mb2k01

Have you thought of a USB keylogger solution? It obviously costs £'s compared to the software solutions (unless you have one already), but at least then you know you'll get her password! You'll also probably get a fair amount of chat and other passwords too which might prove useful. To be honest though, I'd echo what someone else said above. If it was me, I'd sit her down with her parents and all have a chat - explain the concerns and ask to look at profiles etc. If nothing is wrong she'll let you look, if there's something to hide then you know to take it further.

Hi All, This is slightly outside of my comfort zone as I've spent a rainy saturday afternoon exploring something new! Windows Media Centre (Win 7) saves recorded programming to .wtv, which then also allows you to convert to the legacy .dvr-ms format. What I want to know is, is there any way in which you can import those files in to Adobe Premiere CS3? If the file can't be imported in their native format, could somone suggest a conversion method which would result in me being able to get the programme in there? Many thanks,

Possibly something I should have really posted a bit earlier on a Friday to get a good response Would any of our wonderful suppliers like to suggest me a new A4 colour laser printer to go in our main reception / admin office? We currently have a Konica Minolta 5430DL which is fast approaching end of life and would like to move up a step in terms of duty cycle and speed etc. The toner and other consumables (drums, imaging units etc) will be a consideration too. The printer doesn't have to be a Konica of course, but the overall footprint of the new printer must be similar to a 5430DL as space is limited. This enquiry may lead to my first ever Edugeek-related purchase, so be nice!

We have used it for the last 2-3 years. I wasn't involved much in the decision process annoyingly. I believe they are the cheaper (cheapest?) end of the market which may well have swung it for us. Having looked at alternatives in the last year or so I hugely regret not making more of a fuss at the time - there are products with much richer and more reliable features. My experience of the software is largely poor. Frequently get emails from them apologising for loss of service, their software seems to constantly require updates (installed by power users / admins) etc. While that may all seem negative, what I would say is that if you are entering down this route because you don't currently have anything (other than a person doing it manually), no matter how comparatively poor it may or may not be, it will still revolutionise the life of your admin person responsible for attendance, as well as all of the other benefits of improved parental communication etc.

What flavour are you looking at? 2g, 3g or 3gs? If you want a 2g (jailbroken, unlocked and 3.1 firmware) have one I'm toying with selling!

If you buy an already unlocked one yes it should be. If not, they can easily be unlocked. If you're going to be making use of 2g or 3g connection make sure your virgin tarrif has a data package with it.

Phoenix Software is the company I deal with usually. I've also gone down the PC World Education (Business) Licensing before too - they pretty much bought my custom one year by undercutting everyone else!

I've never been a fan of the tracking but yeah, turned it back on half way through the day to see if I could find anything. Well, it took me until about 10pm (at work!) but I think I managed to sort it. It was a combination of a lot of suggestions posted on the Internet and in MS KB's - one of which shouldn't even apply to us but I took an educated guess! I won't tempt fate too much by saying it's fixed and detailing it here now, but if it's still up and working in the morning I'll post back so future Googlers can see what I did!

I've gone with Hills before when buying in bulk. It's worth having a chat to them rather than just doing it online too - often savings to be had by working that way. Recently I've found our local PC World Business quite good on bulk items like this. We have an account set up with Catalyst (old GCat) pricing which seems to give them a bit more flexibility with price if you push them.

Oddly event id 9318 and 290 both seem to have lots of references to enviroments who have moved from Exchange 5.5 - that doesn't apply here. The first ever Exchange server was 2000 but Exchange 2003 has been run happily for at least 3 or 4 years.

Hi All, I found a couple of similar posts on here but none that helped. Hopefully someone can give my tired brain a hand! Summary: Exchange 2003 server. Previously working until issues which occured yesterday (with no apparent cause... no one using the server, no patches / updates applied, event log clear etc). Exchange was set with an SMTP Virtual Server and an SMTP Connector pointing to the schools external SMTP feed (Smart Host SMTP with RM/SWGfL). No major configuration changes for x-amount of months, worked perfectly! Issue: SMTP became corrupt. Worked through MS KB Article 938673 which looked like a perfect fit. The hotfix cured the event log errors but eventually led to me having to uninstall SMTP via control panel and re-install, which in turn eventuall led me to having to reinstall exchange and service packs (as in disk in and reinstall over the top to fix errors etc). Current state of play is that I can't send or receive email at all. I'm getting MTA and x.400 event log errors (9318 and 290) cycling through the event log, yet I can't find anything obvious wrong with the installation. I've tried creating new SMTP Virtual Server and Connectors with no joy. The Exchange BA and Troobleshooter don't kick up anything that looks immediately related. There are decent backups available to start a proper disaster recovery / full server reinstall, but it's frustrating - I don't want to reinstall a whole server just for what looks like a transport issue? Does anyone have any ideas?

