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Duke University Students Receive iPods
DSLAMngu writes "Freshman students at Duke University received their complimentary/paid for (however you want to look at it) iPod portable music players on Thurday. This deal was previously mentioned on /. here. After waiting in line, I eventually got my Duke-engraved iPod at about 9:00 PM with the rest of the freshmen at Brown dorm. I've written about the experience at my blog, and also included a copy of the Program Agreement and some photos of what the students received."
Smooth...
Slightly offtopic, but that blog has to be one of the most offensive web designs I've seen in ages. Background sounds, distracting unreadable colours, it's got them all!
How many drunken college students will lose these things around campus?
My first response was WHY would anyone want this (not including students)? Then it hit me. Apple wants it because 1. They've made a profit. 2. If this catches on they can tap into people they otherwise wouldn't have. The university wants it because now they can say to future people considering which university to go to "look our cool and high-tech we are." Win-win for everyone.
So what if they received their iPod. In one way or another they will pay for it in their tuition fee.
Sorry, but I still fail to see the significance of this story. What makes a small bunch of kids getting an iPod for free significant.
Could it be possible that the kids are being used as unsuspecting testers, to see what hacks they can come up with to beat copyprotection, or could it be to see what new, unsuspecting, unthought of and marketable ideas that come out of using it in ways that it was not originally intended for.
Does it go on forever?
Good to see they included the Belkin voice recorders with these, though I wonder why they didn't go with iTalks instead.
1 minute of voice recording on the iPod takes just one meg, so you could probably keep an entire semester's worth of lectures on an iPod.
Try to think less about "blogging" and iPods, and more about "female" things, mmmkay?
August 21st, 2004: Some kid gets an iPod. He makes a blog entry about it. Slashdot is first on the scene with the scoop! Lack of interest of the rest of the planet seemingly escapes notice.
He got an iPod, guys. I got one too. So does my friend Chris. Enough about the damn iPods.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
I hated every minute of looking at this guy's site so here's the most interesting part: The Program Agreement that students must agree to. (I really hope this kind of web design doesnt become prevalent once these freshman enter the real world.)
.
Duke University
iPod First-Year Experience
August 19, 2004 - May 2005
Program Agreement
Overview
Duke University is issuing first-year undergraduate students a 4th generation Apple iPod as part of a one-year pilot program between Duke and Apple, Inc. designed to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life. The Center for Instructional Technology, Division of Student Affairs, Office of the Provost, Office of the Executive Vice President, and the Office of Information Technology are the Duke sponsors. Throughout the academic year, faculty and students will be encouraged to experiment and develop innovative ideas uses [sic] for the iPod in the classroom and in campus life.
Student agreement
The student is responsible for the care of the iPod and keeping it in good working condition. A student whose iPod device malfunctions should first access online technical support resources (www.duke.edu/ipod). If students are unable to resolve an issue, they may contact the OIT Help Desk. Through an agreement with Apple, each iPod is covered by a special one-year warranty. If the Help Desk cannot resolve the issue and the iPod is under warranty, the Help Desk will provide the student with a replacement at no cost. In the case of theft, negligence, or damage to the iPod, students are financially responsible for replacing the iPod.
During the academic year, faculty and others will provide students with content for academic and personal use on the iPod. Students may also receive free "song codes", which allow them to download content from Apple's iTunes Music Store. Students must use the song codes for their intended purpose and may not sell them. Each student is responsible for understanding and adhering to copyright laws. For details, visit www.oit.duke.edu/security/user/usercopyright.html
The iPod remains the property of Duke University until the end of the spring 2005 semester, at which time the student becomes the owner. If for any reason the student is not enrolled at Duke University during the 2004-2005 academic year, he/she must return the iPod to the university in good working condition.
Terms and conditions
I have read the Program Agreement and agree to abide by the terms and conditions herein. I acknowledge that the iPod remains the property of Duke University until the end of the 2005 spring semester. If for any reason I am not enrolled at Duke University during the 2004-2005 academic year, I will return the iPod to the OIT Help Desk in good working condition.
