Gibbo

Call quality - first rate. I was a bit worried about how texting would be, I'm also used to the numeric keypad and "real" keys but this one is a doddle. It helps if you rotate the phone 90' to get the keyboard the full length (if you have fat fingers!) You can customise it to suit as well. Orange released this ad today, albeit a little late - most stores are running out of stocks! http://content.modaco.net/littlesnapper/orangeadvertemetro.png

I'm already an Orange customer on Dolphin (I put on a tenner every couple of months). The only thing to worry about is whether any apps start downloading content when you're off the wireless and on the 3G signal. I downloaded the BBC News app Saturday night and found three news items in it's "inbox" Sunday morning. I can't recommend this site enough for help and advice: ZTE Blade - Blade.MoDaCo.com - Android @ MoDaCo I've just got mine unlocked today through Ebay by seller imei_unlock. The whole process was done in less than ten minutes for just 99p. So now I'll probably move providers and take my number with me. I'd take a chance. If you don't like it you can easily get over £120 by listing it on Ebay - the phone is currently UK only and Europeans are crying out for it. I'm thinking of buying a few myself, unlocking them for 99p and selling them on!

Yeah, but you have to weigh up the options - do you want people to possibly know you're a "secret gay" or definitely know you're a suspected paedo? I know which people would come to terms with more easily. If CEOP wasn't mentioned in this story, it wouldn't be as serious and would eventually blow over. But this guy is going to be labelled for life now because of it.

If anyone is to blame for all this, then its Labour and RIPA and making not disclosing a password a crime. To those who'd be a refusenik, I'm wondering if all this is talk and you'd wet yourselves and squawk like a canary if the police came round! Its nice to have theoretical principles, when sat in a comfortable chair in front of a computer screen, but in reality things are very different. Lets turn the scenario around: You're working in a school. For some reason you're linked to a CEOP investigation. The police are involved and find some encrypted files on your machine. For the sake of argument lets ignore it being a false positive, mistaken identity or that you've genuinely forgotten the password: Would you be so willing to go down the same route as Mr. Drage? Do you think you'd have a job to come back to after? If you did, do you think your colleagues would treat you the same as before? Do you think your house wouldn't get egged, vandalised or torched by the pitchfork brigade? And CapEnd - have you ever spent a night in the cells for just taking photos? I have, and its not a nice experience I'd like to repeat.

If there's nothing dodgy in the password protected bit then he's going to look a bit of a fool! But his name is going to be on the net forever, linked with a CEOP investigation. And what sane innocent man would suffer 2 months in jail just for his principles? I might if it were for tax evasion or not paying the TV licence, but certainly not when it comes to allegations like this.

Exactly. Drage had the opportunity to clear his name. CEOP don't go around accusing people without evidence or some reason. Its now being dragged through the media and as the matter is connected with CEOP he's now going to be subjected to accusations of being a paedophile or connected in some way. Some crimes can have a bit of "glamour" associated with them which won't harm you in later life, but others certainly will...

Oh dear, tinfoil hat time! Yes, I did show the police my photos. I'd got nothing to hide and enjoying proving to them that I wasn't a terrorist. I've personally known people refuse and spend a night in the cells for their "attitude". The police can be just as arrogant and spiteful, and have better powers to enforce it - and I speak from experience when showing my photos wasn't enough, but this thread isn't the time and the place to discuss it, but I will be one of the loudest to shout when it comes to police being over zealous over innocent things. Drage had the opportunity to confirm his innocence by opening the file. Whether he genuinely forgot the password or refused isn't clear. The important thing here is that CEOP is involved in the matter, and child abuse mud certain sticks. Whether Drage is guilty or not we won't know until the file is unlocked, but he's certainly gone some way himself to get the mud on him.

What on earth has that got to do with the original news item? Or are you accusing the police of being unable to be confidential? If Oliver Drage had released the password and nothing relating to children was found do you think the police would have released a statement saying "We arrested Mr Drage, but upon checking his password protected areas found nothing illegal but discovered he was a cross dresser."?

Please elaborate why you think this. Although your other quote: partly goes some way to explain your reasoning and way of mind as to what kind of person you are. And before you bleat on further, I've been stopped by police on numerous occasions for taking photographs of buildings in cities. Anyone else want to play "tabloid catchphrase bingo"? I'm only waiting on "sleepwalking into a surveillance society" and "Orwell's 1984" to get a full house!

I'm a believer in the "nothing to hide" philosophy and wouldn't have a problem with showing you my bank account. All you'll see is my salary going in and purchases at Tesco for food and Shell for fuel! The amusing thing is that if / when the police do crack his password and find something, he'll probably get more jail time if there's anything suspect!

BBC News - Man jailed over computer password refusal

I bought the Orange after all that. The reviews on that forum from former LG owners swayed me. It works like a dream, I can highly recommend it. Plus I got 20% off for working in the public sector.

