DrBeaker

I am not happy. I have yet to receive my socks My feet are cold Here I was looking forward to getting them this week lol. Jealous of SockGate2020

Yep this is an estates team problem, make it theirs not an IT one. Refer them to site team. What's gonna happen if they forget their iPad at home? We have a ringer on our front reception you can hear halfway across the school it's that loud.

Internet Explorer? Are you mad sir? [emoji12][emoji23]

Wasn't it new to server 2008 or an add-on if I remember?

I'll do it for £30m. [emoji12]

Thing is unless you have the staff level, you can only be reactive surely? IT by itself is a very reactive industry.

Which supports the theory that it's an Office 2003 or earlier document as with 2007 they started the XLSX file format. Shocking, support for Office 2003 ended in 2014, 6x years ago. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/report-builder/work-around-the-excel-2003-row-limitation?view=sql-server-ver15#:~:text=Excel%202003%20supports%20a%20maximum%20of%2065%2C536%20rows%20per%20worksheet.

All, What's the general consensus on BIOS updates these days? I was always taught NEVER to update the BIOS unless it actually fixes something. But over the past few years, I'm reading more and more however that it's becoming part of regular maintenance and security updates etc despite the risks of bricking the system? What does everyone else do these days? Leave it alone, regular updates etc? With Windows 10 and UEFI now updates occasionally come through as a Windows Update too. Just wanted to gauge opinions. Thanks

Get another host and split the load.

Not even an xlsx file? [emoji33][emoji12]

Completely agree. E.g. my experience alone of 4x projects recently. 1x completed successfully with no issues. 2x poorly executed due to others getting involved/not consulting IT support beforehand and not ready for start of year and poorly-specced work items. 1x due to a rush deployment authorised by management which skipped vital recommended testing of the hardware beforehand. Guess which ones IT were directly in charge of?

[emoji33][emoji23]

To be honest I'd imagine if Capita have put them up for sale, anything on that roadmap is the last thing that's gonna happen now

True. Lot of interesting points to cover. But using public money to supply teachers a laptop to work at home wouldn't go down well with support, public etc and seen as not a good use of funds. These aren't sales people who are out in the field all day, they're primarily in a classroom. It's definitely an interesting but difficult debate and choice at the moment. Bear in mind if the schools supply laptops etc as part of classrooms or their job it could be a taxable benefit. You'd also have to consider them for support staff, admin , supply staff etc. The TCO would be higher too. What would happen to things like Windows Updates and SIMS updates etc? Damage to kit when off the school site? Overall PCs are cheaper and easier to manage in this regards.

Yep I replaced a users old Core 2 Duo, HDD, 4GB RAM machines with a 4th Gen i5, 4GB RAM and HDD early in 2020. Then upgraded this further over the summer to 8GB RAM and and SSD. I've now got a complaint of "computer is slow". WHAT? What on earth are you comparing it to? I am at a loss.

Can I ask what's the rationale for providing laptops? A PC can be purchased for £300-600 each approx. More powerful, more upgrade potential, less risk of being damaged, knocked, stolen, easy to secure etc. Surely their role is to teach within the classroom and a PC would be more than adequate for that?

Honestly ... just go for the panels. If the money's there I'd go for panels, but with NO android etc built in unless they can guarantee it's going to work and be supported for 5x years I started an audit recently and 39x of ours are the Casio ones!!!

I had to deal with some of these a few years ago. They had the mirror motor flap failures which for an extended warranty for. They were 5x years old then if not older.

Been a major pain since I walked in the door this morning. Had to print out signs and stick them in reception. Came back about 12 give it take.

Aren't those nearly 10x years old now? Might be cheaper to get a new projector to be honest?

With colds and flu you can be mentally and physically compromised, so one view would be you'd be a risk to staff, employees etc. Generally with staff sickness I don't understand the "logic" behind essentially staff being forced into work when they're feeling crap. You're not going to be efficient etc. It's like running a RAID array with a degraded/failed HDD. Some employers want 21st century working but with a 1960's attitude towards employees wellbeing. You can't fix stupid dude. Once I realised that I gave up trying.

If it's not something you look after can you pass it back to whoever does? Be aware of scope creep and being 'helpful'.

Nope and it's a pain in the bum. We're in a similar position as I'm in the middle of reviewing our projectors.

Network boot from WDS server on the network. Set a few details, build, come back next day to verify. Don't know how years gone by we managed without this stuff now. I'd mighty tempted just to do the same at home lol