I've been using WordPress as my blog tool everywhere but here. I've experimented with modifying the themes used. On ZeroIntelligence.net and on Never Another Job, I simply used themes I found on the Internet with some minor modifications to things like graphics and exactly what appears where in the sidebars.
More recently, I added a blog in a subdirectory for my BNI chapter. At the time of this writing, though, it's not live yet because nobody but me has actually written anything, which would then seem very silly. Nonetheless, by starting with this alternate home page, you could see that working. All the core pages, though, use basic HTML except for a couple of PHP calls to list articles. It's only a partial integration.
Tonight, though, for the first time I took a layout I'd done for a client and chopped it into a theme for WordPress. Applying this theme lets me set up WordPress and a full-fledged content management tool, one that's easy enough that there's hope my clients (this one and others) will be able to update things on their own. I expect to do this several more times, for other clients and for my own Heatherstone site.
Mucking about in PHP code and lots of CSS has been fascinating. You don't run into PHP at Microsoft!
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
My WarEngine Wiki
I've tackled a new project. I'm taking my WarEngine wargaming system and putting it in the hands of the community of wargamers in the form of a WarEngine Wiki. I signed up for a cheap hosting account that supports PHP5 and MySQL and installed the latest version of the free MediaWiki, the same software used to run Wikipedia. I've added some built-in Google AdSense banners and a donation page as a way to try making the service at least pay for itself and perhaps even generate some passive income.
I've also seeded the site with some content, including the Shock Force setting I developed when I was publishing wargames as DemonBlade Games. By putting all this in a wiki, I'm hoping that the community will then add to it. I've dropped $25 on a month's worth of ads on The Miniatures Page to drive some traffic to the site, too.
This has some similarity to writing to a "monetized" blog site, but I think it has some nice potential from the perspective that I don't necessarily have to (and if it works, shouldn't) provide all the content. I only launched it last week, so it's too early to tell, but if nothing else, it will be a good experiment in whether hosting and building an online community of this sort can be a profitable commercial endeavor, too.
I've also seeded the site with some content, including the Shock Force setting I developed when I was publishing wargames as DemonBlade Games. By putting all this in a wiki, I'm hoping that the community will then add to it. I've dropped $25 on a month's worth of ads on The Miniatures Page to drive some traffic to the site, too.
This has some similarity to writing to a "monetized" blog site, but I think it has some nice potential from the perspective that I don't necessarily have to (and if it works, shouldn't) provide all the content. I only launched it last week, so it's too early to tell, but if nothing else, it will be a good experiment in whether hosting and building an online community of this sort can be a profitable commercial endeavor, too.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Contrast
I've been doing some thinking lately about the value of contrast, primarily about how it is an important tool in developing or marketing a new product. Contrast adds interest, so contrast is common in things to which we find ourselves drawn.
I'm using contrast here in a very broad sense, where it means that there are any two attributes of a single thing that are significantly different. Consider some examples, beginning with what we eat. Almost every meal we eat includes two or more foods. There really isn't any reason beyond getting a wide variety of nutrients not available in a single food for us to prepare multiple foods when we eat. However, even if it covered every element of nutrition you needed, you would be unlikely to feel particular satisfied by eating the same single item with every meal.
Another very basic example is that we tend not to design objects to be of a single color. My laptop, on which I'm typing this now, has a number of buttons that when they are in the "on" position light up with a blue glow. The blue contrasts with the black of the plastic and is therefore pleasing.
Not every example is so trivial, though. While it may not have such a firm grip on its market as it once did, Monster was remarkable in the job listing website business because of the contrast between the generally serious matter of browsing through jobs and the more whimsical nature of cartoon monsters adorning the pages. Similarly, "Amazon" (at least to me) conjures up images of a rain forest where the only inhabitants have little if anything in the way of a written language, which contrasts heavily with the concept of an online bookstore. I've noticed Elizabeth regularly browsing a make-up site called "Beauty Whore." Whatever you might feel about the name itself, it is certainly striking and memorable.
Even the name I picked for my online alter-ego, Dark Tortoise, was picked in part because of the contrast between "dark" and "tortoise." If asked to name a bunch of things that are dark, especially if given the "sinister" definition of the word, it's unlikely that "tortoise" would show up on your list anywhere in the top thousand.
