flyinghaggis

I was excited about this until I realised ............ATgames are manufacturing it! AtGames Confirms It's Making The Mega Drive Mini, Then Deletes Tweet - Nintendo Life

Good to know the start menu problem can be solved with something as simple as a GPO setting! I'll check out U-EV as well. That's an interesting idea using the guest group for pupils. That was a concern about local profiles in that I worry we'll encounter an issue and will need to run a script to get rid of them in bulk at some point so it would be useful to have that covered. I'd kind of hoped using something like Delpfof could be made a thing of the past when moving to Windows 10 but it doesn't look like there's any other option unfortunately when managing profiles. Thanks for the advice. I'll post any useful information I find when testing it here so it'll hopefully be of some assistance to others

I'm still trying to work out how best to setup profiles for our Windows 10 deployment. Given roaming profiles are being deprecated that leaves us with the option of either Mandatory or Local profiles. I'm wondering whether it might be better in the long run to just go with local profiles combined with redirected appdata and start menus plus maybe a few scripts/registry edits to configure things where necessary. I'm thinking this might be the most flexible way forward. Things seem to be working OK generally with local profiles though the first login is kind of slow and there are a few apps which don't redirect appdata cleanly meaning setup becomes a per machine thing. The redirected start menu works fine though it seems combine shortcuts from the local machine with the redirected shortcuts which is kind of annoying and leaves the menu a bit cluttered with duplicate shortcuts. I could probably run some kind of script to clean these issues up though. We've always used roaming profiles since going to Windows XP and 7 so I don't have any experience setting up mandatory profiles so it could just be that I'm fearing the unknown. Has anyone tried using local profiles on a school Windows 10 network or is Mandatory the better option?

I'm just baiting the fanboy's to be fair I have a Switch, Xbox One , Playstation 4 and a slightly older PC. In the OP's situation I'd still recommend a PS4 over the others but they're all decent systems and all have their own merits.

The PS4 is the more powerful, better designed/built system and has VR support whereas the Xbone has 720p, Kinect and no exclusive games (since they're now all available on PC). Easy decision IMO and I say that as someone who owns both systems

I actually ordered a Playstation VR headset today. The recent price drop and having experienced WipeOut: Omega Collection in VR is the main thing that sold it to me. Plus I've got Eve Valkyrie and Resident Evil 7 which are also supposed to be decent in VR. I'd agree with the comment at the moment that VR works best in cockpit style simulation games. Wipeout in particular is amazing! I've held off previously primarily because the technology isn't really there yet but for a couple of hundred pounds I feel more comfortable giving it a try as I figure I can always sell it down the line without taking a huge financial hit if I get bored or want to upgrade in future. Also, now that's it's been out for a while you can pick up most of the games pretty cheap second hand. That also discouraged me from getting into it sooner as whilst they were fun most launch games were literally glorified tech demos being sold for £50 a shot! One of my friends is a bit of a VR junkie and over the last 6 months has owned an HTC Vive, PS VR and a Dell Microsoft VR Headset. Strangely, despite the lower resolution, I actually think the PS headset looks just as good and it's undoubtedly the most comfortable especially if you wear glasses. Ideally I'd like to get a PC compatible headset eventually but I don't really feel any of the current crop can justify their price tags. If I'm being honest I'm just buying it for a bit of fun for now to get a taste of what's to come in future. As others have said the technology isn't quite there for 'proper' VR yet in terms of the headset resolution or the head/hand tracking IMO. Plus being tethered by a power/video cable makes walking about awkward and really breaks the immersion. I'm sure in a few years time there will be some truly stunning stuff out there though once they figure out ways to workaround these issues. Has anyone else jumped on the bandwagon recently?

Yeah, this story keeps on popping up. I guess there's a good chance it'll happen eventually as we seem to be seeing huge performance leaps in mobile phones/tablet processors whereas Intel seem to be struggling to make the generational jumps we used to get back in the day. Feels like only a matter of time until x86 based CPU's are unable to compete and superseded by something else. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders whether this is purely an attempt to short Intel stock though! It's amazing that what's basically a rumour (and one we've seen multiple times before) by one news company could have such a serious impact on Intel's share value! Not to mention all of the recent scare stories around Intel/AMD CPU flaws. It's almost as though someone out there is literally pumping out negative publicity about x86 chip manufacturers

You could get a new VW Golf 1.5 for that budget which I think meets all your criteria. If you want something with a bit more go then either a second hand Golf GTi or Focus ST are what I'd opt for

Judging by the level of input and support IT staff (and non-teaching staff in general) seem to have in education "Outsourced" is more than likely the direction it's going But yeah, Servers migrated to Azure, services in Google Gsuite or Office 365 and more 1:1 BYOD devices like iPads/tablets/etc. Projectors with AppleTV's or a similar solution for wirelessly mirroring devices.

How have people with ebikes found them in terms of maintenance and getting spare parts? Would most shops that sell them (Halfords, Edinburgh Bicycle,etc) also be able to service and repair them? It's obviously easy enough to get support for the regular mechanical parts but I'd wondered how easy it would be to replace the motor/battery/controller/etc in the event one failed a year or two down the line. Are parts fairly standard or would it require contacting the manufacturer? Would a regular bike tech in a store be able to replace/repair a faulty motor on an ebike? This is the main reason I'm somewhat wary of spending more than £500-ish as I could write that off if it failed irreparably after a years warranty however anymore expensive (£1000+) and I'd want to be sure it could be used daily for several years without major costs or the risk of not being able to find replacement parts.

