Step ONE – Install anti-virus software:  As simple as this may seem, about 25% of the computers I see don’t have antivirus installed.  Some viruses are “tricky” enough to block installation of AV software, but for many this is all of the cleanup you need.  The anti-virus software I’m currently reccomending is:

Avira Free

Avast Home

FortiClient Standard

Pick one of the above – all of them are free.  (I’m partial to Avira, but all three work well).  Download it to your computer and start the installation.  Follow the prompts, hitting “Next” or “Ok” as needed.  You’ll probably need to reboot to finish the installation

Step TWO – Clean up your temporary files: Often viruses keep their files in your computer’s temporary files.  Cleaning out these unneeded files can be a big help.  The easiest way I’ve found is to download and run TFC.  Here’s how to run it:

• Download TFC here, and save it to your computer.
• TFC will close all programs when run, and reboot your computer when it’s done, so save and close your work first, and make sure to let TFC run uninterrupted.
• Start the program by double-clicking on it.
  
• Click the Start button (in TFC) to begin cleaning.  It’s going to take a long time, so be patient!
• TFC should ask to reboot your machine when it’s done.  If it doesn’t, do it yourself to ensure a complete clean process.
  

Step THREE – Install and run Maywarebytes’ Anti-Malware:

• Download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware here, and save it to your computer. Download the Free Version.
• Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
• At the completion of the install, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
  [✓ ] Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
  [✓ ] Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
• then click Finish.
  
• If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
  
• Once the program has loaded, select Perform Quick scan, then click Scan.
  
• When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
• If the scan finds any malware, be sure that the boxes near them are checked, and click Remove Selected. If it finds a particularly “evil” file, it may have to restart your computer to remove it.
  
• When completed, a log will open in Notepad. and you may be prompted to Restart.

Step FOUR – Download and run GMER rootkit removal: rootkits are extremely sneaky viruses that can hide from most antivirus software by pretending to be legitimate parts of your comuter’s operating system, or even the antivirus software itself.  GMER doesn’t run under Windows7 64 Bit mode, so skip this if that’s what your computer runs.

If  your computer is particularly messed up, you can download the files above onto a CD-R or Flash Drive on another computer, and try the above steps in “Safe Mode”.  Microsoft has Safe Mode startup instructions for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

http://tjschmitz.com/blog/2010/09/01/diy-virus-removal/

TestOut

A few days after starting with TestOut, I got a phone call from the folks at ExamSavers. They had a pitch for their entire
suite (17 vendors) in a “Platinum Edition” offering free lifetime updates for a small fraction of the $3K list price on their website. I negotiated a bit with them on the phone and told them I’d think about it. That’s when the high-pressure sales tactics kicked in. The offer was good for “today only”, and wouldn’t be offered again. I politely declined, but was given an ‘extra day’ to think it over. After reading some mixed reviews I decided to give it a try for two reasons: First, you got a book as training material for each exam – and sometimes I just prefer reading over watching a video. Second, the actual testing part was supposed to be strong, adaptively focusing the tests on sections you did poorly in. Third, the practice tests on audio CD sounded like a great way to sneak in extra prep time during my daily commute. It sounded like a good supplement to the TestOut materials I already had. The only thing I really didn’t like about it was the provision for getting two tests worth of training materials at a time – you have to send a copy of your test results to get the next set of materials. After getting the first test (MS70-290) from them, I’m fairly underwhelmed. The book is OK, the audio CD is just as expected, but the testing software is… lacking.  It doesn’t seem adaptive to me at all – I kept getting the same questions over and over again – even when I keet answering them correctly.  In hindsight I wouldn’t purchase it again – and I can see where the people who bought it as their only study resource could be frustrated.

I can see why TestOut has demos and ExamSavers don’t.  I could also recommend  TestOut, but because of their demo I don’t need to  – you can find for yourself.

So far I’ve run across the following companies that seem to work with the K-12 market in this area:

Tetra Data
Edmin
Cognos
Schoolnet

Battelle for Kids seems to have some resources as well, but it’s very hard to see exactly they offer what from their website. We were involved with their ALIGN Ohio project and dropped out after the first year as it wasn’t a good fit for our district.

We have a lot of data available through DaSL (Data for Student Learning), but the progress to implement this by the MCOECN has been painfully slow.

I’m not sure how much care and feeding a data warehouse will take – we already have a couple of mission-critical SQL servers around, and I’m hoping it won’t be much harder than any of them. We’ll see as the saga continues.

T.J.

All of the projects he mentions are worth checking out if you are not familiar with them:
K12LTSP
SchoolTool
Cando
Edubuntu

A good listing of K-12 Open Source projects is the Edu Educational Application Index, maintained in conjunction with SchoolForge. If anyone is aware of a site like Freshmeat where you can sort these projects by language, maturity, etc. let me know. Because nothing is worse than finding a project that would meet your need exactly, only to find out it’s written in COBOL and in early alpha development.

You could have told me that, right? It will be interesting to read the full report when it comes out and see what they have to say.