jmak

I can see why the Ryzen 7 will cause problems [emoji38]

Have been resisting all weekend as I am aware of the political rules of the forum... We're all aware of the politician who's in trouble, but the first thing that struck be about the story was "how the hell did CCTV footage from a private office inside a government building get into the hands of the press?" That seems like a massive data breach to me; I can imagine the trouble we'd be in if CCTV footage from a school got leaked.

It's a lot easier to charge for DVDs. (Although if anyone bothered to add up the amount of time someone has to spend producing it, they'd probably find out that they'd make a loss.)

What, if anything have they been using as logins so far? You can set the Google/Chromebook login to be anything you want. Not a job for this morning, but you can also set up single sign on with your Microsoft accounts so that they only have to remember one set of login details. Our teachers were resistant to individual logins for Y1, but they wanted then to be able to save work on purple mash, which meant they needed individual accounts anyway. Final thought for a quick option this morning would be to set them up in kiosk mode. No usernames/passwords needed and they will open straight into a single app that you've selected. That might make it easier if it's the first time the kids are using laptops as you won't have the "adventurous" ones heading off doing their own thing and you won't need to help the less experienced ones find their way to the start of the exercise.

Are you too old even for that? [emoji38]

This. Supply is "lumpy" at the minute. That's the price of pushing it out as fast as possible. Don't give up! [emoji846]

"Remember you're in a school and behave accordingly. Before working on any school equipment, buildings or systems, you must ask about any restrictions. School rules and behavior standards can be found in our website or by asking at reception." You probably don't need the last two sentences...

I've used three suppliers over the years and they always had it, so I don't think it's dodgy per se, but that doesn't mean it's either essential or a good idea. I have an idea it's to allow them to add products, but that's just a vague memory. I'd ask the question. It's also possible that there's a better alternative for them to achieve what they need to. It might be that you can disable the account and then re-enable temporarily when they need it for something specific.

You can restrict Google Drive from Desktop (the new name for Filestream) to organisation owned devices (endpoints). https://support.google.com/a/answer/9299541?hl=en

Time on BBC. One of the best dramas I've watched for ages. Not for the faint hearted, but not all bleak.

Presumably you got a reminder in the morning from Event Brite and then an email just before the time from Prodigy? I've emailed Prodigy, so hopefully I'll get another slot...

Had anyone done any of these? I was due to take one at 6pm today, but haven't had the link to join the exam. I got a reminder from them this morning with all the information and it said I'd be sent a link up to 1 hour before the exam. Haven't had anything yet [emoji21]

Doh [emoji21] I should know better than that!

I have just purchased a Unifi NanoSwitch and can't get it running. It's a PoE passthrough switch intended to let me run 2 PoE cameras from one injector and save running a long awkward second cable. I'm using a Unifi UPOE injector which I have been using to successfully run a PoE camera. When I connect it to the NanoSwitch the blue power status flashes very briefly about once per second. The green PoE status LEDs on the ports flash at the same time. The link status LEDs on the ports don't flash at all. The white status LED on the UPOE flashes in time with the LEDs on the NanoSwitch. (When it's running the camera, this LED is steady white.) I am using known working short cables to test. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Windows 11 incoming.... https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22466394/microsoft-windows-11-launch-teaser-rumors

You probably need to start with your local planning department. Looks like you only need to continue the level of the road which is more straightforward than than normal request which is for a dropped kerb across a public footpath. The biggest potential with that situation is services running under the footpath which may need to be moved deeper. Looking at your picture it'd be amazing if there were services, but worth a check. You need to be certain about where you're property ends - usually there is a boundary (like a footpath), but a search of land registry should confirm that, if you don't already have the information. Final bit would be drainage; you're not allowed to put anything in which will drain onto the highway or footpath. You can either use a permeable surface or create drainage on your land. Edit: my guess is that the boundary is where that concrete post is between you and your neighbour. It matches with another post and the hedge line a couple of doors down. On the other hand, another if you're neighbours had already done what you're proposing, which sets a precedent. Other thing to bear in mind; my local planning office is currently not accepting informal enquiries, due to limited capacity during pandemic times. Very irritating when your question is a simple request for what their policy is (mine is about permitted development in a conservation area).

I used the Cloud Connector Enterprise app in Azure AD Connect. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/saas-apps/google-apps-tutorial Sign in worked perfectly. Provision of btw accounts was great too. I did have a few issues with existing accounts - they linked successfully and sign in worked, but users didn't have access to Google services. I'm sure it was fixable, but I only had 40ish accounts and most of them had no data, so I stopped and started again. Just one to test before you commit.

Slightly concerned that we're going to overwhelm the op - but that reflects the complexity, so I'll have a go anyway! The OVS licensing is generally good value - if you've already got it, stick with it for at least this year to give yourself a chance to properly investigate other options. Although you pay an annual licence fee, it's often a three year agreement, which can fix the price. You are allowed to change supplier and numbers of licences at annual renewal even with a there year agreement. The unit cost went up significantly a couple of years ago, so it's definitely worth checking where you are in the cycle. Your supplier should be able to tell you and it's also possible to find in the VLSC (hopefully you did get the login details for that). I'll second the recommendation to have a chat with John Levis at Very PC.

