My first was in college on the lab computers, I was like "can I create a pthreads bomb instead to circumvent the fork bomb protections?"

Luckily the head sysadmin knew me and was in the room at the time, and I sheepishly explained by the time I realized it worked it was too late for me to stop it, he seemed understanding, understood it wasn't malicious, and luckily got that what else is a CS department for than for students to learn about this stuff?