all those students im coffee shops using Macbook Airs...

[lefty]

WTF?

is it some kind of trend

[Libri]

I know. It's a ridiculous and sad spectacle. Long gone are the good old days when you could take your Smith Corona and type away without any disturbance.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18ha4c75m7le4jpg/original.jpg

[InRareForm]

annoying shit

[Captivus]

Idiots...

[Cry Havoc]

WTF?

is it some kind of trend

They probably got them through their University. Lots of colleges have buying programs for laptops now.

[DarrinS]

Lol @ being annoyed by these people while you are in a place selling $7 cups of coffee.

[lefty]

They probably got them through their University. Lots of colleges have buying programs for laptops now.
Yeah I know that

But why go for the Macbooks airs?

Its not their only option

[Cry Havoc]

Yeah I know that

But why go for the Macbooks airs?

Its not their only option

Because they're shiny and lightweight and they did absolutely no research or thought to the drawbacks of those netbooks.

In fairness though, I barely use an optical drive anymore. They aren't horrible. The lack of a removable battery is pretty awful though.

[Venti Quattro]

Lol @ being annoyed by these people while you are in a place selling $7 cups of coffee.

[lefty]

Lol @ being annoyed by these people while you are in a place selling $7 cups of coffee.
:lol

By Starbucks, I mean coffee shops

Fuck SB, overpriced, burning hot coffees that taste like shit

[MannyIsGod]

Macbook Airs are great computers. Thats why they're popular.

[bluebellmaniac]

Yeah I know that

But why go for the Macbooks airs?

Its not their only option

Windows computers are incredibly prone to viruses, thus too much down time. Add to that, the incredibly horrible (in productivity, visually and in performance) OS's that have come out of Redmond these last few years, and the idea of getting a windows laptop is quite unappealing. You can't have down time with your laptop when you have projects and papers due. Macbooks are based on Steve Job's NextOS, which had as it's core FreeBSD (or one of the BSD variants). It's rare to have a virus problem on a Mac and the interface is pretty easy to pick up on. Add to that the perks of integrated iTunes, iPhone, etc and you have a collegiate winner. Not to mention that the battery life blows a windows machine out of the water.

I personally prefer Linux, but there are problems when running that in college. For one, MS Word is about the only word processor that supports APA style, which has some arcane rules. Rules that I can only imagine were adopted at the behest of MS so as to create additional barriers to entry.... but I digress.... APA style is a popular style for many papers on campus. Thus you are stuck with needing Word, but preferably not on a Windows machine.

[Drachen]

Windows computers are incredibly prone to viruses, thus too much down time. Add to that, the incredibly horrible (in productivity, visually and in performance) OS's that have come out of Redmond these last few years, and the idea of getting a windows laptop is quite unappealing. You can't have down time with your laptop when you have projects and papers due. Macbooks are based on Steve Job's NextOS, which had as it's core FreeBSD (or one of the BSD variants). It's rare to have a virus problem on a Mac and the interface is pretty easy to pick up on. Add to that the perks of integrated iTunes, iPhone, etc and you have a collegiate winner. Not to mention that the battery life blows a windows machine out of the water.

I personally prefer Linux, but there are problems when running that in college. For one, MS Word is about the only word processor that supports APA style, which has some arcane rules. Rules that I can only imagine were adopted at the behest of MS so as to create additional barriers to entry.... but I digress.... APA style is a popular style for many papers on campus. Thus you are stuck with needing Word, but preferably not on a Windows machine.

You can't center align in Gdocs (or open office)? You can't double space? Does Open office not have times new roman? How about shift tab for references? What about APA is unique to word, or even hard to do in anything other?

[bluebellmaniac]

You can't center align in Gdocs (or open office)? You can't double space? Does Open office not have times new roman? How about shift tab for references? What about APA is unique to word, or even hard to do in anything other?

Specifically, the header on the cover sheet that is different than the header on the rest of the document. In APA, you need one type of header on the cover page and then have a different one on the rest of the document.You can accomplish what you need if you are turning in a hard copy (by making 2 documents and printing what you need). But if you are turning in a soft copy, you will need this in a single document and Gdocs doesn't do that. It's an arcane rule which is why I suspect fowl play in it existing.

[Drachen]

Specifically, the header on the cover sheet that is different than the header on the rest of the document. In APA, you need one type of header on the cover page and then have a different one on the rest of the document.You can accomplish what you need if you are turning in a hard copy (by making 2 documents and printing what you need). But if you are turning in a soft copy, you will need this in a single document and Gdocs doesn't do that. It's an arcane rule which is why I suspect fowl play in it existing.

I am familiar with APA, but thanks, i didn't think about that, though my schooling is over for at least a decade as of last December. I just did a quick google search and found this. It might help you. http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=44607

I guess you can use office with WINE for complete ease of use, but it seems that openoffice has workarounds.

Lastly APA Style has been around since before Bill Gates was born.


P.S. if it seems like I am trying to defend APA, I am not. I couldn't stand it for much the same reason that you can't. Dumb arcane rules. I loved riverpoint writer.

P.P.S. I also hate hardcopy. When a professor would ask for one, I would look at him/her like I was Jane Goodall.


Edit: annoying solution, but can you create pdfs in Linux? Create title page, put in pdf, then create paper, put under title page in pdf. would this suffice, or do your professors require the ability to make changes on your doc?