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Police Colonel General Replaces Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Reports Say

Oleg Savelyev vacated his post “due to a transfer to another position,” sources familiar with the matter told Kommersant and RBC.

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Huawei denkt ook zonder ASML krachtigste chips te kunnen maken

SHENZHEN (ANP/AFP/RTR/BLOOMBERG) - Het Chinese techconcern Huawei claimt een nieuwe manier ontwikkeld te hebben om halfgeleiders te maken. Daarmee zou het bedrijf over een aantal jaren ook de meest geavanceerde chips kunnen maken, zonder dat het daarvoor de beste machines van chipmachinemaker ASML nodig heeft.

Door Amerikaanse druk mogen de EUV-machines van het Veldhovense concern al langer niet naar China worden uitgevoerd. In het Westen is men bang dat de technologie in China anders voor militaire doeleinden zou kunnen worden gebruikt. Huawei wordt daarbij al enkele jaren geplaagd door westerse sancties om zorgen over digitale spionage.

Maar maandag verklaarde He Tingbo, hoofd van de halfgeleiderdivisie van Huawei, dat het bedrijf tegen 2031 al chips van de volgende generatie van 1,4 nanometer zal kunnen produceren. Dat zou betekenen dat Huawei aan een krachtige inhaalslag bezig is. Het Taiwanese TSMC, marktleider in de sector, heeft aangegeven dat het naar verwachting in 2028 begint met de massaproductie van chips van dit niveau.


Hitte zorgt niet voor problemen bij Roparun

ROTTERDAM (ANP) - Ondanks de hitte en de droogte onderweg zijn er geen medische noodsituaties geweest tijdens het loop- en fietsevenement Roparun. Dat laat de organisator weten. De teams zijn inmiddels in de buurt van Rotterdam en komen in de loop van maandag over de finish op de Coolsingel in de stad.

Ongeveer tweehonderd teams met in totaal ruim 5000 deelnemers gingen zaterdag van start. Een deel vertrok uit de Franse plaats Castres, een andere groep begon in Enschede.

Bij waterpunten onderweg zijn ongeveer 30.000 flessen water neergezet. De deelnemers kregen ook voedingssupplementen mee om hun zoutgehalte te verhogen en uitdroging te voorkomen. De vrijwilligers langs de route kregen uitleg om oververhitting te herkennen en teams kregen de oproep om rust te nemen als dat nodig is. Ook waren er plannen om onderweg meer rustmomenten in te lassen.

De deelnemers zamelen geld in voor mensen met kanker. Tot nu toe is er iets meer dan 3,75 miljoen euro gedoneerd. De meeste acties lopen nog een paar weken door. De organisatoren hopen dat ze uiteindelijk op ongeveer 5 miljoen euro uitkomen. Vorig jaar leverden de acties 4,7 miljoen euro op, een jaar eerder 4,3 miljoen euro.


De perfecte partner bestaat niet: waarom je volgens psychologen beter kunt stoppen met zoeken

We dromen massaal van de ideale liefde: een partner zonder fouten, eindeloze romantiek en een relatie die alles overwint. Maar psychologen waarschuwen nu voor een ongemakkelijke waarheid: juist mensen die perfect lijken, kunnen een relatie ondermijnen.

Van Hollywoodfilms tot liefdesliedjes: we krijgen al jaren ingeprent dat ware liefde alles moet zijn. Eeuwig, exclusief, onvoorwaardelijk en magisch. Toch blijkt die romantische droom niet alleen onrealistisch, maar zelfs schadelijk voor relaties.

Volgens verschillende psychologen draait een gelukkige relatie namelijk niet om de perfecte partner, maar om een 'goed-genoeg-partner': iemand die betrouwbaar, liefdevol en emotioneel beschikbaar is mét menselijke tekortkomingen.

De obsessie met perfectie maakt ongelukkig

Veel mensen blijven zoeken naar de ultieme partner uit angst om 'genoegen te nemen met minder'. Maar die drang naar perfectie werkt vaak averechts. Filosoof Iddo Landau stelt dat perfectionisten zo gefixeerd raken op het allerbeste, dat ze niet meer kunnen genieten van wat al goed is.

