Halfmad

Andrex moist tissues, cost a fortune but by god are they refreshing! Nice if you use them on your bottom too I've no idea how some people use next to no toilet paper, I need to know it's spotlessly clean before I give up with the old heave-ho wiping. Ace topic, any others? how about genital warts? I've never had one but if someone had a picture I'm sure we could debate it! :-D

I get the impression from what I've been told that the security for the departmet folders was very relaxed to say the least, any member of staff could delete anything. Badly setup by the central IT department but no network manager in their right mind doesn't double check things like this the instant it's installed!

There lies the problem, this NM really doesn't have a clue what's going on in his school or how anything works, he frankly shouldn't be a NM as he's technically incompetent!

Edit: I can neither confirm nor deny that it was a local school... It's unusual as people are usually paranoid about backups, I know I am!

Well seeing as the chap has the same job description as myself and I know that backups are in it (as you'd expect) I guess he's facing a hard time. He does however have a document from central IT stating that they will install and setup the backup software to backup all essential data, this hasn't been done so I guess a little blame could be passed. Ultimately though I think it's down to the network manager, it's why we're there! I've put a warning up on our intranet about this, using it as an example and hopefully making staff aware that THEY could be in trouble for it. That being said I'll still go and tweak my security settings.. just in case

I'd think there was far more electromagnetic radiation from the 20+ mobile phones that will be in pupils pockets and switched on during class..

Today I learnt that another school (fortunately not mine!) lost a great deal of data due to a member of staff leaving a pc logged in as them and a pupil using it to delete more or less ALL staff data on the server. To add to this it turns out that the central IT department hadn't been backing up this data and the network manager in the school had no permissions to get onto these servers to set the back up. Who's responsible? Any laws or guidelines broken? Although I sympathise with the network manager I do have to wonder why he hadn't checked it, I check my backup is running every few weeks so surely he should have queried why he had no access to even check this? Cardinal sin for IT services who installed and setup the servers not to ensure correct backups were being taken. Muppetry by the member of staff who left the pc unattended after logging on, annoyingly this still happens in my school Your opinions please! I honestly think I'd have been dragged to the nearest tree and hung if this happened here!

Get the certification, I don't care if you have to travel so much you bleed from your bottom from sitting on a seat - it is worth it! e-learning is nowhere near as good and the book/teach yourself isn't worth anywhere near as much as being able to get a certificate to prove you can do something. Your current employer won't be the one you're with for the rest of your life and a certificate is worth more than "I can do that, honest, I read it in a book so I did." I'm looking at doing a CCNA soon with open university (2 year course) and will have to pay myself. However I don't mind this as I know my CV lacks I.T. qualifications despite the fact that I CAN do a vast majority of I.T. work.

I use to have my own site a few years ago running Postnuke CMS, I've kept the domain but only the name. Now I'm considering firing it back up as I miss being able to control my own images, content etc easily and host forums etc for friends. It costs money but it was actually an enjoyable hobby! Anyway I'm looking for a flexible CMS, I liked Postnuke but it was rather buggy and limited at times although no doubt it's improved over the last 18months or so since I last updated it. Any suggestions? I will be trying everything at some point, gallery, blog, forums etc. I need the lot which is why I went with postnuke in the past.

Yeah I did that the last day of term! put it on 3 library PCs and watched them all trying to get onto bebo proxy sites. everytime I saw one I'd ban it, they'd get a blocked message and try their next favourite proxy. I must have blocked 20 in 5 minutes!!

pretty sure if you rebuild the default profile after setting to hide the icon it'll stay hidden. I know it doesn't show up on any of my images Dell D620s regardless of staff/student login.

I had similar problems with Dell D620s, exactly the same problem! Intel pro cards. I had the pre-login connect option ticked but it wouldn't work. There is an "export configuration" option on it that makes a preconfigured setup, using that and then running the .exe it makes oddly enough actually worked! Now if I'm setting one up I just have to double click that exe and jobs done..

I use a Dell GX280 that's got a few upgrades to it, mostly the HDD/RAM and a wireless card. Nothing fancy. If I have to use a laptop I do have a Dell D620 that the school bought for me but I generally prefer using a D600, no idea why I just like that model! Amusingly the D600 trounces the D620 on 3Dmark :-P

No comment

You don't have to provide it if they're not entitled to it. I can't see a legal way that you can do that other than getting their PCs/Macs into the school and installing it for them AFTER they've purchased additional copies of the software with the appropriate licensing. Then you have the issue of working on their computers..

I would have thought they'd have to purchase the software for the tutors to have it partly because of the restrictions mentioned by Ric and the fact that if the school have bought say 10 licenses of a product and one is used up installing it on someones PC at home then that's a waste of school resource. They're asking for freebies, nothing less!

system without graphics card. Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail - £191.51 CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U12F (Socket LGA775/754/939/940/AM2) Heatsink £36.41 RAM - GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) - £117.49 Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £88.11 Hard-drive - Samsung SpinPoint T HD401LJ 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM - £79.89 DVD Drive - Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £22.31 PSU - OCZ GameXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply - £70.49 Case - Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - £65.79 Vista - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) - £75.19 total - £727.51 Then just stick in your choice of graphics card. All of those prices are from http://www.overclockers.co.uk but it's not the cheapest place

Not tried it yet but the quotation for it (400 licenses, 1 server, 10 consoles) came back £1100 cheaper than the equivalent Net support one.. I'll have a look at it next week if I get a chance.

Yeah I know, the councils "energy manager" (cant' believe they pay someone to do this) has stated that they must be turned off after the medias ramblings about the whole "standby button" issue. My council is rather confused at times I fear.. why I'm looking to move.

Nice and concise john I'd rather have a better title though, Evil I.T. overlord or something similar

What's everyones experience of this company and it's support? I've been buying warranties with most printers but of course the one CHEAP printer I get from them and don't buy a warranty has been delivered utterly knackered, it's useless but apparently not DOA as the LEDs light up! Used HPs online support contact who have asked me to call a HP tech on monday to talk about it. The bloody printer is only worth £35, I'm livid as it's such a waste of time.. just gimme a new one Equanet! *huff*

I mouthed "ouch" apparently when reading that!

I use to work with central I.T. but hated by job for various reasons, anyway I moved to a school and became a network manager and love it. I've recently found out that most of the other network managers in the county log a lot of menial jobs with central I.T. on a regular basis, where as I do these myself as part of my duties. I also work alone whereas most of the other network managers have at least 1 technician (3 of them have 2). Should I start palming some of my rubbish work onto I.T. or keep going as I am? I'm currently short on any development time and have been refused a technician this year (although I'll keep asking). I don't feel overworked, but I'm not giving the school value for money as I'm spending my time doing low level technician work (hell most of it would be basic for a tech!) instead of developing the schools websites, applications and coming up with new ideas for I.T. use in the school. Frustrated a little as I know I can do a lot for this school!

That must have hurt! For my part, I woke up this morning and felt hungover, no idea why only just coming alive now but perhaps that's because I'm home and .. well it's the easter holidays so I know for the next fortnight I'm in staffless heaven!

True I have jumped down the throat of a maths teacher who called me a technician. I pointed out I've never been one and certainly not one now and if they wanted I'd send a technician to fix their computer, either the science technician with a bottle of acid or the CDT technician with a great big hammer. I did it in a joking manner but he knew I was serious..