All the eligible PCs are older models that have no doubt been gathering dust for a year or so. Approved retailers are small and some even look as if they were set-up by the same company with different names.
The grant should be flexible and allow parents to buy their children whichever laptop best suits their requirements.
Someone is rally cashing in.
I don't see how?
The laptops and desktops they have should be more than enough for a child.
Someone left a note on a piece of cake in the fridge that said, "Do not eat!". I ate the cake and left a note saying, "Yuck, who the hell eats paper ?
http://www.homeaccess.org.uk/Compute...er-the-phone1/
Comet & Misco are pretty large, so I'm sure they'd have something suitable?
stone are a pretty big comany as well - they're one of the UK Higher Education approved laptop providers...
I'm still using a laptop from 6 years ago - more than enough for surfing and microsoft word etc.
What exactly are these children gonna be doing? writing software?!
mycarsavw (17-06-2010)
Doubt it, literally everything is restricted on these things..Originally Posted by tiggerai
My sister got one about 6 months ago and everything is blocked. Most games sites were blocked. Facebook is blocked. Installing any game with a rating that wasn't a PG was a no go. So Sims 2 was out of bounds.
I ended up just buying my sister a whole new laptop with which I could do whatever I wanted with.
The grant is not there to pay for bleeding edge hardware. My sister still uses a laptop I originally purchased over 7 years ago. She does a lot of web browsing and research along with general office use (Word and Excel). A child using the grant for its intended purpose shouldn’t need more than this.
A well implemented grant (not saying this is or isn’t) should offer the minimum required so it’s not too attractive to those that would abuse it.
Yeah, people getting “free” stuff.
Up until a week or so ago, I was using a 5/6 year old Thinkpad day in day out no problems at all.
That did, and still can easily handle any form of word processing/internet browsing etc etc that would get thrown at it, so it is more than enough for any child to be using!
It's not the point if these can do the job, the point is the price for which these are being sold today, is not the value for money. And your choice is restricted to hand full of models that are old compared to ones you can buy yourself. Which one would you buy an i3 for £450 or a crappy Celeron for £400
Comet have only one model that they will give and parents have no choice if they can buy any other model or add own fund to buy a better one.
And across the participating retailers the models are the same.
Perhaps the government should claw back some of the money, especially with all measures being taken currently.
From what I can tell from the website, these laptops and such are to be used for learning purposes. Playing games, going on Facebook or accessing game sites. So if the laptop is locked down to prevent the above from happening, then surely it is fit for purpose?
It didn't fall off, it merely became insufficient at it's purpose and got a bit droopy...
Please see my point above about “attractiveness”. If you offer a current model unit for the “competitive” sticker price then it’s more open to abuse. Offering limited models and keeping this the same across all retailers reinforces the point. It’s not meant to be competitive. It’s targeted specifically at those that cannot afford an alternative, not those that just want the government funded option.
There absolutely should NOT be an option to add a little extra from your own pocket for a better model. Again, see above, not the point of the scheme.
I would be surprised if the government were paying full sticker price for the items. If so, the idiot who negotiated that deal should be fired.
If it was the choice between spending £450 of my own money or getting a £400 laptop paid for by soemone else, I'd shut my trap and quit complaining, personally...
The prices are standardised, set by the government, and I seriously doubt that the government actually turns over that much money to the companies involved. But as I have no personal knowledge of the workings of the system - and I assume that you don't have that knowledge either - it's all kind of moot. You get a grant, you pick the system that you're getting essentially for free, and you're happy that it meets your requirements. Or, you shell out your own money for something "better". You don't sit and whinge about the fact that you perceive some companies to be making a profit out of the scheme...
p.s. and since it's funded by BECTA there's every chance that the scheme will be scrapped before too long...
Are you seriously saying, selling old goods at a new price is a way to stop abuse? There are currently measures to stop people abusing regardless if parents are given choice. And if someone wants to abuse it they can still do at that. Or how about reducing the price.
