Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame 252
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.
Unfunny (Score:5, Insightful)
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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.
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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....
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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"
Re:Unfunny (Score:4, Funny)
Of course not, silly. It's an Apple store. Now, had you said naked man...
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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?
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!
Re:Good GOD!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Further, its just a warmed over I forgot my insert, I have to go back home:
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?
Doing The Reverse (Score:2)
Can I submit an article about doing the reverse? Why did I take my gym bag out of the car and bring it into my office this morning? No matter how hard work is today I doubt that I'll be breaking a sweat.
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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, Funny)
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I'm sorry...I work all week for them, the weekend is for me....
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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I suggest we initiate the Defenestration of /. In honor of the second Defenestration of Prague, we toss the editors into a cart full of horse poo.
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes [imdb.com]
Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday, and you're not feelin' real well, does anyone ever say to you, 'Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays'?
Lawrence: No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.
I feel the same way about this
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29791 [networkworld.com]
Here's me shouting to no one in particular the other morning: "Hey, look, Brad's gotta do the Laptop Drive of Shame." Gales of laughter ensue.
Paul McNamara, you live in a country with the Second Amendment and you work in IT where there are a lot of 'ticking time bomb' types. Maybe a little tact might be a good idea.
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]
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
God I hope this doesn't become a new meme.
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.
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.
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Slow news day? (Score:5, Funny)
Slow news day ... or no news day?
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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...
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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]
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These days if I leave my laptop at home I tend to just turn round and work from home.
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Oh, really? Aren't you the one who is making excuses to see the girls, who know you are making up excuses to see them, because there is apparently no other hope of you interacting with a female any other way?
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.
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If you do bring your work machine home regularly, then there is no excuse for not installing a product like Pointsec on it, and have some sort of off-machine backup solution. Frankly
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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.
Re:Don't do that. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I appreciate the flexibility to bill where an when I want to.
Maybe that's just me, though...
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it removes the separation of work and recreation
No it doesn't; since they've issued me a laptop but denied VPN access the only thing I can do if I lug the thing home is play video games. Needless to say without admin rights to install anything it stays cabled locked to the desk all the time. Straight out of User Friendly, I swear.
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!
Better that than the Laptop Flight of Shame... (Score:2)
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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.
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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
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we do training classes - where the guys have to take their laptop and a projector.. i can't tell you how many times they leave the cords for the projector at home.. they remember the projector.. but they will pull the cords out of the bag and stick the projector in their luggage and leave the cords at home.. and of course the call me and ask what to do...
sometimes i wish they could see the expressions i am making when they call me.....
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.
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.
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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".
Never happened to me (Score:2)
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What about 2million dollar violin cab-of-shame? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about 2million dollar violin cab-of-shame? (Score:5, Informative)
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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You're speaking of violinist Phillipe Quint, but there seems to be a rash of such mislayings lately [bbc.co.uk].
I've been there... (Score:2)
Sure, the article's not funny or enlightening in the least, but I've been there. I've never managed to get all the way to work without my laptop, but I've gotten a few miles before the D'oh moment.
Nowadays, I hang my laptop bag from the doorknob. Seems to do the trick.
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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This line "See, I know how to NOT answer every email immediately unless it is truly urgent." betrays you as a corporate drone.
See in order to know whether or not that email needs an immediate reply means you have to read it!
It also means that the people emailing you are secure in the knowledge that you read them at almost any time THEY decide to send it.
Now reading an email may not take much time but the fact remains that you're spending "your" time doing company related activity.
It also means that you're a
Porn buddy (Score:2, Funny)
Still, it's good to know my porn buddy will be there to remove my drive of shame when I die.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=porn%20buddy [urbandictionary.com]
Been there done that several times (Score:2)
The reason I got a laptop in the first place is because it was relatively quiet - so quiet in fact I forgot it at home several times
Solution?
Got a basic/stock "business class" PC - a basic one that's not all pimped out and overclocked
does the job and it's quiet now too ...
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges! (Score:2)
I snagged an extra charger and even docking station so I didn't have to muck with plugging everything in to my kvm at home.
But I haven't left my laptop at home (yet). I have left my badge at home a couple of times. First and second times they make a temp for me to use. Third time I'm charged some amount ($50?). Fourth and subsequent times, I have to go home to get it and I get a talking to by my manager :rolleyes:
So far the two times I've left it at home have been because I have something to do first thing
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Couldn't say about the mis-manager part but this is the best place I've worked at for many years. I can deal with a little stupidness from time to time considering I was at IBM.
The funny thing is, most of the team has left because it used to be even better. But coming from lots worse (IBM), I compare this to when I moved from the DC area to Denver. A breath of fresh air. You don't know what you have until you don't have it any more. And you don't know how bad it is until it gets better.
[John]
Lame or not... (Score:2)
Although, I don't think I have ever shown up with no clothes on...
I'm not wearing any underwear (Score:2)
The worst thing to leave at home is my lunch, thats when I put my car key on my lunch in the fridge. I have however left the power supply at home and on occasion my phone, now that stings - you have to weigh up the distance traveled + lateness vs inconvenience of not having phone - sometimes quite liberating.
Speaking of liberating, once I forgot a change of under
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."
