“Azer Delva, 17, of Miramar, said he is the luckiest teenager, or at least one of 2,890 lucky teens, at Miramar High School,” Eileen Soler reports for The Miami Herald. “‘If a kid really wants to succeed these days, like I do, this is the first step,’ he said, flanked by a cousin and two siblings, all Miramar High students and all holding tightly to their own Macintosh iBook G3 laptop computers.
“Principal David Gordon said that by Nov. 3, all Miramar High students will have received a laptop with wireless Internet access on campus and connections to Miramar High programs and information sites at home,” Soler reports. “‘The focus is student achievement,’ Gordon said during the fifth in a series of mandatory student and parent orientation, distribution and training seminars. About 300 computers, each valued at about $1,200, are handed out per session.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iBooks now feature G4 processors, so this report of iBook G3s may contain a minor error. Nevertheless, another bunch of students gets lucky and avoids a bunch of Dells with Windows.
Mmm… G4…
just more of us poor taxpayers picking up the tab for those who feel the need to multiply and make those of us who choose not to. Stop with the tax breaks for families and now giving them free laptops. I pay more school tax then my neighbor with 4 kids……. Give me a free laptop.. jeez….
i HOPE they’re g4s.. i dont want some poor kids getting refurbs with 0S 9…
mike…
They mention “wireless”….
Sounds like we can assume theyre running some flavor of OSX….
My guess is they get Panther….
Stands to reason they wouldnt be running OS 9.x..
What would be the point ?
cpr…
Its called “progress”…
one of my close friends here in florida was one of the systems engineers responsible for setting these machines up and working through this project. they are g4s, 1ghz models with combo drives. 12 inch screens.
he had photos on his .mac and they are still there but not linked i guess for privacy. i have them in my bookmarks so im gonna post them here. hopefully he wont take them down.
-chris c.
http://homepage.mac.com/jlbrass/PhotoAlbum32.html
http://homepage.mac.com/jlbrass/PhotoAlbum33.html
http://homepage.mac.com/jlbrass/PhotoAlbum34.html
good pics chris….
If they have any extra iBooks… I can give one a good home !
progress means single people pay , while big families get a free ride.
I dont begrudge these kids their fortune…..
Think about it as a good investment in Apple’s future..
If these kids learn on Macs… first …. what do you suppose they will be using later on ??
Windoze ?? ….. doubtful …
Best to wish these kids luck…and support them…
THose pictures make me so happy!
cpr,
All those little bastards with the iBooks will get the best jobs and be making big bucks. They are the ones that will be covering your Social Security checks in a few years. Give them a break.
WOW!!!!
And wiping his ass when he’s in a rest home contemplating his failure as a genetic being to propagate his DNA.
al… hilarious… a computer doesn’t do jack for a person’s success.
mac dood.. a G3 running panther?.. may I ask.. what’s the point ..?
… that’s a pretty weak response
An outdated OS would suck, yes.. but I hope G3 was a typo..
cpr – You don’t have kids so why should you pay school taxes? You have health insurance so why should you care if others can’t afford to have it? Such a myopic world view, where you only think about your own bottom line is exactly what leads to decay in society. Short term gain is just that…short term. Step back, look at the world and realize that what’s really best for you is that which benefits us all. Tolerance, compasssion, open-mindedness, liberty and freedom are the pillars of greatness. These concepts are anathema to organizations like Microsoft, Enron, Halliburton and the Republican party. So more power to the Apples of the world in the struggle against greed and mediocrity. You get what you pay for cpr.
kioiuj,
Tell that to any computer illiterate, game playing, Wintel dickhead next time they ask you if you want fries with that. They will agree with you.
Dear cpr:
You’re off base. It looks like they are prioritizing the funds they receive anyway to buy Macs. This is not some additional tax/fee as best I can tell. The bottom line is: “will students learn more”? The only way to know that will be to see if there are achievement gains.
I hope they succeed…
It is rather strange to hear someone complain about kids getting iBooks (like cpr is footing the entire bill), or that computers don’t make a difference in education. This level of ignorance and selfishness is disturbing. Well, I assume we can’t change their minds, so the thing to do is continue fighting the good fight.
When everyone does better, everyone does better.
“Wintel dickhead”
Wow. No wonder people call you Mac snobs. Way to go Al.
You get what you pay for cpr. Only partly true, Andy. He’s complaining about the fact that he’s paying for all these kids to get iBooks, along with other taxpayers, and he doesn’t get one, ergo he’s not getting what he pays for.
“…An outdated OS would suck, yes.. but I hope G3 was a typo..”
Im with you, mike…
Im sure it was a typo
chris c. – nice pics!
p.s. I agree with you Andy.
“I’m proud to be an American …”
A lot of us here in Europe are sick to the teeth of hearing this.
How can anybody be proud of something they had absolutely no choice in?
You might just as well say: “I’m proud to have a nose.”
Heed the words of Samuel Johnson dear readers:
“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
Backlash,
He started it. Only a game playing Wintel user would think that computer access would not improve an education and future job prospects.
Playing games on a Wintel machine only helps if you want to kill a nonbeliever for Christ.
If you are not going to join the armed forces game playing does not prepare you for the business world.
Ahhh, good ol’ NetRestore. It looks like they have too many stations setup, and too many poeple getting these iBooks imaged. I noticed that after they are imaged, using NetRestore, they boot to the welcome screen. Then it looks as if some people are creating accounts for the kids. Too much work. It could all have been done on the master image, and using LDAP (Remote Desktop 2 is a fine addition as well).
Each year I deploy 400 iBooks, by myself. It can be done by one person if you spend some time developing your methodology.
“cpr – You don’t have kids so why should you pay school taxes? “
You guys missed the point , why do I pay MORE than the family of four next door, who uses the services. They get numerous TAX breaks for having kids and using the services.
Put me on plain with them, not make me pay MORE for not using the services….