There is no standard metric on acquisition success rate,
Well, in the end, it all comes down to Revenues doesn't it?
Employee retention is merely a means of making sure the revenue flows in the long run. If the guy with access to the books says there was revenue flow from the acquired teams or products sufficient for him to judge it a success, that's good enough for me and doesn't require a great deal of second guessing by people with no knowledge.
Notice the didn't say that loss prevention was a criteria for success, such as buying and shutting down a competitor. He said revenue. Ka-Ching.
On the other hand, how does the Wharton School really know what does or does not "create value", and is that the real measurement?
Acquiring a business that runs a real risk of eating your lunch may not actually create any value at the visible level, but you may gain things (patents, customers) that my not appear or may not be visible to outsiders for years. Acquisition is a preventative measure in many cases. Business schools are not in the best position to judge what might have happened had not the merger taken place.
(Actually nobody really is in a good position to judge this, its the experiment not run to completion).
It seldom as simple as adding the net worth of two companies separately and then comparing that to the value after the merger.
It's only meaningful progress if the benefits accrue to the average American worker. Otherwise, it's just further lining the pockets of the wealthy.
When productivity gains stop being broadly shared, Luddism starts to make sense. This is why massive concentration of wealth is a bad thing: it pits workers against innovation.
Washer women are also out of work for the most part. Buggy whip makers still survive, but they've moved On line as well. Things change over time, especially in a relatively new technology. We can't run out and legislate change away.
Your argument, in one form or another, has been raised about every work saving device ever made since the dawn of civilization. It was wrong then, and it hasn't improved in the thousand years since.
Doing the same amount of work cheaper is, by definition, a benefit that accrues to the average worker. Indeed to society as a whole. We plant with plows, not dibble sticks. We harvest grain with machines, not fifty guys with scythes taking three weeks to cut 100 acres. Less guys. Less time. Cheaper bread.
Why should a small business have to maintain an IT department (even if it is only two guys) if web based services are all they really need?
Yeah, some of that money saved will be concentrated in the hands of the cloud owners. But not nearly as much as maintaining your own data center and IT staff. Money will be saved by the business.
The business will be healthier without that huge outlay of money. They can plow the savings int product development. They can lower their prices. The remaining workers can get a raise. The owner can buy a yacht. An extra few days of vacation can be granted. Christmas bonuses can be declared.
Even that part that (I suspect) you will hate the most, the owner buying a Yacht, will keep the yacht builder afloat (bad pun), and they will employ all sorts of folks, carpenters, engine mechanics, riggers, welders, probably even IT guys installing all the fancy systems on the boat.
Well in principal I agree, but "Due Process" is a slippery term. Essentially passing a law stating what the requirements are becomes the definition of "due process" in that context. But further It only applies to actions of governments.
Clearly fairness is at issue here.
With virtually every web user able to upload photos, writing, music, and video, the rights of the actual IP holders of those items was swamped by the masses. There aren't enough courts in the land to handle these issues. It could never be handled in the court system.
If you had to individually sue every person who posted your copyrighted short story or picture, you could go broke trying to enforce your rights.
Under the prior law there was, in effect, zero protection for the rights holder. As a small artist or writer, there was really nothing you could do against people who posted your work without your permission. There was even less you could do against the individual downloader of your works.
The current situation flips that on its head, handing the big hammer to anyone who cares to make a claim of copyright violation. There is some recourse in the law for the poster to prove the takedown was invalid, but there is no penalty for filing a false claim.
The only solution that is workable without totally swamping the courts would be some sort of (rapidly escalating) penalty for a false take down notice. Both a fiscal penalty, and perhaps a "Rights" penalty. Abuse your right to bear arms and you lose the arms (and perhaps your liberty). Abuse the right to issue take down notices, and you pay a fine, continue to abuse it, and you lose the right to issue take down notices (and, effectively, your copyright).
You probably still need a way to prevent people from posting an entire 60 million dollar movie on the web somewhere. A quick take down should be available in this case without going to court in every jurisdiction in the world.
