[spearfish]

<rant>

So I'm writing this up from a school computer, in my free period (1st ). I'm also using FirefoxPortable - the only browser the school installs on the computers is IE6. Yeah, the one with all the bugs and the failures to be standards compliant? That's it.

I store all of my apps I use at school on my 4GB USB drive. Things like FirefoxPortable, Notepad++, WinSCP, PuTTY, OpenOfficePortable (in case I type something up at home and forget to save it as a .doc), etc. Until recently, all I would have to do is use these is create a shortcut on the desktop for a computer, and I'd be set on that computer - it'd save my settings and I'd just have to put my drive in and click the shortcut. Very useful because I tend to use the same computers over and over again.

I'm assuming while my school's IT guy(s? I've only seen one ever, a middle age confused looking bald guy) was in for Patch Tuesday yesterday, he blocked the ability to run an executable from a peripheral drive. When I clicked on the shortcuts, it told me there was a software restriction on the computer.

First, how stupid of a restriction is that? They already blocked off access to the important things like the registry or other students' data, so why not let us run a program from a USB drive?

Second, I immediately suspected that it may just be for peripheral drives. Heck, it might even just be a restriction on the E: drive (does anybody know how to change the drive letter of a USB drive? I'd love to try that - my school has classic oversights, such as blocking http://www.facebook.com, but not https://www.facebook.com). So I copied all the app data to my desktop, and now it works fine. Just one added step, and for computers I don't use regularly I'll clear it off the desktop when I'm done so they don't get mad about me taking up hard drive space.

I'm curious as to what they'll try next. Blocking off running applications from the C: drive? I have a valid reason for wanting N++ too - I manage one of the school's virtual enterprises websites.

</rant>

Does anybody else have stories of annoying, under qualified, and just retarded IT guys? I'd love to here them

This post has been edited by spearfish: 12 November 2008 - 06:22 AM

[Nova Dragoon]

I am a school IT guy, screw you.

Restrictions are put in place to keep people like you from installing viruses onto their computers. If they are too harsh bring a laptop.

[cudaman73]

Nova Dragoon, on 12 Nov, 2008 - 05:23 AM, said:

I am a school IT guy, screw you.

Restrictions are put in place to keep people like you from installing viruses onto their computers. If they are too harsh bring a laptop.

I gotta agree with Nova here. There's a reason the restrictions are put in place, and it's not just to piss you off. I would suggest bringing a laptop. I did that throughout my high school and college careers.

[spearfish]

I'm not saying restrictions are bad... but it's sometimes funny / annoying how they'll add restrictions which do nothing.

[cudaman73]

My school just used deep freeze, and mostly let us have at them.

Fun stuff.

[BetaWar]

My school has gotten almost as annoying as they come. They have installed monitoring software on all the computers and blocked pretty much everything. the sad part is that it hasn't done anything other than annoy the students. All the games are still on the school's network and all it has done is piss off the students who are actually trying to be productive.

[spearfish]

That's my problem. I can be a lot more productive using Firefox 3 and Notepad++ instead of IE6 and notepad. And coding actually classifies as schoolwork for a couple of my classes, and regardless I only see coding as an educational experience.

Really all they need to lock down is anything on the C: drive that doesn't belong to the individual student, along with the things on the district's shared drive.

Although this new measure isn't without merit - I'm going to get a smirk of satisfaction when the guy who sits next to me in business tries to play on the Game Boy emulator he keeps on his flash drive.

[P4L]

Try this on for size. You can watch streaming video at my uni, but can not use or view webcams!! Oh, and pr0n sites like youporn.com are not blocked! Does that make any difference?

[KYA]

Don't hate the school IT guys. They are in a tough position. They have to juggle the idiot administrators on one hand and overzealous students on the other.

[josiahb]

The truth of it is, school IT guys have a shitty deal because students will always test the limits of a system to see what they can get away with/get access to. Its bad enough for me with a building full of adults to deal with.

The biggest danger is actually those who 'know what they are doing', unless your part of my department you have no damn clue and you do not under any circumstances do anything to MY PCs or MY servers or any of MY equipment (every switch, patch panel and piece of cable in case you were unsure) in between, got it?

[Noldona]

I don't hate the IT guys as they are just doing their job. What I hate is when they treat me like I am an idiot when I know more about computers they seem to know. The other thing that annoys me is when they don't give me access to what I need to do my job. I sat around for probably 2 months doing nothing here at work waiting on right to be able to set up my machine to run the software I needed to run so I could actually work. Again, I know it isn't their fault, it is the rules and regulations they have to follow that are the issue.

[gabehabe]

http://www.portableapps.com

[Winstinology]

I think that if I were a 'school IT guy', I would for sure block the use of executables from flash devices. Honestly, it would probably be the one of the first things I would do to a system. 100% reasonable..

[KYA]

My junior year in high school we installed Age of Empires 2 and ran LAN tournaments for the last month of school. IT guy couldn't find our files

This post has been edited by KYA: 12 November 2008 - 12:45 PM

[Noldona]

Gab, I know all about it. I got that on my thumb drive. I was talking about stuff I needed for work on a work machine.