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Kid gets detention for using firefox

uploadgeek.com — And they called it "foxfire.exe"

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  • ThomasPalmer, on 12/16/2007, -42/+1266We weren't allowed to use Firefox either in high school because we could use it's proxy feature. Of course if we wanted to use proxies, it would just be easier to go to a proxy site they haven't blocked. I was not a fan of our Technology Department.

    EDIT: I am going to give that school a call on Monday, I encourage others to do so as well.
    • Giblet2, on 12/16/2007, -9/+313lol.. digg to the rescue!~!! its the A-Team!!

      • turpenine, on 12/16/2007, -7/+160d- team, don't kid yourself.
        • EditorResponse, on 12/16/2007, -4/+80If the kid was doing his work then I don't see the problem. This is a case where the instructor knew less than the kid. If you want to complain about it then send a letter to the Principal:

          Mr. John Scudder
          High School Principal

          Location Information
          School: High School
          Department: Administrative

          Contact Information
          E-Mail: jscudder@bigspring.k12.pa.us
          http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/
          • UNL1M1T3D, on 12/16/2007, -0/+42It's going to be awesome when he has 300 different emails in his inbox.
          • heliox, on 12/16/2007, -29/+8No, now the kid will get royally ***** buy the administrations for leaking the letter and telling all of his "friends" to harass the school.
            Way to go Digg!
          • Gir53457, on 12/16/2007, -1/+24Never underestimate the power of an angry letter from a nerd. Sometimes they contain special code...
          • PunkieDrewster, on 12/17/2007, -0/+10I just left a voicemail on the school's general phone number, explaining that most universities in this country encourage the use of Firefox as a more efficient and less virus-prone browser. I also recommended that a formal apology be made to the student and his parents.
          • m0neybags, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2OMG Scudder reincarnated??
          • maffiou, on 12/17/2007, -3/+2I wrote this:
            Mr Smith technological shortcomings aren't good enough a reason for imposing detention to a pupil.
            Why doesn't he take 30 seconds to google things he doesn't know about before taking arbitrary decisions.
            Is this really the value you want to promote to kids these days ? That ignorance and abuse of power are the way to go ?
            No wonder the US of A are ***** up !
        • Buu700, on 12/16/2007, -1/+55Even better. Don't JUST complain to the principal. Complain to the teacher herself. That is absolutely ridiculous. I'm going to send her an email right now.

          Ms. Patricia Bealmear
          Bus. Ed. Career Project Teacher

          Location Information
          School: High School
          Department:

          Contact Information
          E-Mail: pbealmear@bigspring.k12.pa.us
          • asforme, on 12/16/2007, -2/+34**Message you sent blocked by our bulk email filter**
            WTF, I sent one message. I bet their filter just decided to block all of gmail.
        • alexidigg, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3she'll REALLY have a reason to complain about monday morning email this week...
      • victorycig, on 12/16/2007, -2/+24Theme: http://www.benscamera.com/blog/audio/2.mp3
        • Buu700, on 12/16/2007, -10/+4It won't let me reply to the one above, so I'll reply to the closest one:

          "**Message you sent blocked by our bulk email filter**
          WTF, I sent one message. I bet their filter just decided to block all of gmail."
          Yeah! WTF

          I sent the following email and it was also blocked!



          ---------- Forwarded message ----------
          From: Locke
          Date: Dec 16, 2007 3:39 PM
          Subject: Firefox Detention
          To: pbealmear@bigspring.k12.pa.us


          http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/571/11977843274 ...

          Is this for real? Did you SERIOUSLY assign an innocent child to detention for not using an insecure, buggy, slow Microsoft product, just because you happen use it? (By the way, it's Firefox, not Foxfire.) If this letter is fake, and you never persecuted your student, I apologize for wasting your time. However, if you did, in fact, assign a student to detention simply because he was using a non-Internet Explorer web browser (the rest of this email is going to be written under the assumption that you did), then, not to be rude, but, what is wrong with you? That is absolutely inexcusable. If he was playing games or watching porn or something (or just not doing his work), then he did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to warrant a detention. Yes, he should have listened to you, but that would wast time and lower his productivity, and you shouldn't have tried to make him close Firefox, in any case. Instead, you should merely asked him what Firefox was, and then confirmed what he said with a few other students (although even this really shouldn't have been necessary, because by simply looking at the screen you could have CLEARLY seen that he was using a web browser).
          If you read the comments on the letter here: http://digg.com/software/Kid_gets_detention_for_us ... you can see that a lot of people really want you to get fired for this. I don't think you should get away with wrongfully punishing this student, but I also think that your being fired would be a little extreme. Rather, you should call the student and his parents, admit you were wrong, apologize to them, and excuse him from his upcoming detention. I mean whether or not you like Firefox, it's only fair that he have the freedom to not be forced to use an inferior product.

          Locke,
          out





          --
          "Rarely is the question asked:
          'is our children learning?'"
          - George W. Bush



          --
          "Rarely is the question asked:
          ‘is our children learning?’"
          - George W. Bush
          • Buu700, on 12/16/2007, -11/+3Okay so I sent the email with sendanonymousemail.net, and it kind of butchered it...



            ---------- Forwarded message ----------
            From:
            Date: Dec 16, 2007 5:07 PM
            Subject: Firefox Detention
            To: buu700@gmail.com





            http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/571/11977843274 ...

            Is this for real? Did you SERIOUSLY assign an innocent child to detention for not using an insecure, buggy, slow Microsoft product, just because you happen use it? (By the way, it's Firefox, not Foxfire.) If this letter is fake, and you never persecuted your student, I apologize for wasting your time. However, if you did, in fact, assign a student to detention simply because he was using a non-Internet Explorer web browser (the rest of this email is going to be written under the assumption that you did), then, not to be rude, but, what is wrong with you? That is absolutely inexcusable. If he was playing games or watching porn or something (or just not doing his work), then he did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to warrant a detention. Yes, he should have listened to you, but that would wast time and lower his productivity, and you shouldn't have tried to make him close Firefox, in any case. Instead, you should merely asked him what Firefox was, and then confirmed what he said with a fe!
            w other students (although even this really shouldn't have been necessary, because by simply looking at the screen you could have CLEARLY seen that he was using a web browser).
            If you read the comments on the letter here: http://digg.com/software/Kid_gets_detention_for_us ... you can see that a lot of people really want you to get fired for this. I don't think you should get away with wrongfully punishing this student, but I also think that your being fired would be a little extreme. Rather, you should call the student and his parents, admit you were wrong, apologize to them, and excuse him from his upcoming detention. I mean whether or not you like Firefox, it's only fair that he have the freedom to not be forced to use an inferior product.

            Locke,
            out



            This anonymous email was sent using Send Anonymous Email - http://www.sendanonymousemail.net.








            --
            "Rarely is the question asked:
            ‘is our children learning?’"
            - George W. Bush
          • mediaphile, on 12/17/2007, -3/+10You sound like a retard when you write. Hopefully this teacher corrects your e-mail and sends it back to you. If I was to receive a barely comprehensible letter like that, I wouldn't have much trouble completely disregarding it; effective communication is the key to being taken seriously.

