Technology

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, maybe progress?

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

TikTok is poison for the mind.

How about the "graduate from highschool challenge"?

I don't get it. I was never this stupid as a kid.

Edit: thank you for explaining to me that many of you were that stupid. I guess I never hung around any of you.

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.

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.

Youthful rebellion transcends technology.

Is there much difference between this and, say, using a pen to drill a hole in your desk?

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

Aren't the families responsible for the damages?

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!

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.

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.

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.

Good. Less spyware machines in the world.

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.