IT Ideas

The file upload option appeared in Google Forms a few days ago. Its got a some neat features beyond just collecting files. Restrict the type of file upload Creates a folder in the owners Drive with a folder structure for each question. If you collect user names, it adds the persons name to the uploaded files filename. If you make a spreadsheet, it pops hyperlinks to all the uploaded files into the sheet. Brief demo:

Server 2016 was released a couple of days ago so I thought I'd spin up a Server 2016 RDP VM and see how it all works. I've also installed Ericom AccessNow on the machine which is the application that allows web access to a Windows desktop - important to us as we are largely ChromeOS. I've used a few local group policies and to lock stuff down and made a mandatory profile (made by copying the default profile) to give users an appropriate experience. I'll test it over the next couple of weeks and then maybe switch from our older 2012R2 setup to this. Gives users a nice Windows 10 feel. Brief demo of what it looks like so far. And after a few more tweaks.....

Hangouts on Air disappeared as a thing a little while back. However, its really just moved to 'Live Streaming' in YouTube. Apps like Screencastify are great for quick videos, but for longer videos and ones that switch between screencasting and webcam footage, this is a better option. You can also record up to 8 hours of video (on a verified channel) with no limitations of local storage. Brief video guide below:

We have some old Apples (2008/9 models) that have become troublesome to manage and were only ever being used as web browsers. So to rejuvenate them and make them into productive systems, we decided to give Cloudready  from Neverware as go. This is essential a build of ChromeOS that you can install on a wide range of hardware and for a $15 licence fee you can enroll and manage as any other ChromeOS device. Installation is simple. Just follow the guide to make a bootable USB stick. Pop into your Apple, turn it on and boot to USB and it takes care of the rest. After installation, make sure you remove the stick before booting into ChromeOS for the first time. Video of one of our devices:

Webfiltering is one of those necessary evils and has plagued me in one way other another since I started to do anything with school IT management. On one hand people expect free and easy access to the internet and on the other we are expected to be able to report on every action of every user on the network on any type of device. This blog post is not about the wrongs and rights of webfiltering, more a technical perspective on the Securly product and some of the features and deployment pitfalls. We have just moved to using Securly. Previously we were using OpenDNS Umbrella and GoGuardian Admin on ChromeOS devices. We moved due to this combination not providing the level of reporting that is required as of September 2016 (in the UK) and the combined cost of these two produces being considerably higher than Securly. Deployment Onsite its much the same as OpenDNS. We point our Gateways DNS to Securly's DNS servers rather than OpenDNS. This obviously takes a few seconds to do...

I got my hands on one of the new HP 11 G5 Chromebooks today and have spent a little time with it. The model I get had the following basic spec: Processor: Intel N3060 RAM: 4Gb Screen: 11" IPS 1366x768 touchscreen Ports: 2 USB, 1 HDMI, power, headphone and micro SD (as opposed to the usual SD found on most Chromebooks) Few Pictures (first one sitting next to a 4Gb R11) A brief video comparison to the R11 4Gb The inclusion of the N3060 processor gives it the edge in terms of performance over the R11 and it's thinner than most Chromebooks. However, for touch to be really useful, I think you need the flip functionality which I believe is coming in a variant of the G5.  I could see this being a solid staff or 1:1 device.

I've spent a few days trying out various apps on the Acer R11 (you can also do this on the Pixel 2015 and the Asus Flip). While it's a bit buggy at the moment, it does show great promise and most apps work without issue. Those that don't work are generally games. My favorite apps from a productivity point of view are: GMail - very fluid Google Drive - faster than web version Google Docs/Sheets/Slide - all work well Microsoft RDP - works well WiFi Analyser Google Keep - great for written notes INKredible - for making and organising written notes Spotify YouTube Google Photos iPlayer BBC News Netflix IP Tools iPlayer Radio Play Newsstand - can fail to load sometimes BBC Weather Snapseed Skype & Hangouts JuiceSSH Spiceworks All of the above work largely without issue. Once you get into games - some are OK, some just crash on loading e.g. Angry Birds, QuizUP etc Video demo of some of the apps I've tried and use: I'm sure stability wil...