I teach high school kids: a mix of business, tech, design and engineering CTE classes. I have lots of cool toys for the kids to play with, and 30 computers where they sit and make cool stuff. I fought hard with the district to get nice computers, and am proud of them (no other rural high school our size has access to this quality in the state). Yesterday, I discovered one of the cases to my computers open. Only one part was missing. Can you guess which one? The mother fricken graphics card. We have Asus Rog GTX 1070s, so they're not the latest, but they are nothing to scoff at. It's going to cost me a grand to replace it. Had to be premeditated, and the awkwardness of the case and how it is stored under the desk makes me think I wasn't in the room at the time. That, or the kid was a fricken ninja. It's frustrating when a kid steals, and I know there are lots of reasons why (it is a very poor area), but it feels like a personal attack, and I know I shouldn't take it that way. It suck even more that the gpu market is terrible these days that I can't just get a replacement cheap and easy.
-
-
Maybe invest in some safety screws for the mounting plate to prevent furtger thefts without proper tooling. -
Ouch...dang Ammon. It is definitely frustrating, when you work "Hard" to accomplish something... and it is just snatched away, by inconsiderate A-Holes. 😩Comment
-
That sucks, man. The terrible GPU market is probably why it grew legs. Video cards are in high demand.
Any chance your computer cases have the little loops on the back to padlock the cases closed?Comment
-
It won’t help with the theft but look into this for your school
Comment
-
That sucks. There are ways to lock cases. If you have too much spare time reverse thread some of the screws, 😏
Also locking the door when you are not there helps.
If it happens again, it's not the kids, probably a janitor or another teacher who has a key.Comment
-
I am one of the few teachers that never leaves the kids unattended, locks my computer when I walk away from it, and always locks my door (in fact, it is never in an unlocked position, always need a key to open, but there are "lock blocks" to keep it accessible, which I always slide when I'm not there). The more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards this happening when I had a sub last week.
I am the tech expert of the staff, and I'm not sure if any with keys to my room know what a graphics card is. We have had sticky finger janitors in the past, but they stole things that were out in the open. The person was afraid of my computers when in my room, and never swept. The floor was disgusting, but everything was there. I don't want to point fingers, and the current janitor is awesome. I hope it wasn't one of her kids.
-
-
I'm surprised they didn't require you to have some kind of lock on the computer. My high school was in a pretty decent neighborhood and even then all our video lab's Mac G5 towers had security locks installed.Comment
-
Take a wait and see. If it was one of the students, word will get around about it eventually.
Right this moment 1070 and up cards with higher levels of RAM are little gold mines.
Comment
-
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Private Pyle, why is your footlocker unlocked?
Private Gomer Pyle: Sir, I don't know, sir!
Hartman: Private Pyle, if there is one thing in this world that I hate, it is an unlocked footlocker! You know that, don't you?
Pyle: Sir, yes, sir!
Hartman: If it wasn't for dickheads like you, there wouldn't be any thievery in this world, would there?
Pyle: Sir, no, sir!
Hartman: Get down!
Well now... let's just see if there's anything missing!!
Jokes aside, nothing angers me quite like thievery. "Oh what's that? You worked hard to make/build something? Well I'm going to take--not just your physical property--but the time, the little slice of your life that you spent creating it. Because I'm a selfish prick" Especially given how targeted it was, this isn't some random little accident, mfer knew exactly what he was doing
Jesus, teach me to forgive lol
Dulce et decorum est pro comoedia moriComment
-
After a few talks with the principal, it seems like we may have some money in the budget to replace it next month. When I talked to all of my classes about it yesterday, it was reassuring to hear their anger and frustration about it. If the person who stole it told anyone, I'm pretty sure word will get around quick. I don't wish ill will on the kid. I had to talk to police about it, but I'd rather tell them it just anonymously appeared if it comes back. I'd rather have a conversation with the kid, or have the councilors talk to them.Comment
-
To me, the real bummer part is going to be trying to find a good replacement. A 1660ti and super are just a tiny bit slower, and the 2060 is that much faster. Not that I would imagine an ability to find ANY of those at a reasonable price. The aspect that would scare me about a used 1070 is the unknown use along with it's age.
It would be nice if it just magically showed up again before you have to move on it.Comment
-
That is a loss. The 1070 was a really great spot in the old 10xx series lineup. Finding a replacement is a tough deal.Comment
-
We're in the process of contacting our supplier to see what can be done. It's a public school tech dept, so they spring for the best warranty. It won't cover theft, but they might have spare stock.
The other problem is that I would really want the exact same model. One computer different will make updates and imaging an even longer process.Comment
-
How did this all turn out?
Comment
-
No one came forward, unfortunately. Thankfully, there is some money left in the principal's general use fund to purchase a new one (one good thing about Covid is that we got a little bit more money for technology). I did spend $120 on security screws, and have been installing them on all the PCs so that it doesn't happen again.
-
Comment