What Kind Of Computer To Bring To College? 1154
Elfan writes "We've discussed laptops in education before and the importance of condoms and lockpicks. However, since its not to early to think about the Fall semester for incoming freshman, I was wondering what electronic devices people found most useful for college now. How do you keep yourself organized, a PDA of some sort or an old-fashioned calendar? What to take notes with, pencil and paper? Laptop? Palm pilot? Tape recorder? Or just too cool to take notes like in high school? One laptop for everything, with a docking station back in the dorm perhaps, or just a desktop? Both? All of this is made more complicated, of course, by the lack of funds most college students enjoy."
For GVSU ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:For GVSU ... (Score:5, Informative)
follow this advice, or regret it in perpetuity (Score:5, Insightful)
Get a laptop. An old laptop. Install the weirdest OS you can find that has a networking stack. Make sure you have a couple of battaries that hold a charge so you can take it to the library, coffee shop or lobby while your roommate is busy contracting and spreading chlamydia, or whatever STD is popular on your campus.
Here's the reasoning: you want to make sure that you cannot play games on your computer. You know as well as I do that if you can play games, you will. Intead of doing your homework. I know whole Counter Strike clans that failed out of expensive private universty educations. You must avoid this fate at all costs.
Sound lame? Yeah, it is. But think of it this way. You (or your parents, or the government) is/are paying tens of thousands dollars a year to send you to a place where you can aquire an education. It's very likely that this is the only shot you're going to get, and that if you screw up bad enough, you've got a rewarding carrear in burger flipping.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have fun; on the contrary, you should have as much fun as you can. But, keep in mind that you are packed into a tiny, grubby place with thousands of other people your age, some of whom are worth getting to know. Keep in mind that there are proffesors and staff who've dedicated their lives to educating punks like you. Keep in mind that there is probably an interesting city or town to explore. Keep in mind that there is probably a gym that's flat-out better than any fitness company you could find that you can just use, for free. And you're probably miserably out of shape. Keep in mind that there is probably a world-class library crammed with books you should have already read by now. Exploit all of these things to the maximum extent permitted by hours in the day and callories in your diet, and maybe you'll get your money's worth.
As much as I like video games, they are mutually exclusive with these goals.
So, get an old laptop. Resist the urge to splurge on anything more ostentatious than a Pentium II 500. Your friends will laugh at it. Tell them you're poor, and that they should fuck off. Instead of playing games, amuse yourself with your creaky old hardware by hacking cool software. Or whatever you like, so long as you're creating something. You don't need fancy-pants graphics to run vim, screen, ssh, gcc, mutt, LaTeX and xterm. You might need a little more oomph for javac, or mzscheme, perl, or the like if your classes need 'em. Gaim, naim, or ICQ if it improves your social life. xmms, but don't go nuts on the P2P networks. It's a waste of your time. If your roommate wants to waste their time, mooch of of him or her.
Trust me. If you think you need anything else, you need to re-evaluate your goals.
Re:follow this advice, or regret it in perpetuity (Score:5, Insightful)
It was easy to get back into games once I graduated, and even a shitty computer can play some games, but it's less likely that you'll get so addicted that you'll drop out.
By the way, if you go to a pricey private school, do a break down on how much each class costs per period. Chances are it's more than $1 a MINUTE for in class time. So, ditching a class probably blows like $50. Consider that when you're trying to decide whether or not to watch Oprah or go to Biology -- it makes fucking off seem a lot less appealing! -Chris
Video games are therapeutic (Score:3, Interesting)
When I have that evil performance review or testing document to write, and I've got writer's block, and I'm about to kick my screen in because Word wants to "think" for me for the 302nd time, a good session with Sonic is just the thing. Platformers aren't cutting it that day? No problem. Break out SOE, or play some GTA3 and run over people.
Most any decent emulator (MAME, dgen, gens,
Somehow, it worked, sort of. (Score:4, Funny)
When I got into college was when the 486 DX2-66 was the hottest thing out there (okay, so that wasnt *that* long ago, but that still makes me older than some of you, right?). I went in with my old 286, some single-digit-clockspeed clunker without a case cover (it managed to get torn off at some point). I figured I'd use it just for typing things up and email. None of the current games would run on it.
Strangely enough, I did have a copy of Wolfenstein 3d installed it, which I almost never played since it made me rather nauseous. However, a kid on the same floor happened to stop by one of the few times I had it loaded up.
