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> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr
-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin.mclauchlan=safenet-> inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 1:55 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: RE: Mac vs PC users
>
> I wasn't, and the idea of dragging a disc to a trashcan to
> eject it would never have occurred to me either if I hadn't
> RTFM'd first.
When I worked at Philips in the eighties, we had a
network setup whereby each person had a virtual copy
of this-or-that server stuff as a "mapped drive".
(I use scare-quotes there because that's not a precise
description of how it really worked, but close enough.)
I guess the concept today would be that you had a fresh
sandbox each time you logged in. You could mess around
all day, and if you didn't save-to-network, it didn't
get saved on the relevant server.
In fact, it was practice to delete your <whatever we
called the> sandbox once you'd either saved changes or
decided not to make permanent alterations. That is, you
deleted the drive letter. That broke the connection,
and the letter could be used for a new sandbox reflection
of some other network asset.
Then I started work at Ericsson in 1990-ish. They,
too had a network, with servers. You can see where
this is going. Your mapped connection was (much as
it is for everyone these days) the actual server.
I do my settling in explorations for a day or two,
deleting "drives" when I'm done with them.
The late afternoon of the third day, this pixie
appears in my doorway and asks, all innocent, if I'm me.
Why yes. I am.
The storm breaks over my head - amazing how fast a
pixie can transform into something that would scare
dragons.
It turns out that they'd tracked down who'd been blithely
deleting entire server partitions. Oops!
That's what preconceptions will do for you.
And you don't recognize preconceptions for what they
are until they rise up and devour you.
I wonder whatever happened to the lovely and whip-smart
Ms Duclos... Such a forgiving soul, once you got to
know her. :-)
Anyway, the TW tie-in is that I got dragooned into helping
with the FAQ that would help prevent future new-hires from
committing similar crimes until they got the network permissions
thing sorted and it became no longer an issue.
- Kevin
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