What does “clout” mean?
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/clout
Are you not a native English speaker? It’s not an uncommon word.
Nope.
It’s the first time I’ve seen this word.
Another word for fame
Thanks
deleted by creator
Also reputation
Aura
Net Cred
Yeah basically it’s like good aura
Google didn’t respond to Ars Technica’s request for comment.
To be fair, I don’t really see why they should. Chances are they didn’t factor in that level of stupidity when designing those things.
It makes sense that they wouldn’t have anything to comment anyway. Google themselves don’t actually manufacture most Chromebooks, they only provide the OS. I imagine the majority of the mass of Chromebooks in the world by weight are actually designed and made by Lenovo, Asus, Dell, HP, etc. Even the Google branded ones are manufactured by someone else under contract.
It’d be like demanding Microsoft explain to the news why your Dell caught fire simply because it had Windows installed on it.
That’s another thing I was wondering about; Google used to design their own Chromebooks, but those always were the premium options and way too expensive for school use.
Well, maybe a school-issued computer should be designed differently than a consumer device.
Maybe such things should be considered beforehand.
In industrial ergonomics you are supposed to, ideally, present a worker with a few buttons with abundantly clear results of pressing them and no forbidden combinations leading to unexpected\undefined\dangerous results.
Kids sticking things into what’s given to them are not an unexpected event. I’d say kids doing that are better than kids not doing that. And if it’s expected, then this is almost entrapment.
Oh, oh, OH, you can’t just put a consumer device with a web browser with Google and MS and Apple shit into schools then? No kickbacks from those companies? So fucking sad.
Forcing a kid to wear around a centrally managed device with a microphone and a camera makes me want to vomit. That should be illegal as many other things. It’s a disgusting world.
These should be military-level (by resilience to attempts to throw them out of the window, sink them in the water, overheat them and so on) devices with something like FreeDOS+OpenGEM. That’s by far enough to run school programs. If you think it’s not, then you are possessed by collective delusions, that’s a thing in crowd psychology, so drink a glass of water, listen to cars\birds, look at the sky and answer which fundamentally new tasks you need to solve as compared to having year 1999 Internet (as in open a static webpage, follow links, send forms), WordPerfect and Basic. Especially at school.
We use axes, knives, hammers and screwdrivers and other stuff to do things, more or less as they existed 300 years ago, when we are not professionals, who of course use power tools.
Unsure why this has downvotes and not more conversation, it’s not that hot of a take and downvotes don’t mean anything here.
It’s maybe not that hot a take to lifelong nerds who grew up with the Apple II and are disconnected from how kids use computers in schools in the 21st century.
“School computers should be more durable and run Linux” isn’t that hot a take. FreeDOS??? WTF?
Not to mention that he basically called everyone who disagrees with him stupid.
Arguably they already do take physical abuse into account, by focussing on cheap replacements
with something like FreeDOS+OpenGEM.
Sigh. Watching windows users try to make sense of the computing world is always cringe.
I’m not a Windows user. Unix-likes are also too complex for most tasks.
And your tone evokes suspicion that you’ve switched to Linux not so long ago and think that brings authority. Nah. It’s just an OS. Its users are as qualified as Windows users. When you’ll be able to explain to me how an IP packet passes through the networking stack, or something like that, then maybe. At least how virtual memory works, or swapping, or syscalls, or process scheduling.
OK, admittedly I don’t remember shit of any of that.
Just - wanting something more minimal doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of Unices.
That’s not cheap. Schools can’t afford that. The kids know better.
Chromebooks are much more expensive than normal computers.
A Chromebook for school kids costs around $200 when I was in school 5 years ago… A normal computer would cost closer to 500
Chromebooks are cheap compared to average laptop but still expensive compared to identical laptops with same components.
So I should have said overcharged instead of expensive.
2GB ram chromebooks you can find on ebay are an exception as they are not getting any more updates soon.
A normal computer would cost closer to 500
Wrong.
That can be as cheap as Chromebook. Expenses at reliability are partially redeemed by no need for such complexity and computing power.
Chromebooks that schools use don’t have any computing power to speak of. There’s none to lose
Perhaps it’s more like “Kids short-circuiting school issued chromebooks because of excessive surveillance.”