Going to junk/spam texts? My phone hides some messages automatically.

There is currently quite a generous incentive, but it's not easy to access and the consumer has to provide the funds up front. There was the green homes grant, but that was such a shambles it was discontinued. The RHI is worth more money, but it's more complicated and paid over 7 years. The obvious solution (to me anyway) would be a 0% government loan. That way it is more useful to consumers and it doesn't go on the government books as spending.

I don't think that would negate all my hot water needs, but it'd be a really useful addition and seems exceptional value. Would be much more efficient than heating a whole tank (and waiting 20 minutes for that to happen before I can wash up). Not sure how it'll compare on price heating the perfect amount of water at peak price electricity vs excess water at off peak. Maybe I need a storage battery - or a Nissan Leaf!

In terms of security, you're almost always better off with an SSO arrangement and then enforce complicated passwords (with no time expiry). Otherwise you end up with the same password used on loads of systems and much greater risk of compromise, which still gives access to all the systems due to re-use. Obviously MFA is better, but not necessarily realistic for all of the pupils (you'd need to give them devices or allow use of phones). O-Auth or proper integration with Azure AD is best and there's no good reason that suppliers can't build it in, but realistically a lot don't. There are a few SSO platforms which get round this and can themselves integrate with either AD, Azure AD or Google accounts. Take a look at RM Unify and Airhead (https:http://www.airhead.io)

You'll want someone reasonably local - I was impressed with a couple companies in East Anglia, although nothing installed yet. I thought I wanted ground source until I saw the cost [emoji44]. Ballpark was £40k!

I don't disagree with most of your points, but I think the answer is "it depends". We need to replace our boiler now, so hydrogen isn't an option. Also, the village I live in doesn't have mains gas, so I need an alternative to an oil tank on the drive. I know hydrogen can be stored safely, but I haven't seen any plans for a domestic product. The gas distribution network could be repurposed, but it will need a lot of investment. Old steel pipes might be usable, but there is a risk of leaking even from steel pipes in good condition and all of the pumping infrastructure would need replacing. (The current stuff would mostly work with a natural gas/hydrogen mix, but that is only part of an answer.) It looks like there is a plan to replace most of the gas distribution network over the next 10 years - I really hope they invest in properly future proofing it (plastic pipes) by making it fully hydrogen ready, but that is more expensive. It also doesn't fix the issue for people whose boilers are broken now. In terms of electrical grid load, I think it will need something clever doing to balance demand. The total capacity should be ok, but it probably can't deliver the peak load without some work. There are various options for this. Storage batteries either in homes or substations. Store energy as heat in hot water tanks to provide peak time heat from off peak electricity. Vehicle to grid so that when you get home from work, you plug your car in and it runs the heating during peak grid demand and then charges overnight. We also need to remember that producing hydrogen requires a lot of energy, so we'll need more clean electricity generation anyway. The efficiency calculation on generating electricity to produce hydrogen which then needs to be distributed and then burned (or converted back to electricity in a fuel cell) versus distributing electricity to use in appliances directly becomes more complicated. EVs can already work financially (for consumers, at least). Our lease cost for our main car is about the same as we were spending monthly on petrol and we were on the margin of replacing a 13 year old car anyway (expected repair bills in next 12 months greater than value of car). Our other car is newer and only does about 5k miles per year, so economically and environmentally it probably doesn't make sense to replace it now. I get that not everyone has a drive to charge at home and that needs to be solved, and replacing something that doesn't need replacing probably isn't beneficial environmentally, but as we're replacing our car and heating now and hydrogen isn't an option for either, I'd rather be investing in something that's currently much lower carbon and has the potential to be zero carbon. It's going to be complicated and someone will have to pay, but we need to stop using energy that produces carbon dioxide. I hope we invest upfront, rather than waste money on lower carbon infrastructure and therefore need to replace it again to get to zero carbon.

Nearly.... Deposit paid, installation next month. Advice from experience so far: Find a few companies who've done something similar before - we live in a Victorian house, so it's quite a different prospect to installing in a modern house and I wanted to see evidence of happy customers with warm houses! I hope that's going to pay off. Budget for radiators. I'd planned to replace ours anyway and had a ballpark figure in my head based on like for like swaps. (I'd also intended fitting them myself, but firstly some of them with over 100kg and secondly as they're specialist items there's not much saving to be made.) What we're ending up with is 25% of the total cost. Some of the radiators are huge - with prices to match. On the up side, our house is so inefficient and the system is so expensive, we'll get the maximum grant... Hoping that over 10 years it'll be cost neutral compared to replacing our >40 year old oil boiler, which was the alternative. Installer is more optimistic, but I'd rather be pleasantly surprised.