Oddbod

Sometimes plex picks up a key phrase in the description and plonks in the wrong data from imdb.com, but most of the time I just add the short jacket notes as a custom entry. Most education videos seem to be unregistered with imdb, so I follow plex’ help page on episodal ordering and scan the jacket as a custom poster cover: Movie.mp4 Poster.jpg Movie.mp4 Poster.jpg Movie.mp4 Poster.jpg And do the same with family videos, so each common relative is part of a family broadcasting studio . Plex is happy with that.

The IT dept got remote cages for the teaching rooms (they can't lose the remotes if they're locked to the wall) and the tech guys carried three common remotes for the projectors. I bought the re adapter for the iPad, iTouch & iPhone (£35 from http://www.newkinetix.com/) and discarded the remotes entirely. With a library of over 5000 remote configurations and the ability to do room scripting, I'm covered for all the new screens, data projectors, sound systems - even the air conditioning. Plug the infrared dongle into the iPad then download the app.

You didn't say what version of OSX you were on, or what mobile device management was in use (there must be one, surely). Currently processing the application form.

Already posted directly via your website on Friday 7th March, any news? Regards, Chris Woollard

Good ICT vision - asking questions (or observing current practice, shadowing), listening (and listening properly), doing research, presenting findings/reports. So that your boss or head can make an informed choice. That's how it worked for me. You'd be amazed how few technicians actually sit in on a class and observe how the teachers use the technology - this allowed me to sort out more problems in an afternoon than a month of meetings would achieve. Regards

Silicon graphics octane (showing my age) back in 97. Not the royal blue one (that was gen2) , the cyan one The animation dept bought 15 of these, god knows how they got the money. £30k new, £5k for the multimedia expansion card, £3k for the 24in widescreen CRT monitor. Lovely piece of kit. I saw one of these on eBay the other day for 50 quid. Times change.

The simple thing is to communicate… in the IT fraternity, you will have a number of different ways available (twitter, Facebook, email, icq, answerphone loop message, post-it note, milk round ) But keep the message simple and to the point. That avoids the “it's too technical” whine. And keep a list of departmental admins and get to know them, they can help disseminate emergency info. And hold major changeovers for quiet periods like weekends, term breaks or overnights via VPN. You don't have to be there 24/7/365 I recall one senior network engineer at our main campus NOC, who mailed out an overly technical notification to all staff about 20-odd share points being moved to a new server, then phoned the school departmental heads at 10 in the morning on the day of the move, couldn't get hold of 80percent of them (his words “what are they doing at that time of the day?”) and progressed to shift everything at 2pm… …in the middle of exam week. The sight of one invigilator having kittens was appalling as the students exam work disappeared right before their very eyes, as the server merrily transferred the data from one live share point to another. The NOC further up the chain got such a bollocking for their lack of foresight, understanding and abysmal communication. -- Separately, for those who wonder about traffic light systems, nagios will handle that very well, you can even get a watcher app for that. Tis free too - the best price point.

I saw this document signing ability coming into Filemaker 12 and 13... I'm presently implementing it into my IT inventory / asset tracking / service history database as it'll remove another form filling exercise. Also looking as to whether I can get it to generate a pdf copy to the signatory’s email account (assuming I have it on file...) Check out http://www.filemaker.co.uk and see what you think. Update: I've checked on fmforums and mailing a pdf copy is possible. See: http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/90982-exporting-report-for-every-occurance-as-pdf-then-sending-a-custom-e-mail-with-file-attached/?hl=print+and+mail+report Sorry for exceedingly long link, but I learn a lot from fmforums before I progress with my fm solutions. If your school/college have iPads / iPhones to hand, you can use a shared FM database via the filemaker go app. See: http://www.filemaker.co.uk/products/filemaker-go/?source=ppc&gclid=CJvi-sqGy7wCFa-WtAodWXUAOg

Short answer - yup. Single xl file amongst 30 users - not best practice. TBH we would have problems when we had 3 IT staff working on a shared xl file on a gigabit ethernet, losing the current active shared token was the biggest problem. Lockouts were the other... We eventually moved it to a database solution - even a basic database will allow multiuser access. What hard/software do you have available?

http://www.plexapp.com [free] Currently have a mac mini serving 200 videos, 9000 catalogued photos, 100 educational dvds to windows, iOS, macs, android, via all the current browsers. Very useful system... did i mention it’s free?

Here you go... 24port monster USB powered hub ThinkGeek :: 24 Port USB Monster Hub

"Muppets". I think your service provider needs to join you for a shadowing session before they recommend anything else.

