I tried Unity, and I have several issues with it beyond whether it works or not. To begin with, it actually consumes more of my screen space than what I am using (Gnome 2). I use only one panel at the top and I autohide it. There is nothing on my desktop except a semi-transparent clock in the corner. When I want to access the menu, I roll up, click on menu, roll down through to sub menus and click. The reason I don't care for KDE is that many distro's implement that click to slide to sub-menus. It is too much. The bar is on the screen, unmovable, no auto hide, and with ridiculously huge icons that are not resizable. In application windows, making the scroll bar very tiny, like in Mint, is more usable if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, but I use an optical track ball. It is the only way to fly. Finally, when looking for an application not in the bar, you have to go to several presses and some scrolling to find something. The part that irritates me the most about that is that Unity shows me all the crap I don't have installed (and not interested in) first. I don't need anyone trying to sell me their shit while I'm trying to get work done. Even then, the icons in the sub menus are so huge and spread apart, it is no wonder you actually have scroll the screen to find something. I can't see it usable on a small screen for the same reasons. The launcher bar gets in the way, not out. Just about everything in Unity and Gnome 3 is exactly counter to the way I use a computer. I'm not fond of LDXE and lighter desktops because of the lack of decent menu editors, but they do beat the hell out of Unity and G3.

Laptop or not, it makes no difference.

Every body had a comment on what teachers should or shouldn't be doing. Not many claim to actually be a teacher. Well, I am one. I suspect that those making the loudest comments are not. It is so fun to watch.

It is like this: Just because you have ridden in an airplane one time and you might know something about how airplanes work doesn't qualify you to tell the pilot how to fly the damn thing. Just because you have experienced education once and in one place and time doesn't qualify you to tell teachers how to do their jobs. Are there bad teachers? Sure there are, just like in every other profession. However if you magically got rid of all the bad teachers (what few there are) and replaced them with the best teachers, education would still be as it has always been. There is no magic bullet to fix education.

So, why do teachers get attacked so much? Simple. Who else are they going to go after? The parents, the kids, or perhaps a person in political power? Politicians go after teachers, because that is the only group they have leverage on that isn't a significant part of them getting reelected. All you have to do is vilify teachers. It takes all the responsibility off the voting parents and themselves for not doing their part to improve the situation.

In spite of all that, I go out there and do the best that I can for my students. If I only had to teach the curriculum, it would be easy. Now, I have to the be the advisor, parent, mentor, and friend. And you know, that is fine. As soon as they can figure out how to make a laptop do all of that, I will be happy to step aside. I can always go back to my former career.

Now it is possible to talk, in public, to someone that isn't there, and that is normal. This has been a real boon to the schizophrenic population. Thank you blue tooth fairy

It may not be Android as such. It is the fact that an alternative exists (a less expensive one). If there is a will (profits), manufacturers will find something to replace it that works as well and avoid licensing from their competitors. At best MS and Apple will only delay the inevitable. Had MS made Windows Phone work right in the first place or had Apple not screwed up on Flash, Iphone antennas, and AT&T they could have saturated the market well enough to kill Android in the crib. They didn't and Android has a big enough dog (Google) in the fight that it will survive in some form.

Please. Most people who have android phones either got them because there was no iPhone on their carrier (or still isn't) or because it was offered to them for free by their carrier.

I'd be interested to know what the return rate was for Android phones.

That is likely the case. As long as it is "iphone" like, it was probably acceptable. I suspect most ordinary people don't know and don't care. OTOH, there are some who have a real dislike for Apple.

I have seen how people act about their phones. They have the attitude of "from my cold dead hands" of an NRA freak mixed equally with the behaviors of a meth addict. They can sue until the cows come home, but the cat has gotten out of carrier. You won't be able to put it back in. Android phones (or the like) will go underground like drugs. All the enforcement (patent or otherwise) won't change that. It would only become a question of how to get them over the border.

Here's the simplest and best answer, and it worked for me. Not all Linux distro's work equally on different machines. If they did, there would be a need for so many specialty ones. Just download a variety live boots (that install) and try them out. In general, if they work from live boot, they will work when installed. BTW, my autistic daughter really resisted Linux when it was installed on her netbook (a step needed when Windows trashed itself just updating), but after a couple of weeks grumbling she really likes it now. So, expect some complaints anyways. Better yet, why not get these people involved in the selection process?

Taking this from personal experience: The reason "elementary" teachers can't teach math effectively is because they don't know it themselves. I have teacher candidates that barely pass a basic skills test in math. You know, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. That sort of stuff.

