No ire :) It is absolutely a question of taste and habit; and I am sure, over time, I would have gotten used to MAC’s. But since I’ve been a PC user for decades, I’m basically a PC whore now.

“I’ve certainly had many googlechat conversations in which the other party was sitting in a law school lecture hall.”

That couldn’t have been me…as I didn’t have my laptop :( [PS my law prof told me not to feel bad about that, he said: "It's good that you are 'old school'']

The flickr project is delightful. I am also very keen on assorted mapping resources, and what might be done with them: imagine the bastard child of Perry-Castaneda and wikimapia!

Risking DI’s ire, I will say that I am very fond of the OSX interface. But it’s a matter of personal taste and habit more than anything else. I have also found apple laptops to be a good investment–my old ibook, bought in Sept 2002, has outlasted 2 batteries and a power cord and still runs fine (my teenage sister has it now). In all that time we’ve never lost a single file, which is lucky given my lame-ass approach to backup. There was a serious problem with the video card about three years in, but Apple fixed it for free–and overseas to boot. (The international service is a plus, in contrast to the experience of some friends in the UK who had to ship laptops back to the US for under-warranty care. Coverage in the Middle East is still sparse, tho.) My current macbook has also been good; this one did have a hard drive failure, but again, was fixed swiftly at no charge.

which brings me to a question for sepoy–panther yet? I am wavering–not inclined to spend money, but my ladyfriend has it and is pleased.

finally, wireless in the classroom is just bad news. I’ve certainly had many googlechat conversations in which the other party was sitting in a law school lecture hall.

Re: biblios, I should have used some program to do it for me; if I recall, the U of C library had something on it. I hated doing biblios with a passion and did them grudgingly, which resulted in appallingly sloppy biblios. Bless the profs who let me get away with it.

Sepoy and SP — I really didn’t mean to imply that I disagreed. I think students using laptops are pimples on the face of academic thought. But I’m teaching in a very ‘keep the student customer happy’ environment (strangely, this seems to apply only to faculty), so have to come up with some way of justifying allowing the damned things. Although given Sepoy’s last very stroppy comment, I have to say I could be persuaded to just say no!

After all, I say the same thing about them having to use Chicago Manual of Style rather than MLA!

You mean “can’T'? I can’t remember the last time a humanities professor gave out assigned seating and then barked at everyone in a really professional tone to “grace the class with the explanation,” only to know that if you slip up JUST ONCE, you will be punished via searing criticism. :)

“This here be humanities. We roll our own way.”

Ooh, spoken roughly. I like.

SP:

Yes, the recent and current models of Toshiba are cheap, cheap, cheap as hell. It’s so janky that I can’t believe they put a price tag of over a grand (which is what I paid). And the adapters die by the second year.

Re: Dell, good info you provided. I’ve been thinking about getting a Dell laptop, but am too scared in light of the negative comments I hear from others. Maybe a ThinkPad, though I’ve heard people complaining that ever since Lenovo took over, the quality has begun to spiral downwards….

I don’t see any contradiction or problem in banning laptop usage during the class – they may be required to use it on-campus or in their other classes. But, I simply see it as a distraction. Also, we are not teaching law. So whatever happens in law classes or business classes can happen there. This here be humanities. We roll our own way.

Toshiba laptops suck? My sister’s (from 2003) is so sturdy that it’s still going, long after my Dell POC (Piece of Crap) bought at the same time has died after having to be serviced on three continents every six months, with the world’s rudest and worst customer service (they email you instructions on how to fix your own broken laptop – forgetting that you can’t read email if your laptop is broken).

Yeah, I remember that commercial ;)

I just hate those glowing apples, and I now resent anyone who blathers on and on about the attributes of MAC laptops.

MAC’s interface sucks. It seems too cheap, like it’s not worth $1,100. I also don’t like the one click mouse; I don’t like how the most you can maximize still comes out really, really small.

Back to laptops in the classroom: they could be distracting, but again, in law courses, you’re too freaked out about missing any word that comes out of the prof’s mouth; so you are anything but compelled to check your e-mail and IM your friends.

Also, law profs call on you and demand an answer: “Miss DI, please tell us why Iran refused to be present during the US case against them for the hostage situation.” Not a ripe environment where you can surf the Web.

Since we’re on the subject of laptops, I advise everyone to NEVER buy Toshiba. They don’t make good quality laptops anymore. My Toshiba laptop from 10 years ago is still working perfectly fine; but the Toshiba I bought in Sept 2005 has already fallen apart, and Toshiba’s AC adapters suck.

DI: Your Big Brother comment was insanely amusing. Please watch this.

DI, I’m surrounded by MAC cultists too, and it’s a bit annoying,yes. I don’t like the MAC user interface, though my friends assure me it’s so much less problem-prone that it’s worth it.

Re: Open Office vs. Word, I recently found out about Open Office from the tech guy at my office, and thank god for Open Office. Right now I’m using Word, but I’m going to have to invest in a new laptop soon, and I am simply not going to buy MS Office software. Too expensive.

I’m not in academia anymore, but for the field that I am currently in, MS Office is a must regardless of whether it’s a MAC and PCer user, and esp for Excel and Word (v. little Power Point). People haven’t taken to using Google Docs(O, I wish everyone would start using that so that I could definitively chuck MS Office!) and unless Armageddon hits, it looks like everyone is going to continue using MS Office en masse.

“Last, last recommendation: No laptops in the classroom.”

Not in Law School. I was the only- and I repeat- the only freak who didn’t bring a laptop to lectures. Come finals, and I really, really regretted it.

But I am with you for non law school courses. Hand-taken notes are the way to go.

BTW, is it just me or does it seem like there is a massive MAC cult, almost in a Big Brotheresque manner? Those Apples are everywhere, and to be honest, I don’t see what all the fuss about MAC’s is about. I bought a MAC laptop and returned it (couldn’t afford it, but also I really, really disliked how MAC works. Or maybe it is a question of habit).

Part of the issue with access — and it’s true that OS X is better than previous Apple OS — is that there’s a lot of adaptive software already written for the PC/MS environment. Even with all the stuff Apple’s done to make the OS accessible, if the programs themselves can’t be made accessible then it’s worthless. So until there are screenreaders of some sort for the Apple environment, nothing really can get done.

We’re investigating: my wife has wide contacts in the adaptive tech community. There are some reports of people using Apples successfully, but we need to know more.

However, Zotero may be what pushes me over the edge to abandon Netscape in favor of Firefox, because my notetaking skills could use a big boost….