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Kids are short-circuiting their school-issued Chromebooks for TikTok clout

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Submitted ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨return2ozma@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/tiktok-trend-sees-kids-setting-chromebooks-on-fire-at-least-one-kid-hospitalized/

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Comments

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  • ProfHillbilly@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I was dealing with this all last week till finally a kid did it and his battery melted the computer in my classroom. He was told multiple times not to do it so now he is getting charged with possible arson. I have dealt with him doing stupid shit for the past 3 years and now finally the admins do something because it was so outlandishly stupid they have to. I am so glad I am retiring in less than 20 days.

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    • Cocopanda@futurology.today ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m sorry you did such good for the world but found only trash children to educate.

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    • xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      explain to me why tiktok is promoting these videos and not censoring them?
      they censor cuss words on there, but not videos of encouraging kids to hurt themselves or others?
      but, there were always idiot fucking things up in school… well before the internet. tiktok is just channeling that.
      ….
      also, forcing kids to use chromebooks is child abuse… especially since schools spy on kids through them

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      • unphazed@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I searched and the first time ever received a message about tiktok protection, etc. They are censoring apparently.

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  • Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Man I feel like a large part of the internet is out of reach.

    Why have I got to sign up for tiktok just to watch this happen?

    Shit like this used to be easily finable on google or something. Now I can’t seem to find shit. All I get get in news articles about it.

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    • Corn@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s generally a good thing, those kids don’t need their bullshit going viral outside of tiktok. Give it 3 months for Instagram to pick up 5% of it, and then FB can pick up 5% of that.

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      • Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yea but if I want to find something I want to be able to find it.

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    • gradual@lemmings.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Looks good to investors when they say “this many accounts use this platform.”

      It’s all a part of conditioning people to accept more and more abuse so rich people can get richer.

      They don’t want people with standards. They want people with Stockholm Syndrome.

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      • tempest@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Let me give you a bit of the outside of the story as well.

        For sure tiktok and meta and Google want you in their walled Garden for all the obvious reasons. However, and it’s gotten even worse as of late, if you have any kind of computationally expensive but desirable content/data the crawlers/scrapers/scripters will pummel your site. Despite how annoying you find the captchas and bot detection a computer doesn’t give too shits about it and at this point they basically serve as a rate limit or effort to make your content too computationally expensive to scrape and be worth it.

        While accounts don’t necessarily solve this problem they do help as another impediment.

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  • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    r/kidsarefuckingstupid

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  • const_void@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Good. Less spyware machines in the world.

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  • guyoverthere123@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    the worst part is expecting kids to learn about computers using a fucking Chromebook.

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    • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      We’re going to have a whole generation of kids pretty soon that are going to be entering the workforce and they’re barely going to be able to operate a mouse and keyboard. Although it’s not really the Chromebook at fault this started with the damn iPads. Why were schools issuing iPads to students the absolute worst possible UX for note-taking.

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    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Chromebooks aren’t replacing computer classes. They’re replacing textbooks and mimeographed handouts. Most of that stuff is web based now, and Chromebooks are cheap so they’re the perfect tool for the job.

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    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      They’re not learning. They’re being implanted into Googles software as a service model. Get the kids on Gmail when they’re young and they’ll never use anything else.

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      • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah and then they enter the workforce and find that everyone uses outlook. Despite all of Google’s attempts I don’t know any businesses that actually use g suite mostly because Microsoft bundle O365 with everything these days so there’s no point business is going out and buying a second licence for software they essentially already have.

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      • gradual@lemmings.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yep.

        Same shit happened when conditioning students to use “PowerPoint” for science fairs.

        The indoctrination starts young.

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    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s like if you taught the next generation of carpenters using Fisher-Price toy tools (all sponsored by Fisher-Price, by paying huge campaign money to the politician).

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  • potentiallynotfelix@lemmy.fish ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Not even that bad, they are learning about electricity in a hands-on manner. USB standards protect against short circuits so this is over exaggerated heavily.

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    • KeenFlame@feddit.nu ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Fucking a computer with scissors is a way to perhaps die and/or burn down buildings, I don’t think they learn shit

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  • jpablo68@infosec.pub ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    How about the “graduate from highschool challenge”?

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    • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Felony conviction any % speed run.

