You said "War toys" quote unquote. Even including those extra costs for the war, which maxed out at $220B in 2006 (making the total well below the BS $900B you claim), you are still way off. Those spending bills still include things besides purchasing equipment. So regardless of how much you think it may cost, those new "war toys" and the upkeep of the old "war toys" are still much less than the 3% you are trying to claim is exceeded. Actually look up the numbers for once. Oh, and the government is spending $919B on Medicare/Medicaid this year.
US GDP: $13.84T
US DoD RDT&E Budget: $79.6B
US DoD Procurement: $104.2B
US DoD Personel, Operations and Maintenance: $305B
Portion that actually applies to your wild claim? $183.8B
Percentage of GDP? 1.3%
In the US, students can still apply for loans and grants. These can generally be used to pay for any educated related expenses, including required laptops. We don't have a theft problem at most universities and in fact a lot of students leave their doors unlocked most of the time with a LOT of electronic equipment sitting around. Accidental damage is covered under warranty. Again, theft is not a problem at or around most universities. And most engineering students aren't going to go to a pub after or nightclub after a class anyway. Among other thigns,t ehy would still have their text and note books with them. Backups are still a students problem, even with the labs, as the computers get wiped automatically on reboot.
Sorry, I don't know what U[i]VA[/i] did. V[i]T[/i] however, was able to keep the [i]fees[/i] down. The technology fee is $20/semester. This is your internet connection, wired and wireless. There are no lab fees as the students buy lab kits for ~$30-50 that last through several classes in a series. So to answer what you really want to know, Yes, the savings are being passed on to the students.
Depends on the number of employees. The way ducomputergeek describes it, it could be a mom and pop shop with only a handfull of employees. We'd have to ask him to find out.
engineering majors were forced to buy the same laptops as the rest of the college, which were sold through a contract for well above market cost.
I think this is your problem. At VT, the individual colleges, not the university, set the requirements for computers (if any). Further, they do not force you to buy a computer through them. However, the campus store prices are comparable to those you would find else where because they usually buy them in lots of 500-1000. We also did not have specific computer labs for graduate v. undergrad students. I've actually never heard of that before and I have attended three universities. It also sounds like an administrative problem in how the whole program was set up, not a problem behind the basic concept itself.
I just looked up U of D, so I'm basing this next part on some quick reading. At VT, the Engineering College has A LOT or 'power' in deciding things. Given that it is an Agriculture and Engineering school that isn't much of a surprise. The Engineering College, along with the rest, are allowed a lot of autonomy in choosing things. here's the engineering computer requirement. Those are actually not set in stone, as some of the individual engineering schools do not require quite those high of specs. Also, it's not really enforced. You could go in without a laptop, but a number of things are geared towards having one. You can also look below that and see links for prior year requirements.
VT Engineering put a bit of thought into their laptop requirements when they started it, along with ensuring ease of access to required software and use of lab kits. One thing they did, and it was a great idea from what I've seen, is they sell lab kits for cheap that are usable for multiple classes. The kits work with the computers and come with O-Scopes. The students are able to work outside of fixed lab hours on their projects and come in when they need help or for turning in lab reports. This is a great boost over having limited time in a small lab to get a lab completed. General lab hours for the courses were held for the students, and because of this there were a lot more hours available for student to work and get help on labs than if they didn't have the laptops and kits. It was a lot easier for students I TA'd there than when I was an undergrad at a different university that had computer labs and fixed lab hours and no support for students with their own computers (desktop or laptop).
unless you're going to go the extra step and mandate that students buy a particular computer with a particular OS and software environment.
Virginia Tech did this. Along with getting annual license keys at volume discounts for cheap. i.e. Matlab for $30/year. We had some students running macs and they generally ran it through VMWare (boot camp wasn't out yet). An XP Pro license was part of the standard engineering software bundle. Other specialized software was available at reduced prices depending on the major. Here's the main page for all that. Mind you, they just started requiring Vista this year, which is the only major change from last year. The license upgrade is included in the bundle. Hm. Also looks like Matlab has gone up to $67/year now.
