HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

My school is supposedly one of the best public high schools in the state of Ohio, receiving an "excellent" rating for the past few years.
We have 60 computers, all brand new, in our library alone.
We have 6 computer labs, most with 30 brand new IBMs (these things are better than my two desktops combined).
So I ask myself, if we can afford these $800 computers, and so many of them (240), plus tons of money not going into anything else, why the hell couldn't we follow suit with the large suburban high schools replacing their worn out text books with PDAs?
I've come to the Cafe today to gather the masses from across the globe to join my campaign.
Every other year, schools in every major country of the world purchase new text books to replace the old. And with a school like mine, you get around 10,000 new books, or more (I bet my estimate is extremely low). Do you know how much these books cost? Maybe not as much as the $100+ books used in colleges, but only a little less. On average, each book, even when purchase in large quantities, is around $60. $60 for a book that could cost less than a penny, seeing as a single virtual copy could be purchased and legally duplicated for around $10-$50, less than a single copy of the printed book.
Every four or so years throughout school, I've tackled another economic obstacle, albeit, with the help of my family. I speak, of course, of book bags (or backpacks, whichever you prefer), pencils, paper, pens, flashcard / notecards, graphite (cough, lead for you old fashioned people), erasers, rulers, notebooks, more paper for when I run out, and binders.
How much is this?
We turn to a shopping trip at Staples for the answer.
A 1" 3-ring? $1.89
Five of those? $9.45
A 9"x11" 3-subject? $5.15
Five of those? $25.75
I know, that one amazes me too.
How about that big huge stack of paper you're going to need?
$3.38 for 400 sheets, and that's the Staples brand
What do we got so far?
$38.58, yes, that's almost $40 and we haven't even gotten to the bookbag. Mine this year cost $50!
Now onto smaller things (physically speaking)
Index Cards (aka flashcards or notecards)?
$1.09 for 100. Yep, pretty sure I'm going to have more than 100 vocab words in Spanish III this year...
Let's go with, oh, I don't know, 6 packs of those?
$6.54
But oh, wait, you're special and you need the colored ones!
$11.70 for 600 of those.
$5.29 for 12 mechanical pencils (unless even more old fashioned than I thought and you want the regular pencils)
$1.28 for 12 standard pens.
But wait, Mr. Fleet Admiral sir, I want the nice pens!
Congratulations! You just cost yourself 10x as much as with the regular pens (stupid evil pen manufacturers)
$12.99 for a dozen of the nice ones.
Not quite done, you're going to need those colored hiliters (or highlighters if you prefer)
$3.98 a pack of the basic 5 (pink, orange, yellow, green, blue)
Ahh, now we can move on to other things.
Let's see Staples' backpack selection...
Ooh.. First result is $73.49, it's a nice one...
But believe me, the least you will probably spend is a good $50.

