While I agree to an extent that the attacks undercut the argument, the points are still valid.

Printer needs vary, but regardless of how available they are, students who have printers will find it a life-saving convenience. Ever have to type up a paper late to find out the computer lab is closed or something? It happens.

People ask about the ISP, and that’s a valid point indeed. As such, she does bring up a good point here.

Netflix and other online movie rental outlets are give or take. This depends on the person.

Now the TV issue: TV tuners are great and all, but like you said, there a many potential issues to that. While some allow you to plug in consoles, not all do and especially those that are $50 don’t (at least, the ones I’ve seen). Plus, when hooking up a console with a TV tuner, it’s all dependent upon what the TV tuner has. Since most of the newer consoles now come with component cables (and while some people may get s-video instead to support their TV at home), this may not be feasible.

As for music CDs, many people still have them and still keep them. I for one did and still do. I do have an iPod that gets carried around, but while driving, at times, I still listen to my CDs. However, she does bring up a good point; save up for an MP3 player and docking station, and you’re pretty much golden for a long time. I don’t think she meant blank CDs though.

However, Ms. Raskin still sounds out of touch. While her ideas seem like a good idea, most of them practically don’t work out.

People ask me all the time if they will still need their own ISP, evidently this is not as obvious as you believe.

I had a roommate that had Netflix, and knew several other people with subscriptions. Despite the fact that our school provided free movie rentals. For those that wanted uncommon things that would be hard to find at, say, Blockbuster, it worked out OK. For my roommate it was a bad deal.

TV tuners are available for $50 and up that will let you connect a gaming console to a PC. There are some potential issues with such a setup, but several of my friends made it work for all 4 years.

Some form of school-provided backup space is standard at every major school I know of. Generally it is not enough space to back up everything a typical student would want to (classwork, music, etc.).

A digital camera is probably the “tech” item I would recommend most strongly after, say, a laptop. Even if it’s just something you carry around once in a while. I kept mine in my backpack, and found plenty of opportunities to take pictures.

Music CDs are a bulky pain. After ripping all of mine to MP3, I had no regrets about leaving the discs at home. MP3 players are cheap if you aren’t brand-loyal, FM tuners to make them universally compatible with car radios are cheaper. USB keys are a vastly superior way to move files around. Virtually everyone I went to school with had their sound system connected to their computer, and used that to play music.

Your attacks on Ms. Raskin really do undercut your argument against her.