At my company the law of the land is spelled out -- if you write an application on your own time and only using your person equipment, then you will own it. If you use any work related equipment or work on it during hours when you are on duty, then they own it.

I know at least two people who have done this. Both were fired as soon as the event was found out.

Nope, they did not use the interface as intended. They requested the interface be modified with 'soft' changes, then exploited the soft changes.

"The pair, according to police, had knowledge of a software glitch in one of the high-bet slot machines. In order to expose the glitch, a special "double-up" feature had to be internally activated. The men persuaded casino technicians to alter "soft" options on the machines, such as volume and screen brightness controls. Such perks aren't unusual for high-rollers, who can wager anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars in one day.

One Meadows employee, who was not criminally charged or accused of wrongdoing, agreed to enable the double-up feature on the machine with the glitch.

Normally, such a feature would allow a player to risk doubling his winnings or potentially losing them all. The double-up feature isn't usually enabled on the machines in part because it's unpopular with most gamblers, who are unwilling to risk large amounts of money.

When the correct sequence of buttons was pushed, the machine displayed false double jackpots. No casino officials noticed because the bogus jackpots weren't being recorded in the machine's internal system.

Throughout April 2009, Mr. Kane frequented Las Vegas casinos, practicing his technique in a "test run," according to authorities, before calling his friend Mr. Nestor in Pennsylvania.

From May 1 to June 15 in 2009, agents said Mr. Nestor joined Mr. Kane in Las Vegas, where the duo allegedly cashed in phony jackpots "over and over again" and perfected a scheme to exploit the same glitch in casinos across the world."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11004/1115414-58.stm#ixzz1AMex9IZo

I would agree with you. But if you RTFA, you will see it was a case of these guys exploiting a 'software error'.

"The pair, according to police, had knowledge of a software glitch in one of the high-bet slot machines. In order to expose the glitch, a special "double-up" feature had to be internally activated. The men persuaded casino technicians to alter "soft" options on the machines, such as volume and screen brightness controls. Such perks aren't unusual for high-rollers, who can wager anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars in one day.

One Meadows employee, who was not criminally charged or accused of wrongdoing, agreed to enable the double-up feature on the machine with the glitch.

Normally, such a feature would allow a player to risk doubling his winnings or potentially losing them all. The double-up feature isn't usually enabled on the machines in part because it's unpopular with most gamblers, who are unwilling to risk large amounts of money.

When the correct sequence of buttons was pushed, the machine displayed false double jackpots. No casino officials noticed because the bogus jackpots weren't being recorded in the machine's internal system.

Throughout April 2009, Mr. Kane frequented Las Vegas casinos, practicing his technique in a "test run," according to authorities, before calling his friend Mr. Nestor in Pennsylvania.

From May 1 to June 15 in 2009, agents said Mr. Nestor joined Mr. Kane in Las Vegas, where the duo allegedly cashed in phony jackpots "over and over again" and perfected a scheme to exploit the same glitch in casinos across the world.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11004/1115414-58.stm#ixzz1AMex9IZo"

"The best ones didn't have a cert or degree or anything."
Wow, took the words out of my mouth. I interviewed a guy who had a cert in solaris and windows. Looked great, then found he knew neither of them very well. After that I take certs with a grain of salt.

Wow that brings back memories. I was station in the UK in the late 80's through 91. I always had a good time at the Imperial War Museum. Defintely agree, find a local pub.

I'm not a huge fan of mainframes. But you are right on the money -- "buy the right tool for the right purpose." Unfortunately many companies get rid of mainframes, Unix, etc to follow the dollar. Then they are scrambling to write applications to do the same thing. Seeing more and more companies jumping on the Linux band-wagon. I like Linux, but it is not always the answer. Guess I am getting old and cranky. :)

Well said. I spent 14 years and finally got out after being offered a better job. I come from the mid-west where the only opportuntiy was farming and a factory. I 've visited several different countries and obtained a couple of different degrees, all thanks to Uncle Sam.

A couple of books go without mentioning for Unix Admins: sed & awk, O'Riley, Solaris Internals, Unix Internals, sendmail, Perl Core Language and Java. Also enjoy PANIC!, Sun Performance and Tuning, Blueprints for High Availability - These are outdated but still come in handy.

Wife works for the State of NJ. She feels the same way. They help people who deserve to be fired but does nothing for pay raises, health care, etc.