Thread: Bought the school laptop, now it's time to get flamed

  1. #1
    Hail to the king, baby. Akkernight's Avatar
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    Bought the school laptop, now it's time to get flamed

    Hello.

    I just bought the laptop Imma use for school and stuff, but I didn't really take more time than 10 minutes to choose it as my brother is coming home from his uni at Norway and the computers are way cheaper over there, so I took the chance.

    Komplett.no - Acer Aspire 5737Z 15.6"WXGA

    I know the site is in Norwegian but here's what I'm a lil' worried about.

    The GPU is a Geforce 9400G, which is a motherboard built in GPU if I understood correctly, I personally don't like these, but I took the chance as it's Geforce and I don't want ATI.

    They don't say much about the battery and how long it lives, but I guess this is all depending on what you're doing. Anyways, what experience have you peeps had with a 6-cell litiumion battery?

    Also, I'll most likely uninstall Vista and install Windows 7 on it, so it's performance should improve by at least 50%
    Currently research OpenGL

  2. #2
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    The number of cells in the battery usually doesn't matter when we would generally talk about battery life. It would only increase battery life on the computer.
    In short: we can't tell how long/short the battery life is merely based on the cells in the battery.
    However, I did look up the model and it says 2.5 hours.

    This is a pretty sad model for a school computer. Heavy as heck and poor battery.
    Also note that you probably won't even reach 2.5 hours anyway since most manufacturers set the battery life pretty high.

    If you wanted a school computer, you should have gotten a netbook.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    This is a pretty sad model for a school computer. Heavy as heck and poor battery.
    Akkernight is a big strapping Scandinavian lad and unlikely to be concerned with the weight! Re: the battery, just keep the adapter with you. It is hard to walk around most campuses now a daze without tripping over a desk with a power jack underneath it. And they probably have lots of wireless coverage -- make sure you carry a 'sniffer
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  4. #4
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Eh, it's poor for a school laptop, but not for a desktop replacement, which is essentially what it is.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  5. #5
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    That has to be the first time someone has said something is cheap in Norway

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    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    Eh, it's poor for a school laptop, but not for a desktop replacement, which is essentially what it is.
    Maybe someone will let him place his laptop on a desktop. Universities can be liberal places that way.

    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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    At least at my school, I've never had a problem finding a place to plug my laptop in. As such, I opted for a cheaper laptop that, despite having short battery life (1 hour +/-) gave me plenty of computing power, so long as I was plugged in. That was also the most inexpensive option

  8. #8
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    I've used my battery about once or twice with my laptop over the last year :-). In fact I don't even have it plugged into my laptop.

    I just plug in the power at uni / work.

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    It's hard to find a seat with power plug in a 500-ppl sized theatre type of classroom. There are only plugs on the sides, and it's hard to get one of those seats (for this reason).

    I agree, 15" is too big and heavy for a school laptop. I am using a 12" tablet myself (2kg), and it's a bit too heavy. My battery only lasts about 2:40 (actual), and it's quite annoying.

  10. #10
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    I've found that only fools use laptops in lectures.

    You cannot beat pen and paper.

  11. #11
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zacs7 View Post
    I've found that only fools use laptops in lectures.
    You cannot beat pen and paper.
    I started school about the same year the WWW came to be, 1993*. It was impossible to be this kind of fool then. Nobody had laptops or cellphones on campus until after I graduated! Okay, a few cellphones around '96 -- but that was just like the pager (you knew they were all drug dealers).

    If I were sitting in a lecture hall with a bunch of note taking keyboards clacking away, I think my high tech contribution would involve the pea-shooter.

    * that was also the first place I heard of email, altho I had a friend in high school who ran a BBS. If you had to use the computers in the library to write essays (because you didn't have a computer or typewriter), you had to have a computer account, which meant you could send these little messages to people via a text program called "elm".
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  12. #12
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Quote Originally Posted by zacs7 View Post
    I've found that only fools use laptops in lectures.

    You cannot beat pen and paper.
    I don't know. I like to use it to keep track of what to do and write down notes the teacher says.
    Figures and symbols and stuff is obviously better using paper (at least until we get cheap tablets or e-paper or whatever).
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  13. #13
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    You cannot beat pen and paper.
    Except if you have a tablet!

    I bought it the summer before my freshmen year (last summer), and was planning to use it for note taking. Well, that never happened. All my profs posted their notes online. I honestly think this is better for students. When I am copying down notes, I can't pay nearly as much attention to the lecturer than if I don't need to. Writing down notes is a big distraction for me. I lived through high school (and did pretty well - 94% final average) without taking any notes, relying on just textbook and my brain (part of it is probably laziness, too :P, but I did pay a lot of attention in classes). Many of my teachers were surprised. Almost everyone else that did as well as me (not bragging...) had huge piles of notes by the end of the year.

    May not work for everyone... but my suggestion (for students) - try it out if you haven't already!

    Universities made it even easier, since profs post notes online (some intentionally omit parts to make sure students are paying attention in classes, though - a classic example of punishing good students for bad students if you ask me). I thought I won't be able to continue not taking notes in university, and that's why I bought the tablet. Turned out I could, at least for the first year.

    Back to topic...

    Laptops are infinitely helpful. How else could I have endured the intro to C programming class (4 hrs/week + labs) that ended on a chapter on basic functions, if not for MSN, FICS, and youtube? (I carefully selected seats with no one behind me so I won't distract anyone else). The prof puts up some "remote clicker" questions once in a while, so I couldn't just not go. Campus-wide high speed wifi is too nice .

  14. #14
    Hail to the king, baby. Akkernight's Avatar
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    I have a tablet for my current computer, and the laptop I just bought has a screen that is touchscreen'ish
    This computer is small! My mom's computer is 17" and heavy for it's size and has a ........ heavy bag D: but still it ain't no problem walking around with (yes I've tried it) but I'm going into a technical college or that's how we call it. It teaches C++ at the second year, so I'm pretty positive that it doesn't lack power plugs xP
    Also, school work for me, is gaming in the classes against the other class mates

    h3ro, Norway doesn't know anything about being expensive
    Currently research OpenGL

  15. #15
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Akkernight View Post
    h3ro, Norway doesn't know anything about being expensive
    Sure they do... I don't know how you can think not!
    In fact, Norway is an expensive country.
    Heck, that computer was actually even more expensive than what I could get it for here, and even this is an expensive country!
    Long story short: you were ripped off.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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