What is Digg?66 Comments
- brownboi43, on 10/12/2007, -5/+34Need to bust out the ol' bootleg MS Office and load it on the new laptop.
- Rice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24I found that article useless... utterly useless.
I didn't get a single thing out of it. What the hell was that? - ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22openoffice.org
spybot search and destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/
VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Azureus http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
Firefox.com
iTunes.com
all free, all great, and make sure to scroll through sourceforge.net - XorSystem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19All most students need is the basic word processor, maybe an office suite, and ability to print/surf the net. Any 10 year old PC could technically work fine.
The few who need more (engineering students for example) might need a graphics card. - adfsj, on 10/12/2007, -13/+30Don't go bootleg, getting office is easy: http://www.openoffice.org/ its almost as functional as MS office, and best of all its totally free and ready to download!
- pab89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11This article is rather US-centric. Over here in the UK our schools and colleges don't supply minimum specifications for student's computers and they certainly don't support Linux. The educational networks are very much standardised on Windows, so Mac OS is pretty much out of the picture as well. That said, I have to wonder how powerful a machine is required to access their resources. In my college, so long as you have a machine capable of running Windows XP, you're sorted. Any other OS / hardware configuration will mean practically no support whatsoever.
- ActiveMatx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I agreee. I like to think that DIGG users (especially those who hang out in the technology section) are a little smarter than this...
...this is stuff you would more likely read in Good Housekeeping... not on a computer tech site.
How some sites make the front page I have no idea.... But I think DIGG needs to re-vamp it a bit. - bigbird1040, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Burried as LAME. Seriously, is there anyone that reads digg that would actually need this article?
- thesauce, on 10/12/2007, -6/+15actually, any windows based off the NT kernel is very stable...
- Crass22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8yeah how beefy of a machine do u need to print up some essays? unless ur into graphics design, engineering, architecture, or any computer heavy degree then u could probably be fine just using the computers in the library. either way if ur planing on going to college for a computer related career and dont know the basics of what a computer is then ud probably go back to high school for awhile.
- adfsj, on 10/12/2007, -9/+15whats up with all the openoffice.org haters? let those ppl who would otherwise pay a lot of money see that there is an easy and free solution!
- MrTea, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@adfsj
Open Office is pretty good, except when it comes to equations. IMO, Open Office Math is horrible compared to M$'s equation editor or Mathtype. - kinkysexradio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Software for Starving Students
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/softwareforstarvingstudents.html
It's great. - IMustBeEmo, on 10/12/2007, -12/+17Don't forget Opera. Web browser + IRC client + BitTorrent client
It's like Firefox without the memory leak =]
http://www.opera.com - kieranbenton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What a complete load of clap trap - since when have the "minimum requirements" for accessing resources on campus actually meant anything?
- aliguana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3back when I was in college (Bristol in erm... 91? can't remember), we did all our computing course using the Unix server they had there. The only PCs in the labs were just basically terminals for it. Don't know what its like these days with these new fangled... what are they called? Windows?
- MrCodeDude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Reading that article is a complete waste of time. All that joker does it tell you to look at your college's minimum hardware requirements and getting a machine with at least those specs. Really? I would have never guessed that's what the minimum requirements were for. Thanks for clearing it up!
- SirGrant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Put it as lame, it's like "oh have an up to date OS and new hardware and you are ready" yeah sorry why don't you have some usefull info like links to apps that could really help a student.
- Xinex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The problem with Office is that they've completely redesigned the interface (to be much much better) so Open Office will be outdated in terms of interface. I'm sure that a lot of people won't care about the new interface, but it really is nice.
- Tennen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is common sense.
- foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3the basics:
adobe acrobat reader
firefox
nero (it's the best)
vlc
winrar
divx + xvid
the office... "thingies" *ehem* "thingie:"
ms office (sorry, it too is the best)
the defenders:
adaware
spybot
windows defender (microsoft anti-spyware)
avg
zonealarm
crapcleaner (ccleaner)
the players:
quicktime + itunes
real (or real alternative)
the messengers:
trillian
skype
"teh 1337ness:"
bittorrent (bittorrent, azureus, utorrent, whatever...)
i swear to you, with that mostly-freeware software package, you'll be able to get through anything and get anything done.
p.s.
of course i left out an email client. with all the web-based email out there, they're almost insignificant; but i use thunderbird. ;) - aliguana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2includes Azureus and Exact Audio Copy, coz every student needs their cd warez ;)
that cd is a great idea, but by the time you download it, won't a lot of the stuff be out of date? Why not just a list of the software, download what you want. - smedstadc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Azureus is the worst kind of software to bring onto your college network. The Bittorrent protocol is designed to maximize bandwidth usage. Get too many people on your campus thinking they can use Bittorrent and all of a sudden the campus network is saturated and everyones connection starts to suck. It happened to us... once uTorrent and others started supporting encryption our packet filtering system couldn't block it, and that day our DNS server kept timing out, our Gateway was clogged with *****, and in-game pings skyrocketed. Boy-oh-boy did our WoW community make a fuss in the campus chat.
Get a bunch of geeks together and start a stealthy campus DC++ hub. As long as the hub server doesn't broadcast it's presence across the network, and no stupid freshmen start blatantly talking about it in front of the IT department they'll turn a blind eye to it. However, most colleges will hunt down Bittorrent users... because the MPAA and RIAA harass their Administrations about it's usage. - sapo916, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not that many great deals at this moment, just surf the Hot Deal sites and you will find something cheap soon.
Here are some points of interest, http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=156637&WT.mc_n=55209&WT.mc_t=U&cm_ven=AFFILIATE%20MARKETING&cm_cat=COMMISSION%20JUNCTION&cm_pla=DATAFEED-%3EPRODUCTS&cm_ite=1%20PRODUCT&cm_keycode=55209 $450 after rebate
Fairly powerfull Dell $700
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=19&kc=11111&oc=E1505ECIRC&x=0&y=0
Id recommend you just wait it out and wait for a Deal to strike. - HAKdragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The kernel for OS X (Darwin) is Open Source. Apple uses a lot of Open Source software with OS X including Apache, CUPS, SSH, and Samba.
- bootle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@MrTea
LaTeX? - MadKennyP, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Many schools also have additional requirements if you wish to take exams using their exam software. Some software runs on recent versions of Windows as well as OS X, but some schools will only support Windows users.
- SimonDonkers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm currently in university in the Netherlands and my school has some very simple requirements.
Nothing else exists except for Windows.
Nothing else exists except for Internet Explorer. If you use anything else most sites simply block you access based on user agent but there's a select few sites that allow you to enter which simply don't function in anything other then Internet Explorer. However don't get to revolutionary with IE7 as that isn't supported yet. I had IE7 installed but that basically means I have no way to access sites to get homework, grades, subscribe to school tests and submit papers.
Anything's good from IE5.5+ to IE6.0 and they support both Outlook Express and Outlook but there email can't be read in any other client. A long range of new features is only available when running Office 2003 although these aren't yet required.
Basically just use only the most recent version of any Microsoft program and you'll be fine. But don't even dare to walk over to the other side or you won't be able to submit papers or subscribe to tests and will thus fail. - golhra, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10Ubuntu! Thank goodness the college works with Linux.
- marnaq, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Is this an ad or something?
- Promantarius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Foxhoundadmin: He's going to college, not planning his personal leisure time for the next two years. There's no reason to have iTunes really, unless you're one of the iPod crew who're telling apple that DRM cages rock, there's certainly no use for realplayer in an educational situation (it is highly unlikely that a school would encode using their codecs) and izArc offers a free alternative to winrar. I also don't believe it's wise to use bittorrent on a public connection which is monitored by the people determining your future, especially considering they will be looking for it.
It's nice that you want to help, but there's really no reason for the excessive entertainment software - too many entertainment programs on your computer will only serve to distract you from your goal (which is to study).
As for the office productivity software debate, the only thing OpenOffice has on MS Office 2007's beta is that it's free, while MS Office costs $1.50 at the moment. Sure, it'll go up when it's properly released, but students can get massively discounted (or perhaps free) versions of MS software through their schools. I've tried both, but the new interface for MS Office simply blows OpenOffice away. Of course, you don't really have a lot of choice if you use Linux (unless you emulate it), but that again is personal preference as students can usually get access to low cost or free versions of Windows.
