bossman

Never trusted Tom-Tom's always use Garmin GPS devices, they have better maps and visuals.

Another positive report from me, have been swapping out as our Sanyo projectors die, the staff love them as they are very bright even when ran on eco mode @2000 ansi lumins. They also love the fact that you can turn them off and back on again straight away without having to wait for the unit to cool down like you do with the bulb type. Excellent

Nice one you old b*gger hehe! Its good to know that you quickly catching up to me, have a great day would have been yesterday but the electricity went off due to the bad weather, anyway I wish you all that you wish yourself Chris, A Very Harrpy Birthday Thats sealed it!!! yeah!

@captainbirdseye86: Which app will they be using for the taking of registers evey lesson and which app will they use for data analysis of pupil data? How will staff make reports and record exam data? I take it you use a web based MIS system? How will security be taken care of, I ask as I have just been involved with a security issue involving an Ipad and this has been very difficult, in fact I have no data to report on due to the user resetting the Ipad back to its original state. I have heard of no way to get this data back other than to restore it from the computer it was connected to in order to set it up in the first place. I have had no luck on this front and have given a full report of this. It seems that quite a few academics have advocated the full use of Apple equipment throughout academies and schools without the insight of good sound information but just on a whim of being the first school along this route. I do hope for the schools sake that this strategy is not taken to the endth and a degree of sanity rules, whatever I would take this opportunity to question outright the strategic direction that this will take the school towards and all the pitfalls that will go with it, put this too the HT and see what they have to say about it. Also I would definately be looking to take my skills elsewhere, as for other schools and technical staff therein, i would think that most schools do not have the finances to advocate going down this route and so will require technical staff to endure with the normal Windows networks with a smidgin of Apple equipment in specialist departments. As for cloud computing, as has been mentioned this is just another buzzword for the internet, there are still issues surrounding security of data and this will take sometime before leaders of good schools will advocate using their student data within the cloud. This is just my take on it, yes use Google docs, live Edu etc etc but even this leaves a single point of failure in any school and this is the internet connection which even with today's technological advances, can still fail, which in certain areas of the country, still does.

Done

@tech_guy: Have a look at this: Towing Capacity Ford, Hope this helps

@broc: Get the survey done first as it costs nothing, they will then send you out the details and the costs involved, you will then have to make the decision to move forward or not, if not as I say it costs nothing at this stage. Good luck, PM me if you need a contact for BT

Why does it puzzle you? I think it is quite straight forward enough, they have a choice so why are some technical staff getting involved and making the choice for them? I wouldn't dream of imposing a system on staff if they decide that they don't want to have direct contact via whatever electronic means. Its all about customer service and I class staff as well as students and parents my customers and that is why I listen to all of them and we as a school make informed decisions based on customers choices. How would you like some irrate parent giving you grief through your e-mails? X that by 10 or even more and it becomes a nightmare, turn it around, try getting information from parents when they change address, change phone numbers, change e-mail addresses or even getting this information in the first instance! Its a real PITA for all concerned and that is why we as the technical people need to be aware that staff do sometimes rely on us for privacy.

@all: We had this problem with one of our HP4600n's, resolved with fitting new fuser unit as staff members had put scissors through it whilst trying to unjam the paper which had wrapped around the fuser. Its all to do with the temperature of the fuser and once a fuser has gone it cannot keep a steady temperature and often gets too hot which turns the toner into a sticky glue or vice versa it doesn't reach the temperature that is required to fuse the toner to the page. Its been working a treat now and we use compatibles also @Wirral_Wonderer: We now use a managed service for our Art and Design Technology printers which print both A3 and A4 and are capable of heavier card which our DT uses for designed boxes.

@all: Its something to do with keeping your job syndrome with staff as has been the case with social networking sites, there are strict guidelines for safe working practice for adults who work with children and young people. Professionals who work with young people have to be very wary these days and this is probably the reason behind not wanting students and parents to know their work e-mail addresses. I wouldn't like a parent contacting me via e-mail and letting off steam, what protection does a staff member have if this was the case? As @Sylv3r has stated a generic e-mail which can be forwarded to the staff member who deals with this communication usually the PLO team. This can then be kept as a reference in case of any dispute with parents.