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  • DarkWinterNights@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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?

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    • unphazed@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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.

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    • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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.

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    • muusemuuse@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This seems like something they should have engineered out of a product primarily used by schoolchildren.

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      • itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Engineer out the electricity?

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    • mhague@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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  • midori_matcha@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Why throw the kids in the slammer? So they can eventually come back out as hardened criminals and contribute to the recidivism statistics, further circling society down the drain because they were betrayed by the corporations that injected their explosive products into our tax-funded school systems? They should give the TikTok kids full STEM scholarships for exposing these dangerous design flaws!

    Hold the Chromebook manufacturer liable for the unsafe hardware design flaw with no overcurrent protection, hold the school liable for recklessly issuing these dangerous laptops that cheaped out on safety features, and hold Google liable for neglecting power handling in their Chromebook software! Get the CPSC on the phone and get every single Flamebook recalled across the nation!

    It’s outrageous, egregious, preposterous!

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    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      But how else will google sell overpriced computers to schools and force children to growing up with google products?

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      • KuroiKaze@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Isn’t the entire premise of Chromebooks is that they are extremely cheap compared to having actual laptops or iPads?

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  • frostysauce@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Parents and psychiatrists have been trying to wrap their heads around how some of the more dangerous Internet trends take off, especially among kids.

    Kids are dumb and they do dumb things. There’s not really that much to wrap one’s head around.

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    • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      And it’s not even like Internet trends are a new thing. TikTok has simply offered a platform that’s extra predatory about it.

      I can imagine that TikTok has been for Internet trends, to what slot machines did for gambling.

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      • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Anyone else remember kids watching videos of other kids nearly choking to death on cinnamon, and thinking “hey this looks like fun”? Or the “chug a gallon of milk” thing. Those “trends” were just weirdly masochistic and sadistic. It wasn’t even misinformation or anything. Kids watched other kids suffer, and then chose to suffer too.

        I can imagine that TikTok has been for Internet trends, to what slot machines did for gambling.

        It’s closer to what mobile apps did for gambling. Crazy how quickly that was normalized in the US, and it’s tragic how easily people can just delete thousands of dollars from their bank account on a whim from the comfort of their couch.

        I guess what I’m saying is, maybe sometimes children and adults really do need some protection from their stupid impulses.

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      • dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah, like, first time?

        The presentation has changed slightly but the content is much the same. Back in the good old days I was a moderator on Totse forums (the original, but its web bulletin board incarnation and not when it was a BBS) and we literally had an entire subforum just titled “Bad Ideas.” This was where things got launched, torched, smoked, blown up, stolen, scammed, or otherwise mutilated. Or at the very least all of the above talked about, at length. Most of the kiddos did not actually have the means to pull of what they claimed they did but the ones who could and more importantly had the means to prove it were celebrities. Usually only for a short time, for various reasons.

        The early Internet was basically just a repository for bickering about Star Trek, low grade porn, plans for how to build potato cannons, or schemes involving smoking dried banana peels. An immense amount of stupidity has always been there to be found, because the place was and is full of teenagers and teenagers are stupid.

        I sure was, when I was one.

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  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I remain utterly convinced that Tiktok is nothing but a chinese psyop experiment to see how far they can manipulate people into actions that would otherwise be prevented by our brains screaming in self preservation.

    Has there ever been a “good” trend on tiktok? Every week its just another destructive thing that gullible idiots are being tricked into doing.

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    • gradual@lemmings.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Obligatory “China hate” comment missing the forest for the trees.

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    • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Sees teenagers doing dumb shit, like they have since literally forever

      “Is this a plot by the despotic orientals?!”

      Fucking listen to yourself. I’m not on TikTok. I just don’t care for vertical short-form video as a concept. But even I can tell you that not every TikTok trend is teenagers being destructive idiots.

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      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        oh wow the .ml user is getting super offended over criticism of china/russia.

        how original

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    • MS06Borjarnon@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
      [deleted]
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      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah because usa needs help destroying their youth

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    • T156@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      People have just been doing dumb things for reputation since forever. We had the cinnamon challenge back in our day.

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      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        yeah, the cinnamon challenge was dumb… but it didnt involve mass destruction, psychotic behavor, or contaminating food\ in stores.

        So its hardly comparable.

