July 2007 Archives

While I was at TechEd HP was running a pretty good special on their Pavilion TX1000z, all the gory tech details are on this post from TechEd Blog.  The main reason I got this machine was for Kelly to use and so far she has used it 90-95% of the time.  This was the first new machine Kelly has gotten in a really long time, she has mostly gotten hand me downs from others.  She seems to really like the machine.  We haven't used it a lot outside the house yet, but I can imagine it traveling with us on trips.  It is nice to have a portable that I own, even though I said for a long time I wouldn't buy one.

There are only three problems I have seen thus far with the machine.  The first is battery life.  I bought the extended life 6-cell battery instead of the standard 4-cell and it still seems to run low rather quickly.  I attribute this mostly to the Athlon based Turion processor.  AMD just hasn't had nearly the same success in mobile market regarding power usage.  The second problem is the screen's off angle viewing.  This screen just fades to almost nothing really quickly when you tilt it.  This is an even bigger problem considering it is a tablet.  The last problem is the actual tablet input.  Unlike almost all other tablet based computer this machine uses a true touch screen.  The other tablets use a stylus that reflects short range signal from the screen for location purposes.  This enables the screen to never need calibration and never to get out of whack.  This machine with a true touch screen is like a giant Palm screen or Windows Mobile screen, which means it needs to be calibrated often and doesn't calibrate well.  Kelly is better at calibrating than I am but it still isn't as reliable as the other tablets I use at school.

So the final review of the machine?  It is a pretty good machine, but has some flaws.  I have to say though that this HP machine is close to half the price of the Toshiba tablets we use at my school.  Taking that into account it is a better deal.  I would be really upset if I paid twice as much for the machine but as it is it works well for our needs.  If you want one you can get it (without the free Vista Ultimate and Office Ultimate) at the config I ordered for about $50-100 cheaper due to all their rebates, discounts and sales.

I mentioned I was in a dorm at La Salle for the week, the reason for this is I am learning to teach AP Computer Science.  Yes you heard that right I am going to be molding the minds of America's youth.  Since my school was unable to hire a replacement in time for the previous computer science teacher who left I was drafted into the position.  On one hand I am the most qualified (other than my boss maybe) to teach the AP CS class due to programming experience and other experience related to computer.  On the other hand I probably have the least teaching experience (at least with children) of anyone, even first year teachers have had student teaching.

The class I am taking this week is to help prepare teachers to teach AP CS to the required AP curriculum.  It is to help introduce the methods for teaching AP CS and some other ideas for getting the material across.  The class is based on Java, which I have never programmed in.  I have had programming experience with other object oriented languages and have helped others learn them.  If nothing else I will call on Rob who has forgotten more about OO methods than I have ever learned.

Wish my students and I luck this school year.  Oh and a couple of questions I have heard that I thought I would mention since they are somewhat funny.  Are my other responsibilities at the school being reduced? Not that I know of.  Am I getting a raise?  Since the teachers probably make less than me (I honestly don't know, just anecdotal) I should really be getting a pay cut, somehow I don't think that would have been a good selling point.  The one perk I am getting is I will for the first time in my career is a really office.  Four walls, a desk, a door and no servers.

For the first time in almost 11 years I am staying in a dorm again.  Before you ask, no I am not going back to school at least not for very long.  I am at La Salle University in their St. Basil dorm for the week.  The room feels a bit smaller than the room I had at U of I but very similar.  There are two long twin beds, two dressers, two desk and a closet like area (no door).  I am not sharing the room but I do get to use the shared bathroom down the hall.

The one big difference I noticed was they use key cards for access to the building and the rooms instead of keys.  They also have individual Ethernet ports for each person and a phone jack for each person.  Since these dorms are newer they also have AC built in.  The room has a small fridge, but I am not sure if that is just for summer or if all rooms have them all the time.

I also get to eat in the dining hall, which seems to be a small food court like thing.  Nothing to special and pretty small.