[drivers99]

I was worried for them, glad it worked out. I wouldn't be so sure about this statement: "now that I’m a grownup I know that [...] we wouldn’t have gotten in very much trouble anyway."

Unfortunately this was the type of thing that would get students banned from the computers, or only allowed to actually use the computers on Friday to do their computer science work (like my friend Dave).

Speaking of NET SEND specifically, I went to a vendor for training once (circa 2000) and they mentioned someone who had recently come for training and was sent home because they had used NET SEND * there. I wonder what their employer thought of that.

Either me or a friend has at some point (in the 80s or 90s as minor students) been: kicked out of computer lab, had notes posted in the library that we are not to "hone our programming skills", kicked out of the Supercomputer Challenge[1], been told (second-hand) we're "a security risk" by the government, been put specifically under remote monitoring by the teacher, lectured, sent to the principle, had the police sent to their house, been told we "probably have an FBI record" and "are putting their parents' jobs at risk" over similar levels of playing around with computers that they let us use, not even trying to do anything particularly "hacker (cracker)"-like.

[1] https://supercomputingchallenge.org/22-23/index.php (Not this specific year obviously. More like 30 years ago.)

[uconnectlol]

This is such a typical story of American computing. They treated computer skills as literal witchcraft. It just makes boomers come off as more inept and bald (which is their culture, and seen as a positive amongst their peers) when they say to a 13 year old, "oh you bad student, you clicked an ad knowing it is malware, which installed a virus and penetrated our network, you goblin spawn!". The corollary where the NSA hires the "evil hacker genius" is the cringiest part.