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    • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Has there ever been a “good” trend on tiktok?

      The ice bucket challenge was making rounds again. But there’s basically infinite harmless trends that nobody thinks of. The 100 men versus 1 gorilla thing is a trend and unless somebody jumps in a gorilla pen for Harambe 2.0 it’s been harmless.

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      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        My question was “was there ever a good trend from tiktok”

        Icebucket challenge was from before tiktok existed.

        So kinda proving my point.

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    • grahamja@reddthat.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s curated to cause problems, I wouldn’t believe anything otherwise. Douyin which is the Chinese version shows completely different content, including government narratives. Tiktok is straight brain rot, and I believe it’s curated to encourage poor behavior in users outside of China.

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    • endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      We skipped our 3310s down the road Infront of our school without tiktok brainrot. Kids today need chinese to tell them to be stupid. Back in our day, we were stupid on our own!

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      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        back in our day, our stupid wasnt malicious mass destruction or food tampering.

        It was actual stupid shit, like trying to jump over your friend as he raced towards you on his bike, or falling off a roof, Shit that only hurt yourself, if anyone. Wasnt breaking and entering, wasnt destroying shit. wasnt anything like that.

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      • Iceman@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah, this is yous lemmitors being conspiracy poisoned by the internet.

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      • dajoho@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Was the road ok?

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    • lowered_lifted@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Accurate username

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    • RangerJosey@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Soon as Chump took office the moderation flipped. It was open and handled well. Now if you call a corrupt politician an asshole you get a violation.

      Talk about Palestine get a violation. Critical of the Chump regime get a violation.

      Chow somehow inserted himself fully up Chumps ass on like Jan 22. TT hasn’t been the same since.

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      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        TikTok always favored Trump because China always favored Trump and TikTok is operated by Chinese Military directly out of Chinese servers which also store location data, contacts, text message history, and photo library of every device which has ever installed TikTok.

        It’s a weapon to be used against the US now and since always.

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    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I agree. I was exposed to a lot of leftist content on tiktok and it’s made me want to protest. Good thing you explained that it’s stupid.

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      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        TBF TikTok wants the US Government to fail regardless of who is in office at the time.

        It’s like that meme from flippanarchy the other day.

        Image

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  • aTun@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I thought system will turn off USB port if notice current over draw. Look like I am wrong.

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    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      What i saw they were shorting the charging ports, not the USB slots.

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      • AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Both ports the same. Two girls, one port? Killing two birds with one port?

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  • venusaur@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    These kids know they’re gonna be replaced by tech and they’re fighting back

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    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The ones that are dumb enough to do this won’t be getting jobs to be replaced anyway.

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  • ulterno@programming.dev ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    So you mean there are laptop USB ports out there without current limiters?
    I would want to check my PC’s ports, but I am not filthy rich, so I’ll just assume stuff is not current limited.

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  • chunes@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I wish we lived in a world where they’re doing it because they don’t want locked-down toys issued by an evil corporation. But of course that’s not the reason.

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    • gradual@lemmings.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      P.S. proprietary software should be illegal in education. Full stop.

      🙌

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    • jj4211@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I suppose the question would be the alternative.

      Note the devices actively discouraging offline save is a huge asset to schools, since kids screw up a lot, forget their devices and need loaners to get through a day and such. Extra bonus if the device can’t be too fun, to avoid them being overly used at home and get broken more.So Chromebook is desirable because they suck so much.

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      • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I was thinking of buying a Chromebook for travelling cause it’s cheap. I was very close to buying one, but someone told me about the world of used ThinkPads. I ended up buying a used ThinkPad with an AMD R7 4750U and I am so glad I did. It can run literally every game I want lol

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  • Fleur_@aussie.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Man I’m so sorry to my highschool Chromebook. They gave me that shit in yr seven and I was incapable of keeping things in one piece at that age. I think every key had been taken off by the end of the year and there were several holes in the outer casing.

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  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Well, maybe a school-issued computer should be designed differently than a consumer device.

    Maybe such things should be considered beforehand.

    In industrial ergonomics you are supposed to, ideally, present a worker with a few buttons with abundantly clear results of pressing them and no forbidden combinations leading to unexpected\undefined\dangerous results.

