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It’s a public computer. Public!

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  • It’s a public computer. Public!

    This is something that happened during my year in the Norwegian army.
    After basic I ended up as an assistant at what is basically the military’s recreational department. We ensured that the soldiers had a good selection of things they could do in their time off duty.

    We had several computers that soldiers could use to surf the internet, these were placed in a row on the left side of our entrance (this was the only public entrance for the entire second floor of our building), anyone who entered that door could not miss seeing those screens.
    We were not the only ones on that floor. 2 Lieutenants, 1 Major and 1 Lieutenant colonel had offices down the hall. There were also some civilians who had a large circulation of officers and other military personnel coming to them.
    Safe to say, there were a lot of officers passing those computers.

    At one point a certain trend began, people started changing the desktop background. I know what you are thinking, “that doesn’t sound too bad”.
    But why would I be posting this then?
    Think about it. Military, almost only males of the age between 18 and 25.

    What do you guess they changed the background to?
    If you guessed semi-naked to fully naked girls, you win a cookie!

    As I noted earlier there were a high traffic of officers past those computers so I had to change the background quite often. I even had a fellow asking why in the world I would want to change the background.
    As I said, a lot of officers, civilians and girls, (including 2 in my platoon that worked down the hall. They did not like those pictures). We had a reputation to preserve.

    And this was public computers, what the frack was going through their head?
    Had it been their private laptops I would not have cared. But public ones? Not nice toward us.

    Toward the end of my year in the army I hated my customers. I screamed in joy the day i was given my discharge papers.


    Addendum!
    The reason for why we didn't just have the IT department make it so that nobody could change the background is that the computers were Linux.
    And IT didn't know how to do that in Linux. Nobody else did either.
    Last edited by Architectus Assistantus; 10-29-2010, 06:09 PM. Reason: Added clarification
    “I don’t have pet peeves, I have major, psychotic hatreds.” -George Carlin

  • #2
    Public means not having bad stuff on it. It's for everyone. That means little kids could too.
    And what if one of those soldiers wanted to go out with the female soldier that didn't like the naked pictures of girls on a public computer? Do you really want to be catch putting those pictures on the background? Way to ruin a chance.
    Last edited by Dave1982; 10-29-2010, 04:20 PM. Reason: contained Fratching material
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    • #3
      There vere some kids passing those computers, but that was not often.

      At the garrison I was stationed at it was only 5-10% females.
      But there were plenty of, how to say this, "interaction" betveen soldiers of oposite sexes.
      There is a reason why the sauna in the basement of our barracks were closed.
      Last edited by Dave1982; 10-29-2010, 04:29 PM. Reason: removed fratching comment
      “I don’t have pet peeves, I have major, psychotic hatreds.” -George Carlin

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      • #4
        "And this was public computers, what the frack was going through their head?"

        It's not so much what was going through their heads as which head it was going through.
        "All I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who out-drew ya"

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        • #5
          There is something to be said about restricted rights on public computers... Windows can definitely be set up to not allow the background to be changed.


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          • #6
            Quoth Duncan MacLeod View Post
            Lutefisk FTW?
            FTL. Also headcheese.
            I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
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            • #7
              Quoth Duncan MacLeod View Post
              There is something to be said about restricted rights on public computers... Windows can definitely be set up to not allow the background to be changed.
              It was Linux. And the IT department did not know how to stop people from changing background on Linux.
              It was decided to save some money when the time to change our old computers came.
              “I don’t have pet peeves, I have major, psychotic hatreds.” -George Carlin

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              • #8
                Those guys are dumb. Plus, why weren't the computers set so that settings couldn't be changed by users? My school's comps are like that.
                Last edited by Dave1982; 10-29-2010, 04:53 PM. Reason: removed response to Fratching comment

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                • #9
                  Why didn't you just make it so you couldn't change the background?
                  The High Priest is an Illusion!

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                  • #10
                    Folks, I've had to edit or delete a number of posts in this thread that were denouncing or defending military conscription. That is a debate best left for Fratching. Let's stick to the topic of posting inappropriate background images on public computers. I do not want to have to close this thread but I will if the conscription debate restarts.
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                    • #11
                      If I'd been one of the women in that group, I would've put up a background with a hunky guy. It probably wouldn't have been too long before the guys got the point. I think.
                      When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth MoonCat View Post
                        If I'd been one of the women in that group, I would've put up a background with a hunky guy. It probably wouldn't have been too long before the guys got the point. I think.
                        They did consider it. I don't remember why they didn't though.
                        “I don’t have pet peeves, I have major, psychotic hatreds.” -George Carlin

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                        • #13
                          Quoth Architectus Assistantus View Post
                          It was Linux. And the IT department did not know how to stop people from changing background on Linux.
                          It was decided to save some money when the time to change our old computers came.
                          Can be done on Linux, too. Worst case, chown the relevant file to the administrator login, and chmod it no-mod to all.
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                          2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                          3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                          4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth ArcticChicken View Post
                            Why didn't you just make it so you couldn't change the background?
                            Their IT guys at the time did not know how to do so ^_^

                            Which is kinda sad, if you think about it. Granted, I wouldn't know how to do that on Linux, but I'm in charge of a Windows office, not a Linux one ^_^ The worst part is, the OP had to waste a lot of time cleaning up after these zeebs.
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                            • #15
                              The IT department were only trained on Windows, as it was the only system used on the military network. Our old public computers were Windows. But when the time came to replace them, it was decided (due to budget) to save some bucks and go for Linux as it would be much cheaper.
                              “I don’t have pet peeves, I have major, psychotic hatreds.” -George Carlin

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