flyinghaggis

I'm holding off until I can see it in store myself, and check out the reviews online, but I'm tempted to replace my 2019 Macbook Air with one of the new M2 Macbook Air's. I've heard they can only support a single external monitor however I generally just use my ultrawide display (34" 3440x1440 60Hz) so that should presumably stilll work fine over a USB-C to displayport as it currently does with my current MBA?

It does seem like a bit of an oversight not addressing multi-monitor support. At least the webcam has been upgraded with a smaller bezel (and a notch!). As good as the CPU sounds it seems a shame that a £1250 laptop in 2022 still comes with only 8Gb RAM and a 256Gb SSD. How have the M1 Mac owners on this forum found the 8Gb RAM or did you upgrade to 16Gb?

I noticed that my Xbox series S gets ridiculously hot on standby so I’m suspicious of how much power it’s drawing in that state! I’ve also set it to power off fully. Netflix has been in the news as taking a hit but I think Sky TV will be the ones hit hardest when people start reviewing and reducing their monthly costs. I’m planning on dropping it in a couple of months time when my renewal is due. I can see it being the first subscription for the chop on most peoples lists.

I also have an Anker vertical mouse which I find quite comfortable. I like the fact it's very light for a wireless mouse as well. My reason for making the switch was that I've been having back/posture problems (rather than arm/elbow issues) but I think it's probably RSI of some form from spending too much time reaching for a mouse with my right hand and sitting awkwardly because of it. Not quite sure what to try other than minimising time in front of a computer. Again, difficult given our line of work. I notice that Logitech have released a cheaper vertical mouse which might be of interest if you're after a vertical mouse. https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/19/23030160/logitech-lift-ergonomic-vertical-wireless-mouse-price-features

Now available best strategy game of the last decade IMO https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/xcom-2

I thought the same thing. Surely the cyclist is in the wrong if they overtake a car that's indicating to turn? It seem to imply that now cyclists can overtake turning vehicles with impunity? I certainly wouldn't risk doing that kind of manoeuvre if I was out cycling! Rule H3: New priority for cyclists when cars are turning You should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse drawn vehicles going ahead when you are turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane. This applies whether they are using a cycle lane, a cycle track, or riding ahead on the road and you should give way to them. Do not turn at a junction if to do so would cause the cyclist, horse rider or horse drawn vehicle going straight ahead to stop or swerve. You should stop and wait for a safe gap in the flow of cyclists if necessary.

"Price of goods set to rise by the rate of inflation!" Must be a slow news day

Bought an iPhone 13 Mini last month to replace my OnePlus 5. Pretty impressed with it. I'd have considered a Google Pixel 6 if there was a smaller version but the regular one was larger than the OnePlus5 I had which I already felt was too big.

Just the regular one as it's only £45 whereas the Netflix bundled one is still £90

A Chromecast with Google TV Dongle

I know the feeling! I'd be happy spending a bit more on a suitably supportive/comfortable chair and looked at some of the refurbished premium brand options like Herman Miller/etc but I'm apprehensive at the idea of ordering a chair that expensive which I haven't been able to sit in beforehand! I had a look around locally but there don't seem to be that many stores near me these days. Most have closed down their retail stores and are now only available to order from online!

@hardtailstar I'm mulling over whether to buy a better chair and wondered what you ended up going for? I currently have an Ikea Markus which is OK quality-wise but I find the foam base is a bit lacking in padding and the lack of adjustment in the armrests is frustrating as it prevents me getting quite as close to the desk as I'd like. For the price ~£150 it's OK but in hindsight I should maybe have spend a bit more for something with more adjustment. Any recommendations or suggestions?

I would say it improves as it goes along and the second series is better than the first. I laughed all the way through it though!

Just spotted this on Netflix and I've binged both seasons over a weekend.

