Richard_Finnigan

Hi We want to set up a simple Freeview TV recording facility at St Johns using a networked PC and a TV capture card or USB stick. What is particularly important is the software, we need something that can scedule recordings and hopefully give us some options for the recorded file format, we dont want huge hi res files that will be very time consuming to convert into a compressed format. Any suggestions would be welcome. Regards Richard Finnigan St Johns School Northwood

Ah... Windows 7 and Office 2010 with no service pack installed.

Hi Has anyone encountered an issue where a group of pupils are trying to save an *.xlsm file (Macro Enabled Workbook) and when they do they get a saving progress dialogue that hangs around for a long a time even though the progress bar is finished. If they close the dialogue the saved file is corrupted, eventually after 3-10 minutes the dialogue disappears. This issue occurs intemittantly with some groups but not with others, the files are only 15-40k each. I suspect the Anti Virus software, we use Trend Micro. Richard

Yes, using the underside of the desk is a good idea.

Our current thinking is for drop down sets of sockets that can be hung up on the ceiling when the laptops are not in use, another alternative would be drop down pillars. It seems to me that we just need to get some network cabling companies in to give some quotes and discuss some ideas though obviously if anyone has see a good solution for a CDT room that does not a specific area for its IT please let me know. Obviously we would prefer wireless but that is not possible because of the interference from all of the equipment.

Hi We've encountered a problem with our CDT room. We can't fit and use wireless access points because all of the heavy metal equipment is causing signal problems so we are having to look at hard wired cabling solutions for a CDT room. We need 16 RJ45 sockets along a long worktable which is about 10m long and they can either drop down from the ceiling or be built into the bench. If anyone out there has been involved in a similar development I'd like to know how you set this up in your school ? Thanks Richard

Yes I've gone beyond the basics but it looks interesting from a teaching point of view so I'll check it out. Thanks Richard

Just the knowledge and training...

Thanks for that.... I'll look them up, I guess I'll just learn some SQL 2008 and then maybe catch up with the latest version if it's very different and if those differences are worth having Richard

Errr yes pardon me 2008 r2 I currently use MS SQL 2000 in quite a basic way and I do most of the data processing in the Access apps that are clients of this server, so I'm mainly interested in support though I want to begin to get a handle on Transact SQL that is used in SQL 2008. I'm after the names of good training providers that people have used before so I can have a look at what they have got to offer.

Hi Does any one know of any good training providers for MS SQL Server 2008? I'm familiar with SQL 2000 and I want to get to grips with 2008. Ideally I'm looking for a two or three day off site course, I have googled this and there are a large number of companies that offer this sort of training and I'm looking for some recommendations about these companies. I'm mainly interested in database administration. Regards Richard

Hi we are having real problems with MLS Junior Librarian 3 which does not really cater for data updates from MIS systems other than Capita, Serco and one or two other popular MIS systems, so if anyone else can recommend any decent library software please let me know.

They seem to be very expensive and I would have thought that the tools available in Windows Server should allow a netword administrator to create locked down desktops and folders with applications in them. As far as I can see that's all we seem to be getting from CSE. I'll bet this question has been asked before.

We are looking to put a DVD recorder in the staff resources room so staff can record TV programs, with the demise of VHS most of them can no longer do this at home. Can anyone recommend a make and model thats reliable and reasonably easy to use ?

I've just looked at that device. Thats definately a serious full on solution. ~Richard

LOL child labour !! give em some house points and a thankyou Thats a nice idea.

They are our own in house videos, productions, English and ICT projects so copywrite is not much on an issue unless the boys use lots of downloaded clips !! Richard

Hi We are looking into DVD duplicators to distribute movie files and free software to our pupils. What we are looking for is a duplicator that has a hopper for the blank DVDs and stores the image file locally so we can set it up and let it get on with it but we are not looking for top of the range kit. Any recommendations or warnings would be welcome. Regards Richard Finnigan

Hi We are considering running MS Office 2007 in ICT suite while keeping MS Office 2003 on our school laptops and teacher's PCs. Does anyone know if there are any insurmountable technical issues involved in this setup ? I've been told that running two sets of policies for two ms office apps might be a problem but I cant really see that our current policies for MS Office 2003 are really doing very much and we should be able to run MS Office 2007 in our ICT suite without any policies. R Finnigan St Johns School

Somehow I doubt that Capita and Serco are going to be even slightly worried about scholarpack, their website is full of blankpages and there is no content in the products section. Its not ready yet.

Yes I wouldn't discount the possibility of an unholy alliance through various informal contacts and arrangements, that would be very difficult to prove though, the genesis of a new conspiracy theory perhaps ??

I agree with the above and its interesting to note that the British MIS vendors are not calling for these clearly established open standards, the fact that they are able to keep up with the government's changing requirements does force a dependent relationship on the schools who are unable to do this without being tied into an expensive contract with one of these companies, they are financially benefitting from the Government's poor IT management. Fortunately I work in the private sector so an in house solution is still possible for us. When I did work with one of these companies I really resented having to attend an endless number of training courses in order to learn their badly designed proprietary software that involved learning skills that I could not use in another environment. It was just dead knowledge and I also felt that their system was difficult by design because the training courses were another source of income for them.

DTs hostility towards consultants is actually quite common place and many permanant staff resent outsiders who are brought in to fix their problems and yes there are duff consultants who have queered the pitch for the good ones. Somehow I think if you go down that road you'll be robust enough to cope with it

Mmmm I worked with an excellent one this Monday, he was worth every penny that we paid him. I have friends and family who do IT Consultancy work so I find such ignorant sweeping statements quite offensive. These are people who are only as good as their last job and they depend on word of mouth recommendation and repeat business from clients who are under no obligation to re-employ them.

Dhicks is absolutely spot on !! However there is an awful lot of small scale MIS development going on out there that fills the huge yawning gaps that exist in the products that can be bought from companies like Capita and Serco. This work often withers on the branch once the key proffessional who has developed these add ons moves on and I do believe that there is a great deal of scope for sharing these projects on an open source basis, maybe a site like MIS WORK or MIS ADD ONS. Thankfully because I work in the private sector I dont have to cope with information needs of central or local government so I certianly intend to share the small scale MIS system that I am developing for my school using Access, Eeeek Microsoft !!! lol well I'll be sharing all of the code and I'm deliberately keeping the server side technology to a minimum so that it can be made kosher by using MySQL. that's open source enough for me. BTW there are some excellent consultants out there and the cost of consultantancy is going down but I strongly suspect that once the money stops then so do they. I doubt that they will work on a project just for the love of it.