steve

The gadget show did a review of small LCDs a couple of weeks ago: FiveFWD - The Gadget Show's Small LCD TVs best buys

Who said anything about getting paid??

Another here working from home. Never expected to be on schedule due to the ridiculous amount of work we have had, plus the inevitable disruptions and building delays. This weekend I'm working on our new service desk software ........

Are you considering virtualisation? I'd look at, in the medium term, replacing all your servers with just 2 that would virtualise all your server roles. Possibly split it into 6 virtual servers - Server 1 PDC ISA / Webfilter Intranet / VLE Server 2 BDC Exchange Print Splitting onto 2 servers gives you the option of migrating everything to one in an emergency. I'd go with 2Gb per virtual server, plus 2Gb extra - so 8Gb per server. Then its down to storage - given the number of users you have, a SAN might be overkill. About £2500 should get you one sever with 8Gb, a decent Quad-Core Xeon and a few hard drives.

On the printers "recent jobs" tab does it show the correct number of pages, is there any comment in the status column? You could try printing directly to the printer over the network and see if it is a Papercut issue or the copier.

We've had the same issues in the past, the only way we can get around it is to turn off PC completely and try different USB ports. No magic fix I'm afraid

We use an old laptop with ghost on it and a 48 port switch. Allows us to ghost stuff anywhere

I've attached a copy of ours, not sure where it was obtained from.scheme1.pdf

Is the point jumping around when you bring the pen towards the board? If so have a look on the Promethean KB : http://us.prometheankb.com/ and search for Spiking.

Well having just come back from the England game in Amsterdam, they've missed one off that list. Typically about £4.30 (5 euros) in bars over there, up to £5.40 (6.25 euros) in the most popular bars. It was cheaper to drink in the airport! No wonder we all had a carrier bag of cans from the supermarkets

I've had a brief conversation with our SMT about green IT recently. The general gist was, I can save you x over the next 5 years, but I'll need on av. y more per year to achieve it. (given X is less than 5 times y) This means the overall budget is less, just distributed slightly differently. It was received well and will become policy from next year. I agree with russdev, this will only become more of an issue as time moves on. Maybe a schools greenness will be on their report card when the are introduced.

Interesting, not heard this before. We are writing an eco/green section into our next 3 year development plan. This year we specifically bought PCs with 80Plus PSUs.

Having read the story myself earlier, I don't really see this taking off for a long while, if ever. RFID has been about for a a bit and hasn't changed taken barcode world by storm (yet). The biggest issue with these new systems is the ease of implementing. Current barcodes can be printed as part of the packaging, all these new technologies involve a comparatively advanced process for application to the product. These new systems add complexity to the manufacturing process and additional cost. RFID and bokode I believe are patented systems, so the manufacturer will have to pay not only for the extra materials and machinery but also a licence to use the technology.

The login screen is the .default wallpaper - posted here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/36404-xp-pro-login-screen-customize.html

You could post ICT related info on events that are happening in the school. Science week, exams, work experience, etc. post websites, videos, VLE updates. Upcoming developments to the system - new PCs, software updates, etc. System problems that you resolved - what went wrong, why, how you fixed it. I suppose the big thing will be who you expect the audience to be - staff / students / both.

Windows 7 instructions if anyone needs them: Installing Win7 using a USB Stick | Media | TechNet Edge

@bossman Its all too easy for students to make an allegation. Most schools, as per the report, run to the LA, who intern run to the police. Schools need to investigate these things quickly and efficiently before passing the buck. They shouldn't be afraid of prejudicing any future investigation. A quick well documented investigation is in every ones interest. Maybe this is what happens already, but without the stats of false allegations its impossible to tell. Maybe that should be another fields in the MIS - Number false allegations made =

Having knowledge of 2 cases - 1 teacher / 1 support, they aren't quick to be resolved, both suspended over 6 months with instructions not to contact colleagues. Both cases its been the police that have been the problem, it takes them forever to follow anything up. Its unfortunate but I don't see an alternative to suspension, other than being accompanied by another member of staff at all times. The no contact rule is a step too far IMHO. I think anonymity is a must too in these cases, mud sticks. I believe that the kid making the allegation should be suspended too, or taught in isolation at least. Not sure how this works in other schools but for the cases I know of other staff have always been kept in the dark. That's probably the worst thing - the rumours, the whitish lies.

Another stamp of approval *highly recommended* Spent the last couple of weeks dealing with Dan on a couple of projects (SAN and laptops) and he's managed to beat or match anything I've asked him to quote on. Quick, no pester, informative and helpful. Also have some good specialists who can offer advise.

Which version / release of sims are you on?

We use Kandle

Yep XMA We didn't get the £9.5K, that was left with the LA for the support. Despite being entitled to 111, we only ended up with 9! Of these 3 didn't collect them.

We never have supported ours, the LA purchased support with the laptops - as agreed by all the schools in advance. Since then though I know several schools that have pressurised the IT staff to support them, including imaging, 3G installs etc. Luckily for us our SMT have stayed firm and insisted that the LA arranges with the supplying company any support issues. We've also just had the first one returned as a pupil left. There's no advice out there what to do with it now re-issue, bin?

The £226 mil profit is for the Capita group as a whole, not just Capita Education Services. If you look at the figures only 11% of the £2441mil turnover is from ALL their education activities. Capitaes have spent a load of money recently on developing their software as well as new products (learning gateway and partnership exchange - to meet more government agendas). Your fees don't just cover software development, there's support and all the associated costs of running a business. Back to the open source MIS, the major problem here would be constant changing government data requirements. Pretty much every school census since its inception has demanded more and more data. The MIS providers are constantly having to change their products to meet the governments demands on schools. If its not the new work force return, its diplomas or some other extra bit of data. (This is the source of most of the updates needed) Up until 3 years ago our local authority designed and sold its own MIS for local primary schools. With the every changing data demands they found it increasingly difficult to keep up and eventually pulled the project. Given the propensity of all governments since Thatcher to sell / out source anything and everything, to put it in to the hands of the market, a project like this will never be centrally funded. Given the governments inability to spec / manage and major IT project correctly over the last 20 years I think we are better off with what we've got. The independent schools could band together and look at a project like this, but none have and my guess is its just too complex a beast for too small a gain. What does your MIS cost you? Half a teachers salary? Half an IT suite? The same as your broadband? Is it really that much of cost?

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