this included: - Argo (Yes)
- 42 (Yes)
- Olympus Has Fallen (Yes)
- G.I. Joe: Retaliation (No)
- Fast 6 (Yes)
- Epic (No)

While it’s advertised as unlimited movies there are (as always) some rules to the service. The biggest is that you don’t truly get unlimited movies. You can see each movie once and are limited to one movie per day. Something else that may be referred to as a restriction is that your MoviePass card can only be tied to one mobile device so sharing the service within a household isn’t simple. The service doesn’t include 3D movies[2] as of this writing either. The newest stipulation to Moviepass is the tiered cancellation fee after you’ve had the service for more than 30 days. While I’m not a fan of the cancellation fee I can see why it’s needed to avoid people jumping on and off the service whenever they feel like it.

All-in-all I’ve been getting a lot of value from the service and I wouldn’t consider myself a film connoisseur (clearly). If you enjoy seeing movies in the theater and typically (would) see more than 3 per month than Moviepass may be for you. It’s currently invite-only so you can sign up with this link if you’re interested. This link is limited to 10 people so if it isn’t working for you feel free to let me know on Twitter and I’ll try to get you an invite.

  1. I’m not sure if it’s just pre-loading the card with a dollar amount or activating a short-term purchasing window with a price ceiling.  ↩

  2. I have found a loophole though. If you tell the app that you’re going to see the 2D movie showing you can actually just buy the 3D ticket at the box office. This makes me even more curious how the backend activation of the card works.  ↩

A Year Ago

Exactly a year ago I was halfway through the most insane summer of my life (thus far but hopefully forever). Courtney and I had been living with my in-laws for a month and a half while our house was being built (FWP, I know). I was working 7 days a week at a minimum of 12 hours a day and driving an hour each way to and from work. I felt like there was no end in sight and we were barely going to be able to open school with any of the necessary technology on time. I was doing so much that I'd never done before thus the work was the learning and the learning was the work. There was an abundance of frustration trying to make things work that I didn't know how to make work and advising vendors on things I had little to no expertise with all while thinking about the next ten things that I needed to get to. And yet I perservered and somehow was able to only use a minimal amount of shoestring and duct tape to get it all done.

Looking at where I'm at a year later is sobering. It's mid-June and I'm working normal hours, enjoying time with others socially and managing even more than last year with confidence. There's the three new buildings to prepare with infrastructure (one of which is a mere 131,000 sq ft), the count of over 2,000 machines to prepare, the 130% growth in scholar enrollment and almost 200 staff to support; yet I feel confident in our team. This summer is miles ahead of where we were last year. It really is amazing how much one solid additional person can bring to the amount of work that can be accomplished on a team.

The summer of 2012 will forever have a lasting impression on me as the summer that showed me what grit looks like.

What The Prompt?!

On episode 45 of CMD + Space Myke Hurley and Stephen Hackett shared that the 512 Podcast would be ending in it’s current form after two more episodes. Myke mentioned that they’d be working on a show he’d been wanting to do for about 3 years now. On episode 65 of the 512 Podcast (out today) this show was revealed to be The Prompt, 5by5’s newest show. I reached out to Stephen to find out how he got started with 70Decibels and find out about the transition of the 512 Podcast to The Prompt.

CC: I’d like to start off by getting some backstory on how you got started with podcasting. How did you get involved with 70Decibels and how did the 512 Podcast come to be?

SH: Back in early 2011, Myke Hurley invited me on The Bro Show. At the time, TBS was the only show Myke did. We really hit it off, and began chatting off-air. I was on The Bro Show several more times, and we started kicking around the idea of doing a show.

At the time, I didn't want to do a tech show, so we landed on covering random Wikipedia articles.

By that time, Myke was already doing several other shows, and was laying the ground work for a podcast network. In October 2011, we launched Ungeniused., and 70Decibels, all on the same day. Myke, Terry Lucy (Myke's co-host on TBS) and I were the founders, with Myke doing most of the heavy lifting.