Otherwise what's the point?
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
How did someone who could create that monstrosity of a log style be honestly evaluated as a suitable candidate for acceptance at Duke?
> means the class that will graduate in the year 2008
Apart, of course, from those members of the class who flunk out because they spend too much time posting their blogs about "look I got an iPod" on slashdot...
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
For you corporate / wife still sleeping types, this page has background music.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
RTFP. No, you don't even have to RTFA, just Read The Fucking Preview.
/. here.", with here being a link to that same story you posted.
In it you'll find the sentance "This deal was previously mentioned on
"Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
This brings up an interesting issue. Is Duke University actually encouraging/allowing their students to record lectures? I know that this is a reasonably big deal in the UK where, as far as I know, it is illegal; meaning that before recording, consent has to be asked of each individual lecturer. Many of the lecturers I know do not like the practice of students recording lectures for various reasons including:
1) They own the IP of their own lectures
2) Students tend to be easier distracted when they know (or at least think) that they will listen to the lecture again
3) The audio is only a small part of a whole presentation which includes writing on the blackboard, overheads etc.
Anyway, it seems a little strange to me that American universities are encouraging this so openly.
Incoming Wakies get think pads. 2008 specs
Now that's cool...
Wow, this is just absolutly facinating for people who are not freshman at Duke Univ. It dosn't sound like more needless iPod promotion on /. Nope, not at all.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
http://www.duke.edu/ipod/
I just checked ebay and I am surprised that I haven't found any "Limited Edition Duke iPod's" for sale yet.
I thought universities were in the business of teaching, not hardware/music distribution.
They are. It's the students who are in charge of music distribution.
Leave your door unlocked and they'll also "distribute" your hardware.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
News: Students at duke will all receive iPods.
Not News: One kid at Duke received an iPod.
The thing I found most interesting is that they have the Duke university logo engraved on the back of it.
Imagine the branding possibilities here -- beyond the obvious BMW tie-in, what if the various colleges and universities licensed the use of their name/logo for use on the back of the iPod? The university wins, as it gets a cut of the fee and some publicity. The alumni are happy because now they have a personalized iPod they can show off to their friends. And Apple will likely take a cut too, so Steve is happy.
What about corporate branding? A Pepsi iPod, perhaps?
Chip H.
First, I love digital music and have my entire library in iTunes.
Duke's iPod program is a stupid idea. It's a recruitment perk with little legitimate educational value.
If Duke thinks Mr. Undergrad is going to be listening to Professor Flatulent's geology lecture while out jogging instead of paging through their Audioslave tracks, they've got another thing coming. If they believe Miss Undergrad will be up late studying, rather than melting the university's WAN swapping MP3s, Duke is in for a rude awakening.
Virtually all Duke students will have their own PCs. If the school wants to distribute MP3 instruction or event calendars, there's already an infrastructure to support it.
There are plenty of kids who can't even afford the tuition for community college (thank you, Mr. Bush). The price of an iPod would cover 3 semester hours at most of these institutions. If Duke really wants to do something to improve their campus' test scores, they should put a couple dozen kids who can't afford their University into a year's community college and offer scholarships to those who really distinguish themselves.
What's next? University supplied Gameboys?
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Notice the cheap recycled cardboard in the fourth generation packaging where there was styrofoam in the third edition packaging. This was definitely a cut corner because I really did think the styrofoam was awesome before
Yeah, it totally blew my iPod experience for those three seconds it took me to remove the iPod from its box and throw away the cardboard, instead of throwing away nice shiny styrofoam. Let's go back to having a few million pieces of awesome styrofoam in the garbage, that totally r0x0r!!!
It was the grad student ... in the lab ... with the iPod!
Seriously, Duke just handed out a whole slew of homicides waiting to happen.