            Whether Firefox is better than Internet Explorer is not the issue. Should this teacher really have to keep up on the cutting edge of internet browsing technology? So she didn't know what Firefox was, big deal. She asked the kid to stop doing something because she didn't know enough about the program he was using to know whether or not he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing on a public school computer that everyone had to use. Instead of arguing, he should have just done what she asked, then used Firefox when he was at home on his own computer on his own time. Say it was any of the other million programs out there on the internet, something hardly anyone had heard of, but a great piece of software nonetheless. Would you defend the kid then, even if you had no idea what the software was or did? Because that's the position the teacher was in.
      • t0ny, on 12/16/2007, -0/+17They had firefox on the computers my last year of high school, the funny thing was they block the program from running for some reason. Even thou it was the default browser.
        I just installed portable firefox on my usb dongle, then I used ssh to make a tunnel to my proxy at home ( I was using tiny proxy ) and it worked like a charm!
        • sinembarg0, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8My school has firefox on most of its PCs, and I don;t think they mind if I were to put it on one that didnt have it. They just got a really good web blocker though, last year I could use firefox and coral cache, but this year, it blocks proxies, coral cache, dotcache, and a ***** ton of others. I can't go to bungie.net either. Amazingly, I can still go to digg though.
        • jer2eydevil88, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5I bet digg is unblocked so the network admins can read up on stuff while they work
      • dantrenner, on 12/17/2007, -4/+5There is little question that FireFox is the better of the two browsers, regardless of the teacher's ignorance. What shouldn't be questioned, however, was the teacher's authority to tell the student to use what he told him to use.
        • fatlip, on 12/17/2007, -5/+1not sure where you're from, but around here teachers have quite a bit of authority over students
    • phenz, on 12/16/2007, -2/+236Yep same here.. I had a nice Saturday morning detention and lost my study hall release for using that evil Firefox! The school called it a "hacking tool" to get past their blocks :/
      • MewtwoReturns, on 12/16/2007, -11/+115Saturday detentions are still LEGAL? What is wrong with this country?
        • mrgono3, on 12/16/2007, -0/+11for most punishments i think its better to have a detention after school so it really is a "punishment." At my school one has detention during school which is stupid because than one has to make up all the work missed in each class.
        • coviecarbine, on 12/16/2007, -7/+5Its the only real punishment at my school and as much as it sucks at 7:00 on saturday after a night of partying, its a good solution.
        • TitanX13, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8yea i had a saturday school for being late to class one to many times. 7am to 10 am or so. either you do trash pick ups or you sit silent and if you talked they kicked you out and gave you 2 saturday schools and sometimes in house suspension
        • olddirtycr, on 12/16/2007, -3/+10I love saturday detentions, 8am-10am and you just bring a pillow after a long night of drinking and pass out for 2 hours. Goes by instantly. Infact i've been purposely rescheduling all my detentions too saturdays because sitting their for 2 ours and wasting half your night after school is not fun.
        • Spudster, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4Saturday detention? Are you kidding me? My school did not even HAVE detention. Period. If you were bad, you got suspended. If you don't want to be educated, then stop wasting everyone's time and leave. End of story.
        • fatlip, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2breakfast club!!
      • Syphon0928, on 12/16/2007, -2/+40Correction, that evil "Foxfire".
      • renegadeafk, on 12/16/2007, -5/+22My school uses firefox as their only browser, but they have the most ridiculous filter ever. it blocks EVERYTHING, pretty much every proxy method too, they also watch everything you do on the computers and take screenshots. They block some new piece of software/website everyday. It's hard to just do research for projects because legitimate stuff gets blocked. ***** gay.
        • asforme, on 12/16/2007, -1/+29When substitute teachers are being jailed because of spyware, they have no choice. Actually I work at a public school and am the one watching and taking screenshots. In fact, firefox is our only browser. Do you attend Comstock Public Schools? We only block porn, games and myspace though, but it is quite fun watching a kids screen as they browse from proxy to proxy and we block them as they're using them.
          • renegadeafk, on 12/16/2007, -0/+22I can understand blocking those but I can't even get to sites like imdb for film class and it will at time block completely random things when I'm doing research for classes. Your school might have a better filter but at mine it's ridiculous.
          • Schneckehaus, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Likely your school system blocks any sites based on referers and links to blocked sites or content. The web is very webby.
        • SleepJunkie, on 12/16/2007, -0/+16SSH Tunnel! When I was still in high school our filter was terrible, but a few of us were able to get around it..
          • tidu, on 12/17/2007, -1/+5atunnel one day, btunnel the next day, ctunnel the next... it goes on.
        • millerftw, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7Wow, you guys are alot more atentive than my schools admins.
      • blup3ace, on 12/16/2007, -0/+36the truth is, on a good school network, you wouldn't be able to bypass on a proxy even on firefox
        • mrsteveman1, on 12/16/2007, -0/+19Lets not bring facts into this, c'mon
        • OverlordXenu, on 12/16/2007, -5/+3Care to explain how they'd do that? Just curious.
          • s1mph0ny, on 12/17/2007, -0/+8You can block all port 80 traffic not passing through a school specific proxy. You could also read the tcp headers and block anything http.
      • hankyone, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6Count me in the call list ;)
      • bxblox, on 12/16/2007, -1/+13Saturday detention is real??? i had only heard of such things in movies... i stand amazed..
        • Schneckehaus, on 12/17/2007, -1/+1It's not real if you refuse to go. If you refuse enough times, they susp[end you instead, giving you a few days off, haha.
    • datdamonfoo, on 12/16/2007, -16/+136The possessive form of its has no apostrophe.
      • knobidy, on 12/16/2007, -17/+50HEIL!
      • subgeniusd, on 12/16/2007, -17/+2its the A-Team!!

        Did you hallucinate an apostrophe?
        • Teksu, on 12/16/2007, -1/+6Originally posted by ThomasPalmer:
          "We weren't allowed to use Firefox either in high school because we could use it's proxy feature."

          they were replying to the main comment, not the reply...
        • leksdraven, on 12/16/2007, -1/+6Actually, that its needs an apostrophe--"it's" as in: it is the A-Team!! (Sorry for picking nits.)
      • FadieZ, on 12/16/2007, -8/+18ICH LIEBE GRAMMATIK
      • MonarchWastxD, on 12/17/2007, -1/+7He has +758 diggs?! DON'T ARGUE WITH THE MAN.
    • DocHoliday22, on 12/16/2007, -25/+8Who ever received that detention, go back to school and show them this Digg comment page, they'll soon see what the rest of us think about them.
    • richardbeasimer, on 12/16/2007, -6/+138A link to the school's website. The names listed appear to be correct. Bitch up a storm, people.

      http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/staff_directory.php ...
      • STARTSOMETHING, on 12/16/2007, -2/+29Try (717)776-2000 thats the district number.
      • wilcocola, on 12/16/2007, -0/+24Patricia Bealmear. She's the moron who initially sent him to the office.
        • Smegzor, on 12/16/2007, -1/+9That surname looks and sounds similar to Balmer. Hmm!
      • Kanidia, on 12/16/2007, -1/+17The real digg effect...
      • smacksaw, on 12/16/2007, -0/+29We have her name.

        We have her address.

        We have this: http://store.mozilla.org/

        I say someone get a site going and we set a goal of mailing her 1000 Firefox CDs and a bunch of shirts and the FatHead for her classroom.
      • calebh, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7Thanks for the link, email sent
      • thetanman, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7Charles Smith: csmith@bigspring.k12.pa.us
        • x626, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2The teacher that caused the detention was Ms. Patricia Bealmear. Her E-mail: pbealmear@bigspring.k12.pa.us Charles Smith assigned it.
    • victorycig, on 12/16/2007, -6/+126If you're too lazy to call, send an email to the teacher who assigned the detention:
      http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/staff_directory.php ...
      • OttawaMarcin, on 12/16/2007, -20/+62I am writing the email right now.
        It starts off "It's firefox.exe dumbass, not foxfire. Where they hell do you live, in a box made by microsoft?"
        • victorycig, on 12/16/2007, -0/+88I'm trying to be respectful about it. I don't want to get this kid in any more trouble. But I'm not your dad. You can write whatever you want.
        • OttawaMarcin, on 12/16/2007, -0/+12I was more casual in the email. I just put "It is firefox.exe, not foxfire. And yes, it is a better browser."
        • Audacitor, on 12/16/2007, -1/+41Mrs. Bealmear and Mr. Smith,

          I recently read on Digg.com about your assignment of a detention to a student for using the the program "Foxfire.exe" on a school computer. You can see where I found out about this here, which links to the actual letter here. I was linked to your contact information on your school's website thanks to the efforts of richardbeasimer, who posted them.

          I am deeply alarmed that you would punish students for using safer software. Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer, preventing malicious popup windows, viruses, trojans, and other threats to security from slipping through. Remember what happened the last time a school didn't use adequate security measures? Firefox is also highly customizable, with add ons that block distracting advertisements, add parental controls, provide learning hooks, facilitate to visually impaired, an many other useful and educational functions. As the student said, Firefox is just better.

          Did you know that of all the major web browsers available (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera), Internet Explorer is the only one which does meet the standards set down the World Wide Web Consortium for rendering web pages. In case it is not evident, this is a bad thing. You are forwarding the use of an inferior browser, and in this day and age where technology means more than ever before, it is essential that students are given the best possible software to work with. While this may not be Firefox, it is most certainly not Internet Explorer either.

          I urge to switch to Firefox for the benefit of students and staff, or at least drop this wrongful punishment of a student who did nothing more than use a better browser to complete his schoolwork.

          Thank you,
          ******************
          a.k.a. Audacitor

          [note: in the actual email I made links. where I'm talking about the last time having to do with inadequate security measures links to an article on julie amero]
          • monkeyboy7706, on 12/16/2007, -10/+9Internet Explorer is the only one which does meet the standards set down the World Wide Web Consortium for rendering web pages.

            I think you made a small mistake there.
          • Misesean, on 12/16/2007, -0/+18I hope you added a "not" between "does" and "meet" in the third paragraph, as well :(
          • LacY, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3While I totally agree that the kid was right in wanting to use Firefox (or Foxfire...), the fact is, the teacher asked him several times to stop, and he didn't. He didn't get detention for using Firefox--he got detention for not doing what he was told. It's just like the guy on the plane with the iPhone in "plane mode." He was "right"--but sometimes it's best to pick your battles, do what you're told, and argue to someone higher up the food chain later.
        • windmillninja, on 12/16/2007, -4/+2Did you just seriously compare computer viruses to Columbine? I applaud your effort, but have to /headdesk at your method.
      • Narcism, on 12/16/2007, -1/+15Sent the email, thanks for the link m8.
      • wilcocola, on 12/16/2007, -2/+14It was Patricia Bealmear who initially sent him to the office tho. Send one to that dumb bitch too
      • techmaster, on 12/16/2007, -20/+8Sent:
        First off, it's Firefox. It is a web browser that is developed by the open source community. Open source means that its source code is available to anybody who wants to look at it, including yourself. Anybody is welcome to view the source, and thus the end result is that you end up with a program that thousands of people developed together, millions of people have viewed and inspected for flaws. Open source is also the means by which Linux is developed. Linux has gained some extraordinary steam as of late, and is being used by pretty much every fortune 500 company for their back end computer operations. Yes, it's that good. This means that you get a more stable, faster web browser, that will actually prevent a computer from getting infected with viruses off of the web. And you give a student detention for using it? You are a twit, and I hope you lose your job over this. Have a nice day!
        • MarkKezner, on 12/16/2007, -0/+50Polite suggestion: To the average Joe, your letter boils down to:
          Picky point --> Fun Fact --> Open Source Tangent --> Unnecessary Linux Tangent --> Finally making your point --> Insult --> Sarcasm

          This letter isn't going to convince this ignorant teacher of anything, even though you are right. Besides the letter being overcomplicated, the argument depends on whether or not they even understand what source code is. Most people don't know or care.

