Month: March 2005

Today we had a chance to find out the extent of the damage the students have caused. In one classroom, we have so far found two defunct DVD drives.  The mechanisms were completely trashed, most likely by ejecting the drive, then grabbing hold of the tray and forcing it in and out at great speed, far greater than the motor and gears will allow, causing all sorts of horrible things to happen. Also a common occurance is the ‘moneybox’ effect.  Student places money on the CD tray, which goes into the drive, and doesn’t come out again. We have a … Continue reading Extent of the damage

Today was raining.  Continuously.  Well, it’s stopped now, but it was raining all last night and most of today.  I had to go into town after work today and thankfully it had stopped raining by this time.  This leads me to the point of this post: What bugs me is people who walk around with giant umbrellas.. and it’s not even raining. Now, personally, I don’t even own an umbrella.  If it’s raining, I’ll get wet, and I don’t really care.  My job is informal enough to be able to wear jeans and a t-shirt, and if my hair is a bit … Continue reading Umbrellas

It’s a quiet day here on Campus with no students around.  The weather is grey and miserable.  What a change from the weekend where it was blue skies and sunshine. I don’t really want to do any work but I guess I can’t sit here all day surfing eBay and posting to my blog. So, for some entertainment I’ve put some images into my Blog’s Gallery.  Feel free to have a look, I’m sure I’ll add more over time.

My blog looks awful in firefox. I’m gonna have to experiment with the different skins to find one that isn’t broken to any browser other than IE. To anyone viewing my blog in Firefox, I apologise.

I didn’t realise that the clocks went forward last night.  I woke up at what I thought was an early time and it was only several hours later I realised half my clocks were wrong.  Only my computers and the VCR were correct, they’d adjusted themselves. It’s nice having a day or two to adjust before having to go back to work on the new schedule.  It’s a good job I don’t have any trouble sleeping… just waking up!  😉 I seem to be spending a lot of time playing online games at the moment, my current favourites being iSketch and … Continue reading British Summer Time

It’s a long weekend – but in a good way!  Four days off from work, and then it’s two weeks without the students being there!  Finally a time to do some preventative maintenance to the network, to repair things they’ve broken, and to make some new posters.. At least, so you’d think. Three days out of the first week we can’t do anything because there are students in working to catch up.  They’ll be doing the work they should have been doing during term time.  So, as the first week is only four days anyway that’s an entire week out … Continue reading Long weekend

Another mouse casuality today, in the same room.  This time it wasn’t removed, but instead they had sliced open the cable sheath to expose the wires, then sliced and frayed them. Not only is that wanton destructive vandalism, but potentially dangerous. I’m thinking of making a poster: “If you aren’t here because you want to be, then leave.  If you are here to just muck about, cause trouble, or hinder those who actually want to learn something, then we don’t want you here.  Do something else with your life instead.” Believe me, I’d love to word it much stronger than that. On … Continue reading Retaliation?

WHY!?  Why do they do it?  In a classroom full of computers, why do they keep stealing the MICE?  We’ve had at least 30 go from three different classrooms.  So, we bought replacements, and I cable tied them all to the machines in two different places.  Now I’ve just discovered that ANOTHER one has been stolen, they actually cut the cable ties to take it.  A MOUSE!  A lousy stinking optical mouse! And now I’ve just been told that a laptop keyboard has been damaged – one of the key mechanisms has been smashed.  God knows how much that is … Continue reading Petty theft

Printers.  It’s a love/hate relationship.  When they work, they are wonderful.  However, when they go wrong, they can be a nightmare. It seems that both staff and students here are always inventing new and more imaginitive ways to make printers go wrong. With inkjet printers it’s easy to cause havoc.  While a page is printing, add a big stack more paper to the in-tray and watch as the printer tries to feed 2cm of paper through the rollers.  Or, turn the printer or printserver off half-way through a job, and then watch as it tries to process half a print … Continue reading Printers

Here’s an email conversation that went on between one of the IT team (Lxxx) and another member of staff (Sxxx).  Seems that one of the ink tanks on their printer has run out of ink. >>> Dear Lxxx>>> The printer in room 6 is a HP 1100d>>> Will you be able to get the ink cartridge replaced?  Many thanks>>> Sxxx >> Hi Sxxx>> What colour?  There are 4! > Lxxx, do you mean what colour ink or what colour printer?!> Sxxx I banged my head on the desk when I read this.