_Bat_

I feel really stupid for asking this, but I just can't figure this out. I installed this software today (it is flash based) and the application opens in full screen mode. Unfortunately this completely covers up the whiteboard controls, which is beyond the point as it is designed to be used on a whiteboard. Surely there is a keyboard shortcut to make the application run out of full screen mode, or is it different with flash? The keyboard shortcuts I know just aren't working :s. The only thing I can seem to do is close the window down (ALT + F4) which obviously is not what I want to do. Any ideas?

First thing about interviews: They -never- ask the questions you expect, haha! I learnt that when I was job hunting. All all honesty, the fact that you are currently unemployed might work against you (though occasionally it can work in your favour as you can most likely start sooner then the others). However if you answered the tech questions well enough, that fact might be forgotten. If you don't get this job, have a look into doing some computing related charity work? Maybe go around your local primary schools and offer to work on their network part time for free? They are usually crying out for IT Support and would most likely jump at the chance (I already decided this is what I'd do if I ever found myself out of work for some reason, plus it gives me something useful to do). I personally think this would look fantastic on your CV. Hope you get the job! Good luck!

Meh. I suspect there is something happening, we just don't know what yet. But... can we (that includes the complaining parents) do anything about it? Nope. Not at all. Mobiles phones are everywhere. Wifi is everywhere. Complaining to the school is just looking for someone to blame. I mean, anything bad that happens to a child is their schools fault now isn't it?

Since March last year (my time of employment here) one of my schools has been running at 100% uptime (except for planned downtime obviously) and the other has had half a day downtime due to half the school losing electricity, including the server room. This was when we realised that the UPS hadn't been configured properly and every server immediately lost power . Lesson learnt though... all sorted now. Fortunately no damage was done.

I know a lot of you here have previously worked for long stretches in IT in industry as opposed to ICT in education. As I have only just started my career in IT (and I suspect education was a very good place to start off) I was curious about the differences between the two. In the distant future, industry (known as the real world here I think? ) is obviously something I'll be looking into. From what I have read in post snippets scattered around the forum, I have picked up the following so far: IT in industry is: - Much more stressful - Being on call and phone calls at home is a regular thing - Split up into many jobs. There isn't just a 4/5/6 man IT Team doing everything. Each person has a set job i.e. website designer, software administrator etc. - Budget is obviously a -lot- bigger and current IT equipment wasn't purchased 10 years ago - Much better paid then education Am I correct in saying that? Can anyone add anything else? This question is just out of curiosity really, but I think any info may help for decisions I make in the future. Thanks

"Wi-fi laptop fears for children" Well there will be fears now they have published THAT. Fortunately we don't use wireless in either of our schools because both my network manager and myself hate it (I don't understand how anyone has managed to get it working properly across the school... I can just hear all the knocking on my office door saying they can't get internet in the toliet or in this certain classroom. Every wireless network I have ever set up has had issues caused simply due to the nature of wireless. I'd hate to do it at work as well).

I knew it was possible to do this because someone mentioned it in the local LUG once. I've been wondering what software will do it myself because I think it's the best way for showing off work the pupils have made in powerpoint on the website. (They only mentioned powerpoint because they were complaining about people sending files in closed file formats to them, such as .doc or .ppt. Normally mentioning any microsoft software, especially in a good light, causes a dull roar of protest across the room. One day I'm going to take a windows laptop with me, turn the volume up full and boot up windows and watch their faces when the windows startup music plays ).

You have been warned! Jake is nearby! Keep on the alert at all times and don't let any of your friends go out alone.. especially if they are female.

Does make you wonder though doesn't it... I'm not saying wireless networks DO cause damage, however, I can't say it will do us any good either. Even though i'm not someone who worries much about stuff like that as quite frankly there is nothing that can be done about it anyway, just like with mobile phones, I'd never say that it doesn't do any damage. Once upon a time, people thought smoking was good for you. Doctors actually ENCOURAGED people to light up as it improved their health. They'd have laughed if you went to them and told them it was bad for them. Go figure

I'm curious now. I wish there was more info about it. The infected computers included one that only I really use (though it is possible pupils MAY have had access to it).

Just spotted this now on a couple of our clients. I've been through sophos manager on the server and not many clients appear to have been infected, but whether the server hasn't gotten around to pushing the CID on all the clients yet, who knows. The only reason I'm posting this is because I remember reading this thread yesterday and thinking that I hadn't noticed anything on our network. Then I saw the alerts this morning when I arrived at work. According to the logs though, sophos moved the virus on each infected client, so that should have stopped it dead. Will check said clients now though.

