Anders -- I like your hypothetical coverage of the school board. I was a journalist for several years, fortunately with an independent newspaper that valued good reporting, and I think it is pretty close on to the truth.
But there are a couple of things wrong. You overestimate the crookedness of the officials, and you underestimate the laziness of the school board and the reporter. I'd bet that this is a situation where the superindent and some favored IT person have decided on their own that early trading in is a good deal, they recommend it to the school board **with a commitment already in hand from someone, presumably Apple, to honor the trade** and the school board supinely goes along without quite understanding what's going on, and the stenographer -- sorry, reporter -- from the local rag, who REALLY has no clue of what is going on, produces the gibberish we have seen transmitted all over the net.
The aforementioned favored IT person is scared of change, and has been quietly having a nervous breakdown for the past two or three months about it, and the superintendent, who is an agreeable type who is expert on budgets and service contracts but ignorant about technology, has gone along with this decision on grounds of the favorable exit they got from the lease. The IT person gets his security blanket, the superintendent makes his budget, and everybody is happy, until a year from now when it is clear how much zippier the Intels are.
Maybe not much more than we do, but enough to know that Mactels are coming.
Scene One: (Somewhere it the school's IT department)
Apple Geek: "Hey, new iBooks are coming and they will be powered by Intel"
IT Head: "No shit? How will they run PowerSchool? These iBooks we have will be getting old soon, if Apple shifts to Intel we might as well get Dells."
Apple Geek: "But the new iBooks will be much faster with Intel inside!"
IT Head: "I don't give a shit about speed, I care about compatibility with our current set-up, I don't want the hassles of a platform change."
Scene Two: (IT head's office, Apple rep present)
IT Head: "I hear that the new iBooks are going to be powered by Intel)
Apple Rep: "That true, it was announced at the WWDC in June"
IT Head: "It's all over the Internet that new iBooks will be announced in January"
Apple Rep: "I can't comment on that, or any future products, but maybe I can get you a good deal on our current products."
IT Head: "Get back to me with a proposal ASAP."
Scene Three: (Steve Jobs' office in Cupertino, VP of education present)
VP Ed: "We have a school worried about the Intel switch, Steve."
Steve: "Fuck them, let them get with the program!"
VP Ed: "They are worried about PowerSchool's ability to run on Intel."
Steve: "Fuck them, that's why we spent so much money on Rossetta!"
VP Ed: "We have a lot of current iBooks in the channel, they will be dead meat in January, these guys can take them off our hands if we can cut a deal on an exchange for what they have now."
Steve: "What the fuck do we want with old iBooks you idiot!"
VP Ed: "What if we pressure one of our resellers to take them? You know like that deal we cooked up to offload all those Powermacs from Virginia Tech."
Steve: "No reseller in their right mind would want those ancient outmoded iBooks you asshole ... hmmn wait a minute, " (Steve thinks for a moment, then yells out to his secretary) " Get me Charlie Greco (IDG World Expo president) on the phone"
(moments later) Steve: "Charlie, have I got a deal for you"
Comments
Originally posted by cubist
Wow, David Pogue has Nitrozac & Snaggy! Wish I could go.
Thread title should be "School boards know nothing! Confirmed!"
The Steve note is only 1.5 hours long! is that long enough for all the rumors floating around?
But there are a couple of things wrong. You overestimate the crookedness of the officials, and you underestimate the laziness of the school board and the reporter. I'd bet that this is a situation where the superindent and some favored IT person have decided on their own that early trading in is a good deal, they recommend it to the school board **with a commitment already in hand from someone, presumably Apple, to honor the trade** and the school board supinely goes along without quite understanding what's going on, and the stenographer -- sorry, reporter -- from the local rag, who REALLY has no clue of what is going on, produces the gibberish we have seen transmitted all over the net.
The aforementioned favored IT person is scared of change, and has been quietly having a nervous breakdown for the past two or three months about it, and the superintendent, who is an agreeable type who is expert on budgets and service contracts but ignorant about technology, has gone along with this decision on grounds of the favorable exit they got from the lease. The IT person gets his security blanket, the superintendent makes his budget, and everybody is happy, until a year from now when it is clear how much zippier the Intels are.
Maybe not much more than we do, but enough to know that Mactels are coming.
Scene One: (Somewhere it the school's IT department)
Apple Geek: "Hey, new iBooks are coming and they will be powered by Intel"
IT Head: "No shit? How will they run PowerSchool? These iBooks we have will be getting old soon, if Apple shifts to Intel we might as well get Dells."
Apple Geek: "But the new iBooks will be much faster with Intel inside!"
IT Head: "I don't give a shit about speed, I care about compatibility with our current set-up, I don't want the hassles of a platform change."
Scene Two: (IT head's office, Apple rep present)
IT Head: "I hear that the new iBooks are going to be powered by Intel)
Apple Rep: "That true, it was announced at the WWDC in June"
IT Head: "It's all over the Internet that new iBooks will be announced in January"
Apple Rep: "I can't comment on that, or any future products, but maybe I can get you a good deal on our current products."
IT Head: "Get back to me with a proposal ASAP."
Scene Three: (Steve Jobs' office in Cupertino, VP of education present)
VP Ed: "We have a school worried about the Intel switch, Steve."
Steve: "Fuck them, let them get with the program!"
VP Ed: "They are worried about PowerSchool's ability to run on Intel."
Steve: "Fuck them, that's why we spent so much money on Rossetta!"
VP Ed: "We have a lot of current iBooks in the channel, they will be dead meat in January, these guys can take them off our hands if we can cut a deal on an exchange for what they have now."
Steve: "What the fuck do we want with old iBooks you idiot!"
VP Ed: "What if we pressure one of our resellers to take them? You know like that deal we cooked up to offload all those Powermacs from Virginia Tech."
Steve: "No reseller in their right mind would want those ancient outmoded iBooks you asshole ... hmmn wait a minute, " (Steve thinks for a moment, then yells out to his secretary) " Get me Charlie Greco (IDG World Expo president) on the phone"
(moments later) Steve: "Charlie, have I got a deal for you"