Pete10141748

Professional / School related plans Within the next few weeks our 18-month-long build will be completed, and I shall *finally* have every classrooms standardised in terms of the basic IT kit they have (laptops, cameras, IWB, you know the drill). Having some real hassle at the moment but it shall soon be over. Also hoping to get a full audio-visual setup in each of the school halls, save me having to wheel out the crappy little "projector on a trolley with USB speakers" kit. Really it should have been done years ago when I first suggested it, but it's taken this long & a new Head Teacher to get it underway. Hmm, what else... Expanding the school's CCTV coverage using a mix of analogue (read: old, existing) and digital (read: cool shiny new!) cameras, and getting a cabinet & server to run it all - should be fun, or at least interesting. Upgrading all the external doors to key-fob run ones (not strictly an IT project, but involved nonetheless) and new fire alarm system throughout the school. In February we get to start work on our new Library / Wireless ICT Suite area. General idea being that it is more of a "research room" than a strict ICT Suite; anyone can do their ICT lesson in their classroom with their year group laptops, I want to create something more akin to an actual real-world library, where the children can go and learn things of their own choice, at their own pace - hopefully this will lead to my currently-homeless Lunchtime ICT Club returning too. After that we're planning to have a 'take it easier' approach to the year, as the last 2 years have been crazy stressfull what with the building plans changing every 10 minutes, leading to constant moving-offices-and-classrooms around, random and frequent power outages, no car park for most of the 18 months, every pupil coming and going from school through one small gate, Head teacher & all senior management staff changing at the same time... it's been a hell of a few years! Personal stuff I'm planning for 2012 to be the year that me my girlfriend move out of my single-bed flat and into a house with a few bedrooms. Having my flat valued next weekend, so fingers crossed for a reasonable asking amount. Once we have the space I also plan on getting a few pets, which I have never really had but always wanted. We also are planning to head out to Spain to see her Dad for a week in August, which I'm looking forward to as we only get to see him twice a year, at most. Having passed my motorbike CBT just before the holidays I'm planning on exploring the country a bit more now I have my own means to travel too

Had something similar happen here before Xmas, under warranty so they just replaced the whole unit (apparantly it's not worth trying to fix anything) - the guy who did the job said that it happens "all the time" with those projectors, and that they have been through several redesigns to try and stop it happening. So yeah, I would assume that your projector is knackered.

Between me and my girlfriend we pay; Mortgage, Electricity, water, tv license, internet/phone, mobile phone x2, shopping (food & cleaning), contents insurance, building insurance, cinema subscription x2, LoveFilm subscription x2, motorbike insurance, council tax, life insurance. Think that's about it, comes to around £800 a month between us. Obviously if we eat out, go to pub, visit friends, travel etc then that's extra, generally I get £1200 a month and have about £300 left for savings each month, but we do perhaps spend a but too much on eating out and going places!

No pics yet as it's still being built but will be sure to post some once I've moved in!

... moving day! As of 2pm when the pupils are sent home, it's time to pack up everything in my room into boxes, store them in a classroom until end of August, and them move into my brand-new purpose-built IT office! My own room! WAHAY! After 4 years of working in this horrible, hot, dry, dirty, noisy, server-housing pupil-work-area PPA-area library-resources-store general-dump of a room I can't wait to be out! Roll on 2pm!

TrueCrypt all the way, no data should leave site in something as relatively weak as a passworded ZIP folder, let alone sensitive personal information about pupils!

I've had this happen several times in the past; sometimes it was remedied by using a different W7 machine to log on which then created the profile fine. Other times I fixed it by pointing the user's Profile Path in AD to a folder called "[username]" and logging on to an XP machine, letting that populate the "[username]" folder, then logging on a W7 machine letting it create it's own "[username].V2" folder while pulling in info from the XP profile folder. Other times I have had to delete the user from AD completely and create a new user and profile from scratch. It's an annoying issue to be sure! [¬_¬]

Check the USB cable, try it with a different machine (if you didn't already) and a different cable that you know works. Sometimes they just get a bit funny and start working again once the laptop/PC has been restarted! I've had the control card in SB's go before, the light still came on but no touch capability, had to replace the card the cost of which was around £280 I think.

*sigh* If only this was last week, when I spent ages going through 120 .xml files from SIMS.net individually to print them I spent so much time trying to find out how to print them in bulk that I decided it was quicker to just open them all in Word one by one and click on print! LOL

I laugh at anything, never read seen or heard a joke that has offended me, but then again I don't really get 'offended' by anything anyway!

I use a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet, in the 2 years since I got it I've never had a wrist-ache at the end of the day, even when I've gone home from work and used it for another 3-4 hours at home as well. I hate regular mice now, anytime I have to use one it just feels so 'wrong', not a natural movement at all, whereas holding a pen feels like no effort

I think the confusion came from the title of the youtube video which says something like "first time a 2.5year old sees an iPad" or something

Agreed, it's not an "amazing" video but what it is is a good video to show that often we adults think children are less-able than they really are. Most adults tend to fear the unknown, preferring to stick to what they do know, often claiming they are "too old" to learn some new piece of tech, or they "like the way they do it now" which usually just means they either can't be bothered to put the effort into learning a new device, or are actual fearful of it (I've encountered several adults older than I who are afraid of "breaking the computer" so they would rather not use it). I tended to find that those types of people were the "I tried it once, it broke, so I'm never using it again" types. To children, the unknown is a wonderful mystery that they can't wait to explore and widen their world with, they go at it without fear or prejudice. They don't immediately mock or slate a new thing based on past experiences. They don't consider "What if?..." and instead just dive in and start playing.

