36Degrees

This has just come up here due to a pupil having an inappropriate theme! Unfortunately we only have EMBC's Netsweeper at the moment so this could be quite tricky although I'm going to try the suggestions in the other thread about blocking modules.

We bought 100 Dell machines recently and as the budget was tight I specified 2GB as 1x 2048MB as there are only 2 memory slots and it means if I do need more RAM in the future I won't have to discard the existing. As to shipping with XP2 then yes, I would make them aware and ask them why it has happened. I'd also ask if this implies they haven't had the security updates installed since the original image was built.

I particularly loved the fact that when the interest rate dropped to an historical low of of 0.5% the rate on my card went from 10.9% APR to 16.9% APR!

"There's a huge difference between us and the other parties. It's this big!"

I know this is probably repeating what has been done before but there are a few elements that we need covered that seem to span various threads. As every school does, we need to save money but I have noticed that we seem to have gone backwards in terms of printing. Staff seem to want to print everything so we often have the ridiculous situation of them printing documents from emails only to find a hard copy in their pigeon hole as a well! Also I want to see / control what the pupils are doing. So my requirements: 1. Reliable software that can be installed on a Windows 2003 print server that has good reporting facilities and quota allocation by links to AD groups. 2. Ideally I'd like it to have some way of telling the pupils what they have used / have left using a workstation client that has an MSI that can be deployed by Group Policy. 3. Needs to work on Thin Clients (Sun boxes connected to Sun servers with Windows 2003 on). Any pros / cons / you can describe would also be helpful.

As pretty much everyone else has said, go for it. You not only have 2 years experience but 2 years experience at that particular school. Also as you've pointed out yourself you were thrown in the deep end and obviously managed the situation very well - something you should definitely highlight in your interview in strong positive terms. Try and throw in a few of those CV 'action words' that are thrown up by internet searches (i.e. effective, proficient, determined) but don't overdo it. Get a book on one of the MS exams now and mention it to a few people that you are working towards certification then come interview time you can mention that you have taken the initiative. At the inevitable "any questions" point of the interview say although you realise money is tight is there any possibility the school could help in some way, perhaps by paying for exams, buying books, etc.

Damn, should have waited a month! Don't suppose it's retrospective? (We bought it from you!) No? Oh well...

I've been impressed with the Brother HL-4040CN we bought last year as it was cheaper than the HP offerings and had a free 3 year warranty. The same was the case with the Konica Minolta 4650 mono laser we bought last month. As well as being cheaper and with a 3 year warranty compared to the equivalent HP it also seems more solidly built.

Ditto to all of the above!

We really only use the LA for SIMS and for contacting EMBC / Synetrix / Kingston Communications when we have internet issues, everything else we deal with ourselves.

Just ordered an NEC NP215 for £305: 2500 Lumens, XGA, 3 year warranty but until it arrives and lasts a while I can't comment further as I've never bought NEC before.

We went with Frog because it does everything we want: Hosted internally so dodgy internet doesn't affect it (at the time ours was very unreliable) Hosts website as well as VLE Integration with AD & SIMS Fully customisable We don't use it but it also has built in email. I've also found their technical support to be very good and their sales people surprisingly honest. (I think they also got the nod at the time because the other companies we were evaluating had salespeople who were either extremely evasive or couldn't get their demos to work at all).

Same here - usually major jobs that need doing when there's hardly any users. I also have to ensure that the Technician and I get our holiday entitlement!

Usually I actually know what I'm after so then I just go onto Misco, Insight, Dabs and Probrand to get specific prices although I do sometimes use Dabs as a product search tool first! And Probrand's site has been driving me mad for the last week or so - click on search and then wait eons before it actually does anything. If it wasn't for the fact that they do seem to be the cheapest on what I want at the moment I wouldn't bother. On a related note, does anyone else think Dabs delivery times have increased greatly since they became BT Business Direct?

Flexicover (flexicover.co.uk) although I have never yet had to claim!

The biggest issue we faced was (teaching) staff attitudes. Initially they would always say they couldn't do it because of a non-specific computer problem that they couldn't recount when asked. Every member of staff was trained and given an extremely easy to follow idiot's guide which was in colour and laminated (both at the Head Teacher's insistance) after I had tested it on the least technically adept teacher. Thereafter there were a few who wouldn't do them for some reason but SLT were very good at dealing with those in most cases. The paper method used to confuse me greatly - print a register from an electronic system to be marked in pencil then scanned back into an electronic system. The ladies in the office used to have problems with incomplete registers, marks in the wrong place, temperamental scanners, etc. Changing to full electronic method reduced their workload and also meant that eventually we could move to registering every class, allowing us to pick up on those pupils that registered and then bunked off. My advice therefore would be get SLT on board first and explain to them the benefits. Also sound out a few teachers, including the ones who are most resistant to change and / or technology so you know what other issues you may have to address or overcome. What issues are you having with log-ins for SIMS?

Ironically I didn't believe in reincarnation the last time I was here either...

Previously we had an external company do this but the school decided it would be more cost effective to employ another site guy because of their workload and make PAT testing part of his job. That meant that with everything considered we had more flexibility with site staff and their combined greater skills set meant that savings elsewhere paid for the extra bod.

We have 4 Thin Clients and 2 old clunky laptops in the staffroom for all to use and these usually have a PGCE student sat at each one (we have them pretty much all year round, not just for 6 weeks). If the PGCE student is teaching a class then they are either supervised by a member of staff or they are covering that person's lesson so surely there will always be a laptop for them to use? (i.e. you should be teaching so in exchange for an extra free they need your laptop). Although each member of staff was originally given a laptop now we have Terminal Servers and Secure Global Desktop they can access the system on their own PC at home. As long as there is a machine of some description in the room they teach to drive the IWB, do registers, etc. they seem to be OK. Our biggest problem is convincing someone with a PC in their classroom and another in their office that there are other people in greater need of the laptop.

Afternoon all. Mike, Network Manager in the Nottingham area at reasonably sized comprehensive schhol.