Seeing as our high school network hijinks pretty much led to semi-permanent suspension, our barren hearts were actually warmed by the story of 11-year-old Jon Penn, who has been in charge of his elementary school's 60-machine network since last year. The previous network administrator at the Arkansas school simply up and left, leaving the IT systems in shambles -- and in the hands of Jon's mom, the school librarian. Jon's since scrubbed the aging Windows 98 machines of their accumulated viruses and spyware, and he's installed a firewall and virus / spam filter to keep things clean while he works out a plan to move to Windows 2000 and centralized system management. Right now though, Jon's got his hands busy doing everything from fixing everything from paper jams to revising server configurations, and it sounds like he's having a ball -- he says he's been testing out virtualization products lately, and he's studying up for A+ technician certification this summer. Looks like school's a lot more fun when you're running the show, no?
[Via
Switched]
posted March 31st 2008 6:19PM
He poses to make him self look better than everyone else O.o, I bet he is like those kids who think he can look at any game/computer and think he can fix it or beat it to a high level. I wonder what the other kids think of him??
Well I am only 4 years older than him and I knew a lot about computers my self, but I wouldn't fix my schools computers, they are crappy. . .
Wow. I am jealous.
I want to be an IT for my school district but because of the stupid budget cuts, the school district doesn't have any open positions.
I'm jealous ...
This was me at 11 too. i went to an elementary school in little old rural Vermont, and when a computer stopped communicating with the printers, they couldn't send emails, or someone managed to jam the printer full of paper, they would page me over the intercom instead of calling the IT guy. My high school isn't quite as enthusiastic; they don't appreciate that I know the proper settings to access the Internet on my laptop and connect to any printer in the school (not that I would ever take advantage of that ability!).
Heh I'd always get called to the library, computer lab or classroom when a PC/Printer/etc busted and I was 8... this was also 14 years ago. That's right, I was the IT kid for my elementary school before you were born =p. Honestly though, good for him.
I think he should set about thirty of them up in a linux cluster with openoffice etc.
-Another high-school nerd (A.K.A. unofficial IT guy)
This isn't really that impressive, I know friends who have been building their own systems since they were younger than this guy, and a 14 year old who runs the IT department at his dads office.
I was a lot like this kid when I was his age. It was fun to get all the attention for knowing how to do above average tasks on the computer. That's exactly what's happening with this kid. Also, apparantly, /b/ posted all of his information earlier today, including school address and phone numbers. Quite a pathetic target to go if you ask me.
Little lads gonna get mad paid when the job offers start flowing...hell, he got hes resume credentials already started at the bustling age of 11! Now thats awesomatic badassery :)
Good lord he is being deprived of a childhood.
NERD!!!!!
This kid is my hero, I wanna be like him when I grow up!
So I'm confused to as where this kid is. Engadget and Slashdot say he's in Arkansas, while Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/373842/11+year+old-network-administrator-sorts-out-alabama-school) and NetworkWorld (http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi?pagetosend=/export/home/httpd/htdocs/news/2008/032708-netkid.html&pagename=/news/2008/032708-netkid.html&pageurl=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032708-netkid.html&site=datacenter) say he is in Alabama?
Which one is it?
"a small private school in Sherwood, Ark."
pssh I was 12 when I built my first computer with my own money. viva IBM Cryix lol that cpu only lasted 3 months before literately burning up. (smoke lol)
If I was this kid... and saw myself on engadget\digg, I would feel like I was famous...heh.
Reminds me of my days in high school, I along with two other friends were put in charge of re-designing our school's network. There were hundreds of computers, all under one vLAN! We did get some drawings on the whiteboard, but then our teacher left the school to go be Vice Principal over at a nearby, more troubled school. A good move for him, but that left the network project in shambles, so it just kinda got tossed...The network is still horribly designed, and when lunchtime comes around the internet slows to a crawl.
Man, people gotta stop thinking this is really cool and awesome. I had my CompTIA A+ Cert when I was 10.
This `genius' is the kid you guys yell at on IRC for using AOLBonics Engadget.
I am ashamed.
Well judging by the picture, the kid and the computer have a lot in common. They are both about 11yrs old, christ what is that a Slot1 PII?
Makes the move from Win98 to Win2k make a bit more sense if they are doing it on those machines.
Meh that could be a P3...if its at least 500Mhz it should run 2K just fine. Just make sure there is 512MB and a 20GB hard drive in that thing.
Wait....next year he'll be outsourced.
I remember when I was in first grade, I was the computer tech at our school. Of course, we were running Apple ][e's, and solving most issues was a simple matter of turning them off and putting the disc back in... but what my teachers didn't know didn't hurt me any. ;)
But in all seriousness, I was the computer geek at school when I was six, I was programming when I was seven, and building systems when I was 8... but that was before LAN's were pretty much standard office equipment everywhere and the most complex systems around were Apple //c's with an external disc drive. I didn't have any real experience with networks til I was about 21. But hey, now I'm a database designer, lol.
