kaphc

Can I put in a request for a flip-frame organiser for our school please?

Yeah, that's confirms what I thought .... the thing is it's photos of the person's kids that were accidentally deleted and not noticed for ages so the sentimental value is strong! I ran a scan with Photorec on my hard drive to test the effectiveness and it did pick up some photos I'd deleted a while back, so I might try that and Recuva but not make any promises.

I've just been asked to look at recovering some photos that were deleted about a year ago. The hard disk hasn't been defragged or cleaned up as far as I know, but lots more files will have been saved since then, including various photos. Is it worth a shot at trying to recover the photos or am I wasting my time?

Thanks, this gives me some options. Incidentally, our quote from kcom has arrived in the last hour - emailed to the headteacher.

With the lack of pricing from kcom, other solutions are starting to become more interesting. What other suppliers have you gone to if you don't mind me asking?

As I understand, the Day 1 Bundle pricing has been set up to show schools what they would need to pay to basically maintain continuity of what they already have and use. Then there's the Day 1 Bundle+ to add things like the portal, videoconferencing etc. Interesting that these are ALREADY suggesting a mininum of 2 years contract, so further discounts would only be available for even longer contracts I guess. Given that kcom are looking at 4 year contract for connectivity as well, there are quite a lot of restrictions on the contracts. What I need to find out is what they class as a "user" especially when it comes to web filtering. Concurrent users? Number of statt? Number of staff + pupils? Number of machines? Does anyone know the answer to this already ..... save me a phone call?

Does anyone actually understand the Capita "Day 1 bundle" pricing? Are they fixed costs plus annual costs per user? Clear as mud from that table!

Yes, if we're already using SUMS, Netsweeper etc. then I'm struggling to understand how we would need to pay a transition / setup fee to move to the OpenHive software if it's just a slightly updated version of the same thing we've been using already but just with a new name?

Just out of interest, our school clerk has just had a letter through with the 2011/12 costs (and an estimate for 7 months in 2012/13). At the moment, our 10Mbps line + all the embc services costs approx £5,000, and the LA subsidise these costs by approx £3,500. (This is in Derbyshire). I suspect the loss of the subsidy and whatever replaces it are going to be key factors in the decision-making!

There's a lot of discussions about filtering and the requirements around it in: this thread Given that we appear to pay £1,600 per year for our school broadband connection (according to the figures from our school clerk), I suspect we're going to take a hit on this.

Just wondering how many schools have actually had a quote from kcom for connectivity yet? Last I heard, the info was supposed to be out the week commencing 20th Feb but so far we've had nothing. I've chased up for a quote this morning.

Just to add into the mix on the pricing - which only applies to Derbyshire, but then I can see a other Derbyshire primaries on this thread. The current subsidy on the embc services will be going, however DCC are hoping to give each school some kind of rebate on a yearly basis on their costs for connectivity and applications. No word on how much this is going to be yet, but it's on good authority from the Deputy Head of Finance at DCC. The big question mark is how much money are they going to have to do this .... because it's coming from the same budget as the money for upgrading the current network and unbundling more exchanges. So it's kind of dependent on how many schools sign up onto the Kcom service as to how much will be in the pot to provide rebates to schools. We haven't even been able to get a price out of Kcom yet for the connectivity. But it seems to be the norm that schools will be expected to sign up for a 4-year contract with them.

Thanks, I'll use the document as a starting point and keep an eye out for more on this from Wednesday onwards. It appears that there's still quite a bit of stuff to be finalised at the moment anyway (like prices that are fluctuating with numbers etc) so it's going to be a fun couple of months!

Having been to the Derbyshire briefing today, I think I am one of many now realising that this is a bigger change than most of us thought. The toolkit document looks really good - would you have any objection to this being used by us in a Derbyshire school? I haven't read it all yet but would obviously keep an eye out for anything specific to Northants and ensure that I check with Derbyshire County Council accordingly where relevant.

There is some truth in that ... I got a free copy of Corel software based on the fact that the guy liked my bag (ZX Spectrum) and then another guy on the reseller stand gave me the last goodie bag and about 30 pens! So have a cool bag is obviously the answer :-)

Is it a balun you are after? That's the term phone companies tend to use - have you tried searching under that term rather than adapter? Beware - they come in different types so if you're ordering, it might be wise to choose somewhere with a robust returns policy. From memory, it comes down to whether they are primary or secondary baluns but don't quote me on that!

Absolutely, but we have to give the guys the impression that they're still in charge .... even if we know otherwise!

Right back at you .... one day we'll take over the world!

Very glad I went - it was a good day. My learning point for next time is to dress like a geek not like a teacher lol! Either that or wear a sign on my back saying "I am a techie with an IT degree and 13 years experience of the industry." And next year, I'm definitely being Network Manager, not ICT Technician! Thanks @witch for the tip!

There's only one thing worse than not going to BETT at all .... ... going to BETT and finding out you missed the best freebies!!

Had a great time on Saturday too, glad I made the effort and went. I haven't really been using this forum extensively or for long, but it was great to have a space at BETT where I felt I "belonged". It was good to chat to some folks, especially @elsiegee40 and @witch - hello! Thanks especially for the pizza, and I'm wearing the lanyard today with my school ID badge (and a frog badge and a Google Chrome badge!)

I could get into trouble at work for looking at pictures like that lol!

Right, am registered, have clocked the edugeek incentives and am now looking driving down to Luton, getting the train from Luton into London and then tube onto Olympia.

Hijack away, they were all things I was pondering ... glad you asked em!

So just worked out I have a free day on Saturday and could go to BETT! I'd drive down and back in the day from Derbyshire so petrol and parking would be a cost. We're a new primary school build so there is little or no budget as everything's already new, but I just fancy having a wander round and a nosy at new stuff. After all, a day spent with technology is never a wasted day :-) Anyone got any views on whether BETT is big enough / interesting enough for this? I've never been before but keep hearing good things from here.