Not technically IT support
but in the 3rd year lab at Uni, I wrote a very simple C file (2 lines or thereabouts - using malloc I think) that would eat memory at an exponential rate and basically render the targets PC unusable. Re-naming it f1refox or something equally as ubiquitous meant that after running the Linux 'top' command to try and suss out what the problem is, the victim would see f1refox hogging all the resources and try to exit the firefox browser to sort the problem. *queue evil laugh*

SSH-ing into someone else's workstation and running this little binary would result in major hilarity. CompSci students? Yeah, we are geeks.

One guy was particularly dumb - how he ever made it to 3rd year i'll never know - and coupled with the severity and difficulty of the workload, was very easily stressed - especially during project hand-in time when he's finishing off the last of his Java code, writing a dissertation, and trying to finish off his coursework on the day of the hand-in. His terrible time management skills only added to his stress....

Picture this nimrod: sweating, screaming and shouting at his monitor, almost crying with frustration because his code is a mess, hair unkempt, bags under his eyes from spending days on end in front of a monitor, sleeves rolled up, notes all over the workstation.....

Cue god_is_probably_fish and his nifty little C binary. I swear to god, I think I almost sent him over the edge during project-time. He'd be down at the technical support guys, trying to get them to fix his machine, and pleading with other students to help him sort his code.

The best was when he'd move machines thinking that it was a hardware issue - until it happened again. We watched him move through a whole row of machines one afternoon becoming more and more suicidal each time.

Eventually, he caught on to the group of geeks huddled over one machine buckled with laughter every time it happened. He took it pretty well, bless him.

I used to SSH into my machine at home from Uni as well and stream hardcore pr0n to my terminal. That was fun for everyone until I realised that the security camera behind my back had a perfect view of "Squirt in my Gape" during my lunch-break.
(god_is_a_ghoti Carpe Deum., Fri 25 Sep 2009, 18:30, 1 reply)

No
fucking about with lab computers just makes you a twunt.
(WaveyDavey, Tue 29 Sep 2009, 13:17, closed)