I bought mine when I was just turning 16, a sophmore in high school in highschool. It was a ThinkPad 385XD, and I couldn't afford a car because of it. The teachers all loved it. Finally, someone could use class time productivly if the computer labs were not available (in Philadelphia, this happens fairly often). I was happy with it because I didn't have to lug home textbooks and use home time for home work. I could do more important things.....like slashdot.;)
I ended up using it almost all my junior year, and installed Linux on it. Works great, sans for hibernation mode. The battery will last 6 hours on a good charge (barring excessive daemon loading, or CDROM use, I think it has to do with more effecient disk access by Linux).
Senior year it was a lifesaver. As the other kids struggled with powerpoint for Senior Project (the big 10+ page paper due at the end of the quarter or you don't graduate), I used StarOffice to prepare my presentation and then borrowed a LCD projector from down the hall to present it with confidence that PowerPoint wouldn't crash. Senior Project, was of course, on Linux, and the speech actually had some hands on when one of the people asked about "open source". They thought it was rather amusing to change words and such in a few text only games I had sitting around.
The schools really SHOULD get laptops. They give the kids a chance to have a computer of their own. (What use is a computer only at school if the kid lives in a rowhome and doesn't have a computer himself? How is s/he supposed to learn how to use Windows on the macs at school? How is he supposed to learn the nuances if s/he cannot spend significant time on it messing around?)
The issue of stealage is a problem, but as proposed, if you make the laptop the obvious property of the school, it's hard to move. The issue of breakage can be addressed, too. For a price, laptops nowadays get a spiffy black case and some padding inside. The ThinkPad 385XD I have uses a solid black (plastic) case with re-inforcements inside to retain it's shape. It still works after all that time. It even survived a few upgrades and drops along the way.
It's not impossible, and to pinch pennies is senseless. Who cares about banner ads on the portals of education if we have Coke machines lining the halls?
All your users should be instructed to tape over any holes on their computers that could cause the computers to be susceptable to password lossage.
Re:Ad Hoc Arguments, are the order of the day
on
The Mind of God
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, occam's razor is sharp.
It's a lot simpler to accept God then to contemplate the infinte machine that would be those mindstorms. =[
--J
God doesn't play with LEGOs either!
on
The Mind of God
·
· Score: 1
A lot of people feel a need to poo-pah God. I think that we personally owe our exiastance to God, but I also think that God lets us poo-pah on God because we have free will. If we didn't, we could all have a dictorial God and that would be that.:P
I dunno if it's covered in the book, but the latest Discovery mag (no link, I get the dead-tree version) wants to say that subatomic physics are self organizing. This is great, except when I open a box of LEGOs, a car doesn't fall out.
--Joshua
Why there is an IT shortage - unemployed perspect.
on
The IT Labor Shortage
·
· Score: 1
Hey/.
I'm 18. I go to high school, I even was placed in college two years early by my loving administraition (OK, I think they put me in college to get me to shut up ), and do you know where I work?
I work at a grocery store.
The reason being isn't that I haven't tried. I have spammed my resume to every box I know of (have to stay local for college and high school) and they never answer. Everyone is head hunting because they figure that the people already employed are worth something. But I hate to say it, I have seen some MCSE and A+ people walk out of college doors with a smile on their face and I think to myself, "This is why I got into Linux".
It's not that Microsoft sucks, it fills a niche for people who just want it to work without the hassle of setup or finding apps. On the other hand, I became spiteful of MS after I realized what a load of crap their software was after a job at an ISP. I wasn't the admin, but I was answering tech support phones in a temporary position. What ended up happening is my term of employment expired and their central admin was hired for another company for probably twice his salery and a lot of extra goodies, and I ended up back at a register.
I think (keep in mind that the following opinion is presented by someone who has only had intro and first classes in VB, C++, and HTML) that the main problem in the buisness is that everyone is looking for certification. When I went for that tech support job, the admin quizzed me on the phone about various situations. He could care less if I failed evey grade between here and preschool, so long as I could do the work he would take me in. He eventually got me started on doing the administraition for the Linux boxen at the ISP, and I took off from there.
I'm self educated in Linux, and can't find a job because I am certified in NOTHING. Another thing to consider is that self educated people (so long as they haven't picked up a bla-blah-for-dummies book) is that they usually know what they don't know. I can tell you right now, I can't do frame relay, I haven't configured sendmail, samba, or vhosting, and I should learn perl. I plan on doing these things in time, but how can I expect the situation to change when everyone is busy eating each other's employees or looking for crap certification?
I can't even get my HOWTO page on PPPoE in Linux posted (if anyone is baffled by the ADSL-HOWTO they have up, make sure you tell them so, I'd love to have mine alongside the existing one). Heck, Linux is taking off, and I might just have to go back to answering phones at a Linux company if that's what it takes, but I'll always feel like I shorted myself if I did that.
