Here's some perspective. Owners are people too and their personality and circumstances vary. I've been in both roles. Be respectful of their time. Owners/entrepreneurs/execs are used to optimizing their own time and taking calculated risks. Find out why they don't follow the rules and don't get irritated at the answer.
I've broken rules and procedures (filling out time cards, backups, etc) when the "opportunity cost" was too high and it was my prerogative to make that decision. (I could complete my time card and expense report on time, or, complete the $4.5m deal on time but not both.
As sysadmin, I occasionally sidestepped my own IT security policies because that's often the prerogative of a sysadmin. (Unless he's focused on being more of an anal "rules-oriented" bureaucrat rather a pragmatic sysadmin.)
Other times I was the entrepreneur and my own IT guy built a stupid ineffective system of controls and I had enough background to know it was stupid, but needed to wait to raise it in a gentle (coaching/mentoring) way because the guy was a bit sensitive if you were blunt with him.
Sometimes owners are just jerks. Sometimes they just have a situation they have to handle and backups are the least of their worries.
I'm wondering...why do they have to do their own backups? Can't you set up something unobtrusive that performs incremental encrypted backups to the internet? Are they concerned about privacy, trade-secrets, etc? Only talking to them will give you a sense of the issue and the insight to find an appropriate solution. Sometimes the appropriate solution is to say "I'd really like you to be protected. If you fail...I will feel I've failed."...and just leave it at that.
Here's my cut at a car analogy. Notice that a naturally recurring form-factor for popular cars involves a height to length ratio of 1:1.618. That ratio shows up again in that "rise to run" ratio of windshield rake....and again in overdrive gear ratio... and yet again in...
All your base (of 486 laptops) are belong to me....ha.ha.ha. Seriously, I still play Master of Orion, Civilization and X-COM. Old laptops make decent game consoles for the classics.
That's why I use only fuel obtained from 100% organic crude oil, flowing the goodness of Mother Earth . I'm confident Exxon fuel comes from free-ranging, happy dinosaurs.
I wouldn't even think of filling my Prius with fuel that was from living matter trapped and enslaved on some industrial agri-business and force-fed chemical fertilizers.
I simply don't buy into any arguments presented thus far, for defending a lighter sentence.
I'm the absent-minded type. From experience, I can assure people that the sheer number of security briefings, security awareness tests and periodioc recertifications and signed contracts makes it so even the dumbest idiot can't claim they weren't aware. And yeah, it's corny or awkward as it is to say "I've agreed not to discuss it" to a loved one or potential employer.
With experience, you learn to deflect the "but surely you trust me, don't you?" with "I trust you and think you deserve to know. However, that is not the issue. I gave a solemn promise and feel an ethical duty to make my word mean something. Please don't continue to put me in awkward situations or I will start to think less of you."
The interview process in my own company involves and ethics/honor test that asks the applicant about classified work and if they start to give details, they're not invited back. Who wants to hire dishonorable people to work next to them? Not me.
As far as employment, you can get validation that you were legitimately employed and others in the reseach/tech/engineering industry are used to dealing with it. All classified programs will have an associated FSO (Facility Security Officer) that can provide you process guidance and that persons name and contact info is made clear in the security training and if anyone legitimately wants help with this, drop me a line and I'll do my best.
From experience, the real issue is lack of maturity and strong personal sense of ethics.
Could you imaging trying to create a restaurant menu that made it sound attractive? ...raw, rolled in rice or seared at high tempurature and served swimming in butter...
Because "it just works" and does so with just about everything.
Using more advanced file systems than FAT will limit your flexibility and sentence you to serious frustration when helping that person with Win98 or that semi-cute girl with a Mac.
I wouldn't say Microsoft doesn't innovate...they've fundamentally changed they way I work. Just when when I thought basic office tools couldn't get any more bloated, Microsoft proves just how 'innovative' they can be.
Earn their respect. Use preemptive communication and most will give you respect.
Assume they don't know long a computer task takes and just set expectations. Example - Hmm...I'll need about 20 minutes to fix that for you.
I also follow the motto of Star Trek engineering officers...under-promise, over-deliver. If I said it will take me 20 minutes, it is because I believe I can do it in 5 minutes.
If I'm totally clueless and expect a lot of interrelated issues, I stroke my chin and say hmmm, This could be a big deal. Can you switch to using your laptop for a couple days?
