Computing, Will I Need A Laptop?

DaveyDave

I'm hoping to do computing in NCI in September. I'm currently doing a FETAC 5 in Media Production and have almost completely stopped doing work in college due to the general frustration of the computers. All of them are slow, have outdated software and internet speeds of <0.8Mb, when it works.

Would it be wise of me to invest in a laptop over the Summer or are the computers in NCI high enough spec? I have a custom budget rig at home that makes work an absolute breeze, I'd like to have a similar experience If I'm going to be doing a course for 4 years.

Can someone enlighten me on their experience with the computers in NCI?

Adam

The computers are passable, for the amount of work you actually do on them in class I'd say save yourself the 600+ quid you'd need to shell out on a laptop to get noticeably superior performance! The internet has never been down in the year I've been there, and it's high speed.

uck51js9zml2yt

you Will need a laptop for a computing course. it needs to be configured to the network by it.
wifi can be glitchy in the nci . been there 2years.

skimpydoo

Yep you will need a laptop. I am doing the postgrad cloud computing course there and without my laptop I would be lost and also not able to complete the course.

Adam

Did you lads read the thread at all? He has a pc at home.

uck51js9zml2yt

Adam wrote: »

Did you lads read the thread at all? He has a pc at home.

we have lectures in the lecture halls. laptops are invaluable there as they are when working in the library.
don't see him carrying his pc in everyday.

Adam

Carly Dry Warden wrote: »

we have lectures in the lecture halls. laptops are invaluable there as they are when working in the library.
don't see him carrying his pc in everyday.

The only lectures you have in the Computing course that aren't in front of a pc are the ones that don't require a pc!

Are you doing the computing course Carly Dry Warden?

Trust me OP, you won't need a laptop for first year with a pc at home, I can guarantee you that.

uck51js9zml2yt

Adam wrote: »

Carly Dry Warden wrote: »

we have lectures in the lecture halls. laptops are invaluable there as they are when working in the library.
don't see him carrying his pc in everyday.

The only lectures you have in the Computing course that aren't in front of a pc are the ones that don't require a pc!

Are you doing the computing course Carly Dry Warden?

Trust me OP, you won't need a laptop for first year with a pc at home, I can guarantee you that.

I'm doing a postgrad in computing .
if you want use the online notes and make notes on a laptop as opposed to printing them off and using pen and paper then you need a laptop . also useful for checking sites referred to in lectures.

skimpydoo

Adam wrote: »

The only lectures you have in the Computing course that aren't in front of a pc are the ones that don't require a pc!

Are you doing the computing course Carly Dry Warden?

Trust me OP, you won't need a laptop for first year with a pc at home, I can guarantee you that.

Tatranska is right. We are on the same course and a laptop is invaluable. You will be able to do course work in the library which is a lot less noisy then any spare rooms or labs with computers in them. Adam it's handier to have all your course work, labs and notes in the same place hence the laptop. It's handy to be able to view websites etc that are mentioned during classes and also you can bookmark them. Bookmarking on a college pc is grand but its a bitch transferring them to your computer at home.

Adam

Sorry but if you find transferring bookmarks a bitch, maybe you're in the wrong course. I'll leave ye to it.

skimpydoo

Adam wrote: »

Sorry but if you find transferring bookmarks a bitch, maybe you're in the wrong course. I'll leave ye to it.

Well also the fact that some of the software I use for my course is only installed for my laptop. Also in my course laptops are mandatory. What course are you doing Adam?. I also wonder how you plucked out the figure of 600+ for a laptop. €500 will get you a decent Toshiba laptop that will do the job.

Adam

Ronan Leonard wrote: »

Well also the fact that some of the software I use for my course is only installed for my laptop. Also in my course laptops are mandatory. What course are you doing Adam?. I also wonder how you plucked out the figure of 600+ for a laptop. €500 will get you a decent Toshiba laptop that will do the job.

I'm doing computing.

And I'm not saying you can't get a laptop cheaper than 600 quid, I'm saying you would be spending more than that on a laptop to see a noticeable increase in performance over the pc's in college. And as the OP is planning to do the course I'm in, a pc at home will be perfectly fine. I have a laptop and have never had a need to bring it in, and in a class of 80+ people, maybe 10 of them regularly bring in a laptop, usually for no real reason.

So all I'm saying is save your money for the first year at least, as it won't be necessary.

skimpydoo

Well Adam if you don't need it in the first year of your course then you are lucky. Laptops are mandatory on our course.

Clanket

I do the computing course at night and never bring my laptop in. The college PC's are perfectly adequate.

You can then log in to your NCI virtual desktop through Citrix from home and transfer any files you've changed/created in college. Or work off a USB memory stick.