If anyone is near philly and wants a young employable person, I'm reachable at Tiberian@Jacked-In.Org. Come and get me. And hey, if I never hear a peep out of anyone, I'll know I was right in what I posted.:P
You people must get harassed by this all the time. I'd love to see some slackware STUFF. Like ThinkGeek.net or Copyleft.com STUFF. Shirts! Ties! Clothe myself in the greatest Linux distro!
I recently abandoned the filth which is RedHat for slackware and don't regret it. Slackware does everything RIGHT, and I think it's great that it's not dumbed down or pretty. That's one of the key reasons that it can be used for everything for my school work (Sr Project was done on Linux, in Slack 4, and StarOffice got me a 6 for my speech) to my ADSL connection server (firewall and gateway for the family 'doze boxen).
So, I would like to see some slack stuff. =) Keep the cool black logo. =)
--Joshua Knarr Previous slackware professional hassler.;)
"I believe the greatest frustration about women for men who are used to dealing with Open Source software is that you cannot fix flaws you find in them. You pretty much have no choice but to take them the way they are. For example, my wife likes to redecorate frequently, which sometimes annoys me, but I've learned to shrug my shoulders and call this part of her personality a feature, not a bug, and to accept it with the same good grace with which I accept a certain respected coworker's unique approach to the English language. "
*GASP*!
He is relabeling bugs as "features"! He isn't working with his wife to fix "bugs"! BLASPHEMY! BURN THE HERETIC!;)
While Gibson provides a look at a society almost entirely shaped by information (even the extremely short "Burning Chrome" was pretty much the same stuff), Gibson understands how the internet will probably work in the far future (except who writes code for all those fruit looped coloured hacker toys?)...
Stephenson is a watered down Gibson (Gibson for Dummies). He still get the info flow though, and has a rather far fetched view of technology playing with people. Snowcrash was plausible, kind of a humanitarian evolution of technology, and The Diamond Age furthers the same ideas. (I haven't gotten Zodiac or found a cheap Cryptomicron, I am not paying $20.00 for a book!).
So anyway, grab a boxed set from these guys (or make it yourself, dammit! ) and strap them into that time capsule Slashdot is putting together (or are they playing with our minds, yet again!?).
Slashdot Mirror
INVOLENTARY sponsorship.....
I heard Metallica was going on tour soon sponsored by Napster. Anyone confirm?
--Josh
I think laptops in school are great.
;)
I bought mine when I was just turning 16, a sophmore in high school in highschool. It was a ThinkPad 385XD, and I couldn't afford a car because of it. The teachers all loved it. Finally, someone could use class time productivly if the computer labs were not available (in Philadelphia, this happens fairly often). I was happy with it because I didn't have to lug home textbooks and use home time for home work. I could do more important things.....like slashdot.
I ended up using it almost all my junior year, and installed Linux on it. Works great, sans for hibernation mode. The battery will last 6 hours on a good charge (barring excessive daemon loading, or CDROM use, I think it has to do with more effecient disk access by Linux).
Senior year it was a lifesaver. As the other kids struggled with powerpoint for Senior Project (the big 10+ page paper due at the end of the quarter or you don't graduate), I used StarOffice to prepare my presentation and then borrowed a LCD projector from down the hall to present it with confidence that PowerPoint wouldn't crash. Senior Project, was of course, on Linux, and the speech actually had some hands on when one of the people asked about "open source". They thought it was rather amusing to change words and such in a few text only games I had sitting around.
The schools really SHOULD get laptops. They give the kids a chance to have a computer of their own. (What use is a computer only at school if the kid lives in a rowhome and doesn't have a computer himself? How is s/he supposed to learn how to use Windows on the macs at school? How is he supposed to learn the nuances if s/he cannot spend significant time on it messing around?)
The issue of stealage is a problem, but as proposed, if you make the laptop the obvious property of the school, it's hard to move. The issue of breakage can be addressed, too. For a price, laptops nowadays get a spiffy black case and some padding inside. The ThinkPad 385XD I have uses a solid black (plastic) case with re-inforcements inside to retain it's shape. It still works after all that time. It even survived a few upgrades and drops along the way.
It's not impossible, and to pinch pennies is senseless. Who cares about banner ads on the portals of education if we have Coke machines lining the halls?
--Joshua
All your users should be instructed to tape over any holes on their computers that could cause the computers to be susceptable to password lossage.
Yeah, occam's razor is sharp.
It's a lot simpler to accept God then to contemplate the infinte machine that would be those mindstorms. =[
--J
A lot of people feel a need to poo-pah God. I think that we personally owe our exiastance to God, but I also think that God lets us poo-pah on God because we have free will. If we didn't, we could all have a dictorial God and that would be that. :P
I dunno if it's covered in the book, but the latest Discovery mag (no link, I get the dead-tree version) wants to say that subatomic physics are self organizing. This is great, except when I open a box of LEGOs, a car doesn't fall out.
