kingswood

Two problems with this: 1. I may be away on holiday when the training is on so would need to send a bod in my place. 2. I have no documents etc with information about this. Who do I talk to at the school about this and who else needs to know/should know about it? Thanks! Paul

Good overview of the course- thanks!

Perhaps. I am sure there is a lesson in that for both of us Paul

...and that was my ending point actually. The skeptic will claim idiocy and the person of faith turn and look outwards knowing that this is the human paradox. Good discussion! Take care!! Paul

I think when you talk about justification of laws etc., you have to realise that they are all based on some kind of world view. Whether that view is formed through a skepticism or religious belief makes no difference. You still require some foundation on which to base a moral or practical law. Some Christian groups in the USA (as an example) have laws pushed through their legislative process that promote their beliefs and I guess that is what you are referring to. That is wrong. But it is only wrong if you don't believe what they do- and when you really think about it (properly) you have to finally admit that they wouldn't like your laws for the same reason. So it's an acceptance really that the framework through which you see the world exists and that it influences your perception of politics and life and the way in which you view justice and skepticism and all those things. In addition to all of that you really have to show that "intention" was warped in the first instance before calling them "idiots". Even in UK law we have some precedent for making conclusions based on pre-meditation etc. The fact that people follow them and that their arguments resonate with some probably indicates something more than idiocy at work. Look at Hitler and his justification of war and genocide and the way people followed him. And then we have to admit that beliefs do (and by their nature *should*) influence the things around us. Otherwise they would be pretty pointless. Take, for example, Christianity. If you believe in an all-powerful creator God who is interested in His creation at every level and a person believes this it will indeed have an impact across all facets of their lives - and those around them. Some of the greatest social work has been carried out under the "influence" of such a faith and its action- and paradoxically some of the worst of human nature displayed. And that is the paradox. Whether you are a "skeptic" and hold no "faith" except in man's prowess and ability to push forward you inevitably mess with this paradox- that people of faith and people of no faith (questionable) have the ability to cause suffering or improvement. That is fact. Those a bit more skeptical (and there's nothing wrong per se with skepticism) will admit that bad things happen and people twist truth and lie for their own ends and will use this as a further evidence that Christianity (or any other faith) is false and indeed empty; whereas those who have genuine faith (which is something you at least allow) will realise that this is why they look to someone outside of themselves for hope... I'm not sure that my writing style says I have an issue with anything other than your assertion that people you disagree with- or who disagree with you or your own thought system- are idiots Take care, Paul

Ironically you mention "idiots" when in fact the video was partly about people who make those kinds of judgments about other people based on their scientific position. Would you care to classify what you mean by "idiot" and who exactly (with examples) you are talking about? If by "idiots" you mean people (yes- scientists and historians) who have valid PhDs and research degrees in their area interpreting evidence through the lens of a different framework, then I think you need to take the guy's advice. There are many scientists who are not "skeptical" (whatever you mean by that) and yet never go as far as making judgments against other people based on religious belief or scientific position. There might be a lesson there. I will wait for your reply. Paul

Completed

Hi, We are looking for some compliant disposal of our (very) old kit (we have just had a new school built and need to get rid of some ancient computers). I noticed Virtue's 'box' system but their location is a bit of a negative (we are in northants). Anyone know of companies locally who provide this service- and dare I say it- at least 'nearly free'? Thanks! Paul

I think more tangible information is needed before saying we will/will not help? What can the system do? What can't it do more importantly? How does it stack up against our pretty solid implementation of SIMS? At the moment this sounds like a political manifesto- lots of words but no substance! Also, having a look at a website would be good and possibly getting our hands on a demo of some kind without playing with live data (a Bad Thing ™).

Yep- no SOLUS or Supportnet for us either. Just when I have been having issues running the latest SIMS update too and have been going backwards and forwards with support!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!! Mumble. Census. Mumble...

I take it you are using the Windows AIK? If so what happens when you run a validate test against the XML file? Any errors being flagged? Paul

I disagree with abullett. No surprise there since we run a fairly large (soon to be 160 system) Apple integrated network. The only argument you may have that would hold any kind of technical or TCO point with SMT or teaching staff in general is the cost of software and/or training. That's pretty weak reasoning since software costs *anyway* for either OS and training is pretty standard. For specialist departments such as media there is nothing better than Final Cut. It's probably that simple. Since we are an arts specialism college it's probably easier to justify than if you were, say, a sports specialist place. But even so I haven't found any issues technically or financially with Apple systems on our Windows network. I also don't follow the line of thought used that 'keeping everything uniform increases your resilience to change'. I find that a little strange in this brave new world of ICT in education (and industry) where networks consist of often disparate bits and pieces from myriads of vendors and the network manager's role is to make them fit together. Interoperability. It's horses for courses. Our Apple network is amazingly happy and staff and students find it fun and efficient to use. Integration is easier than it used to be, software licensing costs won't go away no matter which platform(s) you adopt and the key is to make everything work for the education of the students. If it's for *their* best that you want to move the school away from Apple systems (though I doubt that could be a unilateral decision) then do it. But if there is a niggling doubt (which there obviously is otherwise you wouldn't be opening this up) then I would talk to your senior leadership team and have them consider the impact on the school and make a more balanced decision based not on bias towards a particular technology but instead the educational needs of the environment you are in. Good luck! Paul

