Gibson335

Pads certainly have a place in education, but I often think it's the cart before the horse scenario in schools - rather than figure out what they want to do and then choose the best tool, it's choose the shiny new tool and then figure out how best to use it. In so many cases, a laptop is still the better solution, simply because it offers so many more options to the user. The problem is, some have decided laptops are passe, and we must all now bow to the pad/cloud/BYOD philosophy or be run out of town by technophiles clutching virtual pitchforks, decrying us as luddites and philistines.

I quite like Vista...sorry, you said random, not insane.

Runs like a dream - no problem whatsover.

People will blame 'the network' when in fact they mean a single piece of software... the 'network' will unilaterally decide to delete a student's file, at random, more likely when it is a piece of coursework due in that day...staff will refer to the network cable as the Internet cable...printers will be 'broken' when in fact they are simply out of paper or, at times, not even switched on...you will be expected to manage Google, Yahoo and Hotmail when 'their' systems fail...the help you get from a user is usually disproportiante to the help you will be asked to provide... Not that I'm a cynic, or anything...

Do you have an EES subscription? If so you could try the Endpint Security for free. We currently have Sophos but are giving the MS one a trial.

Do you know what those precise requirements are? I've yet to track down a document or site that provides a specific set of requirements, and would love to find one that does more than 'suggest' or 'imply'.

Believe me, I'd like to ;-)

Ah yes, we had that when we were with CSE.

Again, if only life were that easy. I do not have the authority to unilaterally remove files, and I have been given no such authority by my SLT. I send out reminders and warnings by the dozen, but they are ignored because they know nothing will really be done about it. If you have such powers or are supported that well by SLT then more power to your elbow - sadly, our teaching staff are pretty much untouchable. This is the same, by the way, when it comes to potentially (probably) illegal music files!!

If only life were really that simple. An AUP is in place, it expressly forbids them to store personal files on the network, yet when I remind SLT that this is not only still going on but increasing, I pretty much just get shrugs of resignation. Previously, when I have, perhaps, slightly exaggerated the issue, I've just been told to provide more disk space and whatever is needed to ensure backups...better that than confront staff it would seem! 650+Gb gobbled up since October!!

I would love to enforce a disk quota for staff. We have a 750Mb basic quota for students, which for most is ample. Others are being given more, and I suspect we will soon raise the baseline to 1Gb. But with 1250 students we're eating up around 1.2Tb. Staff, on the other hand, are almost at 3Tb!! There is a huge number of old files, tens of thousands of 'personal' image files and video files, and the clutter is ridiculous in shared areas. But IMO, this is not a decision for the NM to take. For years now I have been banging my head against a brick wall over this, constantly reminding SLT that we're using up more and more storage space, that this is reflected not only in the size of SAN required but also makes a big hit on backups - to no avail. There is no way I can force this issue, and I wouldn't wish to do so. For me, it has to come from the top.

Do you use VSC for user data restores? Our backups now are considered to be for emergency use only.

I think the thing here is to ensure that the safe is not located in the same building as your backup device(s).

Love the show, and whilst it's a stretch, it's not so outlandish.

Cheers.

Thanks - I'd just caught up with that part of their site when this came in. Bit confusing, because it does say it's free - and their video says it's free???

I know this is a bit old, but was wondering if anyone else is using Hesk and what the reviews were like. Also, can tickets be submitted via e-mail? Thanks.

3 grand a year per Tb?? * blows out cheeks * Sounds like a lot of dosh.

Approach with caution...keep an eye on continual development...consider and debate some cloud movement (depending on what is meant by 'cloud')...but I do not foresse a day in the near future when everything we have, specifically curriculum-specific software, can be cloud-based. Is making GoogleApps/GoogleDrive available considered 'cloud', for instance? If so, we're there...but have retained and intend to retain Office and remote access via TS.

I'm enjoying this lively debate - views from both sides are interesting. That is all.

We are also considering moving to MS Endpoint, as we also have an EES subscription. The reports I have read are favourable with the exception of catching malware, although hopefully the product may have improved in that regard by now. We are going to test drive it from this summer.

The feed at the scrum has become a joke, and the pushing prior to the ball going in is also a problem. Youngs got pinged for delaying twice on Saturday, but the scrum was moving and the referee seemed to overlook this. Obviously this was not the reason for defeat, because refs get this wrong all the time and often in our favour. It must be a nightmare for the players to know which set of opinions will be imposed, though.

No one with any sort of balanced view on the game of rugby even had England as the favourites. The media love to build up to knock down - it's their own internal private sport. I take Earthling's view on the scrum, but the referee was not consistent, some of his 'lying on the ball' decisions were ridiculous, but frankly those two areas are the two most likely to be subjective and therefore always open to dispute. In my opinion the rule changers have made a shambles of rules over the past few years, and so people will be hesitant before making yet more, but they need to revisit those two areas in particular. If even hardened scrummagers disagree then it leaves it too open. I'm not in favour of so many scrum-based penalties, and wasn't even when England's scrum were dominating others. England fans need to remember that this is a young, relatively inexperienced team, and a Grand Slam was always going to be a step too far too early. Wales are the best team in the northern hemisphere when they are able to field their best side, and England need to focus on the positives, but react to the areas of weakness. We are lacking when we go forward, and that is mostly due to the lack of creativity in the centre and the fact that Ashton has, like Cohen did, bulked up too much and has lost his snap - along with his 'League' tackling, though he was never that good at it even then. There are some good forwards out there, a fine squad in general, but Twelvetrees has to play in place of one of the centres and we need to find a replacement for Ashton. It's going the right way and this mauling should not detract from that.

Hopefully the existing team will already have such a thing in place - we don't allow anything out or changed without them completing a form.

One of the things I say to techs is that our job relies on accuracy. Follow the policies and procedures already in place and hopefully you won't go far wrong, but whenever you do any support work that is out of the ordinary always think about the consequences of your actions, the affect it will or may have further down the line, and don't try and do jobs that are beyond your current limitations (understanding what they are and admitting to them are key). It is better to ask and be sure than to guess and do something wrong. Initiative is a good thing, but limit to suggestions rather than actions to begin with.