          Insulting others rarely brings them to your point of view. Please consider this next time.
        • Elliuotatar, on 12/16/2007, -0/+34Your letter is too wordy, and tells them things they won't care about.

          What people should write is that Firefox is a better browser which protects kids from popup advertisements for pornography and prevents viruses and spyware from being installed, and that IE does not.

          You need to use small words and terms they'll understand. This is why Linux will never take off. Most smart people are dumb when it comes to dumbing things down for the dumb people.
      • tommgunn, on 12/16/2007, -0/+10Oh the humanity! My email bounced back :(
      • calebh, on 12/16/2007, -1/+2Ya for link, sent here a email to
      • s0nicfreak, on 12/16/2007, -2/+6I'm so sure they're totally reading each and every email you guys send.
      • trougnouf, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4it was Patricia Bealmear! Her email address is pbealmear@bigspring.k12.pa.us
      • Himself, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2It'd be great to designate a blog to catalog replies to this fun campaign.
    • ohthehumanity, on 12/16/2007, -53/+19No the kid was given detention for not listening, and not following directions. He could have been running porndialer.exe and it would have been just the same.
      • dubloe7, on 12/16/2007, -3/+39so i take it your in favor of the kid who got detention for disagreeing with his teacher when they said that a kilometer was greater than a mile?
        • llamaguy132, on 12/16/2007, -5/+3link?
        • speerross, on 12/16/2007, -3/+3I once got a detention for informing my art teacher that black and white weren't colours lol.
        • mike81890, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8I got one for telling a history teacher that the capitol of Canada wasn't Calgary..... The Canadian kid in the class agreed with me too XD
        • fogster, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2I"m not ohthehumanity, but yes, kilometer kid deserved the detention. Being right doesn't entitle you to be disrespectful, student or adult. He didn't get the detention for pointing out her error, but for "repeatedly interrupting" the class about it.
          • dubloe7, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Is this why bush hasn't been impeached?
        • asamorris, on 12/17/2007, -1/+1"I once got a detention for informing my art teacher that black and white weren't colours lol."


          me too.
        • GayMafiaKingpin, on 12/17/2007, -1/+4Disagreeing and disobeying are completely different. Although the kid was correct that Firefox is safer and many would agree with his opinion that it is better than most other browsers, he was told to do something and refused to comply. That is ultimately why he was put into detention. I don't think he was punished for using the browser, but more so for disobedience.
          • jeff4379, on 12/21/2007, -0/+1I totally agree with your comment. The issue here isn't that the kid was using firefox, but rather that he was disobeying the teacher. I'd like to know of you that have careers, would you get in trouble for installing and using unauthorized software at work? (don't give me the whole "I'm the IT guy, so I can do anything" crap.
      • trenchfever, on 12/16/2007, -5/+8I would hazard a guess that your anal sphincter is highly flaccid.
        • mrsteveman1, on 12/16/2007, -1/+9If that was your first thought after reading his comment.......wow
      • niczar, on 12/16/2007, -2/+6http://theauthoritarians.com
      • carcrazy, on 12/16/2007, -11/+8Exactly. This had nothing to do with Firefox itself but the kid's attitude and disregard to his teacher's authority.
        • gemmakicn, on 12/16/2007, -0/+9I'm sorry but if you are doing a computer lesson, you should be at least as talented as a self built computer using ubuntu user (as according to the the scale of geek credentials). The purpose of the teacher is to be a person of respect, rather than someone who uses discipline due to their failings as a teacher.

          Authority should not be expected it should be earned.
          • Clixx13, on 12/17/2007, -3/+2I agree, but stirring up a ***** because MY TEACHER DOSENT LIEK FIREFOX OMG is unnecessary. So what if the teacher doesnt like it? Close the ***** program, do your homework, and enlighten him/her after class. Dont make a big ***** deal and post the write-up on the interweb so thousands of Diggers can harass your teachers.
        • MrHappy123, on 12/16/2007, -1/+6"Authority should not be expected it should be earned."

          Right, say that to your Boss.
        • MadOgre, on 12/16/2007, -1/+8If the Teacher was a Utah Highway Patrolman, the kid would have got a Tazing.
      • MrHappy123, on 12/16/2007, -11/+3I refused to use Mac while in High school and they gave me detention. Comon fanboys, comon!
      • peterkatheter, on 12/16/2007, -2/+2i agree with ohthehumanity. stop being such a bunch of blind idiots (buried for insult and different opinion from the masses :D)
    • JamesWilson, on 12/16/2007, -4/+217Just use IE Skins and icons! That is how i tricked my mom into liking firefox :)
      • Bando, on 12/16/2007, -1/+98Lol, reminds me of how my brother made a link on my grandfathers desktop to firefox with the IE icon and Internet Explorer as the name.
      • omgwthlol, on 12/16/2007, -2/+14eww
      • sevenalive, on 12/16/2007, -3/+13Vista-aero is the best IE7 Skin for firefox
      • asforme, on 12/16/2007, -1/+31They're probably using a program called LanSchool or some similar program that allows the teacher to view each students login and what programs they have open. She just decided to give any student who had anything other than iexplore.exe open detention.
        Solution: Rename firefox.exe to iexplore.exe
        • mrsteveman1, on 12/16/2007, -0/+31Or rename firefox.exe to "URWATCHINMEBITCH.EXE"
        • OttawaMarcin, on 12/16/2007, -15/+8Who cares about privacy... Kids don't deserve human rights.
        • danthemanhan, on 12/16/2007, -1/+2GG
        • j4200, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Ottawa - there's a difference between the classroom in a public school and your privacy at home. Most schools have a terms of use that you have to agree to in order to have access to the internet.
      • deezp1, on 12/17/2007, -0/+19I work at a public library, we not only IE skinned all of our firefox browsers, but we installed XP cloned linux machines with MS skinned open office and no one has noticed at all. With over 100 machines in our building it saved us tons in licenses.
        • Vindexus, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2If we weren't separated by the tubes I would high five you, sir.
    • camkerr, on 12/16/2007, -10/+80Ms. Patricia Bealmear
      Bus. Ed. Career Project Teacher
      E-Mail: pbealmear@bigspring.k12.pa.us

      Why don't we let her know what we think of this.
      • trenchfever, on 12/16/2007, -1/+23OK this is stupid and pointless but that all I could do in 2 minutes

        SUBJECT: FBI

        Foxfire for Business Institutes.

        Is the premier application suite for business applications developed and supported by Microsoft corporation. It can parse human speech, make business decisions for you and become self aware for short periods of time. As AI (Artificial Intelligence) is still in its infancy, FBI’s AI stack is currently limited by speed of the RAM of the object oriented serial bus. All that you have said has now been recorded in black and white in the annals of the intertubes. As and when the current limitations of AI is overcome, foxfire may attain self awareness for longer periods of time. Maybe long enough to extract revenge. The only way to prevent the wrath of the beast is by chanting this four times and apologizing publically.

