In case anyone is wondering

In case anyone is wondering what became of the student from yesterday's tale, he's still employed. Barely. Here's what Tom sent him, and his reply:

[Student], We have a problem. Because of the free space problems on the server, Seth did a report on which users were using the most disk space and found that you were sharing 2GB from your web folder. Unfortunately, not only were you eating up a ton of space, it was with game demos and/or pirated games. Either way, sharing it to the world via the g:\web "FTP" folder was not cool.

Moreover, as Seth was looking at your web folder, which is freely viewable by anyone, he noticed pictures of him, me, [Professor 1] and [Professor 2]. Not knowing at first what reason you'd have those pictures in there, he then noticed the hotornot.txt. Sure enough, he put 2+2 together and found the links to our pictures on the hotornot.com site.

Seth hasn't notified [Professor 1] or [Professor 2] about the links yet, although he might. One thing for sure, you definitely got our attention. Here's what Seth posted on his blog page: http://www.sethb.com/weblog/

Comments?

- Tom

The student replied with this:

Tom,

this is a very, very embarrassing moment. i apologize and i didn't think i was causing harm with the hotornot.com thing. i just found all the pictures of csbs staff on the internet, and only for my silly amusement, i posted the pictures on hotornot.com. as for the sharing of the files, i was not aware that i had pirated games shared, but i remember i put command & conquer generals on the network (i didn't know it was pirated because it was on the lab attendent's station, i didn't put it there, i just assumed everything with it was fine). i wanted to see if i could play other people across the lab in case finals week was going to be dead. but my experiment didn't work and i foolishly forgot to delete the program from the shared folder. i never felt any of these were mean-spirited or had any intention of commiting wrong acts.
if they were to be meant that way, i would have been a lot more careful about keeping them. i'm sorry for the problems i've caused you guys this summer, i had no idea any of this would be an issue or blow up like it has. i read seth's website, kinda funny, tell him i'm sorry too. if you want to tell the other professors from the hotornot site about it, that's fine. i apologize to them too. anyone i used was either a professor of mine or i had personal contact with them such as you, seth, and [Professor 1]. some friends and i used to do the same thing in the past and looked at it as a practical joke that was only for my amusement, not a rip into the staff as i see it's been taken.
if you think that these are enough to fire me then i will have to take it, but i'm not resigning because none of this was meant to be taken this way. again, i'm sorry for all of the crap that you guys went through on this. i never had any negative feelings towards any of you guys, and i won't have any no matter what you decide is my fate.
thanks tom, and i'm sorry.

[Student]

How to get the negative

How to get the negative attention of your sysadmins, in 6 easy steps:

1. Chew up 2GB of space on the volume for user data on the server, so that the admin starts wondering where it went.
2. Make sure that you used pirated copies of computer games to chew up such data, so that it's obviously not legitimate course material or anything.
3. Put your pirated games in your "web" folder that's readable by everyone, to ensure that you've turned the university's server into your own personal Warez site.
4. In the same folder, have a few .jpg files starting with the sysadmins' names, as well as a few faculty, so it's sure to draw their attention when they find the folder.
5. Also have a text file in there called hotornot.txt with usernames and passwords to http://www.hotornot.com/ listing all the bogus accounts you created in the names of faculty and the sysadmins.
6. Sit back and wait to be noticed.

Some people just aren't smart. I'm planning my retaliation now, if you'd care to vote on my apparent hotornot site, it's here. And here is my co-worker Tom's. As this student is employed in our computer lab, I'd say that their prospects for continued employment just dropped considerably. But, since Tom is the one in charge of the labs, it's up to him. :)

Holly & I ate lunch

Holly & I ate lunch with Simon Estes on Sunday. Well, not really, but the internationally renowned opera singer was in line behind us at the A&W/Long John Silver's restaurant in Waterloo, and I can report that he chose Onion Rings over French Fries to go with his lunch. We saw him shopping at Super Target too, an hour later, in the dairy section. He may be stalking us.

Been a busy week for

Been a busy week for me, I'll try to get some blogging done soon. In the mean time, amuse yourself with my wife's page on her employer's web site.

