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> - are courses like this available here? any good? cost? where to find more info?

I think it was a reasonable question .. the only info on open.gov.uk appears to relate to computer camps for the blind. I think you've missed the point of asking the online community .. it makes hard to find information easy to find (though its at a large overall time cost which is partially out-weighed by the entertainment value).

Your right - there should be something - but it seems there isn't.

As for OU, they don't do anything (I'm one of their students), as far as I know, where you get hands-on practice with a network (for example), or repairing PC's (although some courses like T223 have hardware components, a serial port temperature measurement module in this instance, that they post out).

Anyone got anything useful to add. I'm interested in this topic too as I'm currently wanting to set up a community computer project.

Google.co.uk list a few "computer camps", for example the ICC (have to be blind) and one in Ottawa (have to live in Canada or be prepared to travel!) and I think theres one about someone who went on a camp in 1998. The only useful doc notes that:

Although often expensive in practice, the idea of the computer camp offers another community-based initiative little seen in the UK. In the USA this provides children from 7-18 with hands on training in a wide range of computer and Internet skills. Given the frequency with which British children - admittedly many of them middle-class - attend swimming, dancing or sports clubs after school and at the weekend, the expectation of attending a local extra-curricular club is already present in most families. Hence there is considerable potential here for further development, particularly if public funding were available.

pbhj

Jeez. You're online, so why not try looking at www.open.gov.uk/?

The government might have gone a bit quiet about life-long learning recently (they seem to be distracted by the prospect of bombing oil-rich states, firemen striking, university fees, immigration, etc at the moment) but there should be something on the official government portal that should help you.

If nothing else, it'll have links to your local education authority, the Department of Education (or whatever they're calling it today), your local Job Centre, etc who will all be able to help you out.

(I'll let you find the links - you're a big boy now, so let's call it your first lesson.)

Also, contact local further education colleges and perhaps even local universities. The colleges will run night classes, the universities may run residential courses. And let's not forget the Open University.

And if all those don't help (in which case, you might be shit out of luck) then look in your local Yellow Pages/Thomson Local/whatever.

This development is particularly frustrating, since up to now UK .gov sites have generally been very standards compliant. In fact the open.gov.uk initiative even has a W3C standards statement. I quote:

"The most important aspect of publishing information on the internet is to ensure that it is available to all, not just a select few who happen to have the newest browser, all the latest plugins and a top of the range, superfast PC.

UK public sector information must be accessible, legible and fast to download."

This development is particularly frustrating, since up to now UK .gov sites have generally been very standards compliant. In fact the open.gov.uk initiative even has a W3C standards statement. I quote:

"The most important aspect of publishing information on the internet is to ensure that it is available to all, not just a select few who happen to have the newest browser, all the latest plugins and a top of the range, superfast PC.

UK public sector information must be accessible, legible and fast to download."

AS much as I hate to say anything positive about the British Government (RIP etc) I often point people to the standards that the www.open.gov.uk site uses:

open.gov.uk - W3C standards http://www.open.gov.uk/services/standards.htm

Every time I look at them I'm shocked buy how good they are!

AS much as I hate to say anything positive about the British Government (RIP etc) I often point people to the standards that the www.open.gov.uk site uses:

open.gov.uk - W3C standards http://www.open.gov.uk/services/standards.htm

Every time I look at them I'm shocked buy how good they are!

As for how to present regulatory info, the main thing is to think from the user's point of view. E.g. "I'm running a photographic processing shop with 10 employees. What do I need to do to comply with waste management/employment/tax laws?". Then present information in that kind of format.

Oh, and put a good site search engine on the front end, and if you have any database system for accessing data then see if you can figure out how to let outside search engines see the data as well.

Paul.

Don't you find this all rather comforting? I mean, isn't it rather nice to find out that rather than employing a bunch of perfect heartless humanoid clones, that the CIA actually employ regular blokes like you and me, who make mistakes?

The CIA/NSA/GCHQ aren't perfect. They're human. They are little people who have desk jobs just like you and me. They go home at the end of the day and they play bad music too loud and they go to crap parties and they go to the movies and they spill popcorn all down their t-shirt just like you and me.

While you're at it, you might want to go to:

www.open.gov.uk/search/search.htm

...and search for phrases such as "eyes only", "classified secret" etc...

My pal from GCHQ (I live near Cheltenham, it's difficult to live around Cheltenham without having friends in GCHQ) laughed and laughed when he tried this. Then he searched for some other phrase that he wouldn't tell me, then he stopped laughing, then he went kind of quiet, and then he said "I think I need to have a few words with some people on Monday"...

--

try http://www.open.gov.uk

it does have some serious downsides though, it just takes one small trojan to get the details from your PC & then, duplicate passports, drivers license, your house deeds, etc.

If someone files a VAT return for you showing you owe 20 grand, ok you can probably clear it up but it ain't gonna be fun.

All these things are going to happen, but rushing them is a long long way from being a good idea, otherwise we are going to see government in the same position as e-commerce, people billed and records lost, credit card numbers everywhere...

It is possible to argue that all that is needed is better security, but that just isn't going to happen at the user level, "Hi Mr Katz?, this is the IRS, we'd just like to clear up a few details with your return, first could you please answer a couple of questions to confirm your identity"

The internet needs a feature freeze to get the bugs out, not a headlong rush to make sure we never have to risk skin cancer ever again.

uh oh, too much coffee mwahahahhehehe

I can feel it in my bones.

Microsoft is on the way out. But not in the near future, mind. They have too much money, power, and control to be shunned out by Linux.

But we are seeing the beginning of it. Hotmail has moved to Solaris, after technicians said "We tried hard to get it on NT, but it wouldn't work". High-profile sites like the UK Royal Family and the CCTA have since moved to Linux.

Now it is Kenwood's turn.

I would expect the multiplier effect to get even greater with the release of Desktop OS's like Corel Linux, making Linux that much easier for the average user.

Microsoft's days are numbered.

Jx

I notice, for example, that the Scottish Parliament's web site, and my local Council's Web site, do not yet conform. Without wishing to point fingers at specific organisations, is it your intention to cajole all sites within .gov.uk to conform to these standards? Is it appropriate for members of the public to draw administrators of these sites attention to these standards?

Oh, and, by the way, keep up the good work!

According to the article, it`s the whole of the open.gov.uk site (public access to governmental departments) as well. This indicates that it`s a Civil Service rather than a Palace decision. And I think it`s more important that it be noised about that the Civil Service (traditionally and stereotypically very conservative people) are using Linux than that the Queen (who did not, after all, make this decision) is.

"Should", maybe. "Would", no, alas. The DPR got a complaint from me about ProPhoto (the spammer in question here). They wrote back after a while to tell me that they would be taking no action. It's possible they just put the fear into Adrian Paris without actually prosecuting, I suppose, but on the face of it the DPR is pretty toothless when it comes to dealing with spammers. I get the impression that they're trying to learn about the Internet but they don't really know enough to be effective at the moment.