OT wandering mouse, was Re: [K12OSN] Adding another server as backup.

[Martin Woolley]

On Wednesday 11 May 2005 09:59, Gavin Chester wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-05-11 at 10:41 +0000, Martin Woolley wrote:
>
> -big snip-
>
> > problem with that client (eg a mouse is stolen ...
>
>     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Among the interesting load balancing stuff you dropped this gem about
> your mouse problems.  That's some serious stuff - I'd only heard about
> kids taking the mouse's ball out before now :-(

With ball mice, we weld the bottom of the mouse up with a soldering iron so that they can't knick the ball.  We also zip tie the mouse, keyboard, and video cables together.  The mice they've been stealing are our new optical mice; these are not particularly brilliant (£6 each with a very thin PS/2 
lead) but I'm guessing the students only have ball mice at home.  What ever ball mouse they have will be much better quality than these opticals.

What I did once propose (and it would make a nice project for DT) was to make 
a bunch of leads with PS/2 at one end and a 5 pin DIN socket at the other.  The PS/2 goes into the client and the DIN socket is mounted to the bench top.  
At the start of the year, each student is issued with a mouse with a suitable 
5 pin DIN plug on the end.  They can then plug their mouse in and away they go.  If they lose their mouse or vandalise it, we sell them another for £25.  
Any mice left behind at the end of the lesson are gathered up and placed in the for sale stock. If they turn up for computer access and they haven't got 
a mouse, then they go away or we *might* rent them a mouse for some 
exorbitant fee.  We sell floppy disks for 50p.  We hire floppy disks for £1 
(and you don't get your pound back).  Strangely we don't hire many :-)

-- 
Regards
Martin Woolley
ICT Support
Handsworth Grammar School
Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna


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