14 April 2010 Halt! Who goes there?

14 April 2010 Halt! Who goes there?


I’ve become used to using the time between scoring a parking spot and the start time of my first class for tracking down Holocaust information sites. I’ve been using the ETSU network as a portal for internet access while on campus.

Today, I was presented with inability to log into the network. I was prompted to change my password, as the one I was using had timed out in the campus network. I generally have no problem with such things. I entered a new password, confirmed it, and was promptly refused access. Backing out and attempting another password exchange did absolutely no good. I’m now required to contact a network administrator to resolve the problem generated by the network’s failure to recognize my laptop. That means a trip up to the student center to wait in line at a help window so that someone 1/3rd my age can visit the inner workings of my computer and re-introduce it to the network.

One of the students in the Holocaust class asked me if I liked the class. She got more response than she anticipated. She happens to be one of the women who have routinely spent the periods when portions of Shoah were being shown in play on Face Book. I pulled no punches. I told her I thought that such behavior showed a degree of disconnection from the Holocaust that made me very uncomfortable. I told her that I had expected and hoped for more interaction from the students, more involvement with the course material. And I expressed concern for increasing anti-Semitism in the U.S. I wonder how long it will take for that to make the rounds of her half of the room.

Yes, the classroom is sort of divided now. I sit in the back seat of the middle row. To my right sit the fraternity and sorority students and most of the thinner students in the room. To my left, apparently the off campus students, with two exceptions, mostly obese, markedly heavier than me. Forward of me, in my row, an older male – retired, I believe – and an adult student from China.

I did hike up to the student center to have my laptop brought back into the fold. I was told that I should have changed the password in the D2L area of the network. Of course, it was impossible to reach that area until the new password was recognized. The young man at the help window reset the password from somewhere within the network. This may be an every three months annoyance.

Particularly frustrating, the report that I saw this morning indicating frequent password changes to be non-productive and cost-ineffective. While I want a tightly secured network, I want password control routines to be workable before they are implemented.