Seems like a waste of energy lugging around a laptop to me.

skimpydoo

Clanket wrote: »

I do the computing course at night and never bring my laptop in. The college PC's are perfectly adequate.

You can then log in to your NCI virtual desktop through Citrix from home and transfer any files you've changed/created in college. Or work off a USB memory stick.

Seems like a waste of energy lugging around a laptop to me.

What course are you doing?. Our Post Grad Cloud computing course is evenings and weekends and a laptop is mandatory. How can you do group project work if you are confined to the labs?.

Adam

Ronan Leonard wrote: »

What course are you doing?. Our Post Grad Cloud computing course is evenings and weekends and a laptop is mandatory. How can you do group project work if you are confined to the labs?.

You mean the labs with all the rows and rows of pc's sitting right there?

Clanket

I'm doing the Computing degree. And as Adam says, why would you need a laptop when there are rows and rows of computers.

Anyway, because we're doing it at night we do most of the group work on our own time, at home.

DaveyDave

Thanks for the input guys. I guess it would have been better to ask what exactly is done on the machines in the college. Essays and the like I have no problem doing as long as the internet works, I don't even do essays in the college I'm in now because the sub-par 0.8Mb internet with Internet Explorer 8 being poxy and the like.

I just know in the course I'm on now I'd prefer my own machine for sound and video editing because the computers in there despite being recent, are complete kack, I just don't want to be in college doing **** all and having to work at home.

Clanket

Computers are fine. Internet is fast. You'll need headphones for sound although you won't be doing much of that on the Computing course

clubcrown

DaveyDave wrote: »

Thanks for the input guys. I guess it would have been better to ask what exactly is done on the machines in the college. Essays and the like I have no problem doing as long as the internet works, I don't even do essays in the college I'm in now because the sub-par 0.8Mb internet with Internet Explorer 8 being poxy and the like.

I just know in the course I'm on now I'd prefer my own machine for sound and video editing because the computers in there despite being recent, are complete kack, I just don't want to be in college doing **** all and having to work at home.

Right now there are 12 people using the library computers and almost all of them are on facebook

The computers in here are fairly good alright. One thing to think about; round about project submission and exam time, the labs and the library computers get fairly busy, and the labs get fairly noisy. So its of benefit to you in that scenario to have a laptop to go somewhere else and get a bit of piece and quiet.

I think its almost always better to have your own laptop, its gives you flexibility to work wherever you like, and makes group projects a lot easier if you can meet in the canteen or an empty classroom or wherever. The labs are often busy with classes, so you might not be able to use them at certain times. Particularly for the part time students - most monday/wednesday nights and all day saturdays the labs are full with the part timers doing classes.

I'd say if you can afford to get a laptop it would be invaluable to you, but if not, then don't sweat it; you'd do fine with the computers in the college, depending on how busy things are.

kippy

Rather ironic that the course in cloud computing requires you to have a laptop with you at all times and that a few people who appear to be doing it have issues "transferring" bookmarks from one device to another.......

I've no idea what IT systems are in place in the NCI but with most colleges now, course notes are available from anywhere in the world with internet access, and as are certain apps (it appears in NCI anyway - via Citrix).
As such I cant see why you would need a laptop (it might be handy to have but not a necessity)

clubcrown

kippy wrote: »

Rather ironic that the course in cloud computing requires you to have a laptop with you at all times and that a few people who appear to be doing it have issues "transferring" bookmarks from one device to another.......



I've no idea what IT systems are in place in the NCI but with most colleges now, course notes are available from anywhere in the world with internet access, and as are certain apps (it appears in NCI anyway - via Citrix).
As such I cant see why you would need a laptop (it might be handy to have but not a necessity)

Cloud computing students do a fair bit of work inside virtual machines. One module last year required installing the azure local fabric for example. There are other restrictions on the college machines that make some parts of the course difficult as well, hence the requirement to have your own laptop. That's a course requirement, by the way, Ronan is correct on that front.

But that's irrelevant for the o p, he's not doing that course.

kippy

clubcrown wrote: »

Cloud computing students do a fair bit of work inside virtual machines. One module last year required installing the azure local fabric for example. There are other restrictions on the college machines that make some parts of the course difficult as well, hence the requirement to have your own laptop. That's a course requirement, by the way, Ronan is correct on that front.

But that's irrelevant for the o p, he's not doing that course.

I am sure they do, I still find it a strange requirement for a course, particularly in cloud computing.

clubcrown

kippy wrote: »

clubcrown wrote: »

Cloud computing students do a fair bit of work inside virtual machines. One module last year required installing the azure local fabric for example. There are other restrictions on the college machines that make some parts of the course difficult as well, hence the requirement to have your own laptop. That's a course requirement, by the way, Ronan is correct on that front.

