Pete10141748

I got to babysit all 12 of my younger cousins while my parents and aunts and uncles got drunk. I also got to stay in my nan's house, which doesn't have central heating (so I also had the pleasure of sitting in front of a gas fire to keep warm). Oh, and I got to watch endless repeats of "the 2 ronnies" on ITV for 15 hours as my grandad's memory isn't so good and he kept forgeting he'd seen the same episodes 3 hours ago. On a lighter side, I also got a 40" Sony Bravia LCD TV to go with my Xbox360 to keep me entertained..............the best gifts always come from yourself

Does anyone know that actual date that XP will no longer be on retail/OEM sale? I've read in some places that its as early as 30th Jan 2008, other places say its June 2008, and others still say its Jan 2009! Anyone know? Also, I've read on the Dell forums that many of thier products no longer even have the option for coming with XP pre-installed, and that Vista is the only choice being offered, with 'downgrade rights' allowed but (legally) only a retail-purchased copy of XP can be used, not any existing liscence! Surely that's a bit off? What are people here planning on doing with regards to Vista? Are you going to enbrace it, or put it off for as long as you can? I'm in two minds about it really, its going to cause some problems but then again what major change doesn't to begin with?

You might also want to check gpedit.msc > User configuration > Administrative Templates > System >Turn Off Autoplay (set to "Disable") also regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > Current Control Set > Services > CDrom > Autorun (set to "1" ) Pete

We had a WAP start smoking here, I think that someone had used a wrong power cable for it and it overloaded. The smell hung around for days!

WebCry is definately a virus. I had this on my home pc a few years ago now, far as I remember I used the method suggested in the post above ^ and it was fine after that. Pete

Who "informed" you of this? Sounds to me like someone making up the rules so that you have no choice but to get nice, new, bigger screens! We have many 14" monitors here, and the H&S inspection we are currently having (literally right now!) hasn't said a word about it. Pete

Ask her to phone you next tme it happens; that way you can at least see the problem happening (if not the cause). As for the 2 copies....are you she he/she isn't the type of person who believes you have tyhe double-click everything? We have had that here before, believe it or not! Pete

more for the list; 34. Computers are just like people. Give them coffee, and they’ll speed up. 35. Technicians love walking around needlessly, and nothing excites us more than when you walk to our office and ask us to walk back to your own classroom to fix a problem with your portable laptop. 36. Of course, being technicians we are able to fix any mechanical, electrical or physical problem with anything in the school. 37. We love it when we are referred to as “that it guy” or “the computer people”, and would ask that no-one even bother to learn and use our names ever again. 38. Despite the consuming amount of time and effort we put in to keeping the hundreds of PCs, laptops, printers, photocopiers, network and software packages running smoothly for you to use as you like, we are (of course) primarily here to remove 35 paper jams a day, and are delighted that you do not know the difference (and can’t choose between) A4 and A3. 39. When representatives of a company come for an important meeting, it’s no bother for us to come and help you teach your lesson instead of meeting with them. 40. We deeply appreciate being able to have all four walls of our office within reaching distance when sat down, as we have lots of space to hang up the wonderful amounts of hand-written, scrawled notes that you leave for us. Pete

We don't have any kind of ID here. Not sure if they'd be very useful in a small(ish) school like ours. In the larger secondary school I can see the use. Pete

You can use regedit to disable the quicklaunch bar. Find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\ClassicShell and set it's value to "0" hope that's useful! Pete

Smart trousers, shoes and shirt here. No ties needed by anyone. the teaching staff tend to wear a variety of things. Yesterday a staff member was wearing smart trousers and top, today she's in trackies and tshirt. For the female staff it seems they can wear whatever they like. The younger NQTs tend to wear smart skirts and tops, the more"senior" female staff wear whatever they feel like. One such "senior" member likes to wear short skirts and thighhigh boots :? 8O not so good! The male staff (all 4 of us ) always wear shirts (+smart jumpers now its cold!) though 1 of the 2 male teachers tends to wear polo shirt + jeans (then again on Monday he was in a full suit, so who knows!). I've also seen the deputy head in a school-logo fleecey thing. Think they didnt take off here, perhaps staff didnt want them. Then again, there doesn't seem to be that much of a dress code for the pupils either! I think that as long as its not deemed inappropriate (i.e. rude tshirts or showing too much skin on the ladies' side) then its generally OK to wear what you like here. On a few odd days I've worn trainers and no-one's said anything. On training days / half terms etc. we can wear what we like (within good reason - no KISS outfits ) After 5 months of wearing smart shirts etc. every day, it might be more noticable if one of us suddenly turned up in jeans and a tshirt. Personally, I would prefer to wear an shirt and look smart, even if the teacher's dont have to Pete

