Technology catch-all thread

[Y2HH]

The alternative is probably to use the computers in the lab, which we all know is complete bulls***.

 

Apple does give pretty good deals/financing to students though.

 

Apple gives pretty good deals to everyone, all you have to do is say your a student.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

So then I'd have to ask...if you go to a school that uses Macs, in a profession dominated by teachers that teach with them and students that use them, for companies that distribute them, shouldn't you kind of expect to have to use them, too?

 

This is probably where I had a problem with that entire 1500$ thing...

 

If you don't want to race American branded cars, you probably shouldn't go into Nascar.

 

I'm not planning on going in to anything with video either. First and foremost, I want to work w/ a baseball team. But if I DO use my major, it will likely he either on a sports radio program, or writing for a newspaper. Neither of those I would expect to be forced to use Mac computers.

[Quin]

Y2HH, I wasn't being a smartass, but you're being a dick. I already had a PC so I could have dropped $300 on video software and been done with it. But because everything is done on Macs they word it into saying you need to buy one. So jump off if Apple's jock for a moment becaude I'm being fairly genuine in my argument that took you 100 to posts to understand.

[Y2HH]

Y2HH, I wasn't being a smartass, but you're being a dick. I already had a PC so I could have dropped $300 on video software and been done with it. But because everything is done on Macs they word it into saying you need to buy one. So jump off if Apple's jock for a moment becaude I'm being fairly genuine in my argument that took you 100 to posts to understand.

 

First, I'm not on "Apple's jock", so stick it...I wasn't asking my previous questions to 'be a dick', I was asking them because I don't know how your school works...I just refuse to believe you were taken by surprise that you'd have to buy a mac BEFORE you enrolled.

 

Second, why wouldn't they let you just drop the 300$ on video software for a PC? Did you even ask? Or were you well aware of this BEFORE you even took the class?

Edited September 27, 2012 by Y2HH

[Soxbadger]

The school my sister went to required her to buy a mac laptop and mac screen for her courses.

 

The price was just added to the tuition, so it definitely happens.

[Y2HH]

The school my sister went to required her to buy a mac laptop and mac screen for her courses.

 

The price was just added to the tuition, so it definitely happens.

 

It's fine if it happens BEFORE you enroll. The way he made it sound is that he took a class, and was forced to drop 1500$ in order to do so...seemingly out of nowhere.

[RockRaines]

The school my sister went to required her to buy a mac laptop and mac screen for her courses.

 

The price was just added to the tuition, so it definitely happens.

Hmm, thats crazy, I guess thats the world we live in now. Not even every kid in my dorm hallway had a computer, I was the only one with a cell phone.

[Y2HH]

Hmm, thats crazy, I guess thats the world we live in now. Not even every kid in my dorm hallway had a computer, I was the only one with a cell phone.

 

If that's the way it is today, I get what he was saying...but I still have a hard time believing they aren't made aware of that before hand. And if they are, then it's on them as far as I'm concerned...had my school told me that if I enrolled, I'd have to buy specific stuff to the tune of 1500$, I'd have found a different school...because back then, there's no way I could have come up with that kind of money to buy a new computer and I wouldn't have borrowed it, either...and back then, computers cost even more than they do now.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Y2HH

[Soxbadger]

It's fine if it happens BEFORE you enroll. The way he made it sound is that he took a class, and was forced to drop 1500$ in order to do so...seemingly out of nowhere.

 

She was a sophomore and the school decided that it was a requirement for all students with any sort of art major. My parents had already bought her a brand new computer the year before.

 

So its the exact scenario you are referencing.

 

Hmm, thats crazy, I guess thats the world we live in now. Not even every kid in my dorm hallway had a computer, I was the only one with a cell phone.

 

I never had a cell phone in college, but had a computer.

[StrangeSox]

Hmm, thats crazy, I guess thats the world we live in now. Not even every kid in my dorm hallway had a computer, I was the only one with a cell phone.

 

pipe down, grandpa

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Hmm, thats crazy, I guess thats the world we live in now. Not even every kid in my dorm hallway had a computer, I was the only one with a cell phone.

 

It's honestly getting to the point where you need to have a smart phone too. Teachers will ask you to pull up information on your phone, and one of my teachers even encourages us to use our smart phones to look up answers on her tests (so, it's practically an open book test, but with phones, not books). I, not having a smart phone, have to do it the old fashioned way.....cheat. lol, kidding.

