How does your workplace/school/university/college treat you as a tech-person?

[Mazza558]

Here's a discussion for everyone who has to use work/school/college computers, what they did/do with them, and how the technicians respond to such behaviour. Are your technicians pro-linux? Are you enemies with them? Do you know more or less than them?

Here's a couple of stories from my experiences in my school:

- Someone from lower down in my school got all flash-drives banned for pupils because he used PortableApps and the school technicians didn't like it. They could have just blocked .exe files from executing on flash drives, but no, they had to prevent the rest of us from copying school work around school/to home. We have to use the school email or log in remotely (through RDESKTOP on linux/mac) to access our work.

- I, in my infinite 13-year-old wisdom (at the time), decided it'd be fun to install firefox on a school computer. The technicians, in their infinite wisdom, had not blocked either the downloading of .exe files, or their installation. Needless to say, it installed shortcuts across the whole subnet (e.g one room-full of computers). I somehow did not get into trouble beyond a telling-off.

- Again, in my infinite wisdom, I copied the entire Flash 5 program from Program Files into a "hidden" (read=buried in a work folder) folder in my personal user space. It still ran fine, and I used it for a while even after it had been removed from the network (kids were making "super-violent" flash movies). Then I got caught. :)

- Another tech-able student in my year prompted the technicians to give everyone in the school new passwords, as he found a way to access other users simply by typing the directory name, as well as finding a single excel file with all users' passwords in it.

Needless to say, I've stopped doing such things anymore (sorry technicians if you're reading this), though I still know a few secrets ;)

[Tristam Green]

i'd just be happy if my workplace would give me a full-time job. i've been stuck classified as a temp/intern for almost 3 years now.

[LaRoza]

I was known for being technically capable and I was often asked to help people by students and even the staff.

My biggest trick was the simple stuff, like fixing the network in the library when it went out (idiots kept unplugging the switch when they backed their chairs out) and other ID-TEN-T errors.

I used portable apps and opera exclusively and they knew it. I converted a lot of people to them. In fact, I was somewhat unhappy about this because I used it often to get around the fact that Flash and Java weren't always installed and some people used up the bandwidth on stupid stuff (myspace and such).

I have crashed the entire school network by accident before. Actually, the admin blames it on Windows Server (which they use). I was using XAMPP on my flash drive and it actually took control of the network.

[Mazza558]

I was using XAMPP on my flash drive and it actually took control of the network.

Haha! How did that happen? Did you just try and run it, or did you do anything else (e.g set it up properly)?

[Lster]

At my college our head technician is also one of my computer science teachers. He's very pro Linux and really quite relaxed about what we can do.

I remember him once challenging us to gain his password to the school's webserver. Everyone kept watching him when he logged on to the computer after that and only a little later he accidentally typed it into the "username" box. Of course he knew so he changed it.

Just for the sake of it I tried another password with a similar theme and it was correct. Very lucky indeed. And I'm not the first to attempt it, someone years ago apparently managed to crack another service (not sure what) by trying dictionary words in A VB program!

Fun lessons. :)

[zmjjmz]

I've taken several a Linux CD and thrown it on the schools computers, especially when Windows doesn't work for some reason.
I get treated as the IT kid in most of my classes where computers are involved, and the IT kid usually uses Linux to fix problems/slowness.
I've been reprimanded and threatened to be thrown off the network because I left a toram boot of DSL running on a computer, and one of the insanely computer illiterate economics teachers thought it was hacked or something.

[aaaantoine]

At my workplace, I am one of a three-man IT team. So, at least 1/3 of the team is pro-Linux.

[Thirtysixway]

My schools system is suprisingly pretty secure. Everyone has mapped folders on the server which are protected from other users. All the computers have DeepFreeze installed so you can't mess up the computers.

I've found a couple spots where I think they could have worked better on blocking access, such as active directory searches for students. Also, snooping around the networks I found dns servers, and yet they run everyone through a squid proxy [which is very easy to disable via command.com > regedit].

You can also RDC into all the web servers [from anywhere] so maybe that's a security hole? They're pretty pro-windows, except I found one server running Fedora.

[Barrucadu]

I'm the tech guy to pretty much anyone in my school +- 2 school years. If there is a problem - no matter how strange or simple - I am sought out.