But there is an option to add a little extra just as long you are restricted to same models. So you are even given the choice throw away your money too.There absolutely should NOT be an option to add a little extra from your own pocket for a better model. Again, see above, not the point of the scheme.
Well I agree and my point, but I don't think those prices are there for fun, they must be paying marked prices, hence the quoted prices.I would be surprised if the government were paying full sticker price for the items. If so, the idiot who negotiated that deal should be fired.
The point I was making was if you had to add £50 on top of £400 grant. And I have no personal interest in this.
But if they're given a laptop, surely being able to play games and talk to their friends is just as good of a learning exercise as any of the crappy learning program they have installed on it?
No-one studies 24/7. Everyone, especially children, enjoys playing games.
And everyone saying the model of the computer, an Acer in my sisters case, is crap and not worth £400.. Have you considered all of the fully paid for software that comes with them? They come with a tonne of software, but it is crap software.
All systems are open to abuse, that is a given.
By having items with low real value with a high retail value there is artificially reduced demand due to the elasticity of the market. If the government were giving away free iPhones I can see a LOT more people abusing it due to the high real value attached to the item.
Then the government loses their bargaining power with the manufacturer to buy a set number of fixed laptops at a given price. I assume you mean "some" and not "same" otherwise that comment is insane that you would pay more for the same thing.
For a start they won't be paying VAT. Secondly if anyone paid retail they should be fired. Paying retail on that scale is something only someone who truly didn't care, or was too inept, at their job to do, as such they (and their supervisors who ok-ed it) should be fired.
It's not a £400 grant, it's a grant for a gov provided computer, there is no direct value to the grant, all you are doing is putting £400 on top of nothing.
I agree and disagree
This learning material is material they can't easily access outside of schools
Facebook is social networking, you don't need an internet connection for that. It's called going outside and talking to people, I'm sure > 90% of the population is capable of doing that. You don't need a computer to play games either
Games may prove a part in the development of social skills of the current and future generations, however there are suitable substitutes that are less costly.
You have obviously never had a dissertation to do. And no one is awake 24/7 to study otherwise they would be suffering extreme hallucinations among other medical concerns.
The point is not to give the child a massively overpowered machine with Adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas and Visual Studio 2010, it's to provide tools they can aid in their learning.
The laptop is not 'worth' anything, you didn't buy it, it was a gift from the government with strings attached with the terms of it's use. It's crap to them because they are not being given one, for free, and would have to pay the retail to get one.
If you don't want the laptops I'm sure they will happily take them back off you, in order to give it to someone who would use it for the intended purpose.
I suppose the internet they also provide for free, for learning purposes isn't fast enough and ports for torrenting are blocked, and during peak times you can't play online because of your ping
I never knew port forwarding and the use of peer to peer data distributions systems to be part of the curriculum, nor how to pwn someone online.
Facebook is quickly becoming a part of most childrens lives. Same as Bebo and all other Social Networking sites.
My sister came home a few days after she got the laptop to say she wanted a Facebook cos all of her friends had one, and when I told her she couldn't get on it, she was pretty upset.
I don't really see a reason why Facebook is banned from the computer though.
Children of 8 years don't do dissertations.
It was a figure of speech. And you've just contradicted yourself.
Yeah, I don't expect it to come with any of that. I was saying that the value that these places put on these laptops isn't just for the hardware, it's also for the software they come with, like the 15 months of Anti Virus and other software.
The laptop is worth £400 though. If you aren't eligible for the Home Access Grant then you can purchase the exact same package for £400.
I didn't say I didn't want it.
I never once mentioned the internet, or ports for torrenting or my ping for gaming. We didn't receive the internet because we already have an internet connection.I suppose the internet they also provide for free, for learning purposes isn't fast enough and ports for torrenting are blocked, and during peak times you can't play online because of your ping
It's not, that's why my sister doesn't do any of that. And even if she did, it would be on the laptop I bought her, not the government.
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