:: Intrepid Spaniel ::

Open source software made a big showing earlier this month at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in San Diego.
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ke Huffman, Indiana Department of Education Special Assistant for Technology, did a presentation on the state of Indiana’s InACCESS project, the largest K-12 desktop Linux deployment in the United States. With 24,000 Linspire desktop computers built by Wintergreen Systems rolled out at various high schools, the program has already saved the state about US$1 million. The deployment, which started in 2005, will grow to 170,000 computers within a year and could potentially reach over 300,000 within several years.

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“Public education can sometimes be a budgetary black hole, and technology spending in the public school system is no exception. In California, the recently approved budget increases education spending by almost US$3 billion, bringing the total percentage of the state budget spent on public education to a lofty 58 percent. Open source software could potentially reduce the burden on taxpayers and help the state increase the quality and efficiency of public education. As Mike Huffman says, “As long as we keep waiting for big bags of cash to fall from the sky, we aren’t going anywhere.”

(Read more…)

“With the current price of a new algebra textbook approaching $110 and publishers bringing out a new edition every three to four years just to prevent students from selling their used books, we have decided to create a site where the textbooks are free.”
They only have one up right now but plan to add more, along with video and audio lectures.

view and download this textbook at totallyfreemath.com

Here are some more links for free text book resources… (Read more…)

As someone who’s first computer games were the King’s Quest series at a friend’s house on the Apple II, I miss the humor and storylines in the good old fashioned adventure game.

Here is a good article about the future of the genre, how the Nintendo Wii (Wii!) could help save it, and inside the article are links to a few good Fan-created games most are free… (Read more…)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Toyota sees a future in plugging in vehicles - instead of simply pulling in for gas. Already a leader in the hybrid market with its Prius sedan, Toyota Motor Corp. plans to develop a hybrid vehicle that will run locally on batteries charged by a typical 120-volt outlet before switching over to a gasoline engine for longer hauls.

(Read more…)

We know we SHOULD backup or important data, but it somehow gets put to the bottom of the TODO list.. it’s not glamorous, but there are times when you’d really be glad you did back it up. So if it is easy, secure, and FREE*? Why not.. (Read more…)

UPDATE: price cuts starting to show up..
Monarch computer.. 3800+x2 ~$160, 4200+x2 ~$200, $4600+ x2 ~260

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=amddc

Don’t know if this is real because it seems like deeper cuts than the one posted last month.

Any way, for those with socket 939 Motherboards, you can finally get affordable Dual Core chips.. Price list and info below.. (Read more…)

Good article showing benefits of Open Source in schools. Big savings, lower maintenance costs, lower disposal costs, lower software costs, increased student/computer ratios.

One story from the article…
“”Our school has been running the Linux terminals for students for over two years. We currently have 110 student terminals available. We use OpenOffice for our student and faculty. The conversion has been a great success, savings are over $100,000 while our users remain satisfied with the computer tools they have available. You may read this article for some details. In 2003 we were running near to 110 five year old machines with Windows NT and Office 97. We also had new machines that were running Windows NT and Office97 and needed a software upgrade. The $100,000 savings was the amount saved from switch to a Linux terminal server configuration on the student lab PCs and switching to OpenOffice on all faculty and student PCs.”

Yes, $100,000.
Read on for the full story.. (Read more…)

This is from the Girl/Chocolate Films release “Yeah Right”

They skated on green boards and the boards were edited out.

Not much educational value, but I think it is pretty cool. Makes me want to learn to skate again.. The intro to the film, however, did have some slo-mo closeups of riders boards, and was very instructional.

Can you see the 30something parent of 3 hangin out at the skatepark? My son would be embarrassed since I never was that good on a skateboard. Check out the video..

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