RoyG

Noooo!!!!! Everything in-house. RoyG

Summer 2008 will see the demise of Novell in our school too. We originally migrated from NT3.5 to Netware 4.11 in 1996, after a major server crash in the week before Ofsted inspection. At that time it was much easier to find Netware support than MS support. During the last 12 years unscheduled "downs" can be counted on one hand, with the maximum down-time being 40 minutes! But the swing to MS has been inexorable. The inevitable will happen over the summer break, as my successor as NM, who took at Easter, is much more comfortable with 2003 Server. R.I.P Netware! RoyG

Only found out about the IE6/IE7 fiasco this morning. Reverting to IE6 on 100 machines is not an option. After a bit of stalling, Edexcel have agreed to send us the tests in paper form! Result!! KS3 tests - RIP! Promissor - RIP! Ain't technology wonderful? Roy

Wednesday will be my last day after nearly 36 years in the school! After a few years in the Engineering business I started teaching Physics in 1972. My first encounter with a computer was the ZX80 in 1980, followed closely by the good old BBC. We used one for data logging etc. in Physics - the BBC was a great machine for its time. The first computer room was kitted out with RM 186s around 1990 & I took over as Head of IT (& IT Coordinator & Network Manager!) in 1993, while still teaching Physics for most of the week!! First big project was to bin the RM Network & install 20 P75 Pentiums with an NT3.51 Server in 1996. A server crash the week before Ofsted and the difficulty then of getting decent NT support saw a migration to Novell Netware - which we still use. Bit different now - 3 main computer rooms, clusters of PCs & laptops in various places around the school, laptops for all teachers, Netware Servers for Curriculum & Admin, Linux server for web hosting, 2003 Server for KS3 Tests (now binned!!), a VMWare server for development work etc. etc. I've been lucky in that I've been left to get on with the job of implementing pretty much all aspects of IT in the school, without a great deal of intervention from SLT! For the last couple of years I've been purely Network Manager, with a great colleague taking over the Head of IT role. My successor has been working alongside me since January - nearly 40 years younger, but totally capable of keeping the whole lot going and introducing exciting new developments in the future. The challenges of the last 15 years have been truly invigorating - I think I'd have been pretty bored & washed out by now if I'd still just been teaching Physics! Thanks to all the Edugeek Community – you’ve been great support! The FFS thread is a great stress reliever! Good luck to you all. RoyG

Well - I've received 2 heating allowances already, so really should join the group! I retire at Easter - my successor is the ripe old age of 22!! And bloody good he is too!!

Astra VXR & a Corsa Rally Car. Retiring at Easter - growing old disgracefully... RoyG

First bike - BSA Bantam - 42 years ago!!! Present bikes - 2001 Bandit 1200 and 1987 BMW R100RS. Raced various Yamahas back in the '80s & have been Rallying since then. Doing the 2008 BTRDA Stage Rally Championship in a Corsa. What's all this cr*p about being too old?! Finally retire at easter, so more time to enjoy bikes, cars & lots of leisure time! RoyG

Second PM sent... RoyG

PM sent. RoyG

Manglement seems keen to migrate from Integris to SIMS - we had the glossy demo yesterday. Can anyone give me a rough estimate of techie time spent per month on SIMS support and what technical issues we may have. Although Integris is now a bit old & clunky it's rock solid & costs me hardly any time at all - just the odd update now & again. RoyG

Just had a glossy presentation from SIMS - SLT seemed to be impressed..... We were assured that running SIMS on a Novell Netware network was "No problem". Does anyone out there have any experience which might confirm this - or otherwise?!! RoyG

Just had a glossy presentation from SIMS - SLT seemed to be impressed..... We were assured that running SIMS on a Novell Netware network was "No problem". Does anyone out there have any experience which might confirm this - or otherwise?!! RoyG

Well, we ran three sessions of the Business Studies Mock Exam yesterday and today. What a nightmare!! The info. was supposed to be available 48 hours before the exam, but we only got the final bit 25 minutes before the exam started. The registration details received from Edexcel were full of mistakes - it looked like the spreadsheet we sent them with all the candidate info had been transferred manuallly, not imported. Kids' names spelt wrong, mistakes in the times of exams, IDs & passwords that didn't work..... After we sorted that lot out the exams themselves ran relatively smoothly. A few machines crashed, but the kids could reboot & pick up where they left off - except for one kid who couldn't restart on any machine. The best bit was when we looked at the results print-out. 16 out of 75 were given no marks for correct responses and even the adding up of the marks was wrong for loads of them!! All this does not bode well for the real thing in the summer. Not impressed!!! Anyone else done this Mock yet? RoyG

Try this - Media Player - Tools - Options - Performance - Advanced Make sure "Use overlays" under Video Acceleration is not ticked. You might have to untick "Use overlays" under DVD playback too. RoyG

Has anyone got any experience of using Phoenix E1. It looks like a pretty good option from a management & support point of view, as it's web-based & hosted centrally. Any feedback would be gratefully received. RoyG

We're running a Business Studies mock next week & would prefer not to get the "update needed, terminating" message! Can anyone tell me what are the latest versions are for the Promissor server & client? Our server is v1.1.12.2 & client ("administrator"!!) v8.97.204.2. Better still, can anyone tell me where I can find this info. on Edexcel or Promissor sites? Thanks. RoyG

We have a demo from SIMS in a couple of weeks. What should we be asking? We moved from the old DOS SIMS many years ago, butare now seriously considering a move back. Comments please.... RoyG

Damn you /envy We are using it here for "on the spot, unofficial" assessment, so teachers know how well the kids are doing It's a pretty sad state of affairs if they need to use that pile of poo to know how their kids are getting on!! Even then it'll only give them info on how the kids can perform tedious, low-level, prescribed tasks & nothing at all about any interesting, imaginative or useful IT. Or maybe they're not expecting the kids to use IT in an interesting & imaginative way - small wonder kids get bored & disillusioned! Rant over! Happy New Year everyone. RoyG

I took great pleasure in removing all traces from our network a couple of weeks ago. R.I.P. RoyG

Yep - sure did!! Merry Christmas everyone - I'm off home till next year! RoyG

Not so silly - I did once have a batch of Asus machines that insisted on installing to E:. But not this one! It's no big deal - I've reinstalled XP OK - but am just puzzled about a complete windows folder disappearing! Thanks for your suggestions. RoyG

Our Finance Manager fired up his PC this morning - "missing or corrupt hal.dll". It was working fine last night. Booted from a stick - DIR - NO WINDOWS FOLDER!! Anyone got any ideas on this one? RoyG

Cheers - I was expecting a preferred server option on the Client tab, like XP. I'll give it a whirl.... RoyG

I would suggest putting the ip address of your server into the client rather than leaving it blank Where is this setting in client properties? RoyG

Loaded Novell Vista Client 1.0 a couple of weeks ago. Seems generally OK, but occasionally comes up with "Tree or server not found". RoyG