And PFAS - don't forget PFAS boomer! Recall might be getting tough but don't forget PFAS.
Posts by Cagey Bee
4 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Sep 2019
Take Windows 11... please. Leaks confirm low numbers for Microsoft's latest OS
Breaking bad... browser use: New Mexico accuses Google of illegally slurping kids' private data via G Suite
Friday 21st February 2020 14:56 GMT 
Not too far from South Park, Colorado, (really) my kids' elementary school uses Chromebooks for some tasks, Windows 7 desktops older than they are for other tasks and whatever unsecured BYOD they have for others. Code.org for "coding"; SlyReply for way too much, school news in a Word doc - you get the idea. Security is also as you would expect.
It's SNAFU or nothing though. The schools here barely have enough shekels to keep the heat on, much less hire an IT team with the required experience to support nearly 1000 child customers. Teachers have emailed with "get this great app for your kid". I read the TOS (yup, I'm that guy) and reply back there's no way we're agreeing to them. Crickets. I know they're thinking "why doesn't he just click ok?" because they likely never read the TOS. Most of the time I have to disable the piHole for 5 minutes just to even view whatever link they send. Why don't I boot a portable OS from a thumb drive for that? I'm lazy. :)
And all of this in the middle of Colorado. Nice place. High property taxes. High rent because 30% of the housing stock is owned by investors. Again, you get the idea. If a school here can't afford to roll their own and not trade delicious data for hardware and services, what's a rural district in West Virginia, Louisiana, South Dakota, etc. going to do? Google, et. al. are taking advantage of the situation, sure, but we launched this ship. If only there was money somewhere to put 'er in drydock and have a re-fitting.
Did some napkin maths looking for money. Using the Walton family of WalMart fame as an example, the internet says they're worth US$192B. They could build 100 (yes, 100) Burj Khalifa's and still have US$13B left over. They could give half to education, never earn another shekel and still be able to spend US$364K every single day for the next 50 years.
That's one family, albeit an outlier. If only there were other families or companies who could help.What a wonderful world it would be!
Cheers!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
