Wow.. 210 dinner tickets, 259 coffee vouchers and 150 drink shouts and still 90 more "surprise" items to print equals a lot of printing, folding, ripping and rubbish! (That's also not counting mis-prints)

Not sure if you can see it (poor phone camera) but that's Wrest Point lit up at night as the view from my desk covered in printing after cleaning up multiple rounds!

Register now for PyCon AU to put me through more pain and printing!

We're keeping up with PyCon AU 2011 (Sydney), but for how much longer!

You can't quite see it on that image but we're basically overlapping 10 days out from the conference.

Get your tickets for PyCon Australia 2012 now and tell/share on all that social media stuff with your friends!

Open Technology Solutions has been working hard this year to provide the first ever tertiary exam conducted on students own computers^[1] within Australia.

• Read our news update: http://www.opentechnologysolutions.com.au/news/eexams-computers-update
• A website has been put together by the University of Tasmania for the project: http://www.eexaminations.org/
• The Australian has a write up: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/laptops-pass-the-big-ex...
• The University of Tasmania's Newsletter also mentions the achievement: http://www.utas.edu.au/events/Unitas/2009/November%20Unitas_335.pdf
• Dr. Andrew Fluck has published a case study on conducting exams on computers: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/fluck.pdf

1.

Corrected from "exam on computers"

On the 6th of November, the University of Tasmania conducted what is believed to be the first tertiary exam conducted on students own computers^[1] in Australia.

In a previous announcement we outlined the features and our involvement in the process of the trail runs.
http://www.opentechnologysolutions.com.au/news/university-exams-computer...

After doing a number of trials on in-classroom tests the system was adapted and made ready to be used in a real exam. While the system used is still very young, we believe that eExam shows a lot of potential and has started to open opportunities to do more exams on computers. As computers become more common in examinations, more practical applications can be fulfilled. For example, besides spell-checking, students will be able to use spreadsheets, watch videos, look up chemical elements and manage their references better all while sitting an exam.

The University of Tasmania has set up a website that details the project and the progress made. It is well worth a read as it outlines the features, the future of the project and some student feedback: http://www.eexaminations.org/

A case study on using computers in exams has also been published by Dr. Andrew Fluck who has been heading up the project: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/fluck.pdf

1.

Corrected from "exam on computers"

As the second semester finally closes on what seems like a fruitful year, for myself and for Linux, the amount of free time that I have has greatly increased. This however lead a good friend of mine to approach me with his very sad looking laptop, begging for some help. His fairly new Dell laptop was, very sadly, chug to the brim of heavenly maleware. Since he was a good friend of mine I happily, well at least willingly, lended him a helping hand in his technical hour of need.  Read More »