        The chant

        And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

        from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

        IF YOU DON’T BELEIVE ME, TYPE ABOUT:FIREFOX INTO THE ADDRESS BAR OF FOXFIRE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.
        • numb, on 12/16/2007, -0/+14about:mozilla works. about:firefox does not.
      • epiffffany, on 12/16/2007, -21/+5Do you really think she cares what the f*** you think? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment
        • BodomX, on 12/16/2007, -15/+7You're gay.
          • badjoke, on 12/16/2007, -1/+13You have the most clever and thoughtful insults.
          • GayMafiaKingpin, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3How'd you know?
        • andy3109, on 12/16/2007, -0/+5You are probably right epiffffany, but that doesn't mean we can't communicate our thoughts on the matter (to them).
      • CLShortFuse, on 12/16/2007, -2/+6Anybody else read Bealmear as Bearmeal?
    • raublekick, on 12/16/2007, -9/+34Ugh, I looked back to the image too see the phone number and realized it's in my area code... D'OH! Yet another reason why I need to just leave this area...
      • KingGorilla, on 12/16/2007, -0/+12If you Ieave the teachers win!
    • Sumyunguy, on 12/16/2007, -12/+133Mr. John Scudder - High School Principal - jscudder@bigspring.k12.pa.us
      Mr. Christopher Boyd - Assistant Principal - cboyd@bigspring.k12.pa.us
      Mr. Charles Smith - Assistant Principal - csmith@bigspring.k12.pa.us
      Mr. Joseph (Sam) Barnouski - HS Technolgy Ed. Teacher/Graphics Communications - jbarnouski@bigspring.k12.pa.us

      • altrego99, on 12/16/2007, -6/+69Thanks, I'll store these emails in order to test the new spam bot that I'm working on when it is finished.
      • shaun1018, on 12/16/2007, -10/+622Girls1Cup time.
        • andy3109, on 12/16/2007, -12/+3hahahah ewwwwwwwww hahahah ewwwwwww ha ew ha.
      • JoeDiggsIt, on 12/16/2007, -8/+12heres a site with a list a free spam http://www.toastedspam.com/freespamlist
      • Audacitor, on 12/16/2007, -1/+4"HS Technology Ed. Teacher/Graphics Communications"
        Graphics Communications? Don't they mean web design?
      • Username314, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2This is the last form of publicity the school ever needed.
    • JoeDiggsIt, on 12/16/2007, -18/+7Also here's the principal's e-mail jscudder@bigspring.k12.pa.us have fun :)
    • STARTSOMETHING, on 12/16/2007, -21/+53That's my high school. I graduated from there in 2005.
      • DiggJig, on 12/16/2007, -7/+51woopee.
      • francois87, on 12/16/2007, -8/+49That's ***** fantastic
      • techmaster, on 12/16/2007, -14/+11I'm sure you're a fine example of what their brilliant teaching staff are capable of.
      • ShnowDoggie, on 12/16/2007, -9/+3Cool. Do you think this is a hoax or for real? And why?
        • MrHappy123, on 12/16/2007, -2/+5I think it's a hoax, just in time for FireFox 3.0 ... oh yeah!
      • Archon810, on 12/16/2007, -4/+28how's this at all relevant and adds to discussion? but then again, most of the comments don't, like mine.
      • KingGorilla, on 12/16/2007, -2/+12You must be proud
      • MonkCanatella, on 12/16/2007, -5/+3So did I!
      • Audacitor, on 12/16/2007, -3/+4...and...?
      • siddhartha1138, on 12/17/2007, -0/+7I graduated from high school once... it was an overrated experience
      • codered1322, on 12/17/2007, -1/+3I like turtles?
    • dinobot, on 12/16/2007, -0/+75I work at a school district's IT department so I'm getting a kick out of these replies - I think I'll drop the asst. principal a line using my work's email just for kicks
      • thetinguy, on 12/16/2007, -1/+12Why don't you have firefox as the default browser? Get back to work!
      • bludragn0, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1.-. you bastards keep me from doing anything fun at school
        the filter also blocks anything with the word proxy in it
    • pero69, on 12/16/2007, -1/+128and now the kid is going to get a few months of saturdays for posting his detention slip online and having people "get revenge for him".
      • TastyLamp, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5By the looks of it it was his parents that posted it.

        Or at least that's what he could say to get out of it.
      • androothebear, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1i was thinking the exact same thing lol
      • mooboy322, on 12/18/2007, -2/+1i dont think they can do that legally he didn't do anything wrong
    • GoatRoper, on 12/16/2007, -63/+12I added this to the end but if you are like me and cannot read that far I will add these here as well. Just make this an issue with everyone at the school, misery loves company: meanderson@bigspring.k12.pa.us sanderson@bigspring.k12.pa.us martz@bigspring.k12.pa.us dbalseiro@bigspring.k12.pa.us jbarnouski@bigspring.k12.pa.us lbarrick@bigspring.k12.pa.us pbealmear@bigspring.k12.pa.us hsaniga@bigspring.k12.pa.us lblack@bigspring.k12.pa.us lsinger@bigspring.k12.pa.us lbouder@bigspring.k12.pa.us cboyd@bigspring.k12.pa.us mcalaman@bigspring.k12.pa.us mcentola@bigspring.k12.pa.us schamberlin@bigspring.k12.pa.us cchapman@bigspring.k12.pa.us ecolosimo@bigspring.k12.pa.us kcorman@bigspring.k12.pa.us rcoulson@bigspring.k12.pa.us cdaugherty@bigspring.k12.pa.us jdavis@bigspring.k12.pa.us jdeihl@bigspring.k12.pa.us sdeitch@bigspring.k12.pa.us hdetwiler@bigspring.k12.pa.us selsier@bigspring.k12.pa.us cfeeser@bigspring.k12.pa.us kfinkenbinder@bigspring.k12.pa.us kfritz@bigspring.k12.pa.us kfry@bigspring.k12.pa.us dginter@bigspring.k12.pa.us ngutshall@bigspring.k12.pa.us khamilton@bigspring.k12.pa.us rhankes@bigspring.k12.pa.us whankes@bigspring.k12.pa.us thenry@bigspring.k12.pa.us ghershey@bigspring.k12.pa.us ghing@bigspring.k12.pa.us jhockenbroch@bigspring.k12.pa.us tholtry@bigspring.k12.pa.us lhosfelt@bigspring.k12.pa.us bhurley@bigspring.k12.pa.us thurley@bigspring.k12.pa.us jjackson@bigspring.k12.pa.us zjensen@bigspring.k12.pa.us djohnson@bigspring.k12.pa.us jjorich@bigspring.k12.pa.us gkillmon@bigspring.k12.pa.us tkireta@bigspring.k12.pa.us swierbowski@bigspring.k12.pa.us aknapp@bigspring.k12.pa.us dknol@bigspring.k12.pa.us bkulik@bigspring.k12.pa.us dlautsbaugh@bigspring.k12.pa.us wlehman@bigspring.k12.pa.us aleonard@bigspring.k12.pa.us nlosiewski@bigspring.k12.pa.us madden@bigspring.k12.pa.us hmagee@bigspring.k12.pa.us smains@bigspring.k12.pa.us dmcclead@bigspring.k12.pa.us bmcclure@bigspring.k12.pa.us mmcvitty@bigspring.k12.pa.us dmessersmith@bigspring.k12.pa.us jmiller@bigspring.k12.pa.us jmislitski@bigspring.k12.pa.us cmoore@bigspring.k12.pa.us dmoser@bigspring.k12.pa.us lmunson@bigspring.k12.pa.us amyers@bigspring.k12.pa.us snailor@bigspring.k12.pa.us lnewman@bigspring.k12.pa.us bpagze@bigspring.k12.pa.us fpinckney@bigspring.k12.pa.us mpolicicchio@bigspring.k12.pa.us mpotter@bigspring.k12.pa.us cpowell@bigspring.k12.pa.us wreall@bigspring.k12.pa.us treese@bigspring.k12.pa.us wsaylor@bigspring.k12.pa.us aschneider@bigspring.k12.pa.us jschoonover@bigspring.k12.pa.us gschreiber@bigspring.k12.pa.us jscudder@bigspring.k12.pa.us kshaker@bigspring.k12.pa.us sdshuey@bigspring.k12.pa.us bshughart@bigspring.k12.pa.us asmith@bigspring.k12.pa.us csmith@bigspring.k12.pa.us dsmith@bigspring.k12.pa.us twest@bigspring.k12.pa.us lstover@bigspring.k12.pa.us pstrack@bigspring.k12.pa.us dtigyer@bigspring.k12.pa.us kvarner@bigspring.k12.pa.us lvelazquez@bigspring.k12.pa.us kvroman@bigspring.k12.pa.us jwadlinger@bigspring.k12.pa.us kwalter@bigspring.k12.pa.us swanbaugh@bigspring.k12.pa.us klee@bigspring.k12.pa.us nwerner@bigspring.k12.pa.us
      • kevinwiz, on 12/16/2007, -7/+48you are an idiot if you emailed all those innocent teachers. get a life you loser
        • GoatRoper, on 12/16/2007, -27/+6***** that, innocent people always get caught up in the crosshairs of these things, it gets people's attention. Tuck your skirt in nancyboy.
        • ericisshort, on 12/16/2007, -1/+10its bad publicity for firefox. These teachers are going to get annoyed and are going to call this a "HACK" or something.
      • francois87, on 12/16/2007, -1/+8No I think its funny, it should be brought up and made an issue.
    • shaun1018, on 12/16/2007, -2/+54Free Billy!
      • theblacknight, on 12/16/2007, -3/+1It didn't work then either (at least not yet).
    • AZNL473ncy, on 12/16/2007, -3/+47Wow... My school actually encourages people to use FF. One of my business teachers tells everyone to load it up when they needs to do something.

