Do you need a Laptop?

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Do you think it is necessary to have a laptop to be successful in college?

The required pc school is just making sure they have the resources to do anything in one big move. Unfortunately, they have to have $60/month wireless contracts for limited bandwidth usage: that could get expensive when they get over the limit and that is ALL the pc access they have. But they will have a nice notebook, so it is a good plan to help students learn in consistent harmony. I actually am glad the faculty is thinking ahead for their students, who may not know the difference it could make.

I disagree, I think it's robbery and I'll tell you why.

I attend a very small public community college for my nursing program. My "technology" fee is $50 per semester.

I don't take a laptop to school, but I do take my Palm b/c I use the drug programs while I'm there studying.

The wi-fi internet service that I used to check my e-mail through my Palm at my school? Free

To use the computers that are in the library all over campus and even IF you have to print out a 35-page care plan? Free

I was not required to purchase a computer through the school, because if you are paying CASH the school wants to make sure I can find the best deal FOR ME and my family budget.

However, if you really needed the Palm, the programs, or a computer, these are considered "school" items and you can purchase them WITH financial aid money via the bookstore, and our school does participate in a discount program with Dell.

It is a complete and total rip off. There is absolutely no reason why students cannot purchase their OWN computer from their OWN resources with 'recommended' technology instead of forfeiting profit for their own gain.

You know who should really be mad? The students signing up for the program that already have a computer at home...especially ones that have one that is superior to the ones that they are being forced to buy.

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I purchased a HP TC1100 off of ebay and it is the best thing since sliced bread. It's a tablet and I have MS OneNote 2007 loaded up on it for writing out notes (it converts them to text! among about a zillion other truly amazing things it does). Anyway, the TC1100 was used and I got it for $400. It's smalll (10.5" screen), lightweight and fabulous. They show up on Ebay all the time; I highly recommend them!

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Just a note:

Two of the Win XP leaders Toshiba and Dell are coming out with Intel Atom notebooks in September (or October likely); AND prices for the 4965 Wireless protocol notebooks are coming down near atom notebook prices. (4965 is first 5X previous wireless rate, and new 5xxx is not likely that much better, but moves the 4965 down in price range).

So you may almost get a much better 2 GHz laptop for $600, but have to buy another (9 cell) battery. Toshiba is the price leader with Win XP, so will see what they do. And I've already seen a site that temporarilly goes down to $520 on Asus eee 1000h, but I'd rather go for warranty first and 0% interest rates next.

And after Christmas will be interesting as always, but think October should be some good competition in market with Toshiba and Dell catching up and dumping last generations notebooks (which were very good).:yeah::yeah:

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NOW, looking at the solid state hard drive (SSHD) advantage (cooler, longer battery life-13% longer, and faster - except with small files-?), the Asus eee 901 (w/XP) may be better. Its got 16GB SSHD and 20GB eee drive (on NET I suppose).

Its about the same price as 1000H, but 16GB SSHD size would be cutting it close, especially if Bill Gates Made us use Vista OS. So I'm about out of ideas for notebooks. XP, Intel, and Msft are my personal guidlelines, and may try to jump on a $300 used notebook in newspaper :coollook:

The only thing someone said that made me question even the Asus eee 1000h was not for heavy duty publishing. That's what I need it for is doing fancy reports and labs for padded grades :crying2:

Notebook market is the same old WinTel marketing cycles as pc's were in the 1990's before RDRAM by 2002. What a crock. Where's Rambus when we need them for notebooks NOW?

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I'm sorry for triple posting, but am reporting as finding out facts in fast changing industry. Querying 'asus eee 1000h vs 901' got a lot of youtube comparisons. Great! Both started up in 40 seconds, with different components faster/slower than the other. As well loading of cpu was equivalent on heavy duty games and movies: about 40% to 55% which is a little high from my current maxed workstation that rarely gets over 15%.

Still, SSHD is a high priced yet-to-be-justified gimic, like 64 bit that is slower than 32 bit and only better for database servers. So for battery life, XP, and convenience, the asus eee 1000h WITH 2gb ram (have to add 2nd in one or two dimms - ?) will be hard to beat. The extra ram should lower cpu % down maybe up to a third (???). Maybe I can find a comparison of the extra 2 gb ram googling on youtube as well. Its about the only other significant thing you can do on them, without experimenting on your own.

Just keep an open mind, but I want the asus eee 1000h as planned before. I think it will handle desk top publishing fine. And the only other thing I may explore would be a 6200 speed hard drive of same make, versus the 5400 speed hard drive. But that would be LATER if required at all.

Oh yeah, the solid state drives are supposed to be shock-free. Whoopee, with accident insurance, the drops and heat are not as critical. Its less than 3 lbs and not much heat anyway. But I investigate everything possible: lots or propoganda to investigate though, lol.

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Hold the presses, lol!!

I hope no one bought an asus eee 1000h based on my blessings.

(everyone do their own due diligence!)

