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Keeping a PC Personal At School?
Berto Kraus writes "As one of the most tech-oriented students in my art-oriented institution, I'm usually the one with the laptop. This causes frequent requests from other students to read mail, check some site, or connect it to the projector to display a file from their Flash drive. For the sake of my privacy, the health of my laptop, and my own peace of mind, I'm reluctant. But telling my compatriots to go to our building supervisor and ask him for a desktop-on-a-cart, as they should do, is considered rude and unfriendly. Now, I could dual-boot Ubuntu, or carry around a Linux-on-a-stick. Or I could embed the computer in my skull. For many reasons, none of these solutions is ideal. So I'm asking you, insightful and funny Slashdotters, what would you do to keep your PC personal at school?"
create a guest account.
Not take it to class and pay attention instead.
Eat sleep die
I must admit, I've never had this problem. Probably because I have a very long password and I lock my PC whenever I turn my head away from the screen. As long as you're obviously paranoid enough with your PC, chances are, people won't ask you to use it.
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
Grow a pair and learn the word "no".
It is your property. I don't see the issue here.
Be firm. Saying no needn't be rude and unfriendly. Your friends will know where you stand, and stop asking. You don't have to tell them to "fuck off", just explain in a friendly manner. If you're afraid your friends will desert you or stop liking you because you won't give them access to your laptop, I'd suggest you have other issues. Also, if they did that, they couldn't really have been friends.
I'm resistant to letting anyone use my laptop. It's password protected and my roommate, the computer programmer, has commented in disbelief that it's not like he'll ever do anything harmful with it. However, I don't let it stop me.
Look at it from the other side: They're being just as rude, maybe more so. It's rude for your friends to impose their whims on you when you've apparently made it evident enough that you aren't comfortable with letting them all at your machine, willy-nilly.
What OS are you running? Is there some reason you can't keep a "guest" account with few privileges and no access to any of your personal data, and just log into the guest account before you hand them the machine?
The answer of using different user accounts for different users when you want to have multiple people using the same machine strikes me as so obvious, it makes me wonder if I'm misreading the question?
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
Sharing laptops is like sharing toothbrushes.
"For the sake of my privacy, the health of my laptop, and my own peace of mind, I'm reluctant."
As you should be.
"But telling my compatriots to go to our building supervisor and ask him for a desktop-on-a-cart, as they should do, is considered rude and unfriendly."
But you aren't the community PC guy, are you? You are being /used/. Not even mentioning your privacy or possibility of OS infection, what if someone simply drops the machine? I suspect you won't be able to get anyone to pay for the repair or replacement, as they are unwilling to get their own. If this keeps going on, you are going to have a broken computer /and/ a lot of resentment aimed at your so-called friends. This might sound harsh to you, but it is reality.
There is a solution to this, however. If your group is cohesive enough, maybe each can contribute to the acquisition of a "group computer." This is how the real world works, especially if you are acquainted with the concept of the "office group owned coffee pot and coffee kitty." Same concept. Those who contribute get to use the computer/coffee pot/whatever.
But if you continue on the current path you are on, it can only end badly.
--
BMO
Uhhhhh....did it never occur to you that your speed and familiarity with QWERTY would be why Dvorak is slower for you? I know my sister types significantly faster with Dvorak than Qwerty; she wasn't terribly fast at Qwerty at the time, nowadays she uses Qwerty about 30% of the time and Dvorak 70% at the time and is at about ~100 WPM on Dvorak but 60 WPM on Qwerty.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
Or tell them to go fuck themselves.
Honestly, if they need to use it that much why have they not bought their own?
A laptop costs almost nothing compared to most art supplies, if they complain they don't have the cash... ask them how much they paid for their last photo enlargements? In this day and age not having a laptop is like not having a pen. Sure, once in a while when you forget the tool it's cool to borrow, but not having one and always using others is not acceptable.
One thing I usually find most annoying from art students is the attitude that "art supplies" are more important than the tools they use to learn with. I feel it's more about being able to say "I spent $500 making that artwork, respect it!" than actually creating art. Then again, maybe I'm either too cynical, or my priorities are different.
