...was always the issue with the Concorde. Freakishly expensive to fly with and even freakisher expensive to operate it. Air France and British Airways did not say it out loud, but they were happy about that accident because it allowed them to box up the Concordes without losing face. I understand nostalgia, but if this club wants to do something awesome for the history of air travel find a way where transatlantic tickets can be had for 400-500$ top without losing too many of the amenities. If they can pull that off they will need their own airport because folks will be buying tickets like there's no tomorrow.
I remember the times where I could go for 300$ from Luxembourg to JFK with Iceland Air (an excellent airline!). Those times aren't even that long ago.
By all reasonable definitions. Bandwidth is secondary, latency is key. Watch a video on a big pipe with high latency and you will see it quite obviously.
"Actually, it isn't. It is designed to teach kids about computers, not to teach kids English."
Those are your words, right? So why do you claim you never stated that? It's right there ^.
You do know why universities do this, right? That is not because they want to generate well rounded graduates, it is only to make you sign up and PAY for more classes. It is purely a money grab giving you the illusion as if they do you a favor. If I pay for an engineering degree I want engineering classes, not American Literature.
I often suggest a compromise: instead of US history for the tenth time tech history of computing or such. Instead of American Literature have a class about technical writing. Instead of purely music theory have the course be about synthesizers and computer music. It broadens the engineering knowledge and has potential application in a profession. I really do not see how The Great Gatsby prepares anyone to address engineering problems.
Game software companies are more and more looking for arts majors rather than CS majors. People don't go for games that look like a geek did the artwork.
Neither is a tablet. The intent is to have the students type papers. Do you want them to do that on these craptastic soft keyboards? And even worse, do that on a 7" peep hole screen with low resolution? Need to add at least keyboard, mouse, and display....which overall will then cost more than the Pi 2 with a Wifi dongle. Plus, the Pi 2 can run many native apps that are identical to desktop apps compared to a tablet. I find the Pi is a very viable option if cost is the biggest issue.
Why do papers need to be typed?? Students can write them by hand and as long as you can read it that is all that is necessary. You make your students life only more difficult by demanding typed papers that need to be submitted online. Focus on teaching and learning, not a rigid process. Look at the many generations before us, they wrote on slate tablets, only more recently on paper. Look how well they have done and what they accomplished!
Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate against using computers and I agree that being computer literate is an essential skill that is needed. I object only to have that be a non-negotiable requirement for English class. In fact, the sole reason why you have to turn to/. is this unnecessary requirement of typing papers and submitting it online. Remove that and you do not have to find cheap computers for your students.
Take a look at the series of Michael Clay Thompson. His material is absolutely excellent. Both my sons learned the ins and outs of the English language using his books. He is also able to explain English grammar in five minutes. And no, he does not need a computer for that.
Lastly, as expressed in my other posts, the Pi 2 will be an excellent option. Anything else is either noticeably more expensive or comes with more restrictions. The Pi was designed for use in schools, primarily to teach programming, but it is a fully featured computer and comes with the same requirements for additional hardware as any other desktop PC.
Find a local corporate sponsor and make a huge PR deal out of this. "Big Bob's mattress store helps students in need!" "Johnny's Used Cars does not only move people, but also knowledge." "Sheena's Computer Box helps closing the digital divide!" And get the local paper and radio station in on the action, have them facilitate a donat-a-thon, sponsor one Pi 2 kit for a student and get entered to win tickets for some concert or whatever the papers and radio stations raffle off almost every day. And pick up on this being an excellent teaching opportunity, make it a student project for extra credit, have students figure out the best way to get the funds needed.
The Pi is as capable as a desktop PC. Especially the Pi 2 performs really snappy and runs a full GUI based OS that can do email, web browsing, and with LibreOffice any kind of office work. I use mine for mainly these tasks because I do not have time to tinker around with electronics. You are incorrect when you state the Pi is only useful "to teach kids about computers". You can use it for English class as well as any other computer.
Keyboard and mouse are necessary, USB stick and WiFi are not. Since the Pi isn't mobile like a phone or tablet using WiFi is not a dire necessity. In this context it is only more expensive and potentially slower plus it needs more power. The Pi comes with 100 Mbps Ethernet on board.