I would second this- and also the advice to uninstall your VBox additions before carrying out the conversion (although I have actually carried out a conversion without doing this and without anything bad ™ happening). Paul

Don't use .local! It might cause you more problems than you hoped for with Apple integration Paul

On a postcard you say? Darn. And I wanted to post them on here

I did this over the summer actually- an old CSE-centric network needed updating so I bought two new HP servers and we migrated the network users and data over to a new domain and then did a domain rename on the Windows server to re-use our old suffix (there are easier ways but we HAD to do it this way). Worked fine. I then cleared out the Apple Server settings etc and re-bound the server to the new domain, making sure that the time etc. also reflected the new domain controller. After checking that this worked, I simply rebound the existing Macs (by first unbinding them from the old domain, rebooting, and then re-binding as Tony suggested in his reply). All is well. Macs and OS X Server happy and talking to each other and MCX settings coming out nicely. Interesting to read of the stale record scavenging and home directories though- hadn't heard that one before so I will be looking at this tomorrow!! Paul

(g) (h) and (i) are me Tony!! You aren't supposed to talk about customers like that Hope you are well mate!

I switched from using a MacBook at work to a trusty little Samsung NC10 bought for me by my kids for father's day. I love the thing. It has great battery life, can multitask well, and it light and portable. If Apple brought out a netbook (or similar) for around £400 I would jump at it. They probably *will* bring out something like a netbook but not for that price- and so I will keep using my little Samsung for much longer. If I wanted to video edit and play around with photos I would use my MBP. But at work where I need something light, portable, power efficient and able to complete the tasks I ask of it, netbooks are ideal. Apple may prove me wrong on the price front, but when I dream about that happening I wake up to cold reality with corn flakes plastered wildly over my pale face Paul

Again, I respectfully disagree. In fact I think that is a rather simplistic attitude to take when analysing an operating system. Sure, OS X has inherited (not pinched) a unix base for its kernel. Unix itself has very different security principles to Windows (and I'm glad) - proving my point. I'm not going to labour the argument about that infamous Java patch that was in fact a non-event. It's pointless really. It was patched and there were easy fixes (i.e. disabling the thing) in the meantime. A certain large OS provider in early July left a vulnerability they knew about in SMB until the next "milestone" release of the software even though it was marked as moderate risk to users and businesses. This was a validation DoS. It was patched- but later than most would have liked and was a relic of a previous OS release. So it's ten of one and some of another. I wouldn't like to be the manufacturer of any OS these days- programmers must have a heck of a time meeting the perception of a consumer driven public who think they know better than the developers and designers themselves and second guess every move. As I said in my previous post- I'm glad we have choice. If you like Windows/Linux/Mac OS X/Unix then that's great and shows that we have that choice. You make your choice and you have to live with the consequences. Take care mate!

No problems with Windows 7 here either- it's a very good update to Vista. Apple computers crashing more than Windows XP? You did say "in your experience" so that might be the case. But I wouldn't be able to count on one hand XP "crashing" (if by that you mean a BSOD) on one of my VMs, netbook or other PC at home in the last two years. And neither has OS X (I have had one kernel panic in that time, but that was my fault and quickly rectified). Operating systems across the board are getting pretty solid these days. Apple don't care about security? I don't agree. It should be obvious that they do by even a cursory glance at their OS. They may not have the same security priorities as a Windows-based approach *right now*, but there are signs that things may change as the OS becomes more popular. ZFS is *not* missing because it isn't made by Apple. There were issues with ZFS and builds of Snow Leopard that caused problems (disk utility being one of them). Google it and you will find the information. Snow Leopard sets the stage for Apple's 64-bit kernel implementation by default some time in the future. In the meantime OS X can utilise 64-bit applications and SL has cleaned up and in many cases improved on Leopard's great foundation. That's not sales pitch- they don't pay me. The same as I think Windows 7 is Vista "done right". A very stable, fast, and effective implementation of Windows that will prove extremely popular. I like it and run Windows 7 on everything from VMs to a gaming system. A lot of your post was highly subjective (just like mine) and at the end of the day people will buy whatever suits their career/gaming/personal/creative/whatever needs. And it's good to have so much choice!! Paul

iWeb? I have used live writer and it's pretty good, isn't it? However there are many cool ways of producing far more professional blogs than having to resort to live writer. Rapidweaver on the Mac is the one I am thinking of right now.

Who makes the famous "exploding batteries" that Apple use in their products?

Hi, What disk did you use to install Leopard Server from? i.e. did it come with your XServe or is it a new copy you have bought (boxed)? Paul

diglloyd: All About Apple Mac Pro Memory The answers are all there. FWIW I have 6GB in mine and it has x2 2GB sticks and the stock memory that came with it. Performance is fine. I am due to upgrade the stock memory though so that I have x4 2GB sticks because this would be a "best performance" fit. HTH. Paul

"Delegates should be comfortable working in a Windows environment. No prior knowledge of databases or Access is assumed" That counts me out Seriously though- are those places gone? If not can you PM me some more details (location etc)?? Paul