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Hawaii Puts Old Computers To Work in Linux Labs
johnp pastes "'As pressure mounts to meet state-mandated educational technology standards, some Hawai'i schools with limited budgets are getting updated computer labs at a fraction of the typical costs.'"
You mean someone realized that they could get a comprehensive solution for extremely little money by NOT buying windows? What a concept. I really hope more schools get Linux labs, even if they already have MS systems. I like the idea of kids getting their hands on something other than MS.
As the UoH basically invented computer communications by using a discarded satellite to create the ALOHA system, the basic mathematics of which govern Ethernet and the Internet.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is *laughably guilty*. Check the evidence.
A more interesting question is total cost of ownership; i.e. how much money this really saves over the long run (factoring in things like the fact that the PTA is probably giving the schools grief because the students are learning Office or similar skills that will help them get jobs... believe me, this happens). I'm sure someone has opinions (and hopefully data) related to that.
An even more interesting questions is why our schools aren't adequately funded...
Disclaimer: I work for a company, but I don't speak for them.
Apparently, he doesn't realize that other branches of the state gov't feel differently, and are putting out bids to convert from Windows to Linux
"He who throws mud, loses ground." - proverb
My l33t hax0r student just 0wn3d your honor student's Windoze boxen.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Cause in 1991 when I was on "business computer" class in Kaneohe, HI (east side of Oahu) we were running some crusty old 386 machines w/ MS Works. We still had quite a few old Tandy comptuers with 8" floppy drives in the room too. Though nobody used them.
My first taste of the internet was in sept. 1990 on these NAPLS terminals w/ 1200bps modems they were brand new but right after 2400bps modems came out. But every school and state library had at least one. They connected to an X.25 PSDN called "Hawaii FYI". There was a taxpayer funded chat service on the system, as well as links to the state lib, U of H and some state info systems.
I met some uni students who then turned me on to MUDs, though you had to break out of the library system to get on the net cause there was no public ISP back then. Unless you counted the university system, but then you had to go to Keller hall in the middle of the night. I actually got to meet a member of LoD while messing around online who was at the time an admin for Santanfe.edu. Oh man this brings back memories!
Now that's out of the bag, Redmond will be on the phone by the end of their week with their Hawaiian office to offer "discounts" to the schools.
And they smegging well should too. ;-)
This not only stops certain groups of corporate facist pigs from getting that little bit fatter - using the older computers is good for the environment.
There's a crapload of toxic waste generated from every circuitboard and chip that is made.
How much toxic krud came from the crappy computer you are using now? huh? Huh? Go out and plant a tree.
Im off to run my super-cluster of older PC's in support of the environment, right after I install that 3-phase power circuit and breath in some more coal fumes...
I graduated from Moanaloa High School, Honolulu in the 70's. The only computer on the whole campus (besides calculators the size of paperback books with red LED displays and fixed decimal points) was an ASR-33 teletype with a 300bd modem that could talk to a UoH computer. The math teacher would demo some real simple COBOL-looking stuff and cover basic boolean. I remember being very under-whelmed and wondering what anybody outside of NASA wanted with one of those things.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
The first database software I used - well before I started high school - was MySQL. On Windows. Call me wierd, but I didn't find it hard to learn the nuts and bolts of that at all. MySQL is quite well documented.
Then again, I suppose I was quite a bit more motivated than your run-of-the-mill high-schooler is.
IMHO, the best way to teach people to use a database is via the backend-to-a-website route. Get them to make a website, and then keep asking them to add/remove/update pages. They'll soon be begging to be taught to add a database backend
Pirate Party UK
You can learn concepts of point-and-click, copy-and-paste, desktop metaphor, and most importantly how to use a help system on any OS. Schools that take the perspective of "we have to teach them system X because that's what they'll use in the 'real world'" are thinking wrong. Teach kids how to think not just which widgets to click.
And if they weren't screwing around in HyperCard on a Mac they'd be screwing around in Solitaire on in Windows. HyperCard may not be an application used in business today, but the kids learned some skills that can be applied elsewhere. If the teachers stressed that aspect of it, the kids will be OK.
Constitutionally Correct
Sadly, it got pulled. The last I heard of the project was this (quoted from a private email, but it's relevant and I'm sure he won't mind):
Like tinyurl, but one letter less! http://qurl.co.uk/
The copyright law should be applied universally," she says. "What is it we're trying to teach these children anyway? Are we teaching them that its OK to steal? The message we need to get to them is that intellectual property deserves to be respected.
That quote from your Philadelphia link was from some BSA drone, but it could have come from the RIAA, the MPAA or, for that matter, Orrin Hatch. If I were an intelligent kid in that school system, the message I'd take way would be this: "stealing" as defined by (insert favorite industry group / misguided Congressman here} is WRONG WRONG WRONG! Got that? It is WRONG. But intimidation, lying, cheating, and misrepresenting facts and relevant law is entirely okay so long as you're doing it to preserve and protect your cash flow.
So far as I'm concerned, let big business (and big government) keep their little "social messages" away from our children. This is a tactic long used by organized religions, totalitarian states and, for that matter, tobacco companies: indoctrinate children as early as possible, and as adults they will find it almost impossible to think outside the mental sandbox you've created for them.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
They are probably using the servers to forward applications to the client display, which is easy to do under X, though I know that there are many guys from Hawaii active on the http://k12ltsp.org/ mailing list, so they could just be thin clients, but the article makes it sound ontherwise.
Either way, the applications run on the server, and is displayed on the client, so that's how the old computers work just as fast as new ones.
Put identity in the browser.
Hi all, I'm the teacher that runs the lab at Liholiho Elementary, so I guess you could call me the horse's mouth. We're not talking about enterprise level business here, we're talking about a school that must fundraise for a tech budget. I know nothing about the TCO studies you're referring to. I just know what has happened here. With the help of our fantastic Hawaii LUG (HOSEF) and the great folks on the K12OSN email list, we have spent zero, that's $0.00 on support for the year that we've been using K12LTSP. I'm not saying we'll never need paid tech support, I'm just reporting what is fact (not marketing fluff). The great part about being a part of the OSS community is the willingness of people across the globe to help you for free, out of the goodness of their hearts, or their passion for the cause. I wonder if the same would be true from the "M$ community?" It seems like the bulk of the M$ support community is motivated by billable hours. P. Nakashima pnakashi -at- k12.hi.us Computer Teacher Liholiho Elementary School