For what it's worth, I appreciated reading this story. Just because it may be old hat to HN and/or ./ veterans doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a reasonable contribution.
However, I assume you are inferring that the OP made this contribution specifically to boost his/her karma points - a practice I do not support either.
It's a tiny bit annoying but I'm not asking for a refund.
"All right, I've been thinking. When HN gives you recycled content, don't make comments - make the submitter take the story back! Get mad! I don't want your damn recycled stories, what am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see Paul Graham! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson recycled content! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's going to to burn your house down! With the recycled content! I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible anecdote that burns your house down!"
A facilities manager was the one who wanted to throw him out. They've got a very different mindset. Software & hardware managers actively aided his cause.
On the last day of the canceled project, Avitzur’s manager called him into her office to say goodbye. He hadn’t completed the length of his contract, but the company would pay it in full anyway.
“Just submit your final invoice for what’s left,” she told him. That’s when it clicked: If Avitzur didn’t submit the invoice, his contract stayed in the system. And if his contract stayed in the system, his ID badge would keep getting him in the front door.
The article doesn't specify, but I would imagine that he submitted his invoice once his badge was deactivated.
Not necessarily. After some layoffs at Atari, there was a guy who daily got past the receptionist with an old badge (not electronic) and hung out in our building's machine room. He was logged onto a Vax as some innocuous account. There was a lot of turmoil, so he got away with it for a while.
When we discovered him (I was flushing old accounts, and found this guy in our Vax room who shouldn't have been there) we ejected him, and he had the chutzpah to ask for a tape of his directories.
To be fair, a computer the caliber of VAX wasn't something you just pulled out of your pocket and complained about in those days. I was only born in 1985 but I remember craving the computer so bad I'd even endure my bachelor fathers filthy apartment for hours just to play in DOS.
Some people would have open-sourced the code and then there would be no need to sneak into Apple headquarters and lurk in the bathrooms waiting for facilities people to leave. But I guess in 1994 it might not be as natural as it is now. I wish more companies would open-source their "not quite worked out" projects instead of just burying them.
Eric Simons spent two cash-strapped months living inside AOL's headquarters while trying to build his start-up. He explains how he played outside of the rules.
I don't think that example is equivalent. The ex-AOL guy was working on his own stuff and was basically squatting on AOL property. It's not clear he was accessing AOL computer systems and resources and making changes to or contributing to AOL projects. Basically, place to sleep, munch, shower and perhaps free wi-fi.
Yes, but it would still be de-facto unfeasible in most modern (well-run) organizations. It's no longer a matter of setting up a few boxes in a hallway and dodging a lone manager who happens to be patrolling. Everything from building access onwards is non-trivial to consistently bypass - even with inside help.
FWIW, I'm not sure the current culture at Apple would support this either. Every single one of the employees who aided Mr. Avitzur would essentially be putting their careers on the line. Modern day Apple is notoriously stern when it comes to employee transgressions.
and a Google Tech Talk video of Avitzur telling his story: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567...