[MaindotC]

I'm technically competent and it draws unwanted attention to me. We have lab computers to use with removable drives at our convenience for school projects. I used them to demonstrate things like botnets and DDoS in one of our security classes. Unfortunately I decided to set up a Ubuntu machine as a re-direct for torrent traffic. I got in trouble because should the RIAA have a problem with this behaviour they would have held the school liable whereas if I was downloading it directly to my laptop the administrator could forward the notice on to me and hold me liable. I got in trouble and although it probably makes me look dumb in eyes of IT professionals, I usually shut up about anything I know and play stupid.

I think the first rule of IT should be to not talk about it because then you are either suspected of every possible malicious network activity, or people flood you with problems and questions regarding their IT issues.

[LaRoza]

Haha! How did that happen? Did you just try and run it, or did you do anything else (e.g set it up properly)?

Well, it runs portably and worked the way it supposed to. I used it to program and do web development on my breaks (I didn't have the internet at home at the time, and Filezilla portable was my way of getting my sites up) It took a long time for it to be pin pointed as the problem.

It caused a conflict, and Microsoft Server yielded to it. The network wasn't setup to run on that, and it brought the entire network down. I didn't realize it and they didn't either for a long time.

Once it was discovered it was causing it, I stopped using it on computer that were connected to the network (well, I unplugged the ethernet cable when I used it)

[ugm6hr]

IT at work don't seem to care what I do.

A computer was labelled as non-functional by IT - no working HD.

I donated a used HD and told them. Unfortunately, they seemed less than interested.

So I installed the HD and then put Xubuntu on it. Turns out Linux can get online without any network settings (as long as you have the correct proxy settings).

So I'm a hero - 3 working internet connections instead of 2.

[Lostincyberspace]

I'm technically competent and it draws unwanted attention to me. We have lab computers to use with removable drives at our convenience for school projects. I used them to demonstrate things like botnets and DDoS in one of our security classes. Unfortunately I decided to set up a Ubuntu machine as a re-direct for torrent traffic. I got in trouble because should the RIAA have a problem with this behaviour they would have held the school liable whereas if I was downloading it directly to my laptop the administrator could forward the notice on to me and hold me liable. I got in trouble and although it probably makes me look dumb in eyes of IT professionals, I usually shut up about anything I know and play stupid.

I think the first rule of IT should be to not talk about it because then you are either suspected of every possible malicious network activity, or people flood you with problems and questions regarding their IT issues.
I just charge $20 an hour and people either start paying or they leave me alone.

[cardinals_fan]

I try not to be noticed by the IT department at my high school... I don't want to get red-flagged. Yes, they do use that term. My friend installed Tamper Data on Firefox (we still have version 1.0), but I don't think he's been caught yet.

[Thirtysixway]

I know that there are other people better than me, or at least they act like it. Next year I'm joining the "web team" working on websites and things like that for the school district. I'll have access to the tech department, maybe I can learn a few things.

The most I've ever seen done at my school is linux live cd. People usually flock around my computer when I bring up command prompt on windows. It's kind of annoying being the tech guy sometimes, everyone expects you to know how to fix their problems right away.

[Kiefer Rodriguez]

Back in my highschool days, which wernt all that long ago, I was one of the most learned tech guys, we ran Windows machines, I cant remember what version, I believe it started with NT then they upgraded them all to XP (With burnt CD's I might add). Some of the cooler things I achieved on our large network..

* Wrote a LAN chatroom style app in C++ so all students logged in could chat.
* Used 'netsend' to send a popup message to every computer on the network (accident)
* Wrote a small app to mess with the systems, such as changing the theme, the 'Start' label text ('Fart' was a common replacement), re-displaying the clock (Yes, the admins removed the clock from the computers..).
* Managed to crash the entire network using only a DOS prompt and some Batch files.
* Disabling double clicking using a C++ program I wrote to get back at the admins for locking my account, sorry guys xD

And countless other little tricks, I find that theres always atleast one little scamp like myself that cant help but mess with the dials. :)

~Kiefer

[lisati]

Circa 1980, when I was a 2nd-year university student, not exactly ignorant but not exactly competent either, I was in the computer lab where they'd set up terminals for their whiz-bang new machine for first-year students to use. After waiting for the system to boot, I pressed "enter" on one of the terminals without specifying any user details. The system promptly logged me on as an off-campus student whom I didn't know. The operator, with whom I had a passing acquaintance, wasn't too impressed with what seemed to be me intentionally logging on as someone else - this happened a couple of times over the course of a few months and didn't go down too well.

[steveneddy]

I'm always the guru where I work.

Lately I cleaned up everyone's desk and walls at their desks where we work by putting all of the many phone numbers that we have to call daily into an Excel file then saving it as a .html file.