I've been unemployed for extended periods of time (years), but haven't been without a computer since I was 16 (I bought my first computer myself too) - I'm 29 now. I've always considered being connected with the world at large as a vital part of being human, others don't, then again, why are they asking to borrow your laptop?
Goes back to telling them to fuck off... or harden the fuck up. Which ever is more appropriate.
BTW, I wouldn't buy any justification based on the idea that you do other things while supposedly studying which mean you "need" to have it. Hopefully the course you have decided to take is sufficiently interesting and rewarding - otherwise maybe you're in the wrong place, studying the wrong subject.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Or tell them to go fuck themselves.
I've been unemployed for extended periods of time (years)
Gee, I wonder why
Ask something in return. I'd suggest sexual favors from women, and money from guys.
I think you've missed the point. These people are asking to use his laptop in class. If I'm not using my machine at home I don't expect some random I barely know to rock up and ask to use it. Why should it be any different at university/collage/school?
It really is a case of people learning to deal with either not having the tool or getting their own (fuck off or harden the fuck up).
Turning this into a "socialise with physical beings" debate is very silly, kind of like telling someone who doesn't want to lend a pen out to spend more time with their lecturer.
Honestly, if they need to use it that much why have they not bought their own
Deep down he likes it. Maybe it's the only way to get women to talk to him - I don't know.
The thing is that he wants people to keep using his stuff, if he was too inconvenienced, or the risk was too high to balance the benefits he gets (or at least, thinks he gets) he'd stop doing it. What he wants though, is to prevent them from screwing up his stuff (or planting viruses/backdoors - either inadvertently or maliciously). What he should be more worried about is physical damage - like someone he's lent it to dropping it.
There's no remedy for that, as if these people can't afford a lappy of their own they won't be in a position to pay for the damage they do. The guy should think about that as a bigger problem.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Do I know you? If not, bugger off.
Do I trust that you know what you're doing enough to not click Delete etc. ? If not, bugger off.
Do I think that you'll lend it on again, let anyone else use it, or are using it where it's likely someone will "steal" it for a laugh or take it over or pass it around or make off with it? If so, bugger off.
Do you understand the importance that the use of that laptop, and the data on it, means to me? If not, bugger off.
I'm wary of lending my PC to even family, it rarely comes back the same way it was given and 99% of everybody has a laptop in the big colleges/universities nowadays - it's one of those "Mum and Dad bought me this for college" items.
And the magic word is "No". If you don't want to do it, just don't do it. Of course they'll whinge and moan, but then that's up to THEM to get their own laptop and guess what? When people borrow theirs and start breaking it, they'll whinge and moan too. And when they then refuse to lend it, they'll get whinged and moaned at.
I never lend personal laptops except to a (literal) handful of people, I *NEVER* lend work laptops at all. If someone wants to be left *unsupervised* with a laptop of mine, I have to *know* that it'll come back in the same state it left. And if a guest wants to use a laptop, I have old, crappy spares - enough to load a webpage, not enough for them to be happy using it for anything other than the essentials (e.g. checking for *vital* emails).
Hell, I've got a previous post on here about how I lock down my wireless so that guests staying with me *can't* use it unless I specifically let them (not just a WPA key or similar) and when they *do* use it, they know that everything is monitored and filtered.
Call me unsociable, or uncooperative, or untrusting, I don't care. It's *my* property, it's *incredibly* expensive property, it's incredibly fragile property and it's loaded to the hilt with data that's important to me and will cost me a lot of time to recreate (even if it's only the icon layout, or a particular set of settings).
Tech oriented? Why don't you come up with a solution then? This is not a hard problem to solve.
Aaaaaaaaah, OK. I see where you're coming from.
The most obvious solution I can think of (assuming you're on XP/Vista) is for you to set up a second user and Fast user switch whenever someone else wants to use your laptop.
Assuming your classmate's technical competence is below yours, that should be adequate security measures.