I spent a few hours last week creating this kind of document. Its only simple, but it should be enough for anyone who actually has a bit of IT klnowledge. I had basically all of the stuff that SYNACK mentioned in his post above. Table of Contents Network Overview - basic introduction Internet Access - configuration of proxy / ports etc Servers Primary Server - IP address, roles, spec etc Secondary Server - roles, spec etc Espresso - cachepoilot config, location, access Hubs and Switches Upper school hub cabinet - location, configuration, free space Lower school hub cabinets - location, configuration, free space Fax Room hubs - location, configuration, free space ICT Suite hubs - location, configuration, free space Admin Department Reception - PC specs, programs, roles, users, accounts, IP addresses Finance - PC specs, programs, roles, users, accounts, IP addresses Other PC’s ICT Suite - specs, number of PCs, names, programs, age Classroom PC’s - specs, number of PCs, names, programs, age Staffroom - specs, number of PCs, names, programs, age Laptops; Overview Staff Laptops - specs, names, programs, age, user Pupil / Education laptops - specs, number of PCs, names, programs, age Printers / Photocopiers - location, age, capabilities E-Mail account ICT Office; General information Appendices; Appendix A: Full list of school software - name, age, compatability, use, where installed, Appendix B: Profile information - how to set up a new profile for staff / students Appendix C: Map and Key for both sites showing equipment location Appendix D: Full Laptop List - specs, assigned to, age, serial number, name Appendix E: Printer List - specs, type, serial number / MACs, location Appendix F: Desktop PC’s - specs, assigned to, age, serial number, name Appendix G: WAPs and Projectors - specs, assigned to, age, serial number / MACs, name I'll probably add more as the need comes up. Its also prety useful to me as well to have all that info in one place, just in case I ever do forget something! Pete

Chargeline cable management is a nightmare. The kids pull the laptops out before they can pull out the power cable, so you end up wth 15 power cables hanging out of the trolley, or even worse, in a tangled heap on the floor. And of course, owing to the fact that staff don't see it as "thier job", thats how they come back, so you get the fun of sorting through the cables, every day! yay! We have 2 old(ish) smartline-style laptop trolleys, and they are so much better. The cables dont fall out, and the power plugs are totally hidden away. I actually took all of the laptops in the chargeline trolley and split them between the spaces left in the smartline-style ones. It has made life a lot easier, let me tell you! Pete

We have a couple of NEC projectors which have been up for 3 years, turned on and running for around 7 hours every day (5 days a week) 8O From my own research (and general inclination) it seems that 3 years running in this way is more than enough to kill off a projector. Is this the case? Do you have experience of this; I've not been in the job long enough to know how long these things are supposed to last for 1st hand Our co-ordinator says that 3 years is not a long time at all for a projector to last, even though they are treated this way and were not maintained / cleaned at all for the first 2.5 years of their life. Is he right? :?: Pete

As far as I know the battery is about 4 years old. The server are critical, they are the only 2 in the school and between them do everything we need. The UPS is charging back up, but its very slow, and seems to discharge itself in quite large amounts. Perhaps its setup means it wont power the servers until it has charged a certain amount? Either way, perhaps its time to look at a new one? Pete

We had a pretty big power surge here this morning; enought to trip out the whole of the office (which used to be an ICT Suite). It seems to have done something to our UPS (which is connected to 2 servers) in that it is dropping from 100% to very low power as soon as it begin to power the servers. Before now it has lasted a good 5+ minutes. Anyone had anything like this? Could the surge have essentially "killed" the battery? There is an indication light for "replace bettery", and it's not on. Pete

Well I didnt go ahead and teach the lesson again, I informed the teacher that I would be happy to run her through the program so that she could then teach it to the class. She was happy to do this, thankfully. However, she is not the original teacher who asked me to do it in the first place; her reaction is going to be found next time she asks me the same thing. I have a meeting this afternoon with the heads of each year and the head/deputy head as well (we do it every Monday), at which I am going to really nail home the point that I am only prepared to give staff some help using a program, and that in no way am I ever going into a classroom to actually teach pupils how to use some software again. I'm also going to make sure it is well noted that, IMO, many members of staff require ICT training on the very basic levels, and that the fact they don't know what they are doing is impacting on the learning of the pupils. I'm glad this topic sparked such a good discussion, and everyone has put forward some very interesting points of view. I guess that at the end of the day, we have to accept that a school will always be a very different environment to any other workplace, and that demands on ICT staff are therefore different as well. We are not just seen as "techies", but as people with critical technological knowledge, which is just as applicable helping to educate as it is to maintain networks. I for one am happy that staff ask me to help them learn about computers, and recognise that I am able to give them insight into how to use ICT to educate thier class. Its just a shame that a select few of them always have to take it too far, and turn a generous offer into a ridiculous liberty. Pete

We had the same thing happen here selu. No idea why sophos didnt catch it (it does now), but it casued total havok here for a few days! We eventually got rid of it by going to each infected computer/laptop (including staff and pupil laptops too), and doing the following; Open a cmd prompt, and type; del C:\autorun.* /f /a /s /q this removed the file and gave access back to the infected drive. Next, open regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Run look for any entries marked with "avpo.exe" and delete them. lastly, do a registry search for "netde1ect.com" (notel thats a ONE, NOT a T!) and delete any entries you find. 1 machine clean. 79 to go We had about 120 to do here, took the best part of 3 days. Oh, and if I were you, I'd make a very stern warning not to use USB memory sticks until you have finished every machine! Hope that helps! Pete oh, almolst forgot, you'll need to change the del C:\ to whatever drive letter a usb stick is given to clean the sticks as well!

