So many things conspiring to make life difficult today…no point in going into details, I just wanted to let out a little virtual scream of frustration at the whole unfortunate business.

So, gah!

Done.

To update: today’s complaint has largely to do with the circuitous paths one is required to take to navigate and eventually comply with the secuity measures put in place by a large, quasi-corporate organization’s information technology infrastructure.

I spent about eight hours today largely sitting on my hands waiting for the IT folks to try and solve a problem that ended up being the result of administrator error that no one will own up to. Somebody somewhere “”terminated*”” the electronic existence of my newly renewed smart card, which is required for access to any computer system associated with the larger network. The card is also necessary for physical access to the facility, though that only requires being examined by human eyeballs. I would have been much more screwed if there were locks keyed to the card as well.

Pisses me off, really. Not so much the draconian security measures , but the fact that somebody short circuited my legitimate access and no one will own up to the mistake.

Also pissing me off is the esoteric corporate password policy, which didn’t get in the way of anything today, but constantly does otherwise. And, based on reading I’ve done on security theory, it’s not particularly effective.

It seems xkcd reads the same white papers I do, which led to this particularly interesting comic.

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* – I actually went and logged into the electronic HR file system to make sure there wasn’t a personnel action ending my employment; I was almost afraid someone accidentally Miltoned me.