bossman

@bjohnny42: Blackberry torch is just brilliant so I have been told and judging by the way my BB has been on the new OS6 that's the way I will be going when my contract is up, its been pretty much faultless But i would also be looking at the new Nexus also as @webman has the Nexus 1 and he really rates it

@Hightower: I would say based on the criteria on the Gov site you should be able to tow your caravan based on the combined weights of both the car and the caravan. One thing, don't forget you have to count the weight of anything inside the caravan which you add, all your pots and pans and crockery etc etc it all adds weight. Happy caravanning @Hightower

@plexer: Bet he was using it for downloading free apps (hehe! torrents) ;D

All staff = 500Mb All students = 300Mb Some serious staff who are IT literate 3Gb All this is for their personal use as they also have staff subject areas which collectively add up to 2Tb This is on our new system which has room for growth as our old system had just 348Mb of storage space left (timed it just right) This is all backed up using Backup Exec 12.5 D2D2T Diskbox 4Tb storage and then to LT04Autoloader tape storage with magazine which holds 24 tapes each holding 1.2Tb each compressed.

@marcgr: Irfanview, resizes in bulk and so easy to use plus it is free: IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide you will need the plugins also, follow the installation instructions and you cannot fail.

@teejay: Would you like to divulge what kind of pricing you have received? PM if you don't want to declare it to all and sundry. ;D

@teejay: Surely you could wait a month before purchasing could you not? It may help your purchasing costs.

Why are we giving this person any credence? We all strive to introduce elements of new technology to enhance the teaching and learning within our schools but let us focus on reality as to why we don't have all this futuristic technology: 1. Budgetary restraints 2. Students from deprived backgrounds 3. Expertise within schools 4. Strategies for safe use (safeguarding) 5. Logistics Last but not least and this person was probably one of them: 6. Ineffectual teachers who think the latest technology brings out the best in students. Having read quite a few American stories through the years about their education it is no wonder in some states it's falling down around their ears: 7. Large campuses (Their take on BSF) arose 10 years before we followed suit and we should have taken notice of their failings, one of which New York have gone back to small schools (averaging 500 students) and has had approx a 17% increase in student grades. 8. It seems quite a few of these so called IT expert bloggers seem to want to push a certain kind of technology (Iphones and Ipads) not that I have anything against this but as American students have stated when students are bored (seems to be a growing theme) they will do anything not to listen to the teaching and therefore giving them even more devices on which they could disrupt the lesson seems rather counteractive. I could go on but this would only give cause to this persons credibility and I as one find it highly unlikely that he deserves this. I do think that some teachers have the good sense to know their limitations but some born from their huge ego's need to have them massaged and therefore the internet is the biggest and best place to get themselves noticed and it shows in their blogs. I do think this person has an axe to grind but I cannot for the life of me understand why as I would think he would embrace Edugeek as another way of getting his message across in a more polite way with a more informed and technologically sound footing. I don't wish to knock this person as some of what he spouts does make a little sense but only a little mind and in his idealistic world he feels safe because of this. Good luck to him as he will need it with counteractive blogging against the very system that gave him a very lucrative standard of living is the very system he is trying to pull down....................Education in schools.

+1 for dropbox

@Hightower: I have just located a pretty decent Latin translator for you to use its here: Latin to English Translation You have to work out the words a little but is very good.

@Hightower: @X-13: Roughly translated means "I may be able to help you" @tech_guy: Roughly says something about "eating fish as he demands work" I could be wrong as it is years since I was forced to do Latin.

MCS not to get confused with Millenium Business Systems who I have dealt with for years and are a reputable company. Thanks for the heads up

French cars have had a bad reputation for this kind of thing for quite a few years, I personally wouldn't buy a French car for that matter but then again when Britain had a car industry I wouldn't buy British either. I have had only 5 cars in my 30 years of driving, 3 Ford models and 2 VW models, all have been exceptional in their service but I have found the VWs to be a little better quality. I have been warned that future VW purchases may be fraught with problems as the car industry is ever changing in its quest to make vast profit at the expense of the little man and therefore components made outside the companies quality control are sometimes faulty because the third party manufacturers of these components also wants to make a profit and therefore cuts corners. You pays your money and you takes your choice, I personally wish I didn't need to own a car as todays diesel and petrol prices are only destined to get more expensive. Electric cars are possibly the future but I wish someone would come up with a true hydrogen converter which used water as its fuel and expelled only clean water out of the exhaust after the hydrogen has been burnt in the combustion chambers. But then true fission is just around the corner so we would be able to run our electric cars for ever on just a pea sized fuel pellet but what cost the would the pellet be I wonder? ;D

