southhamster

This little fella has been hanging about all day. Male chaffinch keeps flying into the windows presumably trying to fight his own reflection! Spring is on the way.

Ha ha. That has cheered me up on a damp day. Thanks!

Oh dear. I can remember this!

Trail camera can produce some interesting stuff - we have a Campark T80 with built in wifi for transferring pics but TBH it's quite clunky and only ok if fairly close line of sight. here's one from a few days ago.

Just been invited to order another 21 - our first allocation was 38 so a useful addition.

Intriguing email from the DfE. Anyone else had this yet? It looks like they are throwing more laptops (chromebooks please) at us..... Dear colleague, You may be aware that DfE has purchased 300,000 more laptops and tablets for the Get help with technology programme. This means we’ve been able to allocate extra devices to most schools. (Hogwarts) Academy will get an allocation increase soon. [h=2]How many extra devices you’ll get, and when you’ll be able to order them[/h]From 5 February onwards, we’ll contact all schools (or trusts and local authorities ordering for schools) that have been allocated more devices. This will be your invitation to order, and at that point you’ll be able to sign in to the Get help with technology service to see how many extra laptops and tablets are available for you.

We are issuing our Samsung DfE Chromebooks. They look reasonable but definitely not as rugged as the Dell or HP. Only 1 USB-C port which means if it's damaged it can't be charged.

A bit of a bug in the system today.....i suppose it's wildlife!

I think there's a resettable circuit breaker on the back - small round button.

But can it run Google classroom and Teams! "Mum I really need one for school work"

Does it take name from the class owner perhaps rather than a staff member?

I started making a few model buildings during lockdown one and then ended up adding railway track round the edges of my workroom. It's s great way of winding down and nice to make something physical after staring at a screen all day. I'm now working on using an Arduino to control the points with some old servo motors I had already.

We've been looking at this. If you are a Google edu school adding filestream gives you some control in the admin panel RG lock or wipe. I don't know if it's any good but Senso web filtering looks fairly cheap. Still waiting for when can order our Chromebooks!

We issue staff with encrypted USB sticks and monitor Sophos Central for any non school USB devices.

I know you probably don't want an A3 MFP cluttering up the place but secondhand one might be cheapest option. You might have to buy the cheapest set of 3rd party inks to get it working but still slot less than£650!. I think Brother used to a range of usable ones?

Gsuite MDM policy applied to personal devices here. Users have to sign an agreement to allow us to manage the school account on their device which we then approve. Not a bad solution except that staff logins to gsuite apps on ipads leads to a jamf vs. gsuite MDM fight!

...we salute you For those of us of a noisy persuasion there is a great article and comments about the loudest rock music ever and some great suggestion for music to annoy the whole street to in lockdown. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/24/all-doom-and-boom-whats-the-heaviest-music-ever-made What is the loudest band you've ever seen? There have been plenty of contenders but I think Motorhead bomber tour in ?1980 at Derby Assembly Rooms for me. Even standing at the back was organ rattlingly loud. Possibly why I have tinnitus today..

We find sSophos central really useful here. You can or set ban to notify all sorts of things.

We run about 20 unifi APs pro and AC pro via Cisco SG switches. All work perfectly. Some via POE injectors but most from the switch both .af and .at.

Raspberry pi with Kodi? has apple air connect option which I've seen used.

Hello all. I've been asked to look at finding a web based solution to replace our manual requistion/authorisation procedure as when the school is closed/WFH not everyone has an MFP at home they can scan and submit signed forms with. Ideally integrated with google g-suite, Unfortunately just using forms is not really auditable or secure. I have found a couple of of options but they are 390$/month for eg kissflow https://kissflow.com/process/pricing/ or form publisher https://sites.google.com/site/scriptsexamples/available-web-apps/form-publisher/pricing $79/year but only for one person (we would need to 2 to cover illness etc) Just wondering if anyone else has some good ideas? I suppose another way of looking at is, would form publisher save us $160 per year of paper and time?

Have to watch out I don't get mugged for my lanyard!

We do help with using remote learning logins etc. What we can't help with is fixing 9 yr old machines - they are the best we can do for a couple of families with nothing else but when they fail we have no spares. That's what I meant.

Our reasonable allocation of 38 has now been cut to just 8! Now it's a legal requirement to deliver online learning taking away the resources is not helpful. I'm currently resurrecting some 9 year old Compaq's with Linux Mint for a couple of disadvantaged children. Strictly no support and no help though.

That's an appalling failure rate! Our 8 kitchen GU10s have lasted ?8 years with only 1 failure. Most of my LED bulbs will probably outlast me!