indiegirl

I like Nirvana but not really Dr Who (well, not until the last series, anyway) We're all a bunch of weirdos in our own right....

Having done the uni route, albeit not in IT, I'd say to go for the job and train within that job if it's allowed. Whether you're 18, 38 or 58, it doesn't matter - as long as you show willing and a genuine interest, I still believe that the learning curve is better and less intensive (and allows application of your knowledge to your job) in a job than it is in uni/courses. Of course, had I have known now what I knew back then, yadda yadda, I wouldn't have gone to uni and would've stayed and trained. But then you could argue that had I not gone to uni, I wouldn't have got my graduate role at Huge Sized Banking Corporation in IT, and wouldn't have progressed from there... [really, that's not much help, is it?!]

... which is probably why, so far, I've managed to negotiate my way to a suitable salary (or so I think), despite being relatively 'untrained' to the naked eye... I just think it might be nice to back up my experience with some certificates... rather than doing all the certs and not being able to apply them!

What would you do now? Potentially I'm about to jump a few k in salary and will have a hundred quid or so each month to play with. Now, I have no official Windows-related qualifications (I have a very indepth IBM AIX qualification but that's all and irrelevant to the work I do today). Would you do a Microsoft course (MCSA/E), or would you attempt to follow another route? Should I look for a local place offering degrees and start with a BSc? HND? Obviously, Microsoft is the most desirable and what people look for when people apply for jobs, but at the same time, it's also the most expensive. I just wondered if there was anything else out there that I could look at as an alternative...

Moi aussi. Interesting that although they've changed all the look and layout of the thing, they still haven't worked out a decent error message... "The Activation Wizard is unable to find a connection to the Internet. Please make sure that your connection is working properly and then retry activation in a few minutes" (it must be *your* fault, silly damned user - don't even think about blaming us for not being able to find your internet connection :cussing:) Do you think that this particular wizard can't find/use proxy servers? Has anyone successfully activated it??

Yep, we have 2300s and 1320s too. As an aside, I had a flyer through from these people: http://www.wheatley-dyson.co.uk/ .. with very keen prices on it (1320n £211)

I've just locked my machine up when trying to print from Word.... although the auto-recovery looks nice :-)

I'm fully in agreement with Geoff here. How many of you have a nightmare with students who only have M$ Works at home and not a full Office version? Even though 2003 is backwards-compatible, it's not very well done at all... I hope this is improved in 07... I've not played with it enough to comment. I also agree that any change of interface is not necessarily a good thing. There were obvious reasons that M$ kept a similar interface from 95 upwards, and that's because it worked. 12 years down the line they're planning to change... When they changed the OS 3.11 to 95 - most people were horrified at the cheek of M$ to change the layout, how people worked. However, people got used to it. I daresay the same will happen with Vista and Office this time around, although it'll take a lot longer for these products to be accepted and integrated, because 12 years ago there wasn't quite as many PC users in homes, education and certainly businesses as there are today - so the changeover was much easier to implement. All that said, I think I like this new version, but only as an experienced Office user...

[slightly off topic] - did they think to write it on backwards so that it projected onto the screen properly??

That's cos a) I am a numpty, and b) because I forgot that the site automatically translates URLs, and I was finishing a sentence. (but yep - Recycool - no problems whatsoever, apart from them not taking Epson cartridges... I send them off anyway and let them dispose of them )

(like I said in another thread, its not because I like Mel C)... We use http://www.recycool.org. Free courier collection and online account management. Dead easy to set up, and they provide a lot of teaching resources as well...

*gets rather nervous about the 777 permissions she's had to use to get some parts of her own website working* I hope you had a backup... that's got me really paranoid now... I feel sorry for you...

Mel who? Baby who? Way after my time... methinks...

We use Recycool (http://www.recycool.org), they take old inkjets as well as toners, so far we've made £147 back on our recycling this year thus far (well, it pays for a couple of toners, at least)...

Hello hello... another MK-er. Hi Jason! MK Schools have only started blocking those proxies recently, after we complained to them that they weren't being blocked!! ticker - we use ISA 2004, and we haven't found the best way around this yet either - like Jason above, we blocked each site individually (why oh why can't ISA block with *? At least then we could block *proxy*). Unless your internet provider can block by keyword, the only way around it (as it is for us) is to put in some sort of keyword filtering mechanism, a la Dansguardian...

Mine's sorted too - as my data was only for practice tests, I just reinstalled and everything's happy :-)

Hmmm, could be. Reboots of the end-user machines, I assume?

1) Where can I enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP to be enabled on all machines by default (I assume this is on the DHCP server, but where?) 2) I've amended my group policy to allow the Messenger Service (for Print Manager Plus popups) but this doesn't override the individual machines. I have - this morning - had to manually go into each machine as Administrator, enable the Messenger service and set it to start automatically. Is it possible to do this in the Group Policy (and have I just been looking at the wrong area, I wonder?) I enabled it in the GP under Computer Configuration-Windows Settings-Security Settings-System Services but for some reason it's not being picked up. I didn't have any input into the original configuration, so for all I know there could be something blocking it elsewhere.

Cool, thanks guys. I think a delete and reinstall is necessary... Russ - I would, but I can't even log on as a manager onto the DPS on the relevant machine! Now remind me whose clever idea it was to put this appalling piece of software into schools for online testing...??

I've just been to install the latest tests on our machines and one is reporting that it "This workstation contains pupil data that has not been returned to the APS" I can't access the Management menus, I don't seem to be able to do anything with it. What I don't understand is that it connects up fine in the first place. Any ideas on how to force this through?

Ours are looking at using fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar, whether that slots into eco-schools I'm not sure but should fit into a generally 'green' status. In Milton Keynes we have a recycling scheme that's available to households as well as schools and we collect paper, cardboard (even the cardboard boxes that the paper comes in gets recycled), and glasses/cans from around the school. However, we're nowhere near 'green' enough for my liking...

Sorted.. The service needs to run as an administrative user with access to administer the printers. I've just reset my service to be run using the domain administrator account, stopped and restarted the service, and all the printers were there. http://www.softwareshelf.co.uk/files/supportFAQView.asp?ID=2393

Not anything to do with the default template being changed in Word for that user (on that machine), is it? (probably not, but it's where I start with most Word problems!)

See answer below!

Finally, NM has decided that Print Manager Plus is the way forward, and has installed it on our print server, but for some reason none of our printers are listed under the 'printer' section. Can anyone suggest why? (btw: typical NM: install, doesn't read the install guide, doesn't even look to see if there is an install guide... I'll say no more)