      I guess teachers here are more educated about this kind of stuff, especially considering their COMPUTER TEACHERS.
      • westway2world, on 12/16/2007, -2/+14*they're
        • brownspank, on 12/18/2007, -1/+1English teachers, on the other hand...
      • unusualbob, on 12/17/2007, -2/+1ya, at my college firefox is on all of the computers already, and they are set to re-image themselves on each reboot so its intentional by IT.
    • liquidpele, on 12/16/2007, -15/+172The image seems faked to me.
      What kind of a teacher would go into detail about what the student said regarding it being a better browser? They would have just said the student did not follow instructions. I call BS, it's gotta be a hoax.
      • iceoofaapl, on 12/16/2007, -6/+10At some schools (such as mine) teachers need to explicitly report the detentions, so as to prove that it isn't just because the kid wasn't just goofing off...
      • DangerCollie, on 12/16/2007, -10/+17If it's a hoax, it's a good one. And it should be educational for anyone getting the same idea. Dis on Firefox or OpenSource and get a taste of the wrath of community.
        If it turns out to be a hoax, then we owe it to the school district to all back off and the kid gets what he gets. But if it's not, I'm sure it will be a real eye opener for the school district.
      • liquidpele, on 12/17/2007, -4/+91CONFIRMED TO BE A HOAX.
        So, I was right and you assholes that buried me can suck it.
        http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/news.php?action=vie ...
    • Voide, on 12/16/2007, -0/+21This whole thing is pretty weird for me. My school has Firefox installed on ALL their computers. We have 3 carts full of macs, and its in the application....if safari isn't working (rarely ever doesn't work), they'll encourage people to use Firefox. Hell, Firefox is the DEFAULT browser on any and every PC in our school.

      Besides that, this notice is ridiculous. I get detentions almost every week for being late to school. We get this like, 4x12 inch piece of paper that says when we serve it, and what we did. They don't do anything to notify our parents of the detention. Our detentions are only 45 minutes long. The Saturdays are 2-4 hours long. And when you don't serve either, you only get 1 in-school-suspension....not 3. If my school sent out these notices for all of my detentions, they'd have to take out a loan for postage.
      • sevenalive, on 12/16/2007, -2/+5Great student there, lol. Well i can't complain i miss classes and am like 15-1hr late every week and i am in college.
        • mhender, on 12/18/2007, -0/+6You're in college, yet you write like an idiot? Cool. Suggestion: Go to English class on time.
    • FadieZ, on 12/16/2007, -3/+87SPARTANS! Let us dial with honor
      • FadieZ, on 12/16/2007, -1/+35*****...i shoulda said "Tonight we dial in Hell!"

        oh well, too late.
        • iRaachie, on 12/16/2007, -0/+11Haha. I just said that out loud. then saw your reply.
    • shogun042, on 12/16/2007, -0/+9haha wow. i could see kids in my school getting in trouble for using firefox (especially considering the retarded tech department). we just run it off our flash drives, and yes it is just "better".
    • FMKaiba, on 12/16/2007, -1/+11I will give them a call as well, if they recieve enough maybe it will set them straight.

      I used firefox at my old HS, the teachers told me not to, but i ended up explaining it to the computer administrator, had a long discussion with her, and eventually got firefox installed on all the computers. (it took alot of work and evidence and reviews to make her allow it though, but if you really believe in firefox, i suggest you try the same if your in HS, make sure to compile a good list of reputable sources, give good arguments, and think it over ahead of time. sometimes the administration might even listen)
      • krusader3z, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1As a former high school student I must say "Unlikely"
    • click170, on 12/16/2007, -1/+10I have already phoned, just now. Of course it being the weekend and all I left a message, but I'm also writing an email to send to the principal, VP, and teacher.

      Administrative ignorance in the school systems should be made illegal.
    • zabzany, on 12/16/2007, -3/+2the same thing in my school. my lan admin is an idiot thats why we arent allowed to use it. but we do it anyways. we use it to get on https sites that arent blocked by the filter
    • SupaFurry, on 01/23/2008, -18/+6Clearly, the student was not given a detention for using Firefox. He or she was given the detention for disobedience. None of us know why the teacher did not want the student using Firefox. It really doesn't matter. What matters is that the student was told to stop and refused to do so. Clearly, the assignment did not require him or her to use Firefox, since the browser the teacher was asking for worked fine for the rest of the class. He or she was just being disobedient and defiant. Bravo to the teacher for not putting up with it and issuing a detention instead. By refusing to comply with a simple request, the student was taking the teacher's attention away from the rest of the class for a petty reason.
      • DNABeast, on 12/16/2007, -1/+8Keep running on the wheel children. One day you'll make an excellent cog.
      • s0nicfreak, on 12/16/2007, -3/+7Just be a good little sheep. Don't speak up when there's a fire no one else notices and the teacher tells you to stay in your seat. Or when a teacher tells you to stay alone after class and take your clothes off.
        • Clixx13, on 12/17/2007, -2/+4Your comment is unnecessarily hyperbolic.

          And just plain unnecessary.

          Sure, the teacher's writeup proves that he was being a little bitch about it and the kid REALLY didnt deserve a detention. But I dont like Firefox so much as to have risked getting a detention for it. Doing what your teacher tells you isnt being a good little sheep. If everyone went around disregarding instructors then our schools would be ***** across the nation.

          Closing Firefox when the teacher tells you isnt an indication that you're a sheep, or a gear in the government machine. It's called picking your ***** battles. Comparing it to submitting to student-instructer molestation is just stupid.
          • s0nicfreak, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2First they came for the firefox users, and I did not speak up, because I was not a firefox user... ...
        • DiggzDE, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2The assignment asked for the student to do work online via an internet browser. I am sure that the steps did not specify which browser to use and it is not the teacher's position to control that. If he was doing the work and wasn't disrupting the class, he did nothing wrong. He was sent to detention for "not doing his work" when in truth, he was, only in a different fashion than originally prescribed. I'd say that is thinking creatively and efficiently and I find that to be a very good sign of intelligence. I didn't know that blind obedience was part of the curriculum that was being taught to our children in grade school.
    • mrfreeziexp, on 12/16/2007, -0/+42*facepalm*

      We are going to get this kid in so much more trouble..
      • maci01, on 12/16/2007, -0/+13Now who do you think could have uploaded that image to the interweb?
    • tcpip4lyfe, on 12/16/2007, -3/+14Starting Nmap 4.20 ( http://insecure.org ) at 2007-12-16 14:56 CST
      Interesting ports on www.bigspring.k12.pa.us (204.14.12.87):
      Not shown: 1694 filtered ports
      PORT STATE SERVICE
      21/tcp open ftp
      22/tcp open ssh
      80/tcp open http
    • spalVl, on 12/16/2007, -4/+7I couldn't wait until Monday, free nights and weekend minutes FTW!!! 717-776-2434
    • lofiboy, on 12/16/2007, -6/+8You guys are crazy. I got banned from my school's computer network just for having Opera INSTALLED. I never even used it.
      This kid is nothing.
      • UnterDenLinden, on 12/17/2007, -7/+5It's because you installed Opera not Firefox, duh.
    • ZeroArmada, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6Wow, my school actually likes Firefox (thanks to me). I got the newest computers to be installed with it, along with extensions.

      Thing is, the county Websense is way overpowered, so I've found no way to bypass it, even with extensions. They don't have to worry about it. T_T
      • johnnykalma, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1easy run DSLinux from a flash drive and go from there. it runs natively in windows xp
    • Rolcol, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1I would LOVE to be able to use FireFox at school. I just don't want to go through the installation every single time since the C: drive is on 'deep freeze'.
      • cypherus, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3Get a flash drive and load it up with various apps... or burn a cd with it on it... there's a lot of ways around it... Also choosing to install to other places than C:
      • feedmecereal, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Haven't you ever used Firefox Portable? How about the version that runs off a CD?
      • ksong12, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1I just plopped it onto my Network Share, since they blocked .exe's from flash drives, etc.

        At my old school, somebody did get in trouble and detention for Firefox, but after I talked to them, they started liking it, and letting people use it. Now at my new school, many people have laptops, which have no SurfControl, so they don't care about anything.
    • moo42, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1I used Firefox at school along with putty through an ssh tunnel to my linux box at home mostly because I could, but it did have the nice side effect of bypassing the school's proxy server. I even told the resident tech about it and he didn't have any idea what I was talking about. Needless to say I didn't get into trouble for it.
    • twitndiggfan, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3I use Firefox at school and a proxy server set up at home to get around the school internet filter. I love it. The best part about it: our IT guy knows about it and doesn't care. He challenged me to find a way to get around the filter and I did! Thank you Foxfire!
    • lougoose, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2My school has FireFox installed on all of the computers (even the Macs). However, they removed the proxy feature. I don't know how they did it, but it definitely disappointed a lot of kids (including myself).
      • Narfmaster, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Possibly could have compiled their own version of the application, wouldn't be too difficult in the overall scheme of running a network.
    • link470, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2FirefoxADM. Done. I work as Network Administrator in a school district, and being only 19 I still remember the tricks the students use to bypass the protection so I just block all those :) FirefoxADM [Firefox Active Directory Management] though is what they should have used and not given detention. This will allow you to set policies and proxy settings mandetory across the network.

      Know how to block your students. If they can get around it using a browser they like, silently remember that they can do that, and try to find a way to block it. But don't mention it to the kid, not to mention get them in trouble! They had no clue, if it was allowed, it was allowed. I don't tell a single kid off for that. If anything, I say "good work" for finding a way around, and then yes, try to block it after if it's a concern to school policy or security.

