Umm, wouldn't it be monumentally stupid for him to COPY (not "steal"!) data, and then identify himself to them???
First, the guy isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Smart people don't do shit like this. Second, copying secret data from somebody else's computers is theft -- theft of trade secrets, theft of service, et cetera.
Finally, don't you think your logic works in reverse? If he was guilty, he normally wouldn't reveal himself. However, since he would have been caught anyway, he could have decided to reveal himself and try to pose as a good guy.
They are running many different kinds of commerce and all depend upon good security.
In that case, give me one reason they should NOT sue the hacker guy? After all, he did break in to those systems. Yes, he was nice enough to notify them. But how do they know that he didn't steal a bunch of customer information and other critical data?
I believe the poster's original point was that the laptops were useless education-wise. Your post seems to support that assertion.
Not only did the students seem more engaged in their learning
How exactly can a distraction such as a laptop cause students to pay attention to the subject at hand? Can you elaborate? Do you mean they weren't looking bored because they were playing Minesweeper while the teacher was explaining history?
they used them for almost everything: they wrote journal entries
And how is that better than writing journal entries in a notebook?
found clipart for multimedia presentations
I always found that multimedia presentations were a way to waste class time doing nothing. Can you explain what a multimedia presentation might be useful for? How does finding clipart contribute to those kids' education?
then researched information for a speech
Of course, we all know how reliable the Internet is at delivering accurate information... NOT. I think those kids would be better off learning how to use the library.
Students in social studies the next period spent time researching current headlines on msnbc.com
Great. How exactly is social studies remotely related to current headlines? What does that prove, that the students know how to read MSNBC.com?
What better way to engage students in education than by letting them be the teachers?
Was the teacher explaining the latest developments in Iraq when that happened? If he/she wasn't, then this is just a regular distraction.
Every study I've ever seen has said that two-way learning is much more effective than reading from a textbook or listening to lecture.
Perhaps. And every student I've seen prefers to watch TV to doing homework and reading textbooks. Obviously, if the students can choose to either do work or have fun, they will choose the latter. But that does not improve their learning of the assigned material.
In short, your post simply confirms the original premise: the laptops are useless toys that do nothing education-wise. Sure, they might slightly improve students' understanding of computers. However, learning how to use Word and Powerpoint is something that can be done in just a few hours, and doesn't require students to have laptops.
I think that the reason he didn't ask for permission is because no company would have permitted hacking their systems, regardless of purpose. Yahoo does not need super-secure systems, so they have no need for a security consultant. In my opinion, the guy only wanted publicity.
It seems like people don't quite understand that hacking someone's system and then "helping" them fix the holes is not a positive thing. If you steal my car, return it a month later, and then "helpfully" point out that I should get a security system, you deserve to be in jail.
Exactly my point. I will bet that even an expensive thick hardcover book printed on the best, glossiest paper costs maybe $15 to print. Probably much less. The author makes another 10 bucks, and everything else goes to the publishing company as pure profit.
This system made more sense 40 years ago, when typesetting and printing books was a painstaking and expensive process. Today, with cheap and powerful computers, the publisher does very little aside from marketing the books. I've seen books that were published independently, and they were generally just as good as ones that were published by the big conglomerates. Maybe, in a few years, authors will get a clue and start publishing their books themselves.
The bookstore gets maybe 10% off of a textbook they sell. Which means that, for a $500 textbook sale, they will make around $50. About 3/4 of that will go towards supporting bookstore operations, paying cashier salaries, etc. The rest (~ $12) will go towards "activities" and crap like that. I don't think a $12 decrease per student would bankrupt the university. Basically, the reason textbooks cost a lot is because the textbook publishers are greedy and keep about 90% of the money they get from a textbook. The author gets maybe 5-10% in royalties. They are kinda like the RIAA, except much worse.
As for sports programs: they are a must-have, because they attract alumni donations and things like that. A uni cannot operate without donations from the outside, and a sports team is one way to get those.