Continuing off of The Dancing Panda:
Point 3: That's what temporary loaner laptops are for.
Point 4: What software is the teacher requiring and why can't you run it under the variety of options dual boot/emulations options available? (i.e. WINE)
Point 0: GO HOKIES.:)
Lets look at your costs. First off, that 1/100th is BS when total weekly assignments take 20-40 hours. (For engineering this typically goes to 40+) You would have the students using the computer for ~90 minutes per week at 1/100 and that presumes the computers are in use every hour of the day. At most, and this is if they go all the time, you would have a 1/8th cost of computers and probably more like a 1/2 to 1/3rd at most given the need to handle peak usage times. Next, you need to add in the cost of personnel to maintain and manage the computers, the rooms for the labs and the network equipment and so on for them. Finally, you have the students having to wait for an available computer and what you wind up with is that it is about the same over all cost for having each student to own their own computer v. having a central lab.
Also, consider that the labs you mention would be over flowing if students didn't have their own computers. The number of hours required has gone up since the 90s. I was a TA two years ago when I was still in grad school. The computer hours spent on one EE lab alone were averaging 10 hours per week by the students.
Except that you were still paying for the computer lab through your tuition. Further, you probably needed to use the computer less 20 years or so ago than students do today. Today, professors REQUIRE typed papers, and especially in Engineering, you have assignments that require massive amounts of time spent at a computer. One way or another, that lab you want would cost money. Either it's going to come out of you in lab fees or in tuition. Further, the amortized cost comes out to $250/semester at most over the four years of college. The lab fees for maintaining everything required are about equal regardless of whether you have to buy your own computer or pay the college to supply one in the lab for you. There is no free lunch in a campus supplied computer lab, you are paying for it, not the college.
Computer labs cost money one way or another and the students are going to pay for it through tuition. The only thing that requiring a laptop does is make the costs direct instead of being payed for through lab fees.
Now, among other things, what the students get out of this is low cost software so they can do homework at any time without having to wait for a computer to free up in a lab during lab hours. This frees up the cost of maintaining and supporting the computer labs, lowering tuition. It also lets the students do things that were unheard of 5 years ago. For instance, all the EE and CompE class labs have kits you buy for ~$30 that usually last several classes. The parts are chosen such that you can perform all your EE and CompE labs using only the kits and the laptop, no limited access expensive lab equipment required. These are the labs that take several hours to perform. So, instead of having to go to lab at a specific time and having limited time to work on a lab, the students can work on their labs in the dorm or anywhere else, and just come into a lab for help when needed. The TAs then check to make sure they did the labs. You wind up with a better learning experience/class/whatever this way and reduced costs payed through tuition.
Your analogy is nonsensical. You're trying to equate the cheap car with just tuition and the expensive car with tuition and school supplies. The two cars are bought for the exact same purpose, getting around. The school supplies are required to do the work one way or the other. Or are you going to complain about schools requiring graphing calculators and textbooks? The computer is now another expense in addition to tuition, just like textbooks and lab kits and other things. One way or another, they are going to need to use a computer to accomplish their work. Instead of making everyone pay for the computers through tuition, they are making everyone buy there own, which additionally helps to decrease the cost of tuition. Or did you think computer labs are truly 'free'?
Consider that they only mention when itemizing and not using the standard deduction. Also, I know individuals (personally) that even before the 90's had that problem. Now, as to todays tax code, there is the IRA deduction (phases out), Student Loan Interest Deduction (flash out), Tuition and Fees Deduction (form 8917) (flash out), the AMT, child tax credit (phase out), charitable giving, the reduction in the personal exemption and probably some others I am missing. It's not impossible, it just happens to a number of people and it still occurs. Each of those has their own reduction in the deduction amount as you make more (some based on total income, not AGI) that would be compounded with the AGI limit referenced in that article.
