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Keeping a PC Personal At School?
Berto Kraus writes "As one of the most tech-oriented students in my art-oriented institution, I'm usually the one with the laptop. This causes frequent requests from other students to read mail, check some site, or connect it to the projector to display a file from their Flash drive. For the sake of my privacy, the health of my laptop, and my own peace of mind, I'm reluctant. But telling my compatriots to go to our building supervisor and ask him for a desktop-on-a-cart, as they should do, is considered rude and unfriendly. Now, I could dual-boot Ubuntu, or carry around a Linux-on-a-stick. Or I could embed the computer in my skull. For many reasons, none of these solutions is ideal. So I'm asking you, insightful and funny Slashdotters, what would you do to keep your PC personal at school?"
Yes, but we live in a liberal world of perceived "entitlement".
While the U.S. is not as bad as I last remember Canada, when I lived in Whitby, ON, in around 2003, my neighbors were a relatively friendly bunch... until, out of laziness, I hired a kid to mow my lawn in the summer.
Whoa!
All of a sudden, it was, "Who the hell are you to be able to afford a kid to mow your lawn instead of paying more taxes!"
It was so bad there, that it was illegal for those eligible for government healthcare (citizens, and landed immigrants), to pay for "better" care, as this is perceived as "unfar" to those who can't afford it. Imagine if it were illegal for you to own a laptop simply because someone else couldn't.
I earn my money (and pay my taxes, even as I might think that, on principle, taxation is theft), and should do with it as I see fit: waste it on beer and cigarettes, pay a kid to mow my lawn, or... buy a laptop.
You are encountering envy.
You don't owe anybody anything, and frankly any "friends" you might make by being generous would be of the fair weather variety.
Sometimes, I have an important need to borrow something of someone else. I always offer to compensate them, and am not offended if they say "Sorry, no."
In Liberty, Rene