Microsoft’s new $249 Surface Laptop SE is its first true Chromebook competitor Edit: I've linked to the thread discussing Windows 11 SE as the OS is more relevant than the hardware itself. "http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-11/224799-microsoft-announces-windows-11-se-new-chrome-os-competitor.html" http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-11/224799-microsoft-announces-windows-11-se-new-chrome-os-competitor.html

We found that the RDClip error was caused the remote monitoring/control software we had installed locking out the Clipboard. I think the SecureClient tries to lock this and can't because the monitoring software has it permanently open. So if you have Impero, ABTutor, etc it might be worth trying disabling or removing it. We're still experiencing issues trying to get the software to connect to the internet though as it doesn't seem to pick up the proxy correctly....

My school has proposed a 2 year email retention period. To me this seems like an incredibly short period of time for an organisation like a school given safeguarding requirements and the fact most children will there for at least 6 years in terms of education/qualifications? Understandably it's SLT's decision and call to make but the timeframe surprised me. What kind of timeframe have your schools/MAT's opted for? Are there any DFE Guidelines around this? Does 2 years seem like a reasonable duration for email retention in the Education sector ?

ExtremeTech - The Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max’s Power Efficiency Should Rattle Intel, AMD Granted they're very expensive but judging by the benchmarks Apple has a mobile CPU that can seemingly compete with the best similarly priced AMD/Intel have to offer whilst using a fraction of the energy

ArsTechnica Report: Microsoft is working on a low-cost Surface Laptop and “Windows 11 SE” Be interesting to see whether Microsoft can gain any traction in the educational market with a low-cost Surface Laptop. Chromebooks and iPads still seem to be dominating the sector right now.

We're seeing similar issues using our Fortinet/Fortigate Firewall with anything using a Let's Encrypt certificate being blocked. We've contacted Fortinet but so far their only suggestion has been to allow expired certificates which we're apprehensive about doing due to the security risks. Fortinet claim they're working on a fix/update but we haven't heard anything solid so far.

I've been using an Ultrawide (34" 3440x1440) at home as a replacement for my previous dual monitor setup for the past 5 years. Most of the time I just use Windows Snap as it basically gives you the equivalent of 2 x 20" 4:3 monitors. Or the Microsoft Powertoy FancyZones if I want something a bit more custom. I prefer it to a multi-monitor setup personally but I guess it depends on your use case. Good for gaming as well especially with space/flight/driving sims and first person games.

Depends how much effort you want to go to but I'd recommend going through the games and checking the buy/sell prices on the CEX website to find out which ones are more valuable and potentially worth selling separately yourself on eBay. Happy to have a look if you send me a photo.

After buying an iPhone 3G then 4S I switched to Android after that (Nexus 5X). I've had OnePlus 5 since 2017 but it's stopped receiving updates so will probably upgrade this year. I'm mulling over going back to IOS however as there aren't any Android phones that tempt me at the moment. Probably gonna go for an iPhone 13 or 13 Mini

It could be useful but my first two thoughts are that :- A) It sounds likely to be pretty expensive. Hopefully the Edu costs are super low to entice schools though from what I've heard that's not been the case with Azure/etc so I suspect it may not be cost effective for widepsread use in education. B) We, and I'm sure most other schools, are increasingly moving towards running everything in a web browser (Office 365, Google Apps, MIS, etc) so I'm not sure building a dependency on running Windows apps inside a cloud hosted version of Windows is an appropriate solution for anything other than older legacy software. It's a nice option to have though.

Yeah, I'm starting to feel that ARM will become a big part of the Windows 11 push. I get the impression that Microsoft is keen to break the Chromebook/iPad duopoly that's starting to form in educational BYOD. Lower cost ARM based Windows laptops with better performance, manageability and battery life than current x86 models could be a game changer. We've already seen proof of concept of Windows 11 running on a raspberry pi. Imagine if you could combine the cost of that with performance to match current low end x86 devices. Equally, in a world where most people only use a browser 99% of the time I'm not convinced that legacy app support is even a major restriction any more. Especially if MS can implement decent x66 emulation. Curious to see whether x86 remains the dominant Windows platform a few years from now?