From that moment on, he would come a-knocking at all times of day, all times of night, sometimes even at four in the morning, asking if he could play Wolfenstein.
"Can I play wolfingthing?!?"
"Hey, you using your computer? I wanna do that pow pow yeah hahahaha thing you know, the guys some German thing! hahaha!"
"Ah, you're not sleeping, are you? Hey, I'm gonna hop on your computer and play that Worfespang thing, don't worry, I'll turn the sound low and won't wake you up."
...and he would sit and laugh maniacally and smash on my keyboard for hours at a time. Sure, we tried to tell him we were busy, but he always found a way. Always.
...and that's how I got into computers. I spent so much time writing little executables to replace Wolf3d.exe that would make it seem as if my computer was having the most incredible, fantastic, epileptic conniptions that... hey, actually, it didn't teach me anything useful other than how to make a 286 bleep and freak out.
Re:follow this advice, or regret it in perpetuity (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:follow this advice, or regret it in perpetuity (Score:3, Funny)
I think you misspelled "emacs" there.
Seriously, pretty good advice, but the tinker factor even with an old laptop is pretty high. If I want to waste time with a computer, I'm going to waste time, no matter how old the thing is.
-schussat
Re:follow this advice, or regret it in perpetuity (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why an iBook is a perfect college laptop. It runs a very pretty, very advanced OS that has all the unix stuff you'll need for class coupled with a great development environment all ready to go. And Mac OS X doesn't run that many new, hot games. Not to mention the fact that you look way cooler sitting in a coffee shop playing on an iBook or PowerBook than you do with some boring old Thinkpad.
I spent my first year of college trying to be the perfect geek and I was miserable. One of the problems with CS is the misconception that people have that if you want to work in the tech industry, you need a CS degree. The reality is that if you want to program, you need a CS degree, anything else, well, any degree will do and job experience is more important anyway. I hate programming, but I'll probably work with computers once I get out of college and I'm a philosophy major now.
CS is a whole lot of work for a boring desk job when you get out (that doesn't even pay very well anymore) and it'll eat up your social time in a big way. And yes, social time IS important, a good network of friends and social outlets is as important to living a happy life as doing well in school, if not moreso. Just remember you can still get a good job in the computer industry even if you're not a CS major. Being happy is the most important thing, and if you'd be happier as an auto mechanic than a programmer, be an auto mechanic.
Re:For GVSU ... (Score:5, Funny)
No, you need THIS kind of Palm (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish I'd carried one of these [thedaily.com] in my CS courses.
Palms are rather useless when compared to a laptop (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:For GVSU ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Great! When I want to copy your notes, I won't need to look over your shoulder any more. I'll just eavesdrop on your wireless connection, and slurp up your Documents folder.
And if it's a really competitive class, I might just wipe your harddrive when I'm done.
So, if you're going to use wireless, don't forget to use some decent Wi-Fi security [nwfusion.com].
Might sir suggest (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll do well to find anything that can organise you better.
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Funny)
I know this is stereotypically funny but when I was in college, most of the girls in my CS and math courses were not only cute, they were down right hot! I always considered myself lucky there. (not that I could have gotten lucky though... *sigh*)
Notes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Informative)
A laptop would be nice for programming classes, but only because you wouldn't have to fuss with floppies and platform variations. Laptops are worde than useless for notes though. Partly for the reasons you list (diagrams and equations) and partly because you remember more if you physically write the stuff down. Don't rob yourself of that valuable few percent you get from tactile-kinesthetic involvement! Every little bit counts.
I learned to get 1 thin 3-ring binder for each class. I like the ones with the cardboard binding, not the floppy cheap plastic ones, and make sure you get a different color for each class so you don't confuse them in your rush out the door. Don't reuse them, unless you're absolutely sure you will never need the info from that class ever again (hint, I wrote a research paper my senior year in high school that I reused, with some revision, in every English class I took in college). Also, get yourself a good 3-hole punch so you can get all the handouts, tests, quizes, etc. in there too. You can also get 3-ring pouches for floppies and CDs, which are handy.
At the end of the semester I just make sure everything for that class is in there, take out any unused paper, label the spine with a Sharpie, and stick it on the shelf. Having class notes organized and easy to find like that has helped me a great deal when it's come time to finally apply the stuff in the real world.
