mstarkie

I use RiseVision (free) for our notice TV in the staff room. It has a live google word document showing what's on this week and also the weather and national/local news. PC required for that one. Staff can also access the google doc from anywhere. For the visitor focused system I use HDMI HD media players with USB support, about £35 and everything is done by swapping pen drives. No PC required for these TVs.

Hello I also have many DVDs to burn through the year. Dont know if any good but instead of buying one of those. Heres what i do. I make the DVD into an image (iso) then I use a two tiny programs called ISOBURN and EjectCD, both free. Using our IT Suite of 30 computers I use our suite control program (abTutor) to eject all the cd drives. Go round and manually put a blank in each machine (2 minutes) and then again using the suite control set ISOBurn to burn the dvds through a silent command switch. The ISO is hosted on a network share and although you would think this would take a long time it doesnt, it takes around 20 minutes to do 30 copies. Matt

Hello Quicky. I'm after some software to do some internal Video Conferencing (pref free as always )? Anybody any recommendations? I could use skype but would be easier with an interal program to save firewall hassle. Any advice much appreciated. MS

That is definitely one web designer with too much time on his hands!

Hello I currently use 3cx here with grandstream handsets. We have around 50 handset, system causes no problems at all. It is by far my most reliable server. It hasnt needed a restart in 122 days. I am using the free edition. We only use them for internal use. I have played around with a bridge and have had it connected to the outside world while also using a digital receptionist. To the outside world the system performed OK but not brilliantly, i put it down the bridge myself but the spec was just for internal so i havent spent much time investigating the reasosns for its performance. Internall the system is great and it never misses a beat. MS

Just to expand a little bit. The drives are universal and adapting plates for the particular laptop are screwed on to them (sides and back). Fit the adaptor plates on to the temp drive. And as webman said the plastic side that we see just unclips and will clip onto the temp drive. Also one last thing. If you have take more than 3/4 screws out your probably undoing screws you dont need to

I defintly wouldn't go to the extrerme of converting drives. Might be a bit late for you (July Post) But programs like that need to access certain files to be able to work. To see which files the program wants to use you can use Process Monitor (microsoft website) and load the program and let it fail. Alt+F4 the program and the Process Monitor will then tell the files it failed on. Then go into GP and give all users (everyone) permission to edit those particular file, by editing setting Computer Config>Windows Settings>File System, you will need to add an entry for each file. Matt

Laptop CD/DVD are 99.99% universal. Just find an old laptop with a cd drive, take out and replace the broken drive temporary. Usually only 1 or 2 screws holding drive in. Easy peesy option, Matt

Hello Any help or ideas on this one would be much appreciated. All computers in school are linked to a 2003 server and have various shared drives. One drive is "Shared" and is for general access (children can access too). All other shared drives work fine and all folders in "shared" work fine except one, the computer locks up when trying to access one particular folder. This is "Educational Tools" which has a collection of Flash Games for use in school, the main files are hidden, just shorcuts visible. What i dont understand is that going through My computer the locking up occurs, but if i go through the unc route (start>run>\\server\shared) the folder works fine and causes no lag at all. Any ideas? Matt

Hello Thankyou very much everyone. That was exactly what i was looking for. That website is also a trasure trove. Thankyou again, Matt

Hello Can anybody help me? I'm looking for a font that looks like the attached image. The only search terms i can think of are railway clock font and 24 style countdown clock. But i cant find anything. Free is preferred but will take anything Thankyou to all, Matt

Hello What method do we all follow in terms or getting quotes and ordering? For example say i wanted to order 12 laptops. What would you do? Right from asking for quotes to actually placing the order. Would you set deadlines? Would you tell the other companies what the cheapest price is? Would you say just laptops or narrow it down to a particular product so all quotes are like for like? Any advice welcomed. MS

