dgsmith

We have 2 of these Sahara S3618+ projectors and can't for the life of us find anywhere to change the filter (if there is one..)! It took us ages to even find the model number as it doesn't mention it on the projector. Trying to find a manual for it is even worse (no look so far) and we have seen some other saraha projectors mention that they don't have filters so don't need cleaning.. The picture quality is rather poor/dim and lamp prices for this model exceed the price of a new projector. Is there anyone here who owns Saraha projectors that knows whether or not they do need cleaning? Is it almost certain that the dimness is due to the lamp being on its last legs?

We're in West Lancashire and have some P4 1.7ghz machines, some with HDDs (20GB) and most with RAM (256MB). They don't have any MS OS licences attached to them though. All identical in appearance and spec. Otherwise, we'd be sorting out a recycling company to come and collect them! Not sure if we're too far away for you though..

; Log errors to specified file. ;error_log = C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\logs\php.log ; Log errors to syslog (Event Log on NT, not valid in Windows 95). error_log = syslog For me, the second "error_log" was commented out (with ; in front). Line numbers may differ, so I guess just search the file for error_log. It may not even be that, but worth a check I guess. We're running Windows in 64bit if that makes any difference..

For what it's worth, I have also just setup an installation recently of server 2008, with php and mysql, and was getting 500 errors with PHP. I just needed to browse to php.ini and set the config for error logging (you can make it log to a file or the internal system events); on my installation, neither was setup, and I did the latter, and then php pages loaded as expected. I have no idea if this will help or even work for you (I don't think I did anything else besides this, but maybe I did sub-conciously and not realise it). Give it a try at least - if it does work, chances are that is what the problem was for me. I did some fiddling too with the security on the php.ini file and subfolders within, but can't recall if this was during or after fixing our 500 error!

Well I sent an email 5pm on the 9th and never got one, or a reply

That's a fair point mate (and it is the likes of you which helps keep the site running afterall), but we personally have only ever had fantastic service from dabs (I guess competancy of account managers can make or break a relationship).. Still you should know me Simon.. we have spoken enough times to know that i'm a penny saver

I was also looking at that card for one of our low-profile machines to run a monitor and projector off at the same time (as well as some low end nvidea cards), and bt business comes in at £20.43 excluding VAT for our account, with £3 delivery (same card it seems - linky)! Getting a bit sick of having splitters that take up space and extra power sockets, so we may look down this route in the future!

I did, and something I thought was worth mentioning given they do seem to get alot of negative feedback, and as I already mentioned, rightly so in some cases. Did I? I mention one of their packages will go down in price (didn't go boasting about how fantastic it is, but that I may consider upgrading now that it will soon be a bit cheaper, and a bargain imo with no traffic shaping - "yet"). Their upload "may" be getting better, but that isn't yet, and I made clear that I think their current upload bandwidth is disgraceful. You sure did, and rightly so - they advertise a speed but if you use it fully even for a short period, you get chopped right down - so yes, I totally agree with you. Upsets me? I'm merely saying that you (but not just you) just seem to have taken an opportunity to dig again at their faults, which I guess everyone knows about and to some degree agrees with. As I already mentioned, I totally agree on alot of the points you are making (not customer service, as I have never really used them so it is unfair to comment); so as I agree on most of your points, I don't see how I could get "upset" by them. I just thought it was something a little positive, and i'm sure that others on VM (who may, like yourself, never have a good word to say) might at least appreciate it. If you don't think so, then fine

I don't know why this is a now a dig at VM. I agree with *some* of the negative points here, but on the whole, we have rarely had any problems with our service (bb+phone), and only once i've ever needed to contact their customer support, and that was before I felt proficient enough to handle the problems myself. The last unacceptable downtime was during the upgrade from 4mb to 10mb, but I knew that was going on and put up with it. They also bent over backwards to give us a good royalty discount for being long standing customers, so I can't personally say "I'd rather stick red hot needles under my fingernails" than continue to give them business. I was merely trying to advertise the fact that a company, whom as we all know hasn't got great press as of late (and evident just by these few comments), is actually taking steps in the right direction and 2 of my main gripes - price (albeit on their highest tier only, but still better than a kick in the face), and upload speed increase trials which I know alot of customers desperately want and which I agree at the moment is ridiculous and embarassing. As a customer, I felt this was positive news and thought it was worth mentioning! I would rather the topic be closed than continuation of off-topicness which isn't relavant to the point I was making..