I've started up another weblog

I've started up another weblog over here. It's dedicated to all things Dell, so if you own or support a great number of Dell computers, or are looking for the latest and greatest deals on Dell computers, check it out. Mark & I will be updating it frequently.

Ooooh, Ebert's review of The

Ooooh, Ebert's review of The Matrix Reloaded is up, and I can't wait to see it.

Here's an interesting political gambit,

Here's an interesting political gambit, Democratic legislators have fled Texas, paralyzing the state legislature over the Republican-proposed redistricting of Texas. The Republican plan could cost the Democrats 5 seats in Congress, so they walked out, and fled to Oklahoma, outside the jurisdiction of the Texas Rangers who are now seeking to arrest them, and bring them back to the statehouse. Boy, wouldn't that make for a good episode of Walker: Texas Ranger?

Still green. Still somewhat ugly,

Still green. Still somewhat ugly, in my opinion. I wish U.S. currency was a little less blah, though the new $20 bill introduced today is at least slightly more colorful than those currently in circulation.

We got a new printer

We got a new printer in today, the HP Color LaserJet 4600DN. So far, it's been a decent printer for the money, though we had an autonegotiation issue with it and one of our switches. It's reasonably fast, has reasonably good output, and is reasonably priced. The only thing unreasonable about it is the weight, unless you're approximately my size, don't try lifting this thing by yourself. John, this means you. :)

He hadn't made a name

He hadn't made a name for himself yet in the NFL, but Ennis Haywood was a reliable running back for the ISU Cyclones, and he's dead, at age 23.

I just registered, so it's

I just registered, so it's official, I'll be at Gnomedex in July.

Postings have been pretty slim

Postings have been pretty slim here lately, with the last few weeks of the semester getting quite busy. Spring semester has ended, and my number of things to fix should hopefully drop off rapidly now. Of course, May Term starts today, but summers are pretty slow here, there's even ample parking now!

My friend Mark just got

My friend Mark just got his new CoreCrib, a build-your-own Macintosh kit from 2khappyware.com. He's posted some pictures and comments on a weblog I helped him set up on a server at work. Hmm, I might have to save up and get myself one of these too, much more affordable than a PowerMac. I'm curious to see what the CoreBox model will look like when it debuts, and how much it will cost, as I'd love a low-cost Mac to run as my web/file/print server at home.

We bought a new dishwasher

We bought a new dishwasher yesteday too, the Sears Kenmore 16519 model. Consumer Reports gave it a Best Buy rating, and Sears had it on sale. I'm not sure if the link will last, or if it will expire or not, but we're hoping it does a better job than our crappy old Maytag does now. When it comes to Sears appliances, the last number in the model number is the color, 9 is the code for black, 2 is the code for white, and 1 is the code for bisque. See the things you learn when you go appliance shopping?

Tomorrow, I'm going to attend

Tomorrow, I'm going to attend the Windows Server 2003 launch, in Des Moines. I'm hoping to score some cool swag, if nothing else. I'm all about the free pens, t-shirts, and mouse pads.

The athletic director at my

The athletic director at my alma mater, Iowa State, wants to fire Larry Eustachy, the head basketball coach. This is after some pictures surfaced of Eustachy boozin' it up with some students after a basketball game in Missouri. In the pictures you can see him drinking some really nasty canned beer, and kissing some college chicks on the cheek (who didn't seem to mind).

Now, I'm not going to say that it's a great image for ISU's basketball coach to present, or that it isn't embarassing, but it's not something he should be fired for. He & I are both employees of the Iowa Board of Regents, working for two different universities here, but we're part of one system, we're even both Professional & Scientific class employees. (The other two classes being Merit and Faculty) He makes $1 million/year, I make almost $40,000 (I'm not bragging, my salary is a matter of public record, they publish it every year in the Des Moines Register). If tonight I were to go to a party where some college students were, drink a few beers, and smooch some co-ed on the cheek, would I be fired? Hell no. Even if pictures were published on the web, I doubt I'd lose my job. It might be a bit embarassing, I might get a bit of a lecture from my supervisor, who wouldn't be all that happy with me, but it's not something one is generally fired for.

Consider this, if he were a player, it'd be more of a story if he DIDN'T engage in this kind of behavior. Chew him out, get him some counseling, but don't fire the guy. That's my two cents.