A PDA would be a waste, I think, unless you already are in the habit of using a dayplanner or something like that. It's much better to devote that carrying space to a good graphing calculator.
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:4, Insightful)
Pay attention while Prof lectures, instead of blindly copying down everything verbatim. If he seems to be spending an inordinate amount of time on a particular part of the text, whip out your handy highlighter and mark the appropriate part of the text.
If he covers something that's not in the book... well, every college text I ever saw has acres of white space. Fat margins, lots of space at the top and bottom of each page, tons of useless illustrations.... just find a spot that seems appropriate and make your notes right in the textbook.
Advantages: More time spent in class listening and learning, instead of blindly taking notes. When it's time to study for exams, all your study materials are in one place, hopefully well organized.
Disadvantages: You've got to read the text beforehand so that you know whats in the book and what isn't. For this reason, probably 98% of students won't be able to use this method.
Transcribing. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, provided you've got enough harddrive space you could record the lecture into mp3 (at a low bitrate) and make an archive of the whole thing.
Actually, what would be a really cool application that would sorta automate the whole process. It would record the audio in the background while giving you a place to write timestamped notes (you'd hit a button when the teacher said something of interest) and write a quick note. You could also hit another button and it would take a time stamped snapshot and also put a marker in the notes as well...
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Interesting)
About recording a class on tape: make sure you always get permission. I always allow this, but I like to be told. I've seen a professor pull a tape out of a student's cassette before, because the student was recording without obtaining consent. Needless to say, that's not a good way to make a first impression in college.
Apart from all this, the best notes I've ever seen were written into a notebook by people who first listened to the material, and only wrote things once down once they understood them (and asked questions when they didn't).
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:3, Informative)
Moreover, the professors I've used a laptop with have all not cared because of my standing in class. Frankly, if I had a professor who was anything other than polite about it, I cant imagine I'd want his class. If your
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:3, Insightful)
About recording a class on tape: make sure you always get permission. I always allow this, but I like to be told. I've seen a professor pull a tape out of a student's cassette before, because the student was recording without obtaining consent.
What kind of nazi university do you teach at? I have *never* taken paper notes in three years and hav
"we're a fully computer literate campus!" (Score:4, Funny)
You don't see campuses requiring all freshmen to buy lightbulbs, but you don't see too many sitting around in the dark like dopes.
"Our campus is fully outfitted with MODERN indoor plumbing!"
"We're electrically literate!"
Yeeesh..... Something about learning to choose the right tool for the job and the ubiquity of computers in the US.
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe we're witnessing a generational gap (But I'm only 30), but PDA's are wayyyy less efficient then my quill, papyrus and brain. I can scribble notes, diagrams, arrows on a notepad at close to the speed of thought, and am probably 10-20X faster then with a PDA or computer, especially when switching from writing to diagrams to arrows back and forth)
Granted, my notes are generally pretty lightweight and used for reminders after the class. I find that if I take too many notes during class, then I don't pay attention to what the instructor is saying, and miss many subtle points. This is particularly true during heavy lectures.
My PDA is fine as an addressbook and calendar (especially for repeating items). But it is way too slow to use for taking notes?
It often takes me about 5 seconds to search 5 pages of notes for a keyword.
On a Palm, I am so distracted with typos and unavailable characters with the graphiti system, that I don't pay attention to the lecture. It takes me 10 seconds to find out how to make a character like '@' or an epsilon. With a pen and paper, I can just write it out.
Laptops are ok for taking notes (I can type pretty fast), but are horrible when switching between with diagrams and text. I've tried a couple of the tablet computers, but they are so laggy compared to paper & pen, and really expensive!
Plus, I can buy paper for $3/ream and a decent pen for $3. A PDA starts about $70. Those fancy
Re:Might sir suggest (Score:3, Interesting)
The second most imp
Re:Someone has to say this.... where NERD is from (Score:4, Insightful)
Argh... (Score:5, Funny)
iBook (Score:5, Informative)
I chose the iBook because I liked it's look and its price isn't nearly as high as a Powerbook or high-end Dell laptop. It also has 6 hours of battery life.
If I were you, I'd buy a laptop.
Re:iBook (Score:5, Interesting)
But really an iBook with an Airport card is a recipe for success. The aforementioned battery life is excellent. And personal experience has proven to me that a mac is less likely than a PC to implode while you type a paper.