Ever typed a document on a tablet? Even with a tablet you need at least a bluetooth or USB keyboard and a monitor. It really does not make that much of a difference then compared to a Pi, except that the tablet option will then be more expensive.
You know what my Pi case is? A card board box. Wireless via USB can be had for 10$, wired Ethernet costs even less and is faster, but unlike with tablets that often cannot run full native apps like a Pi network connectivity is optional.
I run LibreOffice on my Pi and print out to a network printer without any issues. You have a slight misconception of what the Pi is capable of.
That is not true. I run Lubuntu on a 12 year old laptop without any issues. Boots straight to the GUI. The only tricky thing that might require some help is executing sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install synaptic
in a terminal. After that use Synaptic to update/upgrade/install/remove packages.
How much easier do you want it to be?
I can only recommend the Raspberry Pi 2. It costs 35$, has a quad core ARM processor, 512 MB, and runs Raspbian quite nicely. Install LibreOffice for any document work. It needs a display that can work with HDMI (TV or a DVI monitor, HDMI-DVI adapter cables are fairly cheap), a USB mouse and keyboard. Ask on Freecycle for USB mice/keyboards, or buy them online in bulk from computer recyclers for cheap.
The Pi 2 has 4 USB ports and an Ethernet port, it also has a composite video and stereo audio output. Plus, it comes with programmable I/O pins that can be used for all kinds of other subjects. You also need a microSD card which based on size and speed will vary in cost. A 4GB card might be enough, bigger is better.
And you need a micro USB power adapter, ask at a cell phone store if they have a few extras that they are willing to donate or give for cheap.
So, yes, the 35$ price tag is a bit misleading because you need to obtain a bunch of other stuff, but it will overall clock in way less than 170$ for a craptastic laptop.
Alternatively, look into any one of the 99$ Android tablets. I have one that has a USB port that can run with a small USB hub for mouse and keyboard. Has wireless built in and comes with a display...although it is rather small for any extensive writing work. Might find one that also has an HDMI out so that it can be connected to a TV or monitor.
Forgot also MadCap Flare and associated applications and a decent app that works with my TV card. Yes, I know, there are plenty of TV card apps, but did you ever try to configure one of them? It is a total pain in the rear.
Denying that systematic murder happens means downplaying and ignoring the crimes. In all cases so far that is not out of lack of knowledge, but purely intentional and fueled by hate.
I think it is not just my duty, it is everyone's duty. This happened and we all are in charge to not make it happen again. Sadly, we do a lousy job at it and it is sad, that we even have to discuss the necessity for this. As far as guilt is concerned, I may not be guilty for the actions that happened, but I am guilty if I do not speak up against hate, discrimination, and yes, holocaust deniers and those who think that denying the holocaust is OK.
The entire infrastructure aside from designated bike paths is focused on cars. There may be a few local exceptions, but it is very common to find four lane streets with a speed limit of 45 mph (means cars go 65 mph) and an overgrown and crumbling side walk that is too narrow to accommodate both bikes and pedestrians.
Unless the car first thinking goes away these numbers and the daily commute collapse will continue. I'd bike to work if I could find a path that doesn't include guaranteed death and dismemberment.
Twitter suffers greatly from all the junk posts. I had a Twitter account for a few weeks and followed a few outlets, but I found that I could get than information as quick through RSS feeds and without the excessive amount of junk posts. I also have no clue what to tweet myself. I am still baffled that Twitter got that popular. Worst technological issue is the character limit per Tweet. This only allows for heavily reduced comments that have little to no informational value.
Any SaaS model has only one purpose: make more money for the vendor over time and get rid of customers who do not buy. Typically, SaaS costs the customer more after two to three years, plus, and that is the complaint here, they either pay up or lose the software. Traditional licenses allow for running the application indefinitely. There are a few tricks for overcoming subscription model restrictions, such as backdating a VM or cutting a VM off the Internet once the license got applied and confirmed. That is eliminated by providing SaaS exclusively as a cloud service.