It really seemed like the perfect laptop, but if it can't handle 2Gb RAM w/o problems. I DON'T WANT IT! The EEE website had a long thread about crapping out with 2GB ram in it. Maybe thats why Wind will invalidate your warranty if you put 2Gb ram in!! It sounds like an Intel Atom problem, and not related to Asus specifically. Its all an Intel Rush-to-market problem. They did not put any engineering resources in it since it was a

low budget margin product. So they planned on failure from the start.

Intel needs RAMBUS to get them over this technological problem (again).

I'll have to keep looking more on the original line I was looking at: Toshiba with WinXP. HOWEVER, it does point out that you don't need a firebreather workstation for a laptop: just don't skimp on the RAM. So the 14" Toshiba with Win XP, 2 to 3 Gb Ram, and the now outdated 4965 wireless pc's should be all that's needed. The FASTER hard drive speed option I first wanted, I can now see it may waste battery energy for a marginal return in speed.

But Asus, Intel, et all avoiding press and forum questions like crashes with 2GB Ram will not fly with most users (SORRY IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO FIND OUT, but glad I did not buy one first). Applicationss today will not allow

This tulip craze just died imo!!

If it seems to good to be true, ...

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Call me crazy, but I bought a laptop last January to *sigh* play a game I bought. Totally insane waste of money and time. BUT, when I finally decided I was going to grow up and get a big girl job and needed to get into college, I realized that my laptop did have one really great feature (besides the portability): a built-in webcam.

Now, I'm not going to set it up so that it records my teacher's every move, but after I played with if for a little while I realized that it could record just audio. After playing a little more, I found that it could pick up voices up to about 25 feet away, so I'm thinking it will be perfect for taping lectures and such. That way if I need to review something, I can go back to that lesson-they'll be saved on my hard drive-or on cd to listen to in the car :D

Just a thought if you've decided to get a laptop for school - or if you have one but can't justify lugging it back and forth to school.

:specs:

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I don't think you need a laptop for college but it is nice to have one especially if there is only one computer at home and you maybe share it with a bunch of people. My sister never understood when I needed to do things on it so I was thrilled when I got my laptop. So far I haven't taken it to school but I like the option of being able to take it with me and I can go anywhere in the house with it.

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Guys, I'm the informatics nurse at my facility and computers are over-used and over-rated.

They are fabulous for what they're good at. But nothing is going to replace paying attention in class and doing the reading. And I still carry a pencil and yellow pad instead of a freakin' Blackberry.

WalMart sometimes has $400 laptops that will do everything a student needs to do and more. 4 gb RAM, DVD r/w and built-in wireless cards.

Of course no tool (that's all a computer is) will replace paying attention, a good tool can enhance paying attention.

I gave up carrying a pencil and a yellow pad. I have a tablet convertible laptop. With it, I can handwrite my notes on my laptop (right on the power point slides if the Proff uses them). My handwritten text is search-able and I can record the lecture (with permission of course) and can synchronize the audio file to my handwritten notes....so if I'm looking at my notes and trying to figure out what I wrote, I can listen to THAT part of the recording. I can have the electronic version of the book open while I'm taking notes and can copy and past sections into my notes later that evening. I can carry my notes for any prereq class I think might be handy (with the rest archived on my external hard drive at home).

Oh and if you just keep the sound muted (unless you specifically need it for something)....no windows start up sound...no matter how late you are for class ;)

All of this (including a 7 hour battery) is under 4lbs. It is, by far, the best tool I've ever bought for school.

Peace,

CuriousMe

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I'm glad it works for you.

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Got any links to either of what you are talking about?

$400?

4gb ram?

7 hrs?

queries on handwriting?

Wow! Do little hands pop out and give you a massage between classes too? ha-ha

Thanks

Of course no tool (that's all a computer is) will replace paying attention, a good tool can enhance paying attention.

I gave up carrying a pencil and a yellow pad. I have a tablet convertible laptop. With it, I can handwrite my notes on my laptop (right on the power point slides if the Proff uses them). My handwritten text is search-able and I can record the lecture (with permission of course) and can synchronize the audio file to my handwritten notes....so if I'm looking at my notes and trying to figure out what I wrote, I can listen to THAT part of the recording. I can have the electronic version of the book open while I'm taking notes and can copy and past sections into my notes later that evening. I can carry my notes for any prereq class I think might be handy (with the rest archived on my external hard drive at home).

Oh and if you just keep the sound muted (unless you specifically need it for something)....no windows start up sound...no matter how late you are for class ;)

All of this (including a 7 hour battery) is under 4lbs. It is, by far, the best tool I've ever bought for school.

Peace,

CuriousMe

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You don't need a laptop, but a flash drive will make your life a GAZILLION times easier. You can pick one up in Walmart for around $14.00 with plenty of storage space. You can load your files, papers, etc on to it and access the information at the school computer lab, home, etc, without carrying around a bunch of cds that might get scratched. Better yet, its so small you can fit it on your key chain! Next to a good, comfortable pair of shoes, it was the best school purchase I made!!:yeah:

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