Soulfish

Happy Birthday

I've had over 2k back from Quidco over the last few years, so definitely worth it . Also check out some of the other cashback websites, and compare what they're offering over at Money Saving Expert: Consumer Revenge - Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more Since a lot of them don't charge you anything for being a member/getting cashback you may as well maximise your return!

As you say where practical we're trying to get vPro support on all new computers. It's one of the reasons we're currently buying Dell 780's rather than the new 380's. Combining vPro with SCCM looks to give us a very nice set of management tools.

In-house currently. We prefer the flexibility and the fact we're not reliant on our internet connection. I can see a day in the future when externally hosted apps would be fine, but until we have multiple redundant links through multiple providers going in different physical directions to different physical POPs then in house it is

It will really depend on how picky the switch is. HP switches won't work with anything other than HP SFPs, and if you do happen to find a compatible SFP that works now it'll likely get nuked in a future firmware upgrade. I'm not sure on 3coms policies, but given they're now owned by HP it wouldn't surprise me if they start to implement the restriction of only 3com SFPs. I'd check to see what 3com have replaced the part with however. It may be that they've discontinued the 3com versions in favour of H3C or HP branded versions.

We're in the process of re-cabling the entire site using Cat5e. I just couldn't justify the additional cost of Cat6 over properly terminated and tested Cat5e given that they'll perform to pretty similar levels.

I've used Techlogic (Welcome to Techlogic UK , Book your removal, disposal and recycling today! We offer corporate used, redundant or non-working computer, electronics and IT equipment clearance and disposal !!!!) for the last three collections I've had to book. First time I used them I was desperate to get rid of stuff ASAP after another company cancelled on us at the last minute (penultimate day of the holidays with the hall being full of old gear = not good). Phoned them up and they offered to come pick it up same day after talking to them. Always turned up when they say they will nice and early in the day and give us all the paperwork

Having just setup a new CA (rather than reuse the existing one that I'd previously setup) for our SCCM install (gahhh!) I'd say that it's probably just easier to setup a new CA and issue new certificates manually for the few that may need that

Do you know if worldwide 3g roaming is included, or is it an extra cost? I know the US kindle doesn't include worldwide roaming (you have to pay extra), but the UK Kindle page isn't very clear!

You won't notice a difference on a single transfer. Think of it a little like a motorway. The speed limit for each individual car is still 70mph, but by adding extra lanes (cables) you can get more cars on at the same time

It took me 4 reinstalls of the WSUS role on our 2k8r2 SCCM server (2007 SP2 R2), removing/installing the SUP in SCCM each time to get SCCM and WSUS to play nicely. Was made harder by the fact that I was using the native SCCM mode!

Just about to roll out a new Juniper network consisting of 2 x EX8208's in the core with EX4200's at the edge (24/48 port full + partial PoE versions). Redundant links back to both core switches from each of our cabinets with VLANs for each floor, wifi, printers, servers and various other things. All running with a vanilla server 2008 R2 domain, and by the end of the summer a fully W7 site with about 500 desktops + laptops. Also rolling out Ruckus wireless this summer together with a complete recable thanks to Net-Ctrl

We're just about to move to Mandatory (together with redirections of various things) together with AppSense Environment Manager for both staff and students

Happy (belated) birthday witch

We ended up getting some badly needed replacement PCs (replacing some very shoddy self-built PCs) and moving all servers to a virtualised environment including a SAN. Worked out quite well really since I was given the money about a month after I started so was essentially able to start from scratch! It was the habbit of the old bursar to horde cash until the end of the year and then decide what to spend things on.

Last year I got told to spend £60k in a week at the end of the budget year. This year we "only" got £15k

Down in sunny old Hastings? Not surprised you left to be fair!

*Cough* I don't know what you're talking about

I really should get around to learning the Windsor knots!

The licensing doc to read is http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/6/1e68f92c-f334-4517-b610-e4dee946ef91/2008%20SQL%20Licensing%20Overview%20final.docx which has a quick explanation about virtual processors and licensing. Because Windows Server is seeing each virtual processor as a separate socket you need the per processor licenses. When your able to combine the virtual processors into one virtual socket with multiple cores then you only need the single processor license

When SQL is being used in a virtual server your correct that the per processor license means you need to license each virtual processor you give the device. One way I have seen to get around this is if Hyper-V is able to present the 4 virtual CPUs as 1 virtual CPU with 4 cores. Then you'd only need 1 processor license, and make use of the multicore licensing linked to above. I know you can do this with Xen and VMWare but I've never tried with Hyper-V unfortunately!

I've been told by 3 suppliers that Dell prices are being increased on the 19th so not just HP + IBM!

I spent the last 18 months putting together plans with my line manager for a continual rolling cycle together with justification for everything. Had the plans read by virtually every level of management at some stage and a week or two ago presented to the whole governing body. Got the go ahead from them for the 5-year plan with budget approval for the 5 years. Nice to think that we're finally being listened to

Quick bump for anyone that hasn't seen this already. Please do make an offer if you'd like any of the kit

User CALS are tied to a named user. You'd need to license every machine with a device CAL (which is tied to that device) to allow your number of users to use them.