Big Brother In the Home Office 298
hessian writes with this excerpt from the New York Times' "Bits" column: "Tens of thousands of programmers, writers, accountants and other workers labor at home doing contract work for companies like Google, Hewlett-Packard and NBC. The computers they use contain software that takes snapshots of what they are doing six times an hour. The snooping occurs randomly, making it impossible for the computer user to game the system. It is probably more invasive than what happens to those working in offices, where scooting through Facebook entries, shopping on Cyber Monday, and peeping at N.S.F.W. ('Not Safe for Work') Web sites on corporate computers is both normal and rarely observed by managers."
Re:Webcams too (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Webcams too (Score:5, Funny)
It is clearly an invitation to work in the nude.
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
The network guys need it because they cant see it on their own.
Last place I worked I turned in a fellow programmer for downloading nasty snuff porn at work. The morons in the NOC could never catch it but little ol me after inserting a 20 year old 10 base T hub in line with our outbound router and then plugging in the bosses second ethernet line into it so I could run etherape and other tools in there was able to deliver proof in 20 minutes. the linux tool that displays images that are being sent around on the network made the Ops manager crap himself right there in his chair.
Yet the experts in the NOC and Network operations told the higher ups that they cant do what I was showing them. A skilled person can easily set up network side tools to discover and log things without resorting to amateur hour apps on the desktop.
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Tell me - would you turn in a fellow programmer for, to pick an example at random, making unapproved changes to a production network, such as adding an old hub to a network?
whoops, parsed that wrong (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Sweet Jesus I feel your pain in this post. I seen a quote yesterday that made me think and laugh at the same time. It went something like this. "In the 80s Capitalism defeated Communism. In the 90s Capitalism defeated Democracy." I chuckled at the truth of it.
You are right, there is no "free market" solution, the rich will only get richer and the poor, poorer until there is only two classes at their extremes. The "slash n burn" system of capitalism has trashed this nation and everyone connected to it. We need to revive industrial capitalism and start playing as Team USA. Multinational interests have too much power in our country that compete with our best interests.
It all rests in Washington and the ability to legally bribe politicians. It is the ONE subject you will not hear any damn one of them talk about with any depth or conviction. It's a big fat trough of money and if you get there, you are setting high on the hog. The little people's interests get crushed under these big wheels.
These dumb fuckers forget that their entire nation is build on the little people. If you choke them down and out, you eventually choke yourself down and out as well. But greed and the nanosecond fast computer age, with lightning fast trades has made Wall Street just another Vegas. Wall Street was for long term investments and long term existence. People made a sturdy, dependable system that was solid and provided well for everyone. But the smart kids learned that the easy money was in financial mathematics. If you think engineering physics formulas are convoluted sometimes, you don't want to dabble in the math of finance.
This is where it gets interesting. Factor this: On an average day with all things being equal; the bad guys can sometimes get one over on Regulators. Now lets tweak this formula. Let's diminish the Regulators and boost the bad guys. What do you think the probable outcome that will result from that will be? Take an educated guess if you will.
I know, it's easy to spot, and it's low hanging fruit if you are solving our problems. There is a more serious problem that we have to deal with. This problem needs solved if magically we solved our corrupted financial system. I am referring to our broken trade policies. Our trade negotiations aren't just weak, they are criminally negligent with an ill bent towards the United States. The world has discovered they can just buy our politicians like the corporations can and we allow ourselves to get BURNED in trade deals.
We need a "Mirror Policy" with the world. If we can't sell it to you, then you can't sell it to us. It's simplistic as hell, and would be damn effective and fair. I wish one side would wake up and capitalize on it. They can have it, they can take credit for it. It's theirs, just do it so that we can get back on track.
Lastly we need fewer politicians and more representatives. We need people who are beyond approach to step up and take the wheel. Are you telling me, these nasty things we have in office are the best we can do? I can throw a rock out my window and hit better people than what's "representing" us in Washington these days.
I wish some slash dot contributors and commentators would run for office. There are some damn intelligent people that frequent these pages, this is why I come here and wade through the retards, is for some great gems, some really bright minds come here. Why the fuck aren't some of you running for office?? Yes you could do it, it's not just a dream. Far, far worse people in life have climbed high in political office. We need damn thinkers, intelligent people capable of dealing with the ever shifting playing field of advancing technology. The world is moving at the speed of light these days and you can't be fucking around or it will run you over.
'nuff said.