    Kids sticking things into what’s given to them are not an unexpected event. I’d say kids doing that are better than kids not doing that. And if it’s expected, then this is almost entrapment.

    Oh, oh, OH, you can’t just put a consumer device with a web browser with Google and MS and Apple shit into schools then? No kickbacks from those companies? So fucking sad.

    Forcing a kid to wear around a centrally managed device with a microphone and a camera makes me want to vomit. That should be illegal as many other things. It’s a disgusting world.

    These should be military-level (by resilience to attempts to throw them out of the window, sink them in the water, overheat them and so on) devices with something like FreeDOS+OpenGEM. That’s by far enough to run school programs. If you think it’s not, then you are possessed by collective delusions, that’s a thing in crowd psychology, so drink a glass of water, listen to cars\birds, look at the sky and answer which fundamentally new tasks you need to solve as compared to having year 1999 Internet (as in open a static webpage, follow links, send forms), WordPerfect and Basic. Especially at school.

    We use axes, knives, hammers and screwdrivers and other stuff to do things, more or less as they existed 300 years ago, when we are not professionals, who of course use power tools.

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    • gradual@lemmings.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      with something like FreeDOS+OpenGEM.

      Sigh. Watching windows users try to make sense of the computing world is always cringe.

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      • rottingleaf@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’m not a Windows user. Unix-likes are also too complex for most tasks.

        And your tone evokes suspicion that you’ve switched to Linux not so long ago and think that brings authority. Nah. It’s just an OS. Its users are as qualified as Windows users. When you’ll be able to explain to me how an IP packet passes through the networking stack, or something like that, then maybe. At least how virtual memory works, or swapping, or syscalls, or process scheduling.

        OK, admittedly I don’t remember shit of any of that.

        Just - wanting something more minimal doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of Unices.

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  • FireWire400@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Oh man, first planking, then breaking into cars and now this. What’s next; just shooting yourself with a rifle and who survives wins? Darwinism is real.

    Google didn’t respond to Ars Technica’s request for comment.

    To be fair, I don’t really see why they should. Chances are they didn’t factor in that level of stupidity when designing those things.

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  • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Wouldn’t the port get shutdown/disabled if you try to overload it?

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  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Incredibly this makes me miss when people pretended to slip and fall at the grocery store so they could throw milk jugs in the air and make a mess.

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  • veeesix@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’d be a crying shame if the students were required to complete the school year with physical books and a notebook.

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  • macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Good, chromebooks suck.

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  • hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    TikTok is poison for the mind.

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  • user224@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    the so-called Chromebook Challenge includes students sticking things into Chromebook ports to short-circuit the system.

    I am rather surprised that works. I thought any modern device would have overload protection in place. I think I even remember accidentally tripping it on some device, but it would just reset after reboot.
    I also tried to see the max output current of my previous phone this way. Load it up till the protection trips. Result: Stable up to 2.1A, tripped at 2.5A.

    Oh, yeah. A Xiaomi phone charger I have also shuts down if I either overload it or immediately load it near max rating rather than gradually increase the load.

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  • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Perhaps it’s more like “Kids short-circuiting school issued chromebooks because of excessive surveillance.”

    …but probably not (or at least, not entirely) because many kids are dumb.

    source: was a dumb kid.

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  • asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What does “clout” mean?

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  • KelvarIW@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    As I age I find myself feeling more and more like the cool step-dad or uncle.

    Y’know I hate everything Chromebooks stand for. “You get 'em, kid. Now how about we get some pizza?”

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  • Ryick@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If this were an unbiased and honest article; then it would read “Kids are short-circuiting their school-issued Chromebooks for social clout.” The subtle message, in this article, is TikTok = bad, which is illogical because events such as this will occur regardless of platform or even lack of a platform. It will ALWAYS happen. The question is how to mitigate these events as much as possible, because it’s impossible to completely eradicate “kids doing X for social clout.” It’s a part of learning and being human.

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  • TomMasz@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Behold the next generation of voters.

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  • cubism_pitta@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Chromebooks are absolute garbage.

    Most computers I have used over the last 15 years will disable USB power if you short out the port (working with electronics you tend to replicate the "sticking scissors into a USB port with some regularity)

    Pencil lead I am sure causes other issues though… it gets red hot and melts eventually

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