Jetstar unveils thin client, BYO laptop vision

[Don McKenzie]

Here is another, "I guess it had to happen sooner or later" story.

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26021336-15306,00.html

Throw out the existing IT department, BYO Latptop, and the company
issues a 16Gb memory stick with the company software on board.

Companies such as Jetstar, may do a free issue of the Laptop in the
first instance, but no IT team is needed for daily support.

If the Laptop breaks down, the memory stick is transferred to another
Laptop. They are really talking about under $800 netbooks here.

Slip it into your bag, and off to work we go. Hiho!! HiHo!!

Don...


--
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[Rod Speed]

On a related topic, is anyone up with the current status of the govs
free laptops to schoolies program?

Bit splash in the local paper about the year 9s in my local school all just getting theirs.

 

[keithr]

Here is another, "I guess it had to happen sooner or later" story.

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26021336-15306,00.html

Throw out the existing IT department, BYO Latptop, and the company
issues a 16Gb memory stick with the company software on board.

Companies such as Jetstar, may do a free issue of the Laptop in the
first instance, but no IT team is needed for daily support.

If the Laptop breaks down, the memory stick is transferred to another
Laptop. They are really talking about under $800 netbooks here.

Slip it into your bag, and off to work we go. Hiho!! HiHo!!

Don...

Wyse? I thought that they were dead years ago, Fujitsu bought them.
Maybe someone has done a Lazarus on the name. The thin clients look like
we are heading back into the days of green screen terminals, just with
some fancy graphics built in.

I think that they are looking at the staff buying their own laptops, IBM
were looking at a similar idea last year.

The notion of having a memory stick with all the software on it is a bit
suss though, the performance wouldn't exactly be startling.

 

[Rob]

On a related topic, is anyone up with the current status of the govs free
laptops to schoolies program?

What ya want to know?

 

[Acacia]

On a related topic, is anyone up with the current status of the govs free
laptops to schoolies program?

26 August, 2009
Media release
Digital Education Revolution delivered in NSW
Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and NSW Minister for Education and
Training, Verity Firth will today announce the delivery of the first laptops
to secondary schools in New South Wales.

The Deputy Prime Minister and the NSW Minister for Education will visit a
Year 9 class at Fairvale High School in Sydney's west to see how the laptops
will be integrated into the lesson.

The laptop deliveries signify the roll-out of the Rudd Government's $2.2
billion Digital Education Revolution to NSW high schools.

Ms Firth said the laptops would revolutionise the nature of education and
training and provide students with more access to technology than ever
before.

"More than 200,000 devices will be distributed to NSW government school
students over the life of this $386 million program.

"Because of this investment, students will be able to access more learning
tools than ever before. They'll be more computer literate and in the
long-term more competitive in a global market."

Ms Firth said the roll-out would begin with Year 9 students and for the next
four years, each new Year 9 class in NSW government schools would receive a
laptop.

"This is a gift for every government high school student in NSW-once they
have finished Year 12, they can keep their laptop for good."

Ms Firth said the Rees Government had worked extremely hard to provide the
best possible product and software for NSW government schools.

"In a world first, Microsoft's Windows 7 has been installed on every laptop
which is
also equipped with $5,500 of the latest Microsoft and Adobe software and is
wirelessly enabled to allow students to access the internet from anywhere
within the school.

"NSW will also employ an additional 400 IT support officers to provide
on-site assistance to students and teachers, providing more jobs in the
current tough economic climate.

"The NSW Government has also invested $16 million over four years to provide
secondary high school teachers with the same laptops, with another $10
million allocated for professional learning.

"The Digital Education Revolution complements the NSW Government's four-year
$693 million investment in providing state-of-the-art connected classrooms,
computer labs and technology to NSW schools and TAFEs.

"The NSW Department of Education and Training has developed new world-class
curriculum specific teaching and learning resources to be used with the
laptops. The classroom as we know it has changed."

The Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard welcomed the NSW Government's
commitment to the Digital Education Revolution.

"The Rudd Government is determined to ensure Australian students are
equipped with the tools they need for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

"The Digital Education Revolution will help to bring our classrooms into the
21st Century."


Media Contact:

[email protected]

Non-media queries: 1300 363 079

 

[Sylvia Else]

Here is another, "I guess it had to happen sooner or later" story.

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26021336-15306,00.html

Throw out the existing IT department, BYO Latptop, and the company
issues a 16Gb memory stick with the company software on board.

Companies such as Jetstar, may do a free issue of the Laptop in the
first instance, but no IT team is needed for daily support.

If the Laptop breaks down, the memory stick is transferred to another
Laptop. They are really talking about under $800 netbooks here.