[Y2HH]

In that case, I apologize if I came across like a 'dick' as he previously stated...it wasn't my intent.

 

But it also gives me insight as to why all these college grads are in debt beyond their tuitions...it's no wonder. These sorts of requirements are out of hand, and I would have told teachers I couldn't afford it, but I wouldn't have put myself into further debt in order to take a class simply because they wanted me too.

 

I would have sooner inconvenienced myself and went to the lab. But this is absurd. These schools need to go f*** themselves.

[Y2HH]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6334/iphone-...een-performance

 

* "Wrapping up, the iPhone 5 display is a quantum leap better than the display on the iPhone 4. Contrast levels and light output have both been increased, and color performance is astonishing. The full sRGB gamut is present here, and color errors are remarkably low even for a high end desktop display."

 

* "To put this in perspective, in the past few years I've reviewed probably 30-40 different displays, from PC monitors to TVs to projectors. Not a single one, out of the box, can put up the Gretag Macbeth dE numbers that the iPhone can, and perhaps one projector (which listed for $20,000) can approach the grayscale and color accuracy out of the box."

 

* "I do know that if TV and PC Monitor vendors were able to provide displays that looked like this out of the box, professional calibrators would lose a good amount of business. The new panel in the iPhone 5 is simply remarkable in quality and if it were a PC monitor, I'd give it a Gold Award on the basis of its performance."

[bigruss]

In that case, I apologize if I came across like a 'dick' as he previously stated...it wasn't my intent.

 

But it also gives me insight as to why all these college grads are in debt beyond their tuitions...it's no wonder. These sorts of requirements are out of hand, and I would have told teachers I couldn't afford it, but I wouldn't have put myself into further debt in order to take a class simply because they wanted me too.

 

I would have sooner inconvenienced myself and went to the lab. But this is absurd. These schools need to go f*** themselves.

On a Verizon family plan, I still pay about $65/mth for my portion (including data), that's like a week of grocery bills for me every month. I was fortunate where my parents paid for my tuition and room and board (well, they'd match the cheapest dorm rate). So apartment living (which cost more than the dorms because of where I chose to live), books, drinks, phone bill, car insurance, gas, etc, that was all on me. As well as I had it, I didn't get a data plan until after Spring Break senior year, I flat out couldn't afford it even though I worked as an intern or was an RA every year (sometimes both).

 

And yet, I see kids complaining about student loans who have had a data plan since high school. Ridiculous.

 

My dad worked hard to get where he's at, and makes good money. But throughout my childhood my family limited ourselves, we didn't go out to eat much, we only bought clothes at Kohl's and even then it was infrequent (hand me downs where we could), vacations were fairly limited and were combined with where relatives lived and if we could where my dad may have to travel for business so we could save on things like car rentals and his airfare would be covered. I saw way to many kids who came out of school with $10k+ in debt who didn't work at all while in school, and their family would go on vacations still, etc.

Edited September 27, 2012 by bigruss22

[RockRaines]

pipe down, grandpa

LOL right, im only 31. Crazy how much has happened.

[Quin]

I had to buy it before my freshman year started. I'm now a sophomore.

 

I had absolutely no use for it until this year. They straight up tell you that you will fall behind with a PC because they flat out won't teach it before you start your freshman year.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Quinarvy

[Jake]

In that case, I apologize if I came across like a 'dick' as he previously stated...it wasn't my intent.

 

But it also gives me insight as to why all these college grads are in debt beyond their tuitions...it's no wonder. These sorts of requirements are out of hand, and I would have told teachers I couldn't afford it, but I wouldn't have put myself into further debt in order to take a class simply because they wanted me too.

 

I would have sooner inconvenienced myself and went to the lab. But this is absurd. These schools need to go f*** themselves.

 

In my non-technical fields I've had no such issues with having to pay ludicrous amounts of money for course materials, though at this point a laptop seems like a must. Most of my professors ban laptops and phones in the classroom, though, so you could easily do all your work on a library computer if you were into that kind of thing. I'm double majoring in Film Studies (BA, not BFA) and Political Science (BA, not BS) so you can take that into consideration as well. I will be taking a filmmaking course in which I'll be furnished filmmaking equipment from the school, for an example of a time in which I had a potentially costly course. In my political statistics course, I was given a free copy of our statistics program. In another course I was given a free copy of Wolfram Mathematica for some analyses.

