You have undoubtedly received the various emails sent out by IS about the prohibition on keeping .MP3s and other large files on our work computers, or installing new software on our machines. This has not prevented you from installing Napster and downloading dozens of .MP3s, or installing all kinds of worthless software you downloaded off the 'net, like that annoying thing that tries to get me to let it remember passwords for me every time I try to go to a webpage with password authentication (a serious security risk with some of our web-based tools), or the weather tracking software that interrupts my work with annoying pop-up windows. I have repeatedly uninstalled these programs and deleted the .MP3s (that you choose to store in the C:\ directory, which is idiotic for at least one good reason), and when I come in the next night they are back. I really wished you would get the hint, because our IS people are notorious about ‘fixing’ problems by reformatting the hard-drive and reinstalling the base software. Not all of us have roaming profiles since we have assigned seating now, and I did not want to lose my bookmarks, SecureCRT settings and logs, and various other handy scraps of data that make my job easier.
I come in to work today and see a piece of paper with the words ‘Fix Me’ scrawled on it taped over my monitor. I log on and see that IS finally did something about the shit you have been doing, by deleting vast swaths of information from the computer. As usual, IS fucked something up because none of the web browsers will now work on that computer, nor will the software we use to log our calls. I spent the next 20 minutes setting up the computer in the next cube down, though it will take far longer for me to get everything back to the way I like it.
Tell me, what were YOU thinking when you kept having to reinstall your various programs, when you saw that your collection of Tool .MP3s had been deleted for the 20th time? What was going through your head when you decided that the proper course of action would be to move your stuff to another cube and stick that ‘Fix Me’ sign on the computer, instead of opening up a trouble ticket to get the computer fixed? Trust me, if that is all you did, that computer is never going to be fixed.