Slip it into your bag, and off to work we go. Hiho!! HiHo!!

Don...

So, not such a good time to be working for Jetstar's internal IT
department then.

Sylvia.

 

[Frank Slootweg]

Wyse? I thought that they were dead years ago, Fujitsu bought them.
Maybe someone has done a Lazarus on the name. The thin clients look like
we are heading back into the days of green screen terminals, just with
some fancy graphics built in.

Yes, 'thin clients' are SO 19*80*'s! :-(

[...]

The notion of having a memory stick with all the software on it is a bit
suss though, the performance wouldn't exactly be startling.

The software does not have to *run* from the memory stick (only
'install'). Also *data* can be cached and synced.

[To be honest, I didn't know that you could / were_allowed_to do this
kind of stuff any *differently*! Silly me! ]

 

[Clocky]

What ya want to know?

If handing out free laptops is going to improve the apalling level of
literacy in this country or add to it?

 

[.]

If handing out free laptops is going to improve the apalling level of
literacy in this country or add to it?

Hi Gerry

Wasn`t A600`s handed out to you or others
at your school?

 

[blank]

If handing out free laptops is going to improve the apalling level of
literacy in this country or add to it?

If so, get one. Appalling is one of the first words you should try to learn
to spell correctly. Wanker.

 

[terryc]

If handing out free laptops is going to improve the apalling level of
literacy in this country or add to it?

It definitely adds to it.

 

[terryc]

So, not such a good time to be working for Jetstar's internal IT
department then.

AFAIK, they have 5, the rest are contractors.

 

[Rob]

If handing out free laptops is going to improve the apalling level of
literacy in this country or add to it?

NO and the kids are shying away from computers

 

[Hunter]

Wyse? I thought that they were dead years ago, Fujitsu bought them.
Maybe someone has done a Lazarus on the name. The thin clients look like
we are heading back into the days of green screen terminals, just with
some fancy graphics built in.

Nope Wyse are still kicking, and whilst it's not up to a desktop PC it
ain't far off with current technology.

I'm currently implementing VMWare View where I work, and it's an amazing
technology. Delivers your work desktop to you where-ever you happen to
be with an internet connection, basically using a really souped up RDP
session (souped up to the point that the old horse and cart is now more
like a Lambaghini).

Storage ain't a massive issue as it has a "gold image" which is
referenced by all users, and there is just a "differential" image kept
for each of the users to keep track of any changes. The differentials
are blown away every 7 days or so, but the profile information is kept
intact and stored elsewhere, so the user doesn't really notice the
difference as long as they don't do silly things like dumping data onto
C drive outside of their profile (company policy is to store all data on
the network anyway).

Now getting back to your comments, one of the packages that comes
bundled with View is Thinapp (previously Thinstall until VMWare bought
it and souped it up further), so the way we do things is all SOE apps
are on the Gold view image, and any other required software we thinapp
and stick on the network, where only those authorised to use those apps
can run them. They run beautifully (even large apps) from the network as
thinapp only streams the parts of the app to you that you need as you
need them, it doesn't need to shunt the whole thing across to your
machine, I'm sure that technology would work equally well off of a USB
stick or similar.

And the Wyse terminals (we're using S10's and V10L's) are nearly up to
scratch of having a desktop PC. Wyse have done some interesting things
with compression and the streaming of video and sound to their terminals
(the only place where they fall behind a full desktop PC), and with what
we've got now we can wack a V10L on a desk, point it to an FTP server to
pick up it's config and licensing, plug in a monitor and bang it's up
and running. Connects to the View broker, user authenticates and they
get their own personalised machine up on the screen, from where they
could watch a movie if they wanted to even though they're just sitting
at a thin client.

We've ruled out replacing all desktops with these terminals though, as
they have implications in respect to Windows licensing which we don't
encounter buying OEM PC's, and after the licensing is sorted you're
nearly paying as much as a PC anyway. Also the user experience isn't the
same as sitting at a real PC, it's nearly there, but the performance
isn't all the way there. For instance you can't just add a codec to your
master image to make everything good for new video formats, you'll find
crappy performance as Wyse will not have catered for that codec yet,
shit they've only just got flash working, and even that is a tad flakey.
Instead we'll be buying a bunch for rapid implmentations, temporary work
area set ups, overflow usage, and hot desks and so on. But the PC's will
still be there for a while yet.

 

[Hunter]

Wyse? I thought that they were dead years ago, Fujitsu bought them.
Maybe someone has done a Lazarus on the name. The thin clients look like
we are heading back into the days of green screen terminals, just with
some fancy graphics built in.

