broc

I keep trying to tell people here that flash drives are the modern day equivalent of floppy disks & should not be relied upon; the trouble is some of the younger ones cannot remember floppy disks If the heater idea works & can be implemented it might change my view

There was a thread on here a while back which suggested we can make life very complicated for ourselves with technology We used to run our school on 7 seperate physical servers until BSF came along. Now we have a SAN and a dual VMWare cluster configured for high availability, with dedicated iSCSI switches & redundancy all over the place. It was not cheap... the irony is that we are delivering no more useful services or functionality to our end users than we were before BSF; true, we can cope with failure with less down time (in theory) but in the 7 years I ran our old low budget network we had two server failures of around 1/2 day which took out part of our operation. One of these was due to a serverboard dying (requiring cannibalisation of another server), the other a disk failure in a RAID array that took forever to rebuild. Virtualisation is a techies dream (& nightmare)..... where I work we are pulling out of our managed service , to do this I have to migrate from VMWare to Hyper-V, add another server to the cluster, add extra disks to the SAN, & we need to sort out local & offsite backups. It is going to cost ££££££.... & we still won't be delivering any more services to our end users. Don't let technology blind you ...... I would happily go back to a simpler environment

Give them a label maker to print out some new labels to cover up the inverted text.... nobody will know.....

ran them on a Dell Latitude E6500 notebook Script 1 reports IdentifyingNumber : zzzzzzz <== which is my DELL Service tag ID Name: Latitude E6500 Vendor: Dell Inc Version: Script 2 reports Dell Inc Latitude E6500

Same here.... Macs are at their best when they are sat there, all gleaming & no users are using them I am certain they behave better with a single, responsible user at the keyboard. Unfortunately I have only ever experienced them unmanaged in the anarchy created by multiple student users

Technology continues to be perceived as some sort of 'silver bullet' that is somehow going to 'transform' education..... It won't. If anything will, Teachers will... by improving their own performance & by observing and sharing best practice with their colleagues & overcoming one of the biggest problems for teachers... motivating students. Sadly some 'experts' in teaching seem to think that giving students shiny toys like iPads will somehow motivate them to learn. My sympathy is with the teachers who have technology thrown at them. Fix the problems with lack of student motivation (easier said than done) by making lessons more interesting & learning more relevant & above all shift away from schools being exam factories, then we won't need to keep on installing shiny new technology that nobody wants/needs/knows how to use. Nobody has mentioned training ICT staff to use/support the new technology either. Too often we are given just enough kit to meet the perceived classrooom need without any test equipment or any spares & sometimes without any dedicated teaching staff equipment either. At my school we were given 30 iPads for a 'project'. No devices for teachers, none for ICT support to familiarise themselves with. No money for storage or charging facilities, no budget for apps, no thought about managing these devices in a Windows client server environment...... no thought about training ICT staff unfamilar with Apple products..... in fact no thought beyond 'here are 30 iPads.....' Needless to say as a project it has been less than successful in it's goals (where there any?) & has totally failed in hitting any targets in the timelines proposed (there were no discussions with ICT staff before the timeline was established). It would make a first class case study in how not to manage a technology project

All of the car manufacturers seem to charge a serious amount of money & their maps are generally out of date vs TomTom & other PNDs. see Watchdog: Shock cost of built-in sat-nav updates | Auto Express

We are busy with the move to 64-bit as part of our new system which will go live next year. As an interim we switched around 90 systems last summer from Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit to 64 bit to allow us to run Adobe CS5 whicjh needs 64 bit for video editing. We had already migrated our application base to run under Windows 7 32-bit 2 years ago, so far we have not seen any specific 64-bit failures. The biggest headache so far has been with application packaging & deployment as you now have to contend with Program Files & Program Files (x86) & System32 & SysWOW64 so local mods via registry updates or file copies can end up in the wrong place. I have been running SIMS.net on 64-bit for 15 months now on my system without a problem; General advice on Office is to stick with 32-bit, we will roll out Office 2010 32-bit at the same time

The problem any Govt faces is that corporate tax avoidance is a global problem; Global companies transfer asset value, jobs & profit to wherever they get the best 'deal'. As countries all over the world operate with different tax rules it is difficult to see how you could legislate without agreement internationally. The same goes for financial regulation with things like financial transaction taxes. Taxes on sales simply get passed on to the consumer. It made me laugh when a spokesperson for one of the major coffee house chains said they paid their taxes & as an example quoted how much VAT they handed over to HMRC..... There was a lengthy article in the press about the water companies & the massive dividends they were paying to their 'owners'.... mostly venture capitalists. The water companies claim they cannot afford to invest without massive increases in customer charges at the same time as they are handing over huge sums of money to their executives & shareholders. Water companies pay little or no tax on huge profits | Business | The Observer

Small businesses can never compete head-to-head with large global companies; they need to differentiate and provide customised & tailored products & services that the big companies aren't interested in. Markets are never fair, & never will be. You cannot legislate fairness..................

We have around 70 2-year old Lenovo A70z units, half in Admin/support, the rest in Art & Music. They certainly have a smaller footprint & look less cluttered than a 'normal' setup. They are not touch screen, we use them to run Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise. Ours are i3 and with 4gb memory make a reasonable job of handling photoshop. They are pretty solid; I have had no complaints from users. We did have quite a few (10%) with fan failures that were repaired under warranty. As you might imagine, they have limited upgrade potential or expansion capability. You need to check what ports you need, we had planned upon using a couple in a classroom hooked up to a projector but they didn't have VGA or DVI ports.