@broc: 90 days max As long as you have given your other ISP enough notice beforehand. Usually around the same timeframe

We have been using Zimbra for the past 6 years for both staff and students, it has been one of the best decisions we made, AD integration is good and we host it ourselves, it has never been down for any other reason than to upgrade. I have thought about cloud mail but then one loses a certain amount of control which could cause you problems in the future. It has quite a lot of features too many to mention but you will not be disappointed, one thing to remember is that if you take it to the cloud you have one single point of failure and that is your internet connection.

It is probably due to heat expansion on the power coil which is soldered with lead free solder, this causes one or both joints to become dry and in some cases cracked. You could probably repair it yourself if you google your model and how to take it apart. We have Neovo TFT's which have done this and it has been a common fault with them along with cheap capacitors whic we replace also. Good luck

@Earthling: Ooh! I wish i was a girley! Just like my dear Papa!!! hehe! Just had to go the whole hog! One of my all time favs in the "Monty Python's" repertoire Ooh and not really bothered about Game shops as I don't actually ever play games, I play for real in life

Well done to the pair of you, Many happy years ahead, congratulation to you and your wife and what a fantastic name for your new arrival, all the best to you all

@Gatt: Truly tremendous, you have my total admiration Welcome back and good luck for the future

@all: Moodle seems to be gaining weight accross the world and seems to be the framework of choice for quite a few people in which to communicate with not only parents but quite a lot of outside agencies too. The OU uses Moodle which they have obviously developed themselves and have proved that with the right development it is a tool for all levels of communication. If people have systems already in place then that is good I was just offering some advice based on experience. Good luck with whatever you decide as long as it works and doesn't cause masses of work for your technical team.

@zag: As the others have already said "Use the proper Sims API's" there are many options available: We currently use Moodle 2.0 which has been developed by WebanyWhere which is working very well and offers all kinds of variations, parental access being just one of them, writing back to Sims is another function which will allow staff to take their registration from within Moodle which is a SSO so that AD authentication is dynamic which syncs with Sims and automatically creates the user accounts in Moodle which are then syncronised with the user in AD. Looking really good and working just as well. Not been painless but has been dealt with very well by the WebanyWhere support team. Moodle is obviously free but the WebanyWhere integration packages are costed depending which modules your school require.

Just what he say's hehe!

@Hamzah: You may want to spend a little money on them to make them last a little longer before scrapping, I have fitted 64GB Kingston SSDnow V series plus added another stick of RAM which we had from other workstations which have come to the end of their life and they work exceptionally well on Windows 7, on a par with a core 2 duo with conventional HDD in. Depending on how much it would cost to replace with new workstations this is how I would go if cash is in short supply, you can always take the SSD drives out at a later date and put them in newer workstations as you get them thus reducing the costs a little on new workstations. You pays your money and you takes your choice

@edutech4schools; Is this of any help? Microsoft Forefront TMG – Publishing RD Web Access with RD Gateway (Part 1) And this: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5177 Have fun

@LeeBirdptinstalls: All our Promethean boards are over 6 years old and we used to suffer from spiking on one or 2 of them, one thing we did find is that if you placed ferrite rings which clip on to the power cables at either end this eradicates the static and so stops the spiking. Something similar to this below: Clip On EMI RFI Noise Ferrite Core Filter for 9mm Cable | eBay

@SimpleSi: Have you tried this:MediaCore | Online Video Platform Obviously there is a cost involved, we had a trial of it running at our school on our own server but couldn't get what we required from it without paying for it and even then it didn't meet our requirements, for what you want it should be just perfect. There is also the open source free version here: http://mediacorecommunity.org/ Good hunting

@johnnyr: I have always found GV multimedia very good, they are very near to you: Branches Bottom of the page the North East branch details

@Liam: We have 2 managed E series OKI printers for our Art and DT departments as they required a printer which would do both A3 and A4 on 140g card to which this model copes with very well. With it being managed we have an application which sits on one of our print servers to which the company involved can automatically take readings from our machines and also send out replacement toner and drums. Have had them for 2 years now and no problems so far, both departments are very happy with them.