I wonder where the belief came from that says you need a talent for something to be able to do it at all. It is like this:

I don't do fishing. I don't have a talent for it. I tried it once because someone made me. I just sat there and waited and waited and I didn't catch a fish. I just don't understand fish. Besides, I don't even like fish. I am a beef person living in a vast prairie, I won't ever need to fish in future. Why should I learn to do it? If I had to fish for any reason, I'd would just hire someone to do it. Someone like a fish-geek. I never understood those people. They are not very social, always alone, by themselves in a boat. I don't even understand what they are saying. They are always talking bait, lures, and the "one that got away," whatever that is.

Now, replace fish with: tying shoes, riding a bicycle, reading, math, thinking anything. Math is not something you need any talent for, no more having a talent for parenthood. And if your for real, everybody sucks at that from the start. It ain't stopped people from having babies. Saying you suck at something is an excuse to avoid doing it.

"Good luck Mr. Goresky wherever you are." (Armstrong)

I've been reading through.... It is amazing how people who have had the experience of being taught are experts on how to do the teaching.

Here's reality. Yes, there are companies that sell canned units with lesson plans. These are generally forced down teacher's throats in spite of the fact that they should have known better.

Good teachers match the lesson plans to the students which are different from year to year, class to class, day to day, depending one which way the wind is blowing or whether the moon is full. Canned lessons cannot possibly cover that.

Of the teachers who actually write lesson plans (and very few do after a couple of years), most write their lesson plans at home. This is where food, drink, restrooms, and UNDISTURBED time happens. Even then, they have to keep in mind that these lesson plans will not survive an encounter with students or states changing the standards, yet one more time. Lesson plans also occur because someone (a bean counter) requires them, but the teacher doesn't actually use them. Most lesson plans are an outline so that the teacher doesn't forget something. It's like lecture notes, but without the lecture part.

Teachers (for-real teachers) don't get 9 months on and 3 months off. They usually work year around, at nights, weekends, and are on call any other time. Average pay is one thing, but starting pay is another. Most are required to take an additional year or more of coursework at their own expense while being payed Sure, teachers write lesson plans and sell them. They also write educational software. Many teachers take on second jobs like flipping burgers, retail sells, and college level teaching. I knew a teacher once who stripped for additional income. Are the schools going to lay claim to that? One could ask, why do teachers put up with it? They don't have to.

Yes, there are bad teachers out there, more than you would think. Most did not start out that way. Most were made by the same system that keeps them employed, and it isn't unions. Obama talks about connecting teacher pay with student success. Great idea! Now, teachers will be less willing to deal with difficult students. You know, the students that need good teachers the most. All the time, politicians talk about parents, students, teachers, and administrators are part of the problem and the solution, but efforts are always directed at the teachers and schools. They often talk about graduation rates, like getting more warm bodies through the system is the problem. They are only peripherally concerned that any content was actually learned.

By the way, I teach in a rural school with high minority rates (97%) and overcrowding. Having parents involved is great, but right now I could use a little less outside help thank you. I don't go to your job and tell you how to do it. I don't require you to re-certify on a regular basis to keep your job (at your expense). I don't tell you what you can say, do, wear, or hang out with to keep your job. I don't redefine what your job every few years. (Like somehow, children have changed that much over the last 5 centuries.) I don't expect you to work many free hours outside of your job environment. I don't expect you to take your work home at all. Don't expect me to satisfy any of your expectations that I don't expect of you.

I've been using Linux as my primary OS for about a month. I took the advise (in numerous articles and tried many distro's. I will admit that I am still getting used to the way things work in Linux. Just the same.... My impression is that many (not all) examples of FOSS software lack the "polish" that much of the propriatary software has. Now I keep in mind that this is also true of many Windows products, and I have replaced much of that software with better stuff over my experience with Windows (sometimes with FOSS software). I have plenty to say about my experience, thus far, but it does not pertain to the question asked. I think that the UI is a larger part of the less polished impression. What I mean by "polished" is the UI, documentation, features (or lack of), and the overall usability...

I have been teaching in a high school for 2 years now. I totally agree, but cell phones are just part of it. Now, they have internet access, cameras, games, show movies, and tons of music to entertain (or deafen) students. The new thing this year was to direct dial the phone in my room. I ended up taking it off the hook. I've gotten to confiscating them. The first time for the class period. The second time the parent has to pick the cell phone up to get it back. As for lawyers, every student has to sign a rules agreement that specifies that cell phones are not allowed and will be taken if brought on campus. (doesn't help much) Our school was overcrowded for a while (3300+ students). Rules are seriously hard to enforce. Plus we had the added bonus of the school being 79% minority with most parents being non-English speakers. Drugs, guns, gangs, and dropouts are a bigger problem, so the admin doesn't take cells phones and music players as serious an issue. Now, the people who don't actually DO the work are talking about merit pay? How about combat pay?

As long as people with a HS diploma get paid the same minimum wage as those who drop out, it won't make a difference.

I am a teacher of mathematics (high school), all the problems I see come from outside the classroom, not in it.