To be fair, their restricted limit is still sufficient to do most things (down to 2.5Mb on 10mb is still reasonable), and at least they don't cut you off or charge you more for overusing (well, I guess if you use 100% 24/7 they may have something to say about it). I agree their threshold could be better and the upload currently is awful, but this is at least some positive news and a step in the right direction from them. Besides, this thread is mainly about the 50Mb package which currently isn't capped, and I guess if it ever is, the worst you'll get will be 25% (judging by current setup), so ~12.5Mb/sec?

Just read on Digital Spy that the price of 50Mb comes down to £28 with a phoneline from 1st September - and there is still no traffic management on it - bargain! We have 10Mb at the moment but i'm seriously considering upgrading when our "negotiated" contract runs out in a few months. ..and to top it off, they have listened to us and are trialling 10Mb upload! Anyone here benefitting from that (Midlands and North East)? I've always thought the downstream/upstream ratio on VM was pants, so that finally seems to be getting addressed (doesn't say how long though until it gets rolled out properly)!

Having looked for logs, I couldn't actually find any, so I checked the config to see where the logs where located - none where being created! I just uncommented the line which determines where the logs log to (file or sys log) in php.ini and now the error has gone. Default install config had nowhere to log to (log config lines where commented out). I guess a 500 error could be a variety of things, but for us that is all it was.

I had a rant on here about it some months back. RM use logmein rescue to get to our servers and it drops for them every 2 mins - I understand their frustration. We use the free logmein to get to our workstations from home, and for the past 2 months or so has worked and is reasonably reliable (drops every 20mins or so). We didn't take to SGD, especially the fact it uses remote desktop when we wanted the actual desktop (plus, logmein is just better). So for us, currently, it does work, but is subject to change at any notice without warning and sometimes for long periods of time. In extreme cases, I installed hamachi on the computer in work to effectively create a private LAN between home and work and used vnc to get to the workstation - it worked, but wasn't very good at all (still, it's an alternative).

I was just thinking that. Judging by the slight angle on the edge of the one in the picture, it seems unlikely the new connector will be able to take what will then be legacy USB1/2 style peripherals, which could mean having 2 types on motherboards for a while (I hope I am wrong and there the new connector is backwards compatible, but it seems it'll be a new design altogether). [Edit] Just found this link which says it IS backwards compatible. The one pictured in the article above is just for portable devices it seems, and wont be the mainstream connector (which appears largely unchanged)! [/Edit]

Sorry to drag this up (I know it was from January), but I have just come across this problem also when trying to install a fresh copy of the latest MRBS version (was hoping to upgrade over the summer). Is a new install of PHP, on IIS7 (Win2k8), and I have other php files which work ok. Did you ever find out what the problem was?

I thought it sounded a bit odd Best be safe, afterall! I guess if you had bought 100 copies of Win98 retail all those years ago and never used them, then that may have been ok (though even that I am not sure of), but certainly not if they came with OEM hardware!

Just wondering why you don't want licences - are you running linux or do you own retail copies of windows? If you have a school agreement, I think you still need to have OEM licences on the hardware. Sorry if you know what you're doing here and ignore me if this is still correct, though I don't think we have ever ordered hardware without some type of licence!