      It's funny though that this article happened. Some of the teachers in the career center were always yelling at kids to get off different browsers. I couldn't help it that the previous tech that was there installed it on all the images. That was his doing, the students simply used what was available to them.
    • Himself, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2Don't just email send a FAX http://www.hallwatch.org/faxbank

      "FaxBank allows Philadelphians to fax messages concerning issues of the day to the persons directly concerned, be they city employees, elected officials or newspaper editors."

      there should be a firefox faxbank made available to pelt PA senator: pvance@pasen.gov

      hehe
    • aggrazel, on 12/17/2007, -9/+8You guys are a bunch of idiots.

      It has nothing to do with the kid running firefox. It has everything to do with kids not learning respect for authority. I don't care if your teacher is an idiot, they are still the authority figure in the room and you need to do what they say, even if it doesn't make sense. Later you may complain about it to your parents to initiate action, or not. Either way. This kid deserves a detention and Digg is showing its ass.
      • Whackly, on 12/18/2007, -8/+5"I don't care if your teacher is an idiot, they are still the authority figure in the room and you need to do what they say, even if it doesn't make sense."

        Right. That's a good little robot. Now do like the teacher says and light yourself on fire.
      • zhulik83, on 12/18/2007, -5/+3I bet you voted for Bush, didnt you? And you still believe everything he says. Even if it doesn make sense.
      • diazamet, on 01/11/2008, -0/+0Remember kids, the teacher said 2+2=5 so it must be right!
    • SpaceDreamer, on 12/17/2007, -1/+10hoax.
      http://www.bigspring.k12.pa.us/news.php?action=vie ...
      undigg
  • tiffdawnn, on 12/16/2007, -80/+543That's hilarious. Granted the kid should have listened to the teacher and has no respect for his elders, but the teacher sounds like a dumbass writing it up that way.
    • postpawl, on 12/16/2007, -17/+155Yep, he got that detention for disobedience.
      • Resolution, on 12/16/2007, -19/+35Browser fanboyism aside, he got what he deserved for not listening to his teacher after repeated requests. It's not like he wasn't given a warning first.
        • Breepee, on 12/16/2007, -20/+9If the teacher insist on you sucking his prick, would you listen after repeated requests?

          OK, maybe thats a little extreme, but if you're allowed to use IE, then there's no good reason not to allow Firefox. It's not like this teacher knew what he was talking about and knew about the 'serious consequences' of using Firefox anyhow. He was just being a douche and probably could stand a kid smarter than himself.
          • jcounterman, on 12/16/2007, -2/+4Schools have filtering software, some of which works in conjunction with IE only. Its possible they simply don't want kids using other browsers to surf porn in the back of the class. Plus, these are school computers; if they kids are able to download anything they want, it would be a nightmare for the sys-admins.
          • Memnochxx, on 12/16/2007, -0/+13If the sysadmins don't block kids installing programs it's their own fault.
      • victorycig, on 12/16/2007, -1/+19They called it insubordination for me. Boy, I've got more than a few of those remarks on my transcript...
      • affanjam, on 12/16/2007, -1/+19My CompSci teacher in Gr. 11 called me a "HACKER" for using Notepad...I not even ***** you.. this man had little knowledge about computers or programming. He just taught us what the School Board put in the outline and nothing else....and he taught us Quick Basic and Visual Basic.
        • RockinRoel, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6From the Jargon File:
          HACKER [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. 1. A person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating hack value (q.v.). 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. Not everything a hacker produces is a hack. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; example: "A SAIL hacker". (Definitions 1 to 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.)
          Look at it as a compliment.
      • sparsely, on 12/16/2007, -0/+15Obedience to ridiculous commands is for dogs.
      • laelfrog, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Civil Disobedience.
    • cerilia, on 12/16/2007, -10/+211Having gone through our educational system not too long ago, I can promise you that some of those "teachers" don't deserve respect.
      • superal1394, on 12/16/2007, -1/+15My school is ass backwards on this front, all the teachers and librarians install Firefox, yet the IT is always reinstalling the machines because students are installing "unauthorized software". Firefox still has to go through the schools proxy, so I don't know what their issue is. You would think the IT people of all people would have dumped IE by now.

        Then again, you would think they would have asked Apple for grants instead of Dell.
        • grantmoore3d, on 12/16/2007, -0/+10Most people who work for elementary/highschool IT have to answer to people who know nothing about computers. They would probably do a good job if they didn't have the bureaucracy forcing them to do otherwise.
        • alacava, on 12/16/2007, -0/+11So true, I'm the IT guy at middle school in a district that is still using NT 4 and refuses to give schools Active Directory.
          • KniteWulf, on 12/16/2007, -0/+5I feel sorry for you. Although NT 4 sounds awesome when it boots up.
        • BlackCow, on 12/16/2007, -9/+3There is no way schools could afford apple and there is no reason to use apple when Linux offers everything a school needs and runs on more computers.
        • j4200, on 12/17/2007, -1/+1My high school had a Mac lab in it. I can assure you it plagued the IT guys just as much as the rest of the labs. Mac's are in no way perfect.

      • oxdeltaxo, on 12/16/2007, -4/+8Some dont deserve oxygen.
        • j4200, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Thats just really mean. Here these people are out dedicating their lives to teaching. Even with how ungrateful the little pukes end up being, these people continue to do it for the ***** pay they get. Why? Maybe they see some sort of cause worth the effort. I can't answer that question though. It blows my mind why people continuously decide to hang up their lives to teach when all they here is comments like "They shouldn't even get air!"
        • diazamet, on 01/11/2008, -0/+0I presume you are not a teacher judging by your grammar.
    • mlfoley, on 12/16/2007, -11/+275Elders have to earn their respect, just like anyone else.
      • TheMadCow, on 12/16/2007, -47/+2Then how about a baseball bat upside your smartass head? Bouncing it off the locker a few times ought to instill a little respect - or is that fear - I forget, either works just fine for me in your case.
        • bagelmaster, on 12/16/2007, -2/+28And you are example of someone who gets no respect. And probably had those things done to you in highschool. I will now mourn for you.
        • gemmakicn, on 12/16/2007, -0/+22How does brute strength and an inability to control your inadequacies indicate you have any moral, spiritual, ethical or intellectual authority over anyone?
      • Skooma714, on 12/16/2007, -1/+12Might does not make right. That is barbaric.

        Besides once a person gets old enough it is hard to keep doing that without having yourself harmed.
      • diadem2, on 12/17/2007, -2/+2The kid was given a chance to explain himself. He did and this request was refused. He continued to disobay a direct order from someone in power. What did he expect to happen, a pat on the back for independant thought?
    • cbuddha42, on 12/16/2007, -44/+53Why are you people digging tiffdawn down? The teacher told him to do x and he did y. In high school, when a teacher tells you to do x and you do what you want instead they punish you, in this case with a detention. It's call disobedience, and they try to discourage it. If your boss told you to quit using firefox because he thought it was fugly then you might try and hide your use instead of switch, but you wouldn't repeatedly use it in his face right? That's because you learned that he his in charge, he gets to decide what browser and other programs you use while at work, and if you ***** him off because you think firefox is better then he will can your ass.

      I like firefox and opera more than IE too, but I still have to use IE sometimes. For instance, some sites don't display or load correctly in browsers other than IE because the code, for instance javascript, was only developed for IE. Maybe the teacher understood that the site the kid was supposed to be on only worked properly with IE and thus the statement that firefox was a "better browser" was not true for this site. Unfortunately for the teacher, his writeup, and the way he documents it as firefox.exe, makes him look like a dumb ass that doesn't know what firefox is. If this is the case, he's probably not the most qualified person to be teaching in the computer department, but does that really surprise anyone?