My problem, as a manager, is to get technicians to respect me. This is despite the fact that I can delegate problems to them much faster than they can solve them!
Me, too. I loved Borland IDE's and I stuck with OS/2 all the way through Warp 2.0 The platform made the best mail routers because of the tricks I could make OS/2 batch files do using REXX (self-correcting by auto-rebooting an instance of an e-mail router that was stuck)
the most badass cars at the time were all TURBOcharged.
Take the boxy 1980's 4-door Chrysler sedans for instance...Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island, Wrath of Khan) would sell them on TV wearing a tux. It worked, too.
I drove a black New Yorker with a 4-cyl 2.2 liter inter-cooled turbo and a red leather interior. It looked a stretched and pimped K-car. It had power everything and digital everything. Instead of dials on the dashboard, it had large digital blue-green fluorescent readouts. The car would talk to you in a digitally synthesized voice to tell you a trunk was open or when it needed something.
The over use "you" is meant to subconsciously reward you emotionally with a sense of highly personal control.
This is also done with overuse of the word "My..." My Little Pony, My Documents, My Computer, My Pictures, My Verizon, etc...leading to comical support-technician dialog.
First go to my computer......Um, no. My computer is on your screen. Yes, it is. No, there's no icon for your screen . Okay, now let's see where your-my documents is pointing...or with the plural, is that are pointing?
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Here's some perspective. Owners are people too and their personality and circumstances vary. I've been in both roles. Be respectful of their time. Owners/entrepreneurs/execs are used to optimizing their own time and taking calculated risks. Find out why they don't follow the rules and don't get irritated at the answer.
I've broken rules and procedures (filling out time cards, backups, etc) when the "opportunity cost" was too high and it was my prerogative to make that decision. (I could complete my time card and expense report on time, or, complete the $4.5m deal on time but not both.
As sysadmin, I occasionally sidestepped my own IT security policies because that's often the prerogative of a sysadmin. (Unless he's focused on being more of an anal "rules-oriented" bureaucrat rather a pragmatic sysadmin.)
Other times I was the entrepreneur and my own IT guy built a stupid ineffective system of controls and I had enough background to know it was stupid, but needed to wait to raise it in a gentle (coaching/mentoring) way because the guy was a bit sensitive if you were blunt with him.
Sometimes owners are just jerks. Sometimes they just have a situation they have to handle and backups are the least of their worries.
I'm wondering...why do they have to do their own backups? Can't you set up something unobtrusive that performs incremental encrypted backups to the internet? Are they concerned about privacy, trade-secrets, etc? Only talking to them will give you a sense of the issue and the insight to find an appropriate solution. Sometimes the appropriate solution is to say "I'd really like you to be protected. If you fail...I will feel I've failed." ...and just leave it at that.
Wow. Only in America will we invest millions...And then we go and add a "sport" button to it.
Point of Fact: My un-American Volvo 960 (pre-Ford takeover) has a "sport mode" button as well. It's just above the "economy mode" button.
How about a form that consents to animal testing or they don't get treated with anything that was developed with animals?
I'd prefer to provide a consent form that explained "to reduce medical testing on animals, you authorize us to test the procedure on you."
Here's my cut at a car analogy. Notice that a naturally recurring form-factor for popular cars involves a height to length ratio of 1:1.618. That ratio shows up again in that "rise to run" ratio of windshield rake. ...and again in overdrive gear ratio... and yet again in...
All your base (of 486 laptops) are belong to me....ha.ha.ha. Seriously, I still play Master of Orion, Civilization and X-COM. Old laptops make decent game consoles for the classics.
FACT: Juries don't determine what juries get to see.
I'm told it will also improve my network securi
it's merely an assertion of damages. Lost revenue? Prove it.
Just learn to start reducing your farts 10% by 2014. then 70% by 2050.
The EPA bills you for climate change.
Like I really my phone to tell me my wife is bitching at me...
That's better than telling her you believe she's bitching at you!
Just point to the phone's labeling, smile and shrug helplessly.
That's why I use only fuel obtained from 100% organic crude oil, flowing the goodness of Mother Earth . I'm confident Exxon fuel comes from free-ranging, happy dinosaurs.
I wouldn't even think of filling my Prius with fuel that was from living matter trapped and enslaved on some industrial agri-business and force-fed chemical fertilizers.
