Forums | MacLife

TheMeb · 2007-03-23 3:08 pm

So I'm the closest thing the journalism dept. at my high school has for a Mac sysadmin.

This year, I convinced the powers that be that since newspaper/yearbook is primarily a creative (Suite) endeavor, we should move to some industry-standard iMacs. As a beta lab, we got six 20" iMac C2D's and a Mac Pro w/Server in October 2006 (my babies). Plan is to get about 14 more this Spring to finish it out.

Anywho, it's been lovely to finally have some flashy new Macs in a program that has been Windoze-based for a decade (although I'm a senior now so I won't be enjoying the fruits of my labor for too long).

Unfortunately, last week the actual sysadmin for the school came in (a short five months after purchase) and "naturalized" the iMacs for the school. And I had to help.

First it was the drilling. Every iMac foot and the side of the Mac Pro was engraved with the district name, zip code, and some computer-specific ID number I'm not quite sure what to call. And then barcode stickers everywhere.

And then a new admin account, elegantly named "%dhhs_admin#" at the top of every computer's login screen.

It was painful.

And this woman had no clue about Mac OS X—I had to show her how to make her new admin account, and she neglected to enable admin privileges for herself on a single machine. Oops.

But still... cry

Last edited by TheMeb (2007-03-23 3:11 pm)

Apcs11 · 2007-03-24 4:20 pm

Aww thats awful....

Dont you hate it when clueless adults mess everything up lol

My dad is CLUELESS about computers, has has windows and I have a mac. Hes always asking me to fix his computer. Needless to say that it gets quite annoying real quick.

bikehorn · 2007-03-28 12:42 pm

Be happy she didn't give herself admin privileges...now she can't screw it up any further. When I was in high school my friend and I were pretty much the "admins" for the digital film lab(24 eMacs, 2 Power Mac G4s at the time) and the "real" site admin(aka the head of the computer department) stayed wayyy out of there, stuck to fixing Dells for the kids who programmed java. If the site admin had gotten in there, I know it would have become all corporate and school-boardy. That was 3 years ago though, so I'm sure they've since screwed the pooch...though they were supposed to get a bunch of new hardware after I graduated.

Last edited by bikehorn (2007-03-28 12:43 pm)

mrreet2001 · 2007-05-01 11:26 am

TheMeb wrote:
And this woman had no clue about Mac OS X—I had to show her how to make her new admin account, and she neglected to enable admin privileges for herself on a single machine. Oops.

Why didn't you just set one up the way you wanted and image them with the server?

maxintosh · 2007-05-01 4:05 pm

that sucks... my current school is all PC based (except for the video lab where I basically live, but the tech people pretty much leave that room alone wink ) but my old school was mac based, and we had very competent people, which was nice. though they still did put barcode stickers on every computer.

TheMeb · 2007-05-09 11:53 pm

mrreet2001 wrote:
TheMeb wrote:
And this woman had no clue about Mac OS X—I had to show her how to make her new admin account, and she neglected to enable admin privileges for herself on a single machine. Oops.
Why didn't you just set one up the way you wanted and image them with the server?

That's how I've usually configured the machines, but making the image and distributing it via Netboot to all the machines takes a few hours. In this case, creating a new account on each of the six iMacs was much easier. Once we get CS3, I think I'll reinstall the OS and start clean with one of the iMacs, put on CS3 and all the other apps/configuration that we need, and call in Ms. Tech to add an account before I make a new image.

Longbottom^ · 2007-05-15 12:37 am

haha, that really sucks, i probably would have cryed if i watched that being done. Adults can be very oblivious to the beauty and elegance that a mac has. to the contrary however, my father has recently converted his blood to all mac, as has my grandmother. my dad is running a 17' iMac C2D and a Black Macbook. and my grandma is rockin a White macbook. so there is hope my friend. patience is a virtue.

Forums | MacLife

#1 2007-03-23 3:08 pm

iMac Vandalizing

#2 2007-03-24 4:20 pm

Re: iMac Vandalizing

#3 2007-03-28 12:42 pm

Re: iMac Vandalizing

#4 2007-05-01 11:26 am

Re: iMac Vandalizing

TheMeb wrote:

#5 2007-05-01 4:05 pm

Re: iMac Vandalizing

#6 2007-05-09 11:53 pm

Re: iMac Vandalizing

mrreet2001 wrote:

TheMeb wrote:

#7 2007-05-15 12:37 am

Re: iMac Vandalizing

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