How much do 63,000 of those kensington "lock your laptop up to your desk so no one walks out of the school with one" cost?

At one time, Apple had a laptop cart arrangement. It was lockable, had room for a number of 'Books (12 or 16 IIRC), and included an Airport base station if you wanted. Basically, you rolled the cart into the classroom, unlocked it, and passed out the computers as needed. If you opted for the Airport version, you also had an easily configured and reasonably secure network. Sounded pretty cool.

Of course, given my increasingly faulty memory and recent record around here, someone will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong.

I have Kensington locks on all machines in my Mac labs. Last week a guy came in to install Luxaflex sun shades on a few windows. He had a $50 cable cutter with him which he claimed could cut any steel wire as if it wasn't there. I had him test it on a Kensington lock and indeed, he cut the wire without any effort at all.

Cutting a cable with bolt cutters doesn't surprise me. These types of locks are more of a deterrent for the opportunistic thief. But for a determined thief any lock is "unlockable".

That Michigan laptop contract was no more than $275 per student per year... I would think that with recent iBook price drops, Apple could compete at that level with no problems.

The way to go

Heh, and I had those nutbars who run Cobb pegged as Doze-lemmings. Just goes to show you can't ever make sweeping generalizations about anyone.

(I live about an hour or two from there.)

Actually, Apple still offers its laptop cart arrangement. You can find it under the education link in the store page here:

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

Just pick your school and navigate to the 'Solutions for education' section and check out the wireless labs =)

a ten laptop cart costs $10,999
a twenty laptop cart costs $19,999

cool =)

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
Actually, Apple still offers its laptop cart arrangement. You can find it under the education link in the store page here:

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

Just pick your school and navigate to the 'Solutions for education' section and check out the wireless labs =)

a ten laptop cart costs $10,999
a twenty laptop cart costs $19,999

cool =)

Quote

spxyu02 wrote:

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
Actually, Apple still offers its laptop cart arrangement. You can find it under the education link in the store page here:

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

Just pick your school and navigate to the 'Solutions for education' section and check out the wireless labs =)

a ten laptop cart costs $10,999
a twenty laptop cart costs $19,999

cool =)

yea, our high school had something like this with laptop pcs. However, with this arrangement, I feel like it's still really easy to have them stolen ... In a large AP Calculus class like where we used ours, you could have one disappear per day if they don't make them lock them to a desk as soon as you take them out and then have the teacher come around and individually unlock them at the end or whatever.

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Small White Car wrote:
Simple. Just have a sign-out/sign-in log that always stays with the teacher.

Cobb County reportedly will receive a customized version of Mac OS X which, instead of the usual Software Update utility, will include a Technological Change Over Time utility.

(FYI: The State Superintendent of Schools for Georgia decided to strike the word "evolution" from public school curriculum, replacing it with the euphemism "biological change over time". The Cobb County school district voted to include "warning" labels on biology text books dismissing evolution as a controversial theory. Faced with ridicule and law suits, both decisions have been reversed. Still, Scopes rolled over in his grave.)

Guess how much of a kick-back Joe Redden got from Apple?

How much did Cobb County's Joe Redden get in kick backs from Apple?

Mybe if you lived in Cobb County and paid taxes plus had this program shoved down your throat by Redden without any teacher or community input you would be singing a different tune.

Dear All,

A story ran here in London,uk about how certain popular bike locks and laptop locks can be opened in seconds or even minutes using a BIC pen !

If you old locks or unaware please read one of the many websites devoted to this hot topic.

do a google for laptop locks bic pen

I hope this helps

Robert
London

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Anonymous wrote:
Mybe if you lived in Cobb County and paid taxes plus had this program shoved down your throat by Redden without any teacher or community input you would be singing a different tune.

Quote

Article wrote:

School board members will be asked to approve the plan on March 9, when its first phase -- providing laptops to all the district's school teachers this spring -- comes up for a vote.

Secret vote... that's right

Everythings close door, Don't put us down just because we are from Georgia. This is a real mess down here, all the technical support for the schools has been contracted to a private company with no in school support.