I've been talking to my realtor friend, Ben, about ideas for a real estate website. Most such sites are, in my opinion, largely forgettable. They also tend to highlight the realtor, leaving the houses listed for sale as pretty much a set of photos and some basic attributes, like number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Buying a home, though, is largely an emotional decision with the house itself at the center of that decision. Thinking about contrast and that emotional factor suggests new ideas of how to present homes in an appealing, remarkable, and memorable way.
For example, we could present the homes almost as though they were people themselves so that the website visitor has the opportunity to be introduced to the homes and find one with a pleasing personality. We could include things like video testimonials about the houses given by either the developer or architect for new houses or the previous owners for resales. The presentation could even be made to look much like a typical (but well-designed) customized profile page on social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook. The contrast between an inanimate object and the anthropomorphizing of that object would be unusual and notable.
Contrast, while not the only tool for creating distinction, seems a critical one. How could you apply new contrast to make something in your life more interesting, either to yourself or others as appropriate?
I'm using contrast here in a very broad sense, where it means that there are any two attributes of a single thing that are significantly different. Consider some examples, beginning with what we eat. Almost every meal we eat includes two or more foods. There really isn't any reason beyond getting a wide variety of nutrients not available in a single food for us to prepare multiple foods when we eat. However, even if it covered every element of nutrition you needed, you would be unlikely to feel particular satisfied by eating the same single item with every meal.
Another very basic example is that we tend not to design objects to be of a single color. My laptop, on which I'm typing this now, has a number of buttons that when they are in the "on" position light up with a blue glow. The blue contrasts with the black of the plastic and is therefore pleasing.
Not every example is so trivial, though. While it may not have such a firm grip on its market as it once did, Monster was remarkable in the job listing website business because of the contrast between the generally serious matter of browsing through jobs and the more whimsical nature of cartoon monsters adorning the pages. Similarly, "Amazon" (at least to me) conjures up images of a rain forest where the only inhabitants have little if anything in the way of a written language, which contrasts heavily with the concept of an online bookstore. I've noticed Elizabeth regularly browsing a make-up site called "Beauty Whore." Whatever you might feel about the name itself, it is certainly striking and memorable.
Even the name I picked for my online alter-ego, Dark Tortoise, was picked in part because of the contrast between "dark" and "tortoise." If asked to name a bunch of things that are dark, especially if given the "sinister" definition of the word, it's unlikely that "tortoise" would show up on your list anywhere in the top thousand.
I've been talking to my realtor friend, Ben, about ideas for a real estate website. Most such sites are, in my opinion, largely forgettable. They also tend to highlight the realtor, leaving the houses listed for sale as pretty much a set of photos and some basic attributes, like number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Buying a home, though, is largely an emotional decision with the house itself at the center of that decision. Thinking about contrast and that emotional factor suggests new ideas of how to present homes in an appealing, remarkable, and memorable way.
For example, we could present the homes almost as though they were people themselves so that the website visitor has the opportunity to be introduced to the homes and find one with a pleasing personality. We could include things like video testimonials about the houses given by either the developer or architect for new houses or the previous owners for resales. The presentation could even be made to look much like a typical (but well-designed) customized profile page on social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook. The contrast between an inanimate object and the anthropomorphizing of that object would be unusual and notable.
Contrast, while not the only tool for creating distinction, seems a critical one. How could you apply new contrast to make something in your life more interesting, either to yourself or others as appropriate?
Friday, October 27, 2006
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
Google sure is doing some interesting things designed to directly compete with Microsoft. I'm writing this using their beta of Google Docs & Spreadsheets, which seems to have been largely acquired from Writely. The part about which I'm particularly curious is the blog publishing. Of course, if you're reading this on my blog, I guess it works.
(Update: I didn't get a title in my first attempt at publishing this direct from D&S to my blog. I have to see if there's a way to define the title without revising the post.)
(Update: I didn't get a title in my first attempt at publishing this direct from D&S to my blog. I have to see if there's a way to define the title without revising the post.)
Monday, May 01, 2006
Wikis
Trevor clued me in to using a wiki for managing things like specifications at work. That's the collaborative software behind sites like Wikipedia. His team at work uses one (and it he talks about it a bit on his blog.) I'd pushed for one for specifications on my team at Microsoft and met with enormous resistance. We'd been using FlexWiki, a system built on ASP.NET by some Microsoft people, but open source. It was amazing to me that my team at Microsoft, intent on designing a website designed for community building, was resistant to a wiki and preferred Word documents posted on a SharePoint server.
