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Some Schools Ending Laptop Programs
The New York Times reports that schools are abandoning their laptops-for-students programs. It turns out that the expense of providing laptops, expense of repairing laptops, difficulties of school network management, and discipline problems stemming from pornography, cheating, and cracking more than outweighed the educational benefits. Indeed, a number of schools have concluded that far from improving student achievement, laptops either had no effect or actively hindered academic performance. Apparently, politicians embracing technology as a quick fix for social problems doesn't always work out.
You forgot to add: Get off my lawn you dang kids!
I heard the "use GIMP instead of Photoshop" line in high school. The teacher in charge insisted on using the GIMP because he thought it was better. He was an idiot.
The GIMP is a hideous piece of software (especially on Windows, where the virtual-desktop metaphor is not established and so you have a very angry taskbar full of GIMP windows) with a vertical learning curve and severe feature deficiencies. I use Linux on my desktop and FreeBSD on my server, but I refuse to be blinded by the zealotry espoused by the Grand Holy Free Software bunch.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."