flyinghaggis

You agreed to continue paying for a service they aren't providing you (and won't be for the foreseeable future) I thought the government have guaranteed to offer loans to business to cover closure periods and the jobs/income of staff? Seems odd they would ask gym members to provide what effectively would be donations. I'm assuming it's a local/community gym rather than one of the chains? I sympathise with the staff in the sectors affected by this though (which is pretty much everything really). One good thing about the education sector is that you know that your job and income is relatively safe during any closure and that schools will eventually re-open. Must be a nervous time for many other workers and businesses who can't take those things for granted.

Whilst the design looks smart and I can appreciate the effort they went to in order to cool the thing I'm not sure it's very practical as I suspect it won't fit in many people's TV/Hi-Fi stands. I'm also kind of disappointed that even though it's a new console the controller looks identical to the previous model and we don't have more new features generally. It sounds good in terms of raw power and specs though. I'm glad they've finally fitted a 1Tb SSD and went all flash without any kind of hybrid drive rubbish. Loading times were getting ridiculous on the current generation relying on spinning rust so solid state will be a big improvement. I really like the concept of having removable SSD expansion so this can be easily increased in future. However it feels to me a lot more like evolution rather than revolution overall Specs of the PS5 are apparently being unveiled tomorrow so it'll be interesting to see how they compare https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/the-ps5-is-getting-developers-excited-and-were-about-to-find-out-why

We looked into this but the Google Group options don't seem to allow you to block a specific group from being able to send to another? Another option you could try is adding the member of staff in charge of each year group to the list. This stopped our pupils abusing the lists very quickly as they know what they're sending also goes to the SLT member responsible for their year group!

I believe with the 3CX system you only pay per "line" rather than per phone so providing you have a relatively small number of concurrent calls you can have as many phones/users as you like. That seems pretty cost effective for schools who tend to have loads of phones/devices but relatively few people making calls at the same time. Especially as I've heard 3CX offer apps for Android/IOS so if you're users have school issued phones/tablets or BYOD they can also use those as a fallback or alternative if more convenient than VOIP handsets.

Unfortunately most manufacturers seem to have noticed this and started soldering RAM and SSD's in place to prevent it Take for example the Surface Laptop 3 I wanted to buy. The RAM is soldered on. The SSD is technically replaceable but is a non-standard sized unit plus it means removing the feet to get at the screws and bending several heat shields to get at it which will certainly void the warranty. Not something I want to do on a brand new laptop.

That's actually a large part of the reason I'd prefer to switch to a laptop rather than a desktop. I feel I spend long enough sitting at a computer desk at work so would prefer to avoid doing the same at home. Having a portable device I can quickly grab when I need to means it's easier to use it on the couch/etc rather them needing to actively go upstairs and sit down in front of my desktop. Hence why I was curious what portable laptops other IT folk were using!

Cool. I have a 34" ultrawide Samsung and find it pretty handy for multitasking. That's why I'm keen to make sure if I buy a laptop it can connect to it without issue.

I'm kind of shocked how many on here are using Chromebooks at home:eek: Though perhaps given how much time I spend in a browser on my desktop/laptop and most services moving to cloud platforms like Azure/AWS I shouldn't really be. Plus IIRC can't most run Android apps these days as well? Do you not find running ChromeOS limits what you can run and do especially if you're supporting, developing and training for a Windows based network?

May need to investigate that in future.....

I was contemplating buying a new laptop to replace both my current laptop and desktop at home. I reckon my workflow would be better suited to a laptop that I could connect to my 1440p monitor (over displayport) when required. My current laptop is a 2016 12" MacBook (Intel M3/8Gb RAM/256gb SSD). It's a lightweight model I bought at the time as a portable device to go alongside my desktop. It runs ok but I'd want a better CPU plus 16gb RAM/512Gb SSD as a minimum if it was my only device. The single USB-C port also means docking options are limited. I've no strong preference on MacOS Vs Windows so I'm unsure whether to buy another Apple device. Being able to run both MacOS and Windows on the same device is useful though. If I bought another Mac I'd definitely want one with their updated keyboard as the butterfly one is garbage. At the moment the only device with the new one is the 16" model and, whilst nice, it's a bit large for a laptop IMO. I'm sure we'll see a new 13/14" model with the new keyboard this year though. Having a look around the main 2 Windows laptops which caught my eye were the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 and the Dell XPS 13 2in1. I like the fact that both of these have the latest Intel CPU/chipset and 3:2 / 16:10 ratio touchscreen displays which I feel are far better than the regular 16:9 aspect for most productivity tasks. I was favouring the surface laptop 3 as it seems pretty much perfect. My main gripe with it is the lack of Thunderbolt 3 support as IIRC I can't connect it to a 4k/1440p monitor over basic USB-C. This means I'll also need the Surface Dock which, though useful, is pretty expensive as an extra. Speaking of expense the price of the device rises steeply when you want more RAM and SSD storage as well. What's everyone using as their personal laptop? Any suggestions and/or recommendations?

IME Stability and reliability. The features Hyper-V offers are fine but most companies seem to design drivers/hardware for VMWare foremost and Hyper-V seems to be an afterthought. Our Hyper-V cluster never ran reliably and often intermittently fell over when doing simple things like moving VM's between servers/etc.