^^
Oh right...the "sub-contract" the school thing. I never thought that was a good plan, and fortunately we've not had it around here yet.

Doesn't sound like it's working out too well.

$275 each? I'm guessing Apple won't be able to fit the price quote. Would be cool if they went for iBooks, but it'll probably be a junk PC laptop.

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Planeten Paultje wrote:
I have Kensington locks on all machines in my Mac labs. Last week a guy came in to install Luxaflex sun shades on a few windows. He had a $50 cable cutter with him which he claimed could cut any steel wire as if it wasn't there. I had him test it on a Kensington lock and indeed, he cut the wire without any effort at all.

I'm a senior at Osborne High School, which is in the south-eastern block of Cobb County and I believe this whole initiative will be beneficial in the long run. Our school paper is digging deeper into the issue and we are seeking to prove that the students and teachers should not freak out for a couple of reasons.

Firstly because OSX is pretty damn easy to use, and secondly, the computers will have Office:Mac pre-installed, so it's not like anyone won't be able to transfer their homework between home and school computers.

I'm working on an article at the moment which, I hope, will make the above issues clear to people in my school. Most everyone I know who is a PC enthusiast associates Apple with the OS9 operating system, which is a shame. I'm personally a PC guy but I can't deny that OSX is a sweet ass operating system that I wouldn't mind running beside my Windows box.

I happen to be a student in the Cobb County school district. Of all the students in the High School I attend, only about half even want these things. It's a waste of money for the board and everyone knows it.

I don't know how much any of you know about PC's, this is a Mac web furum after-all, but with PC's its very easy to hack other peoples computers.
Furtunatly, however, all Mac's (I.E. iBooks, desktops, etc.) are not. They have held a reputation for virtually unhackable OSs'.
I am a student in Cobb County, I've grown up in a computer house hold, and Macs aren't very welcome around here. Personally, I'm looking forward to have Mac's around my school.
But my argument stands, Mac's are not very hackable computers, PC's are. Theres no doubt in my mind that Mac's will quickly be re-eaxperienced. Many computer skill wealthy students such as myself will quickly learn.
Too wrap up this long entry, I very passionatly think your taking theft the wrong way. Yes, a cable would help, but no, it wont stop anyone who wants it truly. No one will be out of reach. Every iBook that will be issued will automactically sign in to the Cobb County School Systems database when turned ON. IP's are tracable and no doubt these special iBooks will have plenty of software to find a theft, if i can indeed find every key you've pressed in the last day.

Quote

Electronic Hippie wrote:
I don't know how much any of you know about PC's, this is a Mac web furum after-all, but with PC's its very easy to hack other peoples computers.
Furtunatly, however, all Mac's (I.E. iBooks, desktops, etc.) are not. They have held a reputation for virtually unhackable OSs'.
I am a student in Cobb County, I've grown up in a computer house hold, and Macs aren't very welcome around here. Personally, I'm looking forward to have Mac's around my school.
But my argument stands, Mac's are not very hackable computers, PC's are. Theres no doubt in my mind that Mac's will quickly be re-eaxperienced. Many computer skill wealthy students such as myself will quickly learn.
Too wrap up this long entry, I very passionatly think your taking theft the wrong way. Yes, a cable would help, but no, it wont stop anyone who wants it truly. No one will be out of reach. Every iBook that will be issued will automactically sign in to the Cobb County School Systems database when turned ON. IP's are tracable and no doubt these special iBooks will have plenty of software to find a theft, if i can indeed find every key you've pressed in the last day.

[quote="Planeten Paultje"]I have Kensington locks on all machines in my Mac labs. Last week a guy came in to install Luxaflex sun shades on a few windows. He had a $50 cable cutter with him which he claimed could cut any steel wire as if it wasn't there. I had him test it on a Kensington lock and indeed, he cut the wire without any effort at all.[quote]

Yeah i know i cut a lock open with a drill then amde a key for it and welded it back to gether.

Mac idiots.