I did this as well, ticked my boss off to no end - I offered to re-license it if he wanted to pay for the software. He shut up pretty quickly after that.
Then there's the other side (true story): In my case I gave it away (a workflow and automation system). As a result, my pay was cut with the rest of the company and the savings I generated went into a manager's pocket somewhere. I subsequently quit and moved on to better things.
However, they do still pay me to support said software, so some good came out of it.
>> (4) The digital divide will cease to exist. Mobile phones will make it easy for even the poorest of poor to get connected
Uh huh. Maybe a pre-pay phone with voice minutes but that won't help them connect like a smart phone will. And I don't think data plans OR smart phones are going to be affordable to the upper middle lower class without some huge price cuts that I would LOVE to see but don't think will happen.
Meanwhile, I'm so addicted to mine, that I can't get rid of it. Sigh.
Sounds great, but I want contractor pay to make that happen.
If you are hiring me as an employee, provide me the tools I need to do my job - being an employee brings certain benefits from me with it - such as loyalty, caring about the company I work for, etc. If you are treating me as a contractor, pay me as such and I'll bring my own tools to do the job. But when the next big thing comes along, I'm going to move on - there is no reason to stay loyal to a company that wants to treat me like a contractor.
At the end of the day, we don't expect the accountants to provide their own computers, nor do we expect sales to provide their own computers. The receptionists don't bring their own equipment to work. Why should IT be treated any differently?
It was and it wasn't. The fact that the judge was able to make the connection between Twitter and a public bulletin board proves the judge has at least some understanding. If the judge had treated Twitter like the USPS then the verdict would have been quite different.
The OTA model seems to work without having to pay for content delivery.
I believe the point is: charge us for the shows OR show ads - but we're done being charged to watch advertisements. This is why we dropped cable, why we use Netflix (still) and why we don't buy the giant advertisement from the corner store -- that happens to have a couple pages of news.
I don't actually recommend this method, but it worked in my case:
Our root password somehow got posted on a forum and our server was then hacked (the server happened to be DMZ'd off and in maintenance mode at the time, so damage was minimal). I was able to point out the insecurity of allowing root logins remotely and lock everyone down to using sudo and logging in as themselves. I had the occasional person try sudo su, which made me laugh but for the most part people conformed.
I was here for the last 6 years. I came onto a team of two, and my co-conspirator was quickly promoted to my boss. There was never a replacement hired.
His basic philosophy was "if a patch can make it work, don't spend the money". any problems we had were never passed up to people with the money to fix things.
Things weren't too bad until he left two years later and they hired a non-technical person to be my new boss (we want someone with more artistic ability. Blech). I presented a list of all the things that needed replaced, upgraded, repaired, un-duct-taped, etc -- listed by priority, severity with downtime analysis, recovery, etc. It was a significant list, and I didn't expect everything on it to be done, but anything was better than nothing.
New boss passed the list in full force up the change, which initiated an audit, which was painful but I figured things would be better at the end. The auditors got fired before handing in their final report, management marked it down as "problem solved" and no money ever showed up.
Fast forward 4 years and the company cut pay "due to the economy", killed vacation benefits, and made working there a living hell. Due to cut pay, my ability to work overtime magically disappeared as well. I was there for six years, and I left handing over the same servers I took over when I started.
It was a mess, and I managed to stabilize systems by never changing them, but it was a patch job. Management didn't care and I held my breath every time a server rebooted. I'm happy to have gotten out before every collapsed.
To the OP, I say best of luck. If you can get traction, then stay and make the place awesome. If everything is an uphill battle, run now. The writing is on the wall.
Slashdot Mirror
In other words --
kids, go outside and eat dirt like when I was a kid!
I would have loved to have been fired. I tried for two years to get fired before I did manage to find another job.
They couldn't fire me, they could never free up anyone for knowledge transfer...even after I put in my notice.
This ^^
I did this as well, ticked my boss off to no end - I offered to re-license it if he wanted to pay for the software. He shut up pretty quickly after that.