By February 2012, I had changed my mind about a tech show, and we launched The 512 Podcast pretty quickly.

Doing two shows at once was a lot for me to handle, and by May, it was pretty clear Ungeniused had run its course. It was a very time-consuming show to prepare for, as you might guess.

CC: What lead to the 512 Podcast coming to a close?

SH: I don't think of it as the 512 Podcast ending. It's just ... changing. Myke and I have both wanted to do something with Federico for a while, and this seemed like an obvious time to do it, with the transition to 5by5 after the merger.

CC: What can we expect the format of The Prompt to look like?

SH: With The Prompt, Myke and I are trying to break the two-guys-on-mics format that a lot of tech shows our size use. When you look at huge shows, like The Vergecast or MacBreak Weekly, it's much more of a panel discussion, and that's what we're trying to re-create.

The twist is on the guest side of things. While some combination of Myke, Viticci and I will always be present, we're going to pull in guests for interviews or pre-recorded stories as the news or our topic demands.

Speaking of topics, we're not always going to just follow the week's news. While that will be the driver some weeks, for sure, this format gives us flexibility. If we wanted to do an episode (or an arc of several shows) on a specific topic, there's nothing stopping us from doing that.

Thanks to Stephen for taking the time to share a glimpse of his history in podcasting and what’s to come with The Prompt. Episode 1 is due out in merely two weeks so we don’thave long to wait! You can read Stephen’s announcement, amongst all of his other fantastic writing at 512pixels.net.

When It Rains, It Pours

Ever since I started “making technology work” I’ve held a side business of my own. I started performing in-home technology support when I was 17 and my side work has an ebb and flow to it. It’s ranged from single handedly supporting a school on my two days off while I worked at Apple to just being on-call and supporting a handful of clients when something broke. The side work always seems to come and go at just the right time for me to be able to provide the level of support that I expect if I’m charging for it. For the last two years the latter has been the extent of my side business due to the needs of my day job.

Over the last few years I seem to have unknowingly put all of my clients onto the same schedule. It seems that about every six weeks I have a doozy of a week as something needs attention for multiple clients (usually) within 48 hours of each other. It’s a strange thing to get one phone call or email and know it’s foreshadowing of what’s to come during the next few days but somehow it makes me feel that I’ve accomplished something. I had a week like that this past week which is part of why the site hasn’t seen any new posts. I look forward to testing the theory in another 6 weeks.

REPOST: The Tuner in Me

Note: This is a repost from my previous/personal website. This was originally written in February of 2013. There is a reason I'm re-posting it here. A future post will reveal the intentions.

As you can read a few posts back I had a car accident in my 2009 Honda Civic Si. The external damage in that post looks kind of rough but surprisingly it's not why my insurance company ended up totaling my car. All airbags deployed in the collision and cost more to repair than the external damage to the Civic. The driver seat alone cost between $800-$1200 and since the seat had an airbag embedded it needed replaced. All that to say that my Civic is now dead and sitting in a tow yard somewhere. Poor little guy.

I've wanted a Civic Si since I was 17 years old and Honda had recently revamped the Civic line to it's eighth glorious generation. I was in love with the Si model in particular for a few reasons: - It was only sold in a stick shift and had a good amount of power and handling. - It was Honda's return from the seventh generation Si hatchback to the (much preferred) Coupe and Sedan styling. - I loved, loved LOVED the look of the new design. It was sporty with a lot of round but sharp edges and had fantastic lines. I still think it's an outstanding design and was really refreshing at the time it was released.

The 7th Generation Civic Si

The 7th generation Civic Si. The mom-van styling in need of a desperate overhaul.

The redesigned 8th generation Honda Civic Si. My first love in a car.

The redesigned 8th generation Honda Civic Si. My first love in a car.

Unfortunately buying a brand new car as a 17 year old while working fast food and going to college isn't exactly feasible. That's not to say I didn't make a fool out of myself by trying and walking away with the salesman wondering if I seriously thought I'd be able to get financed at my age with no co-signer. So I tabled my dreams and drove my Saturn Aura home like a gentleman. That is until I plowed it into a wood chipper that didn't have brake lights in the middle of the night a few weeks later...

