Linux Lock

If anyone is actually surprised by the administrations intelligence - I should remind you of 3 events:

- A teacher confiscates Linux CDs claiming that the student was essentially distributing illegal copyrighted software - because no software is free [1]

- A system administrator was fired for installing/running seti@home on school computers. There is a lot of controversy about this case - but I read one news article (that I can't find right now) where the administration said they would have been ok with cancer research folding@home rather than searching for aliens with seti@home. This combined with the backpedaling of "oh actually he was a bad employee, stole things, and cost the school millions in extra in electricity costs!" makes me believe that they just wanted to use it as an excuse to fire him and make the position open for a friend/relative. [2].

- Or an honor roll student suspended for buying candy from another student [3]. His statuses were only restored after it caught media attention.

I would go into my rant about the education system but you should just watch this video [4]

[1] http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/linux-stop-holding-our-kids-back.html

[2] https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/forum_thread.php?id=5169

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20080313141623/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/12/skittles.suspension.ap/index.html

[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

I suspect this is a publicity ploy. Maybe I'm cynical.

I believe this is the same guy who got massive attention with his story of someone telling him that when his project gives a computer to a child with Down's syndrome, they are "wasting it on an idiot." Terrible. If it happened. If you're David, why not invent Goliaths and play the persecution angle for attention?

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/09/wasted-on-idiot.html

It's a great way to draw attention to yourself and your project. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but my bs detector is going off--this smells funny.

This has been brought up before -- but for different reasons. The newly renamed "Reglue" project, that installs Linux on computers for needy kids in Texas, brought this up a long time ago. That the acronym/name of the program you can use to paint on your new computer is also somewhat offensive is just unfortunate. At any rate, the program itself is useful and I've supported the project in the past financially.

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2011/05/your-vote-counts.html