jmak

Perhaps they meant toast?

So that's supposed to be the advantage of this system for the businesses - they don't have any responsibility for the data or protecting it. Of course, that doesn't match with the requirement under current regulations that they're required to hold all of those details for 21 days; if they use the new app instead of one of the current privately provided apps or good old pen and paper, they can't prove they complied... Regarding notification, that's one of the things that our government argued with Apple and Google about; in its native form, it's down to the user to report that they're infected. It government wanted to link it to the test database - which is understandable, but they were having trouble achieving it within the constraints of the API.

NHS Covid-19 tracking app launch date announced: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/nhs-coronavirus-app-launch-england-wales-24-september? Interesting to see how they've tried to overcome the non-centralised data protection model of the Apple/Google API. They're combining the native (decentralised) functionality with the requirement to leave personal details with businesses (restaurants/pubs) using QR code to "check in", which will then grab the personal details you enter in the app and store them centrally. Hopefully it doesn't also grab the unique identifier allocated to your device by the API...

SIMS access over the cloud, yes: https://www.capita-sims.co.uk/products-and-services/hosted-sims Recommended? haven't tried it, but everything I've seen on here would make me start looking for a new job before recommending it... Use it as an opportunity to recommend ditching SIMS. In the interim look at other products which give access to the data you need. SIMS teacher app may do that and might be the best fit - I would just prefer not to give Capita more money to cover for the fact their product is no longer fit for purpose of I could find something that fits the requirement.

Some kind of remote desktop application running on the teacher laptop? Or depending on what you're trying to show, edit a shared document (in G Suite or Teams) with the document open on the teacher laptop. I used to use Chromecast for Education for this, but it was disabled and removed last month... Other people on here use Apple TV or the Microsoft official Miracast wireless display adapters, but the teacher would need to swap the inputs for that to work. I tried a cheap wireless adapter and it was too laggy to be useful.

^^ This I made a mistake on a form once and the insurance company spotted the discrepancy. They cancelled my policy immediately and warned that I would have to declare that I had been refused insurance. I had to get specialist insurance which put my policy up from £300 to £1200 and had to get a taxi to work and back as I couldn't risk driving without insurance. That was 10 years ago and I still have to declare it every year.

The only reason this was a U-turn is that they made a clear statement that they wouldn't be reviewing their policy. If the advice changes and you change your policy, you have done the right thing - which is what eventually happened. The problem comes from the fact that the advice changed last Friday, the Scottish government responded at the beginning of the week, then Downing Street said they wouldn't change policy and then they changed policy. As far as I can see, the only harm done was to themselves...

Is there still a pedants' club in Edugeek? I'd like to join!

I knew I'd known at some point! Couldn't remember who'd told me - should have searched for my own posts [emoji2357] For @Dave1108 - I'd be surprised if you get very far with this. Try charging one of them with a USB cable before you buy a power supply. We finally gave up with ours a couple of years ago as I couldn't get them to charge and sourcing/replacing batteries wasn't worthwhile.

Brimstone is correct - but the school you're working with are likely to have paid a large amount of money for them and might be loathe to let them go. They are realistically beyond retirement age. The basics are that they were headphones with a built in mp3 player in each one. The charging station was a glorified USB hub. The software was installed on a PC and could be used to distribute recordings to all of the headsets. The software has been unsupported for many years now and isn't readily available. I can't remember what specification the charger for the base unit was, but you could use a USB charger, as that's effectively what was used to charge the individual headsets (you'll need a USB A to USB B cable). Last time I looked at a set, I couldn't get them to charge. If they charge, you should be able to mount them as a removable storage device in Windows. If you get that far, you could set your clients up with a USB hub and show them how to copy audio files across when they're mounted. I suspect you'll find they won't charge; on the off chance they do, hopefully you'll now know enough to explain to your client why they're not worth persevering with...

John Lewis have it with interest free credit and a year's Apple TV subscription if that helps.... And a two year guarantee. Edit: note to self: For $deity's sake please try and remember you hate Apple and all they stand for. Just shut up. Shut up.

100% Android user here. I've steered several people towards the new iPhone SE recently - from both Android and iPhone. As mentioned above, the much longer support makes it much better value than the 7 or 8, as well as being significantly higher spec.

