• (cs) in reply to My Name
    My Name:
    Kraftwerk had a single called Autobahn in 1975. Very cool song by a legendary band. They were the de facto standard of electronical music at the time

    I would start the tape while waiting at the stoplight near home; if I drove at the speed limit the song would end as I reached the stop sign near where I worked.

  • TIQ (unregistered)

    Hey guys :)

    I'm the tech in question... thought i'd clear a few things up!

    The staff member whose files i deleted was actually standing right next to me, watching me as i did it.

    I asked him what files he needed to keep, and what could be deleted. I did what he asked :)

    As far as illegal or not is concerned... It states in our companies computer policy what is and is not allowed... and what was on this laptop was most definitely not allowed - ripped/downloaded DVDs, music, and pirated software.

    Any other questions about it, just add a comment, i'll reply to whatever you've got to ask :)

  • tld (unregistered) in reply to Johnny Canuck

    I'll second that. Sure, the machine needed a good cleaning, but you don't just toss files without knowing what you're doing.

  • TIQ (unregistered) in reply to tld

    I know/knew what i was doing.... And was doing so with his consent :)

    I wasn't new to the company either, been working for them for over a year when this happened - 14 months now.

  • Moving on... (unregistered)

    Sorry TIQ, no one cares anymore, this article is a week old...

  • (cs) in reply to Lesson learned: Lee
    Lesson learned: Lee:
    Steve:
    He should have asked before deleting the files. You can never assume anything ,no matter how reasonable it may be. A lesson learned.

    Actually, when your laptop is collected by your company to have its contents reviewed, you can't assume they won't format the entire drive and reinstall only the necessary software.

    I believe this is far more dependent on what sort of bureaucratic hellhole you work for, and what sort of bureaucratic IT uberlord you have.

    And any company which formats a drive without asking you first if you left anything on it, that's not a company any competent developer wants to work for.

    And smart companies partition their drives so that you don't have to wipe everything just to update it.

    ... and yes, there are a lot of unsmart companies out there.

  • (cs) in reply to JimM

    In case you didn't read it, the laptop was collected for review. This wasn't an accident, it was a deliberate review of laptop content. Presumably the whole point was to ensure that no unsuitable content was being kept on work laptops, and I'd call 40GB of potentially illegal copies unsuitable. Frankly, more than a few GB of personal data would be unsuitable - you can only listen to 8 hours of music on any given workday anyway.

    Yes, and you alway -- always -- want to listen to the exact same 8 hours of music day in and day out

    Steve explained it to the manager, who closed his eyes as if he was in intense thought, exhaling loudly through his nostrils. "Well, we mentioned the laptop in Lee's employment contract." This is the second: Lee's contract mentioned a laptop without specifying how it was to be used. Any contract stating the the company will provide a laptop should have clearly stated usage terms detailing whether / how much personal use is allowed. Over 90% of the hard drive taken up with personal files? IMNSHA, not acceptable usage...

    Rather blatantly presumptive of you. It's easily possible that the laptop was more of an employment perk than anything specifically related to heavy duty job usage. Not saying that IS the case here, but there are lots of cases where someone gets a laptop from the company just because everyone at a certain level gets a laptop from the company -- because enough people do need or use them for company work that it's worth it to just buy a bulk lot of them and image them all the same way.

    And it sounds as though the company was rather appreciative of Lee's abilities, so complaining about his own usage is questionable. If he wasn't having any problems with it (and the fact that the company clearly appreciated his work suggests that), then 1gb remaining is apparently adequate.

    Given that, the only legitimate complaint is possible liability if the RIAA, BSA, or MPAA gets wind of it. That's far from insubstantial but it's relatively low probability, so many companies will ignore something only distantly "their fault" until they get hit with some (possibily completely unrelated) legal nutcracker, after which time the attorneys will become a second set of beancounting jackasses running the company and interfering with the proper functioning and the happy employees.

  • tiuk (unregistered) in reply to IByte
    IByte:
    Jake Vinson:
    Steve's boss half-yelled a cheerful "Lee! This is Steve, new in IT!" No response. "Lee!" Still nothing. The boss sighed, turned to Steve, and said "Sometimes Lee likes to listen to music loud on his headphones."
    That's why we use Google Talk at our IT department. It doesn't matter you're in the same room if your addressee can't hear you. Plus, I'd rather paste a URL instead of reading it out loud.
    I'd much rather wear headphones at work so I can listen to whatever I want (I keep a separate playlist for "work safe" music), but company policy is no headphones so we can hear announcements, in case of emergency, etc.
  • Capt. Obvious (unregistered) in reply to caffeinatedbacon
    caffintedbacon:
    It has a fixed *maximum* size (which in practice, usually becomes pretty fixed, but the size can and will vary)
    It also has a fixed minimum size. To fix the files location, make max = min
  • GullAble (unregistered) in reply to JimM
    JimM:
    yah:
    Andrew:
    LBD:
    One cannot pirate firefox. It's free and therefore unpiratable.

    Just like one cannot pirate Linux

    N00b

    Did you know the word sarcasm isn't in the dictionary?
    They removed it at the same time as gullable.
    Dang it - I was about to post a screenshot of an OED search for "gullable" along with a comment like "gosh, look, you're right!" but it's in there as an early - mid 19th century alternative spelling... :(

    Bet if you take a look, gullAble isn't in the dictionary.

  • legere (unregistered) in reply to Submarine

    Actually, that's not how you pirate Linux. To be piracy, it would have to be without permission, and the GPL (at least) doesn't forbid you selling copies for money.

    On the other hand, if you send someone a copy of a GPL program and forget to include source code, you are in violation of the license agreement.

  • eric bloedow (unregistered)

    oh, that reminds me of a story where someone found lots of child porn on the main system...and was ordered to delete it and NOT report to the authorities! he couldn't actually refuse, so he typed the delete command, but made the boss press "enter" himself.

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