Joedetic

You could glue them to the desk if you must have them...but even that wont stop them i suppose. How about peeling the spongey back from the plastic upper part and using some sort of glue (maybe epoxy resin like araldite or a contact adhesive) to stick the plastic to the desk? Voilla...permanent mouse mat We got a load free with out PCs but we dont use them because of the lovely optical mice so they just live in a cupboard

During a LOT of building work on site there have been a lot of power interruptions. Albeit only short ones...but that's the problem. You can go into the serverroom and find condensation dripping down the metal shelving just under the air con...brilliant It was a lot of fun during easter last year when I was crouched down inside the server cab (from behind...so no easy way out) when the power went out (as expected) and came on sooner than expected. Of course the air con didnt have time to reset properly and it started getting warmer....only did i notice when the cab i was adding cable ties to started dripping Moral of the story = have the AC set to stay off in power failures because despite it causing a draft on your neck, you dont really want it blowing warm

I like that one...i might use it. I'm going to see how i fare with my own design because i'm not particularly good at webdesign as it is...my website is hardly the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world, but i'd like to try to get better

Hmm... http://www.mambohut.com That was recommended to me by someone on IRC and there's a lot of things on there i like. Unfortunately I dont have any disposable cash for this project. So it's got to be a free thing. I'm thinking of trying to design it using dreamweaver (teaching myself PHP and better CSS...could be time consuming) and a mySQL database. We'll see how this goes...any tips on that sort of thing?

That's quite nice too...but i am either going to go with madeyoursite or just try redesigning my own website

Thankee very muchly

Subject speaks for itself really. I'm after a site with some decent, free templates for Joomala/mambo etc. Any ideas anyone?

Watching a broadcast of live TV. It just gives examples and i'm not entirely sure it's meant to be an exhaustive list. I did the same thing when i read the BBC article about it...went and read the TV License site. Apparently they cant trace TV cards...but i'm not entirely sure i'd want to push it.

Geeks... an audience with That'd be where we get a panel of geeks together and answer tech support questions from the audience. Hold on...that sounds too much like educational ICT support on a busy day (which is most days!)

This is what i was on about: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5074406.stm

Very true *hangs head in shame*

I always found a couple of old partition magic 5 boot floppies with that lovely GUI it's got were quite successful. I've lost them though :'(

There was that thing about there being an appropriate TV license being needed too on the BBC tech news page a few days ago. Another valid reason to block them

If all your servers are in a locked cabinet in there along with the KVM and controls then they might throw back the argument that they would have to force the cabinet door open to do any real damage... But then there's the health and safety issue if there is a distribution unit in there. Kids would not be allowed near one (IIRC). You could also add to your argument that it's their data at risk. If someone accidentally knocked a power switch and took down some of the network, CMIS data, their open files etc could be at risk. Also if teachers are going to dump work in there then they might block your access to the servers or make your path to them more dangerous therfore making your job harder to do. Plenty of possibilities really. But our server room here (we've only got the one with actual servers in) has the master key mortice lock and one of those coded yale locks with a code that is different to ones used on the other coded doors around the site.

/me wonders how KS5 would go..... and then thinks better of it.

We have the opt out put into the newsletter once a year for displaying photos and/or work with forename only on the website. Requests, as ever, must be in writing.

Even worse should they ask them to write about these topics and then stick them on the wall as part of a display?

If the VI formers had had prior training as opposed to being thrown in at the deep end then yes. I'm biased as i'm a VI Form techie (or was up until about a week ago when i officially finished school now making me outside support). Initially showing them what to do and letting them loose on a live system is ill advised. And to have a group of them to keep track of would be a nightmare. Some well trained VI Formers can be an invaluable resource and could quite easily run 80-90% of helpdesk requests as they are usually trivial things. But as ever problems with DPA will crop up and keeping tabs on a group of teens could be more of a problm than it's worth. The key is, if you want somethign done right, pay a professional to do it. You want a network manager or maybe some sort of external network engineer from a company such as Class-Technology (formarly Tulip Computers UK). As for training, the students would only benefit from the disruption it could possibly cause to their studies if they are definately going to continue to use it later in life. My knowledge of networking and various systems helpted to reduce my uni offer by 80 points! So it has some use

Same as us for the secondary school ones

Year of entry + first 3 characters of forename + first 3 characters of surname eg James Hayward in year 13 would be 99jamhay If you want to have people with names like Tom O'Toole in yr 11, for example, you get 01tomo't Staff are first initial and last name eg mine would become jzambon

Problems mostly technical ie broken hardware and configs. Scheme VERY successful. It's mostly popular because it gives students the opertunity to have a laptop they can take to uni (if they participate in the buy-back bit of the lease). Parents are keen on it too We held an info evening with presentations etc in the hall that all new VI Formers and their parents were invited to. I've PM'd you a s***load of text that might help

When I started out I only had a normal student user account. But with training and as time went by, the ICT technicians and head of ICT felt that I could be of more use within the ICT services department if i had a set of administrative permissions, but ones that are restrictive. This enabled me to do more of the "donkey work" that trivial support requests generated such as staff turning up at the ICT Services office asking for documents to be put into the staff shared area. Yes i could see the staff area and RW to it but any sensitive materials had the necessary deny access permissions set to them. MISs are somethign else entirely. Obviously this is sensitive data so i cant have access to it. And as CMIS and SIMS.net use their own integrated authentication from the SQL database that problem was overcome by simpley not giving me a user But yes...hardware rebuilds, RISing, general trouble shooting and donkey work, website filtering, dealing with publishing rules for ISA server, adding/removing/blocking users, dealing with various exchange tasks stuff like that is what i'm used to. I also introduced the helpdesk system and set it up (after MBRS broke down and was cast out in favour of liberum. So you see some examples of things i've done. It's not all donkey work, some of it's more server side involved too

Our school do a laptop leasing scheme for the VI form where you rent a laptop and at the end of the lease you get to keep it because you'll have paid back the full amount of the laptop by that time. I think it's 30 quid a month for two years (not entirely sure on the figures)

"Gifted individual"... Your words not mine I think i just showed an interest and the last network manager asked me if i wanted to help out...i helped out...him and the techie left leaving no ICT support except me and the head of ICT...then the new ICT tech came, and some external support and then another techie... But i've learnt a LOT because i've been given the chance...for which i'm extremely grateful to my school and the ICT support techies (and the guys n gals on edugeek!)

Well, anyone looking for someone to do some summer work i'm looking for a job I'm one of the network admins so i've got some experience with MS Server 2k3 and active directory (my server works fine ) I'd just like to add that i DONT have access to home areas...incase you were wondering Or CMIS or anything that could break the DPA.