Slashdot Mirror
11-Year-Old Becomes Network Admin for Alabama School
alphadogg points out a story about 11-year-old Jon Penn, who took over control of a 60-computer school network in Alabama after the old administrator suddenly left. Penn provides technical support, selects software, and teaches his classmates about computers. From NetworkWorld:
"The first thing Jon found as he leapt into the role of network manager was that he had to map out the network to find out what was on it. He bought some tools for this at CompUSA and realized there was an ungodly amount of computer viruses and spam, so he pressed the school to invest in filtering and antivirus protection. 'These computers are so old they don't support all antivirus programs,' Penn says. The school took advantage of a Microsoft effort called Fresh Start that offers free software upgrades for schools with donated computers, switching from Windows 98 to Windows 2000."
No, he says he's too mature.
... was 12. He was ready for a career change after so long in IT.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
If any of our clients ever see this article, they're going to start hiring 11-year-olds and pay in comic books.
There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
I'm not that impressed. I was maintaining a lab of 16 Atari 800's when I was roughly his age. If he were smart, he'd switch to a less virus-resistant platform - I mean, we never had any problems.
Way to screw up a Feel Good story with the facts, Sherlock! I'm surprised you didn't home in on the Microsoft Solution and bleat about Linux.
Hmm... Maybe I'll check out Slashdot. Oh! There's a heartwarming IT story. [Pause. The sound of counting the technicians we have. Quick check of the numbers that we're administering.]
"Hey, John? Can we get a list of all the 16-year-olds on the network? Yeah, thanks."
I'm currently running the Windows 98 SE upgrade on a Windows 95 laptop with 16MB of RAM. So far it's only been upgrading for 11 days, and has already reached 10% completion. (It's a Dell Latitude P133, fyi...)
That's because college juniors have to start with the basics ... making coffees, not copies.
And if you think I'm joking, we had a breaker reset twice Friday because someone plugged a kettle into the same circuit as several desktops and a server ... they learned that a watched kettle never boils /* grumble grumble */
I think they got the title mixed up.
Oh really? At the rate he's going I think he might be CIO of a multinational company soon.
Great, now they'll be getting a bunch of prayer requests from /.
"Dear God, please let my next emerge go without error..."
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Wait until the PHBs hear about this one.
Network Admin: My job is hard; I want a raise. ...sputters incoherently...
PHB: Why? Your job is so easy, an 11-year old can handle it!
Network Admin:
Every IT manager will have to live with this nightmare, until the Jedi really start getting a headache.
Never confuse movement with action. --Hemingway
I rest my case.
That's nothing, by the time I was 11 I had already been running all the networks in my district for 5 years, *and* I had Slackware on all school machines by 7! It wasn't until 12 that I began consulting for the Federal Reserve, although in retrospect I should have taken the NASA gig instead.
I would have started my career sooner, but for most of my Kindergarten year I was under contract to the NSA.
have you been seen on slash?
The first rule of being a Network Admin is not to let others know that an 11 year old could do it.