Ook in relaties leidt dat tot problemen. Wie perfect wil lijken, gaat fouten verbergen, zichzelf aanpassen en bang worden om tekort te schieten. Terwijl echte intimiteit juist draait om kwetsbaarheid, eerlijkheid en het vermogen om ruzies te herstellen.

Psycholoog Donald Winnicott introduceerde daarom al in de jaren zestig het idee van de “good-enough mother”: een moeder hoeft niet perfect te zijn, zolang ze liefdevol en voldoende aanwezig is. Dat principe blijkt net zo goed te gelden voor romantische relaties.

Waarom goed genoeg vaak beter is dan perfect

Onderzoek laat zien dat mensen die altijd het maximale zoeken, zogenoemde maximizers, vaker spijt, twijfel en ontevredenheid ervaren. Zelfs als ze objectief goede keuzes maken.

Relaties werken volgens experts juist beter wanneer partners accepteren dat niemand foutloos is. Niet de afwezigheid van irritaties bepaalt succes, maar zaken als vertrouwen, emotionele veiligheid en gedeelde groei.

Of zoals schrijver Sam Keen het samenvatte: “We leren liefhebben niet door een perfect persoon te vinden, maar door een imperfect persoon perfect te leren zien.”

Bron: Psychology Today


The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Premier League 2025-26 review: goals of the season

Dominik Szoboszlai and Alex Iwobi redefined the idea of possibility but Leandro Trossard’s mattered most

With most free-kicks, we’ve a decent idea where the taker can put them, which is why Dominik Szoboszlai’s effort against Arsenal, though it was a brilliant late winner, hasn’t been picked here: the execution, replete with whip and dip, was perfect, but we knew in advance that what turned out to be possible was possible. On the other hand, his goal against Manchester City – which edges Anton Stach’s for Leeds at Villa – was a mind-boggler. It’s fair to wonder why the wall contained only two men, but equally so to counter that he was so far out, the keeper wanted a decent view – and didn’t he get the perfect aspect. Hit with the laces, the ball jiggling, dipping and swerving at improbable angles, Gianluigi Donnarumma anticipated an inswinger then, when it turned out to be an outswinger, didn’t even get to attempt a save because, once it was clear which way the shot was actually going, it was far, far too late, a cursory step in the right direction all he had time for as an incredible, unsaveable effort shrieked past him and in off the post, three-quarters of the way up.

Continue reading...

Weather tracker: flash floods in New York and a heat dome in Europe

Rain overwhelms sewer system in parts of US city, while temperatures in France break May record

New York City saw flash flooding on Wednesday, as large parts of Brooklyn and Queens received about 2in (50mm) of rainfall in as little as 20 minutes. Officials said the deluge caused water to flow into the sewer system at a rate of up to 6in an hour, quickly overwhelming an aged network that was designed to accommodate just 1.75in an hour.

Residents and commuters found themselves wading knee-deep through flood water that flowed with dangerous speed in places. One video showed a woman alighting from a bus losing her footing and being dragged along by the torrent of water. Several major roads were blocked, including the Long Island Expressway, and subway services were disrupted as water spilled into stations. Large amounts of mud and other debris was left behind; videos showed bags of rubbish being swept down streets along with loose litter.

Continue reading...

Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don't collect or retain any data at all ever period.

Pluralistic: No honor among (ad-tech) thieves (25 May 2026)


Today's links

  • No honor among (ad-tech) thieves: Including "and" and "the."
  • Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
  • Object permanence: Budweiser nunchuks; GOP vote-suppressor voted illegally; Airbnb enshittifies; Oculus enshittifies; Nintendo copyfrauds its fans; Meritocracy to eugenics pipeline; Ultima Online crisis management; SNES cartridge urinal; JJ Abrams x Axanar, "Sex Criminals"; Beating school filters for fun; Orphan works; Japanese ATM heist; How the Sacklers rigged the game.
  • Upcoming appearances: London, Kansas City, LA, Menlo Park, Toronto, NYC, Edinburgh.
  • Recent appearances: Where I've been.
  • Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
  • Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
  • Colophon: All the rest.