Again, that article only talks about certain deductions and only for those that are itemizing and not taking the standard deduction. There are also several other deductions not included in itemization that are listed elsewhere on the 1040 tax form that do not fall under itemization.
Not true. Deductions phase out as you make more money. As such, it is possible to have a $2000 increase in pay and lose enough deductions such that you wind up paying over $2000 more in taxes.
Not true. Deductions phase out as you make more money. As such, it is possible to have a $2000 increase in pay and lose enough deductions such that you wind up paying over $2000 more in taxes.
That's easy and here's what Virginia Tech does. The Engineering College has minimum system requirements for the laptops and have compliant laptops available at the campus store (XP last I checked, not Vista). They buy in bulk and get a pretty good deal on them. The also offer the required licensed software at a reasonable price. Again, they buy in bulk and usually get the annual license keys for most of the engineering programs. Matlab was $30/year. If the computer broke down, they had a campus repair shop that was able to repair all laptops under warranty. You could get a loaner from the college for the duration of the repair. As to "if they can't afford it", then how are they going to afford the tuiction, lab kits and everything else they need to buy?
Weird. Sometimes when I needed to get work done, I left my dorm room and went down to the late night dining area where a band was usually playing. Sometimes the silence really is deafening and noise helps you concentrate.
Since when has science been based on consensus? The 'consensus' has been wrong before and they will be wrong again. Likely, they are wrong on something right now, it is just a matter of what.
I think I've got another reason why these cells are so 'cheap'. He's extracting 15.5w with all of those panels combined. Lets say that is 1/4 meter^2, he gets 62w per meter^2. The expensive solar panels they compare it to get 240w per meter^2 (20% efficiency). Power density costs money.
Slashdot Mirror
Interestingly, several newspapers have labeled Democrats as R- because they are in the House of Representatives. Misleading? Naw...
Remember, that which shuts Ann Coulter also shuts Al Frankin.
I'm trying to find a downside to that, but I can't.
You said "War toys" quote unquote. Even including those extra costs for the war, which maxed out at $220B in 2006 (making the total well below the BS $900B you claim), you are still way off. Those spending bills still include things besides purchasing equipment. So regardless of how much you think it may cost, those new "war toys" and the upkeep of the old "war toys" are still much less than the 3% you are trying to claim is exceeded. Actually look up the numbers for once. Oh, and the government is spending $919B on Medicare/Medicaid this year.
Which is exactly why those businesses give lots and lots of money to universities to fund basic research.
US GDP: $13.84T
US DoD RDT&E Budget: $79.6B
US DoD Procurement: $104.2B
US DoD Personel, Operations and Maintenance: $305B
Portion that actually applies to your wild claim? $183.8B
Percentage of GDP? 1.3%
How wrong you are? Very.
Is the higher population density in the Netherlands on average over the whole country or higher in the cities?
One thing I'm curious about with articles like these, are they looking at the cities such as Tokyo or are they also including the countryside?
That wasn't Win95 attempting to read, that was the BIOS. The BIOS boot order was generally Floppy, HD, SCSI.
What country are you in?
In the US, students can still apply for loans and grants. These can generally be used to pay for any educated related expenses, including required laptops. We don't have a theft problem at most universities and in fact a lot of students leave their doors unlocked most of the time with a LOT of electronic equipment sitting around. Accidental damage is covered under warranty. Again, theft is not a problem at or around most universities. And most engineering students aren't going to go to a pub after or nightclub after a class anyway. Among other thigns,t ehy would still have their text and note books with them. Backups are still a students problem, even with the labs, as the computers get wiped automatically on reboot.
Sorry, I don't know what U[i]VA[/i] did. V[i]T[/i] however, was able to keep the [i]fees[/i] down. The technology fee is $20/semester. This is your internet connection, wired and wireless. There are no lab fees as the students buy lab kits for ~$30-50 that last through several classes in a series. So to answer what you really want to know, Yes, the savings are being passed on to the students.