Okay, I'll bear that in mind. Thanks for the advice. As for teachers children using the laptops, the head teacher is angry that this is happening. An AUP is being written which will hopefully put a stop to this. Some teachers (and their children) obviously become so used to having their laptop that they think it is theirs and not the schools. In the AUP, it will state the consequences of anyone disobeying it. It will also make it clear what software/media is illegal etc. However, even though we have no AUP at the moment, I am still going to delete any downloaded music/movies etc without prior warning as it breaks the law. The teachers have been made aware that laptops will be coming in for inspection in a rota each week so the sensible ones will hopefully get any illegal content removed before I get hold of the laptop. The really sensible ones won't have to worry anyway .

Having regular contact with several current or previous business owners (my mum included and others who are my friends) I've been informed in the past that it is standard procedure to get the references of all shortlisted applicants before interview (but obviously each company/organisation is different). I'd personally prefer that the interviewer had seen my references before my interview (if its good) as then they already have a good idea of what I am like before the interview and if I screw up they are more likely to put it down to nerves. Good luck though and remember, the person/people doing your interview will probably be just as nervous as you are (in fact, they usually are). My mum ran a business for 25 years and she said even towards the end, she lost a nights sleep each time she had to interview an applicant due to nerves. I was also interviewed by four people (the head teachers of both schools, deputy head of one school and my network manager). So I was extremely nervous. I also wasn't told about the written test I'd have to take. Apparently I got 9/15 which was apparently part of the reason I got the job in the end as I got the highest. The next one down was 6/15.

As far as I am aware, the school gets fined and possibly worse happening to both me as the person responsible for the laptops and the person who downloaded it in the first place. @localzuk Are you sure it's not legal? Windows media player has a whole section dedicated to ripping CDs. Why do they allow this? What about MP3 players? Surely this requires you to rip music off CDs?

I had two staff laptops in yesterday and found about 50 mp3s in a folder called 'bearshare' and several movies in a folder called 'bittorrents' on the first. All were deleted immediately and threatening messages left in a readme file in their place. On the second I found a large amount of MP3s that had been downloaded, but others appeared to have been ripped from CDs legally via windows media player. Unsure of what to do, I left a message in the startup folder (where they can't miss it) asking them to sort out and delete the illegal content. If they don't do it soon, I'll just delete the lot anyway. I'm going through the rest of the laptops soon and I'd make a guess and say I'll be deleting most MP3 files that I find, especailly if it is in a folder such as limewire "shared". It's not the teachers doing it incidently... it's their children. However, for the first time I've decided to adopt a BOfH style approach to this because I think if I don't, it'll get out of hand. Do you think I am wrong to just delete without warning? Maybe I'll back them up before deleting in future just in case (not for my own music collection, honestly ).

No, unfortunately the whiteboard has been there a lot longer then the cage has. It wouldn't be so bad if it was only the one, but we have had trouble with loads of them. The cages are horrible for one thing and are so difficult to adjust it's unbelievable.

Yes it's blocked and no, but I do have myspace (eventually I was persuaded to sign up).

Yeah, but we asked them to remove the guns before they came in because we feared it might scare the children (we are only a primary school). I take it thats not normal then?

Unfortunately no changeable lens and can't see anything like digital zoom in the menu, I just double checked now . Guess I'm going to have to get them back in... I don't know why they didn't check before they put the cage in that position in the first place. The school was warned about going with this company before hand though by my network manager. However, this company usually provide the cheapest quote. The school happen to forget they also provide the cheapest service.

We have a projector in one of our classrooms which is projecting an image onto the whiteboard which is quite a bit too big (it's not a big whiteboard). However, the little lever which changes the projected image size is already pushed as far is it will go to make the image smaller. Is there any other way of making the image smaller? The people who installed the projectors into their cages (which only they can adjust by the way) didn't do a very good job and I am continually having to call them back. I'd rather not have to do so again if possible, but if there is no other solution to this, I will. Thanks EDIT: Forgot to mention it is a BenQ PB2140 projector

Yeah, I agree. Just play about with it. If possible, do two installations of it so you can use one as a test area. Then when doing anything you are unsure of, you can do it in the test area first.

Yeah, I already read that, which is what made me curious, haha. It looks interesting. However, I'm confused about the licensing part. How do they even moderate that?

What does that actually involve, Craig? I'm curious.

Music is unfortunately something I don't think I'll ever have a talent in. However, I do plan on learning to play the piano to some extent at some point in the near future. It'll take a very long time though.

Hahahah, it's almost like you are looking around to check when they weren't watching .