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That's something that would be great. Even a simple PIN that you can set based on the movie's guidance rating.

This is the first time I've heard of MeediOS. How does it compare to XBMC?

I'm not sure whether Boxee still uses XBMC code, or if it forked off the project. It's pretty much XBMC with a social aspect. It also includes a lot of web content by default. Personally I prefer XBMC as I find Boxee too cluttered, though it has to be said it's more polished.

XBMC is lovely. They really need to recode the underlying system to be event driven, though, as the current game-loop architecture adds overhead that doesn't need to be there. I have an AMD Zacate (E350) system running XBMC under Windows7. I've set XBMC to load as the shell instead of Explorer, and auto-logon means that it boots straight into my media. If you're doing something like this from scratch it's probably worth looking at OpenELEC, which is kinda like XBMC-live but uses a custom linux build instead of Ubuntu. They have builds for different architectures (AMD Fusion included), and also have PVR functionality built in. OpenELEC - The living room PC for everyone You can run it off a flash drive, but when I did that I noticed freezes and other I/O performance issues (like scrolling through your library). Better to install it to HDD.

Chuck that in a batch file, and edit the right bits. Remember to test it first... EDIT: If you're going to be adding updated files on multiple occasions, chuck the /d flag in for xcopy so that it only copies files if they don't already exist, or the file to be copied is newer.

Ok, update. I've got my script working. Bit more background to it, as it's longer than I hinted at initially. The script takes two arguments. The first is the yeargroup, the second is the directory name to create. Basically it loops through pupil workspaces, creating a folder structure and copying some files into that structure. If I use the yeargroup as the first argument, and directory name as the second, it gives the above error. However, if I swap the argument positions around (and change the variables around in the script) it works without issue. I still don't know why it doesn't work in the first instance.

It works if I use a static name instead of the variable, so the path must be correct. If I echo the argument, it shows up as correct. All very strange....

I'm trying to create a directory based on an argument provided to a batch file. For example, if I do the following: makedirectory.bat newdir Which runs the line: md \path\to\directory\%1 (or %~1) throws a "cannot create directory" error. whereas: md \path\to\directory\newdir works fine. It's nothing to do with permissions, I'm simply missing something obvious. Any ideas?

A good reason to encourage birds into your gardens. If you have food and water available throughout the year, the birds will be on hand to munch on the pests when they appear.

As we have a managed service provided by the LEA, home access is already provided and involves simply ticking a box. The county's 'learning gateway' has also just been launched, which runs on Sharepoint. Once we have our site up and running on it, we'll hopefully be able to sort out a drop-box for work that the pupils can upload to. Just checked the AV, and it's set up by default to scan USB drives. I'll just need to set up a scheduled scan for anything that's not allowed by the school.

I think this is the right sub-forum... The new head of ICT is arguing that new course requirements means pupils need access to their personal drive from home, as well as be able to transfer stuff from USB storage when in school. Traditionally we've not allowed either, as there are always the minority who spoil it for everyone else by moving across things like porn and dodgy executable files. Am I being archaic? What do you allow in your schools? I can see this adding quite a bit of overhead to my job....

My DVD collection was ripped to hard disk a good while ago. XBMC just makes things a hell of a lot more convenient.

Asus Transformer with the keyboard dock, no question. The keyboard doubles the battery life, adds USB host capabilities and is really nice to type on. I'll be getting one when I win the Euro lotto this Friday.

Cheers for the replies, all. We're looking at going down the leasing route. For A3 multifunction, it will be .36p per black print, and 3.6p colour. Plus a £70 p/m charge. Currently the technology dept. is going through £600 of toner and drum units every term, so we need to look at reducing those costs through various methods. We already have print software in place. I'm going to see if we can cut out printing altogether for certain yeargroups, as year 7/8/9 don't really need to print out every piece of work.

I was simply wondering how much printing is done by your schools' technology department. Is printing kept to a minimum to save cost, or do the kids print out everything they do? We're having to make some decisions here based on how much the department prints (costing us a small fortune), so I was wondering what other schools do.