simpsonj

I think my ICT teacher's head would explode if I removed Office 2007 from the ICT suites as he would need to redo all his schemes of work for KS3 and KS4 with different instructions, screenshots and videos to match Libre Office instead of MS Office. That's not to mention all the non-specialist teaching staff that would need to rapidly train in the new system for the reasons mentioned above ("It's not Word!"). Plus with Office 365, students can have "free" access to these suites at home, albeit in a limited way. Should we go down the "Any device, any time, anywhere" route, then Libre Office or an equivalent may well be the way forward, along with all the other Open Source software we use. The plan then would be to have "The school in a box" all the software that is available within the school is available on the devices the stuents use, and as the MS licencing for such a scheme would be prohibitively expensive (also mentioned above) then Open Source is the answer.

Out of interest, what device do you have that masks the noise of tinnitus? I actually quite like the server noise as it drowns out the tinnitus in my ears which I've had since I was a teenager. Might need to look into reducing it somehow, though if I find it especially bad, I tend to plug in an iPod into the speakers I have set up, or use headphones. Not ideal by any stretch, but it helps me.

The only thing I've found online recently was something like this: AllSee Technologies / Digital Signage Products Not sure if that's what you're looking for, touchscreen rather than a trackball and it looks very expensive!

Beautiful, thank you very much! I'll give that a shot with my thin-client machine hopefully today.

Some how embed a computer or laptop with Prey (Open source anti-theft solution for your laptop, phone and tablet – Prey) installed?

Just throw in that Misco are doing Refurbs as well, DC7700 with 2gb RAM, XP and Core 2 Duo E6300 for £121, bought 30 of these a few weeks back and so far no issues other than scratched cases. The other benefit of buying cheap PCs is the possibility of turning them into thin clients as they near the end of their life.

Do you have a link to the Shelly utility? Looks like InsideTheRegistry has had an update, and I can't find the program as all links point to a dead page.

Thanks for the replies. When I say they can't print, they go File -> Print and neither the Adobe PDF or PDF creator 'printer' is listed as it is with Word, Powerpoint etc. The File -> Save As -> PDF or XPS could be an option, though the specification requires them to print, rather than save. As we have the Adobe Master Suite install, it has a plugin for Excel which gives a tab called Acrobat which allows you to export to PDF, and this works perfectly well, it's just the teacher wants a universal solution to printing to PDF so he can teach it in one, rather than having to teach multiple ways to create PDFs.

Odd issue here with students not being able to print to either Adobe PDF or PDF Creator from Excel 2007. Both work absolutely fine with the other office programs (Publisher, Word, Powerpoint etc) but in Excel it can only be done through the 'Acrobat' tab, which would be fine, except the teacher wants there to be a universal way of creating/printing to PDF. To confuse the issue, occassionally students CAN print to Adobe PDF as usual, which makes no sense as I'm running mandatory profiles and all the computers are built with the same image and are in the same OU. We are running Windows 7 with Server 2008R2. If anyone has any ideas where to look, or whether there are any settings that need to be changed, that would be most appreciated.

My current PC is a bare bundle from Novatech, and its running Server 2008 just fine, the laptop I bought from them is still going strong 4 years down the line. But we've had issues with their iFlames (one dodgy memory stick) and they don't WoL which is a touch annoying. So I'm not 100% convinced by their own branded stuff, but their bare bones bundles are pretty good value.

Animal Crossing?

Anyone point me towards an idiots guide to DPA for overworked School technicians?

Logmein works well enough for basic tasks, though I wouldn't want to use it for anything long or complicated...

Same issue here, but only on one of my servers, not the others. Delete still works but I'm having to be creative when renaming!

Just to add a few programs to the list: Double Driver Portable 7zip Portable A version of Malware Bytes Anti Virus - Try to update periodically CCleaner I would also consider keeping a copy of all drivers on your Flash Drive (Double Driver is very good for that)

Just linking to someone who has written more eloquently on the subject than I can manage: Adult Content Notice Slightly NSFW due to her avatar (cartoon topless lady)

And then what? You've dealt with the riots, and now have thousands of teenagers in jail, so what do you do with them? In prison I'm pretty sure they'll cost more per person than if they were on benefits. When they serve their sentences you've got a bunch of voiceless, disenfranchised, young people with criminal records and no chance of a job. I don't know what the cause of these riots is, and why these kids have decided to attack people, destroy buildings, and lose their respect for the law, but as a society we need to know, so we can start to put it right. If it is the parents, which it may well be, how do we put that right?

Not sure whether it was verified or not, but there was a BNP tweet going around, something along the lines of "Text this number and give £3 to the BNP. We wouldn't let immigrants in to destroy our city" or something to that affect. I really dislike the BNP...

Because I could equally describe them as teenagers, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews. When you say you want to kill a "mindless thug" it sounds justified. However saying you want to kill someone's teenage son or daughter, it doesn't sound quite as justified, it sounds like murder. I'm not saying what they are doing is right, far from it, but I think people need to be reminded that these are still people. Uneducated, and by the sounds of the two teenage girls the BBC have interviewed, mind bogglingly self centred, but surely we have to ask why they have these views, and not just shoot them because of those views.

I just can't believe people are advocating a "shoot to kill" policy. These are 14-20 year olds, do you really think that the sight of a dead 14 year old girl broadcasted around the world is a good thing? You can argue all you want about how this started, whether they are just "mindless thugs" (which just seems to be a nice way dehumanising these people), and whether the government is to be blamed, but to say we should just kill them strikes me as appalling. Yes, it should stop. Yes the police could be using more force, and definitely need more numbers and reassert their authority, but how could you trust them again if they just opened fire into a crowd, killing indiscrimanently.

Turns I had joined, it just doesn't notify you

In which case I'm probably being an eijit! I'll give it another go

Can't join so I'm assuming its full! Looking through last years points, I can't believe Arshavin got more points than Nasri/Fabregas, I don't remember him scoring or having a good season at all...

But games have never been cheap. SNES games used to sell for £30-40... Wii games are usually cheaper because of the limited nature of the console, the same game on the Wii and 360 will look awful on the Wii, which also won't be able to have DLC or have Xbox Live to back it up. Most PC games tend to be cheaper (though I have noticed a subtle raising in prices, mainly by EA) because the PC systems tend to be so much more expensive, and more often than not you're paying to mass beta test the product before the first patch comes out... Another strong reason for pirating I guess. But I've never known new PC games to be under the £25 mark the past 10 years. Mind you, if you think Britain is bad for games, try being Australian! Getting expensive to be a gamer over there so I understand. Really liked the coupon idea though, using the cinema experience as a direct sale for the Blu-Ray/Movie/Download sounds like a very good idea.

As I will be joining you in the wonderful age of 27 this year (In a few weeks in fact) I thought I'd add nanotechnology to the mix, which has a massive potential in medical science, I can see the first augmented human being trialled in the next 27 years, and perhaps the rise of of robots? I want a pair of those OLED glasses though, would still have to use them to check students passwords though!