Lockdown

My job has some pretty strict security policies, and they have decided to really crack down on everyone, to make sure that we are in compliance. It should be a good thing, and it is important, but some things go a bit far. They are taking away Google Earth. We tend to use it a lot for seeing what kind of imagery is available, and for the nice 3D terrain. We have a couple of pro licenses, which we keep, but the free ones are out. ITunes is also out,as well as any other program not bought by corporate. They promised tighter internet filters, to make sure that no one can use the internet. Some people said that they would be looking for new jobs because the policies will be so strict.

People like to listen to music, and there are a lot of people that use free programs to get work done. It has always been possible in the past to install trial versions of software to see if it will do what we need. Now we need to have the IT group investigate it first, then install it if they see it as necessary. Many times we realize there is something to improve the process near the end, and we don't have time for this bureaucracy.

URS is still fairly young as a large company, and it has remained fairly agile, but with all the lock downs, they will become less able to deal with new technology in a timely manner, and this will make them less competitive in the long run. I suppose that it happens to most large companies, it seems almost inevitable.

Democrats win

It turns out that most of my votes don't seem to count for much. A lot of people have said that Democrats votes don't count in Utah, but it turns out that Utah doesn't count for much anyway. I've heard that the electoral college is a good institution, however I feel that it is an antiquated system that should be given over to popular vote. The popular vote is close, but the electoral college is very skewed toward Obama. That just doesn't seem right to me. Plus if the vote was simply a popular count, everyone's vote would count, no matter which state, or where they lived. This would make it more important that every state had good security and standards for taking and counting votes, but I'm sure that is something that we could put together.

While I am very worried about many of the promises Obama has made, I can't really complain until he actually gets into the office and starts changing things. He may end up not being as bad as he sounded at times. He did say that we wanted to improve situations in the country, and some of his ideas actually sounded worth while. I am against his ideas of socialism and redistributing the wealth. I believe that since the government is doing so much to help people, we don't get the chance to help each other as much. I believe that as a people, without government influence, we would take better care of people, and teach them to take care of themselves better, than the government does. Before we had all of these programs, people helped each other, and they needed to know their neighbors, and help them, so that when they needed help, it would be there. It was more important to keep good ties with Family for the same reasons. Now people have no need of each other, because they can just get hand outs from the government. And now it may only get worse. I just wish that I had the choice of who to help if I have the money, rather than being taxed, and being forced to help, while losing all of the blessings.