Earthling

I don't know.......for years we've been raising the school-leaving age, preventing kids leaving an education system which is out-of-date, broken and not fit for purpose anymore. Now, someone (probably with a vested interest) wants to lower it again for certain kids. Why don't we start again with the whole shooting match? Invest PROPERLY in education, stop using it as a political football, redesign the system from the bottom up. Then perhaps, we might start producing a work-force that someone wants. One of the most chilling things I realised when I started here, was the number of year 7's who are admitted with Literacy skills of 7 - 9 years and lower, in some cases. I despair of this country, at times, I really do. You guys can sort this lot out, I'm retiring soon.......abroad.

27.5 C in our office......windows open, front door to the block open, office door open, gentle draught blowing through. Jacket off, shirt sleeves rolled-up, collar open, dead quiet, year 7 CAT's. Internet, MP3's on the mobile, coffee made....... This is how I dream my retirement will be.

Probably the most sensible thing to do.......we have 2 trollies with 15 laptops each, purchased with money we didn't know what to do with. Nothing but trouble. I had some far better ideas of what to do with the money, but no one was interested.

Bottom line is that this argument will go on and on and on until we either can't log-on to any but Government and Multi-National approved web-sites or the film and recording industries join us all in the 21st century and evolve their business models accordingly. I know which I'd prefer.

Uhh........yes, I would, actually. BBC Sport - Arsenal offer free tickets to fans after Man Utd thrashing I'm not a Gooner, but fair play to the Arse. Not exactly giving the money back, but close enough.

Maybe I was lucky, here, that IT was in such a parlous state when I was recruited. At my interview I made it absolutely clear that 40 years in IT meant '40 years in IT', not '40 years in IT with some A/V thrown in, TV's, DVD players, a bit of SIMS data management, classroom supervision/monitoring and whatever else you think comes under the term Technical'. They took me on, on those terms, and they are the terms I stick to. Nothing in my JD says otherwise, either.

As it happens, had an interesting chat with my colleague technician here this morning, about holidays. A certain holiday I was looking at booking was fine, until I realised it was going to be a coach trip (a looong coach trip) with people mostly of my age.... I'm 59. I had to explain to him that I really don't have much in common with people of my own age-group and far prefer the company of younger people, or my own company. Growing up without growing old is the trick, but it's amazing how many people can't do it.

I really like Clubbed to Death.

Welcome to being 50.

Yes, I agree, train not 'do'. As for SIMS stuff.........forget it, not my area of expertise.

Earthling's recommendations: The Guard - Ein Ire sieht schwarz (2011) - IMDb IMDb - Page Eight (2011) I watched Bad Teacher the other night, too, lmao'd, don't normally like comedies, but it was good. Either it was good or it was Cameron Diaz, one of the two.

Wireless Network - Arguements for installing in Education Can't think of any....sorry.

Thanks for the warning, that sort of 'listening' to PC's is something I do a lot when necessary.

Yes, as long as the PSU has all the correct power connectors for the mobo, 20 or 24 pin power, 12v power etc., then take all the peripherals off, plug in a monitor and keyboard and press the button.

Two Ofsteds since I've been here, they've haven't come anywhere near us either time. If anyone from Ofsted is reading.............let's keep it that way, shall we?

IMDb - Wild Target (2010) Well worth seeing, if you haven't already.

Stop there, that gets my vote........and very well-worded, too, may I add. 'visionary-external-access-involvement-engagement ICT panacea tat .....', sums it all up in a nutshell to me.......eloquent turn of phrase, mate.

I've just come back from three weeks off and got caught by this rebuilding an Admin pc. I ran the Update Agent and that got me on to the Updates page, but after the first 4 updates had downloaded, the rest failed dismally. I eventually got it all working by installing the 'Microsoft Update' Add-in and using that instead of Windows Update. Whoever said it's M$ pushing Windows 7 and 2008 has hit the nail on the head, I think.

This is how I've applied Proxy Settings for the last five years, using our Smoothwall as the proxy. However, now, the Head wants The Staff to be able to access YouTube which is blocked by the upstream proxy to which the Smoothwall connects. So....easy, I thought, add a proxy setting into the Staff Policy to use the unfiltered Grid proxy, and not the Smoothwall. So did that, but the Staff Policy steadfastly refuses to change the proxy setting from the one spec'd in the Default Domain Policy. Staff Policy is linked and enforced, but still won't play ball. Any ideas? Anyone?

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Yep, happy with it here too, but haven't rolled it out yet. Debate about what 'value-added' extra it gives us for the licence fees, we don't have a schools agreement or Vol licensing agreement, whatever.

I tell you what.....if you must be condescending and patronising, use 'dim' instead of 'naive', because for the life of me, I cannot work out what point you're trying to make. What I do know, is that you seem to be over-complicating, over-intellectualising what is a simple, personal choice. If you don't like what the papers print, if you don't like the stories they run, if you don't like what you're being 'fed' by the 'political and economic elite', then don't buy them, don't read them, and don't eat it. It really is as simple as that.......ask half the population of Liverpool.

So......don't buy the 'political and economic elite' approved newspapers/magazines/tv services etc. No one forces you to......take responsibility. And to illustrate perfectly what I meant by saying 'Society gets the Press it deserves'....... Yes, but did you find anything saucy, ask News of the World readers Last paragraph or so...........“The British public gets the media it deserves, unfortunately.” And that's not where I got the idea from, by the way.

Unfortunately, a society gets the Press it deserves.