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or handbag. I've noticed that some of my girlfriends handbags have a similar structure to the TARDIS, unfortunately the only thing a purse can't fit is a laptop.
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I think the word you're looking for here isn't "brief case," it's "purse."
I've personally caved and admitted to this being the case. My wife asks where I left my wallet, and I respond "It's in my pocketbook." I always feel rather womanly when I take my keys out. Still, it's too damned convenient for me to care.
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Speaking of liberating, once I forgot a change of underwear and only realised it half way through my lunch time workout - kinda weird but unexpectedly comfortable.
If you exercise in your office clothes, then either your workouts suck or your coworkers hate you (interpret "or" here in the Boolean sense).
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(interpret "or" here in the Boolean sense).
We english-speaking humans have devised a shorter method for explaining that. Behold: "and/or"
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.
Variant (Score:2)
I've never forgotten my laptop, but I have frequently forgotten my laptop power supply. The laptop itself is heavy enough that I notice if it's not in my messenger bag, but if I'm in a hurry and did work at home the night before, I frequently don't notice that the power brick is still on my coffee table.
Trust the Taco (Score:2)
If he tells ya up front a link's not worth going to, don't whine if it's not.
Rsync (Score:2)
Meh,
The 'My Documents' folder on my (Vista-based) laptop does an rsync via ssh to a server at work every 15 minutes so I don't have to worry about transporting my laptop to/from work + I can 'pick up' stuff if I 'forget' it.
I use Deltacopy [aboutmyip.com] for the syncing.
Works a treat!
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...
Central place of work (Score:2)
Which sane person centralizes their information on a laptop? They have a reliability rate lower on desktops (counting temporary/permanent disappearance, damage, etc.) and are meant only for work away from the central location.
At the very least, they should get a copy of SyncToy (a Microsoft product) that's capable of ensuring the local and remote folders are up-to-date. That insures that if you've forgot your laptop somewhere, you won't be dead in the water.
I've never forgotten my laptop (Score:2)
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...
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.
Yay Monday news cycle? (Score:2)
With all due respect CmdrTaco, if you think the article is a waste of time (as your comment implies), then why the hell did you post it?
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Page views, why else? They have to post something, or people won't click through to different pages and see different ads.
Worse (Score:3, Insightful)
of course, is when the laptop makes it to the car, just not in the car.
Power cord? (Score:2, Interesting)
Remembering the notebook is easy - it is heavy. The powercord, now that's different. With notebook batteries lasting all of ten minutes on an older machine the power cord and transformer block become vital to remember. True pro's will have two of these though, one for work, one for home.
Again, this can lead to problems - visit a company, fire up the PC for a presentation and where's the power cord? One left at home, another left at work. The best solution is to have the transformer built into the notebook -
Got a bluetooth phone with proximity sensor? (Score:2)
Get software like Sailing Clicker, then install a plugin (or write a script) that will call you when you've lost connectivity with your laptop.
I used to use such a thing to make my laptop screen lock when I left the room... I'm certain it could be updated to make a call or send a text message at least.
unison (Score:2)
Yawn - thanks for the heads-up not to read it (Score:2, Interesting)
When even the editor says not to read the article I take heed.
We had one employee who forgot his notebook several times. Good coder, complete flake otherwise. Let's say his name is "Ben". Forgetting one's laptop became "Pulling a Ben". He's no longer with us.
I've forgotten mine once or twice but normally just far enough away that going home to get it then driving into work made far less sense than driving home and working through the VPN. We're allowed to do that on occasion. But obviously we can't be
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: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.
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Warning: walkhome.jpg is a 3072x2304, 2.2 MB JPEG.
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And is apparently being served from a dial-up modem.
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Well, it does appear to be on a Commodore :D
[John]
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That doesn't help if you've already unplugged the laptop in preparation for bringing it to work. All of your fancy protocols won't help if your laptop is powered off and sitting on the kitchen counter, unless you've got some sort of Wake on Wifi capability.
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Nah, he means you use your desktop in the office to remote connect back to your laptop at home. Or maybe he's just, you know, being sarky.
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How about how Obama and McCain are both screwing us in Congress along with the rest of them?
We discussed that to death last week already.
How about Civilization Revolution exists for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, and NDS but not the PC or Mac?
Uh... dude. That's kind of the ENTIRE POINT! On the PC and Mac we have the far superior Civ 4, we don't need the stripped-down console version. I downloaded the demo for my 360, played for 5 minutes, and realized I'd have infinitely more fun playing Civ 4. Better interface, more facets to the game... I'm not sure why you'd want Civ Rev unless you don't play games on the PC at all.
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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....
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We also have a Satellite card when we're on call. As I was on call last week, I had the card. Of course it's only necessary if you're not going to be at home. So of course this morning I forgot it.
[John]
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Yes, I've done that, too! I've left my charger both at home and at work. My drive back home is 40 miles (64km). I once spent a couple hours driving around looking for a spare charger for my MacBook. Now I always buy a spare charger with a new laptop, and I keep it in my truck.
Lately, I've been telecommuting 3+ days per week. I have my boss trained so well, that sometimes he is surprised when I show up in the office! :-)
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.