Yes, 'thin clients' are SO 19*80*'s! :-(

[...]

The notion of having a memory stick with all the software on it is a bit
suss though, the performance wouldn't exactly be startling.

The software does not have to *run* from the memory stick (only
'install'). Also *data* can be cached and synced.

It can run quite happily from the memory stick though, and perform
without drama. Thinapp is a magic toy. With View you can even "check
out" your work PC to a memory stick (if you have the space), take your
work computer with you on the road, and "check it back in" with all
changes when you return to work.

 

[terryc]

"In a world first, Microsoft's Windows 7 has been installed on every
laptop which is
also equipped with $5,500 of the latest Microsoft and Adobe software and
is wirelessly enabled to allow students to access the internet from
anywhere within the school.

I would love to see the item by item costing to support this assertion.


BUT

"More than 200,000 devices will be distributed to NSW government school
students over the life of this $386 million program.

That is only $1,930 per computer.

"NSW will also employ an additional 400 IT support officers to provide
on-site assistance to students and teachers, providing more jobs in the
current tough economic climate.

nope, they throw another few dollars at the existing teachers in return
for taking on a mountain of work supporting this crud. Oh wait, that is
what happens now.

"The Digital Education Revolution complements the NSW Government's
four-year $693 million investment in providing state-of-the-art
connected classrooms, computer labs and technology to NSW schools and
TAFEs.

Cynically know in the dept as being created so the minister can send out
emails to every student.

"The NSW Department of Education and Training has developed new
world-class curriculum specific teaching and learning resources to be
used with the laptops. The classroom as we know it has changed."

umm, who is paying for the learning resources?

 

[Hunter]

I would love to see the item by item costing to support this assertion.

And then compare it to academic pricing and cough <bullshit>!

Academic pricing is much cheaper, I'd say they'd be hard pressed to
prove the $5,500 even at commercial pricing. And that's not even taking
into account the massive bulk-buy discount they'd be getting. Usual
political spin doctoring and lies.

BUT

That is only $1,930 per computer.

There ya go!

nope, they throw another few dollars at the existing teachers in return
for taking on a mountain of work supporting this crud. Oh wait, that is
what happens now.

Dunno what state you're in, Dept of Ed and Training in WA throws heaps
at the highschools and dismally neglects the TAFEs. Although that may
now change since they've gone full circle and are splitting the depts
after the abortion of merging them.

Cynically know in the dept as being created so the minister can send out
emails to every student.

What, you mean they're finally going to pay for the infrastructure to
run all of this? Know someone that was involved in the PC tenders over
here in WA, and intentionally priced through the roof to miss out,
apparently his mob had tried to push the point that this would not work
without infrastructure to run the gear and was told "that's not your
problem, the promise was on PC's, that will be delivered, infrastructure
not to be included, just price on the PC's". His mob didn't want their
name associated with such an abortion.

umm, who is paying for the learning resources?

Wonder if it'll turn out to be the same in-house abortions that we see
so commonly from govt depts.

 

[Rob]

And then compare it to academic pricing and cough <bullshit>!

Academic pricing is much cheaper, I'd say they'd be hard pressed to
prove the $5,500 even at commercial pricing. And that's not even taking
into account the massive bulk-buy discount they'd be getting. Usual
political spin doctoring and lies.

Any NSW teacher or support staff, full or part time can purchase this
software- yep full versions and double of some bits for under $200.

Microsoft provides a Work at Home Rights licence for all DET employees
(teaching and administrative, full time and part time). Only those
Microsoft desktop products that are included in the Microsoft Enterprise
Agreement and that are installed on a user's workplace computer can be
installed on only one home computer for work purposes.

Includes the operating system, MS Office, and

Adobe Master collection and bits. Adobe CS4 Collection for Windows

includes :Acrobat Pro Extended, Photoshop Elements, Premier Elements,

Captivate, Master Collection (9xDVD) also available for MAC. $84.50

Office Enterprise 2007 Win32 English DVD>> includes Word,Excel etc.
Office MAC 2008 DVD
Expression Web Win32 English Media-replacement version of FrontPage
Visual Studio Pro 2008 DVD
these are $50 each

 

[jonz]

If handing out free laptops is going to improve the apalling level of
literacy in this country or add to it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
prolly status quo......money down the drain. i think a large
percentage of so called "teachers" are only semi literate
themselves....the only advantage may be spell check..


--
jonz
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
- boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." - Gene
Spafford,1992

 

[Clocky]

Hi Gerry

Wasn`t A600`s handed out to you or others
at your school?

Not a chance, we had two Microbees and some ancient thing that read
punchcards ;-)