I thought I'd resurrect this thread now the weather should hopefully be on the verge of improving with the arrival of spring in a couple of weeks time! I've been struggling with a knee injury this past year so was mulling over the idea of getting an e-bike for my commute to work. I used to cycle to work all the time but with the weather and my health not being great I've not really been out this last year. I was actually thinking of maybe getting a folding electric bike as it would be easier for storing at work and home. I noticed that Halfords do a Carrera Crosscity Electric Bike for £650 which looks ideal for hacking to work and back. It's got full mudguards and a pannier rack which are the main things I'd probably want for a commuting bike. Happy to spend in the £500-1000 as it would save me that in bus fares in a year or so. I noticed someone mentioned kits to convert existing bikes which might be an option as I already have a spare bicycle in the garage. Do electric conversion kits work reliably? The Gtech one looks pretty slick though I'd wondered whether a single speed would be suitable for climbing up steep hills (of which there are a few on my commute home) even with the battery assistance? Also whilst it takes mudguards I'm not sure whether there are mounting points to fit a pannier rack? Any tips, suggestions or bike recommendations from anyone who has used an electric bike for commuting?

I've just noticed that you can set High Contrast from the Logon Screen and annoyingly Windows 10 seems to retain this setting even when the PC is restarted. I realise there may be accessibility issues with some pupils but I'd rather get rid of this option at the login screen if possible. Pupils will just abuse this and it'll generate endless support calls! Is there a way to remove the "Ease of Access" options from the login screen? Or can it at least be configured so the PC doesn't retain these settings on reboot? EDIT: I actually noticed on another thread someone has configured a way to remove access to the shortcuts for specific groups of users which may be an option. I don't think this will fix the logon screen problem though (since as nobody is logged on it'll presumably be running under 'system' level file access permissions)? Maybe forcing a specific theme on computer start-up as well as on user log-off like suggested above

I believe you can set a cloud Chrome policy to block staff from using File Stream. However I think it's an enable/disable setting per user so it wouldn't offer any granularity if you want staff using it on certain computers but not others. It would be nice if there were the option to allow staff to use it on school computers but not their own personal devices.

+1 I really wish Sega would stop licensing out it's consoles to AtGames who just make shoddy low quality knock-off versions of popular consoles. If Sega themselves actually made a serious in-house effort, like Nintendo have, I'd rush out and buy a Megadrive/Saturn/Dreamcast mini tomorrow.

This just highlights the reason that IT managers and system administrators shouldn't be the data protection officer for the GDPR role. We have far to much of a vested interest in maintaining the security and smooth running of networked systems to prioritize GDPR requirements above them. The same goes for anyone in charge of a specific system really. If it comes down to a choice between prioritizing complying with GDPR legislation or keeping optimal/complete backups which one do your think every IT manager responsible for any system is going to pick! The kickback on this thread to the requirement to delete data from backups is the perfect example of this!

I was kind of excited by the idea of a secret of mana remake but having seen the gameplay footage on IGN it seems a bit low rent and lacking the charm of the original. The 3d models look a bit a awkward and the voice acting is dire. Think I'll probably give it a miss unless the reviews suggest it's better than it looks from the above video.

They're OK but personally I've found Dell has better management utilities for configuring things like BIOS settings. Plus the warranty services are better with Dell. There's nothing wrong with the Lenovo's though and the build quality/reliability has been similar. Though having said that we used to always buy Dells, switched to Lenovo's for a couple of years and are now back using Dell's. So I guess the Lenovo's couldn't have impressed us that much!

I had a skim through but on first impressions I think most of the materials will be too basic for it to be worthwhile for most folks on here. Especially if you've been working in IT support for anything over a year or two. I'm going to cancel it before the end of the trial period.

I forget offhand exactly what but when we reviewed it there were quite a few scenarios which weren't covered by Google vault and could still result in staff or the school losing/deleting data which Vault can't recover. You could probably get by with just Vault but it's not a complete backup solution for Google data. Maybe something to put to management for a decision if money is tight so they can make the call on whether it's worth it. Also it could be that Vault has improved as it's a few years since we've looked at it. I notice it now seems to cover a few areas which I'm sure it didn't previously so might be worth reviewing again before we renew the contract.

We currently use Spanning. It's awesome and I'd definitely recommend it. They do an educational deal priced per account so you don't need to worry about how much data staff and pupils are using which is really handy. Before that we had Backupify but the admin interface is awful and they charge per Gb (which is a nightmare when your users have unlimited storage) so we moved away from it to Spanning!

I'll have a skim through it tonight and decide whether it looks worth doing. As others have said I like the sound of some of the later chapters. It's been a while since I've been at uni so I've no doubt a lot of it would be useful to plug any holes in my knowledge. Especially with Google themselves apparently promoting it.

Happy New Year ! Hope 2018's a good one

I've decided to take your recommendation and picked up Persona 5 at lunch time today as it was on sale in my local CeX Looks pretty interesting and it's the highest rated PS4 game ever after Grand Theft Auto and The Last of Us on Metacritic so hopefully I won't be disappointed. I'd been meaning to pick up FF15 at some point. I was tempted today as it was only £12 but everyone I've spoken to has said it was rubbish so I'll probably give it a miss. Thinking about it now I haven't actually enjoyed a Final Fantasy game since FF12 on the Playstation 2 a decade ago!

I didn't see one so thought I'd start the obligatory "Game of the Year 2017" thread! Mainly due to the fact that, like many others in education, I have time off over Xmas and could use some recommendations http://www.edugeek.net/forums/gaming/191645-game-year-2017-a.html

Thought I'd start a thread as it's very nearly that time of year! From a personal point of view I have some time off over Xmas so wanted to get some tips of what games you thought were the best of 2017? I haven't really had much time for gaming this past year so I'll start with a top 3 though if anyone would rather go for a top 3/5/10 or whatever that's fine by me! From what I've played so far this year I'd say :- 1) PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds 2) Xcom 2: War of the Chosen 3) Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild