Rob_D

Normally, we disable and archive the old Y11 accounts at the start of the summer, then the archived accounts are deleted the summer after. This means their emails and work is cleared a year after they've left

Oh, when we started this we knew we'd be writing a percentage of them off. But it's still a pain not having most of our laptops while we try to get them back. Obviously they want to chase as much as possible before we shell out for new ones.

Looks like Wales is going back into lockdown on Friday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54598136

Natural selection still works to our advantage. Less severe or virulent strains of the virus are likely to be more competitive. What's going to last longer something with obvious symptoms that knocks most people out for a couple of weeks or the one 90% of the population hardly notice they have?

Back when TalkTalk used to have their "Fair usage policy" (aka "for %deity%'s sake don't actually use your internet") daytime was fine it was 16:00 -22:00 that was limited (Used to get really good download speeds if I left stuff running while I was at work). Of course this was in the "Before Times" when everyone wasn't working from home.

People from the future help a drunk launch a missile.

On Box Boradband we've been given the Nokia G240w. After they sent me the good admin password (the "userAdmin" one printed on the back of the router didn't let me change anything), it was easy to get set up so it could just drop in, in place of the ubiquity edge-router I was using before. So far we've not had any problems with it (touch wood). If you're FTTP is the similar to mine, you'd need a router with an optical port to replace the vender tech (alternatively you might be able to set up the vendor router to bridge directly to your DrayTek one), as it's just fiber cable going straight into the router/hub unit.

We've been told the staff voucher scheme isn't available this year due to shortages. Same when I popped into the local chemists. Doesn't look like I'm going to be able to get one this year.

A small group falls asleep, repeatedly.

We've still got half our second batch here. Problem for us is that they had already been issued with school laptops before the DFE scheme started up so the student/parents don't have any real incentive to get back to us, especially when they find out the DFE laptops are substantially lower specked than the ones we already gave them.

Don't Americans still have attendants to help you fill your car in a lot of places? If true, it might be artificially lowering the risk value.

Hi PaulZoom, At the moment we're using the Free education account (without the 40 minute restriction). Are there any current plans re-impose the restrictions on these accounts in the near/medium future. The second camera thing looks interesting. When dhicks mentioned it my first thought was visualizers. Is this available on the free accounts? Thanks!

If it's school policy they shouldn't they be providing them? (or maybe they are but you get to choose your own?) Years ago I worked for Wessex Archaeology and the Gortex work boots they gave us have been great, comfy and lasted really well. They were dark (grey/black) and I think looked reasonably smart, although clearly a boot.

The cynic in me assumes this is for the track and trace app. From the android side again, OnePlus are very good at keeping older phones updated still preforming well. They're also pretty resistant to incidental damage my dad's one fell from a chest pocket onto the road while he was cycling and was fine (was in a simple leather flip style case). I've found the battery life to be very good (I get 3(ish) days on a charge with pretty heavy usage (stuffed in a pocket not doing much with wifi/bluetooth/etal turned off I don't why it should be able to do about a week). But they are on the more expensive side. It might be more hassle than it's worth, but you could go dual sim so they can have UK and Spanish sims. (go PAYG for whichever one they're going to use less).

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Puts my mind at ease that this might not be a nightmare to manage. Although there was talk of the students being on gmail and staff staying on outlook, I think (I hope) we'll be able to keep everyone on 365 outlook. We've already got a utility for mapping onedrive and sharepoint as drives in windows explorer, but I'll take a look at File Stream for Gsuite.

We use the user-side add printer GPO setting as this gives more options (like setting the default printer) and run it as a loopback policy so we can do PC targeting. And (as others have said) the policy has a remove at the top to clear historic printers. This All works fine most of the time and when it doesn't a quick policy refresh sorts most issues.

Morning all, Bit of background: We're a large-ish (1500 students) secondary and we've been using Office 365 for our email/cloud provision for the last 10 years or so. Our SLT IT lead has been pushing for the school to shift to GSuite. Now instead rather than full gsuite, they're suggesting a hybrid solution whereby either: KS3 use GSuite and KS4 use Office365 (meaning they transition between the platforms in year 9/10 - or as they start their GCSEs) Or some departments curriculum areas use GSuite while others use O365 (so the kids are using both all the way through the school). Everyone I've talked to agrees that the second option doesn't sound like a good idea so the first "dividing by key-satge" suggestion is more likely. Has anyone here run a Google/O365 hybrid solution like this before? If you run a hybrid do you enforce a "person a uses Google and person b uses O365" system or is it a more fluid, "here's all things" type setup? For people running any kind of Google/O365 hybrid are there any gotchas I should be aware of?

Why, how many columns can you fit on an ikea table?

SLT basically steamrollered Zoom in against the recommendations of the ICTNS team (and this was during the height of the security issues). Best part was when we said, "fine, but it shouldn't be used with students" then a parent briefing comes out saying how well our Zoom classes are going. That was when I gave up and just prefaced everything with "ICTNS don't have the skills to support this and can't raise cases with zoom support" (we're on the free accounts). Final position was: We signed up for the free schools thing and staff have been told they need sign up with their school email and select edu account (no idea how long this is going to last, I just hope I find out before someone get's kicked mid meeting). The students have to have signed parental permission to be included in zoom lessons and students should NOT be creating zoom accounts as this is against the Zoom T&Cs (they join the meeting without accounts). They should set their name as their first name only. Staff should make sure they have password protection and waiting room enabled on all meetings and should not share the meeting codes outside of official school controlled email/VLE communications. Two staff members should be in each Zoom class (for safeguarding) and verbal consent should be gained from all participants if the session is going to be recorded. It's pretty much all we can do.

Same for us. I have my first "roundabout duty" on Friday. Lucky for me, the ICTNS team only have 1 duty a week each as we still have all our normal work to do.

Remember, back in the day when walking into a shop wearing a mask would freak everybody out.

The "genie" as I see it is the idea that people could be turned away or bared from entry from a venue for not having the app. If some places are doing it (AFAIK this is unconfirmed) and they're not loosing business or being lambasted on social media for it, then it's only time before more and more places impose the same restrictions. As for the "we can always uninstall it later" argument. I remember reading somewhere a while back that contact tracing would be baked into future android and iOS versions. I can't remember/find where I read it so this is purely anecdotal. And as for guilt by proxy, isn't that basically joint enterprise?

Food and drink or leasure type places, sure. But I don't see how they can make it compulsory for shops with so many valid reasons for not being able to install the app (old phone, dumb phone, work phone, no phone), and no way to verify any of them. Strong recommendation with a not so gentle nudge on the way in is as far as I can see shops realistically being able to go. Is there an age limit on the app, or is it "if you're old enough to have a phone, you should have it"?

While I can appreciate that the idea is probably a good one. It kind of feels a little like profiteering and really rubs me up the wrong way. The whole idea kind of reminds of when Big Issue sellers have just handed me the paper while I've been distracted and then I have to pay for it otherwise I look like a right git.

scalp-bot-9000 (trademark pending) is very excited at the upcoming "stock relocation period" and hopes to have all available 3090 series cards on ebay by 14:00:0002 for your convenience. joking aside, that thing is massive and pretty impressive although I was disappointed LTT didn't try Crysis.