Error message

  • Deprecated function: Return type of DatabaseStatementBase::execute($args = [], $options = []) should either be compatible with PDOStatement::execute(?array $params = null): bool, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in require_once() (line 2244 of /home2/renealte/public_html/includes/database/database.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DatabaseStatementEmpty::current() should either be compatible with Iterator::current(): mixed, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in require_once() (line 2346 of /home2/renealte/public_html/includes/database/database.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DatabaseStatementEmpty::next() should either be compatible with Iterator::next(): void, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in require_once() (line 2346 of /home2/renealte/public_html/includes/database/database.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DatabaseStatementEmpty::key() should either be compatible with Iterator::key(): mixed, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in require_once() (line 2346 of /home2/renealte/public_html/includes/database/database.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DatabaseStatementEmpty::valid() should either be compatible with Iterator::valid(): bool, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in require_once() (line 2346 of /home2/renealte/public_html/includes/database/database.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DatabaseStatementEmpty::rewind() should either be compatible with Iterator::rewind(): void, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in require_once() (line 2346 of /home2/renealte/public_html/includes/database/database.inc).

OOO [2015-12-12]

We’ve been OOO (“out of the office”) much of the last two weeks, enjoying time with family, so there’s not much Reneal news to report.  We’re about a month away from the start of the 2016 Philippines projects, but things seem to be coming together pretty well for that.  The next Board of Directors meeting is coming soon, so that’s our main near-term focus.

We’ve received reports via Facebook from Carmen National High School, Tayud National High School, and Daanbantayan National High School that they’ve received their boxes containing six monitors each.  Thanks to a generous donation of used flat panel monitors from Free Geek (www.freegeek.org), these schools can replace dead CRTs and make six more computers available to students now.  All three of these schools were part of our 2014 slate of projects, and they have been very active users of the Reneal system.

Wednesday I printed eight copies of the system administration manual to take with us to Cebu.  We will leave a copy at each of the new schools for their use.  The manual is now at version 4, and we’ll probably be ready for another revision later this year.  Board member Sharon Fingold created the original version of the manual, just an enormous contribution to Reneal and the schools we support.  An unexpected benefit of this effort was Neal’s realization that much of the troubleshooting verbiage in the manual could be replaced by writing and implementing his systemCheck program – a much simpler solution for the IT teachers.  This program identifies issues, diagnoses the causes, and in some cases can even automatically fix the problems.  Neal continues to improve the capabilities and the user interface of systemCheck each year, and it is one more element in the long-term support that Reneal provides to schools.

Our colleague Anil has already made fantastic progress on getting the USB monitor to work with the ODROID – this for the L3PCV (low power, low cost, low volume) R&D project that he and Neal are working on.  Later today we’ll pick up four monitors from Anil, the last part of our most recent purchase from World Computer Exchange.  We have a huge stack of equipment sitting around right now, waiting to be packed and shipped; that is next week’s task.