clevermanka | Welcome, Big Brother, KU style

All the new computers here at KU have admin passwords on them so the user can't install software or change anything on the machine. I understand them doing this for public computers or computers used by more than one person. But it means that people can't install, say, Netscape Radio on the computer in their office. Stupid. Annoying. Rude.

But happy me, I'm way at the bottom of the list for getting a new computer. Happy me until this morning, that is, when I tried to install my new copy of Access. I got this program so I can start a database of our students to track their time in the program, and then any future job placement (no "would you like fries with that" comments, please). Started the install and immediately got a dialog box that said "Windows version is not adequate for program."

Faaaaaahhhhhhbulous. So now I get to ship my computer down to the comp center, where they will wipe my little machine and then image it off the basic model they have down there. Goodbye internet radio, goodbye SSH, goodbye WS_FTP. I'm really really *really* annoyed. Oh, and of course they can't do it here in the office, oh no no. They have to come get my computer and take it down there for (and yes I quote) "A couple of days when you might not need your computer."

What the fuck????? So I guess I'll just bring in my goddamn knitting for those "couple of days" when I won't "be needing my computer."

I'm betting ten to one they're also going to install some sort of tracking software to see how much time is spent online, etc. Of course, it's up to my department as to my reviews, and thank goodness they love me even if I do screw around a bit on the job. What really rankles is the fact that there's someone snooping on me. Grrrr, Grrrr, Grrrr indeed.

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I got in tight with the office techie and I have been able to avoid a tracking device lately. Yola's husband also set me up once with a handy James Bond device the "cleaned" my entire hard drive of snoop material.

I have even gotten the techie in my office to ewww and aww over pin-up girl pics on the Net with me...The good AND the bad. Nothing like surfing WITH the Internet police alongside you.

There HAS TO BE a way to bypass the administrator password...I bet Liam will know.

Dunno. I've got enough techie friends that if there is a way around it, I might be able to find it, but I have my doubts. The thing that really irks me is they claim the reason they're installing this stuff is so people don't install copyrighted stuff. Well, all my stuff is freeware!!!! But does that matter? Nooooo. Sigh.

well they don't seem to track, or care here in the computer center cause if they were I should get a warning

=) Yeah, I know, us naughty naughty state employees!

I think it's just general paranoia...but the inability to install the software I want really irks me!!!

Hey, why don't you just do an upgrade to what's necessary (what are you running, Win98?) and then install Access. I probably have a spare CD for XP or Server 2003 that isn't currently installed on a computer if you need to borrow one, as long as the memory on that machine is sufficient.

Chris

'Cos they have a list of all the computers that are running 2000 or lower and have marked us all for upgrades next semester anyways.

MS threatened us with an audit last year, so they're very leery of allowing people to do their own installs. Else I would--But I know my machine's gonna be called down for an upgrade soon anyway, so I might as well get this over with.

This is only going to get worse too, at least from the standpoint of the user with at least a modicum of tech savvy. As one of the "Bad Guys" now, I can certainly see the desire to lock things down like this. But then again, I work at a bank. At a university, one would *think* that the goal would be open education. One would be wrong, though, wouldn't one? My experience at KU was that it was moving away from an Institute of Higher Education and toward something akin to a worker-bee factory.

If they're not disabling the floppy drive, or adding a BIOS password... there are easy and well-known ways around the Windows administrator password. Had to use them myself here at work a couple of times as I was learning the whole "hardening process" thing. ;) Such things are better kept off-line, though.

You'll just have to play dumb when they try to access the admin account and their default password doesn't work.

Smart to have a default password across hundreds or thousands of machines too... no risk there. Heh.

My god! You have a livejournal account!!! Who knew?

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