A painting of three lemons on a white background. Each has been altered to add a horrific eye staring out of it. From behind two of the lemons loom carny barkers, gesticulating wildly and waving canes.

No honor among (ad-tech) thieves (permalink)

It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that a company that uses dishonest tactics to spy on you for profit will also use dishonest tactics to sell the resulting surveillance data.

The only reason this wouldn't be obvious is if you've fallen into the trap of thinking "if you're not paying for the product, you're the product." Companies that cheat when the opportunity arises will cheat everyone: customers, users, regulators, suppliers and employees. You're the product if the company can get away with making you the product:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

The digital surveillance swindle is a con from top to bottom: it's not just that they spy on you, it's also that they lie to you about how and why and where they spy on you and what happens to the data they swindle out of you. They're not just cheats, in other words – they're also liars.

Of course they're liars! If their terms of service were honest, they'd say something like, "By being desperate enough to use this product, you 'agree' that we're allowed to come over to your house and punch your grandmother, wear your underwear, make long-distance calls and eat all the food in your fridge."

So they lie like crazy. But they don't just lie to us: they lie to the people they sell our surveillance data to as well. Of course they do! Those people are the ones giving them the money! By tricking the people paying for the product, these surveillance swindlers can get them to pay more!

This is the basis of Tim Hwang's essential 2020 book Subprime Attention Crisis:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#wannamakers-ghost

Core to Hwang's thesis is that these ads aren't just dangerous, they're also ineffective. The danger of these ads is the erosion of privacy and the mobilization of private data for state repression and fraud, but not particularly for persuasion. The idea that ad-tech companies have realized the ancient dream of building a mind-control ray via the novel technique of "hacking your dopamine loop" is a story that the ad-tech swindlers cooked up to help them sell ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/30/dont-believe-the-criti-hype/#ordinary-mediocrities

Critics who repeat these outlandish claims are helping these companies sell ads to credulous advertisers, who are getting robbed to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. This is the process that Lee Vinsel calls "criti-hype," which is when you "take the sensational claims of boosters and entrepreneurs, flip them, and start talking about 'risks'":

https://peoples-things.ghost.io/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype/

Criti-hype is satisfying because the hype itself is so fantastically overblown. These companies claim they're going to save/destroy/conquer the world, transform the very nature of humanity, etc, and so critics who repeat those claims (brackets derogatory) can style themselves as defenders of the world and humanity itself.

This is also a very profitable style of criticism: there's a huge commercial market for people who claim to be defending the world from conquest by evil dopamine-hacking sorcerers and/or superintelligent paperclip-maximizers that can chatbot you into killing yourself and/or voting for Trump (brackets derogatory).

The opposite of criti-hype is materialistic criticism, grounded in independently verifiable claims about how these scams work. To be a good tech critic, you need to start by assuming that a company that lies to its users about what it's doing is perfectly capable of lying to its customers and investors about what it's doing (that is, "even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product").

That's demonstrably, verifiably true of the commercial surveillance industry. Commercial spies lie to their customers like crazy, and always have. Think of the department store magnate John Wannamaker's famous quip that "half my advertising dollars are wasted, I just don't know which half." Man, did someone ever do a sell-job on old Wannamaker: imagine believing that only half of your advertising dollars are wasted. Today, thanks to creepy ad-tech analytics, we know that the true figure is around 99%.

Hwang's book documents lots more ad-tech fraud that's every bit as audacious as the Wannamaker-era con-jobs. For example, there's the fact that when Procter and Gamble zeroed out its $200m/year surveillance advertising program, they saw a zero percent drop in sales because (to a first approximation) all $200m of that annual spend was disappearing down the fraud-hole.

There's been plenty more examples since, rivaling previous eras for audacity and outlandishness. In 2023, Mozilla Labs investigated the ways that modern cars spy on their drivers and concluded that, when it came to privacy, cars were "the worst product category" they had ever evaluated, and recommended that you not buy any of the cars currently offered for sale:

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

Mozilla's report investigated two things: which data your car was collecting and selling about you (lots) and what data your car company claimed it had collected about you and was offering for sale (way, way more).

