OT: reply to posts with "no mail" option set

[Edward Croft]

On Mon, 2003-11-17 at 17:40, Rodolfo J. Paiz wrote:
> <rant>
> Oh so many things come to mind, but let me make a few points:
> 
>          1. Companies need to realize which issues are truly important and 
> which are not. Firing a valuable employee for bringing in a personal 
> computer is, IMNSHO, asinine. This is not a "zero tolerance" issue, and if 
> it is, the company has either the wrong management or the wrong sysadmin 
> because it WILL lose competitive advantage to others who manage their human 
> resources better.
> 
>          2. In a technically-minded community such as this, it is the 
> user's (read: the poster's) responsibility to honor his/her moral code, 
> prevailing social mores, company policy, national constitution, and 
> Planetary Federation Starship regulations if and how he/she damned well 
> sees fit. If my suggestion appealed to the OP, it was his (her?) 
> responsibility to go check whether that was permitted/recommended/whatever. 
> If the OP then chooses to blow up the office out of frustration with the 
> company's Notes server, that is also his/her own damned problem.
> 
>          3. I have been on this list AFAIK almost as long as it has 
> existed, and I also participate actively in other fora. In all that time, 
> this is the FIRST TIME someone has chewed me out for trying to help a 
> fellow human being. What does that say about you?
> 
> Suggesting that I am going to be responsible for someone losing their job 
> is simply out of line... I'll keep the rest of my response to myself since 
> there are ladies here as well. Good Christ, whose systems do you admin: the 
> KBG's? Sheesh...
> </rant>
> 
I am sorry that you took what was a caveat and turned it into a personal
attack. That was not my intent. There are companies that are dealing
with heavy security and get audited. Having a user install a machine
that is unknown to the systems admin, can at minimum be an embarrassment
to the company, at maximum cause them to lose their
accreditation/certification. I was only saying that when giving advice
such as you did, that you should also add that they should check with
their local admin regarding policies. 
IT WAS NOT MEANT AS A PERSONAL ATTACK! Sheesh, I was only trying to add
the caveat. It is company policy here. We do get audited. We have other
companies data that we have to protect. I am talking security here. It
isn't about being the Gestapo. It is about preventing viruses, loss of
data, network issues, etc. As system administrator, I would want to know
about this machine. I would need access to verify that patches are being
applied and that there are no network issues. 
That is all I was concerned with. If you misconstrued it as a personal
attack, then I apologize, that wasn't my intent. It is just that there
are varying levels of ability here. I have worked with a lot of young
hot shots who think they know a thing or two and go off half-cocked and
one took down a customers network for a day. That is the only reason
that I jumped in there. We are talking about his companies network, not
his own.