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NewsCompanies can ‘hire’ a virtual person for about $14k a year in China Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 8:16
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 8:16 
GeneralRe: Companies can ‘hire’ a virtual person for about $14k a year in China Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 12:23
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 12:23 
GeneralRe: Companies can ‘hire’ a virtual person for about $14k a year in China Pin
Daniel Pfeffer2-Jan-23 21:00
professionalDaniel Pfeffer2-Jan-23 21:00 
GeneralRe: Companies can ‘hire’ a virtual person for about $14k a year in China Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 21:44
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 21:44 
NewsPyTorch discloses malicious dependency chain compromise over holidays Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 8:16
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 8:16 
NewsState of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:46
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:46 
GeneralRe: State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? Pin
David O'Neil2-Jan-23 12:01
professionalDavid O'Neil2-Jan-23 12:01 
GeneralRe: State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 12:21
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 12:21 
GeneralRe: State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? Pin
Richard Andrew x643-Jan-23 2:38
professionalRichard Andrew x643-Jan-23 2:38 
GeneralRe: State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? Pin
David O'Neil3-Jan-23 6:47
professionalDavid O'Neil3-Jan-23 6:47 
NewsFarewell to 3G Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:46
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:46 
NewsWhat are companies doing with D-Wave’s quantum hardware? Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:46
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:46 
GeneralRe: What are companies doing with D-Wave’s quantum hardware? Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 12:19
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 12:19 
NewsWindows 11 is still not really faster than Windows 10 despite what Microsoft suggested Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:16
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:16 
GeneralRe: Windows 11 is still not really faster than Windows 10 despite what Microsoft suggested Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 12:19
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 12:19 
NewsBring back personal blogging Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:16
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:16 
NewsSeattle tech worker charged for theft inspired by the movie 'Office Space' Pin
Kent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:16
staffKent Sharkey2-Jan-23 7:16 
NewsIT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
Kent Sharkey29-Dec-22 8:46
staffKent Sharkey29-Dec-22 8:46 
GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
obermd30-Dec-22 4:08
obermd30-Dec-22 4:08 
GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
Nelek30-Dec-22 10:38
protectorNelek30-Dec-22 10:38 
GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
obermd1-Jan-23 12:35
obermd1-Jan-23 12:35 
GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 6:47
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 6:47 
GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
obermd2-Jan-23 16:31
obermd2-Jan-23 16:31 
GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
Nelek2-Jan-23 23:16
protectorNelek2-Jan-23 23:16 
real life sometimes is even better.

We had a similar policy, with several annoying requests and 6 weeks validity. I wrote an E-mail to the big IT-Boss giving him a polite feedback about the "wtf are you thinking" policy they implemented because we were a company of industry programmers and we were mostly on the way.

Some weeks later...

A co-worker I trained had programmed a maschine that was shipped to the USA, got two weeks holidays, was ill for a week and then worked only a day doing burocracy things needed for the trip because the machine was about to arrive destination, so the laptop remained switched off. He next day went to the airport, switched the laptop on, connected to the VPN and checked emails and so on. Boarding, arriving, checking in the hotel, have a shower... try to continue writing emails. He can't log in. Big "???" in his face. Try everything he can... nothing.

He called me (and woke me up) to explain me the problem, I tried to manage the issue from the company next morning. I was pretty sure where the problem was, when he checked the emails at the airport through VPN the server had set the flag of "password expired", but being out of company net, the prompt communicating it didn't come. Having notifying nothing, windows didn't care and blocked itself on its own due to domain policy.

Speaking with the IT people...
- IT: He should get a prompt to reset the password when booting up.
- Me: He doesn't, he is not in company network
...
- IT: I have unblocked the user, he should be able to log in again.
- Me: No, he won't, because the windows is already locked and the laptop can't speak to the server without VPN to re-enable him.
...
- IT: He could create a temporary local user
- Me: No, he can't. You have revoked our local admin privileges and he can't log into windows, because the OS is blocked as previously said (several times...)
...
- IT: He could come by and we could unblock it with our super-admin user
- Me: He sits in an hotel in the US... a bit difficult. Would you share the password with us?
- IT: No way

End solution: Prepare another laptop and send it per post. (Over a week delay).
Collateral damage: The guy had to travel out of the country and in again because he had not enough time to do his job and would have had visa problems.

Some weeks later...
- Pissed off customer had complained about the delayments and wouldn't pay the extra days because the programmer was not even at the facility
- Project leader pissed off because of customer complainings
- Project controlling pissed off because of the extra costs and unpaid bills (bills that IMHO should not even exist, but that's another topic)
- Technical boss pissed off, because finance complaining about the fiasco
...

When they started to ask us for questions... I gave them my complain to the CIO and his answer, a protocol of the conversation with the hotline and even a couple answers related that they didn't ask for (and I had to bite my tongue to avoid a "See? I told you" to a couple of people).

The only ones who weren't so much pissed off were the guy in the US because he got a week paid holiday without having to use days of his account and me. I just bought some popcorn and enjoyed the couple of weeks as much as I could.

Some weeks later. Password expiration changed to 6 months instead of 6 weeks and when a password expired, you would not be able to access / use company common resources and / or internet but at least you would still be able to use the laptop offline.
Local admin rights were re-stablished a couple of months later due to another situation in the same lines...
M.D.V. Wink | ;)

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modified 3-Jan-23 5:23am.

GeneralRe: IT issues curtail remote workforce productivity Pin
obermd3-Jan-23 3:54
obermd3-Jan-23 3:54 

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