With this, I'm simply challenging your statement that you'll get through anything with that software combination - you're more likely to get distracted with irrelevant materials which could cost you your grades. - deltaphi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 My Notebook is up-to-date, but my PC is 5 years old. I can do everything with that PC I need to do for my study. Internet, Word and even Eclipse for programming works just fine on this machine. Like someone else said: A ten year old PC would be enough for study use, except for a few special needs, e.g. graphic design.(Photoshop works on my PC. Not fast, but okay)
This article is useless and the comments here are mostly off-topic. I don't understand why this has over 100 diggs... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OF COURSE is it ready. The real question here is
IS COLLEGE READY FOR MY PC? I WOULDN'T BE SO SURE ABOUT THAT!!! - feedmecereal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4@Niz1
You're on Digg and you didn't know that OpenOffice exists? Where have you been? - adfsj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well at my school you have to bypass all the spyware(cisco clean access) and antispyware(spybot) they try to put on your computer if you want to access the internet...Fortunately, its very easy to bypass (Cal Poly users serch for: Freedomkey on waste :-) )
At other universities might want to take a look at dirty access, and use "sec cloak" to make that work - DiGiTaLFX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1When I was at uni last year, they were running RedHat Linux in the computer lab. And when setting up personal computers in halls, there were "rough" guides to doing stuff in the set-up guide.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FREE SOFTWARE !!!
http://www.phazeddl.com/
http://www.scrapetorrent.com/
to crack software just follow instructions that usualy come bundled with it off hack or torrent sites. usually entails replacing a file in the directory(program files) - dfunct, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You should think of it as money making opportunity, let people know your the local *nix / OSX geek and you'll be swimming in free drinks!
- TheCookieMaker, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6http://www.writely.com/
- zeptobyte, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@Paktu
I had IE7 for a while, though still using Firefox. Then I got to school and they changed around authentication this year. I have to use Cisco Clean Access Agent, and it kept crashing when trying to login. I eventually found out it was because I had IE7 installed. They make us use the program to enforce good security practices, but then we can't have a more secure version of the browser. Sad. - paulmdx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Over here in the UK we also use "university". ;-)
Seriously though, my uni supported Linux when I left in 2001 (hay days). In the grand scheme of things other than transfering work files, what sort of support do you need? Just browsing their website and gaming / file sharing with your friends surely? ;-) - Portside, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Really, "college ready"? Running MS Office hardly requires a monster machine now, does it?
Buried for being lame. - adfsj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Hack cisco clean access" on google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hack+cisco+clean+access&btnG=Google+Search
- PayneX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Are they starving because they paid for overpriced hardware?
- poopc4, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1My astronomy class required use of some planetarium simulation software that ran like crap on an old ATi card with 64 megs of memory, put it on my gaming machine and it worked like a dream. I would say most requirements are more recommendations for your own leisure. Although I can send e-mail on my old 166MHz lappy why would I want to wait 10 minutes when I can do it all almost instantly with a good machine. My school recommends we buy think-pads at the 50% student discount to ease our learning experience. ;)
- MrTea, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What you NEED to do is learn how to properly maintain your system.
- Portside, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1That's the biggest load of mac fanboy ***** I've ever heard. I used a windows laptop throughout my college (which I finished just this year) and I had no problems whatsoever.
There was a guy in my class who used a mac laptop too. He had huge difficulties using the windows-based network printers, couldn't access parts of the college network (again, windows based) and didn't have a great deal of luck with visual basic either.
In short, having a mac was a huge hinderance to him. - ozcaN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Can anyone point me to a link for a good dell laptop that i can pick up for a decent price that i can use in college.
- jatlasb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Not true at all. I have a desktop up at college, and it's no trouble to me at all. In fact, I'm probably a lot less inconveneinced because I'm not constantly worrying about my computer being stolen like my room mate was.
- u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1for software nothing bittorrent cant help, as for hardware, just get a dell, even though they are horrible, and just reformate
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