JMB

That's great, thanks! Just let me know what you'd like in terms of donation! :-)

So far my suppliers have drawn a blank...I assume as it's a SMART cable I'm limited on outlets. But I do have a number for a chap at IDNS so I'll drop him a line.

Thanks for getting back to me! This is the kind of thing I need. I've bought non-SMART branded serial to usb leads, but they just don't work. It seems it needs to be a proper SMART cable for it to communicate with the PC. :-/

Hi all...we're in need of a SmartBoard branded usb to serial cable...had a look online and they're about 50 notes. So I wondered if anyone had one they're looking to part with! Thanks :-)

Intriguing! Do tell :-)

We're in the market for a couple of Smart Boards, but obviously don't necessarily want to buy new if there are second hand bargains to be had! If anyone is the market for selling one (or two), please let me know. We will need projectors etc too but I'm happy to source those elsewhere if we can just lay hands on the boards. Thanks!

PM sent :-)

Hi, I work in an SEN school and we're looking at introducing an ICT BTEC for some of our higher functioning students. Is there anyone already doing this that we could chat to/visit? :-)

Hi there - we've just been gifted an old Dell Inspiron 6000 from a member of staff, but it needs a new battery and keyboard. I've priced them up on Ebay, but wondered if anyone by any chance had one floating around that they no longer want or need? :-)

Thanks for such swift replies, guys! I didn't realise C# and C++ would be so different. Not sure what I expected, really! As an analogy, I wanted to learn the piano, so at Christmas I got a full-size keyboard with weighted keys, because I figured that would translate better when I come to play an ACTUAL piano (rather than learning on small keys and having to adjust my fingering etc. on a real piano keyboard). And that's worked...there's a little difference in the actual width of the keys and the weighting, but basically anything I can play at home (which ain't much!) I can play on a proper piano. So I suppose in terms of programming I'm after the same thing. A language I can get reasonably proficient in, and which will give me a foot in the door with other languages if I need to adapt later. The W3Schools site looks amazing! I will definitely have a poke about on there! Thanks again, both :-)

All these photos only tell me one thing: I ain't got enough monitors on mine.

Hi everyone, hopefully some people will see this before the autumn! Basically, I want to learn some coding - and I'm a total beginner, no experience whatsoever, beyond typing in pokes on my old Commodore 64. Glory days. So I'm wondering if anyone can give me some pointers. With such a strong emphasis on coding in the NC, particularly at Secondary school, I want to equip myself with the knowledge to support that in school. I've looked at various forums and Python seems to be quite popular in schools, although I've recently been reading a book on C++ and the structure of it is starting to make sense to me. I think if I did all the practice exercises in the book the bare bones of C++ would begin to fall into place. But really, how can I get myself to a point where I could sit down and code something from scratch? Is it just a matter of reading books and practicing? Will that really give me the skills I'd need? Also, can anyone in Secondary Ed' clarify if I ought to learn HTML/CSS as well? I'm familiar with the very, very basics (making text bold, that sort of thing), but I couldn't sit down and code a website if my life depended on it. I know there are no shortcuts to knowledge and it's probably hard for people who have been coding for decades to signpost a total beginner, but ANY advice on gaining some skills would be really appreciated!

Fantastic, thanks so much! Any leads or signposting is massively appreciated! :-)

So, apologies first if this is a retread of endless other threads on the same subject. My reason for posting is that I'd like to bone up on the requirements of the new Computing NC. I realise programming has been on the NC since the 80s, but there's obviously a greater focus now and I'm keen to up my skills. Unfortunately, my programming skills began and ended on my brother's Commodore 64 and amount to this: 10 Print "hello" 20 Goto 10 So - can anyone who knows more than me point me in the direction of useful books, suitable educational apps and software, or anything else that will help me develop? I'm aware of educational toys that can be programmed using a set of commands to move around etc. But what if, say, I wanted to develop an iPad app? Or a create a small program with a GUI etc.? Is there an idiot's guide to that sort of thing? Thanks!

That's true, the issue was logged with ScoMIS and they did respond - but they didn't fix the problem. Although ScoMIS did restore an Attix backup for us, there was nothing in this backup as it had been incorrectly configured to capture data from a different hard drive. After restoring the backup, ScoMIS could offer no further advice, and I needed help as quickly as possible, hence why I posted here. The issue was actually subsequently resolved by me.