That's all well and good, but you need to raise that with your IT department if it is an inconvenience rather than complaining to us.
It seems odd that github would be blocked especially given HN isn't unless your company has some sort of pathological fear of accidental IP dilution, so perhaps it is a mistake that will be quickly corrected once pointed out?
my coworker's previous employer blocked all code-sharing and question-and-answer sites for programmers because of a pathological fear of accidental IP dilution. it's a real thing.
That it is, although what they end up doing is making people work on their work machine as well as their cellphone. Source: me, working for a defense contractor with the same insane rules, but no "hand in your phone" rules on entry.
What’s wrong with him asking for assistance? You could’ve just ignored his comment lol, no need to be so rude. Im dissappointed anyone upvotes you. This is bad behavior, shouldn’t be promoted.
I didn't read it as a request for assistance, more a complaint that we weren't doing enough to assist by providing a link that would work in the specific circumstance that the poster finds themselves in (that we could not have known about ahead of time even if it was something we should be responsible for fixing or working around).
And I did offer assistance by suggesting the only practical way forward (unless you count HN banning github links because some of its readers can't access them as a practical way forward!): discussing the matter with the IT department. Especially as it _could_ be a mistake (externally sourced block lists being overly aggressive unbeknownst to them?) rather than a deliberate action. And if it is a deliberate action the poster may need to investigate what policy the block is part of to make sure they are not accidentally breaching it by other actions.
> no need to be so rude.
I used the exact same tone in my reply as I was replying to. A little passive-aggressive maybe, but if I was rude then so was what I replied to. I know two wrongs don't make a right, but then again neither does the first one on its own so I've not made the situation any worse.
Added: if you think I'm joking or being unfair, just look at the compensation tables for just about any government outfit. They top out around a salary that is considered average for software folks in some places.
I know that that is typical, but there are exceptions, and if you work for the right agency you can be paid well, so I don't want to make any assumptions.
If he's not paid well then I hope he realizes that by merely being aware of HN and GitHub puts him in the top 10% of developers and he can do a lot better than working at a place that restricts his ability to educate himself.
Oh, I'm a contractor and I'm paid decently, but the working conditions are terrible. I've been trying to find a job outside of defense/govt work for a long time, but either the pay isn't as good (the one or two times I managed to land an offer) or I'm not a "cultural fit." Not having a network outside of the govt bubble makes it hard.
Hi there, James. I'm a software engineer at Google. I've worked with many former government and defense contractors here whom I would consider some of the best engineers. Please send me your resume (or anyone else with a similar situation!); my email is in my profile. We have offices all over the US (but not Florida) so the bay area wouldn't be a requirement.
Man, I grew up in Brevard, and I wish I could work there, but unfortunately all the software jobs are for defense contractors. You'll probably have to work remote if you want to get out of the defense bubble.
1) Not work related typically really means “not whitelisted” so often sites that would be beneficial to the employee completing their jobs will also be inaccessible.
2) Since everyone has smartphones they will just access the same sites with their personal device which is more time-consuming.
Because, the ones who block stuff often don't keep up with what is work related. So in the end you have to write lots of e-mails until they notice that you are one of the few users that should be allowed to use the whole internet.
Eventually, one day they will find out that their blocking is too strict and that they should restrict the blocking to sites which actively try to attack the users computer...
So it is more of an execution problem, but as it fails quite often you could call it stupid to invest into such a feature.
