That's Odd?

I don't like surprises, especially when the unexpected event occurs on my computer.  As I logged onto my office computer yesterday morning at my usual time of 7:10 (to get the relief set), my normal Windows desktop (a lovely picture of Mitre Peak) had been replaced by a full screen graphic of Wal-E.

Nobody should be able to change my desktop appearance, unless I had left myself logged-on.  But my computer was in a locked office.  Oh well, I'd figure it out later, then focused on getting the relief cover finalised.  Everything seemed to be OK though, the KAMAR program was working normally.

Now in the morning, my routine is based around communication.  Staff can let me know about sickness etc. via my mobile phone, my school phone (which has voicemail) or by email to me a the school. 
I checked my mobile, nothing.
I checked my voicemail on my school phone, nothing
I checked my email, nothing.  Actually it really was completely nothing, because my school email wasn't working.
"Huh" I thought, the email server's down again (it happens about once a month)

As I began to print out the relief sheets, some other staff were arriving, and I heard one of them complaining about her computer looking funny.

I went out to check, and lo and behold, Wal-E was appearing on every computer in the workroom.  More than odd.  Only our Computer Guy (Carrot Head) could do that, and I didn't think that CH was that much a fan of Wal-E. 

The only other alternative was a virus

I wet back to my own computer and checked.  No network icons were appearing on my explorer, which implied a network failure, but KAMAR was stored and ran from our networked server.
That's Odd.

We had a computer virus.  We were stuffed.

No printers, no photocopiers, no prepared work, no email to let people know what was happening.
Then the KAMAR program went down.
No rolls, no attendances, no timetables.

Pre-computer civilization

It began to dawn on the staff how dependant we had become on our technology, as we reverted to hand-written roles and lesson plans, and dug old class-sets of resources out of long-term storage.  Because we couldn't photocopy, we had to re-use old stuff.

Then of course the icing on the bloody cake, we were told that the year 10s were coming in, that the rostering-off industrial action had been cancelled by our useless union..

We got the first period sorted out the school lurched into its usual semi-chaotic state.  Then CH told me that the system would be down for at least that day, and maybe longer.

Holiday at the beach

It turned out to be a very strange day, with almost a holiday atmosphere.  Very few seniors about, about 16 year 10s, and our year 9s.  The kids knew very quickly about the computer system being down, and most of them being nice Kiwi kids, they accepted the problem, and didn't (mostly) cut up because they weren't doing their normal work (which was buried somewhere in our very sick computer system)

I'm going in now to set today's relief.  I've got all my lists on paper (I'm a computer scientist, I REALLY KNOW how computers can stuff-up, so everything I need for my relief job is also on hard copy) so I'm all set.  I hope we're back up to a minimum service today, but I'm not sure.

If I was a religious man, I'd pray.  But I'm not, so I'll trust in human ingenuity and also bring in a bloody big hammer.  Most technical problems can be solved by bigger and heavier hammers.

I used to like that silly Wal-E film.  Not any more.