28 Oct
1998
28 Oct
'98
9:36 a.m.
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Pete Joules wrote:
Let me add a little perspective to this.
Say you ran a company, and being a good collector and occasional dumpster
diver, you had a policy that anything broken could be taken home by
employees if the company decided they didn't want to fix it. So the
hacker employees are happy because they get some nice stuff they can fix
and use in their spare time. But what happens when employees start
intentionally breaking things, or worse, pulling small parts out of
equipment to make it look broke, so they can then take it home and replace
the missing fuse or chip? I think that is why you have the rather
seemingly unreasonable policies about discard equipment.
Seams to be an
attitude of all management - bann whatever
you don't undestand
I think the attitude of many companies in the UK is "if we wanted to give
it away we would do so, once we have decided to throw it away it stays
thrown away". I think with the modern ideas about environmentally
friendly disposal of
waste it would be appropriate for the local authorities to turn a blind
eye to 'scavengers' like ourselves and thus reduce the amount of useful
stuff which ends up in landfill ;-)
Until one loathesome scavenger cuts a finger off on some particularly
sharp piece of metal and sues the owner, the trash company, the maker of
the trash container for not making it so they could get inside in the
first place, etc. (at least in the U.S.)
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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