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Re: OT: Laptop for College Bound Student?



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> On 06/11/08 07:58, Thomas H. George wrote:
>> The college is offering packages starting at $1,399 (Dell Latitude D630)
>> and $1,499 (Lenoveo ThinkPad T61) all with 2GB memory, 10/100/1000
>> Ethernet, Wireless, 1394 Port, Bluetooth, Vista 32Bit Business OS,
>> SmartCare/4in1 Media Card Reader and Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
>> pre-installed by certified technicians located on campus.  Three year
>> warranty and 1GB Flash Drive thrown in.
>
> Is it a requirement to have a *Windows* laptop?  IOW, to "they" use
> Windows-specific apps for taking tests, replacing the blackboard, etc?
>
>> Money is tight, of course.  If I were the student and there is a
>> modest-priced laptop with Debian and OpenOffice I'd take it in a flash.
>> I'm not the student, I'm his 79 year old grandfather and I don't want
>> him to start off at a disadvantage.  There are certainly many college
>> students and recent grads that subscribe to this list.  I would value
>> your insights.
>
> The contrarian in me would buy him a course in shorthand instead.
> (I remember that the very act of hand-copying blackboard notes --
> while thinking about which were the most important -- most
> successfully burned information into my brain, and typing took too
> much focus away from other tasks.)
>
> - --
> Ron Johnson, Jr.
> Jefferson LA  USA
>
> "Kittens give Morbo gas.  In lighter news, the city of New New
> York is doomed."
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As a recently-retired Professor (Computer Engineering) it is my perception
that the concept of a physical "blackboard" is disappearing.  Many
professors use presentation slides from their laptops projected overhead. 
The slides are usually created from some sort of presentation software
(e.g. PowerPoint).  Many also include embedded equations (e.g. Mathtype). 
Often the slides are also made available to the students either from the
Professor's web site or some central campus web site (there is a program
called "blackboard" made for such a purpose).  In my case each of us was
"given" a laptop preloaded with all MS stuff (MS and Dell had made a
campus-wide "deal").  As such the infrastructure was by definition
Dell/MS.  Many of us of course also had our own machine usually with some
form of Linux.  Before I would spend any money on a college machine I
would investigate the campus infrastructure.  It would be a shame to have
spent money on a laptop that is incompatible with that of the campus.
Larry
>
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