Then I have the Windows machines put it on the desktop so instead of pages and pages of junk up on the walls of your desk area, just minimize all of the windows you are using to access all of the phone numbers on a nice, neat little web page. But it is still like an Excel file in that it has the Sheet1, Sheet2 stuff at the bottom.

It just makes it easy for us to look at a list of numbers and get used to looking in one place instead of constantly searching address book listings.

My boss is going to let me use my Linux laptop at work, and I think I'll remotely log in to the PC at my desk and put it on the remote monitor so I can run our "not ported to Linux" software on a regular Windows machine and use my lappie for the rest of the work.

[JT9161]

Well my school doesn't mind me running Portable Apps but I think that has a lot to do with them not knowing about all the ones I use. They dont seem to big on us running commands as after me trying to run a few that I didnt have the permissions yo run I found they had edited my batch files to inform me that my account was being monitored:shock: :mad:. As for running Linux they have the BIOS set to go straight to the HD and locked it, though I have just recently discovered the fun of Damn Small Linux Embedded:biggrin:

[paintba||er]

They don't seem to mind what I do. Nobody has ever mentioned anything about me writing batch files or programs, or installing software. (in my drive on the network) But I haven't really done anything malicious either. (I'll wait till I'm about to graduate for that :D) I once saw that somebody forgot to logout of their computer so I made a batch file that just loops and changes the color (so it just flashes different colors) and left it running in fullscreen, but that's about it...

As for how the other students treat me, well, in programming everybody else's code mysteriously becomes exactly like mine. Then in web design my teacher is extremely incompetent and unintelligent, so I usually arrive at class, she asks me how to do what she is planning on teaching because she's forgotten how to do it, then she has me teach half the class while she gives false information to the other half... (it's rather annoying)

The sad thing is that my skills are really quite poor...everybody else at the school is just horrible so I look good by comparison...even the programming teacher...he spells Linux "Lenix"...

[Joeb454]

A lot of the staff at my old college saw me as an IT guy (especially the librarians :confused:)

I managed to find a security flaw, which involved killing explorer.exe (you had to get task manager running first - that was the flaw), and when you restarted explorer.exe you would be logged on as the local administrator. Needless to say Firefox was installed on the machine I tended to work on ;) My teacher didn't mind, and on IT guy was fine with it.

I also knew the network admin password for about 3-4 months too :) That was quite fun, though I think the funniest moment was when I was running a Live CD of 5.10 on one of the machines, and the head of the IT staff, and the principle both walked past, and didn't seem to notice the brown background, as opposed to XP, on machines that were about 5 weeks old :p

[barbedsaber]

Back in my highschool days, which wernt all that long ago, I was one of the most learned tech guys, we ran Windows machines, I cant remember what version, I believe it started with NT then they upgraded them all to XP (With burnt CD's I might add). Some of the cooler things I achieved on our large network..

* Wrote a LAN chatroom style app in C++ so all students logged in could chat.
* Used 'netsend' to send a popup message to every computer on the network (accident)
* Wrote a small app to mess with the systems, such as changing the theme, the 'Start' label text ('Fart' was a common replacement), re-displaying the clock (Yes, the admins removed the clock from the computers..).
* Managed to crash the entire network using only a DOS prompt and some Batch files.
* Disabling double clicking using a C++ program I wrote to get back at the admins for locking my account, sorry guys xD

And countless other little tricks, I find that theres always atleast one little scamp like myself that cant help but mess with the dials. :)

~Kiefer



nice, what school was it, and can you tell me the commands that you used, and the C++ program,



Oh, no reason.

[Lod]

At my last job I was the only developer/administrator of the companies most used (about 300 employees) application. Nevertheless they didn't want to give me a permanent contract. So I left and now the <snip> is hitting the fan real hard :D , but no hard feelings...

We had a mixed Windows - Linux server environment. Unfortunately the Linux adminstrator was so completely incompetent he made the linux servers more crappy than the Windows servers by default. However, he thought he was excellent.

[Moustacha]

The worst thing I've done was copy and paste a picture of those hot dog dogs into every folder of someone's computer. It was at uni, and someone had enabled writing to their music folder, so they got hotdogged.

[zmjjmz]

I'm actually lucky enough to have IT people who are competent enough to install Firefox on most of the machines, but of course, they don't install flash, which is used by the teachers for educational stuff.
IE7 is crap.

[NJC]

I used to display any computer knowledge I had to the IT dept ... but now, I don't say much. Under the Radar is the preferred modus operandi..