Can't find the link but the other day I was shopping on play.com and added a £6.99 tshirt to my basket, whrn I looked in the "recently viewed" section the tshirt was listed as £99.99 I made sure to check the cost properly before ordering! lol

Let's not keep addressing this post. We were given a joke, signed sealed and delivered, and it was quite funny, but let's not make a red-letter day out of it......

Some of these lines have been 1st Class!

A case of "Return to Sender" on that one?............

Anyone who plays computer games will know that if it's red, it will explode!

The irony of course being that to share that joke with us all he had to post it..........

Oh yeah, that brings back memories! Painful memories of watching Sonic drown and my life counter move to "00"

We are in the middle of an 'experiment' here; we've just put 1 multi-function printer in every classroom, and with very few exceptions, only the class teacher is able to print to their printer. The printers are owned by the school, but we took out a maintenance contract on them so we pay-per-print and get the toner cartridges for 'free'. No limits on printing or photocopying. At the end of the year, the Head wants to see how much each teacher has printed, and work out what each year group is costing the school in terms of printing. After that, if the Head feels too much has been waste, caps will be put on and anything over that mark will be charged to their year group budget. Personally, I wanted to take the opposite approach - set up limits now, and see who goes over them first and why.} The current set up means that, in theory, the cost of printing at the end of the year could be enormous if everyone has gone over-the-top with printing!

Not sure, though I don't recall the music helping. You got a "3......2.....1....." counter over Sonic's head as a very last warning, that's all I remember.

Sonic the Hedgehog on the Master System was harder than the MegaDrive one, at least I think was. Collecting the Emeralds within the levels and not on the 'special stages' meant you only got 1 shot to collect each one, and once you had it you could not die otherwise you would lose it! The 'Labyrinth' levels always drove me mad, all underwater and looking out for those little air bubbles to refill your air was a nightmare, especially when you didn't have an air gauge to let you know how much/little air you had left!

Same trolleys we have here as well, to be honest I've always thought the doors on them seemed a bit wobbly/flimsy.....

Here's what I've got so far for my "Summer Holiday" plans. This was C&P'd from a Word doc so there might be my own comments/reminders in here as well as an actual plan! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Removing of equipment Servers, Core Switch and CCTV equipment to be removed from current room All PC’s removed from benches (14x desktops + Site Agents PC move into new office? Replacement laptop instead? Set up of laptop?) All laptop trolleys to be removed from the room, stored in corridors (pupils not an issue). All spares (cabling, keyboards, screens, anything in boxes) removed from room. All safes, lockable units and anything else left belonging to ICT to be removed from room. ROOM CLEARED READY FOR BUILDING WORKS TO START. Deploying of equipment (1) – New Infrastructure and basic storage Servers to be installed (if possible) into the new Server Room (if it is ready). CCTV – going into Server Room? Camera relocation, separate switch, networkable? Laptop trolleys to be positioned in corridors, all together is possible (KS1 and 2 distribution) Any other equipment to be stored where possible, in new office is it’s ready, with trolleys if not? [ X COMPANY ] to install all new cabling after ripping old cabling out – THIS WILL AFFECT BEING ABLE TO SET UP SOME EQUIPMENT QUITE SEVERELY, might not be able to get all new kit set up in the holiday if [ X COMPANY ] take too long to get the new network up and running. Setting Up Laptops and Netbooks in trolleys need to be set up (standard image, including drivers for digital cameras, microphones, printers in that year group and so on) and deployed in trolleys to correct year group leader’s room. CANNOT BE DONE UNTIL THE NEW NETWORK IS READY, Ghosting will be difficult due to no hard-wired network room, alternatives or use switches for 6-8 machines at a time in classrooms? 6 Laptop trolleys need configuring with power cables as required. Write “Rules for Use” and place on the side of trolley for pupils? Write basic agreement for staff to sign about usage / responsibility to get key for trolley (no key given out until all members of the year group have signed it). 1 Key per laptop trolley, to stay with it at all times. Old ICT Suite PC’s – use/place for them? Still some life left in them, small work area perhaps? Set up my office (if it is ready to do so). All classes need a Windows 7 profile for using the Laptops / Netbooks. Check all the GPO’s for Staff, Pupils and Admin. Tweaks needed for Windows 7 machines probably. New profiles and email accounts for new staff (see attached list) Set up of new laptops for new staff (if required?) Printers to be re-located in each classroom and configured to use DHCP with CAT6 cable to wall trucking, removal of wireless print server boxes from each printer. CAT6 network cable to be deployed in each classroom for teacher’s network port use. Deploying of Equipment (2) Any more minor servers or computers that could not be installed due to building work earlier in the summer get done now. CCTV cameras to be installed? Cabling to be done at the same time (roughly?) as [ X COMPANY ] data cabling? Re-installation of projectors / IWB’s into classrooms once work has finished on the refurbishment of the classrooms; depending on the works’ timescale some might have to stay down for the time being. Housekeeping Usual server updates, physical clean of all equipment, virtual clean of all management PC’s, Admin/Finance Pc’s, Printers and so forth. Sort out of recycling, kit no longer required and repair / re-home anything salvageable from classrooms. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's what I've got so far, there's bound to be more come up nearer the time. Gonna be an oh-so fun 6 weeks............