Post Ak2CdcFAKxRsQ9Z92e by fuzzface@epsilon-ix.masto.host
(DIR) More posts by fuzzface@epsilon-ix.masto.host
(DIR) Post #Ak27vDd65fenWWKluK by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:55:56Z
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fun fact: I had about 100k$ of student loans, which I still haven't paid off 17 years after I graduated, and it's all because of VMS.
(DIR) Post #Ak284ZvEZon5GjHRhY by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:56:39Z
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my family was poor and I tested well: I got enough grants and scholarships that I was going to have a complete free ride to my university. I would pay nothing, in fact, they would pay ME
(DIR) Post #Ak284d1j28lWtjLAjg by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:56:50Z
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but I ended up with 100k$ of student loans.
(DIR) Post #Ak28LFEmjdDi2VN95k by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:57:46Z
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why? poor VMS incompatibility. The main student email system was run on a solaris system, and most things were connected to it. So your teacher could just put in your name and it'd link up to your official student account.
(DIR) Post #Ak28oJ6bQtOMQxP3WC by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:58:27Z
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however, this system was not connected to one specific system:financial aid.for historical reasons, their system was a VMS system, which used a completely different email database.
(DIR) Post #Ak28oLzyfysJPHKJ6m by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:59:18Z
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so instead of just being able to send it to foone.turing@school.edu, they used their own list of emails.That list of emails came from the financial applications you made before becoming a full time student, which were done on paper.
(DIR) Post #Ak28oNGJyhXhKFysDo by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T20:59:52Z
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since they were done on paper and the VMS system wasn't connected to the main email database, they "solved" the email problem by having students sit at a VMS terminal and type in all the email addresses
(DIR) Post #Ak28oONnoN7YnkUMWO by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:00:47Z
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and the student who typed mine in made a typo. I was on the now-defunct ISP Mediacom High Speed Internet, MCHSI.so I was "foone@mchsi.egg"but the student saw that and typed "foone@mchs1.egg"
(DIR) Post #Ak28oPlafPk95ocsEq by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:01:21Z
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so on my second year at the university, they randomly selected me for an audit. I just needed to send in some extra documentation, mainly my parents' tax returns to prove they weren't Secretly Rich
(DIR) Post #Ak28oQz68g8srzxAvo by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:01:56Z
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the email saying that went to an email that didn't exist. and I didn't find out about this state until I tried to go sign up for classes the next semester, and there was a hold on my account, because I was being audited
(DIR) Post #Ak28oSFnQ55qo4m1b6 by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:02:21Z
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I go get the documents, send them in, and the audit is fine. I'm eligible to sign up for classes again!
(DIR) Post #Ak28oTCdtIAHkaJ1Jw by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:02:59Z
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but the way they distribute grant money is that they start at the beginning of the year and apply it to as many students as they have money for, starting with the students in the worst financial situations (like me). then they eventually run out of money
(DIR) Post #Ak28oULXdgsTITTdpY by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:03:40Z
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and they did this while my account was under an audit lock. So none of that money went to me. And by the time I fixed the audit problem... it was all gone for the year.
(DIR) Post #Ak28oVV9LS9osYypRg by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:03:59Z
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so I ended up having to take loans for that year. and I'm still paying them off, 17 years later
(DIR) Post #Ak2A2T0rUgWtAZ299E by BoydStephenSmithJr@hachyderm.io
2024-07-17T21:02:17Z
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@foone That's how I got my degree. I'm glad I didn't get any student loans, but I also support forgiveness and reform for how we fund education.
(DIR) Post #Ak2BDpSQUAv7v4uNX6 by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:04:29Z
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all because my university was running their financial aid system on an outdated OS that couldn't talk to their main email system, and a student doing data entry made a typo
(DIR) Post #Ak2BDskyDgXK9SbjM0 by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:05:21Z
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in retrospect I probably could have just taken the year off. Like, pause my education, pass up on my dorm room, go back to my PC repair job, and then come back once they could pay for it again
(DIR) Post #Ak2BDuLsHxeP6CsiW0 by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:05:55Z
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instead I just decided to take the loans, and pay student loans for ~15 years. Which I'm still doing.
(DIR) Post #Ak2CEbk349Zhcn5PLU by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
2024-07-17T21:12:35Z
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@foone You took out $100K of loans for a single year of school??And I thought my school with a sticker price of $50-60K/yr before financial aid was bad.
(DIR) Post #Ak2CKTmnYe3agjAkAS by tim@union.place
2024-07-17T21:17:07Z
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@foone Yikes! That sucks. 😞
(DIR) Post #Ak2CQp0BafHOE3SU64 by toni@zug.network
2024-07-17T21:18:44Z
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@foone What a story. And what a bad process where nobody saw the mail delivery error and contacted you some other way.
(DIR) Post #Ak2CQzLT8OFIIxUceu by toni@zug.network
2024-07-17T21:21:10Z
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@foone I only had 10,000€ student debt and I took ten years to pay it off. There was no interest, so I didn’t have an incentive to pay it off any faster than I had to.
(DIR) Post #Ak2CZ9vRgHgDR4DUzA by gsuberland@chaos.social
2024-07-17T21:21:54Z
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@foone oof
(DIR) Post #Ak2CdcFAKxRsQ9Z92e by fuzzface@epsilon-ix.masto.host
2024-07-17T21:22:04Z
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@foone VMS had the capability to connect to IP based networks in the 1980’s. I’m sorry this happened to you.
(DIR) Post #Ak2CsHCmq6epW0Ra2C by dolmen@mamot.fr
2024-07-17T21:44:42Z
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@foone Now I will stop complaining about the accute missing on my name (Mengué) in computer sustems: AFAIK that typo never costed me 1€.
(DIR) Post #Ak2DMxadonsFemEUHQ by hustvedt@hachyderm.io
2024-07-17T21:56:41Z
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@foone growing up in a DEC family, I heard many stories about VMS. This is a new one.
(DIR) Post #Ak2Do2hmuMDtL9UP1U by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-17T21:59:59Z
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@dolmen I once got a doctor's bill for 3,000$ because they typo'd my name, and there was no insurance for the typo'd name. (they swapped an O for an A)
(DIR) Post #Ak2NFT93c2U4kROgfw by Tristan@catnest.net
2024-07-17T23:48:13Z
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@foone i still have Mediacom Highspeed Internet, and an @MCHSI email lol. Its not dead unfortunately.
(DIR) Post #Ak2v2XquCGIg1YuppQ by foone@digipres.club
2024-07-18T06:07:12Z
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@lispi314 no, and especially not now, so many years later.