I've been toying with the idea of taking my miniature wargaming system (The WarEngine) and putting it into an open source environment via a wiki. I'd tried starting on that using FlexWiki, but wasn't really all that satisfied with the experience. The reason for doing this is that there are fans of the system still actively playing it some five to six years after I'd left the business who want a new edition, but I've finally confessed to myself that it's unlikely I'll ever do it. This would put it in their hands. If I host it and include some advertising, perhaps I can even generate a little revenue while still doing right by the fans.
In a kind of trial of this concept, I've set up a wiki site (that I will leave undisclosed for the moment, since I want to get the very basics fleshed out before I make it too public) using MediaWiki, which is the same software behind Wikipedia. It's probably total overkill for the WarEngine and I do feel a little weird using software based on PHP and MySQL, but then it seems like the best tool for the job, and after all, I still use a Palm-based Treo rather than a Smartphone.
The site for it is coming together really nicely and I'm finding the experience of contributing to the wiki rather compelling in and of itself. I'm looking forward to sharing the site with the fans within a week or so. And in the meantime, I've contributed my first edits to Wikipedia, too.
I've been toying with the idea of taking my miniature wargaming system (The WarEngine) and putting it into an open source environment via a wiki. I'd tried starting on that using FlexWiki, but wasn't really all that satisfied with the experience. The reason for doing this is that there are fans of the system still actively playing it some five to six years after I'd left the business who want a new edition, but I've finally confessed to myself that it's unlikely I'll ever do it. This would put it in their hands. If I host it and include some advertising, perhaps I can even generate a little revenue while still doing right by the fans.
In a kind of trial of this concept, I've set up a wiki site (that I will leave undisclosed for the moment, since I want to get the very basics fleshed out before I make it too public) using MediaWiki, which is the same software behind Wikipedia. It's probably total overkill for the WarEngine and I do feel a little weird using software based on PHP and MySQL, but then it seems like the best tool for the job, and after all, I still use a Palm-based Treo rather than a Smartphone.
The site for it is coming together really nicely and I'm finding the experience of contributing to the wiki rather compelling in and of itself. I'm looking forward to sharing the site with the fans within a week or so. And in the meantime, I've contributed my first edits to Wikipedia, too.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
On Cell Phones
I found myself wondering today, "How many minutes do people use on cell phones discussing possible reasons for their last call being dropped?"
Can you hear me now?
Can you hear me now?
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
So Much for Clever
They seemed so clever. OK, the cleverness was only noticed because my stuff broke and that detracts from the clever part, but still, clever came through.
My Xbox 360 is apparently one of the "rare" ones that was in some way defective. I'm betting it has a bad cooling fan. Whatever it is, it stopped working and after following the suggested steps on the Microsoft support site, it became clear it was going to require repair. I called them, they confirmed it, and a box arrived in the mail so I could send it in.
The clever part is that inside the box was an insert designed just so to hold the Xbox, a UPS label that even has the correct weight pre-printed, and a piece of tape for sealing the box. This isn't the first time I've seen this kind of clever, but it's always kind of cool to me to see such things thought out in advance.
Unfortunately, it was blown by the instructions. I don't have them in front of me, but in essence they went like this:
Below the pictures, it read something like, "To expedite processing your repair, please fill out the form below and enclose it with your Xbox 360." Then, there was a form with stuff like name, address, and serial number. Of course, I'd been following the directions from top to bottom and you'll notice that at step 7 above I'd sealed the stupid box already with the tape. I thought about slipping the form in folded, since there was room to do so that wasn't sealed, but the form wants the serial number that's on the back of the unit, inside a bag, inside an insert, inside a box sealed with tape.
They should have put a step 10 that read, "Notice the form below you should return, cut the tape, take everything back out, fill in the form, put it in the box, and do steps 1 through 7 again. You'll need to go find your own tape, because the tape provided should be ruined by now because you've either cut it or torn it back off the box. You should be grateful that where you put the label doesn't require that you somehow put that back on, too. Do this whole step before UPS arrives, since you've already called them."
So much for thinking it through and being clever.
My Xbox 360 is apparently one of the "rare" ones that was in some way defective. I'm betting it has a bad cooling fan. Whatever it is, it stopped working and after following the suggested steps on the Microsoft support site, it became clear it was going to require repair. I called them, they confirmed it, and a box arrived in the mail so I could send it in.