Or worse are sites, I think picasaweb, have fine print that says images posted become "property" of them and not you.
No Picasaweb explicitly states that you continue to own pictures you put on Picasaweb. And you can remove them, and mark them private. Google's pretty good about following that policy.
If you mark it as public, or submit it for inclusion in Google Earth or Images for Google Maps, they reserve the right to use those even after you delete them from your picasaweb account. You submitted them explicitly for that purpose.
Your Content in our Services
Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
Specifically, Picasaweb allows you three choices of privacy: Public on the web, Anyone with a link, Private.
but I am pretty sure that there are some fairly strict rules about issuing false notices and the penalties for doing so.
No. Not really. And that is the whole problem with this one-sided legislation. Zero penalties for false take downs.
Because virtually all of congress is in the pocket of big media, there is almost zero chance of getting this fixed any time soon.
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle
on
The eBook Backlash
·
· Score: 2
This is so true.
If reading any history that involves maps, or technical manuals with tables and illustrations, with an ereader (e-ink or otherwise) the need to frequently refer to maps, or illustrations the jumping around is pretty painful, unless the device has a good book marking capability. Even then, its not the same as having a finger in the book at the reference page and being able to flip back and forth quickly.
I've noticed that I had unconsciously gravitated away reading this type of subject matter on any e-reader. I previously read a lot of history, specifically major war history. I figured out the frustration with maps was the problem. I now open these books on the computer version of the e-reader software, and screen shot the maps, print them, and fold them into the cover of my e-reader.
But the E-readers for technical material is still a big pain, and unless or until they start making full book-size page ereaders as cheep as the Nook or Kindle this is going to remain problematic just to actually read the tables, let alone reference them quickly.
Some ebooks do have hyperlinking, but often not where you need it, and getting back to where you were reading never seems to work right. (links seem to all be one way, with no "Back" capability.
Re:That's why I like the basic Kindle
on
The eBook Backlash
·
· Score: 2
I can read much faster and more comfortably on my Kindle than on the iPad. The quality fonts etc is very good on both but there is something to be said for reading on a display that is not backlit. Especially if you try to read out doors.
Nook owner chiming in to fully agree.
I recommend the cheapest E-reader you can by that has wifi for downloading. I prefer not to have any other capabilities built into the device, I have other toys for that.
Spending the big bucks for color and backlighting is just a waste of time, and money unless you are limited to owning a single device. I've tried reading on the tablet, just don't like it as much. Reading on the phone is a non-starter given my prescription. Darkened room is the only place I switch to the tablet. Even the, its with white text on a black background.
The entry level Kindle or Nook Simple reader has everything that you need to read with, and nothing you don't need. I had a first generation nook, still use it occasionally, but traded "down" to the much cheaper Simple reader and find it far more convenient (smaller, lighter, faster, fits in a jacket pocket). Same would be true of the Kindle.
I also use Calibre (free ebook management software) to side load ebooks from other on-line book stores onto the nook.
Give me a smart phone that will do wifi without 3g crap and I'll be happy, until then the dumb phone is still far more than I need.
Any smartphone without a cell plan (even with out a sim installed) will do wifi. And people you probably know have a drawer full of these phones that they are no longer using. Ask them to factory reset one of them (wipe), and give them $20 bucks for it.
You don't get much besides web browsing and email, and you have to be in wifi range, and you can even arrange for it to get incoming and maybe outgoing calls for zero money.
Google voice really does next to nothing without a cell plan. You can't call with google voice alone. Its an elaborate answering machine until that point in time when google flips the switch and turns on SIP/Voip over WIFI.
But "Intelligence" must still start from a base point You see, "Intelligence" includes "Imagination", "Thinking", "Problem Solving" How do you start imagining?
I start by knowing (not imagining) what it is I want to KNOW ABOUT, and having the best and most efficient tools around to get at that knowledge.
Smartphone, Computers, Books and Encyclopedias (even if obsolete), and Libraries, in that order.
Being able to use the most efficient tools to gather knowledge is more a sign of intelligence than is rote memorization.