After a few years of hard work and establishing myself I was once again interested in the 8th generation Si and in the market for a car so I bought one used. It was a black 2009 Civic Si with 50,000 miles and you'd think I'd have won the lottery with how stoked I was to be able to own this car. It was a milestone of the hard work I'd done to become an independent adult mixed with the somewhat younger aspirations to have a great sporty car. I initially hated the seats but after a few minutes of driving I became right at home in the firm edged bucket seats. I enjoyed many road trips and daily driving in my Civic but alas it wasn't long for this world as I only had it for a year and a half before State Farm put her down.

In case you've never totalled a car (not that I recommend everyone try it or anything) the process can put you into a bind both financially and in the way of needing to find another vehicle quickly. In my case I was given a week worth of rental coverage which meant I had a week to find and purchase my next vehicle. Not expecting to be in the car market I started looking for something in the $25k or less range with stick shift and at least 200hp. The selections I made to compare in order to cover as many bases as possible and try to make sure I was choosing a car I would really enjoy and (God willing) continue to drive for at least 5 years were:

  • 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo
  • 2010-2013 Volkswagen GTI
  • 2012-2013 Honda Civic Si
  • 2013 Ford Fusion

During my test driving I held off on the Fusion as it was a last resort choice for me as it's not exactly what I was looking for, but we receive discount pricing with Ford through Courtney's employment partnership via Apple. Upon entering the Ford dealership I told them that I was looking to test drive the Fusion unless they had a manual sporty car that had at least 200hp. Unbeknownst to me Ford had released an ST model of the Focus for 2013 earlier in 2012 so we took a look. I initially thought the Tangerine Scream model that was in front of the dealership was really outgoing but not outside of my comfort zone (I'd always wanted my Civic to be Orange Pearl) so we took it out for a test drive. As with all of my test drives I was gun shy from my accident and I always feel awkward driving a car hard on a test drive. I went home and started researching; I liked what I found. The shakedown of the 2013 Focus ST ST2 specs are:

  • Turbocharged 252hp engine
  • 270 foot lbs of torque
  • Six speed manual transmission

Needless to say this is the car I purchased in the magnificently distinct color of Tangerine Scream.

​Tangerine Scream oozes the essence of the boy racer in me

​Tangerine Scream oozes the essence of the boy racer in me

Most people I've discussed my car with disagree with my choice on the color but it's grown to be one of my favorite things about my car. Outside of the looks, speed and handling I also really enjoy having 4 doors and the hatchback. I know this car will be able to support the future (read: children) with no problem and has already been helpful in moving things for my mom as we cleared out her storage unit the first week I had the car. Driving the Focus ST is an absolute blast and is easily the best car I've ever owned making it my favorite. This was my first new car purchase and I've already heard what a stupid decision it was. Unfortunately this car hasn't been produced in the last few years for the US market and wasn't available used. This coupled with the fact that I really wanted a no-nonsense ownership experience for the next few years and the discounts we received from Ford helped with the deprecation that's incurred with buying a new car made this purchase a no-brainer for me.

Looking back on the cars I've owned and loved I'm realizing that I enjoy compact "tuner" cars that make the driving experience fun. One day I may break into the higher-end vehicle range and find a mid-size or full-size vehicle that I really enjoy driving but for now I'm happy with my boy racer.

The Author's Voice

As I've been slowly honing my abilities at writing here I've also been working on discovering the voice and purpose of this site. I've had blogs in the past but they've always been too personal and had little focus on anything in particular which made them feel more like my journal left open for the world to see.

Right now the about page of Course Code is a bit misleading in the reality of what I've been finding I want to write about. I started CC with too much constriction and focus around technology and education. In reality the natural evolution is shifting to a focus around technology, education, productivity, art and whatever else I want to share or write about.