The great thing for vendors is that they will get recurring revenue without having to deliver much value in return. There are no obligations as to when updates are pushed out and what scope of changes and additions they include. Even better, keep core functionality only as wide as necessary to make the initial sale, then sell upgrade packages and make a big PR deal out of it "We listen to customers and offer more customization options!" In fact, all that happens is that folks have to pay more and keep paying.
The only option is to hit these vendors where it hurts,,,means stop buying their product.
I wonder the same thing and can only explain it by the "not invented here" syndrome plus current patent holders like that they can cash in almost indefinitely. The patent protection did not expire and will not for a long time. That is the reason why Microsoft makes a lot of money from Linux and Android because commercial users/vendors have to pay royalties for reading and writing FAT, which is the de facto standard for memory cards.
I advocate for this for years, tech patent protection should expire after 3 years. The patent holder can file and pay for an extension to 5 years. After that there are no more royalties to be paid. That does not mean that the tech is then public domain, that would follow a few years later. I think technology is so fast paced and the pace is accelerating so much that there are only very few technologies that truly are of considerable business value to a company after 3 years. This works for the pharmaceutical industry for the benefit of everyone, especially once generics are available. So far that did not impact R&D much.
Open source and royalty free existing codecs...would be much easier, quicker, and apparently makes way too much sense. Instead we have a loose conglomerate of competitors that each create incompatible codecs that probably will only be supported in their browser. That those are then open source and royalty free doesn't matter that much.
This isn't a matter of taste, but a matter of adhering to law. There's no doubt about it and FB has the duty to curb criminal activities on their platform. In this case FB apparently had no interest so those who are in charge of upholding the law had to remind them of this.
Others are not that conscious in their decisions but are quite gullible and fall for this talk. Nobody is forcing anyone, yes, but that doesn't mean that it is perfectly fine to provide the brown mob an unrestricted platform to spew their (illegal by all means) crap.
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...was always the issue with the Concorde. Freakishly expensive to fly with and even freakisher expensive to operate it. Air France and British Airways did not say it out loud, but they were happy about that accident because it allowed them to box up the Concordes without losing face. I understand nostalgia, but if this club wants to do something awesome for the history of air travel find a way where transatlantic tickets can be had for 400-500$ top without losing too many of the amenities. If they can pull that off they will need their own airport because folks will be buying tickets like there's no tomorrow. I remember the times where I could go for 300$ from Luxembourg to JFK with Iceland Air (an excellent airline!). Those times aren't even that long ago.
By all reasonable definitions. Bandwidth is secondary, latency is key. Watch a video on a big pipe with high latency and you will see it quite obviously.
"Actually, it isn't. It is designed to teach kids about computers, not to teach kids English." Those are your words, right? So why do you claim you never stated that? It's right there ^.
You do know why universities do this, right? That is not because they want to generate well rounded graduates, it is only to make you sign up and PAY for more classes. It is purely a money grab giving you the illusion as if they do you a favor. If I pay for an engineering degree I want engineering classes, not American Literature. I often suggest a compromise: instead of US history for the tenth time tech history of computing or such. Instead of American Literature have a class about technical writing. Instead of purely music theory have the course be about synthesizers and computer music. It broadens the engineering knowledge and has potential application in a profession. I really do not see how The Great Gatsby prepares anyone to address engineering problems.
Game software companies are more and more looking for arts majors rather than CS majors. People don't go for games that look like a geek did the artwork.
Neither is a tablet. The intent is to have the students type papers. Do you want them to do that on these craptastic soft keyboards? And even worse, do that on a 7" peep hole screen with low resolution? Need to add at least keyboard, mouse, and display....which overall will then cost more than the Pi 2 with a Wifi dongle. Plus, the Pi 2 can run many native apps that are identical to desktop apps compared to a tablet. I find the Pi is a very viable option if cost is the biggest issue.
