Im doing my work placement at my old school. So on Thursday I went for a look to see the IT guys and the Hardware and networking they use. I found out the entire school is linked by fibre, and i was shown one of the switching cabinets hidden in a small cupboard. The rooms do have small switching cabinets and boxes but these were full racks of Networking gear. I was told that there was at least another one of these cupboards on the other side of the school. I was also shown the room where all the ink cartridges and toner is kept. The whole wall was covered with boxes of toner. Apparently they keep a colour and black toner cartridge in stock for each printer in the school. Other less used items are kept in stock instead with one for a group of printers. The school itself has 1,600 students from year 7 to 12, (including sixth form). They have at least 1,000 Desktops and a number of laptops for staff. Students from years7 - 10 have a tablet pc each, so we can safely conclude the school has a large number of PCS.
In order to support the number of tablets and laptops there is a whole office just for them. This room is specificly set-up for laptops. Here when they need restoring they ghost them with an image from the ghosting server. and do pretty much anything else to them. I was also told about some of the funny problems people had with their computer. Including a teacher who had run it over in their car, and another which had been bitten by a dog (How are you meant to react to that?)

And I also found out what some of my projects are going to be. Around the school they have video screens, I am going to be allowed to design some content for these. And I am also going to be sorting out a database which has student and laptop information in it. There will proberly be more but I will find out about these as it gets closer to the time.

I cant wait for it to start Only 4 months to go

Posted by Joe - Comments no longer accepted

Listen, son; I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a twoel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came Up the road, I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before you boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive - and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding - this was my reward to your for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too muchof youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in yourcharacter. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself overthe wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you alugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy - a little boy!"

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

---

by W. Livingston Larned

Posted by Joe - Comments no longer accepted

Inocu is done, I cant develop it anymore as I dont know what it needs. There are no ideas coming from users. So it is well and truly stuck. There is always the temptation to stop running it, but I use the features it has even if no one else does. I will now probaly continue to improve my features and leave the rest and just fix them as required. Its not Ideal, but user numbers keep going up whilst the amount of commands avalible does not increase. Live support is a great feature but no one uses it as it is not needed. Some of the commands I have made I dont even know about (cant even rember what they do), or maybe it is time for me to go back and look over all the commands i have prevouisly made to cut down on un-needed programs and streamline the bot a bit more. The survey that was sent out to all users has had no replys, making me wonder why do they add Inocu beacuse at least 75% of them do not activly use it.

One thing is for certain though. Beacuse I use some of Inocus main features it wont be going offline any time soon.

Posted by Joe - Comments no longer accepted