Vending Machine Dispenses MacBooks for Student Use | Hacker News Reader

Vending Machine Dispenses MacBooks for Student Use

newsblog.drexel.edu

44 pointsdwynings48 comments

That seems pretty cool, provided the computers are cleaned regularly and one has a workflow which is sufficiently non-local.

Here are the primary reasons which always keeps me from using our university’s computer pool’s computers:

1. Horribly dirty keyboards.

2. Horrible keyboards.

3. The computers are outdated (as in: really slow).

Given these points are avoided — which comes at a cost for cleaning and up-to-date hardware — the offer is attractive to me.

I also love the concept, but I'm curious how they'll handle user security -- How would they prevent key-logger installation or something of the sort.

The same way it's handled on all other university computers I assume. There's no saving on the hard drive because they are wiped between uses and a new environment is setup each logon. That's the way it's handled at my university, looking from the outside I'm not part of the IT dept.

Sounds like they're using something like Deep Freeze. Assuming that kiosk can programatically reboot the laptop upon checkin that is a pretty simple solution.

http://www.faronics.com/products/deep-freeze/

Neat.

I suppose this uses the 'Security Slot/K-slot' and pushes it out of the foam receptacle (via a solenoid) when a purchase has been made? Returning would be reverse, checking continuity with the lock cable when it's inserted...and maybe a RFID tag inside the case to detect the laptop ID?

I've been spending a good amount of time thinking about networked bikesharing locks, so that's my guess at how this works:

Well that puts a higher price on stolen student id cards!

Not if the university applies a pin/password system.

Having been a university student and knowing the types who circle around on campuses, they'd just beat it out of you.

But, assuming saving to HDDs aren't allowed, why handout MBPs rather than chromebooks? You can get four of them for the price of one Mac Book.

More applications on Macbook for one. It probably includes those installed on desktop iMac that the university has (e.g., MS Office, Matlab, Strata etc.)

I'm not from Drexel but in my university, computers are configured to automatically mount network drive that I can save files in.

Chromebooks are nowhere as capable as the Macbooks.

more capable yes, but are they good enough? for most college students (excluding CS,IT, Engineering etc)i would say yes and like someone said 4 Chromebooks for the price of 1 macbook. from what i have done with Google Apps and Chromebooks, i would say the chromebook is probably a better fit out of the box for this use case than a Macbook.

Not having MS Office is a dealbreaker. It's not a matter of being able to do what you need on Google Docs, it's lack of perfect MS Office compatibility with back/forth revisions, track changes, etc.

Also, why exclude engineering? Drexel has pretty big engineering, science, and math departments. And I'd imagine some of the softer majors like business, accounting, etc, still need their own software.

> why exclude engineering?

I think the grandparent post was saying that engineering students (as well as those for other named disciplines) may have a need for non-webbased software that a Chromebook wouldn't adequately satisfy.

Right. My point is that they use the library too.

I'm not saying use chrome books exclusively, buy chromebooks for the english 1101 term papers and macbooks for engineers.

so instead of buying 2 macbooks, you've bought 4 chromebooks and a macbook for the same price.

how many people actually use those features though? i never did in 4 1/2 years getting a Bs of IT. a chromebook is not going to work for everyone. but for the vast majority of library work it will do just fine. would i want to write my Senior Capstone project on it? No. but English 1101, 1102 essays and term papers sure.

Every group project will involve passing Word documents/sections thereof back and forth and less than perfect compatibility is a huge pain when you're doing that. Also, using track changes is very common these days for professors returning comments on drafts.

I guess a lot depends on the Applications that the students want to use. My understanding is the ChromeBook is more web app focussed (though it does have the ability to run some local apps) - but the MacBook could have the full suite of 40-50 apps that a student might want to use loaded on the Mac.

I was a student technician in our Micro Computer Facility at SFU, and we had Windows, Macintosh Facilities - and each one of them had a _ton_ of instructor provided applications, course-directed application, and department provided applications, in addition to the standard Word Processing/Graphics/Spreadsheet/Stats/Graphing packages.

I have to believe that as Bandwidth (Hello 802.11ac!) and device performance improves, the pendulum will swing back to web apps again. Still 3-5 years early for that though.

I would assume it is a software/application issue, perhaps a screen resolution issue too. I always thought an interesting application of the Motorola ATRIX tech where your smartphone plugs into a 'dock' which turns it into a laptop, would be public laptop/screen stations that you could then put your 'compute unit' into and be online.

We use IPMI in our data center which provides 'console' access to a PC type system (servers in our case) over the network, and I've wondered if you could create a 'desktop' over a suitably fast network that could be instantiated with a network key and some local peripherals. Its a logical (if extreme) endpoint on the terminal/xterminal/thinclient/remote connections path.

I wonder how they manage patching, resetting and general maintenance of the devices being rented.

This is basically the equivalent of a computer lab (remember those places? me neither)... but you happen to be able to take the computer with you instead of being stuck in a seat. I assume they will use whatever management tools they use in those labs.

I'm not so sure. The article states that Drexel is the third school on the East Coast to use such a kiosk. Another option is that whoever provides the kiosk takes care of maintenance as well.