Why do papers need to be typed?? Students can write them by hand and as long as you can read it that is all that is necessary. You make your students life only more difficult by demanding typed papers that need to be submitted online. Focus on teaching and learning, not a rigid process. Look at the many generations before us, they wrote on slate tablets, only more recently on paper. Look how well they have done and what they accomplished! Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate against using computers and I agree that being computer literate is an essential skill that is needed. I object only to have that be a non-negotiable requirement for English class. In fact, the sole reason why you have to turn to /. is this unnecessary requirement of typing papers and submitting it online. Remove that and you do not have to find cheap computers for your students.
Take a look at the series of Michael Clay Thompson. His material is absolutely excellent. Both my sons learned the ins and outs of the English language using his books. He is also able to explain English grammar in five minutes. And no, he does not need a computer for that.
Lastly, as expressed in my other posts, the Pi 2 will be an excellent option. Anything else is either noticeably more expensive or comes with more restrictions. The Pi was designed for use in schools, primarily to teach programming, but it is a fully featured computer and comes with the same requirements for additional hardware as any other desktop PC.
Find a local corporate sponsor and make a huge PR deal out of this. "Big Bob's mattress store helps students in need!" "Johnny's Used Cars does not only move people, but also knowledge." "Sheena's Computer Box helps closing the digital divide!" And get the local paper and radio station in on the action, have them facilitate a donat-a-thon, sponsor one Pi 2 kit for a student and get entered to win tickets for some concert or whatever the papers and radio stations raffle off almost every day. And pick up on this being an excellent teaching opportunity, make it a student project for extra credit, have students figure out the best way to get the funds needed.
The Pi is as capable as a desktop PC. Especially the Pi 2 performs really snappy and runs a full GUI based OS that can do email, web browsing, and with LibreOffice any kind of office work. I use mine for mainly these tasks because I do not have time to tinker around with electronics. You are incorrect when you state the Pi is only useful "to teach kids about computers". You can use it for English class as well as any other computer.
Keyboard and mouse are necessary, USB stick and WiFi are not. Since the Pi isn't mobile like a phone or tablet using WiFi is not a dire necessity. In this context it is only more expensive and potentially slower plus it needs more power. The Pi comes with 100 Mbps Ethernet on board.
Ever typed a document on a tablet? Even with a tablet you need at least a bluetooth or USB keyboard and a monitor. It really does not make that much of a difference then compared to a Pi, except that the tablet option will then be more expensive. You know what my Pi case is? A card board box. Wireless via USB can be had for 10$, wired Ethernet costs even less and is faster, but unlike with tablets that often cannot run full native apps like a Pi network connectivity is optional. I run LibreOffice on my Pi and print out to a network printer without any issues. You have a slight misconception of what the Pi is capable of.
XP is no longer supported and the gateway to getting malware and viruses. Plus, you still need to buy a legal copy of XP which is an added expense.
That is not true. I run Lubuntu on a 12 year old laptop without any issues. Boots straight to the GUI. The only tricky thing that might require some help is executing sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get install synaptic in a terminal. After that use Synaptic to update/upgrade/install/remove packages. How much easier do you want it to be?
I can only recommend the Raspberry Pi 2. It costs 35$, has a quad core ARM processor, 512 MB, and runs Raspbian quite nicely. Install LibreOffice for any document work. It needs a display that can work with HDMI (TV or a DVI monitor, HDMI-DVI adapter cables are fairly cheap), a USB mouse and keyboard. Ask on Freecycle for USB mice/keyboards, or buy them online in bulk from computer recyclers for cheap. The Pi 2 has 4 USB ports and an Ethernet port, it also has a composite video and stereo audio output. Plus, it comes with programmable I/O pins that can be used for all kinds of other subjects. You also need a microSD card which based on size and speed will vary in cost. A 4GB card might be enough, bigger is better. And you need a micro USB power adapter, ask at a cell phone store if they have a few extras that they are willing to donate or give for cheap. So, yes, the 35$ price tag is a bit misleading because you need to obtain a bunch of other stuff, but it will overall clock in way less than 170$ for a craptastic laptop. Alternatively, look into any one of the 99$ Android tablets. I have one that has a USB port that can run with a small USB hub for mouse and keyboard. Has wireless built in and comes with a display...although it is rather small for any extensive writing work. Might find one that also has an HDMI out so that it can be connected to a TV or monitor.
