flyinghaggis

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess the angle I'm approaching this from is the point of view of how secure these files are on personal devices and whether it's safe leaving offline files enabled. My main worry is what happens if staff are caching copies of files to their own laptops/tablets/phones/etc and any of these devices end up being lost/stolen what's potentially recoverable from them. Most Google sites and companies generally seem to suggest disabling offline files due to the potential loss of control of company/school data but I know some of our staff use the functionality so it's probably something we need to run past SLT first and let them make the call. Do you allow staff to make copies of offline files at your school?

Just wanted to ask whether anyone knows if you enable offline files in Chrome (on Microsoft Windows) for Google Docs/Drive whether they're stored encrypted or secured anyway within the browser cache or can this be read by anyone with access to the file system? I'm guessing they aren't encrypted, since it mentions not enabling this facility on shared/public computers, but wondered whether anyone could confirm for sure as I can't find anything describing the actual process of how it works?

Jimmy Fallon played Mario run on the iPhone and Zelda on the switch the other night.

I've spent quite a few hours playing Duskers over the last week or two and I'm really enjoying it. Not sure how best to describe the game as it's pretty unique. It's basically a Aliens Style Sci-Fi real-time strategy Rogue-like where you control the game completely from a commend line interface! I suppose it's a bit like FTL but with more of a survival horror vibe where you find yourself alone in the galaxy exploring derelict ships using your drones to sweep room to room for salvage. Check out the Trailer and gameplay overview Thought I'd give it a quick recommendation as I'm sure it'll appeal to some people on this forum. Also the retro low-fi visual style of the game (which looks awesome IMO) means it'll run on pretty much any computer under a decade old so no real need to worry about system specs http://store.steampowered.com/app/254320/ Anyone else tried it?

This was my initial reaction but I know schools can be 'funny' when it comes to things like BYOD so I'll be running it past SLT before changing any settings!

I'm also thinking that we could probably differentiate between pupils and staff. I'm slightly less concerned about managing pupil phones as they typically wont have access to anything beyond their own personal email and files. Staff on the other hand could have a multitude of sensitive data about pupils and the school. So I'm thinking maybe we perhaps don't really need to manage pupil personal devices?

I wanted to ask what kind of policies and settings other schools were applying to staff and pupil personal devices such as phones when they're syncing to their school Google and Microsoft cloud services such as Office 365 and Google Apps/Gsuite. Do you allow them to sync personal devices and if so do you force management of the devices when they sync so you can enforce things like lock screen passwords and encryption? I just wanted to get an idea what most people would consider appropriate when it comes to staff syncing school data to personal devices? Currently we have management of devices turned on so it prompts staff to give us permission to set passwords/remote wipe/etc when syncing to school systems. I've been checking a few of the settings and given the need to secure school data it strikes me that device encryption should be enforced along with a mandatory lock screen passcode. I feel like we have a duty to ensure that if a pupil or member of the public finds a lost/stolen staff phone then it's critical they can't get at the data on it but I'm sure many staff wouldn't be happy syncing personal devices if we start enforcing policies along those lines. I'm not quite sure where to strike the balance at the moment. What's everyone else's take?

It's more from the point of view that the system we're securing will be published directly on the web and contains all of the schools MIS system information (pupils/staff details,etc) so management have asked us to look into ways of securing it beyond just a simple username and password. Though I'm also of the opinion that any web/cloud based system hosting confidential information really needs some level of 2-factor authentication to make it more secure. A simple username/password really isn't enough these days IMO and 3SYS itself doesn't have any method of doing this AFAIK. Thanks. Its useful to have a few other options on the table as that's sounding much cheaper than Incapsula.

Do you know what kind of pricing we'd be looking at to secure a onsite web database in order for 200 staff to access it using 2-factor authentication via SMS text or an app like Google Authenticator? We were just about to go live with Incapsula but it's looking like we'll need to go for a higher tier package ($300 pcm) in order to support over 50 staff and it's priced per user ($3 pcm) above a certain number. If that's the case it's going to cost far more than we'd initially anticipated and budgeted for. Probably to the point where it's no longer viable to actually use it. https://www.incapsula.com/pricing-and-plans.html

Rumours abound that Zelda won't be out for the march launch but apparently the Mario game will be available along with splatoon and skyrim. Nintendo Switch will get Mario game from day one, Skyrim and Splatoon too - Pocket-lint

Has anyone bought a Google Daydream headset to go along with their new phone yet. I'm curious to know what it's like!