Project stardust - VR remake of the 1983 star wars arcade game Someone created an unofficial VR remake of the 1983 star wars arcade game as part of their university project and it's amazing! Fully playable and you can download it from the link above

That's a good point regarding the wording. They may just be referring to their own games for the near future rather than actually forcing developers to make all Xbox games compatible with the original Xbox One.

I get that Microsoft have a huge install base on Xbox One and are pushing gamepass subscriptions along with the concept of game streaming. So I can see from a business point of view that it makes sense to insist on backwards compatability and platform parity in the first few years of the system's life. However, at the same time it makes me wonder exactly why anyone would spend ~£500 to upgrade to the latest/greatest console if all you're going to get is the same games/experiences that you already have ? Developers are going to be stting there thinking. "I have this cutting edge CPU and 16Gb+ RAM but I can't use it to create larger game worlds or more advanced AI because whatever I create has to fit into the 8GB a base Xbox1 has and run on the potato CPU in it. Also, I have a superfast SSD with storage that can stream levels in on the fly to eliminate loading times but I have to code the game so it can also load from a 5400rpm spinning rust drive". Plus presumably the game controller and feature set of the console will be exactly the same as the Xbox One to ensure partity so nothing exciting there either to begin with. Granted you can always use the extra power run the same games at a higher resolution/framerate but to me that alone won't sell a new system. It'll be interesting to see whether Sony opt for the same strategy

Xbox Series X won’t have next-gen exclusives for a while "All early Series X releases will also be playable on previous Xbox One models."

I love the design of the new Intel ghost canyon NUC which can now accommodate larger video cards like an RTX 2070. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/7/21051879/intel-pc-nuc-9-extreme-ghost-canyon-element-hands-on-teardown-ces-2020 That and one of those new Samsung G9 49" ultrawide monitors to go with it would look good on my desk https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2020/1/3/21047322/samsung-odyssey-g9-g7-curved-gaming-monitor-49-inch-qled-display-specs-ces-2020

I've been playing some of the Oculus first party VR PC games recently. Asgards Wrath and Lone Echo/Echo Arena are really good. Robo Recall is also worth a shot. Superhot VR is still amazing despite being a few years old now and a port of a non-VR game. Pistol Whip is probably my current goto game right now though when I have 15 minutes free. Also, don't forget Rec Room which is free and has loads of fun game modes like the PUBG inspired Rec Royale. Elite Dangerous works pretty well in VR if you're looking for a space sim game.

As much as I love VR, and fully expect that Augmented/Virtual Reality Headsets or Glasses of some variety could be the technology that supercedes the smarphone in future, right now there simply isn't a use for it in an educational context. The technology is too expensive and limited at the moment. Perhaps VR/AR as a 6th Year Computing/Technology project it would be good but it won't be ready for whole class or school use any time soon. However, there are some fantastic experiences out there which highlight how the technology could be used. If you have access to a VR headset I recommend checking out the International Space Station VR Tour :- oculus.com/experiences/rift/1178419975552187/?locale=en_GB

Somebody needs to have word with the marketing department. Current console - Xbox one X Next generation console - Xbox series X It's as bad a decision as Nintendo made with the Wii U.

I like the look of them but feel that a quarter size machine is way too small for actually playing the games. I get that a full size cabinet is probably overkill but if it were me I'd want someting in between. I wonder if anywhere will sell you the panels/frame so you can pick your own screen and internals as constructing the cabinet is the hard part I've heard good things but they seem awfully expensive for what they are. I understand why as they're effectively custom silicon, rather than a raspberry pi running an emulator, however for the money I'd rather buy something like a Nintendo Switch Lite or a Nintendo 2DSXL to run retro games.

I've found that if you go to the app page on the Google store website you can copy the extension/app ID from the URL bar and search for that. That's worked for a couple of extensions I couldn't find listed when searching by name.

Had a play with a couple of laptops the other day in store and I felt the 13.5" Surface Laptop 3 was the best device out at the moment. Build quality is spot on and the 3:2 aspect screen, keyboard and trackpad all seem really good. Handy having touchscreen functionality as well. They can start getting pretty expensive you you want the higher spec devices with more RAM/SSD Storage though. I can't see many folk being happy with the 128Gb SSD in the £900 base spec option and if you want the more usable next level 256Gb it's another £250! Also the USB C port on it doesn't have Thunderbolt 3 support which is quite limiting if you want to use the device docked on a desk connected to a bunch of other devices. In that case you're kind of forced into buying the Microsoft Surface dock connector for ~£150. Still probably the device I'd buy if I were after a new laptop though!

No, I never actually got round to trying the WiFi streaming apps unfortunately. I was going to but when I heard about the official Oculus link being released I thought I'd wait for it.

I tried it briefly last night and it seems to work really well. In fact first impressions are that I'd struggle to tell the difference between it and an actual wired headset. I did only play for around 5 minutes though as my only USB A to C cable is a metre long so it's a bit awkward. My graphics card isn't on the currently supported list either so I wasn't sure if it would work at all. Seems fine though. I've ordered a longer cable so I'll test it more thoroughly when it arrives.

Seems a bit odd punting Half Life as the next VR title? Another piece of interesting VR news is that Oculus released the link feature beta today which allows you to connect the standalone Oculus Quest to a PC via cable which in effect basically lets you use it as an Oculus Rift. It'll be interesting to see how well this works since it's basically "streaming" over USB rather than using it as a video connection. Play Rift Content on Quest with Oculus Link, Available Now in Beta!