LosOjos

@Dos_Box @ZeroHour - they're the people to ask

Seems legit I seem to yo-yo between Firefox and Chrome - at the moment favouring Chrome. Both can be massive resource hogs, Firefox appears to suffer from a memory leak bug when using OWA (good job I don't have to use that too often!). Also have persistent issues with Firefox not rendering properly if the screen has been unlocked in Windows 8.1, have to close and re-open it for it to work correctly again. From a developer's POV, Chrome is by far the easiest platform to develop for (Safari is pretty simple too, but has some irritating limitations), so I use it a lot when I'm developing anything, gets me off the ground quickly then I can go and deal with whatever hoops FF/Safari want me to jump through. IE add-on development is beyond a joke - it's no wonder hardly anyone bothers!

Which MIS are you using? Our current system is SIMS based; we have a set of templates each linked to a set of gradesets, those gradesets containing comment banks. We print using Individual Reports. There is a module in SIMS called "Profiles", but we were advised by our support team to avoid using this as it's fraught with [unspecified] problems. One major issue I remember them pointing out when I went on a training course about it a few years ago was that once reports were finalised (there are various stages reports are set to during the process) then they could never be edited, so if a mistake is spotted at that point, your only option was to start from scratch (!!!)

@pcstru - you know, there's a place for people like you - Pedantic Geeks

Thanks, now I have this stuck in my head

I don't watch Doctor Who (shock! horror!) but he's clearly a very sensible... man?

Can we all agree that we're policy bashing? I don't disagree with everything the Tories do, likewise I don't agree with everything Labour/Green do, but my political leanings are more in the way of Labour/Green. Doesn't mean you have to hate everything the Tories do (likewise, one good policy does not negate all the bad!) EDIT: also, let's wait and see how it's implemented. When Progress 8 was first announced, I was all for it as a way of removing the C/D barrier to education (i.e. if a student isn't in that bracket, they are far less likely to receive the tuition they need as they're either seen as incapable or safe on the 5 A*-C measure). Then they released details that looked good at first. Then they revised those details so that now we're in a position where the bottom end of the table need to make huge progress compared to the top in order to be deemed to be making expected progress. So what went from "Yay! Everyone is equally important in the school results!" is now "focus on the low attainers, the higher attainers will be fine". So we're just failing a different band of kids now instead.

@vikpaw - I find Stackexchange is an incredible resource if you already understand the concept but are looking for ways of implementing it; it's not great for learning something new though because, as you say, you get conflicting opinions on how to do things.

Socialism is not without it's problems and sadly I think it's clear to most that a truly socialist state cannot work (socialism relies on total equality; men strive for power; being powerful makes them unequal; socialism fails) but a more socialist leaning state is what I (and I imagine many more "lefties") want; we're mostly not looking for communism, just a state that helps those that need it. Venezuela is a country full of problems, I have a friend who is originally from there and some of the stories he tells me are terrifying. Going to the cinema, you go with as few valuables on you as possible, as gunpoint hold ups where criminals walk around the cinema in the middle of the film collecting all valuables in to bags is a common occurrence, for example. It's not a nice place of the world, but you simply cannot pin all it's problems on socialism.

Being unbiased does not mean "criticize nobody". So, the BBC may well criticize Tory policies, but they'll also criticize Labour policies, UKIP policies, Plaid Cymru policies when they see fit. I think the BBC is very balanced in their reporting; I've certainly read plenty I didn't like about all parties! Perhaps if you feel that unbiased sources such as the BBC are being biased towards your party, it's actually because when you see their policies in black and white terms you don't really like them? Food for thought. If you want bias, you need look no further than the printed press, where their chosen party can do no wrong and if they do, it's only because that other lot forced them to do it. Endorsements in the United Kingdom general election, 2015 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've been looking at moving to (somewhat hypocritically) America. Despite them being the polar opposite to the socialist society I'd love to live in, the prospects just seem so much better out there. Of course the flip side to that is you are absolutely screwed if you lose your job! Big risk.

You can't have dual citizenship with the EU, you'd need to get it for a member state, and it's not as simple as just asking for it...

That looks like quite a complete tutorial, thanks for sharing One thing that would have saved me hours of head scratching early on; when you're Googling for answers, search for T-SQL to make sure you're getting the right kind of help; due to it's open source nature, a hell of a lot of the help out there gives MySQL syntax which is not the same thing!

Fair play to you for getting out there and doing something to help, it's great that there are people like you doing that. However, as @sparkeh said - you don't actually know what we do with our spare time; it's perfectly reasonable that we might be volunteering and ranting on forums you know!

You joke, but they just put John Whittingdale in charge of the BBC license review; he's been pretty damn transparent about the fact he wants to abolish the BBC in the past so I'm sure he'll remain impartial in his new role

What exactly are "British values"? Does anybody know, or is it a dragnet for whatever helps the current argument?

You can appeal, but it's a lengthy legal process and you still have to pay it in the meantime, with no guarantees that you'll be successful. Oh, and there's no official guide on appealing, but various charities have stepped in to fill the void. Oh yeah and if you don't appeal, even if a decision is later made to change the rules in your area, you possibly won't benefit from the changes. Challenging a 'bedroom tax' decision - Carers UK More damning reading: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tribunal-ruling-blow-to-bedroom-tax-tenants/7006117.article A favourite quote from that article: That's right, the courts agrred that it was discrimination, but let it go because it's government policy. Couldn't make it up.

The country really has gone mad. Cost of living keeps going up, but wages are frozen, benefits are capped/cut. Council tax goes up, rent goes up (no chance of a mortgage or social housing for majority of people), shopping goes up, but incoming money is reducing or just plain not increasing, which is effectively a reduction. The problem I find with most Tory voters (not all) is they're very selfish; as long as they're OK, they can't understand why everybody else isn't. I'm glad you're not suffering under this government, that's great for you, genuinely. Don't get me wrong, I'm not visiting the food banks myself, but the past few years certainly haven't been easy; both myself and my partner have had to work our rear ends off to earn pay rises and promotions just so that we're no worse off than we were 5 years ago. I have family doing much worse than I am too. Look beyond the end of your nose, look past the hyperbole the press puts out and realise this country really is in terrible shape right now.

@machin05 - I think you're the one who is mistaken in this instance; the Daily Mail is not an example of professional print

This hurt me. When I was a kid, kids just plain didn't have mobile phones... I'm only in my 20s! How bloody young are you?!

That's a very different issue that I'd totally agree needs sorting; but it's somewhat at odds with considering the "poverty porn" that is Benefits Street to be the norm...

It doesn't help that we have a voting system which means that the party with the "majority" vote [read: most seats] actually only secured 36.9% of the total votes. Election 2015 - BBC News Oh, and those votes accounted for 66% of the country, so actually only about 24% of the population actually voted them in.

Even official estimates put benefit fraud at 0.7% (£1.2bn). In fact, more money is lost through administrative error at 1.3% (£2.2bn): https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/371459/Statistical_Release.pdf The problem with "the benefits system" is that a tiny percentage of fraudulent JSA claimants are peddled as "the problem with the benefits system", paving the way for the government to make cuts left right and centre to a system that is (soon to be 'was'), by all standards, one of the best in the world. The benefits system is much more than JSA alone, and fraud makes up a tiny, tiny percentage of payments made. Do yourself a favour and instead of lapping up the media witch hunt, go and read the official statistics put out by the government.

This is a new one to me, looks very interesting particularly for younger students. Thanks!