For example, Nissan and Kia claimed that they had data about your sex life, a thing that cannot be reasonably inferred from the sensors in your car (unless you have a highly specific sex life). Six car companies claimed they had your genetic data (again, not a thing that any of the sensors in your car can know about).

What's more, all of these scams have only gotten worse in the intervening three years:

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/05/22/mozilla-foundation-condemns-data-collection-by-cars/

These companies are spying on you, and lying to you about how much they respect your privacy, and lying to their commercial customers about all the fiendish ways they've cooked up for invading your privacy.

Everyone in the ad-tech sector is lying to everyone else in the ad-tech sector, in other words. It's your basic hive of scum and villainy. Back in 2023, Cox Media – part of the sprawling media conglomerate that includes Cox Cable – told advertisers that they had a new product called "Active Listening" that recorded and transcribed all the conversations you have around your smart speakers, smart TVs, smart watches and phones:

https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/

It was a lie. There are plenty of ways that these devices spy on you, of course. Your smart TV is a cesspool of surveillance and data-exfiltration, but that data doesn't include your conversations:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/painful-burning-dribble/#law-of-intended-consequences

Same for your smart speaker, which not only gathers tons of information about you for sale and targeting, but also leaks your voice data all the time, whenever you utter any of its "trigger words," which include over 1,000 phrases that sound like its trigger words:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#triggered

Cox, in other words, was running the same equal-opportunity scam that your auto-maker runs: deceiving you about how little data they were stealing from you, and deceiving their customers about how much data they were gathering on you.

That said, there was something remarkable and unique about Cox's fraud: because they were ripping off other (better-connected) fraudsters, their lies triggered an investigation by Donald Trump's FTC, who never met a scammer they wouldn't defend (from another scammer):

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/marketer-that-claimed-it-could-tap-devices-for-ad-targeting-will-pay-880k-settlement/

Still, there are limits to this "honor among thieves" business. The settlement Trump's FTC extracted from Cox for lying to other liars is less than $1m – basically, change that Cox can find down the back of its sofa:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/marketer-that-claimed-it-could-tap-devices-for-ad-targeting-will-pay-880k-settlement/

Still, the Cox settlement is a great criti-hype object lesson, a reminder that these creepy, lying companies lie to everyone, including their customers, which means that even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product.


Hey look at this (permalink)



A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Best email disclaimer award https://web.archive.org/web/20010526174903/http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/19057.html

#25yrsago Kaycee hoax FAQ https://web.archive.org/web/20010629212706/https://rootnode.org/article.php?sid=26

#25yrsago Crisis management in Ultima Online https://web.archive.org/web/20010605015828/http://www.newyorker.com/FACT/

#25yrsago E3 is all softcore porn now https://web.archive.org/web/20010702122044/https://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/05/22/e3_2001/print.html

#25yrsago Canadian payphone infinite long distance glitch https://web.archive.org/web/20010608183145/https://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,43967,00.html

#20yrsago Kids make a sport out of outsmarting school web-filters https://web.archive.org/web/20060821224237/http://news.com.com/Kids+outsmart+Web+filters/2009-1041-6062548.html

#20yrsago Orphan works legislation https://web.archive.org/web/20060531135239/http://www.copybites.com/2006/05/chairman_lamar_.html

#20yrsago U. Florida cops ask fiction writer for fingerprints, DNA https://memex.craphound.com/2006/05/22/u-florida-cops-ask-fiction-writer-for-fingerprints-dna/

#20yrsago HDMI, the Manchurian DRM – a Broadcast Flag dormant until 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20060523193853/https://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060521-6880.html

#15yrsago The Filter Bubble: how personalization changes society https://memex.craphound.com/2011/05/22/the-filter-bubble-how-personalization-changes-society/

#15yrsago Last decade’s English libel legal sharks poised to make a new fortune on stupid privacy lawsuits and superinjuctions https://memex.craphound.com/2011/05/22/last-decades-english-libel-legal-sharks-poised-to-make-a-new-fortune-on-stupid-privacy-lawsuits-and-superinjuctions/