I'd like to know who purchases from spam. They need punishment.. What's their typical profile? Do they live in a cave? ...and still have internet?
I simply don't buy into any arguments presented thus far, for defending a lighter sentence.
I'm the absent-minded type. From experience, I can assure people that the sheer number of security briefings, security awareness tests and periodioc recertifications and signed contracts makes it so even the dumbest idiot can't claim they weren't aware. And yeah, it's corny or awkward as it is to say "I've agreed not to discuss it" to a loved one or potential employer.
With experience, you learn to deflect the "but surely you trust me, don't you?" with "I trust you and think you deserve to know. However, that is not the issue. I gave a solemn promise and feel an ethical duty to make my word mean something. Please don't continue to put me in awkward situations or I will start to think less of you."
The interview process in my own company involves and ethics/honor test that asks the applicant about classified work and if they start to give details, they're not invited back. Who wants to hire dishonorable people to work next to them? Not me.
As far as employment, you can get validation that you were legitimately employed and others in the reseach/tech/engineering industry are used to dealing with it. All classified programs will have an associated FSO (Facility Security Officer) that can provide you process guidance and that persons name and contact info is made clear in the security training and if anyone legitimately wants help with this, drop me a line and I'll do my best.
From experience, the real issue is lack of maturity and strong personal sense of ethics.
Well, if its the Japanese are working on it, maybe we'll have a choice of getting tuna meat pink or baby blue.
Definitely not with Cowboy Neil !
Could you imaging trying to create a restaurant menu that made it sound attractive?
...raw, rolled in rice or seared at high tempurature and served swimming in butter...
Super Tuna - 14.99
Super Deluxe Tuna - 17.99
Super Deluxe Ultimate Tuna - 23.99
Endangered Species - market price - subject to availability
Because "it just works" and does so with just about everything.
Using more advanced file systems than FAT will limit your flexibility and sentence you to serious frustration when helping that person with Win98 or that semi-cute girl with a Mac.
I wouldn't say Microsoft doesn't innovate...they've fundamentally changed they way I work. Just when when I thought basic office tools couldn't get any more bloated, Microsoft proves just how 'innovative' they can be.
Either that or fuck the boss's hot 18-year-old daughter.
Um... you must be new here. This is slashdot.
If I manage to stammer a coherent sentence to a hot daughter, it has never resulted in sex. ...just violence ..from her father.
I do manage to get some amusing facial expressions with the ew...yuck.
Earn their respect. Use preemptive communication and most will give you respect.
Assume they don't know long a computer task takes and just set expectations. Example - Hmm...I'll need about 20 minutes to fix that for you.
I also follow the motto of Star Trek engineering officers...under-promise, over-deliver. If I said it will take me 20 minutes, it is because I believe I can do it in 5 minutes.
If I'm totally clueless and expect a lot of interrelated issues, I stroke my chin and say hmmm, This could be a big deal. Can you switch to using your laptop for a couple days?
My problem, as a manager, is to get technicians to respect me. This is despite the fact that I can delegate problems to them much faster than they can solve them!
Me, too. I loved Borland IDE's and I stuck with OS/2 all the way through Warp 2.0 The platform made the best mail routers because of the tricks I could make OS/2 batch files do using REXX (self-correcting by auto-rebooting an instance of an e-mail router that was stuck)
the most badass cars at the time were all TURBOcharged.
Take the boxy 1980's 4-door Chrysler sedans for instance...Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island, Wrath of Khan) would sell them on TV wearing a tux. It worked, too.
I drove a black New Yorker with a 4-cyl 2.2 liter inter-cooled turbo and a red leather interior. It looked a stretched and pimped K-car. It had power everything and digital everything. Instead of dials on the dashboard, it had large digital blue-green fluorescent readouts. The car would talk to you in a digitally synthesized voice to tell you a trunk was open or when it needed something.
As an 80's IT geek, I thought it was cool.
The over use "you" is meant to subconsciously reward you emotionally with a sense of highly personal control.
This is also done with overuse of the word "My..." My Little Pony, My Documents, My Computer, My Pictures, My Verizon, etc...leading to comical support-technician dialog.
First go to my computer... ...Um, no. My computer is on your screen. Yes, it is. No, there's no icon for your screen . Okay, now let's see where your-my documents is pointing...or with the plural, is that are pointing?
Where's an English Nazi when you need one?
Isn't that where the seas are the roughest?