On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 16:18, John Wright <fortyrun...@gmail.com> wrote: > This sort of thing is completely normal.
Hell, I didn't know that such a bad situation is such common, as one of my friends works at a big company and he even is free to install his working machine on his own (and he is not a developer!). > But of your list what would you remove? Most of those constraints I would remove. I know security is a big issue but a lot of companies are cutting down productivity far too much. Security often comes along with drawbacks in efficiency (not talking about using SSL connections rather than unencrypted ones - this is an easy gain of security without a negative effect efficiency). > XP is now becoming a hardened OS for enterprises because of the effort > that has gone into making it secure. Instant Messaging outside of the > companies control can cause immense reputational damage, Skype cannot > be controlled and centrally recorded, lost hard drives that are > unencrypted can also cause reputational damage. So far I was not able to find an IM+VoIP solution that works so stable and wherever I am (even behind quite restricted firewalls). And often especially when I am at a customer having an issue with a particular component written by someone else, I need quick and direct access to the developer. Skype often helped me in such situations. > A lot of people now carry around iPhones and Netbooks so that they are > outside the company network and can get access to stuff they want at > their own risk. I have a feeling that companies will try and restrict > use of these on company time at some stage. It is understandable that such small devices that even often get stolen as always taken on the road are a risk. This also applies to laptops. So I understand if harddisks need to be encrypted or passwords may not be saved locally - or at least not without a tool like keepass or so. However, restrictions like Windows (XP) only or banned IM do not help you in that. If the company wants to track all data to make sure people are not talking bad about the company, that is a poor attempt. People will know and will talk bad from home. And to bring data copies out of the company - I think for those who really want it, they will find a way. I think it is far better to treat the employees well and to act in an ethical way so that employees are acting loyally by their own motivation. Sorry, but that's the right path. >> The reasons behind this are supposedly that the company must track all >> information for legal purposes. "for legal purposes" - ROTFL - shiny argument. When just going to a customer working on a project I quite always need to firm appropriate statements that I treat everything confidential, do not talk bad of them blablabla - I am quite sure that even members of the cleaning stuff have to confirm such things often. >> So I'm curious - do companies like Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Intel >> have policies like this? In my opinion a good part of such policies is far from the desire of everybody to be "agile". ;-) -- Martin Wildam -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
