NickTech.org - AppleScript Goodness

Click the script's icon to download in zip format

Disable iSight

This script lets you disable and re enable the built-in iSight camera on the new Intel Macs. The script requires a local administrator password to work.

COPS Backup (Cheap Offsite PowerSchool Backup) Version 1.5

Automatically Backup your PowerSchool folder to another district fileserver as compressed and encrypted disk images (.dmg).
CLICK HERE FOR FULL DISCRIPTION

Clear DHCP Leases

Here is a simple application I made to easily clear out the current DHCP leases from OSX Server. Simply drop it on your server and run whenever the leases get out of hand, which they tend to do ("Sure I have 4,000 clients...").
Thanks to the people at watiworks for use of the sushi icon.

Magic Word Converter

Convert an entire folder of Appleworks documents to Microsoft Word and/or Excel.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

Homework Hand In

An applescript/server folder system which helps teachers collect digital class work.
Version 1.5 includes better error checking, name flexibility and 10.5 compatibility
CLICK HERE FOR CONCEPT AND SETUP INFORMATION

PowerSchool Photo Helper

This script was made to automate the process of preparing student photos for import into PowerSchool. Mostly used for students who enroll after picture day. The script assumes that you are taking a standard portrait with the camera turned 90 degrees clockwise (or a vertical picture with your right hand on the bottom of the camera). Once the student pictures are taken, you would copy the pictures from the camera to your computer and run the script, at which time it would:
1. Ask you to select the photo or photos you wish to prepare for PowerSchool.
2. Rotate each photo 90 degrees (so it is right side up), scale the photo down to 300 pixels length wise (if it is larger than that), and convert the photo to JPEG if it is not already.
3. The new images will have a "PS" added to the end of their name, and a copy of the original file will be in the trash.

Logout

Simply quits all programs and logs off the current user when run. The power of the script lies in the bulls eye icon. This made it easier to teach the younger students to log out after their done with a computer. "All you have to do is click the bulls eye down here in the dock."
Updated to work under OS 10.5

Select Default Printer

Here is a little script which will display a list of the printers setup on the computer and ask that you select which one should be the default. I created the script because certain applications the students where printing from automatically used the default printer, and did not display a standard print dialog window. This of course caused print jobs to go all over because the kids did not know which printer was the default.
So basically I took this script, added a line at the end which opened the offending application (application "suchandsuch" activate), and copied the offending application's icon to the script. So the kids think they are opening the normal app, but really they are running my script. How sneaky!
Updated to work under OS 10.5

Fix KidPix

Everyone who brought the new KidPix 4 from Riverdeep can sympathize with me. My district installed around 250 copies of KidPix just to find out later that the program would unexpectedly quit under the student's managed account whenever they used the "stamps" tool. Riverdeep explains that this is an issue with the permissions on one of the support folders. So instead of going to 250 computers I created this script which will correct the permissions allowing teachers to just run the script from a server if needed.
***The script must be modified inside Script Editor with a local administrator password after download.***

HomeWork Drop

This is an earlier and simpler form of my Homework Hand in script. When run it mounts a server volume which contains teacher's write-only hand in folders, and opens a specifically sized finder window making it easy for younger students to drag homework files into their teacher's folder.
The script must be modified inside Script Editor with your server's address after download. Updated to work under OS 10.5
***Also note that there is a much better script out there which helps student's mount server volumes called MyHome.***

USE OF THE SCRIPTS ARE AT YOUR OWN RISK
Although I try my best to test them all thoroughly on both OS 10.3 and 10.4, I cannot accept any responsibility if one of them inadvertently causes your server closet to explode or any other mishap arising from their use (you do have your backups off-site don't you).