Halfmad

Chaps, anyone know if this is possible? I was wanting some admin staff to be able to put an update on the internal site by editing a text file - which would then be read by the site and incorporated into it. Running IIS6 with ASP etc. Nothing fancy. If it's a huge job I won't bother, I can't have them editing the pages directly as they quite simply just mess up too often!

I feel so sorry for that little girl

title on flash page is "flash page" might be worth changing that to the school name like the rest of the site. Lovely site though, best school one I've seen in a long, long time and puts mine to shame I can't see anything you've missed, all the essentials appear to be there!

Hmm did people spam it to death? That would be ironic following the last couple of weeks spam on here advertising it

No schools in this region would dream of asking IT staff to do break/lunch duty, it's teaching staff and senior managements responsibility!

Highly unlikely there is such a thing jwood. I've set all of the bios passwords on any computers I've been at since starting work here 2 years ago, still find the odd one that hasn't got one though!

I knew someone was going to do that!

I'm shocked that Geoff hasn't mentioned BGinfo utility yet! I used it rather than group polices as I was having some very odd results with them. I never did get to the bottom of the issue.

yeah I should stop using the login batch files but you can have so much fun with them mate

Hi chaps here's what I hacked together from the link Matt gave me, just tested it and it appears to work. -------------------------------------- @ECHO OFF ECHO. IF NOT [%1]==[] GOTO Syntax VER | FIND "Windows 2000" >NUL IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Start VER | FIND "Windows XP" >NUL IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Start :Start SET NAT=%Random% IF [%NAT%]==[] GOTO Syntax IF %NAT% GTR 5 SET /A NAT = 1%NAT:~-1% -10 rem SET NAT IF '%NAT%'=='0' GOTO Nat0 IF '%NAT%'=='1' GOTO Nat1 IF '%NAT%'=='2' GOTO Nat0 IF '%NAT%'=='3' GOTO Nat1 IF '%NAT%'=='4' GOTO Nat0 IF '%NAT%'=='5' GOTO Nat1 IF '%NAT%'=='6' GOTO Nat0 IF '%NAT%'=='7' GOTO Nat1 IF '%NAT%'=='8' GOTO Nat0 IF '%NAT%'=='9' GOTO Nat1 Else goto Nat0 goto end :Nat0 "\\staff\NETLOGON\wallpapers\bginfo.exe" "\\staff\NETLOGON\wallpapers\Startup.bgi" /timer:0 GOTO End :Nat1 "\\staff\NETLOGON\wallpapers\bginfo.exe" "\\staff\NETLOGON\wallpapers\Startup2.bgi" /timer:0 GOTO End :End --------------------------------- Obviously you could have it randomising up to 10 different BGinfo setups but at the moment I only have two and have gotten side tracked as always! If I'm right the "else goto nat 0" shouldn't be needed as it can only produce results from 0-9, but I've been wrong before!

Cheers Matt, looks good! *bookmarks site*

Hi all, Not entirely sure this is possible but essentially what I'd like to do is have my login script pick one of 5 lines and execute it. My idea was using a command to pick a random number (1-5) then calling in one of five external batch files (named batch1.bat, batch2.bat etc) and running it. Possible? It's just a bit of fun to randomise pupil desktops with BGInfo

Same, frankly it works like a dream.

Well put Paul, Personally I don't mind which OS people use and we'd probably have a mac in the house if it wasn't for the initial costs being higher and many of my games simply running better on a PC with Windows. I support macs at work though, none of them capable of running bootcamp though - wouldn't mind trying it

Practical tests like that are a great idea, I had one when I joined the council 8/9 years ago. Essentially they lined up 5 faulty computers and asked me to tell them what was wrong with each one from either the error message or the hardware fault it was giving. They were all fairly simple (Mac had a dead battery, Dell had a faulty HDD clunking away). Then asked me how I'd make a new user with the same groups etc as an existing one - then asked me to do it on the spare NT box nearby. I always think it's a good idea to put in actual faults people would see, rather than just theory and their opinions of how things should be done. It helps prove a skill level as well as allowing good candidates to show off a bit

I'm still awaiting the official offer for it as I haven't had any details of the pay they're offering, although I know the pay scale (miles higher than my current one!). Essentially if they match or beat what I'm on then I'll take it - opportunities like this don't come along that often for us poor folks without degrees

I've had to replace my console (drive wasn't reading disks) so I'll post the new number later on!

