There's no need to use the "H" word!

[CMonster]

I have been accused indirectly of being a HACKER at work (thanks for the compliment)!

I run a small, one-man, vehicle and equipment repair shop for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, with about 80 pieces of equipment to maintain and all the accompanying hazmat/parts requisition/shop inventory/incident report paperwork you can imagine.

Anyway...

My networked printer (HP4050N) ran out of paper and the print queue backed up on the server - not realizing that the thing was out of paper I accidentally overloaded the queue while trying to get the thing to print from my stupid Win-thin-client (tried printing some NT help files). The "red flag" went up at our ITS department.... and then they notified our local know-nothing, unschooled, uncertified, glorified-auto-mechanic working-out-of-class excuse for a network administrator, who in turn ran to the head administrator with a copy of the print queue contents and basically accused me of hacking into the network with my personal PC and running what he called "reports" (which were the Windows NT help files I tried to print). He was also pi$$ed off because I passworded the printer in my office.


My personal PC that I used at work had only Linux installed and has never had Windows or been connected to the company network at any time.

Now I have to bring my Linux PC home and may even get a formal reprimand in my employee file that stays in the file for 2 years.

My thin client doesn't even have a word processor or calculator. I cannot even save company email unless I print them. Sometimes I need to write memos or document things for our users and their supervisors. But from now on that is their problem.

Thanks for letting me rant.

I feel like Kevin Mitnick! Next thing you know they will forbid me from using the phone for fear that I can launch nuclear missiles by whistling into it.

[Richard Cranium]

Sounds similar to the moronic IT Techs at work here.

This guy told me that Bits and Bytes were different terms for the same thing.

More stories later

Sorry Cmonster that you have to deal with that crap. What i hate more than anything is someone who thinks they know everything about computer, but atucally nothing. Its sad


Hope it works out dude


JaYsin

[newbie~wan]

people fear what they do not understand. What was the work-related use of this PC? Perhaps they feel it should not have been there in the first place. If this is the case, prove to them how it is an invaluable tool to yourself and the department. You gotta put things in terms these bosses understand. It's the curse of the IT man.

[fatal xception]

Wow -

Hacking by flooding the printer queue...pretty crafty.

I'll look for you on Cybercrime.

LA One man Hacking ring busted at the DWP...

Thanks to the quick thinking of a senior emplyee (a concept this reporter finds to be an oxymoron..) a one man international hacking ring was busted today.
The accused ring leader (and follower) a CMonster, was accused of being either very clever or impatient... News at 11.

Heh, I hear you man. Our IT staff is about five cans short of a six pack. Our network admin knows all sorts of technical terms. Ask him how a router works and he can't tell you though... Then again, if I were in IT, I'm sure someone would rant about me being incompetent. Too many ID 10 T errors in this place.

-Whir

Originally posted by surreal
LA One man Hacking ring busted at the DWP...

Thanks to the quick thinking of a senior emplyee (a concept this reporter finds to be an oxymoron..) a one man international hacking ring was busted today.
The accused ring leader (and follower) a CMonster, was accused of being either very clever or impatient... News at 11.

hahah gotta watch out for that

[CMonster]

The PC in question was in the break room and was used for watching TV -where the company provided a TV anyway! But I also used the PC for keeping records of hazmat, shop safety inspections, problem vehicle maintenance history, vehicle modifications, and special department requests. It was also used for word processing and printing legible, intelligent communications to our equipment users and their supervisors. I also had intention to expand the use to appointment and scheduled inspections reminders.

Well, they can go back to voice mail (just gets deleted or "post-it"-ized) and scratch paper now, because it will be a cold one in the earth's core before they get more than a terse note from me again. It's the 21st century and we're still using smoke signals there.

Man am I apathetic now.

I had hoped that in conjunction with a certain Linux company we could present to the City of LA and the DWP how they could save millions by switching print, email, and file servers to Linux. Just switching our desktop office suites to StarOffice 6.0 (when its no longer beta) could save us a bundle while retaining compatibility with MS. The company could free up funds for infrastructure improvement and best of all - (if implemented) an employee who suggests an idea (that would be me) gets 10% of the first year savings.

[MDdan]

Sorry to hear that CMonster, It's really frustrating when ignorance causes folks to criticize you for going the extra mile.

Have you looked around for an IT position with another company? I remember you mentioning in a post on sysopt that you're getting a bunch of certs, but would have a hard time finding an IT job that offered the pay/benefits of your current position.

Is it maybe time to make a move? I dunno, just asking. Job market ain't what it was a few years ago...but sometimes change is nice.