Re: [Dfey-nw-discuss] How to deal with an nasty and vague Acceptable Use Policy ?

[Chris Hilliard]

damn... I really did break half of those within 5 min of getting on
the system - I always use a home proxy, I go on obcene material every
so often, I have been in areas of the computer system not relating to
my course (system32 folder when doing chem, phys, maths and bio), I
have coppied software off and onto the machines, I edited and wrote
personal and charity websites at collage, we all occationaly 'edited'
someones work when they wandered away from their machine and I printed
off the odd web comic.

oh, and with the broadcasting system, someone I know of sent a
broadcast to every computer on every campus in the collage of MANCAT
(spanning around 20 campuses around the whole of manchester) saying
there was a bomb somewhere in the collage. Luckily I was off that day
and didn't see the pandamonium.

and still the sys admins liked me...

ttfn,
badspyro

On 11/6/08, Chris Hilliard <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have never signed an aceptable useage policy, and I'm at uni and
> have been faced with many - even one for using school (was called a
> home school agreement which both me and my parents refused to sign).
>
> As far as I could ever see, I was going to break the policy within 5
> sec of logging in and loading up paint shop pro off my pendrive or
> doing something else such as hacking the system (although the sys
> admins were rather pleased when I gave them the heads up and we
> developed a rather good working relationship). So I never signed it.
>
> My first rule in life is never to sign something you know you can't keep to.
>
> thanks,
> badspyro
>
> On 11/5/08, Lucy <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 2008/11/5 Tim Dobson <address@hidden>:
>>> Lucy wrote:
>>>> Okay, to play within the rules, what if the college provided some
>>>> forums that allowed you to talk to like minded people within the
>>>> college?
>>>
>>> Interesting suggestion. I've actually seen this implemented in at least
>>> one
>>> place. My previous school had a internally moderated social forum through
>>> the Moodle VLE.
>>>
>> [snip]
>>> On a more technical level, allowing students within the college isn't
>>> really
>>> going to help one learn much because the only information on how to write
>>> functions in VB for example will come from other students who probably
>>> just
>>> know what they have been taught...
>>>
>>> In addition, plagerism is probably more likely in a very closed
>>> environment
>>> where everyone uses the same examples of how to do $foo in $barlanguage.
>>>
>>> In general, I think closed environments are a bad idea.
>>
>> Closed environments can sometimes have their advantages. I think
>> plagiarism is actually less likely because the teachers will be able
>> to see everything that is posted. On the other hand, like you say, you
>> won't learn as much as you could by speaking to people outside of your
>> course. I put forward the suggestion as a possible compromise, because
>> I feel it's unlikely the college will allow full access to outside
>> chat spaces (irc, forums, etc).
>>
>>
>>>> I can understand that the college wants to restrict personal
>>>> communications/web-surfing, I'm sure it was the same 'in my day'
>>>> although I just quietly ignored it (like everyone else).
>>>
>>> Hehe. Quietly ignoring it is a 'great' plan until someone comes down on
>>> you
>>> with everything they have as they object to you using
>>> CGI:Proxy/phpproxy/tor
>>> to check your personal email/slashdot/anything with *blog* in the url...
>>> ;)
>>>
>>> It's best to object loudly when you are not in the wrong than hope that
>>> by
>>> staying quiet, things won't effect you.
>>
>> True, but I think it's wise to pick your battles.
>>
>> They say that you aren't allowed to do 'private' stuff on the college
>> computers, yet you're allowed to check your private email accounts for
>> an hour? What if you propose allowing access to personal email, news
>> sites and blogs, etc for one or two hours a day? Can you demonstrate
>> specific examples where the restrictions are preventing you from doing
>> work? Are the restrictions in place because they have a problem with
>> bandwidth (even though they have a fast JANET connection)?
>>
>>
>>
>