#15yrsago RIAA boss takes home $3 mil+ https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2011/05/21/another-member-of-the-overpaid/

#15yrsago Vindictive game company invites employees to pan reviewer’s novel after bad review https://maroonersrock.com/2011/05/conduit-2-developer-calls-for-internal-retaliation-against-author-of-negative-joystiq-review/

#15yrsago France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2011/05/20/frances-g8-focuses-on-control-and-restrictions-to-online-freedoms/

#15yrsago Budweiser nunchuks: American Ninja https://web.archive.org/web/20110701153712/http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2011/05/19/american-ninja/

#15yrsago GOP legislative aide works on punitive voter ID bill, boasts of illegally voting in another district https://web.archive.org/web/20110522014606/http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_ede5d49e-8272-11e0-a6e0-001cc4c03286.html

#15yrsago Raising a kid without disclosing their sex https://web.archive.org/web/20110523180952/http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/babiespregnancy/babies/article/995112–parents-keep-child-s-gender-secret

#15yrsago Byron Sonne: Canadian security geek jailed for taunting G20 security theatre https://web.archive.org/web/20110518195236/http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/from-print-edition-informer/2011/05/03/how-byron-sonne’s-obsessions-with-the-g20-security-apparatus-cost-him-everything/

#15yrsago HOWTO make a SNES cartridge urinal https://blog.pricecharting.com/2011/05/how-to-build-video-game-urinal.html

#15yrsago German police raid German Pirate Party’s servers two days before election https://web.archive.org/web/20120516010632/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/05/german-police-seize-pirate-party-servers-looking-at-anons-toolkit/

#10yrsago JJ Abrams urges Paramount to drop its lawsuit over fan Star Trek movie https://web.archive.org/web/20160522121940/https://deadline.com/2016/05/star-trek-axanar-lawsuit-ending-jj-abrams-paramount-1201760721/

#10yrsago Pat Buchanan on the Republican Party’s historical opposition to free trade deals https://web.archive.org/web/20160521162845/http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/free-trade-vs-the-republican-party/

#10yrsago United offered men-only “executive” flights until 1970 https://viewfromthewing.com/united-airlines-men-only-executive-service/

#10yrsago Elderly man kills wife because they couldn’t afford her medicine https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/us/florida-man-says-he-killed-sick-wife-because-he-couldnt-afford-her-medicine-sheriffs-say.html?_r=0

#10yrsago Sex Criminals: Robin Hood bank robbers who can stop time when they orgasm https://memex.craphound.com/2016/05/21/sex-criminals-robin-hood-bank-robbers-who-can-stop-time-when-they-orgasm/

#10yrsago Airbnb stealth-updates terms of service, says it’s not an insurer and requires binding arbitration https://memex.craphound.com/2016/05/20/airbnb-stealth-updates-terms-of-service-says-its-not-an-insurer-and-requires-binding-arbitration/

#10yrsago Oculus breaks promise, uses DRM to kill app that let you switch VR systems https://web.archive.org/web/20160520161939/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/new-oculus-drm-cross-platform

#10yrsago Nintendo claims ownership over fans’ Minecraft/Mario mashups https://web.archive.org/web/20160521193334/http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/nintendo-issues-copyright-claims-on-mario-themed-minecraft-videos/

#10yrsago Paypal refuses to deliver online purchases to UK addresses containing “Isis” https://b2fxxx.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-tyranny-of-algorithm-yet-again.html

#10yrsago 30 students debate mass surveillance on Capitol Hill https://web.archive.org/web/20160521000031/https://theintercept.com/2016/05/20/high-school-debaters-bring-surveillance-encryption-arguments-to-capitol-hill/

#10yrsago What the NSA’s assault on whistleblowers taught Snowden https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/22/how-pentagon-punished-nsa-whistleblowers

#10yrsago Massive, coordinated ATM heist in Japan nets $12.7 million (¥‎1.4 billion) https://web.archive.org/web/20160523102154/http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160522/p2g/00m/0dm/044000c

#5yrsago How the Sacklers rigged the game https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/23/a-bankrupt-process/#sacklers

#5yrsago Consent theater https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/20/consent-theater/

#5yrsago Debunking the arguments for vaccine apartheid https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/21/wait-your-turn/#vaccine-apartheid

#5yrsago How the filibuster dies https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/22/not-with-a-bang/#theory-of-change

#1yrago Strange Bedfellows and Long Knives https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/21/et-tu-sloppy-steve/#fractured-fairytales

#1yrago The meritocracy to eugenics pipeline https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/20/big-cornflakes-energy/#caliper-pilled


Upcoming appearances (permalink)

A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, pounding the podium.



