Pete10141748

Server 2008 and around 40% Vista machines (laptops and PCs) here, no problems at all so far. The Vista laptops take about 10 seconds more to log in than the XP ones, but other than that, smooth sailing. As for at home, I have 2x XP laptops, 1x XP eeePC, and 1x Vista Home edition PC - the PC is by far the best to use, Vista is quick, smooth and simple for everyday tasks, and "feels" much better than using boring old XP, which looks tired and dated. *prepares for stones to be cast my way*

Wooo! 1 extra hour of playing Fable 2 tonight! erm, i mean.... yay, an extra hour in bed. asleep. heh heh heh.............

From the video on Play.com it looks pretty naff if you ask me. The head wobbles like crazy, and his actual "inside" arms don't seem to extend all the way to his hands inside the felt cover. Bring me a pop-up trashcan-lid talking-grunting Oscar the Grouch anyday

I'm employed by our town's LEA, and placed in a single Primary School as a term-time only (37.5 hours per week) + 5 days outside of term "ICT Manager" which is essentially the same as an NM just a different title.

Yup, me too. The Techie is off on his hols so it's just me here. Maybe it's becuase I've never really dropped out of "uni" mode, but for four years I worked through September to Christmas, so it doesn't really feel like im losing out TBH. Not that a holiday wouldn't be nice; I plan on taking much of my owed time off after the halfterm.

Sadly the IT Office is where most of the work is being done, so I can't tidy up there! The assest register is my job for halfterm, but as that's nearly done already I'm kinda stuck for ideas. The ICT Suite has already been cleaned thoroughly, the laptops have all been re-installed with everything they need, my Software Library and Catalogue is complete, the projector cleans are tomorrow's job (training day but not for me), we don't have a sports hall (they use a local one down the road when needed), my paperwork is all but up-to-date, save for a few orders to place and 2 policies to re-write this afternoon....... Methinks my PSP will just happen to 'fall' into my bag as I leave for work each day

Well I've had my one as XP Pro for about 4 months now, and not had a single problem at all. Connects to school, home and pub ( ) wirelessly with no fuss, runs all software I need (tested with IE6, 7, 8 Beta, Firefox, MS Office 2003 suite, Flash MX, Dreamweaver MX, Sophos (did slow down but still usable) ). Used it for SD card transfer from cameras, local and network printing, MSN Messenger. The built-in camera works as a webcam and digital camera/video recorder, and MovieMaker is no more buggy than on any other hardware platform. Battery life for "regular" use (i.e. using a VLP, Internet browsing, typing in Word) clocks in at around 1.5 hours (maybe 2 at a push, if you turned the backlight down a lot and turned off all but the most essential things (no sound, no wireless connection, no network connection etc.) ) It's not brilliant, but it's certainly not bad. Oh, and charging time is 1 minute charge = 1 minutes use, so around 90 minutes for a full charge. All in all, it's exactly like a regular laptop. Only smaller.

Scenario: Lots of re-cabling, switch-chainging, cabinet-installing, server-moving, WAP-replacing and electric-renovation work is happening over half term, and as a result there will be no ICT at all in the school that can really be used (certainly no wireless, internet or EduGeeking ) SO, if you had 5 working days without having to give Tech Suppport to any member of staff, cannot access your own systems to do any Maintenance work, and can't surf the 'net for time-wasting, what would you do? Best I've come up with is finishing the hardware audit (about 1 hours work), sorting out some photo's (locally on a laptop) and overseeing the installation work being done (which is why i HAVE to be here all week long) Idea's on a postcard, post-it or just post

oooooh looks pretty good...... thanks!

I put XP Pro on mine (701 Surf series with 512MB RAM and 4GB SD card) using an external CD/DVD drive to do it - it was fairly idiot-proof I guess! Runs perfectly fine.

Had a cold, that started to go away, then came back with a vengance and became a chest infection, that subsided, then got about 3 straight days with a headaches, now back to runny nose and slight throbbing of the head again. It's those pesky kids ya'know

On the screen, always have. The only time I print is when something if finished, it hate it when people print out emails to give to me etc. Not that I care about the environment of anything - it's mainly that a piece of paper can get lots / spilled on / scrunched up / put at the bottom of a pile and so forth. When it's on the screen, it's there, and you read it as it's right in front of you.

We copied all of our CDs to a HDD to store them in case of "misplacement" by other members of staff. The CD's themselves are divided into 3 sections: Everything we run via the network is stored in a metal DJ-style CD case. All of our drivers CDs, OS CDs etc. are on 1 shelf of a cupboard. All of the software which requires a license code when installing is on another shelf in the cupboard. We so rarely have to use an actual CD that they are in no particular order beyond that.

Configure the Power Button to Shut Down when pressed? Windows key > "U" > Enter? (for XP) Windows key > "U" > "S"> tab > tab > Enter comment > Enter? (for Server 2003) Remoting in? There are many ways to shut down the system without needing the see the screen, surely? Not meaning to be condesending here, just making some suggestions!

