indiegirl

Update: No-one came back to me but eventually I found that Tracline (http://www.tracline.co.uk) could supply the originals at £40 a pop (ouch)... so 5 have been ordered, and I think we're gonna chain them to the desks of the classrooms... they won't go missing this time...

Russ - No problem for extension sockets, as long as it's wired properly - friend of mine's had a few letters from Sky complaining that her box wasn't plugged in... got my dad over (BT Engineer), extension had been incorrectly wired. Oh, I wish I could get Sky - my attempt resulted in a late Saturday evening appointment with a couple of cowboys who told me that the house opposite interfered with the signal - allegedly I can only get an 11% signal.. they cleared off (funnily enough it was World Cup time and there was a game on they wanted to see)... and I still have no Sky. When time permits I'll get an independent bod to test the signal and if it's over 50% I'll go ape at Sky... I hope you get better 'installers' than I did!

I can't make it, but by all means report back on the Terracotta Chinese - it'd better still be good now I've recommended it!!!

There's a very good Chinese buffet on or near to Highcross St, just around the corner from the Mosh nighclub. It's called Teracotta - I went there in March and really enjoyed it - really good food and an all-you-can eat thingy. They do sushi as well as freshly-cooked stuff on a griddle - you can choose and they'll cook it. http://www.citikey.com/business/10183343?category=30274&city=Leicester&current=8&total=10 Was also in Leicester a couple of weeks ago and can recommend La Tasca as well (although I know it's a chain place and everyone's probably eaten in one). The Chinese buffet is also across the road from a Travellodge hotel, for those who wanted to stop overnight...

I did email Roche AV on the fly the other day for a quote, they never came back to me... I'll try IDNS but fear the constant contact that follows any enquiry or order (almost as bad as Halcyon!)... I shall try Universal AV as well... thank you for your responses so far

Can anyone suggest any companies who might be able to help me in replacing the 4 Sanyo Pro-X remotes our teachers have "never had" (for that, read "lost")? I've emailed a few for quotes but had no replies, time to start hassling by phone now

... there was a big brown envelope here this morning... I hoped it was the 'big piles of cash' as part of my appreciation day. Sadly not, just more junkmail. Sigh...

Can I just check - the XP update is to go on all workstations presumably... and the server one - just on the DC??

Thank you... thank you... thank you. This might just be the catalyst that makes our school's SMT sit up and listen hard... 33 in our room today, so I'm sure our HPs were operating higher than that....

Not on RM here, but we have Access-IT and I can honestly say that in my year of working here - I've never had to touch it. Once set up it just works... Ours runs on its own server and sits in the library - librarian isn't the most techie but seems to cope quite well with it :-) I'm sure we could assist with any queries seeing as you're local!

mmm, I was very nervous when reading this as well. I particularly like: "Every school should account for cyber-bullying in their compulsory anti-bullying policies, and should take firm action where it occurs." You can account for it and write it in, the proof is sometimes much harder (without the aid of keloggers, monitoring software). The problem we have (and undoubtedly everyone else suffers too) is where do you draw the line? The other week I was involved with a case of cyber-bullying and it turned out that the bully wasn't even in school when sending emails, abuse etc... but the parent of the victim still blamed the school for giving them internet access! (omitting the fact that the child had 'net access at home too).

Blimey... that's expensive... but I might suggest it to our cable guy for the next full room he does for us...

Interesting... your name was mentioned as being the one who did it by Neil Davison........... I wonder who is the real culprit :?:

Nah, they're pretty robust sockets... the problem comes when kids just get disruptive and rip them out, or teachers just happen "not to notice the bright yellow cable and pull it, thinking it's loose" (their version of 'pull' is my version of 'rip it out') Please don't suggest I glue them in - I've just discovered that the old Music/Art Laserjet that you glued the cable into the socket is now broken!! ;-)

The amount of sockets we've had damaged this year is unbelievable! Mostly from careless staff rather than students (which surprised me). Does anyone know of anything like a cage or cover that we can put over our sockets to stop the darlings ripping the things out?

(Mods - please move if in wrong place) Open Source: http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-open-source-software/index.html Freeware: http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/index.html I know we have the Wiki - just thought that these might be useful bookmarks...

Ours went at 12, staff farewells begain at 12.30... they'll be in the pub by 1.30, for sure... then I shall sneak off and go somewhere nice for lunch :-D

Well, we are finally done, with some outstanding issues with Nova... NM spent 2.5hrs on the phone to Capita on Wednesday morning sorting it all out. Within 5 minutes of sending out the "you can log into SIMS again" email to all staff, the phone rang (my machine was halfway through upgrading and I'd not even seen the new front end in use): "how do I use this new SIMS then? It looks very complicated" *bangs head on desk* As much as I like our receptionist, she's one of these who panic and call before they try...

If you fancied a relocation dahn sarf, there'll be a vacancy going shortly in Milton Keynes..... ...... wouldn't give recommend it to my worst enemy though, so you're safe oop north That's interesting about the varying pay scales in schools within the same LEA umbrella. I'm sure that many of my fellow secondary school techies in MK (all male, to my knowledge) would be very interested to hear what salary I'm on... ETA: Ah, just seen that it only applies if your contract is with the LEA. All MK schools (that I know of) employ their support staff directly...

Seeing as we have plenty of staff in over the summer, I can imagine the horror if I dared to power down! 24/7 all the way...

Adam, you'll love Sheffield - I spent three years there working in IT for HSBC - they have a huge presence up there. Fantastic place (Sheffield, not the bank!). Enjoy it - make the most of the uni nights - the Hallam union is a cracker, and if you're into Indie/rock - you cannot omit the Leadmill from your weekends. Ahh, I'm all nostalgic about the place now... Best of luck with the studies

Even so, £446 isn't bad for a Turion... I'd pay the full VAT price to the school... (heck, I tried!)

Turion for personal use, Pentium for school use. Can you get me a Turion Sysman at that price for personal use? Any chance of an extended warranty?!

I've been running the beta of this for a few months... it's just a bit more prettyfied.. TBH I can never be bothered to use Messenger for anything but text-chat. Skype's just better overall IMO for voice...

Oh, I'll still be hanging around. I'm sure that Government institutions are as susceptible to infantile behaviour on the networks as schools are... and of course, where M$ is required, all support resources are gratefully received