The clever part is that inside the box was an insert designed just so to hold the Xbox, a UPS label that even has the correct weight pre-printed, and a piece of tape for sealing the box. This isn't the first time I've seen this kind of clever, but it's always kind of cool to me to see such things thought out in advance.
Unfortunately, it was blown by the instructions. I don't have them in front of me, but in essence they went like this:
- Open the box
- Remove the insert
- Put your Xbox 360 in the enclosed bag
- Put the Xbox 360 in the insert
- Close the insert
- Put the insert back in the box
- Seal the box with the enclosed tape
- Put the label on the outside of the box
- Call UPS for pickup
Below the pictures, it read something like, "To expedite processing your repair, please fill out the form below and enclose it with your Xbox 360." Then, there was a form with stuff like name, address, and serial number. Of course, I'd been following the directions from top to bottom and you'll notice that at step 7 above I'd sealed the stupid box already with the tape. I thought about slipping the form in folded, since there was room to do so that wasn't sealed, but the form wants the serial number that's on the back of the unit, inside a bag, inside an insert, inside a box sealed with tape.
They should have put a step 10 that read, "Notice the form below you should return, cut the tape, take everything back out, fill in the form, put it in the box, and do steps 1 through 7 again. You'll need to go find your own tape, because the tape provided should be ruined by now because you've either cut it or torn it back off the box. You should be grateful that where you put the label doesn't require that you somehow put that back on, too. Do this whole step before UPS arrives, since you've already called them."
So much for thinking it through and being clever.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
43 Things
http://www.43things.com/person/darktortoise
I've started my own list on 43 Things (and on the companion site, 43 Places.) This website is an incredibly cool idea, just the sort of thing that makes me happy to be living in the age of the Internet.
I've started my own list on 43 Things (and on the companion site, 43 Places.) This website is an incredibly cool idea, just the sort of thing that makes me happy to be living in the age of the Internet.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Longhorn Beta on Connect
It's so incidentally to the main point of these news stories, but the newly released beta of Windows Longhorn (as Windows Vista) is directing people to the site my team has built to host beta programs:
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/comments.php?shownews=3407
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-Ready-for-the-Longhorn-Beta-Testing-4592.shtml
http://www.techspot.com/news/18025-Longhorn-Beta-starts-rolling.html
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/comments.php?shownews=3407
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-Ready-for-the-Longhorn-Beta-Testing-4592.shtml
http://www.techspot.com/news/18025-Longhorn-Beta-starts-rolling.html
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
JAlbum & Skyline Loop
Roberto had suggested the Java-based JAlbum to me for creating photo albums. It's pretty sharp! I'm still using Picasa to do the basic photo edits, then sending just the photos I want to have appear in the album to a separate folder, but that's not so bad. It's a good thing that disk space is pretty cheap.
The first album I've created with JAlbum is the Skyline Loop album I mentioned I'd be building in an earlier post. How do you like?
The first album I've created with JAlbum is the Skyline Loop album I mentioned I'd be building in an earlier post. How do you like?
Monday, June 27, 2005
Old Code
I opened up an application in PowerBuilder today. It was one I wrote back during the Heatherstone days that I started in 1997. The first piece of code I saw included this comment line at the top: Created: ALO - 10.19.98. This is an application that is still in production and in daily use by clients.
I did a rebuild of the application and when it completed successfully, I just sat there grinning to myself. It's just so cool.
When was the last time you came across something cool you did a long time ago?
I did a rebuild of the application and when it completed successfully, I just sat there grinning to myself. It's just so cool.
When was the last time you came across something cool you did a long time ago?
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Ship It! (OK, Almost)
The product I've been working on for the last year at Microsoft, called Microsoft Connect, is off for final privacy and security audit! Soon, the beta programs for MSN's Messenger and Hotmail and Windows Longhorn will launch at connect.microsoft.com through the web property we've built. We've been on death march for weeks, putting in long evenings and weekends to get the thing out the door by a set date. That is finally over. The three days of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday had me at the office for about 35 hours dealing with final bits and pieces, along with most of our team of about 18 people.
I say about 18 because I'm not actually sure how many of us there are. Our test team is mostly in China and has had so many staff changes I haven't been able to keep up with how many people are on the team. This way of handling testing has many pitfalls and has been the most difficult, frustrating, and ineffective part of our project. The good news, though, is that we also now have a test lead in Redmond who also speaks Chinese and will be here for the next version.
