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Comment by kylek | Hacker News Reader

I must say...being a sysadmin with the ability to ssh into developers' laptops remotely in our domain...this is one of the more fun commands ;)

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I hope that ssh'ing into anyone's laptop using your sysadmin credentials in order to play a prank is a fireable offense at your company.

Agree. Though until people never mess up their computers, we'll always need root. All super user interactions should be logged and audited, always. Not just "this was logged..." Which most people know means no one will ever look at it. But if everyone knew that was backed up with a call as to why that interaction happened with no associated case, etc.

You're in the minority then... My original comment has been downvoted quite a bit. It's strange to me that people think this is okay. If someone is willing to use that power for a prank, it seems to me more likely that they'll use it for... whatever.

I like a good prank. Leave your screen unlocked? You deserve the abuse you get. :) But accessing my laptop in this way is just creepy.

I don't agree with your logic and think you need a more nuanced sense of humor. Spying on someone remotely? Fireable offense. Remotely kicking off speech utils between people on a team once? Not so much.

Disclaimer: I have managed tech teams before. It is better to forgive then have knee jerk managerial reactions.

Sure, getting fired for doing it the first time would definitely be a bit strong. However, an admin who was regularly using his remote management capabilities to play pranks I would hope would be let go.

We agree on this.

I guess I'll take the downvotes and somewhat agree with them; probably not as far as to say a fireable matter for the first offense. Definitely a strong and unambiguous warning/disciplinary action (repeat offender, however? Fired)

Sorry, I get office pranks but there's no reason to be doing anything on an end-user's workstation without their permission or consent that isn't maintenance or security related. I guess I lack a sense of humor, but I've also seen too many instances where a prank on someone's machine resulted in severely unintended consequences and breaches of trust that rippled through the team.

Just not worth it, IMO.

...and jumping on someone's unlocked computer without authorization is different but OK? right...here's your sign

Jumping on an unlocked computer is more of an "equal opportunity" thing. Only a handful of people in a company (IT) have the ability to remotely manage employees workstations. That creates an imbalance of power that needs to be respected. Using it for pranks against people who don't have that power isn't really fair.

That said, I don't really find the whole "recursihoffing unlocked laptops" thing all that funny either, but it doesn't bother me as much.

Count me on your side (former admin--windows, alas). It always seemed to me to be kind of a bullying thing to do when the mark has less privileges as you. Seems like if they can't retaliate in kind, it's just not as fun. I'm sure there are people who have widely varying views on this, though.

> former admin--windows, alas.

Honest question, why the need to apologize for being a former Windows admin?

And I hope that I would get fired for a little rare, light-hearted humor as I wouldn't want to work there anyways. Chill out, winston.

> Chill out, winston

Please don't. This comment would be fine with just the first sentence.

"Chill out, winston"

It's a British expression made popular by a movie. He is not calling out the guy by his first name.

Yes, I know. But telling someone to "chill out" is a jab and superfluous.

People do this kind of thing in online comments all the time, to make the other person look bad and rub in a little extra insult. Any one comment isn't much, of course, but they compound into a degraded discourse, and all of it goes against the civility we try to practice here.

Fair enough. I didn't want you to think he was doxing someone.

Ah, I see. Probably should've left Winston out of this :)

I, for one, neither wish ill will on people I don't know, nor do I wish a miserable workplace with uptight, excessively punitive policies on anyone.

I think you're right. But I also have the luxury to work in a company where not one except me has root on my work computer.

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