      Bottom line: the teacher is probably a moron, but high school is partially about kids like this one learning that sometimes they have to do what the moron says even when it's the stupidest ***** they've heard all week. Go bitch about it to your friends and make fun of the dumb ass, but don't just ignore him or you'll wind up in detention.
      • xPSPx324, on 12/16/2007, -29/+7Teachers are dumbasses. You sound like a nerd sticking up for the teachers.
        • StormyAaron, on 12/16/2007, -0/+14Dude, 1) this is a site full of Geeks and nerds. 2) Most teachers are not dumbasses, yet due to the students apathy and No Child Left Behind the teachers are suffering from it, due to it's support for only rewarding the lowest students.
        • Velnich, on 12/16/2007, -2/+4... and you sound like a whiny kid with authority issues.
      • ISIfunded911, on 12/16/2007, -17/+11Yeah, but on the other side, learning about anarchy (which is kind of like direct democracy, as opposed to today's fake democracy which is in reality oligarchy and obeying to countless unelected people) and trying to practice it helps one becoming more independent instead of a perfect brainwashed slave, so congratulations to him.
        • SkippySkip, on 12/16/2007, -4/+16Have you even thought about what school would be like as an anarchy? Very few teens & pre-teens would want to learn anything that would make them a better person. Structure and discipline are necessary, regardless of your wishes.
        • Bamborzled, on 12/16/2007, -1/+6Hey look, it's the first idiot to politicize the issue! You win one foxfire.
        • SpeedSteamBoat, on 12/16/2007, -7/+3@SkippySkip: Really? And what proof do you have that that's really what would happen? You're basing your claims on nothing but speculation and some ***** social norm that tells you a life without government MUST be awful just because it's "not how things work." Well, guess what, there was a time before government and we survived. What's more, governing bodies come and go all the time throughout history. 99% of the sort of chaos you associate with anarchy is historically an end result of government and religion, both of which are the exact opposite of anarchy.
          • nongmo, on 12/16/2007, -0/+4Sorry, but this is stupid ***** and I have to call you on it. People who survived before government also had a life expectancy of 20 years, and died from wounds that would take all of 5 minutes to heal at a modern hospital. Part of evolution is cultural evolution, and government is part of that. The second any society went anarchist another society with a strong government would come in and either slaughter or assimilate everyone. Government, the institution, rarely comes and goes, even if the regime changes.
        • PhoenixAvatar2, on 12/16/2007, -0/+4@Speed. Simple. I wouldn't have gone to school if my parents hadn't made me and I sure as hell wouldn't have done any work if the teachers hadn't made me.
      • BMR777, on 12/16/2007, -11/+34Your logic is like the math teacher who will only give you credit on the math test if you do the problem THEIR way. The only thing that should matter is the end result, not the way it is done. As long as the kid was working on the assigned work I don't see a problem.
        • maninblac1, on 12/16/2007, -12/+19So in your logic, cheating is okay, cause as long as i get the right result, it shouldn't matter how i got it.
          You don't learn laplace transforms in differential equations because they want to torture you, you learn it because it will make doing differential equations eaiser.
          But i probably lost you at "laplace".
          • fusama, on 12/16/2007, -0/+3If the problem is to do a Laplace transform, then you structure the problem that way, asking for intermediate answers, like say the Laplace transform itself, etc. Or you just put a time limit on the test, since Laplace is so much faster the schmucks trying to not use it won't finish. On the other hand, if the problem just says solve this differential equation with no further instruction, then either using Laplace or not would be correct.
          • lime148, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7How the ***** do you "logically" compare cheating and using a different browser?
          • s0nicfreak, on 12/16/2007, -0/+3The "right result" is to learn the material, which you will not achieve by cheating.
        • Aiwanei, on 12/16/2007, -10/+15The problem is he disobeyed a direct order from the teacher multiple times. At a job you could get fired for what the kid did. He didn't get a detention because he wasn't doing his work, he got a detention because he was told not to use firefox, and he didn't listen.

          I understand all of you who think it is overreacting, and it may be. and yeah the teacher doesn't seem to know what much about technology, but the kid still did not do as he was told by the teacher. Schools have strict policies about that, if the kid wanted to use firefox instead of ie, then maybe he should have petitioned the school administration and tried to promote the positive sides of firefox and let it be a valid substitute to ie.
          • fusama, on 12/16/2007, -0/+9On the other hand had the teacher got of her ass and looked at the screen, she would have seen that he was, infact, doing his work, end of story. Yes he should have obeyed the teacher after being warned, but it should never have gotten that far, regardless of any lack of technological prowess from the teacher. The situation got escalated to the point where he got in trouble because the teacher was too damn lazy to do her job.
          • sparsely, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6Teacher aren't there to give orders, they're there to give instruction.
            No matter how much some would like it to be... School !== Military
        • SpeedSteamBoat, on 12/16/2007, -3/+9@maninblac1: No, that's what he's saying at all, but it's the same thing. In the real world, it's usually the people who cheat and cut corners who you find at the top of the corporate monarchy, and it's the "honest hard workers" who stay in line that you find at the bottom moving dirt. This isn't cynicism, it's reality.

          @Aiwanei: Any company that would fire you for using different tools that let you do your job more efficiently just because it is "their software" is not a company you want to work for anyways IMHO. And like I told maninblac1, always just "doing what your told" and staunchly obeying the rules is a surefire way to be a nobody your whole life and work until the day you die. It's called being a risk taker, and it's something every successful person in the world has done in their lifetime.
        • cbuddha42, on 12/16/2007, -2/+6I had the same initial thought as maninblac upon reading your comment. So if I use my notes/calculator/whatever on a test where that is not allowed then it's ok? Obviously doing so should not be ok because by doing so I modify the test, and I am not being tested on what the teacher wishes to test me on.

          Also you must understand often there are multiple ways to do a problem. Sometimes the problem will let you pick, but sometimes the problem will specify which method you should use. This is because the teacher wants to test you on that specific method. Depending on the teacher and how they grade you may receive partial credit for the correct answer (but not the credit for the work) or no credit because you ignored the instructions. They have taught you a method and wish to see you demonstrate that you can use it more than they want the answer. Think about it this way: the teacher isn't asking you to find the answer to the problem they are asking you to demonstrate that you can use a process (either of your choosing or one they specify) to find the correct answer. You may think that's stupid, but that's what they asked you to do.

          And finally as simpler example than mainnblac's diff eq one. In high school you will normally learn algebra and calculus. The instructor will normally specify a calculator policy. For example you may get no calculator or you may use a specific one. This is because what you get to use is as much a part of the test as the question. If you use a calculator which will do symbolic integration or the integrals table in your book, then the test is suddenly a joke.
      • mrjit, on 12/16/2007, -3/+24Because of her "no respect for elders" comment. I don't respect ignorant, stupid, or intolerant elders either. Like another Digger said above - Elders need to earn respect, just like everyone else. Not to mention the kid did not sound disrespectful at all - but guess what, NONE of us were there to determine if he was disrespectful or simply trying to teach some dumbass dinosaur of a teacher something about a computer.
        • cbuddha42, on 12/16/2007, -6/+2No, the point is the school expects you to listen to your teachers regardless of whether you respect them or not. It doesn't matter what epoch you think your dinosaur of a teacher is from; they are in charge of you, and if you ignore them then they will discipline you.
          • mrjit, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8So when the teachers spout off incorrect theories that have been debunked, like calling Pluto a planet, I should stay silent, for they are in charge and I am but a peon. Oh, woe, oh Orwellian world and it's infallible DoEd staff.
      • JoeDiggsIt, on 12/16/2007, -7/+8I respect my teachers unless they're being unreasonable, so if he wasnt doing anything bad on firefox then that was an idiotic move by an uninformed teacher.
      • viggooo, on 12/16/2007, -6/+7If my boss told me to stop using Firefox at work, I'd tell him to educate himself a bit. In a school the computers should be set up so that students could not install sof.ware themselves, and the firewall should also be better set up. Give the network admin detention for not doing his work properly!
        • Mononuclear, on 12/16/2007, -0/+11Most places if you told your boss to educate himself a bit you wouldn't have a job anymore.
        • mrjit, on 12/16/2007, -1/+7There are significant reasons as to WHY Firefox is not allowed, especially in Microsoft camps. These, I'd say 99% of the time, are the reasons us Admins tell employees not to use, or try to use Firefox. We can't easily manage it's security via GPO. It's not that we like IE.
          • techmaster, on 12/16/2007, -1/+4If, as an admin, you actually push down GPO's that mess with people's internet experience, then you are a scumbag. If you don't want people visiting certain sites, then just get something like a Barracuda web filter, but to sit there and dictate whether people can save favorites, download a file, or whatever... is just silly. I personally use GPO's to install things like Firefox.
          • Skooma714, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7You do realise that network admin and IT guys aren't autonomous entities within an employer. Its probably not because he wants to but that's what his boss wanted.

            And if you want unrestricted internet access go home and use your own non-Comcast internet. IT does not need the additional headache of ***** installing some trojan and spyware laced programs that waste company time anyway.
          • mrjit, on 12/16/2007, -0/+3For some reason I can't reply to techmaster, so I'll reply to myself.

            Unfortunately us Admins are typically managed by CIOs. We don't typically have much say in the process. I'm all for Squid/Websense. Hell, if I ran the place I'd only block people from porn/game sites. I'm about as liberal as it gets.
        • SpeedSteamBoat, on 12/16/2007, -0/+5@Mononuclear: And why would you want to work at a place like that?
        • cbuddha42, on 12/16/2007, -0/+5You can easily install firefox on a portable medium such as a jump drive which many schools use to allow students to work on files both at home and at school. Unless you installed software to monitor and stop the execution of unrecognized executables (which is probably farther than most high schools go) then this would allow the student to run firefox.

          Suggesting your boss learn about firefox is probably ok as long as you do it in a more polite manner than "go educate yourself, firefox is way better," but that doesn't mean you should continue using it if he tells you not to. Suggesting your boss learn about it is the same as suggesting the school administration consider it (you might site reasons like improved security making the company's network safer), and would normally be considered acceptable while straight disobedience rarely is.
      • BinaryFragger, on 12/16/2007, -5/+4"If your boss told you to quit using firefox because he thought it was fugly then you might try and hide your use instead of switch, but you wouldn't repeatedly use it in his face right?"

        And in some places, that can get your ass fired. If an employer says "you can't do this or that with this company-provided workstation" and you circumvent the measures, it can be grounds for dismissal. I've seen it happen.

        You're better off either complying with the rules, or try to change them if you think they're unfair or silly.

