There are a few movies I went and saw multiple times at the theatre ( ie: the first Matrix - you can probably guess my age ), but I will go see this 10x if this ends up being just a classic Mel Brookes movie. Definitely my kind of funny and breaks with Hollywood norms - probably break most modern entertainment norms - and thatâ(TM)s a great thing. How well will it do? Personally Iâ(TM)d say it has a decent chance of doing better than anything Disney put out in recent years.

Maybe Iâ(TM)m way off, but the vibe I get is now that their premium priced coffee product is not really being made by a trained barista, but rather some guy who had to, effectively, âGoogle itâ(TM)?

Will he know to not put rocks or glue in it?

As of this writing, there are only 20 comments posted on ICANN's public comments, and 83 here... exercise your right to free speech and post a comment on their website too: https://www.icann.org/en/publi...

If Facebook is worried about losing ad-monies with Appleâ(TM)s new privacy system, hereâ(TM)s an idea: Iâ(TM)d pay for a Facebook that let me filter out all political stories and shared content from other websites - the only content I care to see is posts/photos/videos my friends took or made. No advertising at all. No outside hosted content. Yes, I would pay for that. $1/mo? Sure.

It seems obvious to me that they are creating an artificial app market, and this might just be the way to get people in the door... I'm just waiting to see the Norton/AVG/Symantec/etc. app advertisements slinking their way to 'SMART' TVs and media players... lots of slick, slow, interfaces that don't do much.

Kinda like gold-plated optical cables for 'better performance'.

Why is this on Slashdot? Is there no place left that politics has no grasp? These guys aren't even funny anymore.

As a former Mac Genius, I've denied coverage for an iMac machine that I'd say was 'smoked to death'. It was so pungent and strong, we could barely stand being in the closed-off Genius room (were we did our work). It was awful, and that was before we opened the machine. Cigarette smoke is tends to make the usual dust-bunnies way worse. They stick to everything. The machine was completely stained brown and had succumbed to horrible over heating. All the vents and passages were clogged with crap. I can't post the photos, but anyone who has worked on computers I think would agree. It was just disgusting.

Even the employees who were smokers agreed with the decision. I felt sorry for the customer - I really did - but ultimately he agreed and understood my decision (he wasn't particularly happy, but wasn't upset either).

I have nothing against people smoking for themselves. But its unreasonable to ask or force people to share in it.

Yeah, just buy more....

I've done the math and it would cost us an astronomical amount to 'upgrade' to Windows 7 - not to mention a far from consistent user experience. We're already trying to get the kids used to the XP Mac routine (which, they've taken the Mac up at an astonishing rate).

The worst part about the Windows 7 question is that (in our tests) less than half of our district software runs correctly, if at all, on Windows 7 (we've had it on some of our sandbox computers trying things out).

Our push is now going to publishers of curriculum books, math software especially, to go to web-based apps. Thats where the future is. Personally, I think we should be teaching kids to use the keyboard on how to enter math language, or learn to use a calculator as well - real world skills. I don't like that we're teaching them to use something that they will likely not find in the business world.

Are these tablets in use by the students (grades 6-12) or by teachers? Ours are used almost exclusively by students.

I thought of the Wacom solution as well, but, the problems become having a more complicated setup to be over-seen by a teacher with 28-36 students in a classroom that wasn't originally designed for computers. So, they have to be put away, charged, taken out and used the next period.

On the flip side, we also have a lot of Windows-only software (Fun with Construction, etc.). We have both Promethean and SMART boards as well - thankfully they work on Mac too, but Linux support needs to be looked at.

I'd really like to hear more about your program and the challenges you've encountered.... j o s h v o g e l g e s a n g ((( a ))) g m a i l . c o m

The hackintosh method has crossed my mind, but, obviously there is that little legal issue. :)

I work at a school district here in California that we've used OEM'd Gateway M285/M295 tablet PCs for a few years, and they've served their purpose. We've got hundreds of these units.

The good:
They do what they're advertised, and thats it. The math teachers like them, and thats about their only purpose.

The bad:
The drivers are funky. They seem to only work well with the factory image (LOADED with junkware). This makes creating and maintaining software images for the units cumbersome, not to mention the seemingly impossible task of finding a virgin version of WindowsXP Tablet Edition. The displays aren't very bright, which is painful in well-lit classrooms. The physical design (especially the keyboard) doesn't seem to hold well to a lot of use. Battery life is decent.

The worst:
The original OEM who we purchased them through has gone belly up. Even though our laptops had warranties, they all mean nothing now. Gateway doesn't support us. And the pens seem to fail at an alarming rate, and cost $79-99 each.

On the flipside, our district is moving to Mac, and thats been working very well. Apple's support for education makes you wonder why the rest of the industry hasn't caught up (its the customer, stupid!). We're at a standstill right now as to what to do with our aging tablets (that we get ZERO support for now). We don't want to get stuck in the same position as before, but Apple is also a proprietary system (but their support is awesome!!!).

I really, really like to see some good web-apps (ala Google Apps), or mutli-platform/open-source software that the students can use.