Matt Gemmell recently wrote about designing blogs for readers. The first thing that stuck with me was this:

I don’t think there’s any reasonable way, or any need, to separate vanity and ego from a personal blog. Writing is inherently about its author, and is a product of their personality and opinions – that’s not something to be shy about, and we shouldn’t try to change it either. So, write for yourself – and hold yourself to an appropriate standard, because you’d better believe that others are judging the person as well as the piece – but as soon as you publish your views, you’re inviting readers to take a look. I think that the needs of the reader and the author are more aligned than many blogging systems seem to believe.

This post along with a few digital and meat space high fives from other writers I respect have made me feel more confident that what I'm writing is good and as I continue it will only get better. This is fueling my confidence in sharing my own views and interests through Course Code. I want this site to be the outward expression of my inward thinking and viewpoint so it's going to break away from technology and education from time to time and I'm realizing that's ok.

I found Matt's post found via 512 Pixels.

Pro Tip: Create Events Quickly in Calendars+

If you're like me then your schedule lives in Google Calendar and the computer you always have on you is running iOS. While Fantastical is my go-to calendar app on the Mac and iPhone I find that Calendars+ from Readdle is the best iPad app for Google Calendar as I need to see what availability I have before committing to an event or meeting.

If you're like me then your schedule lives in Google Calendar and the computer you always have on you is running iOS. While Fantastical is my go-to calendar app on the Mac and iPhone I find that Calendars+ from Readdle is the best iPad app for Google Calendar as I need to see what availability I have before committing to an event or meeting.

Becoming the Cache

Becoming the Cache

Throughout my career thus far I’ve grown from being an Apple employee to managing the Apple side of an consulting group to leading IT for a growing network of schools with thousands of users. Around a year ago I lost the ability to have mental clarity about everything I was managing. My work had grown from managing a single campus with a 1:1 computing, a flat network design and Apple Airports providing wireless for 450 users to implementing the plan I’d been working on. This included:

  • Scaling from 450 to 800 users
  • Prepping campus #2
  • Switching from Airports to Aerohive APs
  • Implementing the Casper Suite
  • Implementing a brand new, fully designed Cisco network infrastructure
  • Building a WAN to support the JSS
  • Supporting a new full-scale blended learning system
  • Setting up Open Directory (and mobile home syncing) for both campuses
  • Rolling over PowerSchool from year to year for the first time
  • Switching from an analog phone system to an hosted PBX solution
  • Imaging 900 Macs w/ evening assistance from some famous internet hipster

All of this work had to happen in less than 2 months and I was solely responsible for seeing this through to completion. What followed was the most grueling summer of my life which may have slightly burned me out.

Why do I bring all of this up? Because I learned a lesson. Well, a whole lot of lessons.

A year later and I’m preparing (/have been preparing for months) to orchestrate the opening of two new campuses and jumping from 800 to 1600 users over the course of a few months. I’ve been testing, choosing and implementing tools over the last year to take the mental management and leverage technology to keep the ship afloat and on course. Thus far I’ve implemented OmniFocus, Evernote, (live by) Google Calendar, MindMeister, Kickoff and most recently Omniplan. I now have another team member and need to be able to keep him informed on what needs done by when along with keeping other departments aware of our progress and any risks we currently or may soon have.

Utilizing these tools I’ve realized that my role has shifted to becoming the cache of my external brain(s) and tools. I have an evening ritual to prepare for the following day by looking over my calendar and looking at the my to-do lists and performing a mini-review of what I could accomplish in the time I have the next day. I often plan meetings and add tasks and milestones for weeks or months in the future and depend on these tools to act as the long term storage for my life and I just keep what I need for the short term mentally stored. This frees up my mental capacity to think through longer term plans such as our continued growth and projects of a size I’ve never been responsible for before such as this and this. Nothing I’ve implemented is perfect and I’m far from even being good at it but I’m becoming more efficient and productive every day and that’s progress.