I've recently (last week) been offered a senior post elsewhere (outside education) on the back of a good interview. My tips are fairly simple for I.T. interviews: 1. Expect to be grilled on technical issues, but it's also likely that you'll have a short 5-10 question questionaire to fill in prior to the interview, a bit like a mini-competancy test. So brush up on your weak spots and remember, 90% of the time there will be at least 2 DOS related command questions, a DNS/network question and generally a "prioritising workload" question! 2. Try to be honest, I always try to answer as honestly as possible without making myself out to be a plonker. I also don't like the idea of starting a new job with them expecting me to do something I have no experience of (but said I did in the interview). It's fairly easy to trip yourself up in an interview with one comment that the interviewers pick up on, so honesty is the best policy. 3. New shirt and tie, polish those shoes and put on your best trousers. you don't have to wear a suit (I never do) as put simply, some people like myself look stupid in them. However there's no excuse for going to an interview in your work clothes and having obviously put no effort into it. Most I.T. interviewers know only too well that you're shoes, shirts and trousers suffer when crawling under desks or in ceilings, but for an interview you don't have that excuse. 4. Stress that you like working in a team, but don't make out that you're incompetent if left on your own. Teamwork is essential in I.T. and becoming more so, but you also have to have the ability to "go solo". I.T. managers don't like having to pair people up unless the workload dictates it. 5. Always ask questions after at the end, never simply say "no I've no questions." If one of the interviewers does the job you're applying for then ask them what they're typical day would be, how jobs are allocated, how the team is structured. 3 or 4 questions max though as time will be limited before the next candidate arrives and you want to give them time to talk about how great you are! 6. Posture - look relaxed but sit straight and watch your shoulders don't slump. Keep your hands in sight and don't fiddle. 7. Eye contact - look at everyone when answering - in the eyes, smile when speaking about your past experiences and ensure you get a nod or two out of those you're looking at, it's good confirmation that you're point is being recieved. 8. Don't "uhm" and "err". If you need to stall before answering then take a breath but dont' suck atmosphere too long. You are allowed to think about your answers and you can talk slowly and reinforce your points with gestures. It's difficult to explain but doing so properly can make a short answer have more of an impact and you'll seem more sincere than someone blurting out the first answer they come up with. 9. I was asked what issues I'd run into during my time in my current post, I hadn't actually thought of any prior to going in but came up with a simple one involving SIDs and mentioned the issues it caused and the ways of rectifying it. Always tell them how you fixed it, including any little utilities and commands, at least that way they know you actually did it and aren't making the whole thing up. 10. Learn about the organisation you've applied to work with, any sister organisations but most importantly if there's any abreviations in the job description - find out what they mean! They could be more important than you'd expect! 11. It's OK to admit when you don't know something or where your knowledge is weak, but put a positive slide on it by saying "I've had little experience of this, but as with everything else i'll brush up and learn it very quickly." My friends always think I'm daft for admiting that I'm rubbish at something in an interview, but I've had 7 interviews in my life and I've always been offered the job. 12. Lastly "why are you moving / why do you want this post". Mention new challenges and career progression. Many people are scared to say they they're out to better themselves but lets face it an employee without ambition is more likely to become lazy after a year or two.

I think any advanced user with a broadband connection at home will use Firefox over I.E. but many, like my parents prefer I.E. simply because it's what they're use to. It's part of the problem that the Linux and Apple OS's have, people are simply in a comfort zone with a specific browser or OS and don't see any point in changing, however all browsers are becoming more and more alike, just as OSs are. Mac OSX and Vista are very similar, now because one stole from the other but because they've been pinching ideas from each other for years. They'll always try to make out they're vastly different but ultimately they're not really. Firefox stands out to me because of the huge number of handy extensions, I don't use themes much though. It's only a matter of time until I.E. has something similar (probably called I.E. Widgets).

FireFTP and Adblock extensions alone are enough to keep me using Firefox for now.

I tried it but found I missed too many of my Firefox addons, it rendered some pages faster than both IE and FF but in all honesty we're talking about less than a second a page. My personal preference is: Firefox > Safari (Mac) > Opera > I.E. 6 >anything else I can find > I.E. 7

Ace post and 100% true!

It's enabling a criminal act to take place so I wouldn't hold out much hope for him, he's aware that what he was doing would enable people to download pirated or copyright material. They'll get him on something.

Well I like to whinge about bad service but recently (yesterday and today) I've had some fantastic service from Dell when a powervault went down. It took over 4 hours for the chap to talk me through diagnosing it but he didn't lose his patience, was quite funny at times but was professional, calm and at no point said "umm, not sure or really?!" He knew his stuff, I can't fault him but he also seemed genuinely keen to offer a good level of service. Top marks for Dell on this one Hope I get sent a feedback form

I was about to suggest splitting it into two scripts, running the unmount early in the script and the mount script at the end.