So, with the obvious disclaimer that I am not a financial adviser.... I wouldn't worry about this. With both buy-in and buy-out (which as you say is essentially the same, except one is for part of the fund/liability and the other is all of the fund/liability) it's about transfer of risk. Once you are drawing your pension you're fairly well protected whatever happens. In your current situation, the trustees of your pension fund have to make investments to meet all it's liabilities. That's really quite complicated, since they don't know how long you and your dependents will live for, how much payments would need to increase due to inflation and the performance of their investments. When the trustees buy an insurance policy, the company they buy from take on the risk. By law, the insurance company has to pay you exactly what you would have got from your pension, including anything due to dependents and increases for inflation. The regulator specifies a large amount of money (cash reserves) that the insurance has to hold to ensure they can meet their liabilities. TLDR: you'll get exactly what you're supposed to and there's nothing you can do anyway, so just keep taking the money! Edit: corrected predictive text. Larry to part [emoji849]

It is my understanding that the NHS are actively choosing not to retest staff who have had one positive test - they rely on the time elapsed. You might speculate that they're doing that because it would be too inconvenient to find out whether staff were still positive. I wouldn't like to comment [emoji854] There are cases reported of patients testing positive over 82 days after recovering. The research seems to suggest that the test detects dead or inactive virus particles, which may be present long after recovery and when the patient also has antibodies and is fairly convincingly uninfectious. Some info here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/covid-patients-testing-positive-after-recovery-aren-t-infectious I think the NHS might be right and it's F1 not "following the science".

My personal PC at home has just about crawled to a halt since the last update. I read this morning that MS have admitted that the latest update for Edge had caused a problem with some older PCs, so was wondering about doing a clean reinstall and removing Edge completely. Does anyone have any experience of this? Does it cause more problems than it solves? I already have it hidden from all users, so from a user point of view there'd be no difference. Laptop is Dell Latitude E5440 with i5 processor and Samsung. TIA

I appreciate that, but the op said that's how they're doing it at the minute.

FWIW I'm not a fan of using images for signatures. If you have your email client set not to download images by default (and I had that set as domain policy), you don't get any of the details. Add a template with images of branding and school logos if you need to, but I think signatures should be text.

If you're using Apple Pay, what's the advantage of using Curve as a middleman? Interested in case I missed something. Looks like an unnecessary step and as @Arthur says, you lose the benefit of Section 75 and the insurance that's included with Barclaycard. I looked at Curve as my phone doesn't have NFC (I've had it since before Google Pay was a thing!) and decided the convenience wasn't worth losing the benefits of the cards I use.

The best value offer around at the minute is probably the one mentioned here: https://national.lgfl.net/smartbuy/devices /showthread.php?t=215868 The offer is being run by lgfl, but is (or was) open to all schools. Not sure if it's still open, but should give you some ideas.

10th of March was when we started cancelling social events, stopped using public transport and started socially distancing in my family. Based on what I read in consumer scientific journals and especially first hand accounts from medics working in Italy. My neighbour who works in the City was sent home on 13th March and told to start working from home for the foreseeable future. There was plenty of evidence in the public domain that showed lockdown was inevitable and that the sooner we did it the less impact there would be on the economy, nevermind the number of deaths that could have been avoided. I have no claim to be some kind of sage or crystal ball reader. We have been let down.

Is it worth sending an email to all pupils (school email address) and all parents now telling them that results will only be issued to school accounts and that they need to make sure now that they have access to the account? That'll give you six weeks to reset 80% of the passwords, this only leaving 20% to do on the day [emoji57] Edit: If you're using Teams or GSuite, would it be easier to upload a document to reach of their accounts and send a notification with a link? That way the email doesn't have to be customised and it's more secure than emailing attachments.

You can share from GSuite if you don't fancy YouTube. Presumably there won't be any sensitive images, so I wouldn't expect there to be any issues if you set properties to "available to anyone with the link". You can set so that it's not available for download.

Well.... There's an official process, which will differ depending what you're of school you are (MAT/maintained) and who the laptop was supplied to (social care or LA). It looks very long and mostly works. Or, see this post further up this thread: /showthread.php?p=1849218 (But don't tell the students....)

I've seen it installed on NHS computers. Maybe one of the resident specialists on here will have dealt with it?

If you're looking to save money, you almost certainly don't need an installation service if you go for flat panels. Just a few screws in the wall - depending on school rules either you or site team could easily do it. I needed an extra pair of hands to help me lift the panel onto the mount - the commercial panels are heavier and they're a bit big to handle by yourself. No cables to run and just add a Chromecast or Apple TV if there isn't built in screen casting. The built in speakers are often a bit quiet, and definitely not HiFi sound, but you could give it a go. Of it turns out you do need something better, either a soundbar or cheap active speaker would do the job.