StevieM

It was a DfE email sent to the head, who then forwarded it to me. The same here. We had 20 unrestricted HP laptops that I was happy to add to the domain. The restricted Dell ones were a pain, though. I had to order a USB/Ethernet adapter and re-image them one at a time. I would definitely have left them as is, as I'm sure we'll have need of them the way things are going...

Having spent some of my summer holidays in school resetting all the DfE laptops, as I knew that I wouldn't have time before the end of September otherwise, I've had an email this morning saying that management and filtering has now been extended to September 2022! The government has also added services that will disable Internet access and/or send a message to inform the pupil to return the device. If I'd known this, I would have left at least some of them as they were. As it stands, we now have no devices to send home with pupils if they are needed.

Bike!!

Under.

FTFY (Loyal listeners will get the reference.)

As far as I'm aware, PHE has been contacting schools when a positive test is confirmed and advising them on who should isolate. That's certainly what's been happening here.

Hmmmm... I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I didn't think she was great as a guest host, but I'd rather her than Paul Merton (who was rubbish as a host) or Giles Brandreth - both of whom are better contestants. It may have been a better idea to get someone who hadn't previously appeared on the show. No one will really be able to follow Nicholas Parsons, though, in the same way that, while I quite like Jack Dee, ISIHAC just isn't the same without Humphrey Lyttleton.

Oh, Horn Solo. Sorry, I misheard. OK, here's the deal. If I'm able to make it down, I'll bring Christopher with me and you can give me a few pointers. As I said the other week, I've hardly played any of my instruments since the start of lockdown. With neighbours furloughed/working from home, loud instruments in particular have been neglected.

wrench

Just spotted this in iSpy and thought I'd geg in. If I'm on my travels again, during that week, I may drop in to say hello (and introduce Ciara the Patterdale). It all depends on how my mum is doing as she's not very well, at the moment.

Instead of just removing the old GPO, have you tried replacing it with one that specifically instructs not to use a proxy? Edit: @strawberry's post wasn't there when I first started to reply. If that doesn't work, you could always try this - Use Group Policy to apply WinHTTP proxy settings to Windows clients

(Hooked on) Classics

(my emphasis) Has anyone checked whether the existing government contracts are with this (as yet unnamed) company? If they're not, then I think they need to be reported to Trading Standards promptly, and schools need to be actively alerted.

I was at a socially-distanced concert at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Saturday night. As I was waiting outside, an older couple (70s) approached the venue and had the following conversation before proceeding to put their masks on: Woman: Oh, yes. I'd forgotten about the masks. Man: Uurrghh. We'll be OK after the 19th of July, though. Caution and common sense, my ar...mpit!

Ermintrude

machine

(The mad, mad doctors) Game

FTFY Bang on target! I'm concerned that this is going to be a case of history repeating itself. I'm really pleased that some restrictions are being eased and that the hospitalisation/death rate is still low relative to infection rate. However, opening everything up, removing all social distancing/mask wearing restrictions, lowering the isolation threshold, easing travel restrictions etc. at the start of the summer holidays is going to have a similar impact to the 'Travel around the country, mix with loads of different people and we'll even give you £10 off every time you go and eat in a crowded McDonald's before returning to school in September' strategy of last year. We can keep on easing restrictions - just in smaller steps. I hope I'm wrong, though.

I've just read through the thread and there are some impressive name drops. Respect. I've got a few. I guess my most high-profile one is that a band I played keyboards with in the late 80s appeared on the same TV show as Kylie Minogue and Bananarama. (We've done this before, but I've checked again and there's still nothing online. ) More recently, an alt-rock cover band I sang with headlined a local music festival on the Saturday evening. The Sunday was headlined by The Christians. (There is some (poor quality) footage of this online, but I'm not giving you lot enough info to find it. )

Beer and pie...on the last day of term...I'm in. (And a useful safeguarding discussion, of course!)

Tony (A Pint?! That's very nearly an armful!)

lines (Don't do it)

Cinderella

(On my) Radio

Marsellus EDIT: Beaten to Wallace by @Norphy. Crackers