Total count with the regular sh**?
A good $105.66
But wait, we didn't buy the overly expensive, slow as a my CPU, graphing calculator!
Hahaha, well, now this is interesting!
Most used graphing calculator for school purposes?
It's currently the TI-84+
Chaching, $104.99.
But oh, wait, we're all programmers here, so we'd want the extra boost of space and cpu power (oh boy, it takes a split second less to graph the function!)
Better cough up $20 more, 'cause it's $124.99
Now, since I guarantee everyone here would buy the silver, I'll use that for my final tally:
You spend a whopping, a gigantic, a leviathon-out-of-your-wallet $230.65 only a year of highschool!
Now hows about we multiply the valid ammounts by four?
222.68
Plus the backpack.. $272.67
Plus the calculator... $397.66
Um. Wait, did I do that right? Someone check my math, because that's more than my f***ing PDA.
Wait, wasn't that my point? YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT WAS.
Think I'm just spitting shit out my mouth? Do it yourself. Staples has some of the best prices I know of for school supplies.
So, you're asking, "what exactly is your plan for this project, bacon?"
Well, it's rather simple.
Take a look at this: HP iPaq rx1955. That's HP's cheapest, hell, the cheapest Windows Mobile Device (aka Pocket PC, aka PDA) with WiFi.
Lazy like me? It's $299.99. Yes, that's less than you pay for your school supplies.
Now of course, no one is going to sit for 8 hours and type on that little itty bitty soft keyboard.
So of course, portable keyboards present themselves. You might think "but the they'll drain the battery and are uber uxpen$ive!". If you do, you're thinking of the wireless ones (which in my opinion are pointless, why the hell would you want a wireless keyboard for something that is always going to be within 1 inch of your hand!?).
Wired keyboard, mb? That's the exact same model I have for my Windows Mobile 2003 device (it's an HP iPaq rx3715, it's got a camera!) That keyboard costs $59.99 if you get a used one (and they're so reliable, that's the best option, plus, if you get 2000 of them, I'm pretty sure they'll cost less)
Now, if you don't understand what a Windows Mobile 5 device is (my WM2003 device doesn't have 5, stupid executives at HP...), here's an explanation from Microsoft:

A Windows Mobile powered device is a handheld device powered by the Windows Mobile platform. It allows you to retrieve e-mail, keep track of your schedule and your contacts, browse the Internet, send and receive text messages, read and compose Microsoft Word Mobile files, make Microsoft Excel Mobile charts, and view Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.* Windows Mobile is a rich platform that allows you to download third-party software to customize your device. You can download e-books, games, maps, business software, and more.

Businesses use Windows Mobile powered devices to help their employees keep in touch while out of the office. Employees may use the devices to check e-mail, track sales, check inventory, place orders, communicate with students, route transportation, and accomplish other tasks by using a variety of line-of-business applications.

The Windows Mobile platform is available on a variety of devices from a variety of wireless operators. You will find Windows Mobile software on Dell, HP, Motorola, Palm, and i-mate products. You can purchase a data plan for your Windows Mobile powered device from Cingular, Orange, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and others. Windows Mobile powered devices are available on GSM or CDMA networks. To find out more about which Windows Mobile powered devices are available from your mobile operator, read about devices in our buyer's guide.

Here's my brief explanation:
A Windows Mobile device is a handheld PC with all the programs you know and love (or know and hate), form your desktop. A WMd has portable versions of Word and Excel, allong with the parts everyone recognizes on a PDA: a calender, a tasks list, and a contacts list. What makes WMds different from Palms is that they run a version of Windows and therefore almost all the things you love from your desktop can be found for your WMd.

Now that we've gotten all the pluses out of the way, now would be a good time to discuss the negatives in order to be fair to both sides. But before I do, I'd like to ask (rhetorically), why the hell would you not want to replace your $400 in school supplies, 50lbs of books, and hours of writing with a frakking computer that costs less!?
Now the nay-sayers stress the claims that they will be stolen, lost and damaged.
Stolen? So can your books. What? Who would steal those? They go for around $50 on eBay.
Lost? Hell, I lost my agenda first day of school last year (I found it, but that's not the point)
Damaged? Just because when you drop a book on the ground you can still read it doesn't mean it isn't broken. My school has big fines for even minorly damaged books. Drop your PDA on the ground? It can be repaired rather easily, and seeing as part of my plan includes putting all the important files, like the school-provided programs and your homework, onto flash memory cards, even if yours does break, you still have everything you need.
And then there were like 2 people last year while I had a survey on replacing the curriculum with one based around laptops (for English) that said "we still need to write, you can't take that away".
Windows Mobile Devices are touchscreen. You can write all you like on it, I just happen to prefer to type, it's that simple, most people prefer to type because it's faster and easier to read.