No - I am not Ellen Feiss.
PDAs are pretty tough to take notes on in my experience - plus you'd look like a collosal tool. Pen and paper do just fine for note taking. There's something to be said for actually writing the words and the effect this has on retention.
Cheaper 12" Powerbook (Score:5, Informative)
Ciryon
Re:Wireless notebooks in class (Score:3, Insightful)
But why plan to waste time? (Score:4, Insightful)
I had a laptop in school (Powerbook 145, I'm really dating myself with that reference). I NEVER typed in class - too much trouble! Do kids just type faster now?
Rackmount servers. (Score:5, Funny)
tiBook (Score:5, Funny)
You have unix and windows apps in one little box. AND you can pick up chicks
You need (Score:5, Funny)
Laptops? (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Just bring a friggin' PC. (Score:5, Informative)
Software, on the otherhand, is different. Whether its Waterloo Maple (my recommendation), MATLAB, or Python with NumPy, get a good mathematical analysis tool onto your computer and learn it. They will not teach you, but the assigments may very well be impossible without it.
And flip-flops. Bring flip-flops, or your feet will regret it.
Fake-ID is a must. Doesn't matter if its good or not in most towns, as long as the bouncers see something its usually good enough for plausible deniability on their part.
Re:Just bring a friggin' PC. (Score:5, Informative)
HS Seniors, Pxtl is a wise person. Flip flops made the difference between sharing in the epidemic of foot-mold in the 32+guests shared bathroom and healthy feet in my case. If you live in dorms, count on walking through puke and broken glass in the showers some mornings. Flip flops protect the feet while allowing washing without removal, and are cheap in case you wreck them.
They didn't have laptops when I went to college (seriously!) so I cannot say how useful they are as gadgets for new students. I will tell you though that hand-writing notes, then typing them in, then printing them, then markup and study for exams got me more than a few A's with little effort. The more times that information goes through your brain the better.
So I say get a computer that suits your needs for the room or apartment, laptop or no and stick with paper for notes. Forget about carrying it around, you may not end up doing that and they are easier to steal that way.
If you do not do games, then an old PC with your choice of OS will do just fine for browsing, papers, and a hookup to a PDA.
Re:Just bring a friggin' PC. (Score:5, Informative)
As for numerical analysis software, DON'T buy it beforehand. There is a strong possibility your school will have a site license for one or more, which may work. If not (and you'd prefer to keep it legal
For math classes, I was partial to Mathematica, myself. Did most of what I needed. Later on, Matlab was the shit (and required for several classes).
I also have an old Handspring platinum that's served me quite well. I could get by without it, but it's damn nice for keeping track of homework and grades and such. All my classes are projects now so it's easy to keep track of without, but the first couple years where it's nothing but math hw, it was nice to have.
Yes, definitely flip-flops. I go to UC Santa Barbara, and people where them year 'round here. Part of the uniform.
About the fake IDs, yes, but (at least in CA) they won't typically work in bars or clubs. For liquor stores, however, absolutely. And I won't comment more on that subject than to say you would be very surprised at how easy it is to make a reasonable "novelty" california ID (even with the psuedo holograms). I swear, if we'd put the creativity we used for those things into our classes, we'd all be graduating with 4.0s...
flipflops (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and what does this have to do with feet?
Re:Just bring a friggin' PC. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Just bring a friggin' PC. (Score:5, Funny)
Real men don't post anonymously.
Kids these days... (Score:4, Funny)
A big A$$ tank of a computer (Score:5, Interesting)
You should not need a palm pilot or the like because your schedule will be the same for 3-4 months straight. If you cant remember to get to class, then you should drop out
Re:A big A$$ tank of a computer (Score:3, Funny)
The bigger the better. If your funding runs out due to excessive power and A/C bills, you can always live in it.
Re:A big A$$ tank of a computer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A big A$$ tank of a computer (Score:3, Informative)
Habits Before Technology (Score:5, Insightful)
If college freshmen want to really get their shit together, take notes on paper, and write down due dates on a calendar displayed in a prominent place in your dorm. Once that has become a habit, technology might make it easier, but until then, you have an expensive paperweight.
Unless required to (Score:5, Interesting)
I strongly reccomend a desktop.
