[rim] 2004/04/07 - day two hundred eighty eight a

[Will Holcomb]

This has been a hell of a day for technology and bureaucracy.

I came into the lab this afternoon to find that someone had been
mucking about in the wiring closet. I normally keep my laptop and cd
burner there and connect to them via the internet. Someone had taken
some equipment out of the closet and replaced it with equipment from
the lab. The problem is that the lab equipment is stuff we need to do
our teaching, so it is something of a problem that it is now being
used.

Someone had been playing with my laptop as well. They took the cable
which connected it to my computer. They unplugged the power and it is
a strange sort of plug which apparently confounded them because they
mashed it in wrong and broke off a couple of the pins.

They stole my network cables as well, but I am getting accustomed to
that since someone at this university has learned that if they come in
and take my cables I make new ones. This has apparently been taken as
tacit permission because it keeps on happening.

I messed with my cd burner and bent a couple of the pins back into
place. Fortunately the ones that were broken off appear to have been
expendable since the thing still works.

I'm honestly not an irritable or selfish sort of person, but this
really gets to me. The idea of delicacy just doesn't seem to exist
here. I guess I'm just lucky no one dropped anything and that the
burner still works. I'm going to take it home tonight.

Half a world away another bureaucracy is busy making problems to be
dealt with as well. I got mail from the fellow who took over taking
care of the honors server when I left Tech. Apparently someone has
decided that since I'm not a student I shouldn't be allowed to have
access to the university resources anymore. My website, all the
volunteer info, this mailing list, and alot of other stuff all live on
that computer at Tech. If they cut me off that all goes away and being
here and being poor it is going to be difficult to deal with.

It is just tiring honestly. With the crap here I put it off because my
expectations for Mauritania are generally low. TTU though disappoints
me a bit. I did work with the computer center for more than five
years. Between helpdesk and doing wiring in the summers and
programming for the education department I knew probably 90% of the
people there. I was the student representative to the IT oversight
committee my last year there. I gave the honors program the computer
that they are now not going to let me access.

I'm not really happy with how I left because I had a big project that
I screwed up on pretty badly, but at the same time I feel like they
ought to at least give me some pittance. I gave $600 to the computer
science department when I came back off co-op because I wasn't happy
with a project I did with them. It was more than I made when I worked
for them. I haven't had time to make amends though for my work with
the education department. I wonder if someone is mad at me...

Anyhow, if I disappear completely from the internet and lots of stuff
stops working, you know why...

For right now I just want to go take a nap and not try and think about
how I'm going to deal with this hassle on top of the others.

Love,
Will