What monitors are we all running? Mines a 22inch max res : 2048x1536

I dont know the layout of your school but first thing worth checking is any work areas where staff/children can plug their own laptop in. Most common fault in my experience is people see a network cable dangling and plug it into the point next to the one its already plugged into (without realising). If nothing obvious you could set up a laptop on one of main switches on a repeating ping (ping -t) and start fault finding. However your switches are managed and there should be away to connect in to these directly and it should tell you what is at fault. But im not completely sure on this. Dont worry we have all been there. MS

We have been in exactly the same position. And here is what we did! Move on to Greys Anatomy for definite (we found it better than house) And then Greys Anatomy and Private Practice alternate (you will know when the time is right, trust me) Also Trauma looks like the new one to watch. Im guessing you have a "source" for these. Private practice hasnt come to this country yet i dont think but there are ways and means as you may know. Matt

Hello I will also have a look if you pm to me. Best thing i find todo is to use Flash and trace it that way. Matt

Hello Im in a lancs school. I didnt know we had mysql available to us. Does that mean that we can use our own CMS's? Regards, Matt

That looks really good Toby at present i use a windows pc running a powerpoint show on continous loop that is embedded with wmv's from photostory with a border around for notices. But i think ill have a look into Xibo. MS

Hello Everyone Saturday I was away visiting family (no internet) and my Grandparents rang me to say that they had problems with their computer. My grandad had deleted favourites (i store a backup on his C:). All i had with me was: Nokia N97 Samsung Netbook Nokia Data Cable Quick google on my phone and came accross Instant House Call (IHC). Booted laptop and connected phone and then used the OVI software to connect to internet. I then installed IHC (you could call it server side) I then signed up to IHC. I rang grandparents back directing them to a web page they then click the only button on there which says connect to specialist. They then click run. My side begins to ring and i request control, granted. Fix the problem Disconnect Job done All in all took about 10 minutes and best of all didnt cost a penny. Very impressed with the software. Defintly worth a mention on here. Have a look at this: Instant Housecall ® Remote Support Software & Remote Access Software MS

I have 26 projectors to look after and I use a compressor like this: 1/3HP 3-gallon Air Compressor | Overstock.com I just put it on a milk trolley and plug in on every other projector (it holds pressure). It is a slight hassle but not a problem once you get going. The one i use isnt quite that one it came with more attachements. But can also be used for tyres, footballs (would avoid lol), spray painting and other stuff. Only down fall is that it is that powerful it can turn the focusing wheel on the projector and also if jetted at a certain angle can blow dust into the lamp. If you want to go the extra mile then you could also hold a hoover up while doing it to catch dust or you could hoover the floor later. Hope that helps, MS

Proxy settings one is easy enough.Simplest way is to create two accounts on computer one School and one Home. Home one has no proxy, school one has proxy. Only slight problem is linking work from one to the other. You could create a partition and give insturctions to use that as "My Documents". Id defintly agree that you should lock them down hard and maybe put notices on them saying that it will take up to 5 days to repair if broken. Only down fall to that i suppose is that you could be blamed for late assignments. Quickest thing would defintly be to have an image ready to go on when errors occur ether WDS or Ghost maybe. You could even go full hog and make a cutom recovery DVD that could be borrowed for quick repair. Good for kids not so good for us techs! MS

You could have a go yourself. Combined team building with Caretaker maybe?

Hello Whats your PSN ID? MS

Hello Ive done quite a few they arent incredibly hard. You will need the special screwdriver to do it. Either get one of ebay or i use the jackly tool kits (£6 quid, all screwdirvers will ever need in (so far anyway). Taking it to bits is obvious enough. Screws are under rubber feet. My top three tips : If seperating the top from the bottom the wireless antennae lead that runs under card slot is practically impossible to get back through afterwards. I just run along top when putting back together. The springs for the top left and right buttons will fall out almost guarnteed. I just dont put them back in and never had a problem. Its more wear and tear on the springs of the actual micro switches but so far so good. The ribbon cables to me dont go into the ports in the normal way (in my opinion) watch closely when you take them out. You push the tiny lip down to open. Good Luck MS

Hello That file you posted sounds really good but i cant get it to open it says the compressed zip is corrupt. Any ideas? Thanks MS