While laptop thefts aren't a horribly common thing, college freshmen brainfarts (tm) are. I say this while enjoying my first year standing. However, having spent a great deal of time with small office/home office/home-use computer consultants, I can say that laptop theft is *much* higher first year, than other years combined. (Non-scientific data gathering, to be sure).
Use common sense: If you make it portable, it is more likely to get stolen. It will also be more convienent, and probably better used. In my experience though, a desktop will be just as useful. If you need a computer on the other side of campus, you can probably find one to use.
Disclaimer, I go to RIT, all comments should be taken as though they are from someone who goes to school at an Institute of Technology
Don't buy a computer before you start. (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
K.I.S.S. (Score:5, Interesting)
2. No palm - use your head.
I (physics undergrad) use a biro and a pad of budget paper for notetaking.
My computer is a big, completely unportable hunk of steel. It suits me fine. Laptops are useful for group work on campus though - it allows you to create an ad-hoc office anywhere. If funds permitted, I would like a laptop too, but my geekness demands that my computer be built with my own two hands.
Here is the important part - I have two friends, one with a Clie, and one with an iPaq. They don't use them. They were carried around for around a month, and then ditched. They use them in their rooms for reading documents in bed. I save money, using xpdf instead :-)
From the perspective of a Mac user... (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple iBook (Score:5, Interesting)
My reasons for choosing the iBook over a PC laptop were various. There's the gorgeousness factor which is just hard to resist. More seriously though, Mac OS X is just a dream to run, and once you've got used to your iBook waking from sleep in about 2 seconds, you can't help but feel for those poor PC laptop owners. The 4 hour battery life is also very useful for studying out in the gardens.
Desktop PCs are a real PITA at university since you will inevitably end up taking handwritten notes, and if you're writing is anything like mine, they'll be redundant by the end of the year. They're also a great pain to carry up and down stairs (inevitable).
As for PDAs, I've certainly not felt the need for one since most of my contacts come in through e-mail and I'm near my laptop to check my calendar most of the time. That might just be the nature of our university network though...
Get yourself an iBook!
Wait a bit (Score:4, Informative)
Any yes, lots of powerstrips.
Dorm Desks (Score:4, Informative)
Laptops are nice solely because it is easier to move them around (which becomes a big deal when you're switching dorms every year).
Less is more in college.
Make it easy on yourself (Score:3, Interesting)
My college (HMC) has deployed a great 802.11b wireless network in the dorms, academics (classrooms, labs, offices), and in most of the common areas. If a freshman asked me what kind of computer to bring to HMC, I'd say a laptop. You can escape your room without leaving your email.
As far as Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux, I guess if you have to ask yourself how comfortable you are with computers and what you will be expected to do with your computer. If you are going to be writing a lot of papers and turning in documents electronically, Windows will be critical to run Microsoft Word. Frankly, AbiWord and WINE may be alright alternatives but when the deadlines come a barkin' things need to just work.
However, if your college has a large Mac infrastructure (Reed, Dartmouth, etc) then a Mac laptop will probably be more appropriate. Here at Mudd they're making a switch over to Windows ActiveDirectory for application distribution, logging into the network, and file servers. Things will still work with the Mac but the IT dept. has other things on its mind right now.
If I had it to do all over again I would not buy an old PC desktop from an eBay auction and instead spend a few hundred more on an Apple iBook. The size, reliability, and features of a Mac laptop are very attractive and price competitive.
Laptops in the classroom (Score:5, Interesting)
a couple of tips (Score:5, Informative)
-- make your computing environment ubiquitous. Consider something web-based (or that syncs) if you happen not to have your laptop.
-- make your computing environment conform to the way you arrange things in your head. I've watched people turn "productivity software" into something they copy just all their notes, addresses, and appointments into for no real benefit. It just becomes redundant.
-- consider that some things might not be easier/faster/better with your computer.
Kensington Lock (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, whatever you get, make sure it has a burner so that you have a backup of your data up for when you dump a guiness on the keyboard.
Chrisd (yes, I'm hard on laptops)
Re:Kensington Lock (Score:5, Funny)
This is for going to college -- don't you mean ". . . when you dump Milwaukee's Best on the keyboard."
Old fashioned but effective (Score:3, Insightful)
However, try any note-taking methods that you can manage, until you find one that pushes data into your brain as effectively as possible. We're all built too differently to give anything more than rough guidelines.
