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Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Jul 14, 2008 07:58 AM
from the monday-monday-monday dept.
from the monday-monday-monday dept.
netbuzz writes "If you bring your work computer home with any regularity, chances are good that you've done the Laptop Drive of Shame. (Oh, c'mon, admit it.) It's happening more than ever ... and costing more than ever, too, what with the price of gas and all." I'll spoil it for you — they mean leaving your laptop at home. Yay, Monday news cycle.
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Unfunny (Score:5, Insightful)
Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Good God, editors, it's bad enough someone would submit this story, but you guys let it through?
Can we mod the editors out of office?
Would it be possible to add modding to the published articles? Can we prevent this submitter from ever submitting a story again?
Parent
Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
I wholeheartedly second this. This is an horrifically bad article. It would be good if it were possible to mod articles. Something like:
-1 Slashvertisement
-1 Dupe
-1 What-on-Earth-was-Taco-thinking-Has-he-not-had-enough-coffee-yet?
etc...
The folks over at whatever magazine website TFA was from have just seriously missed a golden opportunity. Rather than convert the slashdot effect in to new readers, this article was so bad that they've just made a lot of people avoid ever visiting their site again. Way to go guys!
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Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Further, its just a warmed over I forgot my insert, I have to go back home:
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Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine a 20 minute commute, and I didn't even notice I was missing my pants. Hell, neither did the other people on the bus. (It was the Bay Area.)
And people ask me, why did you hate living in the Bay Area so much?
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Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry...I work all week for them, the weekend is for me....
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Overheard earlier during the morning's staff meeting...
Boss: Now take a look at Johnson over here. He's a real-go-getter... wish I had, well, 5 more of him. I see him saunter up to the front door and what is he carrying? A gym-bag. That's right, while the rest of you slackasses are toting around your brie
Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
We already have;
http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl [slashdot.org]
yet somehow this made it all the way across the spectrum to red, and from there to the front page. I've suspected for a long time that the Firehose was being gamed, this makes it almost certain.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Unfunny (Score:4, Funny)
Of course not, silly. It's an Apple store. Now, had you said naked man...
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
reminds of the last unfunny news cast where you stood outside an apple store and asked the people in line if they'd ever seen a naked woman.
That's only unfunny because they probably HAVE. Now, repeat the experiment in front of a GameStop....
Don't forget to append "in person" to the question.
Re:Unfunny (Score:4, Funny)
Also add, "World of Warcraft characters with no gear on don't count"
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Wow (Score:5, Funny)
This is the first time I wish I had been rickrolled instead of getting that awful article.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
"This is the first time I wish I had been rickrolled instead of getting that awful article."
Here ya go: http://tinyurl.com/55v6el [tinyurl.com]
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Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
God I hope this doesn't become a new meme.
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Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
netbuzz writes
"If you bring your work computer home with any regularity, chances are good that you've done the Laptop Drive of Shame [youtube.com]. (Oh, c'mon, admit it.) It's happening more than ever ... and costing more than ever, too, what with the price of gas and all."
I'll spoil it for you- they mean leaving your laptop at home. Yay monday news cycle.
Parent
Shorter version... (Score:3, Funny)
"Sometimes I forget things and have to go back to get them. Now I leave my work laptop at home, and people laugh at me when I have to go back home to retrieve it."
It's not even news. It's just a pale, pale attempt to do Andy Rooney type fluff columns.
So yeah, I now regret reading the whole thing. It was a Rickroll that was so lame it didn't even have Rick Astley in it.
Slow news day? (Score:5, Funny)
Slow news day ... or no news day?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Fortunately (Score:5, Funny)
I don't live that far away from work, so if I ever forget my laptop it's not too much of a trek. To be honest I'm more likely to "forget" my pass and then I have to go and temporary one from the lovely girls in premises (I'm not stupid you know).
Seriously though, I usually just put my laptop bag, with the laptop inside it (the most important bit) across my front door so that I have to pick it up to open the door. Obviously this only works if you're the first person out the door in the morning...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't live that far away from work, so if I ever forget my laptop it's not too much of a trek. To be honest I'm more likely to "forget" my pass and then I have to go and temporary one from the lovely girls in premises (I'm not stupid you know).
You may be an idiot, but you're no fool? [youtube.com]
Don't do that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't bring your work computer home. It's unsafe (unless you are very cautious) and it removes the separation of work and recreation. If you're doing it to use the computer for private purposes, buy your own. The price has gone down a lot and owning your personal computer reduces liability issues. Besides, if any of your spare time computer activities ever becomes valuable, there won't be the issue that it was produced with company equipment and therefore belongs to the company.
