southhamster

Oh dear.. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45032132 Better get my old Olivetti serviced!

Hope you're all having a good time. Was hoping to come but toiling away at school ticking off jobs from our horribly long list. I will imagine the scene like this but with more clothes.....

Ooh. I'll drive a train for 500000 a year! If it's steam train so much the better!

I'm ambivalent about smart meters. One concern I have is that the elec. Co. Can remotely disconnect you. Given the general uselessness of the big companies how long before someone gets stuck in a Kafkaesque hell where their power is turned off but no-one will take responsibility for turning it back on. I also wonder about a hack turning loads of people's electricity off in the middle of winter (tinfoil hat?)

We've used good energy for many years without problems. They also deal with our solar PV meter readings. Maybe not the very cheapest but they don't seem to have joke customer service or random billing like the big firms!

Was really hoping to come but will be up to my neck in work as we need to get things done in classrooms before contractors turn up the following week. Maybe the next one!

We have both NT310 and the newer Pro P10A for staff laptops. So glad we bought onsite warranty as we've certainly needed it! They are generally ok, but lose the case screws all the time. If they would only use a decent loctite screwlock thread glue (including when repairing), maybe this wouldn't happen and maybe tighter tolerances on the screws and fittings. We've bought some threadlock and will be experimenting to see if it helps. To a certain extent I think many laptops now have now got so thin and light that they are just not robust enough for less than perfect use. I also think smaller screens are better - less flexible. Once the Stones are out of warranty we'll be looking at something else; maybe even better quality second hand HP's or Dells.

Just had 2 of the Dells delivered! Cracking little machines. We can now retire the last 10 year old Fujitsu's.

Maybe they got their mates in TSB to do the updates!

That's brilliant. We have a few Wren's around us but have never seen them nesting.

We could run a sweepstake on the amount. I reckon 4 million quid.

I hope it's read only otherwise a great way to spread viruses!

Our concern would be summer holidays. If something occurred say the day after school closed it might need to be more like 5-6 weeks to see what happened.

So that's what the Windows XP background was based on!

You know you work in an urban school when your WiFi can see over 160 SSIDs around you

Better late than never!

We have bought in to an expensive managed service via the county outsourced provider. Not cheap but we have a named professional information manager with real world education experience and full backup. Once the dust has settled we may find a cheaper option in future.

I always save the big plastic bags that printers, monitors etc. come wrapped in to reuse as bin bags. Setting up a whole IT suite can keep you in bin bags for a whole year! I still get weird looks for doing that, probably from the same people moaning how much it costs to buy bin bags!

That's what I've done for 3 small businesses I supported. QNAP NAS with remote access so I can often fix problems remotely. Touch wood very little trouble in 5 years so far. Rubbish internet so they backup to external USB drives in a fireproof safe. Malwarebytes has also been a godsend to catch all the dodgy links they were always trying to open!

How about a snazzy label you can stick on staff laptops with contact details?

I'm pretty sure the CC4 default is not to allow users to save to desktop - ours certainly can't! Have you checked in work and profile folders?

Hurrah for ICT-Direct! Used them a number of times and always been great.

What projects are you hoping to carry out over the Easter holidays? I'll start. 2 new rack cabinets and network cabling - good chance to get the SDS drill out! Installers are replacing antique phone system with ISDN and CCTV from analogue to IP at last. The kit will now be nice and secure with UPS backup too. Also trying to improve our hall AV and wrangling the horrible Sophos safeguard encryption software.

Could you attach the remote to the teacher with a manacle or handcuff?

Yes, that's better. You could create the doc with a giant font and huge line spacing so visible onscreen would be minimal.