PowerBook 100 (Score:3, Informative)
6 hours on a single battery charge (longer if you sat with the sunlight hitting the screen directly... no backlight necessary) with the HD turned off running Word 5.1 with 8 megs of ram and a 80 meg HD on System 7.1 and a Stylewriter II in the dorm room.
honestly, to write papers in college back in the day, there was nothing better... hell, there was nothing close. 15 pound Compaq not-so-compact 386 laptops? Puh-lease.
if you're not surfing the net, then if you want a note taking machine with a nice and quiet keyboard that can go all day long without being plugged in, you want a PowerBook 100.
then, go back to your dorm to a real computer of your choice and copy notes over from floppy or serial or docked SCSI connection.
You need to work on your student survival skills (Score:4, Funny)
Desktop w/ flat panel, laptop (Score:5, Informative)
Now, for that desktop, I highly recommend a flat panel monitor, because dorm rooms can be pretty tiny. I have a single dorm room, and with my CRT monitor, keyboard, and mouse on my desk, I literally cannot fit a sheet of paper on my desk surface. This summer, I'm gonna get a flat panel to remedy the problem, since they've come down in cost.
Now, recommendations about having a desktop aside, lately I've really been hankering for a portable machine, especially since my school (Vanderbilt) now has 802.11b access all over campus, so I think I'm gonna purchase a laptop. As far as the laptop is concerned, I don't need the latest Centrino or anything like that, I'm interested in a cheap system that will be portable and that I can use an office suite, a development environment, and to browse the internet, all during class and maybe extracurricular meetings. No gaming or heavy graphical work necessary.
So, to sum up, if you've got the funds, desktop is essential, flat panel is more or less essential, laptop is very, very nice to have (many schools even require having them now, and CS professors sometimes assume their students will have one) but isn't essential. PDAs aren't that great cause laptops are much more robust and powerful, and you're carrying around a bookbag usually anyway, so it's not necessary to have something fit in your pocket. I could see maybe owning a PDA strictly for scheduling, but thats about it.
Oh, and a cell phone. Every college student needs a cell phone, and you'll be left out if you do't get one.
I took notes with roommates and a photocopier. (Score:4, Funny)
If your roommates are not accomodating people, make sure that you're also smarter than they are so they have to give you their notes so you can explain them to them. (Fortunately, propensity for anal note taking seems to be inversely related to propensity for understanding material.)
Grey Matter and Scissors (Score:5, Funny)
EMA
Learn a lesson from PA (Score:3, Funny)
Save your money, work on the cheap, you can get the same or more accomplished and have a lot more cash to blow on the weekends.
Just made this choice... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just a plain ol' boring PC. (Score:5, Informative)
For $1000, you can get a reasonably high-end machine, suitable for research (if surfing porn counts as research), analyzing data (yeah, right, like you couldn't "process" that 15-point physics lab experiment by hand faster than you can enter it into the appropriate program), and of course, gaming.
I did have a laptop in college. You'll never use it. Really. Professors tend to talk in a highly non-linear manner, go back and correct themselves, make heavy use of diagrams, generally lecture in a manner not friendly to taking notes on a laptop. And we won't mention the high risk of having it stolen (no joke, those things vanish faster than a Catholic priest at a NAMBLA convention when the press shows up).
As for a PDA, if you can enter text quite a bit faster than most people talk, and use one of those spiffy progs that let you enter text or graphics with no effort to switch, you might find it useful. Personally, I can type faster than people talk, but even with practice, cannot enter text into a Palm even close to a normal human speaking rate. On top of that, I find using a PDA cramps the hands MUCH faster than just using a pen and paper.
So overall, bring a PC, because you will get bored very often, and may even need to do the occasional research or computationally-intensive homework. But in the actual classroom, computers still have no place.
Whiteboard (Score:3, Insightful)
Tablet (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd think that the option to use a keyboard for text, but also be able to draw diagrams and equations on the screen would be a great combination.
This is just a guess, since I've yet to try one yet
jonathan
Some thoughts on laptops (Score:5, Insightful)
My thoughts are that any laptop will be lucky to survive 4 years of college. Most of our laptops limped through the end of the 2-year program - and it didn't matter whether they were cheap or expensive. Battery life will be zip after a year, and you will likely run into optical drive and screen problems. Of the bunch, I would say that the Dell Inspiron line was complete, utter, garbage. They were flimsy, fell apart easily and everyone's battery totally died within a few weeks of each other. I had an HP, which was comfortable but required repeated major surgery. Toshibas and IBMs (especially) seemed to fare the best. We weren't allowed to use Macs, but my little sister uses an iBook that developed screen problems after a few months.
