LosOjos

Yeah it's all very, very vague at the moment. We'll be continuing to use Fischer for the foreseeable, with whatever our best estimate of Progress 8 is informing 'minimum' targets for students and helping us identify departments where we may have a serious issue (of course there are always exceptions but you have to have a basis somewhere) There's also the fact that the P8 will be based on the results 3 years prior from 2019. While I can see the benefit in having clearly defined expectations ahead of time, I really do think a 3 year moving average would have been better. As it is, if we have another odd years like last where half the country's English GCSEs are regraded, we could end up in a situation where 3 years later we have exceptionally high standards to meet.

If you look at the Progress 8 technical document: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415486/Progress_8_school_performance_measure.pdf You'll see the expected outcome for Progress 8 based on KS2. Working back from there, you can calculate the minimum grade a student should average in all subjects to achieve a positive progress 8 score (remember to round up, or they could hit that "minimum" in all subjects and still have a negative progress 8 score). We'll be using that minimum as a basis for staff to set their aspirational targets.

Haven't had a dedicated freeview box in years, but Humax were the best around and they still seem to get excellent reviews, so I'd keep an eye out for something by them if you're going the DVR route

In case anyone is interested in BertUI, I'm the developer rewriting it in C++ is currently on my todo list as it's overly resource hungry ATM due to reliance on .NET, plus it's Windows only for the same reason. But it's functional if not perfect at the moment and I'm always happy to add new features when I can (just moved house so development is on hold at the moment) EDIT: as an aside, the one thing that lets my HTPC down (IMO) is that Netflix requires mouse. For that reason, I'm planning on developing a FF/Chrome plugin to enable remote control support for Netflix, possibly others too. It's a bit of a blue sky thing at the moment but if it's something that interests others, I'll make sure I post about it on here when it's ready for testing...

I think they ought to have gone about it differently - release the ISO for free and provide a key upon registration with a valid copy of Windows. That way, the ISO would have been torrented within minutes making it available to all immediately, reducing the load on their own servers. Maybe this will be the case when the ISO is released and you'll be able to use the media of a previous install to validate like you have in the past.

It's an old wives' tale. Theoretically, it may affect performance if you have a really cluttered desktop as Windows will need to redraw each icon whenever the desktop is displayed, but on a modern machine this would be negligible, and by modern I mean less than 10 years old.

@bobsmith - totally agree with your sentiment, but at the same time how can you say that anything other than 100% of students are expected to make expected progress? That's not to say that they will do and it's important that leadership teams understand this, but of course we should aim for every student to achieve expected progress - it is what is expected... It's also worth pointing out that expected progress and aspirational targets are not the same thing (at least they're not here)

I'm sure there'll be a ton of happy kids (and parents!) who are less tech savvy and just want to play the game without messing around with Java settings. I'm sure that's why it's so popular on consoles despite it being quite a stripped down version of the PC version. Besides that, I can't imagine MS being daft enough to cut off the modding community, after all that is a huge part of the appeal for many. At a guess, it'll be .NET based so mods will likely be via C#, which isn't a million miles away from Java in terms of syntax so shouldn't be too difficult for existing modders to pick up if they've not used it before.

Which MIS are you using?

To help explain why this isn't a problem, your head needs to think of the Twitter account like an extension of the school's website; it exists for you to share information with the world. Anyone can access that information, and if they want to see any further information they can 'follow' the account. This merely informs them of any new information you have shared. This no more associates the school with that person than that person visitng your school's website. In short; you have no more control over who follows you on Twitter than you do over who views your website, and it has no more reflection on the school either.

Sorry to be that guy, but it's generally a bad idea to follow a link to a password reset page unless in an email you know you requested; that's how phishing attacks work. I'll just step away now (and reset my password of course...)

Is this real? I mean, it sounds totally plausible and I didn't doubt it, until that message at the end "wireless bungee jumping ... one day" - is it implying this was a spoof or is it just poorly worded?

Absolute beast of a machine! That 120GB SSD will frustrate you though, they fill up quicker than you think (take it from someone who has to clean their drive on a weekly basis!) If you can plump for a 250GB, I'd seriously do it - they're not that expensive these days (though I realise that's entirely relative to your budget!)