@basicchannel: Looking at using 46" LCDs with micro ATM units with small version of Win 7 over wireless connection throughout the school. Screens and mounts will be between £600 and £1k and micro Units another £200. Digital signage companies are wanting around £2k just for the equipment without fitting. Below is some software which for non-profit use is just £99 to run all your screens from a central unit. Digital Signage Software - Dynamic Info Screen turns a PC into Electronic Info Display Tell me what you think?

@timbo343: I have tried to gather this information for ourselves but unfortunately have only come up with this so far: AG Neovo E-17DA - Badcaps Forums You will probably have to register (not a bad idea) but this is as much as I can muster at this moment. P.S if you do find anything please post

Sounds pretty logical to me and I should know, I work with @webman

@Hightower: Hav'nt looked at that yet (Give me a chance hehe! pretty hectic here at the mo ;D) but have a guy coming to show off VDIs and he will know, if he doesn't then he will know a guy who does. He is from a company called "Blue Chip" so arranged for some costings of 25 concurrent licenses for Citrix VDIs and he will be out on the 8th March to discuss. I would think it will have to be a third party piece of software installed on the hosts which integrates with the APC UPSs for a clean shutdown when the power has been cut for a certain time.

@Hightower: We got the Advanced licenses around £400 each. Had to buy pretty quickly through Ramesys (Capita) who passed on to third party. I really bought for dynamic failover but will have other stuff besides will let you know when we get it all up and running next week. Also bought 5 year SSL cert which was a bargain at £399 from Globalsign through SchoolsICT excellent service I may say also highly recommend

We will be upgrading during the hols when we open up the dynamic fail-over through the fundamentals license we acquired last week for 3 hosts. Looking forward to it. Got full school platform migration to do over the 9 days half-term plus above so @webman n me rather busy at the moment.

@Hightower: What version of Xenserver are you running?

@Hightower: You will probably have to create another LUN with the new size and move all the VMs onto that then delete the old LUN I think off the top of my head (It is early morning and I hav'nt had coffee yet). Or I feel you may have to restart both SAN and Xenserver host.

Have you looked at the time clocks on all servers they should all be within 5 mins of the DC, we install the atomic clock application on the DC which tends to keep the others in sync.

@Hightower: Its usually a picture that has been inserted into the PPT which becomes corrupted. How big is the file and can you send it to me? Will have a go at recovering (many hands make light work) You have my e-mail address? If not PM me

I too was interviewed back in 2003 by ofsted and they asked some general questions on the network infrastructure, ratio of computers to pupils, internet safety plus some other details which I cannot remember (cant be that important) but nothing to do with licensing. We were the first IT team in our county to actually get a mention in the ofsted report which gave us an excellent in the running and managing of the network. @webman and myself were very proud that day. One in the eye for the teachers but did we get a mention in the briefing the next day? (You can guess) We didn't mind though

We don't do teachers laptops anymore as they became to expensive an acquisition, besides the laptop for teachers scheme died around 5 years ago. We have issued laptops to teachers which we gained from the laptop for students scheme which ran around 3 years ago but these are now beginning to dry up. Once they have gone we have already informed the teaching staff they will have to supply their own if they want a laptop which most are quite happy to do as it gives them the freedom to spend as little or as much as they can afford. Besides they all have remote access to Sims and their work areas so really no need to carry laptops backwards and forwards to work which in itself is a security issue waiting to happen (Oooerrr Iv'e lost me laptop with lots of information on) "don't worry dear its encrypted" (Esure advertisement) but what about the cost of replacement (insurance is always expensive which some schools cannot afford) this is why it is always an ongoing expense which we can do without so we have! Desktop computer in every room hardwired into the IWB and no messing around with keyboard shortcuts as you would on laptops. Sorry just a Monday morning rant ;D