Right, I imagine that the WHO is different. But the what/how (i.e. what software they use, how the machines are configured, etc) is probably pretty darn similar. Really, how is it different than a session in a computer lab, except that the person picks up (and eventually returns) the computer, instead of sitting in the lab? Why reinvent the wheel here?

It's a question of ownership & service contracts. The article is light on details.

If the school owns the laptops, and whoever provides the kiosk only provides kiosk (and not the laptops) you might very well be right. However, I imagine whoever runs the kiosk is also "renting" the laptops to Drexel, and Drexel pays (via a support contract) for that company to keep the machines in working order.

Plus, if it is the latter, there's no guarantee that the group that runs the computer lab even had any say in this. I The library is a separate entity from from the computer lab/help desk.

I don't think we are disagreeing here. When asked the question "how are these maintained", I was providing a technical answer (with similar tools that labs use) and you are providing a business answer (by outsourcing). Both are valid answers, and appropriate perspectives for HN.

I'm saying both are possible answers but we can't know because the article doesn't have enough details.

My Uni still had computer labs (at least, for people taking CS classes) and I graduated in 2012.

Massive, high-resolution screens, nice keyboards, and a social atmosphere meant I actually used them quite often.

Filewave or JAMF Casper for updates, I'm sure.

It would be cool if the vending machine was built like a dock for each machine, and would re-image the computer when inserted back to the current standard operating environment.

I wouldn't at all feel safe walking around their campus at night carrying any expensive electronics, so this is a fantastic idea.

I would have loved this when I was in college. Even though I studied mathematics, I needed my computer for everything. I got all my books in digital format (for a significantly lower price or free) and typed my homework in LaTeX. I lived 30 minutes walking from campus so by the end of my senior year my back was killing me.

I wonder how physical security is handled. Losing a student ID is a not too uncommon for college students. Without someone checking to make sure the person holding the ID matches the picture on the ID, what is going to stop someone from finding/stealing an ID and using that to "borrow" a laptop from this machine?

I would guess there is an ATM like pin code that you would have to enter.

what was wrong with putting desktop machines in the library which you can check out by, you know, sitting at the desk, and which are hard to steal because they are bolted to the furniture?

what exactly are we maximizing here? the amount of money spent by the university?

Are you really asking why someone would want to use a laptop instead of a desktop?

Students could take it off campus to their home or use it anywhere outdoors within campus, take it to some other location off campus.

Also, Macbooks are < $1k with an educational discount. How is it a waste of money to make 12 more computers available to students that can be used anywhere on/off campus?

When I worked at a medium sized American public university 2 years ago, and a small public school district 5 years ago, the desktop Windows PCs they purchased were around $800 each without a monitor, so I doubt that the price difference is very significant unless there is a big difference in the lifetime cost due to different failure rates and warranty terms.

Assuming every student has a laptop anyway[1], this basically caters "to students who don’t want to carry a laptop while walking late at night from their dorm or off-campus housing to the library".

What's the point of getting one "for five hours of use" to take it off campus or home if you have a laptop off campus or at home?

What dire need exactly does this solve? Put computers in the library for people who, well, work in the library. If you want to work elsewhere, do bring your own.

[1]: And I know of no student who does not own a laptop[2]

[2]: Cue anecdotal evidence of that one person of a student body of thousands of people without their own laptop...

If you have ever walked in the area where drexel students live, you probably wouldn't want to carry your laptop from your home or dorm to campus. I didn't go there, but I lived nearby.

Mhm, it makes somewhat more sense to be able to borrow one at the university if security is indeed a concern. I still wonder why it has to be a laptop, though, since desktops (and maybe communal working spaces[1]) seem to fit the bill just fine.

[1]: The University of Edinburgh for example has workspaces called "pods" with a big screen and a desktop that allows for a group of students to work together and display relevant files/work on the big screen.

> I still wonder why it has to be a laptop, though, since desktops (and maybe communal working spaces[1]) seem to fit the bill just fine.

You can't take a desktop with you. Sure, you can go to the computer lab, and there will probably be enough computers that you can sit next to each other, and you can probably talk quietly enough to not disturb anyone else around you.

You definitely can't take a desktop with you to class. I've tried.

You only really need 12 pieces of anecdotal evidence - one per laptop - and suddenly, it's a pretty valuable service to those 12 students.

I do not think buying laptops is a waste of money. I think building a vending machine for laptops and paying insurance for the number of laptops who will inevitably get stolen or damaged is silly.

Yeah, I don't get this. Especially now that tablets and ultrabooks are commonplace, the need for such a system doesn't really seem to exist. My laptop[0] weighs only 3 lbs - very easy to carry around. And if I don't want to, I can always just use my phone or Nexus 7.

0: http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/x-series/x...

It's more a matter of not wanting it to get stolen on your way to the library walking through sketchy Philly.

Seems like there's a larger, social issue that needs to be solved in that case.

One not really solvable by Drexel. Penn has tried for years with only moderate success, and it has a huge endowment to play with.

NC State installed those a little while ago too. Haven't used them personally but they seemed pretty nice and very convenient.

Nice! I would love for computers to be more of a commodity!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com