You are 100% wrong. Software is NOT like books. That's why your local library probably has copies of books about Adobe Photoshop, but not copies of Photoshop itself. That's why you have things like discount licenses "for non-commercial use", "for student use", et cetera. That's why you can't legally disassemble or alter software you bought. Finally, that's why you can't legally use one copy of a program on 10 computers. Recent laws have reinforced these positions, not eliminated them.
If you didn't agree to the license, you are using the software illegally. Therefore, if you _use_ the software, you implicitly agree to the license. The clickthrough is there simply so the company can say in court that you were presented with the license and decided to agree to it.
Yeah. You can upgrade some antique POS mac for like $400 for an upgrade card. Yeah, that's like $50 cheaper than getting a brand-new PC computer. Except that you have to stick with the ancient memory, ancient hard drive, ancient motherboard, ancient slow system bus, ancient networking technology, et cetera. With PCs, a new motherboard ($80), processor ($60-$150), and memory ($30-$150) will serve you much better for far less money.
Also, you can't buy G5 chips from motorola. IBM is the only company making them.
It's considerably easier to port something than to make it run under an emulator. As to API calls -- that's where various layers of abstraction come in useful. If properly designed, a program should not be hard to port to any platform that offers the necessary features. I am sure Microsoft knows what the hell they are doing, given that they have been in the business for quite a while.
Besides, don't you think that if Microsoft changed the interface to port stuff to the mac, they would not be able to just sell an emulated version that looks exactly like windows? You are not making any sense.
Also, the Mac Business Unit is there not because it's difficult to port but because the software needs to be sold to mac users who are very different from windows users. Ever notice that Mac Office and Windows Office look nothing like each other? I don't think it's because of porting difficulties; it's more about getting artsy-fartsy, picky as hell Mac users to buy Microsoft software.
This is one of the most retarded things I've ever heard. Do you understand that Microsoft can easily recompile their software to run on the Mac if they felt like it? Also, do you realize that they already do that with Office for Mac and MSIE and stuff?
Not really. Hard drives generally fail due to either mechanical damage that IS caused by use, or -- more commonly -- bad clusters, which can be caused by anything from manufacturing defects to temperature changes.
I don't know what the article is talking about. I *personally* have several CD-R discs from 1996 or so and apart from mechanical damage (scratches, peeling, etc caused by abuse) all are still readable. I don't have too many hard drives from that era that still work.
It's simply logical. A hard drive is a complex, precision-made instrument that spins at very high speeds and has extremely high storage density on delicate metal platters. A CD-R disc is a stamped piece of plastic with a dye layer on top. It has low storage density, and is not subjected to heat or high speeds. Store the CD-R in its case (or, better yet, a caddy) in a climate-controlled environment, and it will last for decades.
Cygwin is not an emulator. Why don't you actually get a clue? It's basically a set of UNIX programs compiled for windows. It runs natively on Windows, it can natively run windows programs, et cetera.
The point is, Cygwin supports most UNIX APIs and looks very much like UNIX. However, it isn't. Likewise, MacOS X might look like UNIX. However, it's more like a UNIX compatibility layer on Apple's own system core. There is a ton of proprietary, closed-source, closed-specs stuff like Quartz that is integrated very deeply into the system. MacOS X is, if anything, an updated version of NextStep. I don't think that was ever called UNIX, even though it did have the same kind of UNIX command-line support.
CDRs are much more reliable than hard drives. Each hard drive has a high probability of failing in the first two years. That's likely why the warranty on new drives was recently reduced to 12 months. CDRs, if they are high quality and are properly stored, can last many years.
Trying running Mac OS X and pop open a terminal window. You'll find that it's Unix, whether you like it or not.
By that logic, Win95 is UNIX, too. Ever install cygwin? It's basically a UNIX-like environment that runs on Windows. In fact, cygwin is more compatible with UNIX/Linux than MacOSX is.
No, Mr. Proud Mac User. MacOSX is NOT unix. It's MacOSX with a unix-like shell. It uses a non-standard kernel, non-standard file system layout, a non-standard API, and a non-standard windowing system. There's a reason why the Open Group said Apple can't use the term 'UNIX' to describe OS X.