Depends on the number of employees. The way ducomputergeek describes it, it could be a mom and pop shop with only a handfull of employees. We'd have to ask him to find out.
engineering majors were forced to buy the same laptops as the rest of the college, which were sold through a contract for well above market cost.
I think this is your problem. At VT, the individual colleges, not the university, set the requirements for computers (if any). Further, they do not force you to buy a computer through them. However, the campus store prices are comparable to those you would find else where because they usually buy them in lots of 500-1000. We also did not have specific computer labs for graduate v. undergrad students. I've actually never heard of that before and I have attended three universities. It also sounds like an administrative problem in how the whole program was set up, not a problem behind the basic concept itself.
I just looked up U of D, so I'm basing this next part on some quick reading. At VT, the Engineering College has A LOT or 'power' in deciding things. Given that it is an Agriculture and Engineering school that isn't much of a surprise. The Engineering College, along with the rest, are allowed a lot of autonomy in choosing things. here's the engineering computer requirement. Those are actually not set in stone, as some of the individual engineering schools do not require quite those high of specs. Also, it's not really enforced. You could go in without a laptop, but a number of things are geared towards having one. You can also look below that and see links for prior year requirements.
VT Engineering put a bit of thought into their laptop requirements when they started it, along with ensuring ease of access to required software and use of lab kits. One thing they did, and it was a great idea from what I've seen, is they sell lab kits for cheap that are usable for multiple classes. The kits work with the computers and come with O-Scopes. The students are able to work outside of fixed lab hours on their projects and come in when they need help or for turning in lab reports. This is a great boost over having limited time in a small lab to get a lab completed. General lab hours for the courses were held for the students, and because of this there were a lot more hours available for student to work and get help on labs than if they didn't have the laptops and kits. It was a lot easier for students I TA'd there than when I was an undergrad at a different university that had computer labs and fixed lab hours and no support for students with their own computers (desktop or laptop).
unless you're going to go the extra step and mandate that students buy a particular computer with a particular OS and software environment.
Virginia Tech did this. Along with getting annual license keys at volume discounts for cheap. i.e. Matlab for $30/year. We had some students running macs and they generally ran it through VMWare (boot camp wasn't out yet). An XP Pro license was part of the standard engineering software bundle. Other specialized software was available at reduced prices depending on the major. Here's the main page for all that. Mind you, they just started requiring Vista this year, which is the only major change from last year. The license upgrade is included in the bundle. Hm. Also looks like Matlab has gone up to $67/year now.
Continuing off of The Dancing Panda: :)
Point 3: That's what temporary loaner laptops are for.
Point 4: What software is the teacher requiring and why can't you run it under the variety of options dual boot/emulations options available? (i.e. WINE)
Point 0: GO HOKIES.
Lets look at your costs. First off, that 1/100th is BS when total weekly assignments take 20-40 hours. (For engineering this typically goes to 40+) You would have the students using the computer for ~90 minutes per week at 1/100 and that presumes the computers are in use every hour of the day. At most, and this is if they go all the time, you would have a 1/8th cost of computers and probably more like a 1/2 to 1/3rd at most given the need to handle peak usage times. Next, you need to add in the cost of personnel to maintain and manage the computers, the rooms for the labs and the network equipment and so on for them. Finally, you have the students having to wait for an available computer and what you wind up with is that it is about the same over all cost for having each student to own their own computer v. having a central lab.
Also, consider that the labs you mention would be over flowing if students didn't have their own computers. The number of hours required has gone up since the 90s. I was a TA two years ago when I was still in grad school. The computer hours spent on one EE lab alone were averaging 10 hours per week by the students.
Except that you were still paying for the computer lab through your tuition. Further, you probably needed to use the computer less 20 years or so ago than students do today. Today, professors REQUIRE typed papers, and especially in Engineering, you have assignments that require massive amounts of time spent at a computer. One way or another, that lab you want would cost money. Either it's going to come out of you in lab fees or in tuition. Further, the amortized cost comes out to $250/semester at most over the four years of college. The lab fees for maintaining everything required are about equal regardless of whether you have to buy your own computer or pay the college to supply one in the lab for you. There is no free lunch in a campus supplied computer lab, you are paying for it, not the college.