I find it ironic that someone would get snarky and denigrate the technical competence of an art student by suggesting that the security of their Windows computer is primarily related to the skill of the guest users. The main security threat does not come from a malicous guest who may or may not know anything about cracking computers. The threat comes from pre-packaged intrusion software, in the form of easy-to-click cracking tools, or more likely from viruses introduced from thumb drives and web sites.
A computer expert would know better than to propogate the myth that computers are breached by teh haxx0rs with elit3 knowledge. Those kind of exploits are available to anyone who can point and click. And the most likely threat is not from your friend in the art class, it's from the viruses he's got on that thumb drive he wants to stick in your computer.
The reason to provide a guest account is to keep someone from accidently deleting your files, messing up your settings, accessing email and the web with your credentials or accidently replacing them, and of course to keep them from reading your personal files.
I let my friends use a guest account on my Mac for the same reasons, even though the exploit and virus factor there is practically nil.
Considering how often I would need to be fast typing and how often I type and then re-read, I could not be bothered. Even when writing an email or this here, I stop and re-read and correct and re-write parts.
Imagine I could double my typing speed, I would not double my efficiency, just the part where I am typing and I do more non-typing then I do typing. When I look at other people, they use the keyboard even less and do much more with the mouse.
I know there are people that will be much more productive if they could increase their typing speed significantly and are at the limit with QWERTY or AZERTY. I also think that that is only a minority.
I think you should not look at the WPM, which is from the time of the typewriter, but at the whole task. Say answering a long email. Some rough guessing. Say the answer is 100 words. So answering with Dvorak would take 1 minute. With qwerty 2 minutes (bit less). Now getting the email, reading it, understanding it, looking for what to answer and perhaps taking action on what to do takes up 20 minutes. So with that specific mail, instead of 22 minutes for the task I would take 21 minutes.
So it depends heavily on the task as to the usefulness of the training time. I just pick and type with basically three or four fingers yet I am often faster with a task then somebody else who is much faster at typing.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
All your really saying is Don't bend for a friend or you'll get it in the end!
speaking of which...
Make the goats.cx guy your screensaver and/or wallpaper image as a warning to this effect. That should keep most reasonable people the hell away from your laptop. if you run it through a red filter and make sure you only ever wear blue glasses, you should be safely protected and it'll hopefully just look like a black background.
No liability for retinal damage this solution may cause.
You can do a bit better than that.
If they want to check the email ask them for the user name and password and read it out to them, if they don't trust you with that why would you trust them with your PC.
If you are fussy about bad files on strange usb drives get them to wait while you scan the usb with anti virus software, they will likely give up before it has finished, claim it is auto configured that way.
The other one of course is simply make busy with your PC and claim that unfortunately you don't have the time.
Turn off all auto play features on the USB drive, plug in the USB drive and when they don't see anything come up, like typical end users expect, claim it temporarily isn't working, bugger.
Checking web sites, only turn on wireless access when you want to use it the rest of time, eep no access, bugger.
Of course the catch all on notebooks, sorry battery is way down wish I could help but, by the time we get to a power point you could most probably use a computer from one of the labs or library.
Art types can be very manipulative implying that if you do not serve them you create negative connotations in the supposed relationship, so when they ask you for a favour, have some favours you need in reserve and, request that favour first, should they refuse, discus the reason for their refusal of your request and imply they are fostering a negative relationship, continue to discuss until they give up and go away.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Maybe, but in art you still need to create _something_.
All of ye have given good technical answers, and they would most-likely work, but I think ye overlooked the most practical solution:
"No."
It's the same answer I give if someone asks if they can drive my $15,000 car, or if they can borrow my $5000 diamond ring, or if they can wear my $1000 suit. No, no, no. A laptop is not a toy; it's a huge investment in both money and time (approximately 1.5 months of hell, err work). And I would explain that to the asker: "If it breaks, are you willing to give me two thousand dollars to get a new one?" Probably not. If it's something trivial like checking wikipedia.com then sure I'll share my laptop, but for something major like doing a presentation on the projection screen, forget it. Let them use the school-provided resources and/or buy their own laptop.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
That was a hilarious couple of sentences, rebutting in the first one the assumption you make in the second...