Good to see another positive bit of feedback for Stone on here. I've never had anything other than a positive experience, but the opinion on this forum has always been quite mixed.

This might help you if you want flash but also don't have web design software: Create a Free Website , Free Flash Website Builder at Wix.com I've played around on it before and I also have a non-tech friend who made her own website using it. Might do the trick for you anyway

No worries! Do you have a preference over work-based training or full time college at the minute? On thing I will say - I opted for full time college (quite a few years ago now!) and chose completely the wrong course. I ended up leaving a few weeks in to year 2 of college and starting a Modern Apprenticeship. So make sure you choose something you think you'll enjoy as well as something that will benefit your future career. I'm kind of 50/50 when I look back - part of me is happy that I eventually opted for a Modern Apprenticsehip and progressed in to full time work earlier than I would of via the academic route. The other half of me is sad that I didn't stick with it and go to Uni. It's an experience that I'll probably never be able to get now and I think would have benefitted me. Whatever route you choose stick with it and choose the things that make you happy.

If you want to become an IT Technician in education, and want to ensure you do training at the same time, I would recommend getting in touch with your local college and asking about Modern Apprenticeships. There's nothing wrong with starting at the bottom and working up - you'd start on an NVQ level 2 or 3 (depending on GCSE results and your own knowledge) and probably be able to work towards other courses like A+ or MSCDT on your college release days. If you are in no rush to become one and want to study full time at college etc, I'd check with ones in your area to find out what courses are available.

Are your admin and curric networks completely seperate AD domains with no existing trusts in place?

Do you definately want to change from one to the other straight away, or might you want to co-exist for a while? You can set Exchange to send / receive by multiple domains. I've done this previously with .sch.uk and .co.uk - essentially a user has [email protected] and an @.co.uk address, you just specify which one to use by default. That way you won't have the headache about emails being sent to accounts that don't exist etc? If you do here are some instructions for 2003 (assuming you posted in the correct forum ) http://www.intelliadmin.com/index.php/2007/08/add-a-new-email-domain-to-exchange-2003/comment-page-1/

7pm it seems Children in Need 2009 - AVForums.com

You can't truely appreciate art if you're walking around with one eye closed!

I appreciate most genres but mostly tend to head in the direction of Rap. A few artist in no particular order (Sorry about the huge space - wasn't intending on embedded youtube videos happening with my links!)[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaCyEi_xMsE&feature=related]YouTube - Eminem - My Darling (2009)[/ame], D12, Dizzee Rascal, Ludacris, [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrX5bUFpVtE]YouTube - Plan B - Mama[/ame] (UK Rapper / Singer not US band), [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSynz-iSyvo]YouTube - N-Dubz - Everyday Of My Life ((Perfect Quality))[/ame], [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPUUYZGR8A]YouTube - Hollywood Undead- The Loss (With Lyrics!)[/ame], Linkin Park, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes etc! All of those might not seem varied but my taste extends to more alternative stuff like Rammstien, Slipknot, and Fightstar right through to George Michael, Five and Michael Jackson! PS - Check out the hyperlinks - I've gone for some non-mainstream tracks!

A bit off-topic perhaps, but..... I've been reading this thread for the last few days - from the viewpoint of someone who has always gone down the MS route whether it's qualifications, software or client / server OS etc. I've dabbled with Linux varients in the past and not liked what I saw, so just ignored it and carried on using MS everywhere! So, my first thought was that I would probably agree with the BBC reporter... Well, I actually read the article today and realised it was pretty poor - some of the examples / reasoning given is pretty flimsy, so decided to go off and find out what all the fuss was about and installed Ubuntu Server one a spare station. I spent part of this afternoon starting at the very basics (had to look up sudo commands!) but quickly got to my first task of getting Fog working - which was a bit clunky in places but fine in the end. I should admit that I decided I had to install gnome (which I know isn't the preferred way of working), which helped me a lot, but I have to say - I'm impressed! My outlook has definately changed and I will be looking to use Linux (or at least Ubuntu specifically) again in the future. Infact, I'm now sat at home building Ubutu to replace my home server 2003 box which basically only ever did DNS, DHCP and file serving! So I've definately been (part) converted!