Forgot also MadCap Flare and associated applications and a decent app that works with my TV card. Yes, I know, there are plenty of TV card apps, but did you ever try to configure one of them? It is a total pain in the rear.
How else would I update the device and plan my trips? I have yet to find a Linux alternative that works as well.
Denying that systematic murder happens means downplaying and ignoring the crimes. In all cases so far that is not out of lack of knowledge, but purely intentional and fueled by hate. I think it is not just my duty, it is everyone's duty. This happened and we all are in charge to not make it happen again. Sadly, we do a lousy job at it and it is sad, that we even have to discuss the necessity for this. As far as guilt is concerned, I may not be guilty for the actions that happened, but I am guilty if I do not speak up against hate, discrimination, and yes, holocaust deniers and those who think that denying the holocaust is OK.
There are plenty of great pets in shelters waiting for a new home. There is really no need to clone your pet.
The entire infrastructure aside from designated bike paths is focused on cars. There may be a few local exceptions, but it is very common to find four lane streets with a speed limit of 45 mph (means cars go 65 mph) and an overgrown and crumbling side walk that is too narrow to accommodate both bikes and pedestrians. Unless the car first thinking goes away these numbers and the daily commute collapse will continue. I'd bike to work if I could find a path that doesn't include guaranteed death and dismemberment.
Twitter suffers greatly from all the junk posts. I had a Twitter account for a few weeks and followed a few outlets, but I found that I could get than information as quick through RSS feeds and without the excessive amount of junk posts. I also have no clue what to tweet myself. I am still baffled that Twitter got that popular. Worst technological issue is the character limit per Tweet. This only allows for heavily reduced comments that have little to no informational value.
Any SaaS model has only one purpose: make more money for the vendor over time and get rid of customers who do not buy. Typically, SaaS costs the customer more after two to three years, plus, and that is the complaint here, they either pay up or lose the software. Traditional licenses allow for running the application indefinitely. There are a few tricks for overcoming subscription model restrictions, such as backdating a VM or cutting a VM off the Internet once the license got applied and confirmed. That is eliminated by providing SaaS exclusively as a cloud service. The great thing for vendors is that they will get recurring revenue without having to deliver much value in return. There are no obligations as to when updates are pushed out and what scope of changes and additions they include. Even better, keep core functionality only as wide as necessary to make the initial sale, then sell upgrade packages and make a big PR deal out of it "We listen to customers and offer more customization options!" In fact, all that happens is that folks have to pay more and keep paying. The only option is to hit these vendors where it hurts,,,means stop buying their product.
Pay my debt, put money aside for my entire family to go to college when they want, get a replacement for my 2002 Kia, but otherwise not change much.
I wonder the same thing and can only explain it by the "not invented here" syndrome plus current patent holders like that they can cash in almost indefinitely. The patent protection did not expire and will not for a long time. That is the reason why Microsoft makes a lot of money from Linux and Android because commercial users/vendors have to pay royalties for reading and writing FAT, which is the de facto standard for memory cards. I advocate for this for years, tech patent protection should expire after 3 years. The patent holder can file and pay for an extension to 5 years. After that there are no more royalties to be paid. That does not mean that the tech is then public domain, that would follow a few years later. I think technology is so fast paced and the pace is accelerating so much that there are only very few technologies that truly are of considerable business value to a company after 3 years. This works for the pharmaceutical industry for the benefit of everyone, especially once generics are available. So far that did not impact R&D much.
Open source and royalty free existing codecs...would be much easier, quicker, and apparently makes way too much sense. Instead we have a loose conglomerate of competitors that each create incompatible codecs that probably will only be supported in their browser. That those are then open source and royalty free doesn't matter that much.
This isn't a matter of taste, but a matter of adhering to law. There's no doubt about it and FB has the duty to curb criminal activities on their platform. In this case FB apparently had no interest so those who are in charge of upholding the law had to remind them of this.
Others are not that conscious in their decisions but are quite gullible and fall for this talk. Nobody is forcing anyone, yes, but that doesn't mean that it is perfectly fine to provide the brown mob an unrestricted platform to spew their (illegal by all means) crap.