DrBeaker

What's the reason behind the IT suite going unused, if you don't mind me asking? I'm still trying to convince people a proper IT suite managed and setup properly will always be better and cheaper than the damm hellish laptop trolleys (from experience) and associated laptop problems or worse . . . . tablets!

I feel your pain, believe me. The more I ask and play detective, the more crap and poor practices I'm finding!

It's a known issue with these ones. Once place we had some replaced under the extended warranty Hitachi offered (once they sort-of admitted it was a manufacturing fault) but after that time had passed, it was our problem to solve. At that point the projectors were knackered anyway despite new bulbs, so we just replaced them. They'd had about 6-7x years of service then, so we'd gotten our money's worth.

Did you get the Easybadge software with it at all for the ID badges?

Can I ask why IT is having to respond to fire alarms? Is that not a site/caretakers issue?

Depending on a case-by-case basis it's sometimes easier and cheaper to buy a half-a-dozen/dozen of the same DVD and play that instead of faffing around with streaming, bandwidth, logins, maximum account playback restrictions etc. This way at least the experience is consistent from a teaching/student viewpoint then. I have enough headaches as it is so anything to just make things work is great in my book IMHO. After all - K.I.S.S. remember!

This is ($$$'s and £££'s aside) why I don't understand the logic of having an OS that once played DVDs with no issues. But under the "latest, current release" doesn't support playing DVDs without some faffing around! How is that progress? It's a step backwards IMHO. Especially in schools where techs are already under the gun with equipment and workloads, stuff just "needs to work".

I'm the OP but I'm all by myself in the office in this new job, 5x days a week Previously had 5x people to work with in one role and one bloke who when we worked together, had a right laugh. Probably some of the best work years of my life working with him, fantastic bloke. Alas he left for pastures new and it all changed after that. I could be in the office with the others and nobody talked to each other, so I might as well have been by myself anyway.

Afraid not. Your support company are the experts in this, best to log a call with them. I've found some very knowledge and helpful folks at ours in the Midlands. They've helped me out no end with SIMs issues and advice. However I am always intrigued at what the issue was and how they fixed it, mainly out of IT curiosity. The way IT is these days, you simply cannot be an expert in everything - as you sometimes could years ago. Those days have gone.

Is the subject type a default category in Freshdesk or one you've added as a customisation? I ask as we used to use Spiceworks and sometimes you could log the same type of issue under different categories which had been added over time, which didn't help with reporting or trying to run reports off a category. I guess it does depend on how much you want to break down items for analysis of the type of IT issue e.g. Incident, Change, Problem etc

Fair does to Dave at least he's interacting with his customer/user base! Keep it up Dave

What app did you use to create the site Ben?

I agree. I think this is why there's seemingly so much disrespect for IT Techs and IT services in education and the wider community. Nurses, teachers, GP's etc aren't expected to fund their own training once they're in a role and in their own time. This is also why there's so much frustration in the role - we don't have the funding, time and sometimes the training/skills to do what people are asking of us, yet we're still expected to do it? Get real!

Had this similar debate before with someone else. They were going to virtualize a server that was nothing to do with us? WHY? For the love of GOD - WHY? Why take on that responsibility when the support fee wasn't going to be any cheaper?

This does reflect my own experiences, that IT support staff get zero training in applications they are supposed to support!

No, but that sounds in the right ballpark for a figure. An outdoor screen is gonna have a whole host of different settings and issues to overcome - not least of all would be the brightness issue. You mention a playground? I assume this is for a primary? If so the cost is simply going to be far too much IMHO.

Surely this is up to the invigilator? How has this been spun as a "technical issue"? Is a kid drawing over an printed exam paper a "technical issue" too? Some of these exam boards/online exams amuse me no end.

I worked in business for years, before joining educational IT Support. I've had full domain access to things in previous roles, so with RM you can understand how things are "dumbed-down" to a point to allow teaching staff who manage the network part-time to administer things, as they might not have them IT knowledge other techs do. However for a lot of stuff that I know e.g. group policy could easily it, doing things the RM way does seem to be bit frustrating and restricted by comparison.

Neither did I despite constantly asking the people who should have provided the content. E.g. the cameras in the news studio might work - but if they've got not news, there's nothing to report on.

The ideas I had to develop Xibo at one place past the initial stages it had been setup with - I was never given the time and resources to do so, despite my requests. So it kept being put on the back-burner constantly. AFAIK some of the content on the screens when I left, was still the same content that was on there when I started.

I found that even the simplest tasks in Xibo required me to write-up very dumbed-down guides for the admin staff full of step-by-step instructions with screenshots etc, for them to be able to complete them. So I ended up doing the admin bits of updating content.

Thanks. How do you find the 4th Gen i5 kit? Still up to the job?

What suppliers do you use for the new equipment and what did you refurbish the AIO's yourselves or buy in some refurbished units? How did you find them for quality, reliability etc?

I'll say that this wasn't actually anything to do with me as part of my roles, I had no responsibility for any of that. One job (nothing to do with schools) the finance team supposedly audited the whole IT equipment and had it in a database - when we asked for it, it was an outright lie, they hadn't done any of the work they said they'd done! So clearly the people who should have - didn't want the responsibility either. I can only advise, if they don't want my help, that's up to them. Not my circus, not my monkey

RM Ecoquiet 965, Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 80GB HDD. Getting on with more years of service than the USS Enterprise. Whose Computer is that? I think I know.Its owner is quite sad though. He was cross like a dark potato. I watch him number-crunch and wait. I cry WHY ARE YOU SO SLOW. He gives his Computer a shake And it screams I've made a bad mistake. The only other sound's the break, Of distant waves and birds awake. The Computer is slow, like a sloth and deep,But he has educational IT support promises to keep, Tormented with nightmares he never sleeps. Revenge is a promise a new computer should keep.