Soulfish

I'm with Sky at the moment, but considering moving to BT or Plusnet (yes I know that Plusnet is owned by BT!). Never really have any problems with Sky (but never had to phone them either!) but have noticed some slow downs in the evening recently. From the reading I've been doing Plusnet since they have now removed their throttling for unlimited accounts is quite well thought of.

For me it's either got to be my iPad or my smartphone (was an iPhone user but now have a Samsung S4!). Both have changed how I use/interact with computers/internet/devices. If I had to pick I'd probably go with smartphone. I'm lost without my smartphone and data contract and even went so far as to get a PAYG T-Mobile SIM while in New York recently to help me get around/find stuff!

I use one of http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-910-001825-M510-Wireless-Mouse/dp/B003STDR14 with http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-K350-Wireless-Keyboard-Layout/dp/B002L3TSK2/ref=sr_1_8?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1372319288&sr=1-8&keywords=logitech+wireless+keyboard Great combination

Currently trialing it, and it seems pretty comprehensive! Thinking about using it for our Android tablet 1-1 scheme next year.

Congrats - and have a great time in Mexico! Just got back from two weeks there myself

That's slightly different however. To use the network and resources in the school the students and staff (and any guests) have agreed to an acceptable use policy where they're made aware of the fact that all use is monitored and logged. If staff and students don't agree they don't have to utilise our systems. PRISM was kept secret (although I do agree that it's pretty obvious after things like Echelon that the security services would have a follow on program) and there is no way to opt-out.

Got sent the invite a few weeks ago, and while it's on my way home couldn't get time off to go watch it unfortunately

Yup from what I've heard Nimble are one of the smaller players punching above their weight. Suspect they'll be gobbled up by HP/Dell/EMC/IBM in the next 12-24 months

If you hadn't guessed I'm a fan of Palo Alto . They are expensive though, and that's even with discounts! Watchguard/Sonicwall/Fortinet are all fair at the cheaper end of the market and tbh do pretty much everything you could want

He got a Desmond! (Tutu ) Congrats to your son

...unless you get a Palo Alto . Aka the Rolls Royce of the firewall world, but also one of the most expensive Depending on traffic levels and what you want your firewall to do (full AV/IPS/Layer 7 filtering, or simply a basic firewall?) then others to look at include Sonicwall, Watchdog, Fortinet and Juniper.

Bones and Castle are both good easy to watch TV series . The West Wing is my all time fav tv series - still great to watch!

Just got back from two weeks in Mexico, and had a long weekend in New York in March so no more holidays for me until 2014 unfortunately!!

Also need to get myself a flash. Already have a 50mm 1.4 and a 17-55 2.8 lens, and totally agree with Tom about the razor thin depth of field when using the 50mm at 1.4 . We've just got a full lighting setup here in school and it's been good fun playing with proper studio lighting setups - so very tempted to get my own (much smaller) set. Very tempted to get myself 1 or 2 YN568EX and the YN622 triggers - the Yongnuo triggers/flash guns are sooo cheap compared to Canon and get some good reviews over on talkphotography

Wish I was coming this year .

We've been running with a Palo Alto firewall since June last year. Absolutely love it. We tried all the major vendors (Fortinet, Watchguard, Sonicwall, Barracuda, Cisco, Juniper, Checkpoint etc) and Palo Alto blew them all away. We moved from a Juniper SRX to Palo Alto.

Mine arrived on Saturday, and having had iOS devices for the last 4 years I'm still getting used to the flexability! Liking the huge screen though. My iPhone 4S feels tiny in comparison now.

Just hoping mine actually arrives tomorrow! I'm moving from a iPhone 4S so this will be my first Android phone - got plenty to play with

Who did you order your S4 with?

Well I got all excited last night when DPD sent me confirmation of delivery of my S4 for today. Tracked it this morning and its at my local depot in Newcastle. I live on the south coast. Only 350 miles off where it needs to be. As you may expect I'm not getting it today now . Phoned DPD and to be fair to them they were very helpful and apologetic and have booked it for a redelivery tomorrow (Saturday) morning. Just have to hope that someone doesn't decide that since its marked M-F delivery to ignore the Saturday delivery request that the barcode is giving them!!

Yup you should use your ISPs DNS servers as forwarders within your AD DNS servers setup. You should use your AD DNS servers as DNS servers for all of your internal machines.

We've been using ZiLink for the past two years and it's been great. Great product and company

*waves* I'm a Director of IT at a state school . As others have said the roles both whole school strategic and technical. I don't know of many others in state schools (there are a few of us though!), but there do appear to be plenty in the independent sector.

Closest thing I've ever found to explaining how everything links together within SIMS (as others have said don't even try and understand the SQL backend ) is this helpful diagram (page 7) from Kent EIS - http://www.eiskent.co.uk/UserFiles/files/SIMS/User%20Forums/Curriculum%20-%20User%20Forum%20-%20November%2011.pdf

Bah - got the fun of getting home on the train through Tonbridge later No doubt South Eastern will have their usual delays due to "poor railhead conditions"