College can be hard.

My son GP is taking computer science courses at Portland State.  The first week of school, he calls to tell me about his day……….
I just had to write it down.

So GP needs access to the Linux systems lab at his school. In order to do that, the first step is wandering the mazes of the basement hallways to find the Linux lab, not the most popular or well marked rooms there. Once in the lab, GP goes about explaining how he is just starting a computer science course that specifically requires he compile code for a Unix system, and he would like to work on that in the lab. He is told, he is going to need a password in order to access the system. For that he must go next door and the guy over there will give you a password.
The guy next door gives him a username/password, but,
to use the account, he tells GP he has to have an access card. That is available in the office at a different building. So, go to other building, pay the six dollars and get a card, and take it back. Once back with the card, it turns out that before he can use it, he has to get it activated. That is done at a totally different office. So, he goes there.  But there is no one there. Just a back in five minutes sign.   He waits. Many more minutes pass and finally someone comes to help, and activates his card.  Now, back to the lab. During this time there’s been a shift change so a different guy is there, to whom he must explain his needs all over again.  OK, but even with this activated card, he now learns it takes a few days to get the account through the system, so you really can’t use the computers at all until then. But he does manage to learn a few basic Unix commands while there so the entire day is not wasted.

When he told me this, I thought it was totally funny.
GP wasn’t laughing.

One thought on “College can be hard.

  1. Dustin

    Mathew, what an interesting prjecot! My sons have Snap Circuits too and they just loved watching your presentation. Now they want to try using their solar panel for further experiments, thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

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