I find these days that someone tells me something that sounds rather dubious, I look it up using my smartphone, find the truth and memorise that. I find that in checking facts when people tell me something, I am more likely to remember it later on.
This!
It Seems to me, having once gone to the effort you remember longer, even if the effort is small. (Someone will look this up and prove me wrong, but that's why I said it "seems".)
Of course the real beauty of this is the instant calling of BS (in the nicest possible way of course) when BS is spewn. This prevents a lot of cockamamie rumors from ballooning out of control. I've been at a table of 6 when dubious stuff floated and seen 4 smartphones light up. (I've since practiced the phrase "I stand corrected" more frequently).
Well the US is not one of those places. People are pretty much free to quit one job and take another. Joining government might be harder.
In fact the only place I'm aware of an outright ban is France, where a three year waiting period must lapse before quitting government and joining the private sector. How one feeds himself and is family during this three years is not explained.
Other jurisdictions may impose restrictions via NDAs, and there are rules about defense contractor hiring, but only into specific jobs (procurement specialists can't join sales teams upon leaving government).
Besides... He's a lawyer. Anything he did for the FTC is Attorney Client privileged, and we know Attorneys never violate that now don't we?. *cough*.
The NSA will give away anything that they are ordered to give away, and this administration is so completely in the pocket of the movie/music industry I suspect it has already happened.
Why would the NSA publish plans for uncrackable voip phones if they are so secretive?
If the NSA can do it, the FBI can do it, and we all know who's pocket the FBI is in.
TLAs never have to explain the means, they just need to show what was transferred to whom, when. Often, they don't even need a warrant, but if they compromise one member of a darknet, getting warrants on the other members will be easy.
Seriously, its naive to believe that most modern national governments are incapable of this.
A tiny tiny portion of the real early internet was funded by the govenrment. There has been no funding of infrastructure by government for the last 20 year.
Many companies turn off usb booting in the bios, and then lock the bios.
If they give you a company car to take home, chances are they allow grocery shopping.
But if you have to jump on Slashdot and ask about GPS jammers and how to disconnect your built in Nav in a company car so that the company can't know that you routinely stop by the strip club on the way from/to customer meetings, you already have stepped over the line.
The parent correctly points out that you can use a live distro and avoid having to touch the company's hard drive.
Maybe, maybe not. There may be key-loggers installed which still grab your keystrokes. Further, you can set up machines to prevent booting from anything other than the hard drive, then lock the bios.
The only way the governments are going to monitor this is if they crack every possible key, and/or get that quantum computer thing going.
They don't have to crack every possible key. Google openssl compromise. There is every likelyhood that they already have a backdoor to most encryption standards. Why else would the NSA publish its own blueprint for smartphones and lay out the proposed encryption standards if they didn't already have access to those encrypted streams?
Besides, you assume they would use cracking. Why would they. There are easier ways.
With a darknet, you have a circle of friends that you trust. Every friend in your trusted network has other trusted friends. By the time the darknet grows enough to be useful there will be some friends of friend of friends that are not so careful and not so trustworthy, and not so cluefull. They will click a link somewhere. Their kids will install some internet game. They will get a piece of malware installed. They will get compromised, then the movies sitting on their computers will be discovered as well as their list of darknet friends, and the jig is up.
In some ways, a darknet is more dangerous to the participants than bittorrents. The level of trust between the participants can serve as a avenue for detection and tracking.
Even if such a policy existed, I'd do everything that was personal use related in the browser, (gmail account, or something similar), and not have the machine remember passwords, and set it to clear the browser cache upon close.
I'd use a different browser for work related stuff.
I'd never install anything on the machine itself for personal use. To hard to remove totally when the company "upgrades" your laptop and re-purposes the old one. (Or should you switch jobs).
Slashdot Mirror
There is no standard metric on acquisition success rate,
Well, in the end, it all comes down to Revenues doesn't it?
Employee retention is merely a means of making sure the revenue flows in the long run. If the guy with access to the books says there was revenue flow from the acquired teams or products sufficient for him to judge it a success, that's good enough for me and doesn't require a great deal of second guessing by people with no knowledge.