If all else fails, refer to the local hipster community for fashion advice and learn to describe mundane things like unmade beds in terms that sound really deep and meaningful, then wait for the Turner prize to roll in What kind of "art" do you want to produce? Illustrations, comics, drawings, photographs, paintings, sculptures, fabrics - there's a whole lot of "art" out there, so your first job is to narrow it down to what interests you. Once you've done that, research the artists who are considered "the greats" in that field. Studying their work, you may find you really like some and hate others, try to work out why that is. Are their works a certain style? Does that style have a name (they usually do, unless they're very unique)? Start branching out to look at the works or other artists who produce work in that style. Eventually, you'll start to see how that style works, then you can start mimicking it in your own work - don't be afraid to copy! Everyone does it, it's just that accomplished artists do so in such a way as to show influence rather than straight up copies, but you can be sure they started out that way. My 2p - I'm a photographer EDIT: not a very good one! But I've done lots of research

People recommending Kodi - how do you "do" Netflix? I have a HTPC with Kodi on it and I never found a reliable way to get Netflix working on it, either on Windows or Linux based installs.

I could fudge a solution with a box, but a stick is preferable as we have very limited space in the new bedroom and the TV will be wall mounted. I could fix the box to the back of the TV if it's a much better solution though, although I'd then need to make sure it was an RF remote rather than IR...

I'm looking to add some smart functionality to a small TV in the bedroom. Would ideally like one of the HDMI stick type devices. Like the look of Chromecast, but it's reliance on having a mobile device to control it is a bit of a put off. Fire Stick looks like an improvement, but reading lots about it being geared towards Amazon Prime users puts me off a bit. Roku stick, again looks ideal but I hear it's pretty slow and unresponsive, which would drive OH crazy. I thought maybe one of the many Android sticks, but as there are so many I'd ideally like one that can be recommended by my fellow geeks... Any thoughts? Minimum requirements: Netflix.

It's a cool looking background and looks like they used some really interesting techniques and tech to produce, but honestly all I could think was "why didn't you just render it?"

I have had a couple of cheap HDMI splitters that failed after a few months too, didn't post initially because I have no help to give, but at least now you know you're not alone! There's a very good chance the cheap splitters are all based around the same chip and that it's the chip that's unreliable. I toyed with the idea of making my own or just replacing the IC in one of my broken ones, until I saw the crazy packages the chips come in (they were all far too small for me to even attempt to solder by hand)

Do you have more details about this javascript engine? That's a new one on me! Javascript is generally used for web scripting client side and can be run by just about any browser made in the past 10 years, no additional plugins/extensions/addons required

That's on Netflix now, was going to skip it but may give it a watch now. Last movie I watched: Mad Max Fury Road. Really enjoyed it, but I love over the top 80s action movies. It's very much that. [except the 80s bit, though it could easily have been]

The photo in the article shows the device hidden inside a pita roughly the size of an adult male's hand - where are you buying these giant Hobnobs?!

Sorry, to design a report you first go to "Reports > Design Report", you then have to choose a focus for the report, which would be "Assement Manager > Marksheet" It might be worth having a look at Capita's documentation on this if you can find it (if you have a login, this search brings it up as top result in right hand column: https://myaccount.capita-cs.co.uk/search/All?q=designing+and+running+designing+reports+handbook&sort=relevance), or giving your local SIMS support team a call if you have one, I'm sure they'd be able to send you a copy. Sorry but I can't share the document here, Capita forbid it.

The focus is "Assessment Manager > Marksheet" Add whatever details you need i.e. Marksheet name Filter on 'Completion status' is 'Complete' Done You may want to add a filter for 'Marksheet name begins' so you can pre-filter the list, but you can just as easily do that in Excel afterwards

OK, I'm going to say it - if you buy mass produced 'collectors/limited edition' game releases because you're expecting them to be worth something - you're being stupid you will be disappointed. Buy stuff like that because you want what's included, not because you want to sell it. The only things that will be worth anything are truly limited items, like memorabilia only given out at conferences (in limited quantities) or numbered, limited runs (such as these statues), and even then you're taking a gamble on that franchise being big enough or noteworthy enough for anyone to care once general sale has finished. Basically, my only gripe with "limited edition" sets is the dubious use of the word limited (they may be limited, but not enough that you'd struggle to get one if you wanted to) - "collector's edition" is more appropriate.