Within a couple weeks, the audits and rollout to production will happen and the shipping of the product will be truly complete. As I'll be on vacation for a bit, my part is done. When I return, I'm on to work for version 1.1, such as the addition of web forums and an Outlook toolbar that lets our internal program administrators send mail through our system directly from Outlook. The toolbar part is especially interesting, since that will be a true innovation to how Microsoft people communicate with customers.
In the meantime, what a relief to be done!
I say about 18 because I'm not actually sure how many of us there are. Our test team is mostly in China and has had so many staff changes I haven't been able to keep up with how many people are on the team. This way of handling testing has many pitfalls and has been the most difficult, frustrating, and ineffective part of our project. The good news, though, is that we also now have a test lead in Redmond who also speaks Chinese and will be here for the next version.
Within a couple weeks, the audits and rollout to production will happen and the shipping of the product will be truly complete. As I'll be on vacation for a bit, my part is done. When I return, I'm on to work for version 1.1, such as the addition of web forums and an Outlook toolbar that lets our internal program administrators send mail through our system directly from Outlook. The toolbar part is especially interesting, since that will be a true innovation to how Microsoft people communicate with customers.
In the meantime, what a relief to be done!
Sunday, June 05, 2005
The Italian Internet
The code for our new website at Microsoft is about to be locked down and we're doing final testing of version 1.0. As such, I'm running my browser in Italian. I'm sure many Americans aren't familiar with how you change the language preference in your browser. For Internet Explorer, you do that through Tools Internet Options, then select the Languages button on the General tab. I've set mine as Italian, then English.
When I open up the test version of our site, all the menus and such appear in Italian. It also gives a (Resource Not Located) message when we're missing an Italian version of a particular piece of text. I can log that as a bug so our localization team will know to fix it.
What's more interesting is to then go to other sites and see which ones are presented in Italian. For example, I'm typing this on the Blogger website and about half the text is in Italian, such as "Consenti nuovi commenti su questo post", which I think means, "Allow new comments for this post". However, the link for "Recover post" still just says "Recover post".
I may leave my browser this way for awhile and see if it teaches me any new Italian. Now I'll go click "Pubblica post" and share this with you, the reader.
When I open up the test version of our site, all the menus and such appear in Italian. It also gives a (Resource Not Located) message when we're missing an Italian version of a particular piece of text. I can log that as a bug so our localization team will know to fix it.
What's more interesting is to then go to other sites and see which ones are presented in Italian. For example, I'm typing this on the Blogger website and about half the text is in Italian, such as "Consenti nuovi commenti su questo post", which I think means, "Allow new comments for this post". However, the link for "Recover post" still just says "Recover post".
I may leave my browser this way for awhile and see if it teaches me any new Italian. Now I'll go click "Pubblica post" and share this with you, the reader.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Monday, April 18, 2005
Photo Experiment
I found this photo experiment on my web site when I was publishing the new album associated with the last post and I think it's pretty cool. Too bad I can't seem to find the original photograph.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Mini-Microsoft: Better off without Ballmer?
Mini-Microsoft: Better off without Ballmer?
This is an intensely interesting read, especially when you consider that it's a Microsoft employee who wrote it. This further justifies my approach to employment at Microsoft, that I'm motivated more by the opportunity to learn stuff that will be long-term useful to my career, regardless of where that takes me, than to become heavily invested in Microsoft stock given as rewards for good work.
This is an intensely interesting read, especially when you consider that it's a Microsoft employee who wrote it. This further justifies my approach to employment at Microsoft, that I'm motivated more by the opportunity to learn stuff that will be long-term useful to my career, regardless of where that takes me, than to become heavily invested in Microsoft stock given as rewards for good work.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Outlook Needs This Feature
Something I do fairly regularly is schedule a meeting based on an email thread and invite all the thread participants to the meeting. Unfortunately, dragging an email to the calendar only creates a calendar item with me as the sole participant and I have to retype the names. By default, I wish it adding everyone on the thread to the meeting, as deleting unnecessary attendees is way easier than typing in names or aliases.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Microsoft & Doublethink
The edition of George Orwell’s 1984 that I bought (for $1 at Half Price Books) included a preface by Walter Cronkite and an afterword by Erich Frömm. In Frömm’s text he discusses how the book is not just an indictment of Stalinism, as the book is often interpreted, as reasonable as that may be as it was written in 1946. It is also a warning about totalitarianism and the trappings thereof that can come out in any society. He continues by a discussion of the concept of doublethink, i.e. the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in mind and yet believe them both. An example of doublethink that he uses as it pertains to Western society is how a person working at a corporation will fervently believe that their company’s products are the best right up until the day they change jobs to work at a competing corporation, when the new employer’s products are suddenly the best. Recalling that you once were a cheerleader for Company A, yet still acting as a cheerleader for Company B, is classic doublethink. Even without the job change, being able to read and acknowledge criticisms and unfavorable comparisons of your current company’s products to your competitor’s, yet continue to proclaim your own products as the best is still doublethink.