Reasoning with Yourself

From a great self-reflective piece by Charles Edge:

I need to stop reasoning crap to myself. When your alarm goes off in the morning and you hit snooze, you’re reasoning to yourself that you have a little more time. When you decide to eat that last slice of pizza knowing that even if you have Lactaid that you’ll have heartburn tonight you’re reasoning yourself into some good old fashioned acid reflux. When you work an extra 10 minutes rather than go buy flowers for your significant other, you’re reasoning yourself into divorce.

All of us who are geeky can relate to at least part of this post. While I'm not a big soda drinker and I kicked the midnight oil bucket a couple of years ago (at least when I have work the next day) I really took something away from the excerpt above (especially the last sentence). I often reason the wrong, lazy or easy choice to myself because it's exactly one of those three things. I sometimes fear that my work may cause issues in my personal life. When that feeling becomes too constant I have to step back, re-assess how I'm prioritizing my time and make the necessary changes to correct it.

I'm Dumb and I Know It

Sam Spurlin writing about embracing being an idiot and procrastination:

That's why I created my Weekly Review Checklist, why I have a recurring reminder to think about my longterm goals and overall vision, and why I put things I don't want to forget directly in front of my door. I'm working on embracing the fact that I'm an idiot instead of fighting it. By embracing it I can take steps to mitigate it and that's much more preferable than feeling smart but doing dumb things.

I couldn't agree more with Sam on this. I found Sam's site through David Sparks's blog and am enjoying it.

Instacast in Public Beta

Instacast In Public Beta

Update: If you're upgrading from the alpha I would recommend clearing out all support files using a tool like AppZapper, Hazel or CleanMyMac.

My favorite podcatcher for iOS has been in alpha for the Mac over the last few months and as of this morning is out in public beta. Martin and his team at Vemedio have been working hard and iterating quickly on the Mac version of Instacast and it's really matured throughout the alpha. The initial design was scrapped and they've been listening closely to users for feedback and to make the best podcatcher for OS X.

Let the Competition Begin

On more than one occasion I've had the following conversation.

Big Fan: So what do you do?
Me: I'm the IT Director for a non-profit charter management organization (CMO).
BF: What's a CMO?
Me: We're a non-profit organization that helps lead and manage charter schools.
BF: Oh, I'm not sure how I feel about you guys.
Me: What do you mean?
BF: Well, charter schools take my tax money and do the minimum with it in order to keep as much of that money as possible. You're not as responsible for the growth of your kids and you don't have any proof that your model works any better than the local school districts.
Me: Well, actually I have some information here on this digital publication that I can share that shows our growth, our story and from that you can see how we're using tax dollars. BF: I'm really not interested in that. You can put your iPad away.

While I know this may seem like an overdramatization it's an honest to God conversation I've had on more than one occasion. There seems to be a stigma around charter schools but it seems to be more of a mis-judgement. While there are some charter schools that aren't doing the best job they can, that shouldn't speak for the entire group. There are also local school districts that have failing schools and aren't providing the expected educational outcome with their students but they shouldn't get a pass just because local districts are the norm. This is pure ignorance due to a lack of knowledge and a lot of heresay.

Charter schools provide healthy competition within the education sector. We're all fighting for the same dollars and cents by providing the best education possible to the children we serve. This puts the power into the hands of parents. If a parent wants the best education program available for their child (and what parent doesn't) then the schools that provide this will receive more of those funds with a fuller enrollment.

The idea of competition is seen as a positive in other sectors, why should education be excluded? Our children deserve to be competed over more than our decision for who's smartphone we'll carry. Technology is a huge driver in the levelling of the playing field for this competition to occur. With technology we can craft different models for how we deliver, analyze and continuously perfect curricula and if it's not working we can pivot much faster to something that provides the expected outcome. No singular model is yet to stand out as the best way to teach and provide the best results in the 21st century; and how could it? Schools don't serve the same demographic of students. Each community has it's own set of needs and so the model has to be meticulously crafted to serve it's students. This may be the missing piece of traditional education. Let the competition begin.