bossman

I too have Casio's around the school and they are just fantastic so the teachers say, I also know that Benq have released laser projectors with 20,000 hours life so these may be worth having a look into (not literally as they may burn you eyes out hehe!)

Cisco network assistant, if you have Cisco switches and use the smart port facilities on the switches which are then automatically mapped by the software. Not the quickest but definitely useful.

We have always kept ours off the network as most teachers want to do their own thing with them, they can always get to their work via remote access either in the school or out of the school. I do find that laptops are a good way of pushing the latest applications out to the teachers first before introducing them on the network as this gives the staff time to adjust to the differences from the older apps. It has worked for us for the past 8 years and continues to work very well, not much to do with them except image beforehand and then when they come back after the installation of everything off the net we just rebuild from image, update and then re-image ready for the next time. Build is Windows 7, Office 2010 with Microsoft Essentials as the AV and malware manager. Any other packages which they use in the line of their duty is installed and that's it. It works just fine for them and they appreciate the fast turnaround. Unfortunately as from last year the school policy is "No more laptops for Teachers or other Staff" in future they have to purchase their own.

@SYNACK: @all: Thanks for the replies, have sorted the problem and the one to guess what it was wins a pint Cheers now

@sted: They seem to go into standby (black screen) and for some reason cannot get the damn things to come out of it, even shutting them down manually and rebooting just gets the same black screen and no BIOS. First one we bought built like a dream and has suffered no problems like the one I have mentioned. Only thing I can think of is that these are a batch of duff units.

Hi All, After purchasing one of these netbooks and building onto our CC4 network I decided along with SLT to move forward with purchasing 35 of these with a charging trolley. My problem is that they will keep blank screening when a reboot is required and we have to then mess about to get them to boot. I cant understand this as the first one we built sailed onto the network after initially setting up driver installation. There seems to be a BIOS problem here but cant for the life of me get anything from it. I have changed the original HDD to SSDs 64Gb but 2 have almost built now, so it cant be these. Any one have any clue as to why these brand new netbooks will not boot into BIOS screen when started for the first time? Thanks in advance @bossman

@Little-Miss: 25? Nah! not a day over 20 me thinks, you looked even better yesterday than you did today though Happy Birthday to you and I hope it lasts all weekend yeahhhh!!!

Is it this kind of Manuel hehe! s English - Comedy Greats - BBC - YouTube[/url] Great Stuff

@pablo007: Forums such as this and of course the good "Twitter" which will make subscribing to many technical feeds a doddle Google+ also has this type of grouping to certain technical groups Oh! and youtube of course for hands on visual and kinaesthetic learners As for being an NM and your staff knowing more than you, well done as this shows that you care about their CPD and this is the way forward, you are there to manage them to the best of your ability not have the same skillset as this would make the job harder. @webman has got some great coding skills and over the years through good CPD which both the school and myself have managed he has become a force to be reckoned with and that is why he is leaving the confines of the school and moving into the big world of private industry with my blessings. I have never been envious of his skills but marvelled at his abilities and nurtured him these past 8-9 years to enable him to be the best he can possibly be and even if I say so myself this is the sign of a good manager.

Shazzzzaaaaammmm!!! hehe!

Free Encryption Software - Password Protect Files and Lock Folders We have been using this for ages and it can be accessed from a network share also

@nicholab: Have you considered leasing from the Car company themselves as they have some really good deals at the moment, my daughter has just passed her test and leased herself a Ford Fiesta Zetec for £198pm over 24months at which she can either refinance to purchase the car or put it down on another new car. I don't really think that in today's market that anyone should purchase a new car right out as it is depreciating the moment you get the keys and take it off the forecourt. The APR is only 4% and some do 0% finance so its much better than borrowing the money from a bank or lending company as these will charge at least 8% upwards to 28% APR so it becomes a no brainer. New car every 2 years so no MOT and some companies will even throw in the servicing also, all you will have to do is fill it full of petrol or diesel

Me too

@Hightower: @plexer: My bad misread the post but came close with this: TV,Film,Theatre & Disco Lamps - Items - Our Online Shop Bottom left, is this similar to what your requirements are @Andrew_C ?

If my endusers had to wait that long to log on they would have my guts for garters!!! New roaming profile 25 - 35 seconds, cached profile 5 - 9 seconds Staff and Students expectations are very high here

@Hightower: Something like this: Cheap T11 BA9S LED White Light Bulb Lamp for sale Is this the right price? Do I get the gold star? Are we still friends? hehe!

@issprint84: +1 Quorum Software, Inc. Looks a very good and comprehensive package, could I ask how much it cost you, we have 3 Xenserver hosts with a Sun 7110 SAN backend running the VM's?

@pubgrub277: Sims seems to require the staff member to be in the system even if just disabled as it has historical data links to students which I suppose would render the database useless. I don't know how long schools have to keep these records as well as other data i.e. attendance and achievement but this seems to be key. I have asked the question of our LA before and this is the answer that I have been given but yes you are right in your interpretation of the DPA.

@andyturpie: We looked at CSE and a few others ages ago and in the end we went with CC4, we have not been disappointed, initially RM did have issues with the upgrade path but for a new install it is great and has been a good move as we bought early and cheaply when it first came out. You could ask @Sylv3r as he has just had the latest CC4.3 commissioned at his site which is all virtualised. Give him a PM

@EduTech: James apologies for late post but have been extremely busy A very happy belated birthday cheer for you big lad now that you are all grown up and getting wiser by the minute. May all your days ahead be like your birthday, full of joy and celebrations Have a great day and may all your birthdays be great ones

@bicky: First 2 letters of first name, the number of letters in the first name, number of letters in second name, first 2 letters of second name and just a random number from 1 - 9 i.e. John Smith = jo45sm9

@sonofsanta: If they had been DR2000 would have snapped your hands off, just in the process of ordering new Drum and toner kit You win some and lose some

@Hightower you may well indeed be on the button there, I was just giving people the benefit of how I would deal with it in our school or any member of my team or for that matter any member of staff in our school. Students only respond to consistency, this is where good procedure has to be maintained and the only way to deal with this is with everyone aware of the correct procedure to follow. This may or not happen in all schools but consistency is the key to behaviour and as we are a restorative school banning anyone from using our IT is out of the question.

@all: Document the whole event after speaking with the class teacher first as they may not have noticed what the student was doing. It is always good to speak with the member of staff regarding the information you have gathered and let them be the person responsible for handing over the information to your PLO officers to deal with. Also inform your line manager of what procedures you have followed regarding the incident and what the outcome is via the PLO team. Its good to see it work in real-time hehe! It does work very effectively as long as everyone is aware of the procedures.

If you have the appropriate attire and can shelter the BBQ so that the rain, snow or sleet can't put it out then there is always the need to BBQ at any time of the year and at any time of the day or night. I would BBQ every day if I had the resources and the time as the food from a BBQ is the best food in my opinion ever!!