At Microsoft, there are people that look at our products and see where they are weak, broken, or inferior, yet work hard to make them better. There are others that profess Microsoft products as the best no matter what they are shown. I am not only in the first group, but find myself drawn more to others in the first group and repelled by those in the second.
It’s particularly fascinating how the blind praise of Microsoft products by some employees is sometimes expressed in the exact terms used by Party members in 1984. For example, when I pull out my Treo 600, a Palm-based mobile device, there are those that are not only surprised, but say things like, “Is that a Palm? You traitor!” It’s telling that most of my closest friends also use Palm devices, but continue to watch progress both by Microsoft and the competition and are prepared to use what’s best, rather than stick with blind loyalty to the corporate brand.
At Microsoft, there are people that look at our products and see where they are weak, broken, or inferior, yet work hard to make them better. There are others that profess Microsoft products as the best no matter what they are shown. I am not only in the first group, but find myself drawn more to others in the first group and repelled by those in the second.
It’s particularly fascinating how the blind praise of Microsoft products by some employees is sometimes expressed in the exact terms used by Party members in 1984. For example, when I pull out my Treo 600, a Palm-based mobile device, there are those that are not only surprised, but say things like, “Is that a Palm? You traitor!” It’s telling that most of my closest friends also use Palm devices, but continue to watch progress both by Microsoft and the competition and are prepared to use what’s best, rather than stick with blind loyalty to the corporate brand.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Nice Feature of Office
I have recently discovered a very nice feature of Office 2003. I don’t know if it exists in earlier versions. If you highlight a word and right-click, one of the options on the pop-up menu is “Look Up…” This brings up a sidebar in your message that looks though integrated reference books, like a dictionary and thesaurus, and gives you definitions, pronunciations, and such. This is very handy and works even when reading someone else’s email to you in Outlook.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Locking Your Workstation
One security precaution you learn really fast at Microsoft is to lock your workstation each and every time you step away, even for a moment or two. When I started here, I never really thought about it until a co-worker, while I walked to the printer and back to get something we were discussing in our meeting, hopped on my email and sent a message to a bunch of people in our group that said, “Hi, my name is Aaron and I’m insecure.” It was just after that I learned about the Windows-L button shortcut for locking your workstation. (See, there is a use for the Windows button on your keyboard – Windows-L is a shortcut for Ctrl-Alt-Del followed by the Lock Computer button.)
Another of my co-workers apparently left his workstation unlocked and left for a long time, as he’s now had at least two long emails that have been sent to Bill Gates. An excerpt from one: “I have to say, you’re really being rude here. I mean, I’ve been there for you man. Remember that time back in college? Yeah, THAT time.” Ah, correction: As I’m writing this, the guy that wrote the messages tells me he only typed and addressed them, but was nice about it and didn’t actually hit Send.
The point is, once you log in, don’t just assume that no one will walk up to your workstation while you’re around the corner and do stuff with it that is totally attributable to you. Lock your workstation, even when you step away only for a few minutes.
Another of my co-workers apparently left his workstation unlocked and left for a long time, as he’s now had at least two long emails that have been sent to Bill Gates. An excerpt from one: “I have to say, you’re really being rude here. I mean, I’ve been there for you man. Remember that time back in college? Yeah, THAT time.” Ah, correction: As I’m writing this, the guy that wrote the messages tells me he only typed and addressed them, but was nice about it and didn’t actually hit Send.
The point is, once you log in, don’t just assume that no one will walk up to your workstation while you’re around the corner and do stuff with it that is totally attributable to you. Lock your workstation, even when you step away only for a few minutes.
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