Those were the days...

Music: Imogen Heap - Getting Scared

I remember when I started this, that I would try to keep what I write to be more creative and less of the duldrums of life, but lately life has been pretty interesting.

Case 1: I used to enjoy the fact that use on the Internet was fairly free reign, I could download a piece of open source software that related to my work. I would sometimes find a wonderful piece of software that would be excellent for my job.

Then they changed. I could still download things, but they had to be approved first. The license agreements read, analyzed and scrutinized. There was a public location at work where all of the "approved" software was to be found.

There was a catch. I couldn't make a request for this software to be included in the folder. I had to convince my supervisor that it was necessary, then he would have to convince the IT department that it was necessary, then they would take a few days to approve it.

Then it changed again. The request process was still in place, but now they completely blocked all downloads. Everything. You click on a link to download a file, blocked. Even things that are necessary for my job I'm having a hard time getting access to. Its getting quite ridiculous.

Case 2: Like most frequent computer uses, I get sore writes from not properly using the terribly (and unchanged) designed mouse for hours a day. To circumvent this I had boughten a graphics tablet which uses a pen mouse for better ergonomics. It took roughly three days to get the proper approval to plug the device into my workstation, in the meantime I'd have to sit at my desk and try to do my work one handed since I was in that much pain at the time.

I guess things could be worse. I could be working for the government where things are totally locked out, restricted and downright weird. I figured that a private business would be a little more willing to let their employees surf as they wish.

What is everyone else's work environment like?