My university was nice enough to loan me a MacBook to play with--both so I could do some things I wanna do for a research project I'm working on and so I could be a bit more knowledgeable about Mac "stuff" (I am admittedly Mac-illiterate) so I can help students/faculty.
So I brought it home for the break to play with, but unfortunately the "powers that be" have it set up so that I do not have administrative privileges. So, I try to access my home wireless network to connect to the Internet and it asks for administrator login info (which of course I don't have), so I can't download and install the programs I need (which will also probably require administrator logon info). So, I figure I'll play with iMovie, but when I connect my Flip and try to access FlipShare, the silly thing again wants administrator info.
WHO in the world decided that technology which should be in support of faculty endeavors should be so SECURE that it will only work as an expensive doorstop??? OK, so if all I want to do is type papers and save them to a USB drive, this thing might work..... Blccch.
And, of course, since it IS the break, IT people aren't responding to my requests for help. Their idea of a "break" must be NOT working; my idea of a "break" is time to try to do some of the work I don't have time for during the semester.
Is this any way to run a (research) university?
Can you feel my frustration??!
Luckily, thanks to a friend, I discover there is a quite easy way to change the administrator password and get in. So, what's with all the security that isn't secure after all?
We are moving ever closer to a world where nothing the individual does will be private in any sense of the word; however, the individual will be limited to doing/using only that which they are allowed to do/use. Cloud computing, while a lifesaver in many ways, can also be used as a means of control.
For many, many years I have warned/forecasted that we will again see the days of "dumb terminals" instead of full-featured PCs (or Macs); instead of accessing programs on a mini-computer, however, we will access them online. Many universities and companies already do this, of course, saving on software licensing fees and making more programs available to more users.
But think this through: when ALL software is accessed online (probably with concomitant online storage of our files), then not only would it be possible to track our every use (and keystroke--no, I'm not paranoid....much), but it also, well, keeps us honest. That is, we will no longer be able to pirate, er, I mean borrow, copies of software from friends; we will not longer be able to create our own software packages (or hacks); and we will no longer be able to decide for ourselves even when we want to keep using old (unsupported) versions of software rather than upgrade.
In "The Coming War on General Computation" (http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4848.en.html), Cory Doctorow says, "The coming century will be dominated by war against the general purpose computer, and the stakes are the freedom, fortune and privacy of the entire human race." All I can say is, "Yup."
So I brought it home for the break to play with, but unfortunately the "powers that be" have it set up so that I do not have administrative privileges. So, I try to access my home wireless network to connect to the Internet and it asks for administrator login info (which of course I don't have), so I can't download and install the programs I need (which will also probably require administrator logon info). So, I figure I'll play with iMovie, but when I connect my Flip and try to access FlipShare, the silly thing again wants administrator info.
WHO in the world decided that technology which should be in support of faculty endeavors should be so SECURE that it will only work as an expensive doorstop??? OK, so if all I want to do is type papers and save them to a USB drive, this thing might work..... Blccch.
And, of course, since it IS the break, IT people aren't responding to my requests for help. Their idea of a "break" must be NOT working; my idea of a "break" is time to try to do some of the work I don't have time for during the semester.
Is this any way to run a (research) university?
Can you feel my frustration??!
Luckily, thanks to a friend, I discover there is a quite easy way to change the administrator password and get in. So, what's with all the security that isn't secure after all?
We are moving ever closer to a world where nothing the individual does will be private in any sense of the word; however, the individual will be limited to doing/using only that which they are allowed to do/use. Cloud computing, while a lifesaver in many ways, can also be used as a means of control.
For many, many years I have warned/forecasted that we will again see the days of "dumb terminals" instead of full-featured PCs (or Macs); instead of accessing programs on a mini-computer, however, we will access them online. Many universities and companies already do this, of course, saving on software licensing fees and making more programs available to more users.
But think this through: when ALL software is accessed online (probably with concomitant online storage of our files), then not only would it be possible to track our every use (and keystroke--no, I'm not paranoid....much), but it also, well, keeps us honest. That is, we will no longer be able to pirate, er, I mean borrow, copies of software from friends; we will not longer be able to create our own software packages (or hacks); and we will no longer be able to decide for ourselves even when we want to keep using old (unsupported) versions of software rather than upgrade.
In "The Coming War on General Computation" (http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4848.en.html), Cory Doctorow says, "The coming century will be dominated by war against the general purpose computer, and the stakes are the freedom, fortune and privacy of the entire human race." All I can say is, "Yup."
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