Now, I've just spat out an entire, um, I don't know, 6 paragraphs? on why Windows Mobile Pocket PCs should be used in my school, and you read every word of it thinking "why the hell is he telling us this?"
Oh, I have great reasoning behind this.
I want to get a petition out, get peoples' opinions, and develop my idea.
Basically, I want your comments and what side you take on this matter, and maybe even to get you to bring this up at your school.


Man, I just typed for an hour straight.
Holy f****....
*Note: I'm sorry for any spelling errors or grammatical errors in this, I just typed straight for about an hour.

Makes sense, but...

What are we supposed to do?

FleetAdmiralBacon wrote:Now, I've just spat out an entire, um, I don't know, 6 paragraphs? on why Windows Mobile Pocket PCs should be used in my school, and you read every word of it thinking "why the hell is he telling us this?"
Oh, I have great reasoning behind this.
I want to get a petition out, get peoples' opinions, and develop my idea.
Basically, I want your comments and what side you take on this matter, and maybe even to get you to bring this up at your school.

To quote myself from a post I made a while ago, I hate having to quote myself.

Well, although my school does have some books, we are not a textbook-based school. Since we are a project-based school, most of our works is something that we completely come up on our own, instead of paper after paper of things based off of stuff we read from a textbook. I think more schools should do this, since our school has been named a California Distinguished School again and again.

School Buying Expensive PDAs Instead. OF Text books...
OR
We having to buy our own PDA's instead of school supplies...

2 Problems...

1. There gonna get Stolered
2. PDA!!! HA!! NO WAI!!!!! I like Pencils and note books.besides...what happens if it breaks.. there goes all your shit.

sorry but i think you are high.

FleetAdmiralBacon wrote:It can be repaired rather easily, and seeing as part of my plan includes putting all the important files, like the school-provided programs and your homework, onto flash memory cards, even if yours does break, you still have everything you need.

And I think you lack the ability to read.
And "expensive PDAs"? Hello, basic math: Which is more expensive, $398 in school supplies or $360 for a PDA with a keyboard?

Well, although my school does have some books, we are not a textbook-based school. Since we are a project-based school, most of our works is something that we completely come up on our own, instead of paper after paper of things based off of stuff we read from a textbook. I think more schools should do this, since our school has been named a California Distinguished School again and again.

Lucky...

great idea, but i do see negatives as most obviously theft. if schools hand out these PDAs to kids, they will be sold, i garuntee it. now, they could just handle distribution like books, and force you to turn them in every year, and make kids that lose theirs buy another, but i think administration is just too scared of putting a $250 computer in every grubby little bastard's hands.

besides, it would be much more efficient if curriulum was just stored on the school's server they usually have in their intranet as a pdf kids could download to their pda through wifi. although this would put larger strain on the network when kids download their book for the first time, it would be very easy.

however, if they do this, there's a chance that kids like me would grab the wifi key because of kids logging onto the network all the time. and, if this is a familiar windows i know, pulling the ole "hey, my PDA's battery is dead, can i use yours?" deal to dump LSA secrets and grab the SAM file.

edit: oh yeah, and if kids get to bring the PDAs home, then PONR PORN PORN. and as all of you probably know, there's no better way to get a pc running slow as molasses then a fapfest. fixing kids computers, i see it all the time.

my public school system=poor

but umm ill sign this petition for you the people who have a chance =/ what ever it is....

my scholls pay to play fees are over $200 now, and we can barly afford to keep the schools running, hell no im not signing ur petition,
plus what if your teacher wants you to turn something in, hmmm? the schools paper fees would skyrocket to a ungodly number.

JimmyBeGood wrote:my scholls pay to play fees are over $200 now, and we can barly afford to keep the schools running, hell no im not signing ur petition,
plus what if your teacher wants you to turn something in, hmmm? the schools paper fees would skyrocket to a ungodly number.

What in the hell have you been reading?

I wrote:with WiFi.

