flyinghaggis

Watched the lastest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie last night. Was pretty poor unfortunately. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Yet another childhood memory butchered by Michael Bay....! I also watched "A million ways to die in the West" but that was a clichéd comedy western which even Seth MacFarlane looked bored and uninterested by! Actually got bored about 30 mins in and turned of off which is odd as I love Family Guy and enjoyed Ted too.

The original surface, released in 2012, fair enough but MS refreshed it in Oct 2013 and now they're effectively dropping support for the surface 2 less than 18 months later. Offering 'Extended support' for 4 years is cold comfort if you can't actually upgrade the device to the latest version of Microsoft's OS in what could be as little as several months after buying it. Public experiments like that are the kind of thing that loses them customers. Apple wouldn't get away with not offering an IOS/OSX upgrade for an 18 month old ipad/iPhone or Mac and neither should anyone else. Sorry, minor rant there but the whole Windows RT debacle and Microsoft's handling of it makes me worry about how Windows 10 will turn out. Especially given their recent form with Windows 8 and Windows phone/mobile releases. Hopefully MS can put out something a bit more coherent with Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

I think the thing I took away from it was that most of those polls put me around the centre-left but the BBC's stated that would have been towards the centre in the 90's. So they're obviously hinting that in general, for whatever reason, there's been a noticeable move to the right politically in general compared to what we had 20-30 years ago. Mind you I'm increasingly of the opinion that the BBC itself should be disbanded as, whilst I think Government needs to keep tabs on things like housing, welfare and general amenities I'm not convinced the concept of a state funded TV station paid for by a fixed fee per household is particularly appropriate in this day and age. The downside of this of course is that it probably means Rupert Murdoch will take it over and replace it with God knows what so maybe I should be careful what I wish for.....!

I get the impression Windows RT was nothing more than MS hedging their bets in case Intel couldn't deliver a low power x86 solution to compete with ARM. Now that Intel have a pretty decent selection of ultra low voltages fanless CPU's out there isn't much need for Windows RT anymore as far as I can see. MS would probably kill off support for it tomorrow if they could but I guess they don't want to be seen to be too quick to entirely drop an OS they've released relatively recently. I'd take the lack of an upgrade path for Windows RT as meaning they aren't planning on continuing ARM support for desktops, laptops and tablets?

I thought it was quite common in schools for the Network/IT Manager to be a member of teaching staff on SLT/SMT so I suspect it's probably not that unusual. If the person in that role has no IT/technical background I can see why it might not be appropriate for them to have a domain admin password. Probably comes down to do the semantics of how you define the job role of the person ultimately in charge of IT in the school. Judging by the responses to the poll it is very unusual for anyone non-technical to be given the admin passwords for network systems/services which is sensible. Putting it in a sealed envelope in a safe (or the equivalent) is likely the safest thing to do just in case anyone needs to get their hands on it in an emergency.

Usually do a 5k/30 minutes on the treadmill, then 15-20 minutes on the crossstrainer/rowing machine and a 15-30 minute swim 2-3 times a week. I typically cycle to work (5 miles each way) on the days I don't go too the gym. Hoping to get back into my mountain biking at the weekend when the weather improves.

+1 to what JRowley said really. Microsoft have simply realised that they need to move to a business model funded by advertising, app purchases, subsciptions or a similar style of approach as selling OS upgades for £100+ isn't really viable anymore. Given that model it's in their interests to get everyone using that same most up to date version of their software as splitting the userbase by a paywall will only hurt them in the long term. Plus, other than enthusiasts like ourselves, historically very few people bother to upgrade the OS on a laptop/desktop. MS probably makes most of it's revenue from selling OEM bundled operating systems with new hardware so offering free upgrades probably isn't that huge a give-away for them in real terms. It does seem generous of them to allow upgrades for pirated copies but I suspect they're assuming people who pirate their OS aren't going to pay to upgrade to a new version and it means fewer legacy support costs. Also, MS probably figure that at least if they're on the latest version it means they might make some App store / cloud service, advertising revenue from them which is better than nothing. They're probably hoping to avoid another Windows XP where people stay on the OS for a decade by giving away the latest version! I think it's the only realistic option MS have ultimately. That and ....YAY FREE WINDOWS..... Welll, maybe not entirely free as I still think they might try and bring out some kind of subscription based model to go along with Windows 10. Maybe bundle things like Office and other productivity software as part of the subscription. Or even a 'Xbox Gold' style approach where you get access to games/apps/movies by paying a monthly fee. Be interesting to see what happens but MS really needs Windows 10 to be a home run as the competition is getting pretty fierce out there and most people are starting to question whether they even need a Windows OS in light of mobile platforms like IOS and Android.