Notice the didn't say that loss prevention was a criteria for success, such as buying and shutting down a competitor. He said revenue.
Ka-Ching.
On the other hand, how does the Wharton School really know what does or does not "create value", and is that the real measurement?
Acquiring a business that runs a real risk of eating your lunch may not actually create any value at the visible level, but you may gain things (patents, customers) that my not appear or may not be visible to outsiders for years. Acquisition is a preventative measure in many cases. Business schools are not in the best position to judge what might have happened had not the merger taken place.
(Actually nobody really is in a good position to judge this, its the experiment not run to completion).
It seldom as simple as adding the net worth of two companies separately and then comparing that to the value after the merger.
It's only meaningful progress if the benefits accrue to the average American worker. Otherwise, it's just further lining the pockets of the wealthy.
When productivity gains stop being broadly shared, Luddism starts to make sense. This is why massive concentration of wealth is a bad thing: it pits workers against innovation.
Washer women are also out of work for the most part. Buggy whip makers still survive, but they've moved On line as well. Things change over time, especially in a relatively new technology. We can't run out and legislate change away.
Your argument, in one form or another, has been raised about every work saving device ever made since the dawn of civilization. It was wrong then, and it hasn't improved in the thousand years since.
Doing the same amount of work cheaper is, by definition, a benefit that accrues to the average worker. Indeed to society as a whole.
We plant with plows, not dibble sticks. We harvest grain with machines, not fifty guys with scythes taking three weeks to cut 100 acres. Less guys. Less time. Cheaper bread.
Why should a small business have to maintain an IT department (even if it is only two guys) if web based services are all they really need?
Yeah, some of that money saved will be concentrated in the hands of the cloud owners. But not nearly as much as maintaining your own data center and IT staff. Money will be saved by the business.
The business will be healthier without that huge outlay of money. They can plow the savings int product development. They can lower their prices. The remaining workers can get a raise. The owner can buy a yacht. An extra few days of vacation can be granted. Christmas bonuses can be declared.
Even that part that (I suspect) you will hate the most, the owner buying a Yacht, will keep the yacht builder afloat (bad pun), and they will employ all sorts of folks, carpenters, engine mechanics, riggers, welders, probably even IT guys installing all the fancy systems on the boat.
Rich people spend their money.
Well in principal I agree, but "Due Process" is a slippery term. Essentially passing a law stating what the requirements are becomes the definition of "due process" in that context. But further It only applies to actions of governments.
Clearly fairness is at issue here.
With virtually every web user able to upload photos, writing, music, and video, the rights of the actual IP holders of those items was swamped by the masses. There aren't enough courts in the land to handle these issues. It could never be handled in the court system.
If you had to individually sue every person who posted your copyrighted short story or picture, you could go broke trying to enforce your rights.
Under the prior law there was, in effect, zero protection for the rights holder. As a small artist or writer, there was really nothing you could do against people who posted your work without your permission. There was even less you could do against the individual downloader of your works.
The current situation flips that on its head, handing the big hammer to anyone who cares to make a claim of copyright violation. There is some recourse in the law for the poster to prove the takedown was invalid, but there is no penalty for filing a false claim.
The only solution that is workable without totally swamping the courts would be some sort of (rapidly escalating) penalty for a false take down notice. Both a fiscal penalty, and perhaps a "Rights" penalty. Abuse your right to bear arms and you lose the arms (and perhaps your liberty). Abuse the right to issue take down notices, and you pay a fine, continue to abuse it, and you lose the right to issue take down notices (and, effectively, your copyright).
You probably still need a way to prevent people from posting an entire 60 million dollar movie on the web somewhere. A quick take down should be available in this case without going to court in every jurisdiction in the world.
Or worse are sites, I think picasaweb, have fine print that says images posted become "property" of them and not you.
No Picasaweb explicitly states that you continue to own pictures you put on Picasaweb. And you can remove them, and mark them private.
Google's pretty good about following that policy.
