I have the same memory, except the teacher would just pop his head out from the office and tell us to knock it off. Someone managed to draw a giant line of Axe spray across the electronics desk/counter things and made a massive fireball. Nobody really got in trouble in that class.
Comment on Kids are short-circuiting their school-issued Chromebooks for TikTok clout
DarkWinterNights@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Nearly 20 years ago, I was in a computer programming class surrounded by clunky towers and desktops.
Suddenly, a loud popping, then one of the machines starts belching smoke like a budget fog machine. The kid using it is calmly moved to another station while the prof investigates.
Fifteen minutes later - pop. Smoke again.
Turns out the kid was jamming a paperclip into the power supply like he was playing Operation: Arson Edition.
That was his last day.
On the bright side, computers are a lot cheaper now - and kids are still dumb. So, progress?
mhague@lemmy.world 1 week ago
unphazed@lemmy.world 6 days ago
We just pulled stupid pranks, like setting a repeating function with sound at the highest frequency in BASIC and locking the machines… on all the computers.
echodot@feddit.uk 1 week ago
My cousin actually set his bedroom on fire doing something very similar with the foil from chewing gum. This was in the 1980s though so no one really cared, I’m pretty sure he just got shouted at.
muusemuuse@lemm.ee 1 week ago
This seems like something they should have engineered out of a product primarily used by schoolchildren.
itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Engineer out the electricity?
muusemuuse@lemm.ee 1 week ago
You can design something tonight survive pin shorting.
BigPotato@lemmy.world 1 week ago
They said 20 years ago. We literally had ‘use a paperclip to turn on the computer on the test bench’ as the standard practice. Designing things for people to do them wrong was very much not the style at the time.