I've only got a bit mad at someone once, and that was Friday last week. The teacher sent some pupils to get a few laptops, as I was in the middle of re-imaging them I gave them the only few I had that were not already in the process, but told them that if they do not work, we didn't have any more to give them. Now, staff know that the laptops are over 3 years old, wireless cards are dodgy, the batteries dont hold a charge and the logons are slow - hence why no-one uses them anymore. So, 10 minutes later some different pupils from her class come in - only 1 of the laptops work out of the 5, can they have more? I said No, I told them before we dont have any more. 5 minutes later, a different set of kids again comes in, "can we have some laptops please?" So again, I said, No, and tell Mrs. X that we DO NOT HAVE ANY MORE to give her. 5 minutes after that, Mrs. X comes in demanding a supply teacher laptop to give to her kids. I tell her we can't do that, as they are set up for as a single-logon machine with TEACHER's security, permissions, Internet Filtering, mapped drives etc So then she starts having a go, "well I'm going to use the laptop with them, I'll make sure they dont look at stuff" and so forth, so I said again (by this time in a more forceful tone) I CANT give you a TEACHER laptop for PUPILs to use! this went on for a few minutes, back and forth, and only ended when I said something like "I CANT GIVE YOU A SUPPLY LAPTOP, WE HAVE NO PUPILS ONES AS I'M TRYING TO FIX THEM AT THIS VERY MOMENT, and you know, everyone knows these laptops are crap, I tell you (staff) every time someone asks for them, so WHY do you people still try to use them?" she then goes on to demand use of the ICT Suite instead, as "not having the Internet has ruined all my planning this week", which is the very quote I am going to present the Head with when I get called in about this (such as why was all her planning based on the Internet, why were there no backup plans etc), which I have a feeling I will as Mrs. X is a moany old so-and-so who won't let this go, I know it I point out that the Internet being down at the start of the week WAS NOT MY FAULT, just like it NEVER IS, it's our ISP, we have complained over and over, recommended that we switch, the Head ignores us etc etc By happy coincidence the ICT Suite was free for the rest of the morning, so (i presume) she went over there. Why she didn't check and do that in the first place is beyond me

In situations like this, I always fail to understand why some people find it so hard to just follow the rules. This site is about Professional ICT for Professionals in ICT: so why the constant non-professionalism? And as for censorship: if you post something that is not appropriate, it will no doubt get censored. Take that as a clue and think about what you post in future. If you are getting repeated infractions, well, perhaps you need to seriously assess your posting habits, or spend a little extra time with the "Preview post" button and really think about what you are posting? If you want complete free speech and the ability to do whatever you like, start your own site. Here, keep it clean and within the rules. Simple, really.

No laptop here, I can grab a spare if I ever need one, plus I have my own eeePC w/ XP if I ever get desperate. Can't see why I'd need my own one, just so long as there is one around I could borrow for a bit.

*bows in the Waynes World style* "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" fancy coming to my school and smacking some of your common sense into the SMT here? "hmm yes, 90 laptops but we want the cheapest wireless we can get.... DLink home WAPS? yes, that'll do us!"

Our basic account setup has a blank black background with Silver taskbar. We dont have the wallpaper "fixed" per se - the students can change it, but they are all .man profiles so the changes dont get saved. If any of them do change them, they learn quickly that the change isn't saved and give up. Staff can change the background if they like, most use something based on the name of their class (either a Tree, a Mammal or a Bird).

Link says file not found?

I had more but it limits you to 8 images per message

+ > + = , + = slow day here too!

oh good god no (to answer the OP) a laptop given to every pupil to use as they like? I can't imagine a worse scenario to have to deal with on a daily basis... If that was suggested here, I'd draw up a huge document, detailling EVERY aspect of laptop lending/use/ownership/penalties/costs/replacements and so on, stacked full of policies for pupils to sign, parents to sign, rules and regulations...... hopefully that would put them off! and if it didn't, at least there'd be a stack of stuff to help you out agasint all of the inevitable problems that will come up witing seconds of you giving the laptops out.

Part of me agrees with you; certainly putting some screws in the wall to hang APs on, figuring out where to put APs based on your current setup / known areas need etc. is no a big deal - certainly, if I'd been given even just £300 for some basic WAPs 14 months ago, I could have put in place something that would have, if nothing else, tied us over until a full-whack system was put in. On the other hand, by having a 3rd party company install it, any problems/issues with equipment and coverage not being what it should falls entirely in their lap - and not into yours. Also, you'll probably find that many Heads / SMTs would feel much more at ease having a "professional" company take responsability for what is a pretty crucial system. At the end of the day, I'm happy to have an outside company do the work, as it's a plate off of my lap, if it goes t*ts-up I can say "I told you so" to the Head/SMT re: why laptops wont work well even with great kit, and it means I can come back after a nice week off in half term to an (almost) finished system. Plus, after over 15 months without a suitable wireless in place, I just want it DONE and over with

Our staff get their acounts at home by way of local account caching and offline files omn their laptop. Pupils don't get access outside of school. Both pupils and staff have access to our VLP for their own personal files (if they've uploaded them in the first place) Our ISP doesn't allow outside access to our network apparantly (tried various methods of Remote Access, all unsuccessfully).