Three councils in England are mounting a legal challenge to the government's decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme. BBC News - Legal action over axing of schools building scheme

Thanks for that! I'm liking the look of that forum - looks like lots of support there. My brother says that battery life improves if you upgrade from 1.6 to 2.0+ The Orange phone looks nicer - slimmer and larger for one. But if you look on their own website, they don't seem to big it up as much as the LG: San Francisco Specs: * 3-megapixel camera * 3G+ * Android v2.1 * WiFi * touch screen * MP3 player * email * music player * Bluetooth® * FM radio * tri band * USB compatible * SatNav * Video Messaging * external memory up to 32GB microSD * internal memory 150MB * IMAP4 * POP3 * camera LG Specs: * 3-inch touch screen * Android™ operating system * 3.15-megapixel camera * WiFi 802.11 b/g * Bluetooth® * FM radio RDS * A-GPS support * MP3 player * speakerphone * 3.5 mm audio jack * internal memory 130MB * external memory up to 32GB microSD * GPRS * EDGE * HSDPA * 3G * WiFi * USB compatible * vibrating alert * accelerometer * autofocus * geo-tagging * FM radio * built-in games * GPS * touch control * camera * music player * MMS * multimedia * Contacts Backup

Does anyone have the Alphasmart Dana software, in particular the Dana Admin Manager CD? I'm just looking to disable the Spell checker and need the ADMIN.PRC file to upload to the Danas.

Being a skinflint I want a Smartphone on a budget. I'm currently with Orange and put on a tenner credit every two months or so. I've narrowed it down to these two (unless you can recommend a third) but can't decide which. The LG seems to have more features but is "crippled" with Android 1.6. There are rumours of 2.0 sometime soon but nothing is confirmed.

Most UK schools are set to keep ICT budgets flat next year, according to research by the British Educational Suppliers Association. UK schools to maintain ICT spending ? Channel Register

All sorted. Gave an Admin account the mandatory profile. Logged in and removed the rogue printers. Found this old thread about it: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/1517-modifying-mandatory-profile-printers.html

Just about to add that I've narrowed it down to the pupil's mandatory profile! For some reason it's adding the rogue server to the registry at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\LanMan Print Services\Servers

I've started using a simple script to map my printers: Set WshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") On Error Resume Next Set oPrinters = WshNetwork.EnumPrinterConnections For i = 1 to oPrinters.Count - 1 Step 2 WshNetwork.RemovePrinterConnection oPrinters.Item(i) Next Set WshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTIT1" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTIT2" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTIT3" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTIT4" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTLRC" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTART" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTMUSIC" rem ** Setup default printer ** WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "\\HP-SERVER\PRINTLRC" But when the pupils logon they're also getting CF-SERVER\PRINTLRC CF-SERVER\PRINTIT1 CF-SERVER\PRINTIT2 CF-SERVER was the print server but was wiped back in 2008 and doesn't have any printers on it at all. Any idea where it could be pulling this information from? The registry shows nothing for CF-SERVER. TIA

Had some great fun developing this today. Here's our current release: 'Open up the path to save the information into a text file Dim Stuff, myFSO, WriteStuff, dateStamp dateStamp = Date() Const ForWriting = 2 Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("E:\media\ticker\ticker.txt", ForWriting) ' Blank the text file before creating todays data objFile.Write "" objFile.Close 'Get todays date DIM iDay iDay = DatePart("w", Date()) SELECT CASE iDay Case "1" strDayName = "Sunday" Case "2" strDayName = "Monday" Case "3" strDayName = "Tuesday" Case "4" strDayName = "Wednesday" Case "5" strDayName = "Thursday" Case "6" strDayName = "Friday" Case "7" strDayName = "Saturday" END SELECT 'Write information to Text File Stuff = "Good morning and welcome to our school. Today is " localDate = FormatDateTime(date(), 1) joinedup = Stuff + strDayName + " " + localdate + "." Set myFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set WriteStuff = myFSO.OpenTextFile("E:\media\ticker\ticker.txt", 8, True) 'WriteStuff.WriteLine(Stuff) 'WriteStuff.WriteLine(localdate) WriteStuff.WriteLine(joinedup) WriteStuff.Close SET WriteStuff = NOTHING SET myFSO = NOTHING Assuming anyone else with Lifechannel has their system set up the same way this should work.

Thanks everyone, far simpler than I imagined!

We have the Lifechannel system here. Its quite boring to log in daily and change the date in the ticker. Noseying around the file structure, we see that the text comes from a file called ticker.txt How easy would it be to write a batch file that's called at, say, 6am every day that overwrites the existing ticker.txt with a fresh one that says "Welcome to our school. Today is "? TIA

I've put MS Virtual PC on my curriculum PC and have created an XP image which is going to be a simple one for the occasional access of SIMS. My physical PC has two network cards with IP addresses (one curriculum, one admin), but I can't get the virtual PC to see anything on the admin network. Anyone got any configuration tips? Thanks

Its also about respecting the IT equipment. I know of many teachers who wander in, let their kids wander off task and don't do much about it. The lesson ends, the teacher scarpers and the room is left in a complete mess. If you leave "my" IT rooms a tip, then yes we are going to clash. Teachers would soon be whining if they had to let their room be used and they came back and found it a tip.