beeswax

As someone who has been on both sides of the fence, conducting interviews and going through interviews, my view is that if it doesn't feel right then make your mind up what you want to do. I hated going through post interview, deciding on a candidate, offering them a job only for them to come back and say they didn't want it. I pulled out of consideration for a post last summer after the interview, and was thanked for being honest with them, and saving them work. Interviews are hard for candidates, but they are also a lot of work for those conducting the interviews.

this could be the one. As for solar power, I thought that daylight was enough to power the panels, rather than sunshine. There's an old article from the BBC here which suggests that it was going to be tried out on the Isle of Foula. This may have been superseded by more current events.

Not really clued up at all. I did send him instructions for changing the hosts file last week, so I'll probably recommend he go down that route.

If this isn't the right place to post this, then my apologies. I have a friend who's a teacher/SMT in Thailand and the school has a thin client set up with 20 terminals, and as he puts it, "The problem isnt the students using Facebook.............the problem is the teaching staff using Facebook when they should be preparing lessons/marking books/grading tests etc!" Is there any way he can block certain sites on the server?

I had an agent who sold my work to magazines and companies around the world, and my view was (and is) if I've done the work, then I want paying for it. If they want to attract people to an article, or use the picture to sell goods, then it's only right that I should be paid and credited. If they objected then in went the lawyers. I'm sorry that you've unknowingly fallen into this ittech, but as tech_guy says, it may also be a scam. I suggest you search Getty Images to see if the picture you used is actually in their library.

Come on in, the water's warm.

Whilst I don't think your salary will be halved you may well lose some money from this. From what I gather, the amount of money in the pot to pay all council workers will remain roughly the same, so if 48% of people are going to get a pay rise, someone has to lose out, and since the chief executives of all these councils can't take a pay cut as they'd all jump ship and go back to private industry (and where would we be then?), the money has to come from somewhere. I hope this hasn't dampened your Saturday evening.

You dated a chicken?

sounds like a Mosquito to me.

Does Mahara only work on a Linux platform, or can it be used with a WAMP setup?

A friend of mine was on holiday in Florida, and he was lazing by the pool. The hotel had arranged a treasure hunt for all the kids at the hotel, and so there were a dozen or so children trolling around the pool looking for clues. One kid reckoned that there was a clue under my friend's lounger, but was too shy to ask himself, so dragged his mother into it. The woman came across and asked my friend if he spoke English. Naturally, being English born and bred, he replied, "Like a native". The woman, being American, raised her right hand, a la Bunty James, and said, "How"

I came across this a while ago but forgot to post it. I think Jack Schofield sounds a little smug though.

you could try right-clicking the image and going to Properties to see where the .png file is kept.

From what I've seen at the moment, and I have to admit to not having visited for a couple of months, Sloodle seems to be replicating actual classrooms with virtual ones. Ok, the characters are a little more colourful, but it's in its infancy at the moment. One possible avenue for exploration could be the teaching of history for example where you have a lesson or two about Hannibal's march through the Alps for instance, and then you join him for a virtual journey. Or you could experience a Moon landing. Take part in a Shakespeare play with some of the world's finest actors. Journey to the centre of the Earth. "By 2004[...]the US Military decided to build a [...] model of the whole planet [...] online. [Dr. Michael] Macedonia, (a West Point graduate and Gulf War Veteran then headed the US Army's Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, where he oversaw the development of virtual war zones) was part of the the team which commissioned the developers of 'There', a massive online virtual world, to build an 'Asymmetric Warfare Environment' - a virtual world - to run on the Army's own network, the largest private Internet portal in the world. In AWE [...] soldiers would be able to train and re-examine battles in an environment that allowed for social as well as violent interaction." Tim Guest, Second Lives, A journey Through Virtual Worlds. It's been going on for years now.

What a start to the week it's been. From the off on Monday morning and all through Tuesday the office phone has never stopped ringing with teachers saying that nothing's working, demanding replacement laptops etc. I think we must have had an electrical storm over the weekend, though I'm not discounting the fact that at 08:45 on Monday the head had a call informing him that at 08:00 sharp on Wednesday morning Ofsted would be in.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there's always this

There's also hootsmon, for when you need to analyze the contents of your haggis.

Happy Birthday A sneak preview of his new haircut as well!

I'd like to offer a big thanks to all who have given their considered opinion, you've all been a big help. From my experience (and I've only worked in two schools) most teachers really don't want to know the technical ins and outs of running a network, and it doesn't surprise, or upset me. As people here have said, accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between You've got to spread joy up to the maximum Bring gloom down to the minimum Have faith or pandemonium [is] Liable to walk upon the scene (Ah, good old Bing Crosby) Bing

During my staff appraisal recently it was agreed that I'd give a short talk to teaching staff at the end of the school year about the role of the IT Technician. After some initial eye openers SMT agreed that they actually didn't realize X, Y and Z about us. I see this as a good opportunity to build some bridges. What do others feel I should be stressing? What I won't be mentioning are teachers who haven't switched on their machines calling us up to say it's not working etc.

Some of these posts put me in mind of bisley69. Can't dig up the original posts tho'. aha! Here it is

Amazing!

Years ago, when I was at college in Liverpool, I remember walking past a shop window which had a huge pile of toilet rolls with the label, "Bargain of the week! Shop soiled toilet rolls. 2 for the price of 1!"

Foundation, or as they were first known, grant maintained, schools can't opt out of BSF, unless something has changed very recently.

as GD said, he's playing Devil's advocate. These are the sort of points which would be thrown back at you in a real life situation. By the way, do you know Michael Dove?