A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)



A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)



A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/)

  • "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

  • "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

  • "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027

  • "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027



Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Third draft completed. Submitted to editor.

  • "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

  • "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING


This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.


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Ieder jaar in mei bij het einde van het seizoen sluit het Blikopener programma van SMA af met een avond die door ‘de blikopeners’ georganiseerd wordt. Dit seizoen bemachtigde Bloem de dochter van vrienden een [Meer...]

The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Under-trained techie didn't claim overtime for mistakenly failing to phone it in

WHO, ME? Welcome once again to "Who, Me?" – The Register's Monday column in which we celebrate the things you get wrong at work, and your skill at emerging unscathed. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "April," who told us that early in her career, she worked for a company that operated several medical clinics. April admitted she did not feel she was a great candidate for the job as she had recently completed her CompTIA A+ certification – one of the most entry-level certs – and had only tangential experience supporting doctors as they struggled to use a single application. That résumé was enough to score a job imaging new PCs, deploying them, and handling whatever other tasks popped up. "One day I received a task to convert an unused space into offices, so I loaded an armload of PCs and a dozen VoIP phones into my car and drove the 45 minutes to the clinic," April wrote. "The deployment went smoothly – or so I thought – because at each of the desks one of the people who knew what they were doing had already put two network drops, one for the phone and one for the PC." April was therefore able to methodically get through the job, then slow down to tackle the slightly tricky elements. "Some of the desks needed two computers," she wrote. "On those, I was expected to use the secondary Ethernet port on the phones to get internet to those PCs." April hooked everything up with time to spare and decided to put her feet up for the 15 minutes that remained until 5pm – meaning she would glide into an unusually early end to her working day. "My paid respite was interrupted quickly by a nurse who found me and let me know none of the computers in the entire clinic could access the internet," April wrote. "I wasn't trusted with any tasks that could actually break anything, so I was convinced that something major had happened like a fiber line getting cut, or an outage with our ISP," she told Who, Me? She investigated anyway and found pings produced no results, so in a panic called head office and hoped colleagues hadn't already left for the day. "I spent maybe an hour running around frantically searching for anything with one of my superiors giving me commands over the phone until someone who knew what they were doing could get to the site and take a look in person," she wrote. That person eventually arrived and quickly spotted the problem: April had made a single mistake by plugging both of one phone's Ethernet ports into the network, which disrupted every other connection. "They unplugged one and everything came back up almost instantaneously," she confessed. "I was genuinely surprised they weren't absolutely furious. They just clapped me on the back and said: 'Well, you won't do that again.'" April was so upset by her mistake that she amended her timesheet to record that she finished work at 5pm. "If anyone deserved an hour and a half of OT, it wasn't me," she wrote, adding that she soon took it upon herself to acquire a networking certification at her own expense. "I kept working there for a few more years until I became one of the people who at least somewhat knew what they were doing," she said. Have you been asked to tackle a task you weren't properly trained to complete? Or been hired without all the necessary skills? In either case, feel free to demonstrate your storytelling competence by clicking here to share your tale with Who, Me? Let's shine a light on the shoddy bosses who dumped you into these messes! ®

Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Tim is jongste advocaat van Nederland, maar staat het liefst zo min mogelijk in de rechtbank

Op zijn twintigste werd Tim Groeneweg beëdigd als advocaat in Rotterdam, als jongste ooit in Nederland. Maar voor hem draait het werk niet om die titel of leeftijd. “Het gaat om het vertrouwen dat je krijgt.”