Good luck getting a beowulf cluster with that crap. Ethernet is not a good interconnect technology. It's not even a good networking technology. And interconnect technology is the main performance-determining factor with a beowulf cluster.
Anyway, if you think you can do better with PS2s, why don't you do so?
Nice how you take the numbers from a marketing press release and treat them as if they are the absolute, indisputable truth. Can you show me the actual, reproducible benchmark that produced those numbers?
Also, the PS2 is not a supercomputer. It has a slow processor and very little RAM, so it wouldn't be able to do much number-crunching. You can't hook PS2s together, anyway, so comparing a single specialized machine to a cluster is absolutely meaningless.
Good luck getting a job in the US after graduating from a Canadian university. Going to a crappy college in the US will give you better chances to get a job here. The Indian Institute of Technology might be more prestigious than MIT, but few people in the US know that.
Besides, the quality of the education you receive at a university is largely dependent upon you, rather than the university. A smart student who strives to achieve his best rather than the bare minimum will likely do equally well at a no-name state school and at a prestigious Ivy League. A stupid student who does the bare minimum will not get a good education at any school.
Besides, do you realize these ratings are largely subjective? I thought it was more-or-less understood that ratings are bullshit.
The SEC regulates the stock market. They have nothing to with any other behavior of SCO. I don't think SCO is obviously violating any stock market rules. This isn't really an obvious pump and dump scheme because it's not done by an outside group and the stock price is not artificially pumped up -- it only reflects the fact that SCO thinks it has some valuable copyrights. This isn't insider trading because the sales are pre-planned at a certain price point.
Yes, and cars should stop copying each other's interface. After all, why have a steering wheel and foot pedals? Why not innovate for a change and make cars with a touchpad and buttons for steering? After all, it's probably not THE optimal driving configuration to have a gas and a brake pedal and a steering wheel?
Also, why don't we switch to Dvorak while we are at it? QWERTY is definitely not THE best configuration, right?
Finally, if the only thing you don't like about Windows or Mac is the interface, then you have no business switching to Linux. Just use the OS you are most happy with.
It is a Radeon 7500 with 32 MB of RAM: we're talking between $60 and $90.
Maybe at Apple stores we are. Apparently, you don't have a clue. here is a 7500 card with twice the RAM for $43 and free fedex shipping. I wasn't even able to find a 7500 with 32megs, they aren't manufactured anymore. The card is like 3 generations old.
The original poster doesn't claim that it does--he claims a flat-screen CRT. There *is* a difference, you know?
I don't think a public school with a small budget would want to buy a deluxe, flat screen monitor when any other would work equally well. With emachines, you have a choice. With apple, you don't.
Besides, Sam's club has Samsung 17" flat screen CRT monitors for $120. I'm sure they are cheaper elsewhere, especially when you buy in bulk. I think the $80 figure is reasonable for a decent flat CRT monitor.
You also *still* aren't up to parity (FireWire, et al).
Firewire? What the hell for? In a public high school?
I've seen a lot of people posting that the emac purchase will last longer because the monitor will outlast the machine.
That's purely anecdotal evidence. Any sysadmin will tell you that even quality monitors fail quite often, especially when you have hundreds of them. They won't ALL fail, but some of them will. Repairing them is usually not worth it, so the eMac becomes a throwaway item. Instead of an $80 replacement monitor, you have an $800 replacement computer.
Wrong. I can see a good deal of use in a school environment for an mp3 player (think about it) or something that generates slide shows and sets them to music (class project? leadership perhaps?)
It's good for getting the district's ass sued off, really. Those MP3s would probably be ripped from CDs and pile up on the hard drive, thus violating copyrights. Furthermore, other students would likely copy them to CDs, floppies, or Zip disks and take them home. Guess what happens when a disgruntled employee calls the RIAA?
Also, have you ever heard of powerpoint? It does roughly the same thing WRT slides.
iChat, while it has limited utility as an educational app, *would* have good potential as a way to get kids using the computers.
Ever hear of CIPA? That's another good way to get the district's ass sued off. In my school, you got suspended for a week if you used chat.
