Please, allow me to rant.
As i sat in the library today, a sophmore english class came in to research for a paper they were doing. This didn't really attract my attention, as this isn't very uncommon. Well it just so happend today that the internet was down, due to server complications(funny story heh), but that the network was still operational and the students could use the directory to find the books they needed, as the library has all of our books, or the majority rather, in e-book form right on the pcs, as well as the card catalog. See a few years ago, back when i was a sophmore, our computer science department designed a cheap-o program to replace the physical card catalog.
Anyway, about five minutes later i hear a bunch of "what the hell's" and "hey" from the class's direction. Naturally i looked up, to see about 25 blank screens.
Uh oh.
These first two words came quickly to mind, as i am a assistant to the network admin i have seen these situations too often, and i knew what it was. Sure enough i was right, some kid popped the power strip thats by the wall, under a table, about 20 feet away from where he should have been.
Any how i stroll on over, simple reboot no biggy. WRONG. O, so, so wrong. My school runs its network by placing 40 port hubs in the major rooms, guidence, library, lab, etc, with a few patch panels and such in the basement that re-route up to our server room, which consists of several file servers, a few management servers, and the net server. Back on topic, the 40 port hub in the library runs off the power strip that runs off the power strip this kid flipped.
Yea i know, i didn't design it ok.
Well genious here, who is insisting to me he "didn't do it" blew the damn hub. Literally, the contacts are BLACK. I'll try and get a pic tommorow. Anyway moving on...So now i go take a quick run to the parts room and grab a five port intel hub, just to get a few computers up so that the library breaths some life.
I get back....god i am so ........ed i even have to say this.....teachers are so ****ing incompetent. Sorry for the language, they LET a few "i know more then the guy who went for the hub" students "fix" the porblem.
OMG......
So i get back and theres a group of 15/16 year olds standing round on pc, the kid sitting there bragging bout how hes "in the server". Great more fun to deal with, a "hacker". So i ask him what hes trying to do, and he claims to be "hacking my system." O yea i say to him, thats pretty sweet how you hacked a system your not even connected too. O yea he says to me, i'm using the web servers ip to get to my pc at home.
Cool man, the web servers not on dickhead. Your computer aint on the network, and that screen your looking at is the windows registry, now get out of my chair.
So after some laughs from his "followers" i start hooking up the hub. "Thats not the problem idiot." Hmm, wonder who that was...o great, hacker kid. "Well then what is the problem, i'm DYING to hear this" i said. Well when he said "you curropted linux when u kicked me off, i wasn't done installing it" i looked at him with a very, very nice WTF??! look, then told the teacher to get rid of him.
Good back to work, i get the hub hooked up, get five pcs networked, good i'm done.
Bottom lines:
- Don't count on the fact that because your power strip is away from where a student is allowed to be, that he won't hit it.
- Don't allow your aggravation to build because of a "server hacking, non-networked, linux thinks hes installing dip**** 15 year old.".
- Let the admin do his job, your only his helper, they're his problem.
