“A mad rush happened this morning when the gates opened at 7 a.m. at the Richmond International Raceway for Henrico County School’s $50 i-book [sic] laptop computer sale. The much-anticipated computer sale started at 9 a.m. but many people came late last night to wait outside the gates in line,” NBC12 News (Virginia) reports.
“When the gates finally opened, several people were hurt with scraps and bruising as the crowd rushed in. One woman with a one-year-old child pushed in, but her stroller was crushed in the rush,” NBC12 News reports. “The County is selling the 1,000 surplus computers to Henrico county residents because it has switched from i-book [sic] to Dell computers. People wanting to buy a computer must prove they live in Henrico County and are only allowed to buy one computer per person.”
Direct link to the video (RealPlayer) here.
[UPDATE: 1:20pm ET: The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a slideshow of the event and stampede here: http://media.gatewayva.com/photos/rtd/special/ibook/index.htm ]
MacDailyNews Take: Somehow, we can’t imagine the good people of Henrico trampling each other to get four-year-old Dells when the time comes. The Henrico School System will most likely be paying some company $50 per Dell laptop for recycling/disposal. And NBC12, get the name right. It’s “iBook.” It’s quite a simple thing to get right, but it looks really stupid when you get it wrong. (We’ve worked in and consulted for TV stations for a good number of years. Trust us, most of the people working at your local TV station aren’t the brightest bulbs in the pack.)
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Woman wets herself to keep place in line for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Henrico closes $50 Apple iBook sale to general public; only Henrico residents can buy – August 03, 2005
Henrico moves $50 Apple iBook sale to Richmond International Raceway due overwhelming demand – July 28, 2005
Apple announces 30,000 iBooks deal with Florida’s Broward County Public Schools – July 27, 2005
Henrico residents object to public sale of Apple iBooks – July 26, 2005
Henrico County Public Schools to sell Apple 12-inch iBooks for $50 each on August 9th – July 25, 2005
Henrico blasted for choosing Dell laptops with Windows XP over Apple iBooks with Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Henrico school officials on Apple to Dell switch: The logo will change, but the tool is the same – April 30, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Henrico County Apple iBook plan in jeopardy? – April 02, 2005
Survey shows support for Henrico iBook program with ‘lukewarm support’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – March 07, 2005
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
Henrico high school laptop program to continue, but will it still feature Apple Macs? – February 24, 2005
More schools experience Windows virus, worm problems while Macs just keep working – August 22, 2003
A tale of two school systems: Windows schools crippled while Mac schools unaffected – August 21, 2003
I forgot the emoticon
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mike k., Thanks for the welcome.
I did “invoke” God. That’s because He is the core of my worldview, and so naturally my comments on any subject will reflect that. Sorry if you don’t like that, I know sometimes it sounds like a religious nut, but try to think about it from another perspective. If someone really believed what I do, wouldn’t it be dishonest and completely illogical for them to try and pretend to be “like everyone else” and “leave God out of it”? Anyways, I’m just a regular person, with some views that you think are weird and some you agree with.
I didn’t invoke the Iraq war, I actually responded to someone else’s comment. Though perhaps you are saying I shouldn’t have responded. But the things that have prompted me to start posting are when someone makes a statement that I think is very unqualified, especially if it is sort of a side-comment or shot. We all harbor a lot of assumptions that can’t stand up to even a little bit of thought. I don’t like to let those assumptions go unchallenged, b/c I think it’s important for each person’s intellectual growth. So I usually try to bring that statement out, so that we can all continue learning, and hopefully become more reasonable with each other.
Anyways, I definitely don’t want to be in religious or political flamewars, although it can be hard for most of us to avoid devolving into that. But if there’s something I can redeem in the conversation (anotherwords someone who’s willing to do more than just argue), then we both can learn something.
As for making fun of those neanderthals, do you think your county would be better? I’m in Spotsy, VA, and I don’t think my county would be much better (although I really hope our county board would be much smarter than that, so that the situation wouldn’t have come up in the first place).
mw:friends
yea the stampede was kinda dumb. But I don’t think Henrico County schools are run by pinheads. I was educated in that school system, and looking back on it I think the quality of instruction and facilities (ESPECIALLY compared to what’s around here) was generally excellent.
And anyway, it’s all about price. Dell computers are cheaper. And I’d much rather see every kid who wants access to a computer GET it, be it Mac or PC or what have you. If the choice is having 30 kids split time on 15 Macs or having 30 kids each get their own Dell, then I’m afraid I have to go with Dell. The main thing is that the kids learn computer skills, not which machine they use.
That is possibly the smartest comment I ever heard here.
The woman who brought that stroller needed to be arrested on child endangerment charges. What did she think would happen?
I would recommend her being strapped into a restraint chair with a mask.