If you mark it as public, or submit it for inclusion in Google Earth or Images for Google Maps, they reserve the right to use those even after you delete them from your picasaweb account. You submitted them explicitly for that purpose.
Your Content in our Services
Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
Specifically, Picasaweb allows you three choices of privacy: Public on the web, Anyone with a link, Private.
but I am pretty sure that there are some fairly strict rules about issuing false notices and the penalties for doing so.
No. Not really. And that is the whole problem with this one-sided legislation. Zero penalties for false take downs.
Because virtually all of congress is in the pocket of big media, there is almost zero chance of getting this fixed any time soon.
This is so true.
If reading any history that involves maps, or technical manuals with tables and illustrations, with an ereader (e-ink or otherwise) the need to frequently refer to maps, or illustrations the jumping around is pretty painful, unless the device has a good book marking capability. Even then, its not the same as having a finger in the book at the reference page and being able to flip back and forth quickly.
I've noticed that I had unconsciously gravitated away reading this type of subject matter on any e-reader. I previously read a lot of history, specifically major war history. I figured out the frustration with maps was the problem. I now open these books on the computer version of the e-reader software, and screen shot the maps, print them, and fold them into the cover of my e-reader.
But the E-readers for technical material is still a big pain, and unless or until they start making full book-size page ereaders as cheep as the Nook or Kindle this is going to remain problematic just to actually read the tables, let alone reference them quickly.
Some ebooks do have hyperlinking, but often not where you need it, and getting back to where you were reading never seems to work right. (links seem to all be one way, with no "Back" capability.
I can read much faster and more comfortably on my Kindle than on the iPad. The quality fonts etc is very good on both but there is something to be said for reading on a display that is not backlit. Especially if you try to read out doors.
Nook owner chiming in to fully agree.
I recommend the cheapest E-reader you can by that has wifi for downloading. I prefer not to have any other capabilities built into the device, I have other toys for that.
Spending the big bucks for color and backlighting is just a waste of time, and money unless you are limited to owning a single device. I've tried reading on the tablet, just don't like it as much. Reading on the phone is a non-starter given my prescription. Darkened room is the only place I switch to the tablet. Even the, its with white text on a black background.
The entry level Kindle or Nook Simple reader has everything that you need to read with, and nothing you don't need. I had a first generation nook, still use it occasionally, but traded "down" to the much cheaper Simple reader and find it far more convenient (smaller, lighter, faster, fits in a jacket pocket). Same would be true of the Kindle.
I also use Calibre (free ebook management software) to side load ebooks from other on-line book stores onto the nook.
I've noticed the vast majority of smartphone users simply browse facebook all day long. How smart does a phone need to be to do that?
I'm surprised you have time to post on Slashdot since you are keeping tabs on the "the vast majority" of smartphone users.
Give me a smart phone that will do wifi without 3g crap and I'll be happy, until then the dumb phone is still far more than I need.
Any smartphone without a cell plan (even with out a sim installed) will do wifi.
And people you probably know have a drawer full of these phones that they are no longer using.
Ask them to factory reset one of them (wipe), and give them $20 bucks for it.
You don't get much besides web browsing and email, and you have to be in wifi range, and
you can even arrange for it to get incoming and maybe outgoing calls for zero money.
As long as you have wifi.
Google voice really does next to nothing without a cell plan. You can't call with google voice alone. Its an elaborate answering machine until that point in time when google flips the switch and turns on SIP/Voip over WIFI.
But "Intelligence" must still start from a base point
You see, "Intelligence" includes "Imagination", "Thinking", "Problem Solving"
How do you start imagining?
I start by knowing (not imagining) what it is I want to KNOW ABOUT, and having the best and most efficient tools around to get at that knowledge.
Smartphone, Computers, Books and Encyclopedias (even if obsolete), and Libraries, in that order.
Being able to use the most efficient tools to gather knowledge is more a sign of intelligence than is rote memorization.
I find these days that someone tells me something that sounds rather dubious, I look it up using my smartphone, find the truth and memorise that. I find that in checking facts when people tell me something, I am more likely to remember it later on.