Computer labs cost money one way or another and the students are going to pay for it through tuition. The only thing that requiring a laptop does is make the costs direct instead of being payed for through lab fees.
Now, among other things, what the students get out of this is low cost software so they can do homework at any time without having to wait for a computer to free up in a lab during lab hours. This frees up the cost of maintaining and supporting the computer labs, lowering tuition. It also lets the students do things that were unheard of 5 years ago. For instance, all the EE and CompE class labs have kits you buy for ~$30 that usually last several classes. The parts are chosen such that you can perform all your EE and CompE labs using only the kits and the laptop, no limited access expensive lab equipment required. These are the labs that take several hours to perform. So, instead of having to go to lab at a specific time and having limited time to work on a lab, the students can work on their labs in the dorm or anywhere else, and just come into a lab for help when needed. The TAs then check to make sure they did the labs. You wind up with a better learning experience/class/whatever this way and reduced costs payed through tuition.
How does buying, setting up and maintaining a computer lab not cost money?
Your analogy is nonsensical. You're trying to equate the cheap car with just tuition and the expensive car with tuition and school supplies. The two cars are bought for the exact same purpose, getting around. The school supplies are required to do the work one way or the other. Or are you going to complain about schools requiring graphing calculators and textbooks? The computer is now another expense in addition to tuition, just like textbooks and lab kits and other things. One way or another, they are going to need to use a computer to accomplish their work. Instead of making everyone pay for the computers through tuition, they are making everyone buy there own, which additionally helps to decrease the cost of tuition. Or did you think computer labs are truly 'free'?
Consider that they only mention when itemizing and not using the standard deduction. Also, I know individuals (personally) that even before the 90's had that problem. Now, as to todays tax code, there is the IRA deduction (phases out), Student Loan Interest Deduction (flash out), Tuition and Fees Deduction (form 8917) (flash out), the AMT, child tax credit (phase out), charitable giving, the reduction in the personal exemption and probably some others I am missing. It's not impossible, it just happens to a number of people and it still occurs. Each of those has their own reduction in the deduction amount as you make more (some based on total income, not AGI) that would be compounded with the AGI limit referenced in that article.
Again, that article only talks about certain deductions and only for those that are itemizing and not taking the standard deduction. There are also several other deductions not included in itemization that are listed elsewhere on the 1040 tax form that do not fall under itemization.
Not true. Deductions phase out as you make more money. As such, it is possible to have a $2000 increase in pay and lose enough deductions such that you wind up paying over $2000 more in taxes.
Not true. Deductions phase out as you make more money. As such, it is possible to have a $2000 increase in pay and lose enough deductions such that you wind up paying over $2000 more in taxes.
That's easy and here's what Virginia Tech does. The Engineering College has minimum system requirements for the laptops and have compliant laptops available at the campus store (XP last I checked, not Vista). They buy in bulk and get a pretty good deal on them. The also offer the required licensed software at a reasonable price. Again, they buy in bulk and usually get the annual license keys for most of the engineering programs. Matlab was $30/year. If the computer broke down, they had a campus repair shop that was able to repair all laptops under warranty. You could get a loaner from the college for the duration of the repair. As to "if they can't afford it", then how are they going to afford the tuiction, lab kits and everything else they need to buy?
Weird. Sometimes when I needed to get work done, I left my dorm room and went down to the late night dining area where a band was usually playing. Sometimes the silence really is deafening and noise helps you concentrate.
Since when has science been based on consensus? The 'consensus' has been wrong before and they will be wrong again. Likely, they are wrong on something right now, it is just a matter of what.
I think I've got another reason why these cells are so 'cheap'. He's extracting 15.5w with all of those panels combined. Lets say that is 1/4 meter^2, he gets 62w per meter^2. The expensive solar panels they compare it to get 240w per meter^2 (20% efficiency). Power density costs money.