But that's irrelevant for the o p, he's not doing that course.

I am sure they do, I still find it a strange requirement for a course, particularly in cloud computing.

Why so? You need admin access to do a lot of our stuff. You don't /can't get that logged in as a college student in the labs.

skimpydoo

kippy wrote: »

I am sure they do, I still find it a strange requirement for a course, particularly in cloud computing.

As ClubCrown said some of the things we don't work on the college computers because of restriction's. We had major problems last year with Heroku accounts on our laptops in the college and I can only imagine what it would have been like if we had to setup an Heroku on the college computers.

Try and find a free computer when you really need one and you will then see why a laptop is handy, as ClubCrown stated the majority of the computers been used by students are wasted as most of the students using them are only on Facebook. Also some of the software installed on the computer may not be what you like using. The HTML editor for example is not great and I prefer to use the software I purchased to put on my laptop. You may not need a laptop in the first year of the course but I guarantee that you will purchase one in the end.

kippy

clubcrown wrote: »

Why so? You need admin access to do a lot of our stuff. You don't /can't get that logged in as a college student in the labs.

You would think that the cloud computing course would have some cloud computers available perhaps displaying the benefits of VDI or some other form of desktop virtualisation, that could be accessed over citrix or otherwise if required from a home PC, indeed setting up something like this would be of great benefit to students.
Not sure what stuff you are going on your laptop that you couldn't do on the college PC's or a VD.

Either way, I dont see why its an absolute requirement.

I'm not sure how "real" a lot of these new "cloud" courses are and I am very skeptical as to the value of them - but thats just me so apologies for the skepticism.

skimpydoo

kippy wrote: »

You would think that the cloud computing course would have some cloud computers available perhaps displaying the benefits of VDI or some other form of desktop virtualisation, that could be accessed over citrix or otherwise if required from a home PC, indeed setting up something like this would be of great benefit to students.
Not sure what stuff you are going on your laptop that you couldn't do on the college PC's or a VD.

Either way, I dont see why its an absolute requirement.

I'm not sure how "real" a lot of these new "cloud" courses are and I am very skeptical as to the value of them - but thats just me so apologies for the skepticism.

It's a requirement as with certain things we are doing we need admin privileges and we can't get those on the college computers. When we open accounts with various cloud providers to run and test software we are developing and admin key has to be installed in our virtual machines. That's not possible on the college computers. When you have seen what we have done so far you will understand where myself and clubcrown is coming from. You will also get a lot more work done in the library compared to logging on at home via Citrix as there is less distractions.

kippy

Ronan Leonard wrote: »

It's a requirement as with certain things we are doing we need admin privileges and we can't get those on the college computers. When we open accounts with various cloud providers to run and test software we are developing and admin key has to be installed in our virtual machines. That's not possible on the college computers. When you have seen what we have done so far you will understand where myself and clubcrown is coming from. You will also get a lot more work done in the library compared to logging on at home via Citrix as there is less distractions.

So there would be no chance of providing you with access to a VD that you have admin rights on or some such mechanism?

Anyway, forget about it.

skimpydoo

kippy wrote: »

So there would be no chance of providing you with access to a VD that you have admin rights on or some such mechanism?

Anyway, forget about it.

There is no chance of getting access to a VD with admin rights hence why we need laptops.

clubcrown

kippy wrote: »

So there would be no chance of providing you with access to a VD that you have admin rights on or some such mechanism?

Anyway, forget about it.

You'd think so alright wouldn't you? Ideally the college would do this, but they haven't so far. The guys in charge of the deployment modules tried to get something like this organised back in September but nothing came of it.

At postgrad level, most people already have their own laptops through work, or personally, so I suppose the college thought it would be easier to ask students to use them rather than trying to change the IT setup in the college. Its working fine anyway.

As for whether "cloud" courses are valid...........the postgrad is more or less the same as the MSC in Web Tech minus the dissertation. We even share lectures in some cases. You can't really study "cloud computing" as such, its not a discrete thing.

The "cloud" bit in the title is just good marketing I suspect

Barack Obama

OP - you do NOT need a laptop to complete an IT course in NCI, especially if you have a PC at home. Forget about what the guy Ronan said about it being mandatory for lectures - the lecture theatres only have 4 accessible power outlets anyway and the lectures are presentation based.

The PCs on campus are fine but do vary - you soon learn where the good ones are

If you need access to a machine where you have a VM installed or anything else that you cannot do on a campus PC, simply install it on your home PC and use LogMeIn to get access to it remotely. Strange that someone doing Cloud Computing could not recommend a non-traditional solution to you. Then again, if shifting shortcuts is proving difficult... .