Thursday, October 31, 2002
Trust
At my work, every shop is given a computer
and we’re encouraged to use them. Of course we have legitimate business
but during our breaks, we can explore the internet or even play games.
It’s considered educational and good training. Being enthusiastic about
the Internet, I’ve followed stories about the various policies businesses
have enacted when dealing with the personal use of company computers. All
in all I’ve been encouraged by what seems an enlightened approach. Most
companies focus on trust and monitor the employee’s productivity rather
than their internet browsing.
On the other hand, I’m a cynic. During the years I’ve been using the
computer, I was well aware that management probably wouldn’t be able to
contain themselves if given a chance to spy. Spy software is readily
available and I just didn’t think they would be able to resist using it.
Sure they’ll use all sorts of rationale about security but basically,
they’re voyeurs. Because of that, whenever I use the computer I just
assume that they see everything I do.
Today, being a voyeur myself, I ran a spy checker which looks
through computers for any signs that you’re being watched. Sure enough,
they’re using 'WatchDog', a program that tracks key strokes and monitors
web use. I was disappointed about being right. I don’t trust them, they
don’t trust me. They're also in for some unusual reading. I was thinking
of writing my journal entries at work.
______________
We own peafowl and the one on the left is
named Peepers. We raised her from an egg and she is imprinted on humans.
This is the view out the front door window and Peepers likes to station
herself there and watch me work on the computer. Yes, if given the
chance she will come inside and sit at my feet (which I do allow on rainy
days).
More about Peepers
here.
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May 14, 1966
– Saturday
Yesterday was Friday the 13th but things haven’t been going too bad. On
Thursday Pat and I got a crazy idea that we’d like to burn our class year
in the senior rock. This isn’t as stupid as it sounds.
First of all the seniors have a rock that they stuck on their class lawn.
Nobody knows exactly what its for but all the under classmen have a grand
time sneaking into the school at 10 o’clock and pouring buckets of paint
all over it. It was last painted bright silver in honor of its 25th coat
of paint.
It was at this point that Pat and I decided it needed a change. At 10
o’clock we got into dark clothes and picked up a gas torch, a few chisels
and a nap sack and headed for school. When we arrived we knew it was too
early because janitors were still working and lights were on all over the
place. We decided it would be a better idea to work around 11:30 so we
went home for an hour.
Pat and I decided to leave at 11:15 this time but it was a little harder
to get out of the house. I’m usually in bed by 10:30 and my mother with
her room just down the hall can usually tell if I’m moving around or not.
The first thing I had to do was fill my bed full of pillows in case she
peeked in and then came the hard part. I had to get dressed, open the
window and sneak off which is usually a pretty noisy process. By timing my
movements with cars going by and a plane going over I was able to make it
out without her realizing a thing. I met Pat and we started out again.
When we got to school we found we had to scale a rickety iron fence. I
braced the fence and Pat started to climb over. With Pats movements and my
struggles to hold the fence, it started to clatter and bang like a
one-man-band playing in a drain pipe. I managed to climb over making about
the same amount of noise and then we had to run, dodging in and out of the
shadows to the rock about 50 yards away. After reaching the rock with no
problem we began burning a 68 in to it to represent the sophomore class.
With 25 coats of paint it was pretty hard but finally we cut out a crude
68 on both sides and headed home.
On the next day we went to school to see what the reaction of the students
would be but we found that someone else, after we had left the night
before had thrown orange paint all over the rock covering our master
piece. We’ll probably try again sometime next week.
continued next entry
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