I know many schools that have a class which could make use of one though and it is fairly common for them to have a video camera on hand, regardless of whether it is DV. Give it time and they'll be happy to have iMove and iDVD.
Good luck working with video on an 800MHz emac with a puny 40 gig hard drive. You will be able to encode about 3 minutes of video in a standard class period. Besides, we are talking about general purpose computer labs. Those classes usually keep a couple of powermacs around to do their stuff.
As I mentioned elsewhere: many people are also going to want to use Windows 2003 Server or MacOS X Server. There the winner in price should be clear.
Of course, especially considering that I would trust Win2003 Server much more than MacOS X Server. Apple never had any experience whatsoever with server platforms. Microsoft's platform sucks, but it's common enough that using it is only semi-problematic. How much do OS X Server administrators cost and where can you find one? And why not use, say, Linux for servers -- it likely costs less to administer than OS X Server, and works fine with both Windows and Macs. Please don't tell me it doesn't cost anything to administer Mac hardware because it's so easy to use. That's utter bullshit -- any semi-large computer system requires dedicated admins.
How much crack did you smoke before posting this? A 32MB radeon costs about $30, not $129. I don't think they even make those anymore. And let's see, I don't think a cheap eMac has a 17-inch LCD display. More like a 17-inch CRT. So, let's do the calculations with the proper figures: Emachines PC $399.99 32MB Radeon upgrade (not sure why) $30 17" CRT $80 Total = $510, which is about $300 cheaper than the eMac. In fact, for the price of two eMacs you can 3 eMachines computers and still have money left over. Not to mention that the eMacs probably won't last very long -- when the monitor dies, the computer dies. So you would have to replace them more often. And I bet the eMachines have a faster processor than the eMac's anemic 800MHz.
The iApps are the first thing that would get deleted from the eMac. Schools neither need nor want students to be able to download MP3s, use chat, et cetera. And the video editing stuff is completely worthless since most schools don't own DV camcorders.
BTW, XP home works very well as a client. Schools usually have dedicated servers running the network. No need for xp professional.
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Umm, wouldn't it be monumentally stupid for him to COPY (not "steal"!) data, and then identify himself to them???
First, the guy isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Smart people don't do shit like this. Second, copying secret data from somebody else's computers is theft -- theft of trade secrets, theft of service, et cetera.
Finally, don't you think your logic works in reverse? If he was guilty, he normally wouldn't reveal himself. However, since he would have been caught anyway, he could have decided to reveal himself and try to pose as a good guy.
They are running many different kinds of commerce and all depend upon good security.
In that case, give me one reason they should NOT sue the hacker guy? After all, he did break in to those systems. Yes, he was nice enough to notify them. But how do they know that he didn't steal a bunch of customer information and other critical data?
I believe the poster's original point was that the laptops were useless education-wise. Your post seems to support that assertion.
Not only did the students seem more engaged in their learning
How exactly can a distraction such as a laptop cause students to pay attention to the subject at hand? Can you elaborate? Do you mean they weren't looking bored because they were playing Minesweeper while the teacher was explaining history?
they used them for almost everything: they wrote journal entries
And how is that better than writing journal entries in a notebook?
found clipart for multimedia presentations
I always found that multimedia presentations were a way to waste class time doing nothing. Can you explain what a multimedia presentation might be useful for? How does finding clipart contribute to those kids' education?
then researched information for a speech
Of course, we all know how reliable the Internet is at delivering accurate information... NOT. I think those kids would be better off learning how to use the library.
Students in social studies the next period spent time researching current headlines on msnbc.com
Great. How exactly is social studies remotely related to current headlines? What does that prove, that the students know how to read MSNBC.com?
What better way to engage students in education than by letting them be the teachers?
Was the teacher explaining the latest developments in Iraq when that happened? If he/she wasn't, then this is just a regular distraction.
Every study I've ever seen has said that two-way learning is much more effective than reading from a textbook or listening to lecture.
Perhaps. And every student I've seen prefers to watch TV to doing homework and reading textbooks. Obviously, if the students can choose to either do work or have fun, they will choose the latter. But that does not improve their learning of the assigned material.
