racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Textbooks are expensive, heavy, and they translate to a lot of trees being cut down for the paper. In a move to reduce paper usage, costs and strain on students’ backs (or their cars’ suspension systems, I think), St. Paul College is said to be on the lookout for Android tablet suppliers. This is supposedly for 5,000 textbooks, and St. Paul is considering suppliers who are to bid on specifications and price.

This is similar to initiatives in the US that I wrote about before. Colleges and universities are aware of the expense that students have to undertake just for decent textbooks, and so schools are switching to e-text. St. Paul is said to be including the cost of the Android tablet in the tuition/miscellaneous fees. If this pans out well, that would be a good deal, especially if they can bring the cost down to, say, PhP 10,000 (instead of the usual PhP 15,000 up for decent Android tablets). And parents can, of course, pay for it in installments.

Perhaps they can include the iPad in their choices, too. I hear the A.Store is doing an official launch locally this December. If parents can pay for the PhP 24,000+ price in installments, that would be a great deal.

[via Yugatech]

The University of the Philippines (UP) Board of Regents has recently elected a new president, Alfredo E. Pascual. The incoming president is a retired executive from the Asian Development Bank, and is, at present, the univeristy’s Alumni regent. Coming from a finance and development, rather than an academic, background, the incoming UP president might be able to implement bold measures that can help overhaul the current UP administrative and financial setup, which would help lead it toward a of future self-reliance.

Recall that the UP community (of which my wife and I are alumni) is often critical of any change that might hint at “commercialism.” I would agree that UP has used its budget allocation as a crutch, and that the system might not exactly be administratively streamlined at this point. In a Philippine Star column, Boo Chanco describes the current ails of the state university, mostly due to ages-old charter–policies and regulations that limit it from being more forward-looking in terms of finances and efficiency.

The new school year is just around the corner and I can see kids asking their parents to buy them laptops (among other gadgets, like cars, perhaps?). Here’s one practical choice: the Compaq Presario B1256TU. It’s not your top-of-the-line gizmo, but it sure packs a wallop for a compact 12-incher. I’ve been reading rave reviews about it, not mostly because of its performance, but because of its value-for-money.

For PhP 35,990 you get a dual-core machine with 1 Gig of RAM and 80GB of SATA hard drive space. It comes with a dual-layer DVD burner, a webcam, built-in mic, and most standard laptop peripherals these days.

This can practically be the next hit laptop after the Asus Eee–at least, in the Philippines! The B1256TU was, after all, designed to be targeted at the Asian Market. It is (relatively) affordable. The specs are reasonable. And Compaq is a trusted brand. And did I mention it looks sexy, too! It’s no MacBook Pro, but it looks sleek and slick, from what I see at stores and pics online.

Sure, my Asus Eee sells for half that price, but in terms of being a portable workhorse, the B1200 series can compete. And you can’t really compare them. It’s like comparing a main arm to a side arm. Like comparing the range, efficacy and accuracy of an M-16A rifle with a 9mm pistol. Both of them excel at what they’re made for, but they can’t necessarily be compared head-on because they were designed for different (though related) purposes.

One of the reasons it’s cheap is because there’s no OS pre-installed. Well, there is, if you consider DOS still useful these days! But that’s not a problem. If copyright is a concern, and you’re a penny-pincher, you can try Ubuntu. I suppose it should work like a charm, with this baby’s specs. As I’ve written before, Ubuntu can even give a better out-of-the-box experience than Windows. If you want Windows, the cheapest editions, I think are about PhP 4,000 for either Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic.

Worried about RAM? You can upgrade down the road. 1GB sticks are cheap these days. Ubuntu will be fine on 1GB. XP, too. Vista would need more, but you can always just spend the extra PhP 1k each for 1GB sticks. That’s still a practical choice, compared to buying PhP 100,000+ machines with all the bells and whistles.

Now, considering I’ve been on the lookout for a laptop, do you think this cuts it? I’ve been a Compaq user for almost two years now, ever since I acquired my V2000 in July of ’06.

My V2617TS was my cheap laptop find back then, at only PhP 31,000 (less if paid in cash, which I did). But that didn’t have built-in WiFi. The B1256TU has all the works!

So parents, do consider the Presario B1200 series for your kids this June. Hey, my 5- and 3-year old kids are already asking for my Mac Mini and widescreen LCD!

I’ll be heading to Caren and Pia’s school this noontime for a book reading. I will be reading the Gruffalo, which I chose for the cool and exciting characters (scary, but in a funny way). And of course, there’s the lesson. Be smart!

I’m the Pinoy Teachers Network’s Ulirang Guro for the week!

Thanks for the feature!