Microsoft have simply realised that they need to move to a business model funded by advertising, app purchases, subsciptions or a similar style of approach as selling OS upgades for £100+ isn't really viable anymore. Given that model it's in their interests to get everyone using that same most up to date version of their software as splitting the userbase by a paywall will only hurt them in the long term. Plus, other than enthusiasts like ourselves, historically very few people bother to upgrade the OS on a laptop/desktop. MS probably makes most of it's revenue from selling OEM bundled operating systems with new hardware so offering free upgrades probably isn't that huge a give-away for them in real terms. It does seem generous of them to allow upgrades for pirated copies but I suspect they're assuming people who pirate their OS aren't going to pay to upgrade to a new version and it means fewer legacy support costs. Also, MS probably figure that at least if they're on the latest version it means they might make some App store / cloud service, advertising revenue from them which is better than nothing. They're probably hoping to avoid another Windows XP where people stay on the OS for a decade by giving away the latest version! I think it's the only realistic option MS have ultimately. That and ....YAY FREE WINDOWS..... Welll, maybe not entirely free as I still think they might try and bring out some kind of subscription based model to go along with Windows 10. Maybe bundle things like Office and other productivity software as part of the subscription. Or even a 'Xbox Gold' style approach where you get access to games/apps/movies by paying a monthly fee. Be interesting to see what happens but MS really needs Windows 10 to be a home run as the competition is getting pretty fierce out there and most people are starting to question whether they even need a Windows OS in light of mobile platforms like IOS and Android.

Yeah, I can't believe Hawking agreed to do it but kudos to him for it!

BBC iPlayer - Comic Relief - 2015: Little Britain Sketch David Walliams' Little Britain character Lou meets Professor Stephen Hawking. Also starring Catherine Tate.

Also, I'd wanted to ask is there a secure and manageable way to allow users to Java to run outdated plug-ins which require users to drop the security settings in order to run. I don't want to drop security settings site wide entirely but it mentions an exception site list. Is there are way to manage this list centrally? Our science departments keep on complaining that they're reliant on sites which use Java applets. Most of these sites create the applets and never update them so many are years/decardes old from outdated versions of java.

Seriously, it's uncanny how similar they look! Have you ever seen them in the same room at once......just saying.....

I take it that doesn't fix the issue with users being unable to run Chrome on multiple computers at the same time using a redirected roaming profile though? The issue with us is that we've moved to Google Apps so Chrome is literally the first thing 90% or staff run when they log in and they're bound to leave it running on a computer when they walk away from it to log on elsewhere.

Has anyone found a fix for this issue with Chrome and roaming profiles yet by the way? I'd tried redirecting the appdata but as you've suggested it causes Chrome to crash if you run it on more than one computer at a time. I can't see staff being willing to tolerate a limitation like that in our school. Plus it will raise a lot of support calls with Chrome crashing and people not realising the cause so I'm reluctant to do it anyway.

@Arthur @dooley_do Thanks for the suggestion. We've having similar sounding issues so I've set this policy to disabled. Hopefully will resolve the problem as killing the process fixes it so I'm pretty sure it's a background process chrome is running on login which is causing the issue.

Arrrrgh, utterly fed up with cold calls at work but I think Liam has provided the answer! The next time someone cold calls here's what to reply with (preferably in a gruff Irish accent) :- "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking to sell me something I can tell you I don't have any budget left, but what I do have is a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you stop calling me now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will report you to the TPS."

I'd also suggest steering clear of 4k monitors for just now. They may seem cheap but the sub £500 ones are all 60hz TN panels and Windows UI/font scaling is still a liability. Better to go with something like the new Acer 1440p 144hz IPS Gsync 27" monitor if gaming is your main concern. Acer Predator XB270HU Review - TFT Central If that doesn't fit within budget it's probably better to stick with a regular IPS 27" 1440p monitor rather than going 4k IMO.

+1 That's awesome!

Yeah, I saw these for sale in a Curry's store a couple of years back and it made me laugh! "With the optical fibres surrounded by wire insulation that helps to shield and protect the signal, the Digital Optical Cable also benefits from precision-polished terminals and durable gold-plated connectors which help to ensure the best possible connection."

It's definitely not on a par with a "Gold-Plated" Optical Cable Buy SANDSTROM AV Gold Series S2OPT314X Digital Optical Cable - 2 m | Free Delivery | Currys

The other issue with a MDM solution is that if you're applying these policies to personally owned devices how much control and lockdown can you reasonably exercise over them? Do you start blocking the install or forcing removal of specific apps, installing certificates and locking down their internet to redirect it through a school proxy, applying filtering and blocking certain functions of the device. All might be appropriate on a school owned device but if it's a pupil or staff members own tablet/phone you might be limited in your options even with MDM rolled out to them?

We've recently rolled out ipads to our 3rd year pupils (BYOD style). Our filtering does a reasonable-ish job of blocking most but pupils always seem to find an app or a proxy which isn't blocked. Also, whenever an app is updated there seems to be a chance it suddenly start working again until the filtering catches up. Even failing that they can always setup remote access to their home computers or simply link their devices to a 3G phone if they want to surf unfiltered! Some have already started setting up VPNs and using a variety of similar services to get around the filtering! Again ,we block VPN's in the filtering but they'll always eventually find one that isn't blocked. I'm starting to feel that between personally owned BYOD devices and transparent proxy's that we no longer have the technical means to reliably filter our pupils' internet access.... I think that pupils and staff bringing in their own kit is here to stay though regardless of the risks it brings with it.

I'm surprised there's so much hatred on here directed towards the person that got conned! I'd expect/hope Ebay will come down on the side of the buyer as the last thing they'll want as a company is to attract more copy-cat scammers trying to pass off photos of goods as the actual thing on their auction site!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=spZJrsssPA0&x-yt-cl=85114404