Re: Restrictive Environment From School
 

Don't do something stupid - like removing the HDD, or booting from a livecd. I don't know if you heard about it, but someone was arrested for "hacking"... he connected to an OPEN wireless access point.

My point is, your school isn't going to view this the same way you are. And when your IT department says you were hacking the laptop, it's not going to be fun for you.

You have already said you have your own laptop, whats wrong with using that? I don't see any way you can get in trouble for using your laptop on school grounds.

My only other suggestion, and I don't know if its possible at your school, would be an independent study in C/C++ programming. Assuming you can do this, I think the IT department would be more willing to install a few compilers for you :)

If you do have to go talk to them about it - go prepared. Bring the software with you, on a CD, along with the latest patches. Bring a copy of the EULA or wherever it says you can use it for educational use only. It might not hurt to tell them that it can only compile code for the robot - there's no danger of you compiling viruses or exploits on the machine.

As a last resort, try getting your parents to call the school, and ask why they won't allow educational software to be installed on the machines. I've found that schools are more receptive to parents rather then students.