pshuttle

Ace hehe. One of my ex colleagues here (now gone on to become a teacher - the evil boy) went there too. Pete

Hey, Just to let you all know I will be moving to a new job at Blackpool Sixth Form College on Monday..... this is my last day here at Lytham High. I will of course be back on here from the other side - and a primarily Apple Mac network. Pete

I recently went for a job interview at a local FE college for the role of an IT Technician in a predominantly Apple mac environment. The job pays very well indeed for a techie job in Lancashire so I was very keen to get it. There were five of us who were shortlisted for interview and the day's testing consisted of: 1) A practical test (in this case taking an older iMac apart and fitting new RAM and a new HD). This was carefully watched by a current techie. 2) A written test (questions such as whats does DHCP stand for and what does it do? and also questions on star networks and mesh networks). 3) A telephone support test (my particular caller had a problem with his network printer). 4) Interviews with the principal, network manager and another member of staff. Only TWO of us made it that far, the others had been sent home x-factor style. I felt that the above was a good general combination of tests for candidates to go through and combined with the interview - it should give a reasonable idea as to ability of the candidate. Happily I was offered the job and start on the 20th. Looking forward to the new challenges. I will shortly then be posting from the other side! Pete

Annoying! Frappr is not-so-Smart-Filtered... Pete

You can see a photo of me on my website under the Contact menu link. http://www.pshuttleworth.co.uk And yes I did pose for the photo Pete

I have been responsible for setting this up at our place. It has been pretty much hell! It seems that the postmaster password keeps getting corrupted for what seems like no reason on a fairly regular basis. RM say "it is a known issue". Oh right thanks..... Pete PS Thats just the start of the issues.

I feel that my degree was mainly a very good solid theoretical grounding in Computer Science and that is how it must be treated. It was not vendor specific - neither was it an industry qualification - those I will have to gain whilst moving up in my career. However, I believe that it DOES make employers take you seriously - especially if you can back up a good academic background with experience AND industry qualifications such as a CCNA/CCNP (amongst others). I feel that each of these on there own will not make you particularly employable - but if you can combine all of them: Degree - Experience - Industry Quals + Good interpersonal skills (a balanced individual). .....then you are in a good position to move up quickly in your chosen career. Pete

An incredibly irritating article from somebody with no awareness of the job. Pete

Oh dear it does not validate very well :S http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manshead.beds.sch.uk

Why do they need manual intervention? Surely you can setup a macro to deal with them without any intervention? Pete

Anyone still play UT2004? I recently started playing it again after a break of about a year of mainly playing WoW, SWAT 4 and BF2. It is still a really great game even after playing more modern titles.... Pete

Atari 800 XL 64k including tape deck. Boxed with manuals in slightly worn condition. I grew up with that machine. http://oldcomputers.net/atari800.html Pete

Grr it is blocked by not so Smart Filter. Pete

Yep, Mo and I are in all week during half term.... Pete

I would be careful to ensure that the wage and job is exactly as specified. It looks like an agency has posted that advert - they can be dubious and are well known to employers and potential employees as potentialy untrustworthy. I know of three friends who have gone through quite a lot of trouble with IT agencies and in the end applied for advertised jobs in the paper with much greater success. Off my soap box now! Pete

We have disposed of something like 150 monitors in less than twelve months. You do indeed have to pay to have them disposed of - it is a fun trip out of the office in the school minibus - taking all the back seats out and loading 50 monitors in at a time and driving to the recycling depot with one of the site supervisors. When we called Lancashire CC about approved recycling centres they did not have a clue! We contacted a private company called Preston Recycling who charge about a quid a monitor I think. Pete

Very good article. Thanks for posting it Geoff Pete

These people are animals they really are!

That is something I have suggested we look at a few times. Maybe not a strike but a sort of union etc. Nobody has ever replied to the posts when I suggest getting together to discuss things. Everyone whinges but nobody seems to want to do anything about it. Unless we make it clear that it is unacceptable for schools/institutions to pay the wages offered, then they will continue to do so. Pete

Well they must not have got anyone suitable (surprise - surprise!) as they are advertising for the same post again at the moment. Pete

Do you actually do anything else other than play WoW then? Pete

Teviala - Level 52 Warlock on Azjul-Nerub realm. I think the game is great and I play when I get the time. Pete

http://www.datasnake.co.uk are top fellows. Never had any problems and they will pretty much do as you ask them to with your webspace - none of this "we won't do this or that" nonsense. They are humans I know this because one of my best friends from uni works for them as emergency technical support (they have several rack servers in the docklands data centre). They host my personal site too http://www.pshuttleworth.co.uk Pete

Not Solar Flare see below but this is a Mambo site with a modified template, I've done this one myself the css file is a real headach Yep your right - My bad. It is still a bundled template though lol! Pete

You don't even need to look at the page source to see it is using a modified Solar Flare template. Pete