BJG

We just use ancient batch files - scripts based on Gammadyne Wol to wake up and PSShutdown to switch off. Seems to work. AB Tutor is brilliant, though so far I haven't had much luck using it for WOL for some reason. We use Angry IP to harvest the Mac addresses.

Go on then...

I only just found out about this. Here's the email response I just had from Autodesk after querying them about it. ********************************* You are correct, Autodesk provides Secondary, and Further Education institutions, teachers and students with Free access to over thirty 2D and 3D design & visualization software offerings and also makes available free training, teaching and learning resources for personal use. To apply to download free software for your institution please visit the Autodesk Academic Resource Center by going to Overview and select the option to receive software for use in the classroom via the blue ACCESS TODAY button. Students and teachers wishing to download free licenses of the software for use at home can access the software from Autodesk Student Community | Free Software & Resources for Education Autodesk has partnered with the UK Design & Technology Association to support science, technology, engineering, art and maths (STEAM) education for Secondary schools, through the provision of free software and projects. To access UK specific resources and learning content please visit Overview and look under the curriculum tab. We have additional STEAM curriculum resources available at Autodesk Digital STEAM Workshop If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. ********************************* Autodesk 3DS Max and Maya are amazing industry-standard products usually costing thousands of pounds per license, so it would be crazy not to give students access and alert them to free home use IMHO. I'm working to sneak some CGI into A-level Media Studies.

OK, thanks for the pointers all. I'd be interested in current recommendations for any specific hardware.

Sounds good. We have an OVS-ES license; can't remember what the difference is. Out of interest, what kind of hardware are you running your VMs on, and how many per box...? Have you gone with SANs and stuff...?

Bit of a vague question, but how specific do you tend to make your virtual servers...? For instance, I want to set up virtual servers for: 1) Antivirus (Symantec Endpoint Protection) 2) Video delivery (Clickview) 3) DHCP Would three servers be overkill...? I guess there are two issues: a) Cost of licensing b) Efficiency It's (b) I'm not sure about...

Yay, finally fixed the problem with WSUS.... *ping* ...and there goes my MIS server with an automatic reboot. Blasted thing...

Our ICT teaching staff have been looking for a suitable way to teach students simple programming, and they've decided to have a go with Python. They've suggested I set up one of the ICT suites with Python 2. So...does this sound like a sensible idea, and what's the best approach...? Is there some free/commercial IDE suitable for kids...?

...HP2015 motherboards. Mmm, smell the solder. Leave to cool, reinstall, and... Bingo.

OK, Samsung phone and Orange PAYG SIM all done and dusted (forthcoming birthday present). Thanks for that. Now that I've confessed my ignorance of SIM-related matters, here's a follow-up. I bought the phone SIM at Carphone Warehouse, and decided to get my 1st generation iPad wireless at the same time. So they sold me some EE data micro-SIM for that. I was a bit surprised to find it was £15 for 2GB, requires £10 renewal every month, and doesn't even get reception back home in my neck of the woods. So is that normal, or a rip-off...? And if I wanted to use this with a laptop, can I pull it out and use it in some kind of bog-standard wireless dongle...? These seem to vary from £6 to £75 and I'm not sure why...

Just overheard: "Why do people have to improve things for the worse? Absolutely, like, f**k off." This turned out to be a comment on the latest Google Maps update...apparently there's some new window feature proving irksome to at least one user. I like the concept, though; improving things for the worse. There ought to be a word for that.

(Great, thanks ppl!)

I know this is a really dumb question, but I'm just not mobile-phone minded, and want to avoid a purchase mistake. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-SIII-Smartphone-Unlocked/dp/B0080DJ6CM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392835352&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+s3+white Samsung Galaxy III "Sim Free Unlocked" on Amazon...can someone confirm that means I can sign up for pay-as-you-go with a choice of network...? Thanks!

Just looking at the E70 blurb...does anyone have one of these...? http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/sitecore/en/pdf/brochures/ifp/smartboard-e70-factsheet.pdf

We've got some ancient multimedia CD about castles on the network, which I guess probably worked once, but hasn't been used for years. They're trying to use it now, but the videos won't play. I've tried slotting it into the Intranet and running it direct from a mapped drive, but it makes no difference. A typical line of code which should be displaying a video is: I've replaced two full stops with "dotdot" because the forum software messes with it. The folder and videos exist. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the video format and/or the syntax. Tried IE and Chrome. If you point them directly at the URL for the video, it plays in IE (after prompting to open) and Chrome (if you add the Windows Media Player plugin), but the page which is supposed to play them doesn't...so at the moment I'm suspecting "dynsrc". Any thoughts...?

I'm a fan, but it's too expensive for the amount we'd want. (Haven't had a quote from Millgate though.)

Huh, they fixed it before I got out. Damn plumbers.

Water, water, everywhere Nor any drop to drink Arrived this morning to find the school has no water, so we're all being sent home. Darn shame. I'm jealously guarding half a mug of coffee I just scrounged off a teacher who brought a flask.

Thanks for the explanation. I don't understand why Apple force you to use two separate accounts. So...would you recommend I create another Apple account using the same school credit card...?

OK, I give up... I'm new to iPads and picking up the job of installing educational apps for the school's limited collection of them, the person previously responsible having left. I've discovered that he set up an account associated with the school's credit card, and I was able to use this to log into the Volume Purchase Program for Education and buy an app using the "redeemable code" method. I can't figure out how to reedem/install it however. When I sign into the UK App Store it says: "This apple id is associated with the volume purchase program for education" ...and drags me to the relevant website, but this only lists Music/Films/Books. I can't find the app. Likewise if I enter the URL I've been sent which is supposed to allow me to redeem the code. I'm sure this is stupidly simple but...getting frustrated here...don't tell me I have to set up an alternative personal account with my own credit card.

..but gained an iPad. Not all bad then. Looking forward to putting my stamp on this nice big empty office. I'm thinking, low-level lighting; lava lamps. And wall hangings with pictures of elephants.

Link: Situations Vacant

Inevitably I have it now, hope it's not this thing that lasts for months...! I shall be retiring to the sofa with a supply of Lemsip Max for the weekend.

Ay, I'm going to be eating, sleeping, and drinking hand gel until the end of term.

We recently switched the other way, mostly to save money, but it seems to work better for us. We were on quite an old version of NetSupport though.