Then there's the other side (true story):
In my case I gave it away (a workflow and automation system). As a result, my pay was cut with the rest of the company and the savings I generated went into a manager's pocket somewhere. I subsequently quit and moved on to better things.
However, they do still pay me to support said software, so some good came out of it.
>> (4) The digital divide will cease to exist. Mobile phones will make it easy for even the poorest of poor to get connected
Uh huh. Maybe a pre-pay phone with voice minutes but that won't help them connect like a smart phone will. And I don't think data plans OR smart phones are going to be affordable to the upper middle lower class without some huge price cuts that I would LOVE to see but don't think will happen.
Meanwhile, I'm so addicted to mine, that I can't get rid of it. Sigh.
Sounds great, but I want contractor pay to make that happen.
If you are hiring me as an employee, provide me the tools I need to do my job - being an employee brings certain benefits from me with it - such as loyalty, caring about the company I work for, etc.
If you are treating me as a contractor, pay me as such and I'll bring my own tools to do the job. But when the next big thing comes along, I'm going to move on - there is no reason to stay loyal to a company that wants to treat me like a contractor.
At the end of the day, we don't expect the accountants to provide their own computers, nor do we expect sales to provide their own computers. The receptionists don't bring their own equipment to work. Why should IT be treated any differently?
It was and it wasn't. The fact that the judge was able to make the connection between Twitter and a public bulletin board proves the judge has at least some understanding. If the judge had treated Twitter like the USPS then the verdict would have been quite different.
A judge who understood technology enough to make the right decision.
Now, how do we get more judges like this?
Sorry, I stopped reading when your headline said you agree with me.
Most people stop reading after the 1st paragraph anyway...
As long as you haven't gone over your cap for the month...
"I really want to buy the new GTA, but I just don't have the cap space for a download this month..."
The OTA model seems to work without having to pay for content delivery.
I believe the point is: charge us for the shows OR show ads - but we're done being charged to watch advertisements. This is why we dropped cable, why we use Netflix (still) and why we don't buy the giant advertisement from the corner store -- that happens to have a couple pages of news.
I don't actually recommend this method, but it worked in my case:
Our root password somehow got posted on a forum and our server was then hacked (the server happened to be DMZ'd off and in maintenance mode at the time, so damage was minimal). I was able to point out the insecurity of allowing root logins remotely and lock everyone down to using sudo and logging in as themselves. I had the occasional person try sudo su, which made me laugh but for the most part people conformed.
Again, I do not recommend this method.
I spent 6 years working in a place where our DR plan was to avoid disasters.
I was here for the last 6 years. I came onto a team of two, and my co-conspirator was quickly promoted to my boss. There was never a replacement hired.
His basic philosophy was "if a patch can make it work, don't spend the money". any problems we had were never passed up to people with the money to fix things.
Things weren't too bad until he left two years later and they hired a non-technical person to be my new boss (we want someone with more artistic ability. Blech). I presented a list of all the things that needed replaced, upgraded, repaired, un-duct-taped, etc -- listed by priority, severity with downtime analysis, recovery, etc. It was a significant list, and I didn't expect everything on it to be done, but anything was better than nothing.
New boss passed the list in full force up the change, which initiated an audit, which was painful but I figured things would be better at the end. The auditors got fired before handing in their final report, management marked it down as "problem solved" and no money ever showed up.
Fast forward 4 years and the company cut pay "due to the economy", killed vacation benefits, and made working there a living hell. Due to cut pay, my ability to work overtime magically disappeared as well. I was there for six years, and I left handing over the same servers I took over when I started.
It was a mess, and I managed to stabilize systems by never changing them, but it was a patch job. Management didn't care and I held my breath every time a server rebooted. I'm happy to have gotten out before every collapsed.
To the OP, I say best of luck. If you can get traction, then stay and make the place awesome. If everything is an uphill battle, run now. The writing is on the wall.
Am I the only one that remembers Superman IV the Quest for Peace, where Superman threw the nukes into the sun and out came the Sun man?