This!
It Seems to me, having once gone to the effort you remember longer, even if the effort is small. (Someone will look this up and prove me wrong, but that's why I said it "seems".)
Of course the real beauty of this is the instant calling of BS (in the nicest possible way of course) when BS is spewn.
This prevents a lot of cockamamie rumors from ballooning out of control. I've been at a table of 6 when dubious stuff floated and seen 4 smartphones light up. (I've since practiced the phrase "I stand corrected" more frequently).
What is this "pager" thing of which you speak? And why do I have to remember it?
Well the US is not one of those places. People are pretty much free to quit one job and take another. Joining government might be harder.
In fact the only place I'm aware of an outright ban is France, where a three year waiting period must lapse before quitting government and joining the private sector. How one feeds himself and is family during this three years is not explained.
Other jurisdictions may impose restrictions via NDAs, and there are rules about defense contractor hiring, but only into specific jobs (procurement specialists can't join sales teams upon leaving government).
Besides... He's a lawyer.
Anything he did for the FTC is Attorney Client privileged, and we know Attorneys never violate that now don't we?. *cough*.
The NSA will give away anything that they are ordered to give away, and this administration is so completely in the pocket of the movie/music industry I suspect it has already happened.
Why would the NSA publish plans for uncrackable voip phones if they are so secretive?
Oh, yeah, that's so obvious and the typical modus operandi of the NSA.
Come on.
You may think its designed for top secret comms, but then the burden would fall on you to explain why they published it publicly.
If the NSA can do it, the FBI can do it, and we all know who's pocket the FBI is in.
TLAs never have to explain the means, they just need to show what was transferred to whom, when. Often, they don't even need a warrant, but if they compromise one member of a darknet, getting warrants on the other members will be easy.
Seriously, its naive to believe that most modern national governments are incapable of this.
It's absolutely accepted - and encouraged - to use our company-issued vehicles for personal use, including vacations.
Where is this accepted?
Perhaps for upper management where they write a perk into their contract, but it is not at all common or encouraged.
A tiny tiny portion of the real early internet was funded by the govenrment. There has been no funding of infrastructure by government for the last 20 year.
Many companies turn off usb booting in the bios, and then lock the bios.
If they give you a company car to take home, chances are they allow grocery shopping.
But if you have to jump on Slashdot and ask about GPS jammers and how to disconnect your built in Nav in a company car so that the company can't know that you routinely stop by the strip club on the way from/to customer meetings, you already have stepped over the line.
The parent correctly points out that you can use a live distro and avoid having to touch the company's hard drive.
Maybe, maybe not. There may be key-loggers installed which still grab your keystrokes.
Further, you can set up machines to prevent booting from anything other than the hard drive, then lock the bios.
The only way the governments are going to monitor this is if they crack every possible key, and/or get that quantum computer thing going.
They don't have to crack every possible key. Google openssl compromise. There is every likelyhood that they already have a backdoor to most encryption standards. Why else would the NSA publish its own blueprint for smartphones and lay out the proposed encryption standards if they didn't already have access to those encrypted streams?
Besides, you assume they would use cracking.
Why would they. There are easier ways.
With a darknet, you have a circle of friends that you trust. Every friend in your trusted network has other trusted friends. By the time the darknet grows enough to be useful there will be some friends of friend of friends that are not so careful and not so trustworthy, and not so cluefull. They will click a link somewhere. Their kids will install some internet game. They will get a piece of malware installed. They will get compromised, then the movies sitting on their computers will be discovered as well as their list of darknet friends, and the jig is up.
In some ways, a darknet is more dangerous to the participants than bittorrents. The level of trust between the participants can serve as a avenue for detection and tracking.
Even if such a policy existed, I'd do everything that was personal use related in the browser, (gmail account, or something similar), and not have the machine remember passwords, and set it to clear the browser cache upon close.
I'd use a different browser for work related stuff.
I'd never install anything on the machine itself for personal use. To hard to remove totally when the company "upgrades" your laptop and re-purposes the old one. (Or should you switch jobs).