The Wi-Fi On the Bus

theodp writes "For students who endure hundreds of hours on a school bus each year in a desert exurb of Tucson, the Wi-Fi on the bus improves the ride. Last fall, school officials mounted a $200 mobile Internet router from Autonet Mobile to bus No. 92's sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. What began as a hi-tech experiment has had an unexpected result — Wi-Fi has transformed the formerly boisterous bus rides into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared. 'Boys aren't hitting each other, girls are busy, and there's not so much jumping around,' said J. J. Johnson, the Internet Bus driver."

Comments

Re:the wheels on the bus go

[Shikaku]

Up and down... up and down. the wifi on the bus goes down and then, all peace ends.

Meh

[ascari]

Over engineering if you ask me. The same result can be accomplished with a roll of duct tape. Silence is golden, duct tape is silver as the saying goes.

Re:Meh

[Anonymous Coward]

180 school days / year * 2 walks (home and back) * 50 calories per walk = 18,000 calories
18,000 calories / 250 calories per candy bar = 72 candy bars
72 candy bars * .75 cents per candy bar = $54.00

According to This site:

Average fuel use per school bus per year (gallons) 1,714
Total fuel used by all school buses per year (gallons) 822,857,143
Cost of diesel fuel per gallon (Source: Energy Information Administration, June 26, 2009) $2.608
Cost of gasoline per gallon (Source: Energy Information Administration, June 26, 2009) $2.642
Cost of diesel fuel per bus per year $4,471
Total cost of diesel fuel for all buses per year $2,146,011,429
Annual cost of fuel per child transported by school bus $43

It would, in fact, be cheaper (on average) to transport children via bus than to feed them candy bars to make up for the lost calories on the walk to and from school. Sure, you could probably find healthier and cheaper calorie sources, but what fun is that?

Re:And the zombification of our children continues

[Lumpy]

Or the idiot parents that get the DVD player in the minivan. That one blows my mind. "Going to the store kids! pick out a movie for the 5 minute ride!"

wow..... just wow....

Re:A rolling study hall?

[An ominous Cow art]

Or (shudder) Slashdot.

Not in Asia

[jginspace]

I just took a trip to Penang. Wifi buses are widespread there - perhaps 1 in every 5 that pulled up. I just wonder when bystanders will start staging 'accidents' so they can finish their surfing ...

Re:And the zombification of our children continues

[Sponge Bath]

Adopt the restraint technique used for Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs: Face mask, straight jacket, and tied to a hand cart for easy mobility.

Parent: How was school today?
Child: mmrrmmph...
Parent: Awww, isn't that special.

Re:behavioral problems have virtually disappeared

[Anonymous Coward]

Bingo. The only way to stop bullying is to make it an undesirable activity. The quickest and easiest way to do that is to beat the bully's brains out one day. ;)

Much better to sabotage his car. With luck you might bag his GF or his asshole parents, too.

As Al Gore Would Say...

[Thelasko]

This bus is on the information superhighway!

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[Zordak]

Specific instructions as to how to do that would only open this post to criticism based on unimportant details, so I'm not going there. Let the principle stand: You, the victim, can break the cycle of abuse. It's absolutely heartbreaking that so many kids don't figure this out before they're 40 years old.

Or just read Ender's Game. Stand up to bullies, put 'em six feet under, destroy planets. All in a day's work for Ender Wiggin.

400Kbps to 800Kbps?

[godel_56]

From Autonet Mobile's FAQ:

"What kind of speeds can I expect? Over the 3G network, download speeds average from 400kbps-800kbps. Upload ranges from 128kbps-300kbps. When not on 3G the average download is 120kbps-200kbps and 50kbps-100kbps for upload."q>

Now we know why the kids are so quiet. They spend the whole trip waiting for something to load.