Tag Archives: IT

Two-factor abomination

We all know that the internet is a dangerous place, with lots of bad actors trying to scam us, spam us, doxx us, phish us, and troll us. And then there’s Facebook. In many ways, however, the real cyberthreat comes instead from all the IT people ostensibly trying to keep us safe. It all startedContinue reading “Two-factor abomination”

X marks the Spott

The University of Not-Bielefeld recently wrapped up its biennial exercise in democracy by holding elections for both the Senate as well as the Boards for each of its six faculties. (And, no, that isn’t a typo in the title but a bilingual play on words. Spot does exist in German and pretty much means theContinue reading “X marks the Spott”

Severely handicapped information technology

Everyone knows the abbreviation IT these days. (But probably no one knows that it dates to 1958 …) My feeling is that its modern incarnation is often missing a few letters ahead of IT. Just like admin, IT departments love to inform us how they are only there to serve us when the reality isContinue reading “Severely handicapped information technology”

To serve and reject

Since Gutenberg, the single, greatest invention to further the nefarious causes of admin has undoubtedly been e-mail. (Now spelled increasingly frequently without the hyphen for greater efficiency.) Whereas before the printing, folding, and stuffing of countless pieces of paper into countless numbers of envelopes meant time, effort, and the omnipresent threat of paper cut relatedContinue reading “To serve and reject”

Private Data meets General Stupidity

Data privacy is a big thing in Germany. Really big. For instance, Germans guard their PIN numbers with utmost ferocity, hunching over the keypad to such a degree that it’s a wonder that there’s even enough light to see which keys they’re actually pressing. However, in addition to being a repetitive redundancy, PIN numbers areContinue reading “Private Data meets General Stupidity”

When labels meet fables

A painfully short time ago, I wrote about how the IT Department here at the University of Not-Bielefeld spent the better part of a coffee break designing a foolproof system to save its employees from themselves. Spam and phishing e-mails were multiplying exponentially to pandemic proportions so something desperate and drastic had to be done.Continue reading “When labels meet fables”

A question of form

Forms are synonymous with admin. And forms are simply awful. Period. (Although most people would agree with each of these sentiments, I strongly suspect that they have never contemplated the logical consequence of linking them together.) There is, of course, the pain inherent to any form in and of itself. However, there’s whole bunches ofContinue reading “A question of form”