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What does "log off" mean?

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  • What does "log off" mean?

    Our head system admin had to send a message to a subset of users, because he had to reboot something. He emailed that they needed to log off and then log back in, so they could be reconnected to the rebooted server.

    He then had to spend far too long on the phone with a luser who didn't understand the parameters of the request.
    "what does this email mean?"
    "Are you currently logged on? OK, then log off, and then log back in."
    "what do you mean, log off?"


    The kicker? She (supposedly) has a degree in Computer Science.
    Smile, or I'll smack you silly!
    At what age does a vampire become a crazy old bat? :[

  • #2
    Degree

    I would have said she had a fake degree, if I had not have to deal will a 5th year Computer Science student who did not backup the work on his computer.

    Yes, he lost it all, and I could not recover the data (those were the early days of Apple's HFS+) and nor could the local data recovery companies.

    Computer Science teach the equations tell us how much storage, memory, CPU we need to solve problem, it just does not tell people how to handle real world problems.

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    • #3
      That's nothing. When I went to a trade school for a CompSci degree, circa 2000 -- There was a student in my class who bragged about it being their fourth time attempting the degree...and it was all somehow paid for via scholarships or some similar means. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to pay mine off, what with the lack of jobs that they were allegedly gonna help me find upon graduation (they got me a 2-month temp position doing data entry, and never bothered to mention that it was a temp spot; no further assistance was to be had beyond that). Said student came up to me during the study period for the FINAL EXAM (this after 2 solid years of classes) to ask me how Functions worked...

      They'd probably still be there, had the school not closed down a couple of years later. Possibly in shame regarding STILL having that student there.
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      • #4
        I've told this before but a second year student in the computer program I am in didn't know what the shift key did. The teacher noticed him using caps lock to capitalize one letter, and pointed out what shift does. He wasn't even embarrassed, he was happy to learn it and was helpfully telling others in the class.

        I can't say much, a few weeks ago at my internship we had a computer open and they asked me to name what a part was and I didn't know. It was the harddrive. Not sure why I couldn't remember that, but I'm concerned for myself. I do know what logging off means, though. And because I'm interning at a school, I know to first check that the voltage is correct before doing anything else. Students commonly switch it from 110 to 220 in order to get out of doing work.
        Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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        • #5
          Quoth notalwaysright View Post
          IStudents commonly switch it from 110 to 220 in order to get out of doing work.
          Better than the other way around - that would probably cause damage.

          An increasing number of PSUs no longer have such a switch; they sense the voltage automatically.

          Quoth EricKei
          Said student came up to me during the study period for the FINAL EXAM (this after 2 solid years of classes) to ask me how Functions worked...
          While not quite that bad, I was once paired up with a fellow CS student - in third year, mind you - who utterly failed to read my straightforward, three-line implementation of the Caesar cipher, and showed absolutely no signs of being able to write similar code himself. Bear in mind that the *first* year course at that university had used Java, whose syntax is very similar to the C we were now using. I can understand having students of differing abilities learn from each other by working together, but there was no way I could bridge a skill gulf that deep - it would have challenged a dedicated remedial teacher.

          This wasn't the first time I'd encountered non-coders in CS - but in the first-year course it was understandable and accepted. For my first-year group project, I had one partner who cheerfully admitted he couldn't code - so I assigned him the duties of testing and documentation, thereby making him useful. The boat anchor proved to be one of the others, who blustered about his supposed skills, disappeared for weeks, then turned in syntactically-incorrect code (ie. it wouldn't even compile on its own) at the last minute, by which time I'd already written a (fully working) replacement for his part of the project. This was, of course, noted in my project report.
          Last edited by Chromatix; 07-16-2016, 03:12 AM. Reason: Avoiding a double-post.

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          • #6
            "what do you mean, log off?"
            Sad to say, I can almost see "Betty" doing this. She has definitely done the "what does this email mean?" thing with me, and my usual response is "What does it say? Read it again."
            Last edited by MoonCat; 07-19-2016, 03:04 AM.
            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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            • #7
              Quoth notalwaysright View Post
              I can't say much, a few weeks ago at my internship we had a computer open and they asked me to name what a part was and I didn't know. It was the harddrive. Not sure why I couldn't remember that, but I'm concerned for myself.
              I was a Computer Science major, but I was never interested in hardware. I took zero hardware classes in college, so I'd be hard pressed to name components. I haven't seen the insides of a PC since I had to add RAM and replace a modem in mine, around 1995 (14.4K, baby, woo! )
              Smile, or I'll smack you silly!
              At what age does a vampire become a crazy old bat? :[

              Comment


              • #8
                Hardware

                Quoth vikingchyk View Post
                I was a Computer Science major, but I was never interested in hardware. I took zero hardware classes in college, so I'd be hard pressed to name components. I haven't seen the insides of a PC since I had to add RAM and replace a modem in mine, around 1995 (14.4K, baby, woo! )
                Yes, but in my case I don't care that you don't know the hardware.

                What I want to know, did you make a backup (even if they are just printouts) of all your work? Or will you come running to a tech in your fourth or fifth year complaining that all your work for the university has go up in smoke.

                I don't see what good a degree in CS does, if after figuring out what the computer has to do to solve a problem if there are no backups of the answers or raw data.
                Last edited by earl colby pottinger; 07-19-2016, 01:59 AM.

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                • #9
                  Quoth vikingchyk View Post
                  I was a Computer Science major, but I was never interested in hardware. I took zero hardware classes in college, so I'd be hard pressed to name components. I haven't seen the insides of a PC since I had to add RAM and replace a modem in mine, around 1995 (14.4K, baby, woo! )
                  A hardware class was required for my program, which is Computer Networking. So I have no excuse. Well, I do remember that was the class that I fainted in, during the disassembly lab. But it's still very basic and I should have known. In some ways I feel like I learned a lot, but in other ways I don't think I learned anything. I was one of the people who came into the program with no computer knowledge other than how to google problems.
                  Replace anger management with stupidity management.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    The way I see it, the degree gives the 'basics' and building on that is up to you.
                    Quoth vikingchyk View Post
                    I was a Computer Science major, but I was never interested in hardware.
                    I was a CS non-coder; I passed the relevant courses, just couldn't wrap my brain around it past that at the time. All my hardware knowledge was (and still is) self-taught.

                    The one "holySHIT" backup moment was before I had to switch majors; we had to use 3.5" floppies for our final AutoCAD theater drafting project and the one I was using got erased/corrupted. Luckily I had thought to make 'incremental' backups while working (one file for each version on a flashdrive) so was able to recreate it without too much trouble. Still not sure why we had to submit the final one on a floppy disc...
                    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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                    • #11
                      What does "log off!" mean?

                      A shout of triumph at a successful dump!

                      (data)
                      I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                      Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                      Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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