…but probably not (or at least, not entirely) because many kids are dumb.
source: was a dumb kid.
Nah, before Chromebooks we’d vandalize the text books and desk.
I would take the balls from mice
And also computer mice
Which also meant that they had to seal them in…
Which means that you couldn’t clean them out when they got dirty.
Fun times.
Excessive surveillance? It’s school property lol
It’s school property with a camera and microphone in their homes lol
Recording everything just in case they’re cheating lol
You’re assuming that they’re ones that leave the school property. You’re also assuming that they are constantly recording audio and video, which being chromebooks we know they’re most likely not since they’re low spec low storage devices since they’re cloud based.
It happens, for security sake it’s usually safer to prepare for the worst case scenario.
Hi there, I’m currently in highschool. You don’t understand how school laptops work. There was a court case where a school laptop was recording from a child’s home - it actually happened.
Also when you shut the screen it doesn’t turn off all the way. I’ve had times where I shut the screen, out it in my bag and 45 minutes later on my Bluetooth headphones I’ll head the windows notification sound.
And just for clarity, do I personally believe that they are spying with audio/video? probably not tbh.
Do they track EVERYTHING you do on the laptop? yes. Very obviously yes.Hi there, I’m a tech enthusiast who has worked in the industry longer than you’ve been alive. I know how they work, but thanks for trying to teach me (honestly, good on you for the way you’ve gone about your post)
Closing the screen hasn’t been a complete shutdown in at least a decade. It defaults to a low power state. On devices that are more “always on” like Win10onARM and Chromebook devices, they default to a low power state that still receive notifications etc. This can be changed, but likely not on a school owned and issued device.
Yes, they obviously track everything you do on school issued devices. This should be clear to everyone. It would be spelled out in the terms and conditions of getting it in the first place. The case you’re talking about was almost 20 years ago iirc (2007 I believe), and the photos taken by the device were part of a “help us retrieve stolen devices” thing, that was “not adequately explained” to the parents/kids. It would regularly take photos so it could have evidence of who stole them and where they might be.
This is also assuming there’s some mastermind at the school compiling all this data versus some teacher working essentially a second job dealing with broken chromebooks every day because kids are irresponsible. Suggeating this is anything but good old fashioned vandalism of school property is ludicrous, but it’s also an expected conclusion for here on Lemmy. Some of the comments in this thread are seriously unhinged.
To sum it up, kids are dumb and always have been and it’s nothing more than that.
Check out the down/up votes on your comment vs mine, and also the stupid conspiracy theory one I replied to. People on here are so brainwashed that they follow every dogpile they see, which in this case is purely because of who is saying something - me in this case. I’ve got a bunch of lemmings following every comment I make across instances just spouting hatred and abuse and downvoting and reporting everything. An admin has even confirmed to me that 90% of the reports they get, and there are lots, are from the same users over and over and over on every comment I make.
Lemmy is so far beyond gone it’s not even funny at this point. The actual reality and truth doesn’t matter, only what the mob decides does.
Yeah, here and Reddit, I find myself nodding along often enough, and that’s when I know I should perhaps adjust my viewpoint, just for the sake of making sure I’m not just nodding along. It’s unfortunate you’re perhaps being brigaded a bit, but it doesn’t matter. I say what I’m gonna say, people can think whatever. I like to think that we can come here speak on things, have philosophical discussions, but it feels like sometimes the whole discussion has been aimed in a certain direction before it even got underway.
Yeah I don’t care about “karma” or any scores, but I do like to use it as a way to gauge the “temperature” of the conversation. As soon as the dogpiling starts happening, and benign comments that are in no way disagreeable - or even the same as other comments that are highly upvoted - are mass downvoted, you know that you’re in a circle jerk echo chamber.
I’ll happily continue voicing my opinion and defending my stance, but I know it’s a losing battle because the majority aren’t here to actually learn or discuss or change their minds - they’re here to circle jerk and tell each other how bad the thing they hate is and shame those who don’t hate it as much as they do.
Man I’m so sorry to my highschool Chromebook. They gave me that shit in yr seven and I was incapable of keeping things in one piece at that age. I think every key had been taken off by the end of the year and there were several holes in the outer casing.