Well, as a teaching assistant at Duke, I speculatethere are three main reasons this was done. First, despite a successful recent campaign, the University is broke. Now, the Med school, the Buisness school, the Graduate school, and the Engineering school are fine, but the general fund is rumored to be dry. Publicity stunts like this might be trying to recruit more students so the school can make some extra cash on tuition. Second, I think those responsible for the technology fund this came out of are so out of touch that they thought iPods could reduce the rate of music piracy at Duke via ITMS. Concern about University liability is rising. Third, iPods are pretty good firewire drives. If the computer labs are setup properly, this could be an easy way to allow students to port data around campus.
Of course, Duke's campus is wooded and relatively dark at night. The rates of violent crimes (sexual and otherwise) against students are fairly high. Giving the freshmen "mug me" earphones won't help.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
The first thing I thought was "I guess the slashdot editors couldn't figure out how to get their soundcards working under linux either". If they had, surely they never would have posted that to the front page.
Isn't it a little presumptuous that the entire class will successfully graduate in 2008? I hope that those that plan their schedule poorly or change their major can trade in their IPod for one with a new enscription. Maybe a PSP would cover that?
THought the money could have been better used on research (or does Duke do that?..)
on the other hand you could record your lectures and listen to them later even if you were zoned out during the class. And you could intentionally fall asleep with it droning in your ears for accelerated (hypnotic?) learning.
Seriously though, I saw my brother's laptop when he was at Harvard Business School. There, they are serious about outfitting students for business and of course everyone is paying a lot for it. But, there is a web portal site that has *everything* on it, and I dare say it could hold audio of lectures if they wanted it.
Well more power into the students' hands is a good thing, though I heavily dislike the idea that it is Duke's property while they are at Duke. That is total bullshit. I would be interested in hearing some of the lectures though if Duke doesn't mind..
*NEWS FLASH* Hundreds of Muggers Descend On Duke University. Few of the attending Freshmen now retain their iPod. In an unrelated story: Sudden Glut of iPod's on eBay drive price of used iPod's down.
... and in the DRM, bind them.
And about the bg music; for a couple months I had the volume for my music cut in half when I cut it all together, but suddenly decided that lots of people had a mute button within easy reach of their keyboard. Bad assumption I guess, assume makes and ass out of you and me etc., but I can see where you guys are coming from. I have done web work with usability before, bringing a large portion of the NASA National Space Science Data Center website (about 500ish pages) up to government-mandated Section 508 compliance and have felt a small twang of guilt once in a while about all the JavaScript, the bg, the music, and the weird text. Just realize that I believe that certain contexts allow for bending of the usual usability rules (gaming sites, pop culture pages, the personal blog sites of teenagers) when the intended audience is very focused.
Point is, I would much rather have my page look terrible than look like yours. I hope you can understand.
Peace
A "cut corner" as in "a measure taken where the consumer receives less value"? Or a "cut corner" as in "a measure taken where the new packaging performs just as well, but reduces costs - which in-turn trickle down to the consumer"?
In spite of your conclusion that the previously used styrofoam was "awesome", do you really think that Apple would decide to use a less-than-secure packaging medium, and risk a huge increase in the amount of units that arrive to the consumer in a damaged state?
Here is a bookmarklet called Zap to get rid of all that:
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P.S. The Zen from creative labs is about the same size, $100 cheeper and more geek friendly then iPod.
javascript:(function(){function R(w){try{var d=w.document,j,i,t,T,N,b,r=1,C;for(j=0;t=[%22obje
Pretty much endemic to the generation. By 2001 it had gotten so bad at the college I attended that a few professors had a new guideline on their syllabi stating that students giving oral presentations either could not use presentation software or were strictly limited to a black-on-white scheme with absolutely no unnecessary graphics or animations, with necessary being interpreted in a rather strict manner, no sounds, and no fades.
Usually violations of this guideline were minor, but I did see severe repeat offenders have their grades liberally docked, and I can't say I was anything less than happy to see it happen.