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Man Sued for Deleting Files Off Company Laptop

Posted in computers, technology with tags technology on March 10, 2006 by Paxton

Apparently a man decides to leave his company. He deletes personal files off his company laptop. He knows, like everyone should (right?), that deleting files in most operating systems does not actually delete the file. It only removes the pointer to that file. So he uses a professional file scrubber to permanently delete the files making them impossible to recover.

I guess he must have left the company on bad terms (the company alleges he went into business for himself in the same industry which is a violation of employment contracts) because the company searches his laptop for incriminating files proving he was violating his employment agreement. When they discover that he used a file scrubber, they sue him for damaging a company owned laptop. What concerns me is several courts upheld the fact that deleting data off a hard drive constitutes “damaging” a computer. The company also said that the moment he decided to leave the company he no longer had implicit authority to delete data off the laptop. While I might agree with the latter, I have a serious problem with the former.

I worked as an IS consultant for over 8 years. I had a company laptop the entire time. I was careful not to put anything on it that would get me in trouble later, but I do not agree with the fact that deleting data on the hard drive constitutes damage to that computer. He turned the laptop into the company in the same condition that he received it, there should be no case against him. That is ridiculous. Hell hath no fury like a company scorned, I guess……………….

Technorati Tags – Technology Lawsuit

Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck Pt II

Posted in Microsoft, reviews, technology, Windows with tags Microsoft, technology, Vista, Windows on March 10, 2006 by Paxton

Extreme Tech posted a followup to their Why Vista Won’t Suck Article. Check it out here.

Technorati Tags – Microsoft Windows Vista

Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck

Posted in Microsoft, reviews, technology, Windows with tags Microsoft, technology, Vista, Windows on March 10, 2006 by Paxton

I subscribe to several tech magazines. My favorite is PC Magazine. They always have really good articles on upcoming technology. Their website rocks, also. Their sister site, Extreme Tech, has some hardcore techie articles on it, but they recently put up a very good and in-depth article on Windows Vista. Check it out here.
I, myself, am eagerly anticipating the arrival of Vista later this year. This article sums up a lot of good points about why many of us are excited.

Some of the main changes I am looking forward to are the cleaning up of the user interface. Windows is getting an overhaul in the visual department. If your computer has the graphics capabilities, you will be able to run Vista’s Aero Glass, which is the REAL interface. It makes windows 3-D. You’ll be able to move windows all round the environment of your desktop, not just side to side, but back and forth. The windows will also be semi-transparent around the border so you’ll see the background through it.

Another cool little feature will be the Windows Sidebar. This will be a small menu that can dock on the side of your screen. The menu will contain little AJAX/Java applets called “gadgets”. This will be similar to the current Yahoo! Widget Companion (orignally called Konfabulator). I use the Yahoo! Widgets and they are pretty neat little apps that are updated real time and can show you your system resources, the current weather conditions, various world clocks or recite funny movie quotes. There are thousands of widgets out there that I’m sure will be re-written and ported to the Sidebar. Very cool stuff.

Security is another big issue Vista is addressing. The OS kernel is being re-written with security in mind. A lot of programs and actions will not execute through the kernel. When you add drivers or install software, since it isn’t updating the kernel, you won’t have to reboot. Theoretically. Hopefully this will work in the final product.

I don’t plan on upgrading to Vista right away, I’ll wait until it’s “in the wild” for a while then buy a new computer with enough graphics horsepower to run Aero Glass and have Vista pre-installed. For upgraders, If your computer can’t run Glass due to graphics liabilities, then Vista defaults to the classic Windows desktop without the graphical enhancements.

But really, what fun is that?

Technorati Tags – Microsoft Windows Vista

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My Blogs

Posted in blogging, Flickr, internet, personal with tags blogging, Flickr, personal on March 10, 2006 by Paxton

Welcome to my blog!!

My friend Steve started a very cool blog over on Google Blogger (see his link Insight on Issues in my Blogroll) so I thought I would try my hand at writing a blog. I have some good ideas for content so let’s see if anyone else will enjoy this or if I wind up writing this blog for my mother and 3 other people. Hopefully we can all have some fun with this.

Other than this blog, I also have a photo blog at Buzznet. Check out my BuzzNet page here. I really haven’t updated there as much lately but I’m always updating my photo blog at Flickr. Check out my Flickr page here.

So, without further ado, let’s kick off this blog with a few technology articles.

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