A Geek’s Think

I’ve been working on my image gallery a bit today and was able to scan in and upload another 60 pictures or so. It’s amazing to me how many pictures I’ve taken during my life. I’ve already uploaded more than 1200 pictures that were, for the most part, taken during the past 5 years. I still haven’t gone through the hundreds of pictures I took during my 2 years in Brazil as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the 3 or 4 photo albums I’ve put together over the years. Maybe I’ll even get some of my old videos of family and friends up on the site eventually (though until I get a VCR that’s going to be a bit difficult).

It’s amazing how much we document our lives without even realizing it. A little here, a little there, and soon you’re drowning in photos. Not that I’m complaining - I love having the pictures around to help me remember the many good times in my life. I’m also enjoying putting up those photos for my friends and family (and anyone else) to see. Now I just need to go through and label them…

As seen on Slashdot, 13 kids in the Kutztown Area School District are facing felony charges over their “hacking” of laptops that the school district issued them. The Slashdot poster, as usual, left out the bit about the extent of the abuse or the first attempts at discipline, but I guess that’s what I’ve come to expect from Slashdot. The real info can be found in the school’s press release and http://www.cutusabreak.org, a site created by the kids to “get the word out.” Also, here’s a Slashdot comment from someone who went to the same school.

Well, as one who has worked in school IT, here’s what I understand:

1. The IT department didn’t do their job - the admin password was listed on the laptop itself.
2. The kids, by using the above admin password, weren’t very wrong. They were curious. But they were still wrong.
3. Some of the passwords were eventually changed, but the kids used password crackers to break back in. This is where the kids entered the realm of really wrong.
4. Someone should have told the IT department earlier. Kids, it’s OK to talk to grownups when there’s a problem.
5. When the IT department found out, they should have changed the passwords on all laptops as soon as possible.
6. The kids were reprimanded, punished, etc., but no one lost their laptop privileges!!! Why!!??
7. According to the kids, some even tried to turn in their laptops, but the school wouldn’t let them. Huh???
8. The kids claim that it’s the administration’s fault. The computers were too tempting. They were too easy to crack. BAD EXCUSE!
9. The administration claims it had done all it could. Reporting the kids to the police was the only recourse. Um, no, they could take away the laptops…

I went and saw ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ yesterday. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The Willy Wonka character presented in the commercials seemed somewhat ‘femme’ and I have no desire to watch a movie about a demented femme with a thing for short men and chocolate. Fortunately, the movie wasn’t anything like that. While the well-preened Willy Wonka might be a bit crazy for candy, his personality was more laid-back than feminine and his weirdness was actually quite endearing - I actually felt some pity for the fellow. Plus, I found his quirky little statements quite ingenious and not unlike what I might like to say at times were I not so well-trained to be polite.

Overall, not a bad flick. A pretty good one, even.

Someone actually did it. For years, people have said that NetBSD ran on everything but a toaster. That is no longer the case. See http://wickedways.org/articles/linuxworld2005/ for pictures of the NetBSD Toaster.

Someone has way too much time on his hands. Of course, being unemployed, so do I. Dang. Where’s my toaster?

Welcome to my new blog. I’m going to talk here about anything and everything, and if you are wondering why I say what I say, just remember that this is A Geek’s Think