 

Might vary from school to school or major to major.

 

I've also found having a Mac to be more cumbersome with file types, etc. but not a huge problem. I'm now running Windows because my Mac crashed and burned

[danman31]

I had to buy it before my freshman year started. I'm now a sophomore.

 

I had absolutely no use for it until this year. They straight up tell you that you will fall behind with a PC because they flat out won't teach it before you start your freshman year.

I know the mac thing you're referring to (having gone to the same school a few years earlier), but it's not really a deal breaker. I bought a Dell the summer before I enrolled despite the 'Mac requirement' and while the first two years are mostly gen-ed courses it didn't make the slightest difference. When it got stolen out of my dorm room my sophomore year I decided to change over to Mac and am glad I did, but that had nothing to do with the curriculum or any requirement. Even if the J-school has all Macs and they teach on Mac software when applicable, you can always go to one of the many Mac computer labs that all have that software. You could have easily managed with a PC. I always found it easier to get work done on campus in a library or something anyway.

[Quin]

I know the mac thing you're referring to (having gone to the same school a few years earlier), but it's not really a deal breaker. I bought a Dell the summer before I enrolled despite the 'Mac requirement' and while the first two years are mostly gen-ed courses it didn't make the slightest difference. When it got stolen out of my dorm room my sophomore year I decided to change over to Mac and am glad I did, but that had nothing to do with the curriculum or any requirement. Even if the J-school has all Macs and they teach on Mac software when applicable, you can always go to one of the many Mac computer labs that all have that software. You could have easily managed with a PC. I always found it easier to get work done on campus in a library or something anyway.

 

Yeah, I see that now. But the bookstore worded it so carefully that it basically came out as "required." That and I'm pretty sure someone from the J-School told me it was (in retrospect, I see it's bulls***) because my parents were annoyed as well.

[danman31]

Yeah, I see that now. But the bookstore worded it so carefully that it basically came out as "required." That and I'm pretty sure someone from the J-School told me it was (in retrospect, I see it's bulls***) because my parents were annoyed as well.

Yeah they call it a requirement even though it's not. They do only use Macs in the classes as you know, but as long as you know how to use the OS you're fine. Anyone with any computer savvy can figure it out fairly quickly. It's definitely BS, but it's becoming more common.

[Quin]

Yeah they call it a requirement even though it's not. They do only use Macs in the classes as you know, but as long as you know how to use the OS you're fine. Anyone with any computer savvy can figure it out fairly quickly. It's definitely BS, but it's becoming more common.

 

I think that's what pisses me off the most. That they say it is, but its really not. Like, if I had been presented an option, I just would have stuck with my PC.

[southsider2k5]

LOL right, im only 31. Crazy how much has happened.

 

I'm 38. My freshman year we didn't even have the internet on campus. No one had computers or cell phones.

[StrangeSox]

LOL right, im only 31. Crazy how much has happened.

 

"Get off my lawn!!!"

 

I guess a lot changes in four years. I can't remember anyone at U of I in the dorms not having a PC/laptop and cellphone. I'm sure there were some that didn't, but that would have been few and far between.

[Y2HH]

"Get off my lawn!!!"

 

I guess a lot changes in four years. I can't remember anyone at U of I in the dorms not having a PC/laptop and cellphone. I'm sure there were some that didn't, but that would have been few and far between.

 

I'm 37...but I remember the pre-internet BBS days like they were yesterday...

 

In high school, and this is back in 1989-1993 -- I used to take the bus to UIC and sneak into their computer labs (they were always left open) -- and I did this because they had an Internet connection -- which was basically usenet and ftp...http (web) back then was nothing but text and mostly useless. I used FTP to download games/demos/music for my Amiga computers (and other computers)...and then upload them to various BBS's. I remember people being amazed that I was able to get stuff that was released in Europe the same day and none of them knew how I was doing it.

 

The amazing part of that was, here I am, this high school kid hanging around in college computer labs and nobody ever said a word.

 

This was back in the day nobody thought about security, so everyone would login and just forget to logoff...so after they'd leave their computer, you just sat on it and did what you needed to do...

[Y2HH]

http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/

 

Full text:

 

"To our customers,

 

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

 

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

 

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

 

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

 

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard."

 

Tim Cook

Apple’s CEO