These kids know they’re gonna be replaced by tech and they’re fighting back
The ones that are dumb enough to do this won’t be getting jobs to be replaced anyway.
So you mean there are laptop USB ports out there without current limiters?
I would want to check my PC’s ports, but I am not filthy rich, so I’ll just assume stuff is not current limited.TikTok is poison for the mind.
It literally shrinks your brain with excessive usage.
I wish we lived in a world where they’re doing it because they don’t want locked-down toys issued by an evil corporation. But of course that’s not the reason.
P.S. proprietary software should be illegal in education. Full stop.
I suppose the question would be the alternative.
Note the devices actively discouraging offline save is a huge asset to schools, since kids screw up a lot, forget their devices and need loaners to get through a day and such. Extra bonus if the device can’t be too fun, to avoid them being overly used at home and get broken more.So Chromebook is desirable because they suck so much.
I was thinking of buying a Chromebook for travelling cause it’s cheap. I was very close to buying one, but someone told me about the world of used ThinkPads. I ended up buying a used ThinkPad with an AMD R7 4750U and I am so glad I did. It can run literally every game I want lol
It depends on your use case. A same cost Chromebook would be much lighter, faster with the things it can do, and over ten hour battery life. As always, a lot depends on cost: a school districts bulk $50 buy will always be horrible but you can get a much nicer “high end” Chromebook for a couple hundred
I don’t game much and considered a Chromebook for basic travel use, but went with a tablet.
faster with the things it can do
What do you mean by this? Surely you don’t mean actual performance, right?
I don’t game a ton but having the performance to be able to do so is really nice IMO. The battery life is great as well (like 6+ hours depending on what you do etc), and being able to put any OS I want on it is huge too. I also like how durable it is too.
I feel like if I got a tablet, I’d want a keyboard, and then a mouse too. That’d still be best for portability though, most likely, but it’s kind of nice having a full laptop experience.
Actually I do. The thing is a Chromebook can’t really do things you normally associate with performance, like gaming. However I’ve found decent ones to have a snappier ui than low to medium windows laptops
That’s the thing with a tablet: what’s your use case?
I’m not a fan of the keyboard and mice: they work well enough but now you have a bunch of pieces to keep track of and you need a table or desk. If I need a keyboard I prefer a laptop/chromebook form factor because it’s just one piece to deal with and you can use it on your lap
I realized that I spend way too much time e consuming media, but with light typing, such as this reply. a tablet is great and I’m perfectly happy writing on screen. Actually I’m on my phone at the moment. I do use my phone for most things, so maybe I think of the tablet as a larger phone screen for times I don’t need to be as portable
That’s why I bought a fold, not a Samsung fan but I didn’t want to buy a separate tablet and I really like the sweet spot this phone offers.
99% of the time I’m just using the front screen, but when I want or need that extra real estate (gaming, admining my homelab remotely, partially watching a yt video while doing chores) it’s really nice that it’s the same device and I can continue exactly what I’m doing on a bigger screen.
ThinkPads generally aren’t low to medium Windows laptops though, they’re literally several thousand dollar machines. It’s just they age incredibly well, so they end up on the used market at a heavily discounted price after a while. I’d be surprised if a Chromebook outperformed a ThinkPad when it comes to actual performance.
Yeah that’s a good point about keyboard and mice, that’s kind of why I like having an actual standalone laptop. For me I feel like a tablet isn’t as portable as a phone, but it’s also not as useful as a standalone laptop, so it’s kind of hard for me to find a use case for it.
Man I feel like a large part of the internet is out of reach.
Why have I got to sign up for tiktok just to watch this happen?
Shit like this used to be easily finable on google or something. Now I can’t seem to find shit. All I get get in news articles about it.
That’s generally a good thing, those kids don’t need their bullshit going viral outside of tiktok. Give it 3 months for Instagram to pick up 5% of it, and then FB can pick up 5% of that.
Yea but if I want to find something I want to be able to find it.
Looks good to investors when they say “this many accounts use this platform.”
It’s all a part of conditioning people to accept more and more abuse so rich people can get richer.
