(August 22, 1997, 4:14pm EDT)

It's a shame how easily people get scared.

I just got fired today from my (new) job because I pulled one of the cover panels off a computer to look inside.

Okay, maybe that's oversimplifying it a bit. This is what I did:

1) Apparrently computers of this type can (but weren't) be configured to shut down automatically if opened (would have been nice if someone told me this) -- and the fact that I'd opened it (which started the whole thing) was discovered because one of the 4 corners of the panel wasn't reseated properly when I put it back.
I think it was that same night that me and another co-worker were trying to open what is referred to as the "disk farm" (mother-of-all-RAIDs type deal) -- it didn't happen.... but we had no impression that it would cause any problems, or it wouldn't have been done.

2) There's a proxy server that everybody uses to access the Web, and there's 1 login name and password that everybody uses to get through the proxy. I checked the IP address of the proxy in the netscape configuration file, and telnetted through it to my unix shell account to read my mail, and while I was there I also stopped in irc. (I've still seen nothing to indicate this is against policy).

3) I have a personal web page that could possibly offend higher management.

Isn't it a lovely world we live in ?

The company I worked for that fired me for opening this computer was comprised of Marie Hartlein, and her husband. I can't remember her husband's first name, but he's the one that fired me. Their company existed primarily to staff McNeil Pharmaceutical's computer room, where I was contracted to work, and where the above incidents took place. McNeil has apparently since merged, and become Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical.

I maintain my grudge.