DrummerBoy

I don't work for a school (software house) and we recently moved from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics SL (don't ask we're US owned). All I can say is 'for the love of God' do not do this. We had Quickbooks for years and it worked well and did the job. SL is exactly the Opposite. Even our Finance Director (UK chartered accountant) has been reduced to tears by this large heap of Poo!!

+1 for the buy the boots and clothes and rent board for now. I'm a skiier, so can't help with board recommendations. I would buy from a shop where the staff know what they are talking about though, and not blind over the web. As for shredding gloves on rope tows, a piece of rubber inter tube (car or motorbike sized) with a thumb hole cut in will help save your gloves, and give better grip.

Just seen this on The Register, and thought it needed a home here~: Entire class fails computing exam by submitting in Word format ? The Register

I heard an interview on the BBC with Nick Griffin this morning, and he said that the list did start off as true, some of the entries on it are not BNP members. As with all 'truths' on the Internet, a large pinch of salt is needed!! There may well be some innocent folks on there who this ex BNP exec memeber has got it in for.

I have had my Nikon D70 (with the S firmware update) for a few years now, and I love it. Ebay is you friend for lenses, and you don't have to buy the Nikon lenses, just 3rd party lenses with Nikon thread mounts. I have the 55mm lens that came with the camera, but bought a fixed focus f1.8 50mm lens on eBay for £50, and also a 55-300mm Sigma lens which as been fantastic. My top tip is, if you are thinking of shooting a lot of fast drive mode shots such as car races (or horse eventing if you are me) is to buy a more expensive high speed memory card (such as the San Disk Extreme and Ultra ranges). As what can happen is that your camera buffers the first few frames locally and then has to write them to the memory card. The faster the card the more shots you can take before the frame rate slows down.

Does anyone know of any free mp3 splitting software? I have a pocket Zoom H2 recorder (fanastic bit of kit) that I use to record local bands I am doing sound for. The recorder just creates one long mp3 file that I then need to break up. I have been using time limted shareware apps, and wonder if there is a freeware app out there that anyone knows of?

On the plus side I got the looks, the brains and don't work in education!!

Being an older kind of guy, and been managing technical stuff for a loooooonnnnnggggg time, I have developed a way of working that might help. 1) Allways treat the person you want to get to do something as you would like to be treated by your boss. 2) Listen if they have valuable feedback, and let them know that if they have a complaint they must allways have a solution to go a long with it. This gets rid of complaining for no good reason. 3) Ask then nicely once, ask them again (if they fail to do it the first time), and finally tell them, politely, but firmly. If they don't do it after the telling, then look at addressing the behaviour (not the person) either using a quiet word in their shellike, or a more formal disciplinary approach, if the behaviour continues. Hope this helps. Rick

Bought an Elonex Media Centre case, with quiet fans etc from ebuyer (with MoBo so onboard sound and graphics) £100, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD ROM, Hauppauge D500T dual tuner, Core2Duo e6400 Proc, Wireless Keytronic keyboard and mouse and Vista Ultimate OEM Total Price was around the £450 mark. Don't skimp on the processor, bought the wrong one at first (Dual core instead of core2duo) and the picture stuttered. Have since upgraded MoBo and DVD to a combined BluRay/HDDVD drive and upgraded the graphics card to a Ge9600 HDMI thingy!!! Probably another £200 in upgrades, but is now all singing and all dancing, and very quiet. For cost eBay/eBuyer are your friends!

Not an Educational IT role, but as Dos_Box's big bro, I am not a recruitment agency either!! I am looking for an experienced Linux bod to join my established IT Team, based in Blackburn, Lancs. The role is a customer facing one, maintaining and running our online telecoms analysis solutions, and also bringing Linux skills to the team. Currently we are an MS shop (Server, IIS, SLQ Server etc), but our new product lines needs Linux expertese. Role is predominently office based, 37.5 hrs per week, and salary will be 20-26k dependent on experience. If you're interested in a job in the 'real world' (puts flak jacket on and retires to safe distance;)) drop me a PM, and I will send our further details.

These questions are alive and well in smaller job interviews as well. My daughter was being interviewed for a construction industry job this week and was set the task of imagining the 4 interviewers were aliens and new to earth. She then had to describe what Ice Cream was to them. First question she asked was 'Do you speak English then?'. And she's been offered the job!

Heard and interview with him the other night, and I think that this new book is very different to the Disc World series. Much more 'real' and serious.

Another itme not mentioned yet, would be budget: Is there one? Who owns it? Has any already been spent/allocated? How do I get more? Admittedly the last one is the killer!

I found that Search for jobs in the UK. Online job search is pretty good.

I don't have a spare one but I do use them a fair (rock bands etc). Do you require a high spec desk? If not what elements are you needing to control? Static lights or moving head stuff?

Russ, my bold, but haviong been through a large amount of this recently (not in the education sector, but from a management perspective) this would count as a slam dunk contructive dismissal case. Under no circumstances whatsoever can an employer say to an employee that resignation is an option, without being wide up to contructive dismissal claims. According to the legal advice we've had even reducing a person's salary, and then they resign, could be solid grounds for contructive dismissal. I would have to say that most of the powers in this area are with the employee these days.

The old singer from a band I was in once came across misheard lyrics from people in the next room when they were rehearsing Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile. The music fans told my mate how they loved that song with 'Kiss this guy' in it!! For the none Hendrix fans out there the line is 'Kiss the sky'. Not sure if this counts as misheard, or mis pronounced.

When I used to be on call for a client, the company had negotiated a £2.50 an hour standby rate and a double time call out rate. Needless to say competition for these hours was fierce as we only actually got called out about once a week!! One thing to check would be the working time directive as I think on call hours coutns towards the 48hrs per week max, or it may only be hours worked whilst on call. Don't forget to fight for a reasonable on call rate as the company is buying your freedom off you; i.e. you must remain sober, in mobile phone contact etc.

PM me your email address and I will send a bunch of docs across.

Believe it or not we do have season tickets for Ewood Park, and these are sometimes available for Staff to use (if no customer is visiting)!! Bu I do have a rule that we do not employ Man U fans, Man City fans may get preferential treatment!

The roll is IT Engineer, based in Blackburn, Lancs. 37.5hrs per week, Monday to Friday & part of a 6 person IT Team. The company is Ryder Systems (http://www.rydersystems.com), a software house who specialise in telecoms analysis software. The IT Team has 2 functions: 1 is the normal internal IT stuff, networks, email, backups etc. 2 is the external web side, primarily for the hosting of our application to our customers. Technology wise we are an MS house (and a development partner). Also we are Investers in people and iso9000 acredited. This roll is on the internal support side and pays between 19-21k dependant on experience. If you want the full details please email me a cv to [email protected]

What's a teacher doing in here???? I can offer a glamourous office location (Blackburn) and working for me is a perk in and of itself!

Being Dos_Box's elder brother does have some perks!!! Anywho, I am in the lucky(?) position of needing an IT technician to work in my IT department. We are a software house based in Blackburn, Lancs, with a 6 strong IT team. Monday - Friday, 37.5hrs per week. Please PM me for more details, if you are interested. Escape education now!!! Trust me our developers are far more of a challenge!!