The price of games is also something I'm worried about as I fear the cost of cartridges will add to the retail price potentially making then more costly than other optical disc based platforms. As much as I'd like them to I really don't see Nintendo trying to compete with the ps4/xb1 in terms of price but we can all live in hope:D In terms of the 'attach rate' the switch should mean that Nintendo will be able to combine the handheld/home market finally which means they no longer have to worry about creating games for two systems. This means all the handheld franchises like Pokemon should now start appearing on the switch which will help ensure a constant stream of games rather than the drought owners faced with the wii u. I'm also hoping we see some kind of subscription service for the Nintendo Switch as they have such a great back catalogue of games that offering access to them via something similar to ps plus or xbox gold seems like a no-brainer. The main thing about the hardware which concerns me at the moment isn't the 720p/1080p issue. It's that the switch is rumoured to only have 4gb of ram which could cause issues porting ps4/xb1 games across to the system they're both packing 8gb. And 3rd party support is what pretty much killed the Wii u so any barrier to porting flagship games is a worry. IMO the whole 720p/1080p issue with the xb1 / ps4 was totally blown out of proportion.

Given Nintendo are unlikely to subsidise it and a similar tegra powered tablet is about £200 I'd guess it'll be around the £300 mark by the time you add a bundled game and a dock plus controller. Maybe £250 for a bundle without a game.

I actually replaced my dual monitor setup (24" + 20") with a single 34" ultrawide (3440x1440) and wouldn't go back. I really like it for productivity (as you can easily tile 2 programs side by side at a resolution of 1720x1400 each), movies and gaming. My 24" monitor was a 120Hz model and I never really felt it made much difference compared to a 60hz one. In fact in a lot of ways the 120hz one was inferior as it only had a TN panel which meant the colour reproduction was noticeably worse than my other IPS panel. Run away from anything that advertises itself as 'gaming' specific IMO! If you want a new monitor I'd pay more attention to making sure it has a 1440p/4k resolution and uses an IPS/PLS panel before you start worrying about the refresh rate My 2c...

I've no objection to the concept of pre ordering a new console. In fact once prices are announced if a retailer is willing to guarantee to honour the price it might actually be a shrewd move given the instability of the pound at the moment. I still think the pre order terms that GAME is offering are shocking though.

As you say GAME are taking pre-orders..... Buy Nintendo Switch | Free UK Delivery | GAMEtrue But why on earth would you want to buy something when you don't know what it's going to cost or whether you're even getting a decent price compared to other retailers And just look at the wording on GAME's site if that isn't enough to send alarm bells ringing PLEASE NOTE: Until we receive an official price from Nintendo, a temporary price of £999.99 will be given to the Nintendo Switch console. This placeholder will show through the checkout process and on your confirmation email, but you will not be charged this amount. At a later date, the confirmed price will be guaranteed to those who have pre-ordered. At this time we have not received official confirmation of stock allocation, nor of the availability of stand-alone consoles versus console bundles. Until we have our allocation confirmed by Nintendo we cannot guarantee that every order will be fulfilled for launch, nor whether we will be able to offer you a stand-alone console or bundle. We will contact you in the event that you need to choose whether you wish to receive a bundled console. Basically they have no idea what's it's going to cost and no idea whether they'll even get stock in at launch. Plus how can you "guarantee" that those who've pre-ordered will be charged the 'confirmed' price. That's basically GAME saying they can set any price at a later date then 'guarantee' to chage you it! Presumably that'll be RRP but they should really have waited until pricing was announced before offering to take pre-orders IMO. Plus what's with the whole £999 figure showing up on the confirmation email and the checkout process. I'd seriously question the business practices of a company behaving like this and strongly consider whether it's one you want to be giving your business to..... Run a mile IMO.......

First I've heard of it but the idea of a radio station based within the game sounds pretty cool!