Do you know what WiFi is?
Every teacher in my school has a "standard issue" Dell laptop, not much better than my own IBM. Do you know how much an 802.11b wireless router costs these days? Next to nothing (around $30-40). You get one of those per room, which isn't that many and you won't need to buy new ones. If you don't understand what I'm saying, a simple wireless network for each room would solve all problems with passing anything out. Plain and simple, no paper involved whatsoever.
I didn't know 0 sheets of paper was an ungodly number!

And what the hell is a "pay to play" fee?

I used my laptop last year at school. It was awesome for taking notes, but a bit too much eye candy for others:

"Dude, let me see! Wait you have pron on thing right? Show it SHOW IT!!"


That is one of the reasons I hesitate to bring it to school because the average idiot would rather think that the reason I bring my laptop to school is so I can goof of rather than actually taking notes.


We use our laptops instead of the computer lab at my school because the web filtering and restrictions are ridiculous.

As for the PDA, just another 100 or so bucks that is easily lost .

Laptops are better in my opinion. They are bigger, but if you're looking for stuff for school there are some nice thin and light laptops out there.

metkillerjoe wrote:I used my laptop last year at school. It was awesome for taking notes, but a bit too much eye candy for others:

"Dude, let me see! Wait you have pron on thing right? Show it SHOW IT!!"


That is one of the reasons I hesitate to bring it to school because the average idiot would rather think that the reason I bring my laptop to school is so I can goof of rather than actually taking notes.


We use our laptops instead of the computer lab at my school because the web filtering and restrictions are ridiculous.

As for the PDA, just another 100 or so bucks that is easily lost .

Laptops are better in my opinion. They are bigger, but if you're looking for stuff for school there are some nice thin and light laptops out there.

They would also be 3 times more expensive. I was looking for a low-cost approach. Plus, most laptops have batter life around 2-4 hours. My PDA has a 12 hour life, and that is being on constantly (amazing, I know, I've never gotten further down that about 83% on the thing)
I do see the point in using laptops, but they have more disadvantages that I want to avoid, regardless of the minor advantages they hold.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I too have brought my laptop to school on two occasions, one time for a power point and the other just to use my Windows Media Player plugins to make a kick-ass background for another presentation thing. It wasn't much, most of the kids at my school would understand that I have a laptop that actually belongs to me. Also, PDAs would hold much less of this "eye candy" feel as you called it.
The small size also helps, I'd rather carry a computer the size of a stack of index cards, and weighs less, than carry my laptop in a bag which alone ways more than the PDA.

yeah i just realised your little wifi thing will never work... dont belvie me heres the math


Old Grumpy teachers+wifi and routers and PDA= ONE FRICKIN BIG head ACHe.

and theres the excuses like... well i was working on it for hours and then it just shut off.

and plus.. i dont think the school peeps are gonna be like
"hmm some kid from Halomods(that has a fetish for PDA's) wants us to buy the students PDAS?! HAHAHAH!"

Give up its point less.

Im with AC, old school school (wow, funny mb?) is really much better. I mean its fine to type up assignments and have a student account on a schools computer, but going all the way is just rediculous.

Viruses or buttons dont suddenly obliverate my handwritten essays, and they never run out of batteries

FleetAdmiralBacon wrote:

metkillerjoe wrote:I used my laptop last year at school. It was awesome for taking notes, but a bit too much eye candy for others:

"Dude, let me see! Wait you have pron on thing right? Show it SHOW IT!!"


That is one of the reasons I hesitate to bring it to school because the average idiot would rather think that the reason I bring my laptop to school is so I can goof of rather than actually taking notes.


We use our laptops instead of the computer lab at my school because the web filtering and restrictions are ridiculous.

As for the PDA, just another 100 or so bucks that is easily lost .

Laptops are better in my opinion. They are bigger, but if you're looking for stuff for school there are some nice thin and light laptops out there.