They don’t want people with standards. They want people with Stockholm Syndrome.
Fuck chromebooks anyways, Google shouldn’t be allowed to steal so much information about our youth directly from the devices they use at school. They should be using laptops with Linux installed on them, preferably PopOS to preserve the kids privacy.
I don’t condone damaging school property, although I think it’s a lesser evil to Google’s privacy practices on Chromebooks.
They should be using Debian, the universal operating system.
Debian works too, it really doesn’t matter as long as its not windows and google Chromebook crap.
Linux distros aren’t all made the same, but they’re all pretty much the same in spirit. Tux is universal.
I personally think that Pop!OS is a user friendly distro that would be an easy introduction to Linux for students while also focusing on privacy and security with less clutter.
Yeah, no worry about the lithium fires. Fuck those chromebooks.
I agree but I’m not sure why specifically popos though
Pop!OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a custom GNOME desktop.
It is designed to have a minimal amount of clutter on the desktop without distractions in order to allow the user to focus on work.
This distro was also designed with security and privacy in mind.
So students can more easily focus on their work while also being more secure and private while using an easy to use interface, I know it’s not the only one but its a good one!
Linux mint or something fedora based are also good choices. Lots of flavors out here in the linux world.
I’m with you, but that’s not the reason these kids are doing this. It’s because they are idiots.
r/kidsarefuckingstupid
the so-called Chromebook Challenge includes students sticking things into Chromebook ports to short-circuit the system.
I am rather surprised that works. I thought any modern device would have overload protection in place. I think I even remember accidentally tripping it on some device, but it would just reset after reboot.
I also tried to see the max output current of my previous phone this way. Load it up till the protection trips. Result: Stable up to 2.1A, tripped at 2.5A.Oh, yeah. A Xiaomi phone charger I have also shuts down if I either overload it or immediately load it near max rating rather than gradually increase the load.
Maybe they are poking a hole in the lithium battery
once put usb-c in a usb-a port and my desktop pc performed an immediate reboot without any permanent harm…
People used to do this in the UK with their ZX spectrums.
Parents and psychiatrists have been trying to wrap their heads around how some of the more dangerous Internet trends take off, especially among kids.
Kids are dumb and they do dumb things. There’s not really that much to wrap one’s head around.
And it’s not even like Internet trends are a new thing. TikTok has simply offered a platform that’s extra predatory about it.
I can imagine that TikTok has been for Internet trends, to what slot machines did for gambling.
Yeah, like, first time?
The presentation has changed slightly but the content is much the same. Back in the good old days I was a moderator on Totse forums (the original, but its web bulletin board incarnation and not when it was a BBS) and we literally had an entire subforum just titled “Bad Ideas.” This was where things got launched, torched, smoked, blown up, stolen, scammed, or otherwise mutilated. Or at the very least all of the above talked about, at length. All of this with an strong implicit suggestion to try it yourself. Most of the kiddos did not actually have the means to pull of what they claimed they did but the ones who could and more importantly had the means to prove it were celebrities. Usually only for a short time, for various reasons.
The early Internet was basically just a repository for bickering about Star Trek, low grade porn, plans for how to build potato cannons, or schemes involving smoking dried banana peels. An immense amount of stupidity has always been there to be found, because the place was and is full of teenagers and teenagers are stupid.
I sure was, when I was one.
Anyone else remember kids watching videos of other kids nearly choking to death on cinnamon, and thinking “hey this looks like fun”?
Or the “chug a gallon of milk” thing? Those “trends” were just weirdly masochistic and sadistic. It wasn’t even misinformation or anything. Kids watched other kids suffer, and then chose to suffer too.
I can imagine that TikTok has been for Internet trends, to what slot machines did for gambling.
It’s closer to what mobile apps did for gambling. Crazy how quickly that was normalized in the US, and it’s tragic how easily people can just delete thousands of dollars from their bank account on a whim from the comfort of their couch.
I guess what I’m saying is, maybe sometimes children and adults really do need some protection from their stupid impulses.
As I age I find myself feeling more and more like the cool step-dad or uncle.
Y’know I hate everything Chromebooks stand for. “You get 'em, kid. Now how about we get some pizza?”