If you are going to go with a laptop, get the cheapest one with a decent screen and spring for the extended warranty. It won't survive, so don't blow tons of cash on it.
I'm really torn on the desktop-vs-laptop issue. I really liked being able to surf anywhere in the building and take notes/run simulations etc... in class (but keep in mind that you need to plug in power which most lecture halls lack). A desktop is a lot cheaper, much more powerful, much less likely to break (chance of laptop failure comes close to 100%) and much less likely to get stolen. If you are a gamer, it's just not economical to go with a laptop.
So in the end it boils down to whether you need the portability - if not, go with a sturdy, stable desktop for the four years.
Re:Some thoughts on laptops (Score:5, Insightful)
I used my laptop every day, 16 or even 24 hours per day, for 4 years. The vast majority of classrooms had network ports and power outlets at every seat. Many professors required in-class laptop use.
I didn't find it useful for taking notes. If tablet PC's were around at the time, it would have been great: I can type as fast as the professor can talk, but I can't draw a picture or complex formula as fast. There was one kid who did everything in Maple, and would jump into Paintbrush, draw a diagram, and insert it into the document in realtime...but he was insane like that. But a tablet PC...if you can switch instantly from typing to drawing...would be excellent. One approach I found useful was to type notes on the computer, and use a notebook to draw formulas and diagrams. Then you can use the day's date and a reference number to link your text to your drawings easily.
Get a laptop. And...do NOT cheap out on this...the best four-year warranty you can buy. My laptop (an Acer Extensa 710T) used up a hard drive, a motherboard, a screen, a power supply, a power regulator, and multiple plastic parts including the entire top of the case and LCD bezels. Strangely, the battery did not die, and I can still get about 1.5 hours out of it. That's because I didn't succumb to the stupid "memory effect" myth that doesn't apply to Li-ion batteries. I simply read the user's manual where it said the battery was good for a couple hundred full-discharge cycles, and about a thousand partial-discharge cycles. So I only used the battery when no power was present.
People will say that a laptop can get stolen from you very easily. Never happened to me. Unlike a desktop, you can take a laptop with you! So the desktop is far more likely to be left unattended than the laptop...and yes, people do break into quiet dorms or apartments and steal computers. A cable lock is a good investment, if you want to leave the laptop in your room with the door open while you chat down the hall. I've known people to lose their computers that way. First few weeks every year are the most dangerous, because no one knows who everyone is on their floor.
I did have a desktop during the last year of school. The laptop was showing its years and was beginning to drag in the areas of MATLAB simulations and code compiling. So I used a mixture of VNC (laptop:Linux, server:windows), X (laptop and server Linux), and Remote Desktop (laptop:Win98, server:WinXP) to use my laptop as a terminal to my main computer depending on what OS was running.
You could get a better laptop, but figuring in resale value after two years, you'd spend another thousand+ to get a laptop that will still be two years old when you get out of school. Better to spend $500 for a new desktop, and have two computers to use.
PDA's are not useful until you get a job, where you have rapidly changing schedules and meetings to attend.
My Experience (Score:5, Interesting)
All things considered, a computer is necessary. One could use one of the provided computer labs, however, the convenience and freedom of having your own computer (particularly with a scientific course of study) is extremely advantageous.
I choose an iBook because laptops are frickin' convenient (writing your papers in the library, and being able to take your laptop to study sessions is very handy), and because I've had good experiences with Mac hardware. I've studied in three different countries, all of which have Apple support, and all of which honor Apple warranties. iBooks are also reasonably durable, and they're great to self-decorate.
The minidisc recorder was also a good choice -- tape is nice, but with a single minidisk you can store a week's worth of lectures and tutorials for one class (w/ MDLP), and set break points for important information. Small. Convenient. Efficient. Not too terribly expensive.
I've never had success with note taking on a laptop, so I had good ol' paper and pencil. I can type faster than I can write, for sure, but when the professor starts drawing diagrams
All things considered, I spent under $2000 on my setup, and it worked great
Personally, I'm looking forward to the development of the tablet-based platform. It's everything in one -- computer, audio recorder, and note pad. I'd like to see them a bit less expensive, and a bit more rugged before I'd recommend 'em to anyone.
