Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room
High School Student Laptop Policy
40hz:
They can also quite effectively lock down these laptops to prevent what they consider misuse without needing 'monitoring' features to do it. Locking down a system prevents misuse. Monitoring a system identifies misuse once it's occurred.
So if the goal really is prevention rather than rule enforcement, there's no operational need for live and/or discretionary monitoring capabilities.
Or we may simply be dealing with the standard overypaying of academic/government contracts, where a product that would cost a normal human $200 somehow costs a government office $2000.
-mouser (August 20, 2014, 11:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
This is what I'm convinced of. For $800 I can get a pretty good laptop- in fact, my gaming machine upgrade I just did to a pretty hot rig didn't cost much more than this... including video card.
-wraith808 (August 20, 2014, 12:13 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hmm...do I detect a sweetheart deal with somebody on this "initiative?" I hope they didn't contract for Surface Pro 3s! :-\
wraith808:
Hmm...do I detect a sweetheart deal with somebody on this "initiative?" I hope they didn't contract for Surface Pro 3s! :-\
-40hz (August 20, 2014, 12:18 PM)
--- End quote ---
They're just following the NFL... I mean... what could go wrong?
40hz:
Or we may simply be dealing with the standard overypaying of academic/government contracts, where a product that would cost a normal human $200 somehow costs a government office $2000.
-mouser (August 20, 2014, 11:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
Aggravating and non-intuitive to be sure.
But when you factor in the Byzantine bidding process, the paperwork, compliance auditing, and add-on social engineering (hiring requirements, rules for preference to be given to favored suppliers for parts of the contract, commitments to targeted groups and businesses, the GSA "discount", etc.) it's easy to see how the final sticker price can soar.
Government people usually have no responsibility for recouping their expenses. Operating costs are not "real" to them. If they run in the red, they just ask the appropriations committees for more money. Businesses who need to run things off their P&L rather than the public tax base don't have that luxury.
Not saying that is always why crazy price tags happen. But it accounts for a lot of it. Just ask anybody who ever had to put together a proposal based on a government "request for bids." Providing the goods or service itself is easy to price out. But then you hit those sections on reporting and compliance - and ask: "Ok....How the heck much is it going to cost us to do all this stuff? Better quadruple the first number just to be sure we're covered."
:-\
wraith808:
Aggravating and non-intuitive to be sure.
But when you factor in the Byzantine bidding process, the paperwork, compliance auditing, and add-on social engineering (hiring requirements, rules for preference to be given to favored suppliers for parts of the contract, commitments to targeted groups and businesses, the GSA "discount", etc.) it's easy to see how the final sticker price can soar.
Government people usually have no responsibility for recouping their expenses. Operating costs are not "real" to them. If they run in the red, they just ask the appropriations committees for more money. Businesses who need to run things off their P&L rather than the public tax base don't have that luxury.
Not saying that is always why crazy price tags happen. But it accounts for a lot of it. Just ask anybody who ever had to put together a proposal based on a government "request for bids." Providing the goods or service itself is easy to price out. But then you hit those sections on reporting and compliance - and ask: "Ok....How the heck much is it going to cost us to do all this stuff? Better quadruple the first number just to be sure we're covered."
-40hz (August 20, 2014, 02:20 PM)
--- End quote ---
From dealing with it from the other side, I can definitely say that you're correct... sometimes.
There's also the mistaken assumption (because it's not *their* money) that money equals quality. Or... something like that. If you quote too low, you're just as likely to lose as if you quote too high. What those numbers are? Beats the heck out of me. Which is why I'm not in that anymore.
Renegade:
Or we may simply be dealing with the standard overypaying of academic/government contracts, where a product that would cost a normal human $200 somehow costs a government office $2000.
-mouser (August 20, 2014, 11:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
Aggravating and non-intuitive to be sure.
But when you factor in the Byzantine bidding process, the paperwork, compliance auditing, and add-on social engineering (hiring requirements, rules for preference to be given to favored suppliers for parts of the contract, commitments to targeted groups and businesses, the GSA "discount", etc.) it's easy to see how the final sticker price can soar.
-40hz (August 20, 2014, 02:20 PM)
--- End quote ---
Ya beat me to the punch! I was going to say this:
To be fair, government bureaucrats work so hard at finding the absolute best deals on the perfect solutions to their bureaucratic problems that they inadvertently create a tendering process that incurs enough overhead to justify a several hundred percent price hike. I supposed the rest is just pigs at the trough. :D
Government people usually have no responsibility for recouping their expenses. Operating costs are not "real" to them. If they run in the red, they just ask the appropriations committees for more money. Businesses who need to run things off their P&L rather than the public tax base don't have that luxury.
-40hz (August 20, 2014, 02:20 PM)
--- End quote ---
:Thmbsup:
*cough* tax is theft *cough* :P ;D
They're just following the NFL... I mean... what could go wrong?
-wraith808 (August 20, 2014, 01:26 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hahaha! Yes - definitely! The antics inside the NFL are just insane. *cough* stadium welfare *cough*
Add to that, now they're asking superbowl half-time acts to PAY the NFL for the PRIVILEGE of being the superbowl half-time act. DOH!
If the teacher's really want to know which students are screwing off, all they need to do is walk around to the back of the classroom and look ... Just like in the good old days - Surveillance software not required - and there are no maintenance and licensing fees to contend with.
-Stoic Joker (August 20, 2014, 12:01 PM)
--- End quote ---
:Thmbsup:
Low tech is often the best or easiest way to go.
Tech toys are fun, but... they're often toys that we invent reasons for rather than actually have real reasons for. You can see this all the way down to regular hand soap where hi-tech replacements make people feel all nice & sciency & fuzzy & secure, but the actual science doesn't pan out and the fancy-dancy hi-tech soap has no significant benefit over regular, ordinary, boring, pure, simple, ancient tech... hand soap.
Exterminating cockroaches with nukes doesn't end well. 8)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version