Nebraska Pork: State Senate Buys 70 MacBook Air Laptops At $1,524 Each

[Knightskye]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10534817


State Sen. Kent Rogert of Tekamah lauded the MacBook Air's added mobility and ease of use.

"They're great," Rogert said. "It fits inside my jacket."

Right, I'm sure he only carries a suitcase when he's meeting with lobbyists.

For those of you who haven't looked at the specs of the MacBook Air:

- One USB port.
- No optical drive (CD, DVD, etc.)

But wait, it gets worse:


So you can spend $1800 dollars to get a drive-less, ethernet-devoid, connectivity crippled notebook with mono audio, an ancient hard drive, dubious processing speed (1.6 GHz), and a general lack of options. They won't even trust you to change the battery! This should tell you what they think of the average consumer. Just be glad you didn't spend $3400 to pick up the SSD and a 0.2 GHz bump. Oh, and the 5 hours of battery life is nothing to write home about either, especially in a stripped-down product. Suddenly being the "thinnest laptop" seems like a shitty trade-off.

http://www.logictv.com/blog/2008/1/15/Why_We_Hate_the_MacBook_Air_77.aspx

I suggest reading the rest of the blog entry.

Anyone have a less expensive idea that would have gotten them more bang for the taxpayer's buck?

By the way, that was $106,680 (plus shipping, I imagine) they spent on those laptops.

[libertarian4321]

They probably could have bought a perfectly functional notebook PC to do the same job for about $600, but why economize when the taxpayers are footing the bill? Go ahead and buy the most fashionable and expensive Apple product you can find!

What a waste- just a small example of whats wrong with government at all levels in this country.

[ihsv]

So you can spend $1800 dollars to get a drive-less, ethernet-devoid, connectivity crippled notebook with mono audio, an ancient hard drive, dubious processing speed (1.6 GHz), and a general lack of options. They won't even trust you to change the battery! This should tell you what they think of the average consumer. Just be glad you didn't spend $3400 to pick up the SSD and a 0.2 GHz bump. Oh, and the 5 hours of battery life is nothing to write home about either, especially in a stripped-down product. Suddenly being the "thinnest laptop" seems like a shitty trade-off.

Wow! An idiot-proof notebook! Just what the doctor ordered for the lobotomized bureaucrat!

[Smoke the Liberty Tree]

So thats why stocks were up for apple !!!

[lucius]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10534817
...Anyone have a less expensive idea that would have gotten them more bang for the taxpayer's buck?

Acer Aspire One @ $350, make sure it has the six-cell battery instead of the three-cell (5+ hr charge, vs. initial 2.5 hr). Makes for a functional, low-cost ebook reader (keyboard is not too bad), at least until Kindle comes out with a revision to fix their initial release, or better yet, iRex drops their price.

But fine for politicians who need wifi to surf-porn/check-emails.

http://www.slashgear.com/gallery/data_files/7/4/Acer_Aspire_One_1.jpg

[Knightskye]

Acer Aspire One @ $350, make sure it has the six-cell battery instead of the three-cell (5+ hr charge, vs. initial 2.5 hr). Makes for a functional, low-cost ebook reader (keyboard is not too bad), at least until Kindle comes out with a revision to fix their initial release, or better yet, iRex drops their price.

But fine for politicians who need wifi to surf-porn/check-emails.

http://www.slashgear.com/gallery/data_files/7/4/Acer_Aspire_One_1.jpg

A savings of $82,180, that they could have used on some WoW subscriptions and badass headsets. :D And the rest (or just all of it) could have gone to charity.