Heebeejeebee

We use Dell for our leasing but organise it through Misco as sometimes it's cheaper than going through Dell directly. Speak to misco_dan. HBJB

... and this is why we removed our remote SIMS access that was on our RDS servers. We were asked to give access by the Head of School but it was overruled by the Exec Head. The argument goes along the lines of "I trust my staff but I don't necessarily trust whoever is in their house". Think carefully before allowing access unless you can create a well locked down, very little information shown (no photos, addresses, contacts etc.) user that they can access from outside the school that still allows them to do what they need to do. HBJB

Took me a few seconds but ......

So nothing actually constructive then (like folding, SETI etc)? Just churning to get some chance of getting a portion of a virtual currency. Mostly at the expense of their employer I suspect as there are a lot of people doing this at work it seems. HBJB

... but what work are they doing and who 'pays' for it? I haven't looked deeply into it but I'm a bit confused about how it can generate a monetary value unless someone somewhere is stumping up some 'real' cash. HBJB

Doesn't really help when they leave the PC open with SIMS already logged in though. If you go for it drum a security policy into them, make them re-sign the (amended) AUP again and set a (reasonable - not restrictive) screensaver timeout requiring a password. HBJB

yeah - but it was better then money shot! HBJB

Hi, I've had bread makers for many years but have recently taken to making bread fully by hand. It doesn't take that long and it's very therapeutic. It does create a bit of a mess though Bread makers are a great way of making good tasting bread and you know exactly what's in it. Don't just stick with the booklet that comes with it though - get a decent bread making book. I've made just about every type of loaf in mine including a rather spectacular malt loaf. If you like a cheesy loaf throw a handful of grated cheese in the mix on the first beep (do they all do this?). Add some near the end of the cycle for a cheese topping. Enjoy HBJB The only annoying thing about bread makers is the hole left by the paddle(s)

I fully concur with the above - brilliant firewall - rubbish as a UTM for schools. I'm sure it would be ok for a business. We're tied in for another 18 months or so with them but will be looking for alternatives very soon if they don't get to grips with their flaky client and poor interfaces (web interface is poor and doesn't have all the features of the full admin console and the admin console is clunky and difficult to use). On the plus side - it's bright red so looks good HBJB

Hi, We've been in the same position as the OP for a year or so now and have looked at all the options for having 3 organisations (soon to be 4) under the same MIS. SIMS & PE was a messy - not really live solution which couldn't do a lot of the things we wanted (siblings in different schools, shared staff, global view, reporting across the sites etc.). The Serco product was a virtual non starter as well. The only option at the time that seemed to do it all was Aspen which still looks best in my opinion and we're about to start the process of migrating separate SIMS and CMIS databases into it. My only concern with Aspen is the apparent lack of third party support (which they say they're working on but as we all know ......). Things that extract data directly at the moment are currently not supported (VLEs such a Frog etc. Truancy call, Vivomiles and many more). When we started our queries we were pretty much the first people to ask and it kind of caught the MIS suppliers on the back foot as they'd not considered that this might be a requirement across a Trust. I'm sure by now many more have asked and they will certainly need to come up with a solution or loose out to those that already have one. HBJB

So True - if this was on Facebook it'd have a million 'likes' but as I can't be bothered to check if it is or not I guess I'll never know. HBJB

... and QOS it to the max HBJB

Some of those are pure genius. HBJB

We were having a debate as to whether 'fixing' PP just made her stable so she can show up in the next Avengers film as a hero. HBJB

We've probably met. Demo on the BIG screen . Plus we might have had a Webex the other day. We like to extract data for our automated user import/deletion tools, for reports that are so intricate and so precise for LT that they either are too complicated to create or can not be made to look right or plain don't work in our current MIS systems and for other stuff that generally makes life easier. Some of the reports we are asked to produce contain weird and wonderful data and although we try to steer clear of them, a data mine is often the easiest way to get the information in the right layout. Good news that we are not restricted in access though so another tick for Aspen then. Out of curiosity, how do we get access to the database? HBJB

Sorry to keep this off topic but that's the main thing that worries me about Aspen and other hosted MIS platforms. We have both SIMS and CMIS running in our trust and I need direct access to the database for loads of bespoke stuff that'll simply not work unless given access to the raw database. We've had a few demos of Aspen and it looks good, fits the bill but has that one stumbling point that makes me twitch a bit (knowing how much stuff will break). HBJB

Oooh! I love fig rolls but really hate figs. I'm a bit of a Nice fan myself - it's a great fallback from the Hobnobs et al. Shorties - the round ones with the frilly edges and currents in. Fruit Shorties I think they're called. HBJB

Automaticly logs into SIMS when run. HBJB

What! Burn the school down to test the backups HBJB

I also saw one in devon last week. Fab! HBJB

Seems like they're doing books that are 'free' to copy at the moment. I.E. the ones that are free on kindle. I wouldn't hold your breath on one that needs royalies paid / permission sought. I'd buy it though if it was available. HBJB

If you're planning on installing the teacher version I warn against it on W7. For us it merrily tries to delete all files on the C: drive during the install. Pile of crud! HBJB

Not the same film but some-one just sent me this: Tom 'Joker' Waits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCSc6E4yG9s. HBJB

Yeah but we're not using Smoothwall as a firewall - just filtering and we didn't have the hardware version so it saves us a VM, costs the same annually and gets rid of the SWGfL all in one orangey red package. HBJB

I take it you haven't had to log a call recently then? Slow, surly and non-effective support until you've prodded them a couple of times. Even a firewall rule change can take weeks to complete and you can almost forget anything more complicated. They seem to get lost in the ether. We've finally ditched them and will soon be getting a much faster (10x) connection for the same price and that's after buying our Watchguard XTM830 UTM firewall (whoop - instant changes and this box may make Smoothwall redundant as well). HBJB