        • cbuddha42, on 12/16/2007, -0/+3Obviously true, my aim was simply to avoid people responding with "well I would use firefox anyway and just not tell him." This student was probably in a lab where the instructor could see what he was doing and continued to use firefox despite the teacher telling him not to.
      • realitystrikes, on 12/16/2007, -2/+5If my boss tried to force me not to use Firefox, they wouldn't have to dismiss me. I'd quit.

        No, I don't love Firefox that much. But I do love my right to decide things for myself that much.
      • sparsely, on 12/16/2007, -0/+9Obedience to ridiculous commands is for dogs.
        Teachers are there to instruct. This includes being able to show the ability to accept new information, and (omg) the ability to admit that someone knows more than us, and to learn, integrating the new information! :o
        This teacher just had no humility and went authoritarian instead.
      • solistus, on 12/16/2007, -1/+11School is not work, nor is it boot camp. Blind obedience is not the sort of education we are supposed to be instilling in young people. If a teacher doesn't know what he's talking about and a student is not in the wrong, that student should not be expected to comply anyway just because "it was a teacher" that gave the stupid command. Critical thinking is a more valuable skill than obedience, any day.
        • Velnich, on 12/16/2007, -2/+1School is training you in part for the work force. Blind obedience would naturally be part of that training.
      • getsk3wled, on 12/17/2007, -3/+2"Maybe the teacher understood that the site the kid was supposed to be on only worked properly with IE and thus the statement that firefox was a "better browser" was not true for this site"
        Your counter argument about how obviously the teacher was an idiot makes YOU seem stupid. You obviously have no idea what firefox is or how it's a 'better browser' if you write it up as 'foxfire.exe'.
    • yevkasem, on 12/16/2007, -12/+17the kid didn't act very smart. if the teacher didn't want him to use firefox, he should have stopped, and then dealt with it in a better way. he wouldn't have received detention for petitioning the school to install firefox on all the computers, outlining why he felt it was "better". he may have even switched the entire school. why keep a good thing to yourself, that's not the open source way at all.
      there are better ways to get things done than flagrant disobedience and then crying rape (although we don't know if the kid is the one who originally posted the picture).
      • Velirno, on 12/16/2007, -4/+2I doubt he would even bother to write a letter because the majority of high school kids are focus on the "me" aspect of their lives. If he solved the problem of a bad browser for himself, then there's no reason in doing anything else to help. That's the one bad thing about how heavy-handed the public school rules and authority can be, no one asks the kid why he installed the browser and if he actually did anything wrong. They just punish him and move along to the next "bad apple".
      • mrjit, on 12/16/2007, -1/+6He's a kid. Tell me you never did idiotic ***** while you were a kid, so I can call you a liar.
      • solistus, on 12/16/2007, -1/+8He wasn't trying to lead a crusade to get the school to use better, standards-compliant software. He just wanted to use firefox to do his work because IE sucks. Running Firefox is a perfectly legitimate way to accomplish the goal of getting your work done in a browser, which is what he was trying to do.
    • littlshadow, on 12/16/2007, -9/+69That's right! We need to keep teaching kids blind obedience. It's working so well for us as a society now right?
      • bunit03057, on 12/16/2007, -6/+1"What seems to be the problem officer.. no I will not step out of the car and do what you say, I was taught blind disobedience and to question authority ... what do you mean your arresting me?"
        I doubt teaching kids to not listen to their teachers will result in anything good, if thats what you are suggesting.
        • KhalilRavanna, on 12/16/2007, -2/+2There would be no progression if we all settled for what was given to us. Questioning authority reasonably should not be met with immediate punishment unless you hope to bring up a world controlled by fear.
          • bunit03057, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1All digging aside. Given this situation with firefox, are you are suggesting that the kid was correct to "question authority" over such a matter. Questing authority is great, but perhaps he should have brought the matter to the IT department, instead of refusing to exit the program.
      • kauthon, on 12/16/2007, -1/+5Blind obedience is why our children are getting raped by priests. The kid did nothing wrong, the teacher is an idiot. Next a kid will get an F for turning in a paper using Wordperfect instead of Word. I agree with littleshadow.
      • getsk3wled, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2Littlshadow is not saying to be blindly disobedient, but to NOT be blindly obedient. Just because they're opposites and one isn't taught does not mean the other is.
        But maybe education should be more enforced, proofread your 'you're' and 'your'.
        • bunit03057, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Ah thank you, you are very kind for the correction. I should have seen that. What I meant is that teaching kids obedience is important but to suggest that teaching a kid to question authority in such trivial matters such as what browser to use on a computer that is not his, will probably not change how he relates to authority later in life such as with a police officer.
      • smizacks02, on 12/17/2007, -0/+0haha i so agree. this really gets me that the teacher is completely ignorant and uninformed. It would work the same if the teacher had said "stop using an internet browser and use an internet browser." ridiculous
      • j4200, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Thats taking it a little far. No one said blindly obey the teacher. He can see that the teacher is the one in charge of the time at hand. If no one listened to anyone who was in charge, nothing would ever get done. This is why kids are encouraged to obey authority figures. It is vital to the survival of the species.
    • zomfg, on 12/16/2007, -9/+6alt + tab???

      if your going to break the 'rules' (as ridiculous as they are) at least cover your tracks.
      • fusama, on 12/16/2007, -1/+6considering the name of the executable was mentioned (though mistyped), its likely the school was using sofware that monitors what programs are being run and alt-tab would do no good.
      • solistus, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7***** that. Confront the messed up rules. This kid was doing nothing wrong and shouldn't have had to hide a damn thing.
    • fullphaser, on 12/16/2007, -6/+20Why should I listen to stupid people, most teachers I have met are not all that bright, and being in college now, I worry about those teaching this nations youth. They have good intentions, but they are dumb as bricks. No wonder kids prove to be so civilly disobedient
      • techmaster, on 12/16/2007, -2/+9They simply need to raise teacher pay. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, and if I had the proper degree to be a teacher, would I? Hell no, because they make half of what I make right now, and I have no degree. Teacher pay should be at least $60,000 and probably closer to $80,000. If that were the case, then there would be a higher demand for teaching positions, and people would have to compete for those positions. And who would get the jobs? People that are qualified for the jobs, intelligent, and good with kids. Instead, you get teachers that "want" to be there, because they're certainly not doing it for the money. Why do they "want" to be there? Either because nobody else will hire them, or they think children are sexy. Would the schools hire any masters or doctors? No, because they refuse to pay the kind of salary those people want. And there lies the problem. I have no idea how I made it out of school with any intelligence. Perhaps because I didn't listen.
        • ldburton, on 12/16/2007, -5/+3"I consider myself a fairly intelligent person..."

          You should probably reconsider that assertion.

          "Either because nobody else will hire them, or they think children are sexy."

          That's just plain ignorant.

          "Would the schools hire any masters or doctors? No, because they refuse to pay the kind of salary those people want. "

          You do realize people with masters and doctorates do teach, right? They are called professors. They teach at the college level. You know, that's the level of education after high-school. You knew that, right?
          • BlackCow, on 12/16/2007, -1/+7He is talking about public high schools not collages and he is totally correct, competition is key, without compitition you get worst people for the job because they can't get better paying jobs. Now I will agree there are some exceptions of very qualified people who teach because they want to make a difference but for the most part teachers just suck.
      • solistus, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6The ones who practice civil disobedience are the bright ones. It's the ones that prove to be so uncritically obedient that scare me.
    • xenixninja, on 12/16/2007, -5/+12Why should you respect someone who has no common sense or knowledge?

      mlfoley is totally right. Respect is something your earn.
    • wacki, on 12/16/2007, -5/+9-tiffdawnn
      "Granted the kid should have listened to the teacher and has no respect for his elders,"

      He probably should have obeyed when she told him multiple times but respect is earned and not given. This teacher is a moron and the kid knew it. If you want to teach your kids blind obedience then fine, but I'll teach my kids how to think for themselves. I would find it very difficult to respect a teacher so obtuse. Being so closed minded is the antithesis to what our educational system should be.
      • jon30041, on 12/16/2007, -6/+2Being stupid about computers does NOT, though this is a site geared for tech-heads and my statement will now fly in the face of all of the code-writers here, make you stupid. Some people have other things to do than to be up on the latest and greatest in free applications, browsers, etc. This teacher, if she is an english teacher, needs to be READING NEW LITERATURE, not dicking around with code, programming all night. If you want EVERYONE to understand your field of study, then that's saying you want your job to be obsolete. If everyone knows html code, everyone can use Perl, Python, and can wrangle that Java-beast, then you have no real value anymore.

        Recognize that you are only a niche group, and though your job is essential, it's best that the ones who do it are the best, or the hobbyists. She's a teacher, not a code-writer, and if she has a phD then you damn well BETTER respect her for her degree, if nothing else. Knowing a better browser doesn't make you a better human being, and thus open to be as insubordinate as you want.
    • DarkRabbit, on 12/16/2007, -1/+10MUST. NOT. DISOBEY.
      MUST. NOT. DEVIATE. FROM. PROGRAMMING
      • GordonV, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Error 403 - You are not authorized to do that.
    • stoanhart, on 12/16/2007, -3/+4Wow. A lot of you are completely missing the point. This is NOT disobedience.