"But people don't work for free." Not always true. I know - I went through it. I was young and foolish at one time and worked at a salaried programming job that I loved because it gave me so much personal satisfaction. I put in lots of extra hours for years and wound up burnt out. I finally wised up and left for another job. It took a while to recover but I finally realized it's not worth it. I left for another job that I loved then that job ended. I went to another job and after working there for a few months they announced mandatory unpaid overtime of one hour a day. I was gone within a couple of weeks. Too many of you are over-thinking this. The answer to the boss should be "Are you out of fucking mind?"

OK, so what is "stereographic sound"?

Comcast did the same thing over a year ago. They stopped providing Usenet access and told us to go to Giganews if we wanted to continue. When I called to complain and ask how much they would reduce my access charge for the missing service, I was told (of course) that there would be no change in the charge and that they were doing it because "Usenet is the main distribution system for child pornography". I was so stunned at the stupidity of that statement that all I could do was hang up.

Since when did "dogfood" become a verb?

"Too bad they aren't the students' computers; they belong to the school until end of year/term when the students have an option to purchase. Only after the student has purchased the laptop should the restrictions come off but not before. " You mis-read the original. They buy the computers when they graduate. Who would want to buy a six-year-old laptop at any price? In fact, are the sixth graders who receive one of these computers going to need an update or new computer before they graduate? This whole story is full of holes anyway. I'd like to know where this district is and how they can afford to buy computers for every student, maintain them, monitor their usage and replace the broken or old ones - which will probably be most of them within the first two years. I don't think it's a good idea and I would not want to live in this district.