FlyingHaggis => DeathHaggis

The thing with the Wii was that it had the novelty of the detachable nunchuck motion controller which also had an infrared bar for controlling a cursor on screen which allowed for some great experiences in games that simply couldn't be replicated on the Playstation or Xbox at the time. You had the Zelda sword moves, shooting by aiming at the screen in Metroid and all the Wii sports and Warioware titles just to name a few highlights you wouldn't get elsewhere. I'm kind of concerned that, on the face of it, this just seems to be a 6"-ish touchscreen tablet with some bolt-on controllers and the ability to dock it into a TV. To me that isn't really bringing anything new or exciting to the games market. Plus they're about to release a device like this in a world where every man, woman and child already has a 5-6" touchscreen device in their pocket already in the form of a smartphone! I'm not sure I actually want to buy another device which doesn't appear to offer anything more than the phone in my pocket beyond a bolt on controller. And I say all this as someone who actually wants to buy a Nintendo console as I missed out on the Wii U so there are loads of games I'd like to play which will hopefully be ported across to it! I'll keep an eye on it but so far my feelings are kind of 'meh'......

Cheers!

I've been playing this on the EA Access trial and the multiplayer is pretty amazing from what I've seen so far. Would it be worth creating a sticky thread for EA Origin accounts so we can add fellow Edugeekers?

Morrisons raises Marmite price by 12.5% - BBC News Where will it all end.... Actually, it'll end when goods we import, which is just about everything, have gone up in price by the amount the pound has dropped in value since the brexit vote Unfortunately we can expect things to get worse over the coming months if/when the government actually triggers article 50.....

It looks nice, and I'm sure it'll be a decent piece of kit, but even by Apple standards those are some truly fearsome price tags......... Dollar prices now seem to be pretty much translating directly into GBP as well which isn't helping. The fairly moderately spec'd entry level (i5/8GB RAM/356Gb SSD/Intel graphics) starts at £1449 ($1499) Painful.......

Actually, one of my friends has the HTC Vive so I've tried a couple of VR headsets for comparison. My take on it is that, far from being the budget version, Playstation VR is actually superior to the Vive in terms of the headset. The Vive headset feels really heavy, the straps are uncomfortable and the lenses are prone to fogging up. The Sony headset on the other hand is much better designed and way more comfortable IMO. The thing that I really hated about the Vive is that when scanning across VR scenes you can clearly see what looks like a pixel matrix grid over the image which I found really spoiled the visual experience. I think they call it the screen door effect. It's still present on the Sony headset but to a much smaller degree. PlayStation VR: why there's no screen-door effect | VRHeads It's odd because looking at the system specs and price it would lead you to believe that the Vive is massively superior to PSVR. True, the Vive does have a slightly wider field of view and the pixel count is higher but to me this didn't result in a noticeably sharper image despite the on paper advantage. However, to me these are minor details given the overall much cleaner image on the Sony headset. It's night and day better than the Vive IMO. Having slated the Vive for it's headset options and design I would say that the motion controllers and the headset tracking work brilliantly though. It uses 2 light senors at separate corners of a room so is much more able to track you in 3D whereas Sony uses a single camera so if you started spinning around it could quite easily lose track of you. Unfortunately I never got a chance to try out the PS Move motion controllers though I suspect they won't be on a par to the Vive due to also relying on a single camera. The HTC controllers really are pretty awesome overall especially when you're playing games like VR Minigolf/clay pigeon shooting/etc. I'm pretty tempted to pick up the PSVR but the cost isn't as cheap as it first appears. You need the headset, a PS VR Camera and the move motion controllers. Then you'll be wanting a couple of games so you're pretty much looking in the region of £500-600, not including the cost of a PS4, to get started. Also, I suspect you'll really be wanting a new PS4 Pro going forward to make the most of VR! It's slightly crazy money just to play a few games really! Still, in my opinion, this is the most exciting gaming innovation I've experienced in decades. Going back to sitting in front of a TV doesn't really compare once you've experienced VR gaming. I'm keen to see what developers bring to the table over the coming years........

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/playstation-vr-1235379/review I tried it out the other day and it's really pretty impressive stuff! I played the Battlezone game and the feeling of being in the game is amazing especially when you realise you can look up/down and right behind you. Well worth a go if you get a chance. Has anyone else had a shot and/or bought one?