In short, your post simply confirms the original premise: the laptops are useless toys that do nothing education-wise. Sure, they might slightly improve students' understanding of computers. However, learning how to use Word and Powerpoint is something that can be done in just a few hours, and doesn't require students to have laptops.
I think that the reason he didn't ask for permission is because no company would have permitted hacking their systems, regardless of purpose. Yahoo does not need super-secure systems, so they have no need for a security consultant. In my opinion, the guy only wanted publicity.
It seems like people don't quite understand that hacking someone's system and then "helping" them fix the holes is not a positive thing. If you steal my car, return it a month later, and then "helpfully" point out that I should get a security system, you deserve to be in jail.
Exactly my point. I will bet that even an expensive thick hardcover book printed on the best, glossiest paper costs maybe $15 to print. Probably much less. The author makes another 10 bucks, and everything else goes to the publishing company as pure profit.
This system made more sense 40 years ago, when typesetting and printing books was a painstaking and expensive process. Today, with cheap and powerful computers, the publisher does very little aside from marketing the books. I've seen books that were published independently, and they were generally just as good as ones that were published by the big conglomerates. Maybe, in a few years, authors will get a clue and start publishing their books themselves.
The bookstore gets maybe 10% off of a textbook they sell. Which means that, for a $500 textbook sale, they will make around $50. About 3/4 of that will go towards supporting bookstore operations, paying cashier salaries, etc. The rest (~ $12) will go towards "activities" and crap like that. I don't think a $12 decrease per student would bankrupt the university. Basically, the reason textbooks cost a lot is because the textbook publishers are greedy and keep about 90% of the money they get from a textbook. The author gets maybe 5-10% in royalties. They are kinda like the RIAA, except much worse.
As for sports programs: they are a must-have, because they attract alumni donations and things like that. A uni cannot operate without donations from the outside, and a sports team is one way to get those.
You are 100% wrong. Software is NOT like books. That's why your local library probably has copies of books about Adobe Photoshop, but not copies of Photoshop itself. That's why you have things like discount licenses "for non-commercial use", "for student use", et cetera. That's why you can't legally disassemble or alter software you bought. Finally, that's why you can't legally use one copy of a program on 10 computers. Recent laws have reinforced these positions, not eliminated them.
If you didn't agree to the license, you are using the software illegally. Therefore, if you _use_ the software, you implicitly agree to the license. The clickthrough is there simply so the company can say in court that you were presented with the license and decided to agree to it.
Yeah. You can upgrade some antique POS mac for like $400 for an upgrade card. Yeah, that's like $50 cheaper than getting a brand-new PC computer. Except that you have to stick with the ancient memory, ancient hard drive, ancient motherboard, ancient slow system bus, ancient networking technology, et cetera. With PCs, a new motherboard ($80), processor ($60-$150), and memory ($30-$150) will serve you much better for far less money.
Also, you can't buy G5 chips from motorola. IBM is the only company making them.
It's considerably easier to port something than to make it run under an emulator. As to API calls -- that's where various layers of abstraction come in useful. If properly designed, a program should not be hard to port to any platform that offers the necessary features. I am sure Microsoft knows what the hell they are doing, given that they have been in the business for quite a while.
Besides, don't you think that if Microsoft changed the interface to port stuff to the mac, they would not be able to just sell an emulated version that looks exactly like windows? You are not making any sense.
Also, the Mac Business Unit is there not because it's difficult to port but because the software needs to be sold to mac users who are very different from windows users. Ever notice that Mac Office and Windows Office look nothing like each other? I don't think it's because of porting difficulties; it's more about getting artsy-fartsy, picky as hell Mac users to buy Microsoft software.
This is one of the most retarded things I've ever heard. Do you understand that Microsoft can easily recompile their software to run on the Mac if they felt like it? Also, do you realize that they already do that with Office for Mac and MSIE and stuff?
Not really. Hard drives generally fail due to either mechanical damage that IS caused by use, or -- more commonly -- bad clusters, which can be caused by anything from manufacturing defects to temperature changes.
