Tricky_Dicky

Sent you a PM.

We installed a Rako lighting system in to a special provision and it is superb. We have little 5 button controllers on the wall as well as a remote. Each button is programmed for different scenes which in our case include colour changing LEDs. It can also be linked to blinds, screens and the usual array of equipment. It is probably a job best left to the professionals though. Rich

Hi, I've got Live@edu working fine for our staff and all of the office based staff have it setup in Outlook as normal. However one member of staffs machine just will not find the server to autocomplete the settings. I can add the user account to outlook just fine on another machine so the account is fine but the machine obviously isn't. When trying to run a ping or tracert to the outlook live server we use it can't resolve it but it can be resolved just fine from every other machine. Any ideas where to start? There is no Firewall active on this machine as far as I can tell. Rich

Just a thought, could you set up a virtual print cue for those two printers and then let Papercut decide which one to send it to so it balances it out? The you can apply the scripting to that one print cue instead.

This certainly sounds possible, have you looked at the scripting yet? I've done it here before that it sends all jobs that are colour as mono so I don't see why not. Easiest is probably email Papercut and see what they say.

Update: Apparently it is impossible to enable iMap for the users accounts at all, so at this moment in time I can't see how I cam going to migrate the users from Zimbra over to Live@Edu. If anyone can think of a workaround I would really appreciate it.

The 580Ex flash gun is superb. I do a lot of indoor sports work and it is a very powerful and quick bit of kit, however get good batteries to go with it. If you are only going to use it every now and then get the Energizer Ultra Lithium Ions for about £7 for 4. However I would highly recommend the new Sanyo Eneloop XX batteries. For lenses, the Canon 50mm 1.8 is a stunning lense which you should be able to pick up for about £70.

Just working through this and so far we have done the following: Setup the first test domain with Live@Edu using a subdomain (live.school.bham.sch.uk) and link2ICt happily added the DNS for us. Now we are happy to make the system live we need to do the following Complete the Migration to External Email Provider form (2 pages) Complete the Code of Connection form (24 pages) Send Link2ICT the DNS and MX records needed Enable iMap for all the accounts you would like to transfer the data from. This is currently limited to only 5 accounts at a time Assign a date to move the emails across Add the Autodiscover in to your DNS Hope and Pray Will let you know how we get on with this.

We use Askelite and find them very good. The main guy is John on 0844 770 8201

Have just got the go ahead from the head to get the full package of software and card readers, will be ordering in the new financial year. It is not cheap at all to by the equipment/licencing/installation but with the amount we spend on printing we worked out if we can reduce print costs by just 10% it will pay for itself in 18 months. It's also very handy that our current printer supplier is also a supplier of papercut and so we won't have to work with 2 different companies. Thanks for the help guys

Yea, that's what we are looking at now. Has anyone got card readers to work with their photocopiers? All of our staff have door entry cards so we thought it would be faster and easier for everyone if they just tap it on a reader and their list comes up.

Thanks for the great responses, much appreciated. The Papercut MF looks like a great piece of tech, just on the phone to our photocopier suppliers now seeing how much it is. However I have spoken to Papercut directly and the pricing didn't seem to bad especially when you think it can integrate all of the printing and photocopying into one account.

As part of a green drive at school we are trying to get the printing under control. Currently we deploy printers using Print Manager in Windows and then have Papercut as well on all the machines for all users and I thought that would be enough however... The head has said she wants locked printing forced so that all users can print but have to enter their code in to the printer before there printing will come out. I can see the point but I can't see how to do it and enforce it. When I set the print driver it makes it the default but it is still possible to override it by selecting non-locked print. Does anyone know of a way of either using a GPO or Papercut to force this? We are using Ricoh photocopiers if that helps? Thanks Rich

Well said Ed

No, we have a much larger Windows server, it's a 12Tb NEC device where as the Xserve has about 1Tb available on it's RAID. We are doing a similar thing now. All the children have an iWeb site which we have also taught them to put in the FTP details but we use the XServe to host them on as it's so much simpler to do with the built in FTP. It also keeps it that little bit more separate from the rest of the network which is nice. Good options though. Our Apple network has expanded a bit since I last visited you, you should pop over and have a look if you're free one day. Rich

@localzuk, are the status icons on the right hand side live? If so, how do you do that as it's very cool. Rich

Depending on which Atom it is it should run fine. We have tested and used the N550 with 2Gb and it runs like a dream. Rich

Just in case anyone runs in to this problem again, it's basically when the children create a blog using iWeb it create a file that has a full path of 301 characters and Windows complains when trying to move it. I got round this by just mounting the drives I was moving from and to on the Mac server and transfered it that way. Still had a couple of complaints when I had to go back and move them a folder down but overall it has worked. Rich

Basically, a Linux Box running Apache and then have it being pointed to by a domain name on the internet, something like moodle.yourschool.bham.sch.uk for example. Depending on how many users you have depends on how big the box needs to be. I'm going to do this as well I think, if nothing else, it allows me to have the addons that I want and also things like the smb client etc.

I don't know if I explained it very well, we do have an Xserve but don't use it for the home drives as they are already on the Windows Server.

The use of Macs on the network has really taken off, especially with the children creating their own webpages using iWeb. This is great, but the server where there home drives are stored is rapidly filling up and I need to move it to a new Storage server. However when I've attempted to move them Windows has complained that it can't because the file names are to long, so I looked in to it and the file/folder names used for iWeb are enourmous. Does anyone know how to move these files and folders? Any ideas gratefully received as I'm running out of space at circa 500Mb a week. Rich

The cheapest way of doing this would be to use DVBlast. The Angry Technician has done an excellent guide. Let me know how you get on Rich

Strategic ICT Manager £31,754 - £38,961 Alston Primary School, Alston Road, Bordesley Green, Birmingham, B9 5UN, Tel: 0121 464 1569 36.5 hours per week full time. We are a forward thinking school with a heavy investment in ICT to ensure staff and pupils have access to efficient and current ICT systems. We are seeking to appoint a highly skilled individual who has experience of working at a senior level, preferably within a school setting and has a proven track record of successfully moving ICT forward. This role will involve strategic and innovative decision making with the responsibility of budget management in terms of calculation, provision and application of costing and associated information. The post requires secure knowledge and experience of: Facility CMIS, school network infrastructure and educational software, as well as recognised qualifications in IT. You will be expected to manage and support a full time technician in providing IT support and maintenance, taking overall responsibility for all ICT systems, software, processes, hardware, reprographics and communication systems within the school and external sites. The role also encompasses key aspects of Health and Safety and safeguarding. Closing Date: Friday 18 March 2011, 12 Noon. If you are interested please send a S.A.E to the Head Teacher and request an application pack at the above address (available from 2 March).

Where is the best place to go to get information on this? At the moment we just purchase out right the licences we want but I think this will suit us better as we upgrade the network. Would I be best to go direct to Microsoft or contact a reseller? Rich

That's beautiful! I need to do something similar but don't have rear access to the cabs.