--Joshua
Hey /.
:P
I'm 18. I go to high school, I even was placed in college two years early by my loving administraition (OK, I think they put me in college to get me to shut up ), and do you know where I work?
I work at a grocery store.
The reason being isn't that I haven't tried. I have spammed my resume to every box I know of (have to stay local for college and high school) and they never answer. Everyone is head hunting because they figure that the people already employed are worth something. But I hate to say it, I have seen some MCSE and A+ people walk out of college doors with a smile on their face and I think to myself, "This is why I got into Linux".
It's not that Microsoft sucks, it fills a niche for people who just want it to work without the hassle of setup or finding apps. On the other hand, I became spiteful of MS after I realized what a load of crap their software was after a job at an ISP. I wasn't the admin, but I was answering tech support phones in a temporary position. What ended up happening is my term of employment expired and their central admin was hired for another company for probably twice his salery and a lot of extra goodies, and I ended up back at a register.
I think (keep in mind that the following opinion is presented by someone who has only had intro and first classes in VB, C++, and HTML) that the main problem in the buisness is that everyone is looking for certification. When I went for that tech support job, the admin quizzed me on the phone about various situations. He could care less if I failed evey grade between here and preschool, so long as I could do the work he would take me in. He eventually got me started on doing the administraition for the Linux boxen at the ISP, and I took off from there.
I'm self educated in Linux, and can't find a job because I am certified in NOTHING. Another thing to consider is that self educated people (so long as they haven't picked up a bla-blah-for-dummies book) is that they usually know what they don't know. I can tell you right now, I can't do frame relay, I haven't configured sendmail, samba, or vhosting, and I should learn perl. I plan on doing these things in time, but how can I expect the situation to change when everyone is busy eating each other's employees or looking for crap certification?
I can't even get my HOWTO page on PPPoE in Linux posted (if anyone is baffled by the ADSL-HOWTO they have up, make sure you tell them so, I'd love to have mine alongside the existing one). Heck, Linux is taking off, and I might just have to go back to answering phones at a Linux company if that's what it takes, but I'll always feel like I shorted myself if I did that.
If anyone is near philly and wants a young employable person, I'm reachable at Tiberian@Jacked-In.Org. Come and get me. And hey, if I never hear a peep out of anyone, I'll know I was right in what I posted.
--Joshua
You people must get harassed by this all the time. I'd love to see some slackware STUFF. Like ThinkGeek.net or Copyleft.com STUFF. Shirts! Ties! Clothe myself in the greatest Linux distro!
;)
I recently abandoned the filth which is RedHat for slackware and don't regret it. Slackware does everything RIGHT, and I think it's great that it's not dumbed down or pretty. That's one of the key reasons that it can be used for everything for my school work (Sr Project was done on Linux, in Slack 4, and StarOffice got me a 6 for my speech) to my ADSL connection server (firewall and gateway for the family 'doze boxen).
So, I would like to see some slack stuff. =) Keep the cool black logo. =)
--Joshua Knarr
Previous slackware professional hassler.
"I believe the greatest frustration about women for men who are used to dealing with Open Source software is that you cannot fix flaws you find in them. You pretty much have no choice but to take them the way they are. For example, my wife likes to redecorate frequently, which sometimes annoys me, but I've learned to shrug my shoulders and call this part of her personality a feature, not a bug, and to accept it with the same good grace with which I accept a certain respected coworker's unique approach to the English language. "
;)
*GASP*!
He is relabeling bugs as "features"! He isn't working with his wife to fix "bugs"! BLASPHEMY! BURN THE HERETIC!
--Tibs
Do you or anyone who works for/worked for idSoftware worship Satan?
;)
I know you people include a disclaimer, but it's good to hear it from the mouth of the incubi...errr.....horse.
Articles will become smaller, faster to read, and not require "free logins"! =)
Of course, half of Moore's law then pervades minds, they become smaller.
--Joshua
While Gibson provides a look at a society almost entirely shaped by information (even the extremely short "Burning Chrome" was pretty much the same stuff), Gibson understands how the internet will probably work in the far future (except who writes code for all those fruit looped coloured hacker toys?)...
Stephenson is a watered down Gibson (Gibson for Dummies). He still get the info flow though, and has a rather far fetched view of technology playing with people. Snowcrash was plausible, kind of a humanitarian evolution of technology, and The Diamond Age furthers the same ideas. (I haven't gotten Zodiac or found a cheap Cryptomicron, I am not paying $20.00 for a book!).
So anyway, grab a boxed set from these guys (or make it yourself, dammit! ) and strap them into that time capsule Slashdot is putting together (or are they playing with our minds, yet again!?).
;)
--Josh