Yep, I am sure there are plenty of kids like him that are in other schools that just didn't get the Engadget fame like this. So if any of those other kids who are like... I do this and I'm 10.5 ... I give all of you kudos as well.
and Remember
LH C:\Windows\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:123
Otherwize, you will only have 611kB of conventional memory which will not be enough to play TIE fighter installed off 6 floppies. Cause it needs 612kB.
That was me lawl. Worked 1 1/2 hours a day...got paid for it too. I was the lone geek.
Go brotha!
i only liked to remove the "balls" of the mouse when i was 11...
no double meaning intended...
Future CS person.
I was doing that shit at 12, and an 8-year-old could do it too.
Not news.
Is it just a coincidence that my RSS reader says this article was posted on Apr 1 2008, 1:39 ?
Windows 2000 ??!! This boy SHOULD BE FIRED !
INSTALL L I N U X
This was on Digg about two days ago. :/
Not that I am an expert on Windows, but I thought Windows 2000 (apart from a lack of suitable drivers when first released) was one of the most reliable versions of Windows, Microsoft had produced. Is this true
His resume at 18 is going to look better than a lot of IT people I know.
Good for him. I hope someone steps up for him and his school. I heard that Billy G. reads Engadget, so there IS hope
Funny how everyone starts analyzing and suggesting what OS this boy should install...you see all the engadget geeks posting...like me! the story is about the boy and how computer savvy he is. Im not going to worry about what OS he installs.
As a correction, I'm pretty sure that the article that I read 2 days ago said that he was from Alabama.
This must be the April fools joke! Arkansas hahahaha!
(p.s. yes the story is real)
Jon - congrats on a job well done, but get out while you still can!
Before you know it you'll be IT support for every single person you know, and they will want it for free.
I'm 11, and I use Ubuntu Linux and have built my own computer. And I don't get bullied, because I keep it secret. :) too bad I've never had an opportunity like this.
I didn't get an article when I was the 10 year old IT department at my school back in 1991.
Hello, W2K SP4 IS XP (but better).
He got it free from MS as part of "donated pc upgrade" program for schools.
I would much rather manage a ton of W2K machines (For FREE!) than 98 or XP .
Notice where these wunderkids come from? F1 drivers = Go Kart at age 3, IT admins = Laptop at age 3 (I feel so left out, I got an 80186 with a pair of 5.25" floppies when I was 6 :P)
Now if everyone could be bothered to spend time with their kids this wouldn't be so amazing a story. Still a nice story, but the norm rather than an oddity.
I love how everyone is using this story to benchmark their own performance.
This kiddo is the Macaulay Culkin of the IT industry. So watch out, even he might de-throne Bill Gates...
no wonder the old techie up and left, what POS are those computers, are they even networked? anyone else seeing CRT monitors slot CPU. This is pre 2000 computers, are you kidding me? he has got to be a dumbass 11 year old, first you would scrap the old and go rent new computers, i'm sure the government can help subsidised these and the rental company can offer discounts, secondly he should be imaging a machine and network ghosting all 58 computers and use any one of the POS to server the image. Anyone seeing this as free publicity for charity? if you cant fix a paper jam i shouldn't be qualified to teach to school students.
Even if your that cheap heaven forbid you can't go and use Linux and open office. Bet you he probly installed the same copy on win2k on all those machines.
first of all, the other it guy was not bad! he is my friend.he had to teach, do reces, library, a.r. reading,and be the tech departmint onthe side.the crazy network was not his fault.he just swiched jobs.also there were resons we did not use linux.too many to say here.they needed fast basic protection and someone to manage itand email and do repairs and all the server stuff.thry were in a bad time, so i helped.maybe its why god put me there, but lots of kids can do it.
What no one here uses Ubuntu or SuSE? Just curious in HS I used slackware back in '97 it was how I learned how to program systems. I never understood why MS products were so "good" after I played with things like slackware, BSD, and debian. Then I went back to MS and Novell for a while only for business purposes. Now, that linux has become easier and more mainstream people ask me for more stuff. Always fun to think about getting in and out of things but what I really liked as I am sure you all did was the fact that you could and did make cool things happen.
Heh, I always said a 12-year-old could pass A+ certs -- looks like I was high-balling that estimate a bit.
I share a bit of a similar story to this kid. Ever since I was little i've been fascinated by technology, and by the time I was 15 I decided I wanted to take that into my own hands and build my own computer. So I started researching all about computers: hardware,software, compatibilities, making hardware and software work with each other, the whole bit. So in July of last year, I began ordering parts. I got the processor, the after market heat sink, the ddr2 ram, the power supply, the motherboard, the case, practically everything that I didn't already have. By September I had gotten everything and put it all together. I was amazed after all was done the first time it lit up and worked. I even overclocked it by 45%. Building computers is what I love to do and plan to pursue as my career once I get to college.
So kudos to this kid, I may have been 15/16 and took the initiative to learn how to and built a computer, but he's 11 and running a server and getting A+ certification. Hopefully I can say the same for myself soon. Geek Squad ftw =]