Interesting indeed. I'd order one, but at $101 for the plug and $99 for shipping to the UK they must thing we're mad! (Maybe their estimator is wrong..?!)

Just a bit of an update on my previous post following the user/admin training I attended last week: The training (which was my first hands on look at Merlin) was disappointing to say the least. There were a frustrating amount of "silly" technical issues with the system from an admin point of view: SIMS Integration not yet complete, and unable to give a timescale. Two ways of creating users - manually or via CSV from a SIMS report Manually created users will flag up replication issues when you eventually bulk upload (via csv or SIMS link) Bulk upload csv files need to be manually tweaked before upload (e.g Merlin wants DOB in YYYY/MM/DD format!!) No area in bulk upload for automatic creation of usernames! (Usernames must conform to one of the Merlin presets, if not, you will have to manually create or force users to remember yet another unique username!) No area in bulk upload for email address field - yet Merlin will be most useful when email addresses are added! Currently a user would have to type their own in, or the admin would have to manually type in for all users Limits on amount of users able to create - only increased by logging a support call with SWGfL Limits on diskspace only lifted after a support call and long wait for SWGfL Account creation and/or major changes take 24hours to replicate! Unable to manually change usernames (family name changes or staff marriage etc) Apparently issues like the ones above will only ever be fixed if they annoy enough people and are logged to SWGfL. A bit like SIMS issues that are logged to Capita and fixed in about 1-2 years...? The Merlin interface itself looks very... chunky (best word I can think of!). The layout looks best suited for Primary Schools, with no real option for customisation beyond changing basic colours. One of the main reasons I attended is to explore the suitability for it being used for a Year 6 - Year 7 transition project. Currently our primaries have no VLE as such, yet the secondary has Moodle. Moodle authentication / integration was one of the key things promised early on, although stressed that it wasn't yet ready. Following the comments from the person leading the training, I am not sure that Merlin and Moodle will ever integrate! Other than the primary/secondary transition project, we were also interested in looking at Merlin to address the Parental Engagement (Online reporting etc) issue, as well as some functionality for 14-19 and potentially offsite registration. Both of these features were previously described to us as "in working progress, and hopefully not too far away". Again, following this training, those features look much further away and even potentially unlikely. I could probably type more, but I'll wrap up in a quickish summary.... Could Merlin be used for our transition project? Possibly. Primaries will make limited use out of it, as will we. It will be far from ideal though. If Merlin doesn't have the extended functionalities listed above, it will not be used beyond the transition project by the secondary school - meaning it's another separate resource to have to learn in both schools. We are re-evaluating our position and may look to open up access to our Moodle to run this project. In its current form, will Merlin be used beyond the transition project by our secondary school? Absolutely not. Merlin was "sold" to us as a product that was never going to be a VLE. It was something that would enhance the use of our existing VLE (Moodle) and co-exist/integrate with. It was also "sold" as being a long term solution for Parental Engagement and 14-19 - this it appears, at least in the immediate future, is unlikely. From what i've seen there is a lot of like-for-like functionality with Moodle. I don't see how Merlin will ever sit alongside Moodle and compliment it - it will always sit there as an alternative, which isn't appropriate to offer following the amount of time, energy and amount of resources our staff and students have invested in Moodle. Are there any positives? Yes. I don't want to come across as someone only interested at kicking a product. If a primary school has no VLE of their own, and no access to a secondary VLE, Merlin will do a good job for them. If a secondary school has no VLE, and wants a resouce which could act as one with limited technical issues, Merlin will do a good job. Again though, both primary and secondary schools would need to look at the bigger picture and the additional functionalities that they are expected to offer parents / learners. There are other products out there which offer everything, and there are question marks over that here. I have two names (which I better not put here!) at SWGfL who may be able to offer firm answers on the additional functionality listed above, which I will be contacting next week. I will feedback any specific comments here. Sorry for the long message! I hope its of use to someone!

It's not really a recommendation as I've not used them yet, but I placed an order for a couple of these towards the end of this week. I was looking to try someone other than Integral, but they seem to own the affordable end of the AES market! I decided to take the unusual road of "taking a punt" on the other model being more reliable, mainly because I wanted two in a hurry and they needed to be quite cheap!

I'm guessing there was something in the event logs yesterday that led to you being able to start IIS again (as you clicked the thank button on my suggestion but didn't post a reply)? What did the event log say? When you said in your OP you had to re-install the SMTP service, do you litterally mean re-install via control panel, or do you mean restart the service? What version of Exchange are you running? Are you fully up to date with Windows/Microsoft Updates? (Sorry - lots of questions!)