Re:Don't do that. (Score:5, Funny)
What an interesting concept.
Some lucky IT folks get a desktop and a laptop issued by the company, they also get a company issued wireless air card for computing while on the commute.
But wait there's more! You'll also get easy web based remote access to email. And as a bonus, you'll also receive VPN, and Citrix web access, so you can do work from any computer ... So for those of you who have a computer in almost every room at home, the only easy way to get away from work, is to go somewhere outside!
Wait!!! ... That's covered too! ... Let's not forget about the blackberry, the lock on your electronic leg irons!
Parent
Re:Don't do that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because your workplace is not at a fixed location? Not all of us sit at a desk all day.
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Re:Don't do that. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Got Fired Over This (Score:4, Interesting)
.
Well, during the "probationary period" I forgot it at home twice and had to do my hour commute home and my hour commute back. After that, I started leaving it at work. I think I talked about getting VPN set up so I could just log in from home rather than lugging the laptop around. Of course, I didn't last much longer at that particular job (Thank God), so it was kind of academic anyway.
I'm an absent minded guy so I figure out various tricks when I need to remember things and not lose things. However, it takes a while for me to set that kind of thing up.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm an absent minded guy so I figure out various tricks when I need to remember things and not lose things. However, it takes a while for me to set that kind of thing up.
What the non-absent minded don't understand is that it takes a while for absent minded people to remember to set up the memory tricks. There are often more important things to think about.
Sorta... (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, I don't have to worry about leaving laptops since I rarely take one home. However, being a government contractor, I do use a CAC which allows me access to my laptop. Leaving that at the house is effectively like leaving my laptop at the house. There have been numerous occasions where I have left my card at the house and had to the "drive of shame". Within the last two or three months, though, I have been riding to work, so in that case I have to do the "ride of shame".
What about 2million dollar violin cab-of-shame? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about 2million dollar violin cab-of-shame? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:What about 2million dollar violin cab-of-shame? (Score:5, Funny)
Eh, but four million US is what, like 300 GBP these days? You can buy an iPhone for that!
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Do what I do. (Score:5, Interesting)
Decline the laptop, and the Blackberry, and the pager, and the company cellphone... If it's that important, call me at home and I'll drive in. It never has been, though.
My coworker (with the Blackberry) regularly gets called for trivial things. Like: Where's that log printout? Hmm? You put it on my desk, you say?
Re:Do what I do. (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like your coworker just lacks self control and/or assertiveness. I find having a laptop and mobile email to be liberating, rather than the 'electronic ball and chain' that many seem to think.
See, I know how to NOT answer every email immediately unless it is truly urgent.
You are lucky you work somewhere that gives you any choice at all though. If one of my employees refused a mobile device when it's been decided his or her job should require one then they'd be looking for a new job really fast. Then again, I also respect that they have lives and don't send them trivial requests after hours and expect them to answer right away.
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Broke my streak for this? (Score:5, Funny)
Being an old and proud Slashdotter, I'd gone many months with R'ing TFA, and somehow I picked this morning to try it the other way.
Yay me.
Here's looking forward to another long stretch of blissful ignorance.
Other way around... (Score:3, Interesting)
At work i'm one of the sysadmin, and so have a nice fat workstation and a few beefy "test" servers at hand.
But sometimes i bring my personal laptop to work (which, by the way, is my only machine at home that does have a display). Twice in the last two years i left it in my office after my workday. Given that i can't even watch TV without it, i have to return to work to fetch it. Luckily, it's only 2.5km between home and work and my access card is (naturally) a 24/7 one.
Nowadays, i always put my access card into my laptop bag when i took it to work. Without the card, i'm physically unable to leave the office (except in case of fire), so i'm very unlikely to leave my laptop behind...
Worse (Score:3, Insightful)
of course, is when the laptop makes it to the car, just not in the car.
How to tell that something doesn't matter. (Score:4, Insightful)
You know what helps cut down on this Laptop Drive of Shame? Letting your employees stay the fuck home instead of having to come into your cramped noisy cubicle farm, particularly if your office is on the outskirts of human civilization.
Not only does this reduce the Laptop Drive of Shame problem, it also saves more gas.
Now, raise your hand if your company gives you a laptop. Hi, you guys are most likely middle managers, so blow me about your whining about your company laptop. The rest of us are still shackled to a desktop.