Global companies have been moving profit & business costs around for years to avoid taxes, unfortunately it is legal & there is nothing that can be done to fix it under current laws. There is no point in appealing to their conscience or arguing that companies have a moral responsibility..... companies don't have either. In a previous life when I worked for a 'large' global computer company, components & assemblies for our products would be moved from country to country, effectively transferring asset value by taking advantage of exchange rates, or local tax rates. You simply set an internal price for parts, assemblies, labour costs & cross charged these to other subsidiaries. Ultimately the goal was to make the profits in the countries where corporate taxes were lowest and inflate costs that could be offset against taxes where the corporate taxes were highest. This is not a new phenomenon....

I would suggest that moisture build-up is the most likely explanation for the crud then. 10 mins urban driving might get your water temperature up to 'normal' but I doubt the oil will have warmed up much. Watch the levels (oil & water), look for an oily film on the surface of the water in the header tank... ONLY CHECK THIS WHEN COLD... please don't take the cap off when the engine is hot/running! Check the dipstick for water droplets.... if everything is ok then take the car for a decent run 1-2 hours as often as you can (given the price of fuel).... you don't need to thrash it, just get the engine nice & hot.

Also be aware that System Center 2012 is not supported on Server 2012 until System Center 2012 SP1 is shipped next year; I had problems taking backups with DPM 2012 in particular, forcing me to roll back to Server 2008 as my live date is too close to take a chance that the service pack is delayed/broken. If you don't need System Center or your schedule allows you to wait for the service pack then I would agree with the advice to go with Server 2012. You can run SC SP1 in beta but I wouldn't go live with it....

check for droplets of water on the dipstick..... if it is clear & the oil level is normal then twin-turbo might be right, especially if you do a lot of short trips without the engine (&oil) ever getting a chance to reach normal temperature. Modern oils contain additives to reduce the chance of this crud forming but there are limits. Is it due a service soon, it might be worth mentioning it to the garage?

If you change the projector & continue to use the board your are licenced to use the ActivInspire software. If you turn the board off or unplug the serial/usb cable to the PC & continue to use the board as a projection screen with a 3rd party interactive projector you are not licenced. That is what our LA BSF Procurement team were told by Promethean. The ActivInspire licence you get with the board entitles you to use the software with the board. If you buy seperate ActivInspire Professional licences(one per user), you can use them on any hardware. I cannot comment about Smart.

We had problems with the original pens supplied by Epson, they were replaced by later versions & they have been much better. They are definitely more chunky than the Promethean pens; feedback from staff varies, some prefer the Epson pens, others preferred the Promethean. I am not aware of any serious shortcomings with battery life. Installing the projectors requires care as they are heavy & the walls need to be robust. The ultra short throw is good for avoiding glare. Mounting height can be a problem, you need to check your ceilings are high enough. In a couple of our classrooms the sloping ceiling was too low to accomodate the Epson projector & deliver a suitable screen size at a useable height. Calibration takes longer, there are more 'points' on the screen to calibrate. Staff made the transition to Easiteach Next Generation with minimal fuss, it is available as a download for trial purposes. User feedback suggested it had a 'fresher' look & feel to it vs ActivInspire although it lacked some features. They have a user forum & encourage fedback for users. The bundled software that came with the Epson projector is very basic. The Epson networking software is handy, it lets me see the status of every projector... faults, power, temperature, lamp life & you can remotely turn them on/off on a timer & even switch source. You can push out a slideshow from a central point too, which will override whatever is being displayed. We signed up to 5 year warranty & Epson self-maintainer scheme which means we have a spares onsite & can swap projectors out & request exchange units; we have had two projectors swapped in 2 years. Screen surface is critical, a semi-gloss or glossy screen is not a good idea. I believe Epson recommend a matt finish surface. The projector can be affected by direct sunlight shining onto the screen, especially movement of a narrow shaft of light; this caused phantom movement of the mouse pointer much to the amusement of the students (but not the staff).

I would test that with Promethean.... We were prepared to store the old Promethean boards or even hang them on the wall as static projection screens for the Epson projectors so we could use the licences but it made no difference; we were told we had to be actively using the board hardware with the software. We were quoted £500 per user to use ActiveInspire with the Epson projectors ..... very funny...... we paid less than £1000 for a site licence for Easiteach Next Generation.

We switched over to using Epson interactive projectors just under 2 years ago ( we have 40+). We had a long discussion with Promethean about licences, Promethean wanted a licence per user (not projector) & they wanted silly money so we bought a site licence for RM Easiteach Next Generation at a fraction of the cost. This package is similar to the Smart & Promethean products but is hardware agnostic.... so it will work with our few remaining legacy Promethean boards too.

I found these very helpful when doing some rewiring on my Lightweight Land Rover Welcome to Auto Electric Supplies

You mean like the private sector Exam boards do?

waking up an old thread..... has anyone got this to work? I am trying to deploy Quicktime 7.72 (latest version) via SCCM 2012 & have hit this problem where QT complains about a newer version even on a fresh install of Win 7.

Toshiba e-Studio MFDs.... we installed 10 to replace 40+ HP laserjets of various flavours....

They are still at it... had a call from a lady representing Crown offering me a 'free' supermarket gift voucher & shirts ....... claimed it was a gift because I had completed a survey earlier in the year that had helped them win major contracts. She hung up when I asked them what the catch was

Sometimes a degree will be stipulated to cut down on the number of potential candidates who might apply.... you need to get past the HR filters...... if you think you can do the job apply for it & justify why you should be considered. Don't be put off, a degree demonstrates a candidate has reached a certain academic level but experience demonstrates you can do the job. I have come across a few graduates who have failed when it came to doing the job......