Law School exam software: no mac support=no macs

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  • Reply 21 of 30
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    What I find amusing in this is the uni market is actually pretty kind to Apple. Quite a few students use iBooks or Powerbooks so if there was anywhere that should support both you'd think it would be universities. That said I know of quite a few departments that demand you have a PC.
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  • Reply 22 of 30
    skatmanskatman Posts: 609member
    Quote:

    I'm the one funding this and I refuse to have some Microsoft corrupted, Orwelian college IT administrator tell me that my kids MUST use Windows.



    Instead you listen to self-proclaimed king of religious fanatics to tell you that you need a Mac?

    Why not let your kids find out exactly what the truth is?! Isn't that what education is about?



    Quote:

    I've actually told my daughters that part of their school of choice decision should be based of whether the school is Mac friendly.



    Unless your kids are sponsored by Apple that is plain stupid and is nothing to be proud of. Education has nothing to do with which type of computer you're using.



    Quote:

    With all the news of Mac moving to Intel, I'm not sure if this will help or hurt to motivated them.



    How is Intel involved here? What did into do wrong?



    If anything moving to Intel should motivate your kids to move to a Mac. Hey, it's not often that Apple makes a good decision, but this time, every Mac lover should be proud!



    Quote:

    I know zero about software development,



    That should have been your first sentence.



    Quote:

    but this seems to be something

    that could easily be done by a dedicated group of student developers for project credit.



    There is a saying that when a person believes in something that this person doesn't understand, the person often suffers because of his/hers/its beliefs.



    Again, I would definitely recommend that, rather than, forcing your beliefs upon your children, perhaps you should have them earn the computers by researching various options in the Mac and Windows and Linux world and present to you a report and recommendation on what they found.
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  • Reply 23 of 30
    I am SO happy to answer your post skatman!



    You see, my daughters have been working with both platforms since they were tall enough to reach the keyboard.



    About four years ago, I bought them a Sony Vaio desktop, mostly to keep them from destroying my Mac and because they wanted to be able to work with both platforms here at home.



    Now after they have seen the difference between the two operating systems

    first hand, they are in complete agreement that using Windows is a nightmare

    and both of them can't wait for a new Mac Mini to replace their Vaio

    and another iBook for school next year.



    They know how to keep their system secure, but the time they've wasted on

    security maintenance, crashes, freezes, reboots, lost data and general hassle

    didn't need my input at all to help them make a decision.



    You Sir have simply shown us here that there is still much work ahead

    breaking down these boundaries of misinformation.
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  • Reply 24 of 30
    nerudaneruda Posts: 440member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by skatman



    Again, I would definitely recommend that, rather than, forcing your beliefs upon your children




    Going on a tangent here, but what you call "forcing your beliefs upon your children" others call parenting. :-) When parents try to teach their kids morals/values/...etc, isn't this "forcing" their beliefs on them? How many people end up having the same religious/political/... beliefs as their parents? Very few people grow up and then choose any of these things.



    Or do you suggest that we take all seven year olds and put them into barracks like the Spartans? No thanks. If anyone is going to be forcing anything on my kids then I'd rather it be me.
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  • Reply 25 of 30
    nerudaneruda Posts: 440member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Junkyard Dawg



    I'm curious, how exactly did the Exam4 developer and the university blame Apple for the lack of OS X compatibility? Did it have something to do with Apple not supporting a proprietary Microsoft API like ActiveX?




    Exam4 does not have a native version of the program, but recommended that students run the program through Virtual PC. Apparently the ability to emulate Exam4 was broken when VPC hit version 7 and Exam4 just decided not to address this.



    Two things about this: 1. I wrote the dean and the software developer asking exactly how this is Apple's fault, since Apple does not develop either application and pointing out that the fact that Exam4 does not support OS X natively is Exam4's responsibility.

    2. This software crashes on very rare occasions (happened twice last semester). I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be on the fourth hour of a five hour exam and have the freaking computer crash on me, therefore, I would not want to take any test through the emulation of a program (too many things could go wrong).



    Again, a decision like this has real consequences. The number of powerbook/ibook ownwers had been steadily climbing at the law school during the previous year, but now, the students that were cosidering getting ibooks next semester are reconsidering. SecureExam is cross-platform, the NY/NJ bar exams use it, so there is a viable choice.



    Only a Mac user for three months. I LOVE OS X but there are a lot of other issues that you have to deal with as a Mac user. It would be best if I could also run Windows natively (to run Windows only programs, for example), so maybe when Mactel rolls along this won't be as big of a problem.
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  • Reply 26 of 30
    Hopefully, now that Intel has clearly endorsed Mac OS X as the finest OS on the Planet, this will put more pressure on the Windows Only developers to write

    for both platforms.
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  • Reply 27 of 30
    skatmanskatman Posts: 609member
    Quote:

    Going on a tangent here, but what you call "forcing your beliefs upon your children" others call parenting. :-)



    When they're 6 years old, I would agree with you.

    When they're 18 and heading off to college, it's too late!
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  • Reply 28 of 30
    nerudaneruda Posts: 440member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by skatman

    When they're 6 years old, I would agree with you.

    When they're 18 and heading off to college, it's too late!




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  • Reply 29 of 30
    I'm fortunate that my kids formed their own opinions based on their own experience using both operating systems.



    I'm wondering how all those law students will feel once they hear about Microsoft's agreement to support the restriction of free speech by the Chinese government.



    Once again Microsoft shows us that profit is far more important than ethics

    or the most basic human rights of those crying out for freedom.
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  • Reply 30 of 30
    nerudaneruda Posts: 440member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by FallenFromTheTree

    I'm fortunate that my kids formed their own opinions based on their own experience using both operating systems.



    I'm wondering how all those law students will feel once they hear about Microsoft's agreement to support the restriction of free speech by the Chinese government.





    Law school is hell if you are a middle of the road moderate (since everyone here, from the administration to the students, are a bunch of commies). Law students are a bunch of liberal "Much Ado about nothing" whiners. So yeah, there would be bra and effigy burning on campus if they knew about this since it doesn't take much to warrant a bra and effigy burning in law school



    Don't get me started on China. MS's position (if indeed that is their position) is not that different from that of the US goverment's since Nixon's visit. Decades of an embargo against Cuba, but China gets to join the WTO? Could the billions in trade have something to do with it? Hmm.



    http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng

    http://www.cnd.org/June4th/



    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693580/site/newsweek

    As my friend said after reading this article, "I better start learning Chinese".
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