"I think it would be a good idea!"
Gandhi, about Internet Security
The moral of the story is,
...that you are a wuss controlled by your peers.
You just described any school, not just those focused on "art".
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
The most practical solution probably won't get you many friends, commodore64_love. I think that the original question asker wants to, you know, have people who like and appreciate him at his art-oriented school.
Since you seem like a black and white sort of dude, I'll say it in nerdish black and white: refusing to participate in social 'gifting' if you are not an alpha male guarantees that you will drop to the bottom of the social pecking order. Most non-outcast-y people get this intuitively, and it's one reason they have more friends. Outcasts can learn to do this, along with other social niceties and reintegrate, if they choose to.
Or, they can, you know, keep their laptops to themselves.
If it sounds harsh, sorry. I'm just trying to engage with you on the level and tone you did. Maybe it will help your social life.
I'm not sure that "friends" is the appropriate word here. People who are kind enough to beg the OP to use his stuff because they're too lazy or stupid to buy their own are generally not "friends", they're sponges. What's the likelihood they'd do him favors in return when he's in need? Do they hang out with him after class and help him with his work a lot? Or are they just cordial to him and his best pal in the world when they need something from him and otherwise he may as well not exist? If so, they're sponges. If the willingness to be used by sponges is a mark of good social graces, I don't see a problem with being at the bottom of that social pecking order. There are only certain situations involving social politics where it might be to one's advantage to do so.
That said, there's a place for social gifting. If someone has a desperate need and you help them out, that's an entirely different thing. Your generosity is still a scarce resource that will be appreciated and not assumed or taken-advantage of. If someone really is a friend, it's appropriate to share since generosity is mutual. But for people who just want to take advantage and use your stuff so they don't have to buy and maintain their own, "Sorry, can't help you there," is an appropriate answer, especially if there's --any-- chance you'd lose a non-trivial amount of time and money due to what might someone might do to the item they wish to borrow, and you don't have a reasonable expectation that they'd make it right in such an event.
This is a question of who is being more rude - the person with the laptop, or the person asking to borrow it. Laptops are a personal resource, not a community one, and I somehow doubt that anyone is providing you with any benefit for using it, short of "not hating you for life."
There are lots of reasons for not letting others use your laptop. School resources get pretty beaten up over time, and you don't want your laptop to wind up looking like one of those. Battery life is a limited resource, not just the charge, but also the number of times you can charge the battery, and they are EXPENSIVE. My laptop now has three ports that have just given up the ghost from regular plugging and unplugging.
Let's face it. Nobody in high school NEEDS to check their email during school hours, but you do need to keep your laptop working. Damage caused by casual users is inevitable, not just to the OS, but to the hardware itself. Asking you to allow that damage simply because you're supposed to be nice is RUDE, and shows no respect for your property.
So, unfortunately, it's not just a matter of saying no, but of educating them regarding why borrowing your laptop is unacceptable. I hope this provides you with a good start.
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
Every time I go to some big conference, there's a clusterfuck as someone tries to get their laptop to talk to the projector.
If you lend your machine out for that sort of thing, make very sure that autorun is turned off for all external media. Someone is going to put in a CD or a USB stick that has something on it that will try to autorun.
Incidentally, if you're giving a talk, have everything set up in advance. When the projector turns on, your first slide should be up. Not a Windows desktop. Not a PowerPoint slide tray. Not "New updates are available for your computer." And especially not "Low Battery". That's amateurish. I used to have a housemate who was a roadie for rock groups, a stage rigger, and also did event setup at Stanford. She insisted presentations run like theatrical performances; any prep work takes place out of sight of the audience. If you're in art school, definitely learn to do this right.
To be honest, it would be more polite to just say "no." The people who won't graciously accept a simple no are not going to act any better if you tell them you want a few hundred dollars first, so that idea really doesn't solve this guy's problem.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?