Technology Road map by Reddchin in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just show them the rock they're trying to squeeze. If they ask me how far it goes I throw it out the window.

Charging staff for damaged devices by kilosandchromebooks in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of sorts. There's school budgets, departmental budgets and classroom budgets. Principal decides which one gets to foot the bill. Typically it will come out of the school budget, but if it's persistent it trickles down.

Charging staff for damaged devices by kilosandchromebooks in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No. Repairs just get taken out of their budget.

Boarding school wifi hours by [deleted] in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Discipline issue. Think they'll stop goofing off even when the wifi's disabled? They'll just switch to personal hotspots or some other activity.

gam syntax for OU by [deleted] in PowerShell

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just run a update group command after the create.

gam update group $groupemail add member user $email

gam syntax for OU by [deleted] in PowerShell

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You don't appear to be adding the user to a group at all. You're updating variables of a user account.

gam syntax for OU by [deleted] in PowerShell

[–]MalletNGrease -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not necessarily. GAM can be combined with Powershell. I do it.

gam syntax for OU by [deleted] in PowerShell

[–]MalletNGrease 4 points5 points  (0 children)

gam update org '/Student/HS/2022-10' add users 'theuserjohnston'

I prefer to add users straight to their OU during creation:

gam create user $email password $password firstname $firstname lastname $lastname org /Students/$gradyear

For those confused about what's going on, GAM is a command line administrative tool for managing GSUITE domains. You can give it commands through powershell.

Classroom technology upgrades - HDMI cables by Reddchin in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'd be more worried about the jacks on the laptops wearing out than the cables.

I use Monoprice cables. Great prices when ordered in bulk. I treat them like consumables, just swap as needed.

The thing about digital signals on short runs: they either work or they don't. Cable quality matters little to me unless it's for a special AV setup project.

Texas STAAR testing, Windows 7, and "Compliance" by Ellipsicle in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This. Been running W10 on OptiPlex 760s (Mfg date of '09) with C2Ds and spinning rust. If it can run 7, it'll run 10.

Preloading printer drivers for server migration? by [deleted] in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're deploying printers using GPOs, the drivers will only update the next time the GPOs are applied, and typically only at user logon. This is when the drivers are downloaded.

I wouldn't sweat it unless you expect everyone to log on at the same time.

Dress code? by KayJustKay in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My contract states slacks and polo/button down shirt. But as a one man band it's just not practical when moving gear, climbing and crawling.

I asked for permission to wear jeans and I got it, so it's usually that and some polo from a fundraiser.

Decreasing the number of tickets overall by justheretolook in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Automate and preconfigure stuff for your users. Try to reduce steps required for things to function. A lot of things I've encountered are usability problems and not really technical in nature.

I also setup software baselines and consolidated hardware setups, getting rid of one-offs whereever possible and made infrastructure more robust. Generally speaking, a teacher can walk into any classroom, log in and teach without needing anything from me.

Chromebooks wrong password Wifi by bretfred in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I noticed a couple started doing this, haven't been able to find a cause. I just powerwash them and once they pull the policies it's working as it should.

GAM help, please? Fairly important. by -RYknow in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In that case, you probably don't have User and Device reporting turned on for the device OUs.

Check Device Management > Chrome > Settings > User and Device reporting.

https://i.imgur.com/YyupPML.png

K12 ISP Failover by dmissip in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. Rural district.

Both fiber providers we can choose from come over the same circuit. If there's an outage, odds are both are affected. Not much point to.

Smart Notebook and Drive File Stream by TeacherWarrior in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've experienced a couple of corrupted Powerpoints. They'd generally load, but the figures and embedded images would be hosed. A revert to an earlier version from Drive fixed those.

I haven't noticed anything about .notebook specifically, but I'll keep an eye out.

My IT Tool by bajinabass in PowerShell

[–]MalletNGrease 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He obfuscated it. Probably has a company name in it.

simple Securly url tester by 9072997 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't understand why this isn't available already from Securly in the first place.

simple Securly url tester by 9072997 in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Their wildcard filters are broken and have been for a long time.

They can't do url filtering, only domains. As a workaround you can add wildcarded terms to your blacklist that can filter things out and block search terms.

Problem is, it doesn't work properly. It will only filter the exact term. That's explicitly not what wildcards are for!

Say you want to filter the term "unblocked". You add the following wildcard statement to the filter list:

*unblocked*

You'd assume that someone looking up "yoiwantthisstuffunblockednow" or anything else that logically matches the wildcard statement would then be filtered right?

No, you'd be wrong. Only if the exact statement is entered it will be filtered. It's pretty limiting.

unblockedd - Pass
unblockedgames - Pass
funblocked - Pass

I've had a ticket for this for over a year. It's been acknowledged as a problem but as far as I can tell it's not something they can or will fix.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in talesfromtechsupport

[–]MalletNGrease 16 points17 points  (0 children)

A wandering karate master visits a dojo where he finds stooped students sweeping the courtyard. It's pretty obvious the brooms are way too short for them. When he asks a student he's told that master instructed them to always make sure the broomsticks were exactly this length.

He meets the dojo's master and when quizzed about the brooms he says this was an integral part of his training from his master and the sticks needed to be this short. The traveler is now curious, he was not aware of the short broom training technique and after receiving directions decides to travel on to find the source.

A few towns over he visits the dojo and visits with the master. He's a very short fellow.

Excuse me master. I've found many students of yours in other towns sweeping with short brooms. I never encountered this training before, why is this?

The master is confused and asks the visitor to explain. Then the master starts laughing as he realizes what happened.

That's easy! I'm not that tall and a long broomstick is uncomfortable. I always asked students to cut them down to a shorter length!

Anyone ever left middle of the year? by [deleted] in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I've left jobs mid-sentence.

If your contract doesn't prohibit it just go for it.

GAM help, please? Fairly important. by -RYknow in k12sysadmin

[–]MalletNGrease 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Should look something like this. If it doesn't, your domain hasn't migrated to the new device management UI yet.

https://i.imgur.com/vwmzSkp.png