Work: August 2006 Archives

Just so that there is some balance against my last post, Microsoft isn't all bad. I just read an Ars Technica story, where Microsoft is arguing that the modern worker requires unfiltered Internet access. I couldn't agree with Microsoft's point more. In fact, one of my reasons for leaving EDS (as I stated in my exit interview), is that I felt very strongly that I required fast, unflitered, and unmonitored Internet access in order to do my job effectively.

EDS, on the other hand, believes in putting all of their employees behind a proxy, that watches what you do, and blocks certain sites. This is wrong on so many levels - the primary being that the employee/employer relationship, at some point, has to be all about trust. Throughout the course of my employment at EDS, the company trusted me to do a good job, and do right by our customers. So, why couldn't they trust me to use my Internet connection properly as well?

I think that the line between "work time" and "personal time" has irrevocably blurred. I check my personal e-mail at work, and my work e-mail at home. So, why do some companies persist in trying to block "inappropriate" use of the corporate Internet connection? It boggles my mind, and is one of the many reasons why I'm happy that I don't work at such a closed-minded company anymore.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: EDS, Microsoft, Ars Technica

Well, after 3 years and 4 months, the era of Andy working at EDS is over. I had an extremely busy and jam-packed last day. In fact, I didn't end up leaving the office until a little after 10 PM. In my last two weeks at EDS, however, I think that I managed to get just about everything wrapped up -- be it documenting things, fixing things, migrating things, or simply deprecating things. At least, I hope that I did a good job. If I get a lot of angry phone calls over the course of the next few weeks, then I guess I'l think differently.

On my way out of the office, I also left my co-workers a little gag in my cube:

The joke being, of course, that I am really pretty anti-Microsoft these days (and everyone who knows me at EDS probably knows this fact). Truth be told, however, I wasn't always like this. In fact, when I joined EDS, I was still fairly "Microsoft agnostic". However, seeing all of the blind allegiance to Microsoft, and the continued insecurity of Windows, pushed me into the anti-MS camp. But somehow, before that happened, I ended up with a promotional copy of Windows Server 2003. I had forgotten about it, but found it buried in a desk drawer yesterday while cleaning it out.

Anyways, I'm about to head out on a weekend-long camping trip with Mike and Sheila, so I hope to write more when I get back next week.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: EDS