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My posting summary

1 to 7 of 7

My comments

• Huh? How do you stop a crying baby other than shaking it?
  
  Thank goodness I still have my "Smoking Baby" incense burner. In reply to: "Apple removes 'Baby Shaker' from App Store"

  April 22, 2009

  0 replies

• Dude, I work my a$$ off and provide extremely focused, highly technical skills that I've spent countless years learning (and paying out that same a$$ for.) Overall, I've spent what I figure is 15 years of my net income on my education and certifications. How is that not responsible?
  
  The answer is above: pay for the RESULTS, not the TIME. Yes, I agree that IT should lock things down to keep the dimwits from downloading trojans, malware, etc. so they can focus on what they need to do: maintain and upgrade servers, etc. But note that IT professional didn't bother mentioning proxies or looking in logs, etc.
  
  Yesterday I made $2000 gross while the IT people tried to fix locking me out of Internet access required to do my job. Who's irresponsible Mr. Hardy? Generalizations are easy; reality is a whole different thang (sic). In reply to: "How to hide your tracks at work"

  April 21, 2009

  0 replies

• Orion, FWIW, while I was lucky enough not to get into trouble, I wasted about four hours of "company time" (paid) trying to get a screw-up by these weirdo IT fascists who locked me out of doing similar work to what you were doing - research required and desperately needed (ASAP) for the report I'm writing. Now I'm working from home because the same IT weirdos can't fix their prison-like lock-down.
  
  And to Mr. Glaven123 - uh, are you an engineer? All those sites are not just job-related, they're *necessary* for certain jobs, and *only* available on the Internet.
  
  Why do I think almost all these replies are from retired grumpy old men who think anyone younger than themselves has never worked hard or lived through tough times, or IT ego-maniacs who think because they can try to find something in a log file somewhere, they're doing their job - rather than setting up my new PC in less than two weeks?
  
  I really can't believe how pathetic and uneducated most of these replies are. Including my own. In reply to: "How to hide your tracks at work"

  April 21, 2009

  0 replies

• Yes, I think we should take things one step further and demand employees show up at least 30 minutes before their "start time" so they can be chained to their desks (by the ankle, since they need to type) and if they do not seem to be WORKING as Mr. Mchcaribbeancats suggests, that we break out the Cat-O-Nine-Tails and whip them for not being HAPPY TO WORK, since not putting 120% of your 10+ hour/workday is obviously DISREGARD for your JOB and should be punishable by torture. In fact, it made me think of a great idea: instead of terminating poorly performing employees, we should TERMINATE them, as in KILL THEM DEAD since they are not providing what our All-Knowing, All-Seeing and of course, Best-Meaning employers are PAYING FOR.
  
  But what do I do when I walk in on my boss' boss who was, as someone joked, actually browsing Ebay for golf clubs. Oh, that's right, the Big Boss Knows-All and What's-Best and so I should have flogged myself out of nausea for questioning my employer. Sir, as soon as I send this I will go don a Hair Shirt for the rest of my work day.
  
  BTW, I assume you're reading this and writing YOUR REPLY on your own computer on your own time, right? In reply to: "How to hide your tracks at work"

  April 21, 2009

  0 replies

• I can't say how frightened I am that no one seems to mind this "Big Brother" kind of monitoring - the fact is that 10-15 years ago this sort of monitoring was way too difficult/$$$ to do, yet Good Engineers (and other employees) got work done. The way monitoring was done was simply by having managers make sure we were getting our work done, on time and correctly. When, where, how... what kind of breaks you took - nobody cared as long as you produced. Now we've become a 110% work environment country which results in nothing but burnout. Study after study shows that taking a quick break 1-2 times every hour actually makes people far more productive.
  
  And the irony? I write this from home, because as of 1PM on Monday, the IT dept. "monitoring" systems messed up and locked me from any Internet access, which basically killed all the work I'm currently doing (researching facts to support issues/assertions in a report.) So now I'm working from home because all the oh-so-smart IT people who are busy trying to look over everyone's shoulders' and crack whips have locked me out at the office of any outside access when I'm on a tight deadline. So guess what? I'm at home, in my underwear, reading this thread.
  
  Look, I understand the need, on a legal level, to make a "legitimate attempt" to prevent employees from using company HW/SW from breaking laws and regulations. But other than that, it's all about whether or not you get your work done; again, on time, and correctly. When it goes too far and cuts off legit use so that work can't get done, well, I'm sure the IT folks love that since it justifies their jobs - except that my boss is really angry and is going to make sure whomever in IT screwed up and cut me off gets reprimanded - and with so many unemployed IT people where I live - possibly replaced.
  
  Oh, and I love the "locked down USB ports". So instead of working at home the last two days and being able to put all my work on a secure USB flash stick - if I couldn't use my USB ports, well, guess I'll email highly sensitive info via Gmail? Solving problems or creating them? Think about it, IT monkeys. In reply to: "How to hide your tracks at work"

  April 21, 2009

  0 replies

• PTSC employees? Stockholders hoping some day to get that 80% loss back? Up 20% - sure, when your stock price is like $0.35 and you've been delisted, a 20% gain is easy - someone paid $0.04/share more to buy some.
  
  Frankly, PTSC belongs on the list as an example of "startup" that really still is a startup but tries to pretend they're not, because they've been around for more than five years (although still losing money) and have some clients (although not enough to pay the bills.) I run into these all the time - survivors of the Dot-Bomb crash who think because they made it through that era and are still around, they're no longer a VERY high risk startup venture.
  
  When their stock is listed on an exchange, they're making enough net profit to pay everyone's salaries plus more, and have a solid product and growing client base, then they get some credit. I, for one, am sorry to see the author cave under pressure and remove the list, just because desperate investors in one of the companies have a different opinion. If they were doing so well with that stock, they wouldn't be complaining about the listing in the article - they'd think, as I often do, "Good - I can buy more stock at a cheaper price." Personally, I like when companies I think are good long-term investments get bad press - keeps their stock affordable.
  
  Methinks PTSC stock-holders doth protest too much. In reply to: "Who do you trust in the Internet age?"

  April 3, 2008

  0 replies

• Great idea for an article, but lacking any real insight, just some common sense, some old corn that even enginerds know, and filler. Too bad, a great topic, esp. with tech job salaries, at least where I live, sitting around the same as what they were 10 years ago. In reply to: "How to negotiate in a gray world"

  April 3, 2008

  0 replies