I don't know what the article is talking about. I *personally* have several CD-R discs from 1996 or so and apart from mechanical damage (scratches, peeling, etc caused by abuse) all are still readable. I don't have too many hard drives from that era that still work.
It's simply logical. A hard drive is a complex, precision-made instrument that spins at very high speeds and has extremely high storage density on delicate metal platters. A CD-R disc is a stamped piece of plastic with a dye layer on top. It has low storage density, and is not subjected to heat or high speeds. Store the CD-R in its case (or, better yet, a caddy) in a climate-controlled environment, and it will last for decades.
Cygwin is not an emulator. Why don't you actually get a clue? It's basically a set of UNIX programs compiled for windows. It runs natively on Windows, it can natively run windows programs, et cetera.
The point is, Cygwin supports most UNIX APIs and looks very much like UNIX. However, it isn't. Likewise, MacOS X might look like UNIX. However, it's more like a UNIX compatibility layer on Apple's own system core. There is a ton of proprietary, closed-source, closed-specs stuff like Quartz that is integrated very deeply into the system. MacOS X is, if anything, an updated version of NextStep. I don't think that was ever called UNIX, even though it did have the same kind of UNIX command-line support.
CDRs are much more reliable than hard drives. Each hard drive has a high probability of failing in the first two years. That's likely why the warranty on new drives was recently reduced to 12 months. CDRs, if they are high quality and are properly stored, can last many years.
Trying running Mac OS X and pop open a terminal window. You'll find that it's Unix, whether you like it or not.
By that logic, Win95 is UNIX, too. Ever install cygwin? It's basically a UNIX-like environment that runs on Windows. In fact, cygwin is more compatible with UNIX/Linux than MacOSX is.
No, Mr. Proud Mac User. MacOSX is NOT unix. It's MacOSX with a unix-like shell. It uses a non-standard kernel, non-standard file system layout, a non-standard API, and a non-standard windowing system. There's a reason why the Open Group said Apple can't use the term 'UNIX' to describe OS X.
Good luck getting a beowulf cluster with that crap. Ethernet is not a good interconnect technology. It's not even a good networking technology. And interconnect technology is the main performance-determining factor with a beowulf cluster.
Anyway, if you think you can do better with PS2s, why don't you do so?
Nice how you take the numbers from a marketing press release and treat them as if they are the absolute, indisputable truth. Can you show me the actual, reproducible benchmark that produced those numbers?
Also, the PS2 is not a supercomputer. It has a slow processor and very little RAM, so it wouldn't be able to do much number-crunching. You can't hook PS2s together, anyway, so comparing a single specialized machine to a cluster is absolutely meaningless.
Good luck getting a job in the US after graduating from a Canadian university. Going to a crappy college in the US will give you better chances to get a job here. The Indian Institute of Technology might be more prestigious than MIT, but few people in the US know that.
Besides, the quality of the education you receive at a university is largely dependent upon you, rather than the university. A smart student who strives to achieve his best rather than the bare minimum will likely do equally well at a no-name state school and at a prestigious Ivy League. A stupid student who does the bare minimum will not get a good education at any school.
Besides, do you realize these ratings are largely subjective? I thought it was more-or-less understood that ratings are bullshit.
The SEC regulates the stock market. They have nothing to with any other behavior of SCO. I don't think SCO is obviously violating any stock market rules. This isn't really an obvious pump and dump scheme because it's not done by an outside group and the stock price is not artificially pumped up -- it only reflects the fact that SCO thinks it has some valuable copyrights. This isn't insider trading because the sales are pre-planned at a certain price point.
Yes, and cars should stop copying each other's interface. After all, why have a steering wheel and foot pedals? Why not innovate for a change and make cars with a touchpad and buttons for steering? After all, it's probably not THE optimal driving configuration to have a gas and a brake pedal and a steering wheel?
Also, why don't we switch to Dvorak while we are at it? QWERTY is definitely not THE best configuration, right?
Finally, if the only thing you don't like about Windows or Mac is the interface, then you have no business switching to Linux. Just use the OS you are most happy with.
It is a Radeon 7500 with 32 MB of RAM: we're talking between $60 and $90.