Thanks for the replies guys. Seems we can certainly benefit getting the OS through our Microsoft SA supplier (after querying, we can get Windows Server 2008 standard for 75% the cost of Server 2008 web edition OEM, outright purchase)! Annual prices are very good too, so glad I asked for your advice. Much appreciated!

Standard edition for £100? Seems too good to be true! I was even pleasently surprised at how cheap the web edition was per year from pugh, compared to buying outright an OEM copy. DMcCoy, i'm not sure i'm following you exactly. Are you saying we may not be eligible if we don't have enough points (would that be how many machines we have x eligible software)? We have other servers but the licence for that we bought outright, we just wanted to see if we can get a licence in this instance at a lesser cost. Could you be a bit more specific?

We're looking to buy a budget server very shortly and are planning to run Windows Server 2008 on it (looking at web edition as it's cheaper and sufficient for our needs), though we are planning to pay the full OEM price. Does, or can, our school agreement cover us for this, either currently in our annual cost or additionally at a cheaper cost compared to paying for the OEM version? There are alot of topics here about schools agreement for desktops but no discussion seems to go as far as licencing server products, either for new servers or upgrading the OS on existing servers. Can someone clarify or point me in the direction of some literature for this?

Do you think they would notice if you go back for a 2nd course? We ran paintball last year but had no time this year - maybe next year!

Our library (now LRC) was completely refurbished during last summer, and is full of books and half a class of computers (17). Not only that, but it's been extended so is a very nice working space for a class (or even 2). There is definately a need for libraries (not just for reading books)!

Many thanks for all the replies - certainly seems to be alot of views as to how it can be used, all very positive too! Still, the consensus is that it is somewhat of a nightmare (or has the potental to be) in setting it up. For us, who if we adopted it, would just want to use it initially for media (photo/video) storage and viewing (maybe expand in the future if all goes well), would these concerns still be applicable? We would have a very basic, primitive if you like, home page with just links to various places and of course the video/photo module. What are the best modules/addons for SPS to achieve uploading and storing of photos and videos (similarly to the likes of phpgallery and phpmotion)? I guess we're not looking to use it for how it was designed, as someone mentioned, and purely would be relying on addons.. Lastly, we'll need a new server (current one is a 6yr old Win2000 Svr); can SPS run on WinSvr2008 web edition (which has some limitations)?

Prices on Ruckus is secondary, as certainly it wont be financially viable for at least 12 months (there is absolutely no money whatsoever available), so really I just wanted a guide per quantity of access points and what other costs are involved, for future consideration. I saw there is the usual d-link 2100 and an open-source AP which is cheaper - is the latter capable of running on a wireless managed system if it is customisable? It may be that we just buy a load of dlink or linksys standard WAPs, as we really are budget restrained!

A few more of our Planet WAPs have called it a day so we need to replace them with something. Besides Planet, we have 2 HP 10ag WAPs (got them for a good price, too expensive now) and the rest are D-Link 2100/7100 AP (7100 too expensive for us now too). Our wireless network is very basic and they just literally are scattered across the main classrooms and hooked into the nearest switch - there is no central management, so can get a nightmare. In an ideal world, we would be looking for a managed wireless system, but unless someone can sell us one in exchange for a tin of beans, it aint going to happen! (by the way, how much do these managed wireless systems like ruckus actually cost, for say, 16 access points, if we decided to propose it in the future)? To my original query, should we just stick with dlink and try and keep some consistancy? I like linksys equipment and their WAP54G is cheaper - good/better alternative? Any reason not to mix and match even further than we already have? Lastly, in the event a generous millionaire donates money to the school and we can afford managed wireless (amongst other things..), are there any access points which could be used or are also designed to operate on a managed wireless system that can be bought for your average day-to-day use (such as the type we seek now), or are managed wireless APs unique to the system they're designed for, effectively making our current WAPs obsolete? Extremely budget tight here (in case the above didn't make that clear ) so realistically, anything over £60 (and £50 is pushing it) we'd struggle to consider.