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Nothing. There isn't a problem with the actual players talent and level of ability. That could clearly be seen in the Champions League Final when 10 of the 22 starting players on the pitch were English. The problem is making them work together as a team. In all fairness all home countries in recent years have over achieved and maybe this is the result of the Premiership hosting the talent from Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This includes England, reaching the Quarter Finals of three successive tournaments, when did that last happen ? The players have to become better to break through. The young lads play against the worlds best in training and practice games once they break into the reserve team. Surely that helps them. I imagine Ashley Cole loved going into training against Thierry Henry everyday or David Beckham learning a thing or two training alongside Eric Cantona. My view is that I want to see entertainment as a paying fan especially with the prices these days. I don't blame those prices on the players either, the chairmen make a massive slice from TV but don't hand a rebate out to the real fans. Anyway, I'd rather see that over 38 games than the 6 games to final at Euro 2008. I'd rather my club won something (not that they have for a while) rather than England.

Yeah I checked a few postcodes and it seems okay. Virgin currently have an offer on to take make it £10 cheaper if broadband is ordered online so that could pull it down to the £110 but then there is a £25 installation fee.

Our deputy head is getting a bit anxious. We have been allocated a pot of money available for a while now that could be used under the 'Computers for Pupils' scheme. It has earned over £1000 in interest for whoever is keeping hold of it. We seem to be hanging on for the LEA to come up with some idea about the connectivity side of things. The school is located 2 miles away from where most pupils who are eligible live, so that rules out wireless systems. We have 60 students who are eligible. We have received £10,000 capital to fund whatever improvements are required in school, somewhere between £400 and £500 to spend on each of the computers and around £110 per student for internet access from home for 12 months. Now the £110 doesn't seem to be enough at the current moment. BT broadband comes in at £200 for 12 months when you see through the latest offer. Virgin Media is £120. Most of the parents can't afford that kind of difference as the school struggled with attendance when the bus fare went up 40p a day. We have our Moodle running smoothly and it would seem that these kids are missing out at home as they remain part of the 'digital divide'. The deputy head doesn't want to wait for the LEA anymore so we are looking for the best broadband supplier who might do a bulk deal for 60 different addresses. I am looking for anyone who has taken out a bulk deal / got a discount on broadband.

I'm also on Scale 4 and full time working in Preston. I don't have the qualifications for this scale 3 job Before January I was previously on Scale 3 at around point 14 working pro rata that was £12600 or £15120 if I'd have been full time.

I use pxe linux and thinstation. There is a Thinstation Image Builder that creates the whole config for you online. Just find a tftp server to run on windows, change a few dhcp settings and bingo. Make sure you put the ip address of the server you want to connect to in the thinstation config file BEFORE you build it because I have problems if I dont.

This might be a crazy idea but is something I have thought about doing. By allowing remote access from home to your school servers the students could access whatever software you decide to use in school. They could also access and store their files in school. The benefit of this is that kids don't all have different versions of the software and are familiar with what they are using. I think the LEA would have to be pressed a bit more into allowing students to work from home. Currently the LEA is happy with staff using remote access, so I can't understand the problem with students logging in because they don't create as many problems as staff do. This then only limits the kids who don't have an internet connection, but I guess they couldn't afford office either or maybe even a home computer. On another note I found a problem transfering documents from openoffice into ms office. Sometimes the images included don't appear although I'm guessing it was down to me placing the images with precision on top of other things. I'd be interested to read your document Ric especially if it points the way I want it to.

Missed the presentation on Thursday, but my deputy head has just told me the basics. I have a similar idea to Mr T to use wireless, however our students live 2 or 3 miles away so it would be big task to get a wireless network erected nowhere near the school. Does anyone think this is feasible ?

I use normal default user profiles stored on the terminal server. From what I have seen when this happens, its not the actual servers being overloaded as the CPU and network usage in task manager for both DC and terminal servers is relatively low. As a first step I shall try the reboot at the end of the day.

I have a problem with my terminal service clients. It occurs when staff are synchronising their laptops (thats for another thread !) and the network traffic is high, therefore slowing the connection on the network. The connection between the thin clients and the terminal server is fine, its only when the gpo settings are being transferred that there is an issue. The screen hangs on applying settings. The terminal servers are on a switch with their clients and have no interference from other sources. But the main AD server is on the core switch alongside the NAS box. I currently have 100mb switches and have been considering upgrading them soon. Should I promote my terminal servers to AD servers to speed up the login process ? Or is there another way to cache the gpo settings to the terminal server. Thanks

There are package differences between Kubuntu and Ubuntu, I think Amarok, Kopete and the rest of the KDE suite are the big differences. Synaptic is not installed by default but the package manager is "adept" on kubuntu. Its under systems, however I replaced it with Synaptic because its a lot better.

I was looking for Christmas presents and obviously got bored so I decided to look for something for myself and came across 3 Skype WiFi phones. At first I thought it was quite good calling people over wireless networks as the 3 houses I will be at, my workplace and uni all have wireless networks. However, I was very disappointed when I learned that the handset didn't support text messaging, seems a bit of a draw back and one reason for me not to change as I don't want to have to carry two phones. It also appears that despite being able to make VoIP calls they don't have web browsers... might as well buy a PSP. Has anyone purchased or at least seen one of these in action ? Dabs http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=44L7&engine=froogle&keyword=NetGear+Skype+Wi-Fi+Phone&v=2#infoarea Skype website info http://www.skype.com/help/accessories/compare.html Netgear http://www.netgear.co.uk/extra/b_skype_wifi_phone.php

Its really more of a Linux v Windows thread than Ubuntu v Vista. More appropriately it should be Edgy v Vista. I use Kubuntu at home, Ubuntu on the laptop and Windows in school but only because I have to (even then the thin clients boot with PXE linux) Kubuntu Dapper (With latest KDE) > Edgy > Vista > XP

Does anyone boot with PXE network cards and Windows ?

Currently my clients boot from floppy to discover DHCP on my Windows Server. The DHCP redirects my clients to another Windows Server where a tftp server is running alongside terminal services. The TFTP method works from floppy disk. But now I am trying to boot from a PXE network card. Basically I need a PXE file somewhere in between the DHCP and TFTP and was wondering if it was possible to host this file on either of the Windows servers, host a pxe file on my linux cachebox (open to public but protected) or would I need a seperate linux server ? Is it as simple as copying the pxe.linux file from ltsp ?

Yeah, but I bet that doesn't happen on Wikipedia or Britannica. I put "martin luther king"+encyclopedia into google and it didnt come up with any sponsored links on page one either.