If this whole laptop and gas thing mattered, we'd stop making people trudge into mind-sucking offices every day for no good reason except to make it easier to corral and boss them around.
Parking pass drive of shame (Score:5, Interesting)
Where I work, we have the option of monthly parking passes which are simply smart cards. The daily rate otherwise is $15.
If you are a monthly parker, and forget your smart card, however, you are STILL charged the full $15 daily parking rate, even though you paid for monthly parking.
I used to think this was simple extortion, until I realized that monthly parking is handled electronically, but daily parking is handled by a human and therefore actually costs more to implement. (why I can't just swipe a debit or credit card, as I can at many downtown unattended lots, I don't know).
Still, I'd think a montlhy parker who has forgotten his smart card should be refunded a good chunk of paying the daily rate upon presentation of a daily parking receipt and his active smart card.
Of course, don't get me started on automated car washes that don't warn in advance that (a) their debit card reader is down, and (b) their cash reader only takes exact change -- I was once stuck for 15 minutes in a car wash line with people honking behind me because the stupid reader with broken debit card handling wouldn't even take a $10 bill (and keep the damn change for a $7 wash). Automatec cash readers should ALWAYS allow an option to pay more for convenience if they can't provide change. Those that give receipts could easily indicate the overpayment so subsequent refund could be arranged.
The world is populated by morons. Some design stuff.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Wouldn't that more likely be the Fedex next-day-air mail drop of shame?
I haven't done that with a laptop, but I have done it with marketing material I was supposed to bring to a conference. What did they expect? I'm a programmer... They should be glad I show up to work with a full compliment of clothing every day, much less remember to bring their pack of branded security badge holders and 8.5 X 11 fliers of lies and shame.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
A couple of weeks ago I changed an on-site router for one with a better firewall. No-one had the admin password for the old one so I setup the new one from scratch without any reference point. I would normally leave the old router on site 'just in case' but I managed to 'tidy it up' and bring it back to the office.
Guess what, a few hours later someone from the site was calling because a piece of neworked kit (a stock management scanner) could not connect to its remote ordering server.
To cut a long story sho
Re:Better that than the Laptop Flight of Shame... (Score:5, Funny)
I once had to do a software install on an ice-breaker. I had to fly out to the east coast, catch a twin-otter from a Canadian Forces base north to middle-of-nowhere-ville, then get flown by helicopter out to do an at sea landing on the ship.
After I arrived I discovered I had left one of the install discs on my desk at work.
Parent
Re:thats why I dont do it! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, it would be easier to lug that damned thing without the desk. Cut the chain.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Warning: walkhome.jpg is a 3072x2304, 2.2 MB JPEG.
Re:I'm not wearing any underwear (Score:5, Funny)
I think the word you're looking for here isn't "brief case," it's "purse."
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
(interpret "or" here in the Boolean sense).
We english-speaking humans have devised a shorter method for explaining that. Behold: "and/or"
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Well, in my case it makes more sense to leave my company cell phone at home. While we have a spare one for IT that works perfectly well, its phone number mysteriously fails to show up in the company phone book and/or transmit the correct caller id....
Re:I've never forgotten my laptop (Score:4, Insightful)
But I've definitely forgotten my power supply, so I have about 2 hours to figure how to make that "drive of shame" without being noticed...
For the price of your drive home, or at least my drive home, you can buy another power supply. Yeah, I bought one out of my own money to save me the hassle, even though it's work's computer. (shrug) When lappy goes back on lease-return, I'll put this power brick on eBay and buy one to fit the new laptop, just like I did last time. The hassle savings of remembering and dealing with the power supply every day twice are worth it.
The real question is, why the fark does Dell keep changing the damn plug on the things? Gratuitous change specifically to make the old charger not work on the new laptop is all I can figure.
Parent
Re:Shame? (Score:4, Interesting)
I occasionally do this on purpose, especially during the warmer months, so that I can go on a nice bike ride to retrieve the "forgotten" laptop.
Nothing shameful about it at all...
So just take a personal day and be done with it. Fabricating the "forgot laptop" story makes you look either like a forgetful idiot or a liar. Your coworkers and management can see right through it - we're not idiots you know. It's a lot easier to respect someone for taking a day when it's 75 and sunny, than that same person taking the day when it's 75 and sunny because they "forgot their laptop".
If you work for someone who doesn't like the honest approach, then get a better boss.
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