AngryTechnician

Even Oracle can't keep up with their own updates now. Just installed 7u45 and this is the message I get when running the official Java test app (note warning in yellow).

Many independent Prep schools (like the one I work at) also go from normal primary age up to Y8.

This may be of interest: Enhancing mental maths in the primary setting through games-based learning

Perhaps enable bandwidth management on the NIC in the VM settings? Will affect the whole VM unfortunately, not just WDS, but might be worth a try.

Don't forget that desktops are dead, the PC is dead, and even Microsoft is dead. Posted from my desktop PC running Microsoft Windows 8.

For desktops, we made the decision this year to lengthen our replacement cycle by an extra year. I could see us doing it again after not too long, and we're not hard up for cash. We just don't need to replace as often as software requirements are not increasing nearly as fast as they used to. I suspect this is largely due to the demand for software to run on low-power devices such as tablets, which means a 'full-fat' desktop gets a very easy ride. In my experience, desktops are definitely remaining serviceable longer than they used to, both in terms of performance and reliability. I think this is something often overlooked by companies such as Gartner when they claim the desktop market is dead because fewer people are buying new ones. It's not that people don't use desktops any more, they just don't need to replace them nearly as often (especially businesses).

You're absolutely right, and here's the patch (only published in the last day or so): Update adds support for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 clients to Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 KMS hosts Full installation instructions for adding the new KMS key once you have the update installed are in the KB article.

I agree, but I remember it was a very tough sell to our teachers to convince them of that. They agreed eventually and now just start them straight onto Word with no real issue, but if you aren't willing to have that fight and just need something to satisfy the demand for something simpler, WordPad is the way to go.

WordPad.

It may not be commercial use, but it's also not personal use. If Spotify was installed on a teacher's own, personal property that they brought into school and used to play music only for themselves, on headphones, that would qualify as personal use. If it is installed on a computer owned by their employer (not their own property), it no longer counts as personal use. The terms for paid subscriptions in this regard are no different from free use.

It used to be in there, but this thread is nearly a year old and the wording of the terms has changed several times since then. However, it does still clearly say that "we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable licence to make personal, non-commercial use of the Spotify Service". If you are in any doubt over whether use in school counts as personal use, the FAQ clearly states that is is not: "Can I use Spotify to play music in my bar, restaurant, store, school etc? No, the Terms & Conditions that you agree to when registering for Spotify state that Spotify is for personal, non-commercial use."

Pretty sure that is allowed, unless the licensing has changed in recent years. We certainly looked through very carefully when we installed the 2008 versions back in the day. Another option is to sign your school up for DreamSpark which allows you to install the Professional versions in your labs and students can also download and install at home. On the website there is a fee listed for it ($99/year) but this was being waived for EES customers last time I checked. To be honest a bigger challenge will be working out how to deploy it as I don't think there is a silent deployment option, and for the free versions you have to do the serial numbers individually.

NoteMaster is probably also worth a look. It's paid (£2.49) but there is a Lite version to try out. Syncs to Google Drive in the native Docs format, which is nice.

Google Keep has no native iOS app (there's a terrible 3rd party app in the App Store), but its completely unnecessary as the web version works perfectly in Safari. Go to https://drive.google.com/keep and log in. They will still need some formatting and organising after the fact, as Keep doesn't have folders to store all the image & notes for one child together. The print layout may also not be as you would want it.

Pretty sure even Exchange 2010 OWA doesn't support it, so I'd love to hear what you're using that does!

Found it - very interesting. Looks like it pulls the data from Google Apps rather than doing the monitoring itself, but a unified monitoring console is still potentially very useful.

I'm seeing the iOS7 stuff but nothing obvious to do with Chromebooks... where are you looking?

Some support web upload, some don't. Most of my Procurve switches don't. Thanks for the TFTP32 recommendations, very handy to have something that also does DHCP, DNS, and Syslog as well. Curiously I've retested this morning with TFTP32 and PumpKIN and they are both uploading the correct file sizes now I am on the latest firmware. It's beginning to look like the TFTP client in the earlier version (E.11.36) had something screwy with it. Might break out our spare chassis later and test it again on that to see if I can reproduce it.

For years, I've used PumpKIN as a simple TFTP server when uploading firmware to switches. It's never failed me before, but today it repeatedly and consistently corrupted a firmware upload during transfer to my Procurve 5308xl core switch, resulting in a failed reboot each time. After eventually sitting through a very lengthy successful upload using HyperTerminal and Xmodem, I noted the working file size reported from show flash on the switch was larger than the non-working one, so it seems like a few kB got dropped using TFTP. Can anyone recommend an alternative free, simple TFTP server that I can fire up off a USB stick whenever I need to transfer some firmware? Or should I be pointing the finger at my switch's TFTP client implementation instead?

If anyone is doing this to home then full drive encryption is an absolute must, plus I strongly recommend a signed written agreement between you and someone senior at the school to formally authorise it.

I prefer HUP for that reason alone. We market it to staff as a discount that the school gets them as en employee benefit, which goes down quite well. Also, I'm pretty sure that the Campus Agreement version is no different, and that direct distribution without charge via the campus is only for the Work At Home licence - the difference with HUP is that personal use is explicitly allowed under the licence, hence the additional charge.

The similar solutions from @Arthur and @martinkasabov are both very interesting. I've never dabbled in creating my own custom actions before and wasn't aware they could be as simple as calling a VBS. Will definitely think about using that trick again in future.

I've just been pushing apps this morning and it still wants the Apple ID password. As before, it remembers this for 15 minutes, but that's it. The confirmation prompt for each individual app is also still there.

From what you've described, you have successfully converted the disk to MBR. However, you now need to switch off EFI in the BIOS. It's currently switched on and that's why Windows is complaining.

Start with this: How to enable verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status Messages in the Windows Server 2003 family That should identify what part of Group Policy processing is causing the delay. If you need to narrow it down further, you can enable debug logging like so: Fixing Group Policy problems by using log files: Group Policy