On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Pete Joules wrote:
> > 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".
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.
> 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_at_siconic.com
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Received on Wed Oct 28 1998 - 17:36:49 GMT