@halfmad I think you're right, I need to make it very clear where my responsabilities end in this matter. So far this week, I have prepared and taught a database lesson (which I have been asked to give again tomorrow to another class), preapred worksheets for testing another class using a "database" in Excel (?), and a powerpoint presentation where I was given the information "it about art, the artist Turner" and nothing more. Monday afternoon head of year/dept. meeting, I'm going to make it clear that I'm not here to do the job for them. If they don't like it, well thats just TFB as far as I'm concerned. Pete

We dont allow iTunes, and do not allow teacher's accounts to run any .exe file, so they are unable to install anything without going though either myself or our technician. No complaints about it, as we were fair and gave them plenty of time to move itunes, pictures etc off their laptops before we made the changes. Pete

Although there are several different levels here, the general consensus seems to be that it's too far for teachers to ask us to plan for them. Which of course, I agree with. A teacher this morning came to me 2 hours before her ICT lesson and said "Hi guys, I'm teaching the next lesson on Databases and don't have any idea what to do. Can you sort something out for me?" and promptly left. I ended up helping to teach the whole lesson together with my technician colleague while she sat there looking very perplexed. We have a head's meeting every monday...perhaps this monday I'll bring up the fact that many of the staff don't seem to know how to actually plan a lesson. Maybe I need to say "no" a bit more often. The staff don't like hearing that word though, and I've gotten in trouble for it before. It seems that the POV of the SMT + staff is that we are here to help in anything + anyway we can. Perhaps they need reminding that we are ICT STAFF, not; handymen electricians cleaners TA's teachers admin reprographics staff all of which we have had to do in the past 4 months. @sidewinder; I agree, but I did do teacher training, and although I never completed it, I do have 2 years experience of working in schools as a trainee teacher - its part of the reason that I was given this job, as I am "able to see from both sides" as they put it. I guess I just have to remind them that although I have done it, I didn't do it very well! Cheers, Pete

We (myself and my colleague) have been asked (nay, TOLD) by our head that part of our job description is to "aid in preparing resources for ICT", which I am happy to do - problem is, now she is saying that we have to sit down with staff and help them write thier lesson plans for ICT (and help them put ICT in lesson plans for other subjects too), and then actually BE there during the lesson to "aid" them. The aiding in the lessons is fine by me, after all we are here to help, and we accept that staff are less than adequte with computers here; but does anyone else help out with lesson planning? (or deal with the lack thereof?) or is it left to the more ICT capable teachers / year heads etc? As an almost qualified NQT they know I have experience of planning (albeit 4 years ago) but I'm just suprised that teachers are asking us techncians to actually plan a whole lesson and not just advise them, Just wondering if this is a common occurance, or if it''s just us! :? Cheers, Pete

Cheers for the input guys. Problem around here is that none of the teachers actually ever planned ICT lessons really, and at the moment are using LCP plans which are, frankly, quite bad IMO. Using Excel to teach Databases? C'mon Pete

I'v been asked by several teachers to plan some database lessons for Year 5 classes (as the ones they have been given are crap). The kids have already searched simple + complex databases, set up thier own class database, and completed a worksheet based on that class database. Aside from setting them loose on the 'Net, I'm out of ideas; there are 2 lessons left on Databases; anyone have any ideas of what I can get them to do? Pete

We've set up a 3-year laptop program starting from October(ish) this year (only been at this job for a few months and there was almost no ICT support for years before that, so it was slow going to start with!) Once a laptop reaches its 3 year mark, I'll take it and have a good, thorough look at it, and then make a recommendation as to wether or not a new one is required (with the demise of XP planned for early 2008, that's going to be a lot of fun having Vista around eh?) Some of the laptops here, notably the Acer Travelmate220's (one of which I'm using right now) are great (spec wise) despite being a few years old now - however, little can be said for it's asthetics (fine by me). Thing is, that seems to be a big issue with staff; they want something that LOOKS good more than they want something that WORKS good (then again, that seems to be a theme in school in general; they'll spend £4k on a new office setup for reception, but won't fork out £300 for a decent PC to give to one of the reception staff!) leading to some quite heated debates (read: shouting at me) about why certain NQTs didn't get a brand new laptop, and are "unhappy" with their one, despite it being only 1 year old and having a better spec than the PCs I was given to use. :x Anyway, back on track; basically, I suggest who needs a new laptop. Unless management come over and tell me who needs one. Then I have to obey. Isn't life grand? Pete