Cat_Jam148

Email below: It is with great sadness that we write to inform you of the passing of our CEO, John Jackson. John helped to found LGfL in 2001 and made an immeasurable impact on the organisation and the many schools, teachers and children we support. He was passionate about using technology to make a real difference to education and spent more than 25 years championing the role of LGfL in delivering meaningful impact for schools, teachers and pupils. John defined and embodied our mission: saving schools money, keeping children safe, protecting and securing schools, tackling inequality, energising teaching and learning and promoting wellbeing. This commitment will remain an important part of his legacy at LGfL. John had been unwell for the past six months. During this time, he was determined to ensure that LGfL (The National Grid for Learning) remained strong and continued to operate effectively, even in his absence. His foresight in establishing a strong leadership team has meant that the organisation has been able to operate successfully without his day-to-day involvement. Throughout John's illness, the LGfL Leadership Team has worked hard to ensure that our services have continued without disruption. This remains our priority, and we want to reassure you that LGfL continues to operate as normal. John was incredibly proud of LGfL, its people and the services we provide. It is our intention to honour his legacy by maintaining the standards, stability and commitment that he worked so hard to establish. The Board of Trustees will be appointing an Interim CEO and Deputy CEO in the coming weeks. This will provide further continuity and ensure that LGfL continues to flourish and build on the strong foundations John put in place. We understand that John's passing may raise questions, and we want to assure you that there will be no disruption to the services we provide to you. Our services and support will continue as normal, and you can continue to use your usual LGfL contacts and support channels. Thank you for your continued support and confidence in LGfL during this difficult time. Yours sincerely, Paul Robinson LGfL Chairman

This is my exact line of thinking too. On average here our laptops last about 4 years, while our desktops can last 10 (as long as MS doesn't move the goalposts on minimum supported spec). Having a permanent workstation in our classrooms and other dedicated learning spaces is a definite benefit: no panic when a teacher has forgotten their laptop, no weird config issues due to differences in hardware, plenty of machine availability for other staff use, software updates and maintenance easily accommodated and automated...etc Laptops work fine, they just aren't as easy or convenient to support in my opinion. Even with the various tools available (Action 1, remote desktop etc...) Staying on topic: I know you mentioned them in your opening post, but ICT Direct is my go-to these days. Never ever had an issue, and if I did, I'm sure it would be promptly solved.

Love a bit of Dave! His Youtube is a goldmine for classic Windows fans. https://www.youtube.com/@DavesGarage Might give this a try. I dunno, I kinda like it. Reminds me of the dashboard from the Season 3/4 model of KITT.

Same here

We have a couple of 8TB USB HDDs that once a week, one of them is used to perform a full backup of our data. It is the exact same backup run normally, just pointed at the USB drive. That then gets stored in a safe place, with the other drive being used for the backup in the next week.

I knew it was to be expected following R* previous last few releases, but still a little bit disappointed that it's not releasing day 1 on PC. I know PC gets the better version eventually, with extra features/fidelity, but I'm more annoyed at R* double dipping knowing that some people won't be able to stomach the delay so will buy on console, and then again on PC when it releases. I was guilty of this with RDR2, but won't be doing the same with VI - I've waited this long, what is another year??? Also not a fan of their ultimate edition, with locking access to certain stores behind it

I've recently been tackling this here. Managed to block it by putting the following into our URL deny lists: www.google.com/logos/ www.google.com/fbx?fbx=* dailygames.discover.google.com/ The only thing which it seems to have broken so far is the Google homepage logo, but it's a quick fix till I can look into it properly.

Reading this as someone who knows close to nothing about Warhammer Is this how we sound to none techs when talking about DNS, DHCP, MDMs etc...? 😅 I wish I had time to get involved in something like this

I would definitely recommend not blocking updates. My inner cyber security guru shudders at the thought! We have a few 8th gens here with pitiful 32gb storage - we've just had to offload apps, or plug them into AC and let that handle the updates. Security updates take priority. If you use an MDM, it should be easy enough to remove the apps and then throw them back on? In our Meraki, I just remove them from the app group, install the update, and then add them back.

Our Synology NAS logs each time a backup is taken, and anytime a file is accessed - which is enough for us.

We backup our entire Microsoft 365 to an on-site NAS box. Run over the weekend. All users are included - if they are on the platform, all their data is backed up.

Once the SIMS license has expired, you are required to retire your SIMS server and delete the MIS databases. Plus any backups of the server you might have. They even had us sign a bit of paperwork to confirm that we carried out this process. Was a few years ago though!

My sympathies to all the end users who are having to put up with this on a fairly regular basis! They're making SIMS look reliable. Actually, I don't think SIMS was ever this unreliable... Most of the issues I encountered with SIMS ultimately stemmed from changes I made in my younger, and less experienced, years.

I think we all just need to give this small startup a chance... They've only been in the MIS market since 1986 so they're still learning about infrastructure scaling issues...😁 *sarcasm*

This is something we've done for years. We stream via a school youtube account, using a webcam pointed down into the cage to avoid any children or staff appearing on camera. The webcam is securely mounted so that if it is knocked or moved it doesn't shift. Our staff are excellent at policing the whole thing, children are taken in small groups to view the cage and handle the chicks - only staying on the side that isn't facing the camera. We've evolved it over the years and even done multi cam setups. See rubbish thumbnail image below for an idea.

I don't believe the language used in the DFE docs make it a hard requirement. A lot of the standards use 'should' rather than 'must'. Admittedly we don't have a backup internet connection due to cost. We have other workarounds in-place.

I've become very hesitant with anything 'new' trek. Disco and the red angel story line damaged my hopes for trek, and didn't get any better with the whole dilithium storyline and time jump (I gave up after that). Then the Section 31 film absolutely destroyed them. Picard S1 was dreary, S2 was shocking, but at least S3 was a nice nostalgic hug. Strange New Worlds - neither love it or hate it. There's just something about it that I can't gel with. Maybe a little fatigued with the TOS era. I enjoyed lower decks, I didn't think it was as great as some made it out to be, but it was decent. The real gem was Prodigy, it's a shame we only got two seasons of that.

M2 Macbook pro here & and a mac mini as my desktop. I've always felt they are the best machines when managing a Windows domain. As said above, I just remote into another windows device if needed. Reliable, excellent battery life etc....

Starr Gate - Instead of a Sci-Fi action thriller, it is now a documentary covering a scandal involving Ringo Starr....

Look at the high roller over here! I see your 32gb and raise you another 64gb 😅

It's gone absolutely mental, and we'll be feeling the affects of this for a good while I bet. Anything that uses RAM will likely be seeing a price increase. I've taken a look at the RAM kit I put in my PC over the holidays, and it's gone from £250 to £700 🤯

Another for Microsoft Lists! Runs both our Asset Management and Job log. Work great, just takes a little setting up.

Cisco have announced that their Meraki System Manager is going to be fully discontinued 3rd June 2029, preventing sale of new licenses 3rd June 2026. Cisco FAQ I've always liked the system, we use it to manage our 200+ iPads and it's always just worked. We get our licenses for this via the LGFL - I wonder if they'll be offering licenses for an alternative platform...

Neither do I! I enquired about the redundant internet awhile ago and there was a charge for us...

Over the moon about this. SG1 is one of my all time favourites. The team behind it being a mix of the old production team gives me some hope.