Atari 2600 (Score:3, Funny)
Hard to take good notes on anything but paper (Score:3, Interesting)
The truth about learning (dont (Score:3, Interesting)
Typing is much to linear for actuall notes, unless you have a mindmapper running and are top-notch at operating it.
...type notes) (Score:3, Interesting)
Allthough that actually emphasises what I'm just saying: Keyboards and screen suck at emulating paper. They're a whole different thing with different advantages and disadvantages alltogether.
The computer is unmatchable at written dialog (email, slashdot, you name it (imagine
BUT: The computer *sux* at notes!
Notes you *allways* do on paper.
For the lectures and courses get y
Save your money. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was a computer science major, and after freshman year I left my desktop at home for my parents and just used lab machines. The school bought new machines for at least one lab each year, so it was just a matter of heading to that particular lab if you really needed the computing power.
Using lab machines has the added benefit of getting you out of your dorm room/apartment. I knew very few people that could work effectively for any period of time with their roomates trying to tempt them into a game of beer die/pong/whatever.
Re:Save your money. (Score:3, Insightful)
I found the labs to be much to noisy/busy to work in. Having a room computer, IMHO, was much better.
Re:Save your money. (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple! (Score:3, Informative)
iBook, iPod, iPen, iPad (Score:3, Insightful)
20GB iPod. Don't laugh. I listen to tunes walking to/from campus. It's also a very small external firewire drive. If I'm using a lab/classroom with available macs, I can shuttle data back & forth on the iPod. It's much lighter than a laptop, and gets power over firewire, so I don't need to carry a power cable & transformer. I wowed a class as a guest lecturer when I just pulled my iPod out of my pocket, plugged it into the professer's PowerBook, and launched my presentation. It also replaced my Palm Vx, holding contacts and calendar.
Cellular Phone. Cheaper than a landline and statewide or nationwide free long distance packages are a dime-a-dozen.
Pens & Paper. Still a neccessity. Number 2 pencils for filling in those little circles.
PDA - NOT. I have a Palm Vx that sits unused. It had degraded to just holding my contacts. After moving them to my iPod, I found I just stopped carrying the Palm around.
Remember most Universities sell hardware to students at a moderate discount (5-10%), and software at a steep discount (70-90%), so check it out before buying on the open market. Apple also has educational discounts that aren't that great - the Apple discount is usually less than the sales tax you can save by ordering from the right online retailer. Look for bundles that add memory for free. If they offer you a crappy printer bundle, decline and ask for even more memory.
professors and laptops in the classroom (Score:4, Informative)
The problem, in my experience, is that many faculty *don't* have these skills. And they are scared of them--because it changes the classroom dyanmics. When 20 students have laptops and huge databases on them, then I no longer "own" the information in the room--I have to show students some other kinds of value: like an ability to think, to reason, and to help them ask questions about what their values and where their assumptions lead them in their inquiries. I just see this as making the classroom what I always thought it was supposed to be about anyway: less about "facts" and more about reasoning skills, critical thinking and sorting out the deeper questions.
Bring on the laptops!
Now if we could just find a way to fund them and address the issues of equality and justice (not everyone has the money for a laptop).
old skool (Score:3, Informative)
Leave it all at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Hints from a 10th Year Student (Score:3, Insightful)
Hint #2: Resist the (strong) temptation to install computer games. During my freshman year at Vanderbilt [vanderbilt.edu], something like 1/5th of the guys on my dorm did not return for their sophomore year due to bad grades. Nearly every one of these guys (and I was one of them) spent hours a day screwing off on pointless games like SimFarm and Quake and this was back before dorm rooms were networked.
Hint #3: If it's crap, don't bring it to college with you. You'll find that certain dorm rooms tend to be centers of social life. If you want your friends to hang out in yours, make it sophisticated and tasteful. If you can fit it in your room, buy a couch and some cool lighting. My RA built a really cool elevated bunkbed thing above his couch and it held a 40 gallon freshwater aquarium at one end. It was sweet. Invest in a good stereo and TV if you can afford it.
Hint #4: Drink with your friends but not to extreme excess. Stay away from drugs. You'll probably regret your choice someday if you choose to use them.
have fun and work hard.
Re:Laptop (Score:3, Informative)