They would also be 3 times more expensive. I was looking for a low-cost approach. Plus, most laptops have batter life around 2-4 hours. My PDA has a 12 hour life, and that is being on constantly (amazing, I know, I've never gotten further down that about 83% on the thing)
I do see the point in using laptops, but they have more disadvantages that I want to avoid, regardless of the minor advantages they hold.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I too have brought my laptop to school on two occasions, one time for a power point and the other just to use my Windows Media Player plugins to make a kick-ass background for another presentation thing. It wasn't much, most of the kids at my school would understand that I have a laptop that actually belongs to me. Also, PDAs would hold much less of this "eye candy" feel as you called it.
The small size also helps, I'd rather carry a computer the size of a stack of index cards, and weighs less, than carry my laptop in a bag which alone ways more than the PDA.

I agree. The more expensive laptops have a much longer batter life (friend played halo for 16 hrs on the weekend full blast graphics with one charge).

Still, I have a crappy Gericom Hummer (don't ask my dad is a technical imbecile) that can just about do word processing.

Viruses or buttons dont suddenly obliverate my handwritten essays, and they never run out of batteries Razz

Funny viruses have never suddenly obliterated my essays..

Are you maybe using Win 98? That is understandable..

and plus that just mean kids will never devolpe handwriting skills.

*high five Multi*

Armed Civilian wrote:and plus that just mean kids will never devolpe handwriting skills.

*high five Multi*

Personally, I think cursive is completely useless. Typing is more useful.

Armed Civilian wrote:and plus that just mean kids will never devolpe handwriting skills.

That's another bad thing.

Armed Civilian wrote:yeah i just realised your little wifi thing will never work... dont belvie me heres the math


Old Grumpy teachers+wifi and routers and PDA= ONE FRICKIN BIG head ACHe.

and theres the excuses like... well i was working on it for hours and then it just shut off.

and plus.. i dont think the school peeps are gonna be like
"hmm some kid from Halomods(that has a fetish for PDA's) wants us to buy the students PDAS?! HAHAHAH!"

Give up its point less.

I never said I wanted to the school to buy them, but my school would have more than enough to pay for them. Why would I bring up the fact that you spend $400 on supplies for 4 years of high school? Just for the heck of it?
Most of my teachers aren't old and grumpy, rather they are the kind of teachers that would embrace the technology.
My math teacher last year looks like he's 17 and acts like it too (he's in his 30)
My English teacher this year and last year are both extremely young when it comes to teachers.
We have an advanced school, but we don't take any initiative towards doing anything with that.
Now, your teachers might be old farts that don't know an MP3 from a JPEG, but we use our computer labs regularly and I just think it's a pain to have to walk down a flight a stairs to use computers that aren't even set to the right resolution (I change my to 1280x1024 when I get on anyhow)

A lot of you are just disagreeing so that you have something to fight with me about. There are ZERO disadvantages to this.
It is MORE ECONOMIC
It is MORE EFFICIENT
It is MORE EXCITING for students

The three Es.
Economic, Efficient, Exciting.

Keep your dumb downsides a' comin' and I'll keep destroying them with my logic.


EDIT:

My view on handwriting was already stated. LEARN TO READ.

Windows Mobile Devices are touchscreen. You can write all you like on it, I just happen to prefer to type, it's that simple, most people prefer to type because it's faster and easier to read.

multi-genre wrote:Im with AC, old school school (wow, funny mb?) is really much better. I mean its fine to type up assignments and have a student account on a schools computer, but going all the way is just rediculous.

Viruses or buttons dont suddenly obliverate my handwritten essays, and they never run out of batteries

I have yet to see one virus for a Pocket PC, especially Windows Mobile 5 which just came out a few months ago.
Also, the X button automatically saves your files, doesn't even ask you.
Battery dieing? Impossible. Your Pocket PC will shut itself off after giving you a message saying "Battery has reached critical level" and then closing all your programs. When a program is closed on a pocket pc, it doesn't do it forcefully like on XP or 98, so all your stuff is automatically saved somewhere or other.

PWNED once again by logic.