Maybe at Apple stores we are. Apparently, you don't have a clue. here is a 7500 card with twice the RAM for $43 and free fedex shipping. I wasn't even able to find a 7500 with 32megs, they aren't manufactured anymore. The card is like 3 generations old.
The original poster doesn't claim that it does--he claims a flat-screen CRT. There *is* a difference, you know?
I don't think a public school with a small budget would want to buy a deluxe, flat screen monitor when any other would work equally well. With emachines, you have a choice. With apple, you don't.
Besides, Sam's club has Samsung 17" flat screen CRT monitors for $120. I'm sure they are cheaper elsewhere, especially when you buy in bulk. I think the $80 figure is reasonable for a decent flat CRT monitor.
You also *still* aren't up to parity (FireWire, et al).
Firewire? What the hell for? In a public high school?
I've seen a lot of people posting that the emac purchase will last longer because the monitor will outlast the machine.
That's purely anecdotal evidence. Any sysadmin will tell you that even quality monitors fail quite often, especially when you have hundreds of them. They won't ALL fail, but some of them will. Repairing them is usually not worth it, so the eMac becomes a throwaway item. Instead of an $80 replacement monitor, you have an $800 replacement computer.
Wrong. I can see a good deal of use in a school environment for an mp3 player (think about it) or something that generates slide shows and sets them to music (class project? leadership perhaps?)
It's good for getting the district's ass sued off, really. Those MP3s would probably be ripped from CDs and pile up on the hard drive, thus violating copyrights. Furthermore, other students would likely copy them to CDs, floppies, or Zip disks and take them home. Guess what happens when a disgruntled employee calls the RIAA?
Also, have you ever heard of powerpoint? It does roughly the same thing WRT slides.
iChat, while it has limited utility as an educational app, *would* have good potential as a way to get kids using the computers.
Ever hear of CIPA? That's another good way to get the district's ass sued off. In my school, you got suspended for a week if you used chat.
I know many schools that have a class which could make use of one though and it is fairly common for them to have a video camera on hand, regardless of whether it is DV. Give it time and they'll be happy to have iMove and iDVD.
Good luck working with video on an 800MHz emac with a puny 40 gig hard drive. You will be able to encode about 3 minutes of video in a standard class period. Besides, we are talking about general purpose computer labs. Those classes usually keep a couple of powermacs around to do their stuff.
As I mentioned elsewhere: many people are also going to want to use Windows 2003 Server or MacOS X Server. There the winner in price should be clear.
Of course, especially considering that I would trust Win2003 Server much more than MacOS X Server. Apple never had any experience whatsoever with server platforms. Microsoft's platform sucks, but it's common enough that using it is only semi-problematic. How much do OS X Server administrators cost and where can you find one? And why not use, say, Linux for servers -- it likely costs less to administer than OS X Server, and works fine with both Windows and Macs. Please don't tell me it doesn't cost anything to administer Mac hardware because it's so easy to use. That's utter bullshit -- any semi-large computer system requires dedicated admins.
What do you pay $100 for? Last time I checked, modchips were like $30.
How much crack did you smoke before posting this? A 32MB radeon costs about $30, not $129. I don't think they even make those anymore. And let's see, I don't think a cheap eMac has a 17-inch LCD display. More like a 17-inch CRT. So, let's do the calculations with the proper figures:
Emachines PC $399.99
32MB Radeon upgrade (not sure why) $30
17" CRT $80
Total = $510, which is about $300 cheaper than the eMac. In fact, for the price of two eMacs you can 3 eMachines computers and still have money left over. Not to mention that the eMacs probably won't last very long -- when the monitor dies, the computer dies. So you would have to replace them more often. And I bet the eMachines have a faster processor than the eMac's anemic 800MHz.
The iApps are the first thing that would get deleted from the eMac. Schools neither need nor want students to be able to download MP3s, use chat, et cetera. And the video editing stuff is completely worthless since most schools don't own DV camcorders.
BTW, XP home works very well as a client. Schools usually have dedicated servers running the network. No need for xp professional.
Oops... fucking slashdot stripped the link. Here it is. License