Boy has this thread gotten a little hostile...

Cross platform: I agree. Not impossible but uncommon enough that worrying about it is way down the priority list.

People are the problem. You can engineer a great security system and if some employee wants to cause problems, he'll find a way. If you lock down the network so tight that it is very, very hard for anyone to do anything bad then you have created a network environment that is "hostile" for those of us that know what the hell we are doing and want to innovate and do our jobs.

I respect IT, they have a tough job. But I'm laying the groundwork right now to quit and start my own consulting business because I am sick and tired of fighting people in my own company to get the resources to do my job.

IT is so paranoid that they can't see the forest for the trees. My job title is "senior software engineer" for a NASA contractor but they actually made me fight to get admin rights on my boxes. When Symantec blocked download of netcat for some testing, I asked IT to change the virus scanner settings on my box. They said no, netcat be used for hacking. I explained to them I was not trying to hack their network, just do my job but they refused. I even pointed them to a symantec web page that recommends netcat as a troubleshooting tool. No joy.

So it has turned to a hostile relationship. I ignore their rules and get my job done. My boss knows everything I do and how I do it. If they want to fire me, that's fine by me. But because I ignore their crippling rules, I get a lot done and contribute too much to the project to fire. To be clear, I'm not doing anything that will compromise their network and I am not dealing with sensitive data. If I screw anything up, I'll pay the price and get all my privileges yanked.

But from what I hear, IT is a PITA for everyone. So hopefully in late 2008, I'm taking my act solo and working for the highest bidders.

David