kevinmcaleer

For more Network Administrator related songs or comedy visit: http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/ -Kev

Another google funny: goto http://www.google.com type in "Failure" and then click on "I'm feeling Luck". Funny. -Kev

There is an excellent website for finding old website, or even sites that exist, but what they used to look like: http://web.archive.org Its free and its also very cool! Check out microsoft or apple for a laugh. Its also quite useful, and is an interesting topic to discuss with students. Its the only real archive of the whole (public access) Internet that I am aware of.

I noticed there wasn't actually any posts refering to Yodeling sheep. So here is one: http://promotions.yahoo.com/yodel/static/yodelfun.html -Kev "Baaaadaalaayyeeehooo"

If you haven't already bought Midi keyboards for your macs you could but USB Midi compatible keyboards. I've recently bought a M-Audio Keystation 49e: http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/90801/wo/Oy2f4tG3OSSP2uhec7hPnfK8IFX/1.SLID?mco=16A2B346&nplm=T9095 and its as simple as plugging it in a spare USB port and loading up garageband. Midi to USB converters are ok, but I think the above is a better solution. -Kev

That I am aware of, the test is only supposed to be run on 20 workstations at a time. If the school has 200 pupils, that will mean 10 sittings of 20 students. Poor system performance means poor student results...

Why test all 20 workstations? The reason is that even though all the computers appear completely the same from a specification point of view, the networking route may not be identical in all cases (switches come in 12,16,24s etc and a whole room may be split accross more than one switch). So the networking throughput may affect the test. (bad cabling can also affect the test performance). I would agree that for 80-90% of schools network throughput will not be an issue, but out of 4000ish schools that could leave about 400 that don't have a good networking infrastructure. These schools would be at a disadvantage when performing the tests, so thats why QCA have specified that each workstation used in the test must be accredited properly. I'm also interested to hear from schools running the pilot on linux, novel or apple networks, how are you guys coping?

I'd be interested to here peoples experiences with the KS3 Onscreen pilot 2005, technical or otherwise.

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Russ, I know what u mean when u say u know what the response times are, but other people may not. Its good to set expectations, otherwise people will expect 100% reliablilty 100% with support 100% of the time, we both know thats not likely, but ask your users, its what they expect. I think the idea of management 'forcing' FITS is wrong. FITS isn't something u do to get paperwork or an award. Its something that if you genuinly do you'll get something back, usually more time. There is still lots you can do with FITS even if there is only you doing IT Support. If anything, logging calls can only help you point out how much work u actually do. I've worked with a few school who only have 1 person supporting the whole site. Its doable, I did it up to 3 years ago. FITS is there to help you, its focuses on getting things done, in the quickest, most effective way possible, at the same time preventing you from reinventing the wheel. For example, the section about corridoor management, where people just come up to you and give you jobs, that you end up forgetting about. Thats just bad practice, and FITS highlights this. Getting people to report incidents in a specific way that helps you to help them can only be a good thing. FITS isn't prescriptive, you can make it fit (yeah i know) your organisation. For example we don't get staff filling out Incident Sheets, we do that for them. But to say that FITS is not applicable is to ignore 25years of best practice & advice. The guy I worked with when authoring FITS OM, Bob Lamb, told me about this IT guy who said that ITIL was just a waste of time, his responce was basically if you choose to do it any other way your choosing to mismanage your IT. Thats quite a strong statement, but he's a passionate guy, with ITIL. -Kev

I'd have to agree with grumbledook, FITS, when implemented properly, can only enhance your organisation and management of IT. By having a helpdesk/service desk you can start to manage incidents, seeing trends and analysing them to target the resources you do have at them. I started implemented FITS properly over a year ago, we have a service desk, which is always fully maned, and this alone has improved the confidence in IT in school, which in turn has meant that management listen to me more when I make suggestions. I know where you're coming from, I've worked at my school for 11years and have seen it all. But with FITS, you get out what u put in. -Kevin McAleer Network Manager Thornleigh Salesian College & FITS OM Author