Hi Admiral208, Are you talking of mapping to the sidebar that appears in each new finder window? Or the dock at the bottom [or side, if you've changed the default settings] of the screen? As WGM has an option to set a mapped mount point under Preferences > Login > Items Regards Oddbod

Hi scotyboy56, I had a bit of play with my kit's settings over time and came this current working set. I don't have many problems with this as this negates requiring a dedicated Mobile Device Management system [other than Apple Configurator or Apple Profile Management in OSX Server], if your school's IT budget won't stretch to it. So you could try this, before pursuing other means. You can set both the Passcode Lock and Restriction Lock, but set the 'passcode lock requirement after sleep timeframe' [sorry ] to 4 hours instead of immediately. Then you have an iPad that only requests a passcode after it has been asleep for more than four hours - during its recharge cycle, in ITs charging trolley or cupboard overnight. As you get in early the next morning, you wake up the lab trolley, punch in the passcode lock for each iPad[i know, just another thing to add to the daily chores - ahem...] and the iPads are ready to use. During the day, the iPad remains accessible [as during lesson time no iPad is ever going to sleep for 4 hours], except for the restrictions you have set, and the reset / wipe iPad option is locked out. This I've tested in both iOS6 and iOS7. iOS7 goes one step further during the 'reset and wipe iPad' function, of requesting the AppleID of the main user who set the device up - that would be your school IT directors AppleID account [you *have* set up one of these, haven't you??? ] To set up: Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Turn Passcode On and enter PIN twice [8 digits or more] Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Require Passcode > change whatever set to "After 4 hours" Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Simple Passcode > Off Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Erase Data > Off Then: Settings > General > Restrictions > Turn Restrictions On and enter PIN twice [4 digits] Go through your restrictions set, no doubt you'll have your own policy, but I'm assuming the following [change as you see fit]: Allow: ------------------------- iTunes: Off installing apps: Off deleting apps: Off Allowed Content: ------------------------- Ratings for: United Kingdom Music & Podcasts Explicit: Off Films rated: 12 [or whatever keystage your school teaches upto] TV Programs: Caution Books rated explicit: Off Apps rated: 12+ [or whatever keystage your school teaches upto] In-App purchases: Off Require Password for Purchases: Immediately Privacy: ------------------------- I'll leave this upto you Allow Changes: ------------------------- Accounts: On Find my Friends: Off Volume Limit: On Game Center: ------------------------- Multiplayer Games: Off Adding Friends: Off Return to the Main screen. ------------------------- You will now find that in: Settings > General > Reset The only setting that won't require a passcode will be Reset Home Screen Layout, which is no big deal as students are always rejigging the apps order of layout screens to suit them. And the reason why 8 digits or more for a general passcode lock? Because the little darlings will expect you to have entered a short PIN [if at all]. Doubling up with a different PIN for the restriction lock keeps things tight. Regards Oddbod

You are correct, Alex. Typically when using iMovie or FinalCut on a networked mac, imports are best done locally to a separate hard disc drive or portable firewire disk to alleviate heavy network use. However as you are presently experiencing, the networked user probably doesn't have local write permissions to the Mac Hard Disc, so the application defaults back to the networked home movies folder. You could get them to import to Mac_HD/Users/Shared locally as that folder remains writeable during normal networked operations, but the end users would have to then copy their project back to the server before logging out. You would need to monitor this though as that folder will periodically fill up. Alternatively, you can run a script in the logouthook portion of ProfileManager in 10.8 Server to empty this local folder. However you must ensure that all the macs have the same hard disc name [eg Mac_HD or Macintosh_HD] or your script will break. Regards

Sorry to run through the checks but: Ensure that also on your AD server, that you’re a member of the following: Domain Admins Group Account Operators Group as each level gives you greater control over users accounts. Above that, you should check with implbits support. and yes, this doesn't like jailbroken phones - sorry Regards

Ensure that you have set up the preferences file on your iDevice to include a default password for the reset operations as it is [blank] the first time you use it. Regards

Sibelius 7 is 27Gb all told. I would suggest that you contact your third party software supplier for the installer discs. The trial version off avid’s site is valid for only 30 days and may not recognise the licence key you have purchased. Regards

AD HelpDesk Runs from an iPad / iPhone / iTouch, find it on the app store: AD Helpdesk Lite [free] to reset passwords or AD Helpdesk [£5] to reset passwords, handle group policy and more... I've used it in an AD environment to reset student passwords from my work iPad. hope this helps