My teacher had a simple solution. For those that did not own one, they had to sign one out. Each calc was numbered and if that calc went missing, they already had their culprit. This new thing is just a waste of time and money.

That still doesn't prevent people walking up to where they are stored, and taking one.

Well usually they are kept under lock and key. Not to mention I don't think that would happen very often..

It took a special key that teachers had to access the room that they were stored in, plus they had a camera for that door. There was a lot of expensive stuff locked in there...

You could just take one during class or just not return one after class is over. This is still immoral by the way :D

i think this is actually a really good idea. I mean if you stole one, which is easy to do once you get your hands on it, you wouldn't be able to replace the yellow plastic without another 84, and what's the point if you already got one. People would notice the bright yellow calc the next day when you bring it back to class to use it. and you really couldn’t ever take it anywhere cause everyone who saw it would automatically assume you stole it - which you did. : )

my old high school, granted it was private, just charged the parents extra for a particular math class and give everyone "free" 83's. there were always the few kids who were aghast at the idea of getting free 83s. little did they know that their parents were just paying to have the school buy them for them.

It's called permanent black paint...

the se isn't black. the 84 (not se) is black, but i'm sure the "school property" on the lid would be hard to cover.

A sharp knife...

heh heh i suppose you could paint it, and carve out the school property part. But it would smell bad for a while, and the cover would look like heck. Unless you were really good at painting and carving. If you're gunna go through all that trouble, get a job mowing lawns and buy one. :^) this conversation cracks me up

You could always buy a new slide case. ^link^

If you look closely at the picture, it's not just the slide case. The back half of the calculator shell is also yellow, and probably says "SCHOOL PROPERTY" on it.

good point, that's a good idea too. I bet TI thought of the whole replace the lid thing. and yeesss i suppooose you could scratch out the back. but come-on, that's a little silly. and trust me when you're in college and you're paying thousands of dollars for classes, dropping $130-$200 for a calc is nothing.

and you won't always have to look over your shoulder for fear of being caught.

120d

And if you want a calc with the cool yellow case, just spray-paint it yourself, using much masking tape to avoid hitting the screen and keys and stuff.

People want the free advenced calc... for free.

Hehe, there seems to be quite a nice drop in price for the educational buyers. Man, I wish my highschool would use graphing calcs more often. I saw that they have 83+'s - I have an 86 and an 89, beautiful tools, especially the 89T...

An effective way to prevent theft is to put a distance alarm inside of the case, when it gets too far from carrying case (where teachers usually keep all them) it sounds an alarm. Not to hard to make, considering you can buy the same hardware concept on door alarms.

These calculators also need exploding ink packets to mark the thief.

Or some sort of tranquilizer. That'd stop more thiefs than ink by far.

how useless any kid whos desperate enough to steal one has time enough to spray paint it or something(1000 dollars!!?!? They could make a new classroom with that cash!)

$1000 for ten calcs...that's $100 per calc...cheaper than just one calc

ya and schools probably buy about 20 at a time because they probably need a class set.