back to article BYOD is boring - how about working on a games console instead?

Some grumble that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept deserves to be called Spend Your Own Money in recognition of the cost of providing a computer hitting workers' hip pockets instead of employers'. Such grumbles may be less sustainable now that NVIDIA's $US299 SHIELD portable gaming console can run Windows applications …

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  1. Don Jefe

    Staff Time

    The device sounds neat. But it also highlights the problems with opening operations up to policies like BYOD. It is Human nature for some people to keep pushing the envelope and trying to shoehorn in different or weird things. It inevitably ends up being a huge pain in the ass for everyone and makes for hurt feelings and disgruntled staff.

    Personally I'd rather my IT guys stay focused on business operations instead of vetting new gear all the time and redesigning policies to accommodate exceptions. Maybe I'm overly pessimistic about it, but it all seems like a big expensive hassle to me.

    1. Flywheel

      Re: Staff Time

      Indeedy .. I often used to use my Sony PSP2 as a wireless thin client and it had Skype bundled as standard. It's surprising what can be achieved with a bit of imagination and a web site formatted for a small device.

  2. Khaptain Silver badge

    BYOD - A dead end street

    If the company accepts that I use my own personal device for doing company work I wonder if the beancounters would also agree that I use my personal bank account to store companies profit ?

    I also wonder who is sponsoring El Regs to constantly push BYOD......

    1. Robert Grant
      FAIL

      Re: BYOD - A dead end street

      You know that in this very article the author mentions that it's bad that workers buy their own kit?

      Literally. This article.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: BYOD - A dead end street

        No it doesn't. Go on, quote it. I'll help you out...

        "Some grumble that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept deserves to be called Spend Your Own Money in recognition of the cost of providing a computer hitting workers' hip pockets instead of employers'."

        "Some grumble" - A negative slant on those that dare to complain.

        "Such grumbles may be less sustainable now..." - Conspiring to dismiss those complaints.

        In other words, "what are you complaining about, spend your own money and save the company money NOW!"

        It's a negative viewpoint, given that the point is to allow people to use their own if they want to, but humans being the tossers that they are, particularly ones that run companies, will surely abuse that and turn it to their advantage. Not having to pay to maintain equipment, employees stupid enough to submit their own machines to the wear and tear of working life. Yes, you can work in our sweatshop, but you're going to have to buy your own sewing machine.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: BYOD - A dead end street

          Do any of you understand how BYOD works, in a corporate environment?

          In ours, if employees CHOOSE to go down the BYOD route (they don't have to, if not they're given laptops), then they get an additional monthly payment into their salary.

          So the employee gets money to use their own equipment, because that drives hardware provision costs down.

          You also realise that it's pretty fucking unlikely that anyone is bribing the Reg to push BYOD - because who benefits? Hardware manufacturers sell less kit, to IT departments. Who do you imagine is lobbying the Reg to push this concept exactly?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: BYOD - A dead end street

            That may be how it works in your corporate environment. In ours, BYOD means that the company has total control of your device, remote wipe and all, without any "additional monthly payment".

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: BYOD - A dead end street

              "That may be how it works in your corporate environment. In ours, BYOD means that the company has total control of your device, remote wipe and all, without any "additional monthly payment"."

              This is your company having total control/remote wipe of a device YOU own?

              Why would you agree to working under those conditions?

          2. Corinne

            Re: BYOD - A dead end street

            "In ours, if employees CHOOSE to go down the BYOD route (they don't have to, if not they're given laptops), then they get an additional monthly payment into their salary"

            In yours maybe - but I've worked in companies who require you to supply your own device at your own cost. This includes mobile phones (no desk phones supplied) with an expectation that you will also pay for all your own calls, data etc. including company calls & data.

            1. James R Grinter

              Re: BYOD - A dead end street

              Another industry but... My dad was a carpenter/joiner. There were certain tools he was always expected to have/use (chisels, planes, saws, etc), and other often bigger stuff that an employer would provide (bandsaws, circular saws, planing machines) in the workshop. Some things he'd use of his own because they were just better or more comfortable- he could get the job done better or easier.

              So I don't really find it too surprising that, if a company is employing staff for their skills and talent, rather than just as "warm bodies" on seats, that they might want to let them use their preferred tools where it is reasonable and practical to do so.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: BYOD - A dead end street

              "In yours maybe - but I've worked in companies who require you to supply your own device at your own cost. This includes mobile phones (no desk phones supplied) with an expectation that you will also pay for all your own calls, data etc. including company calls & data."

              But that isn't BYOD. That's just your company being an arse.

    2. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)
      FAIL

      Re: BYOD - A dead end street

      No-one's paying us to do anything regarding BYOD. Sheesh!

      BYOD is an idea. It's out there. Vendors are catering to it and telling us hacks it's impossible to hire anyone under 30 without it.

      My intent here was to look at it from a different view: would the concept be so viable if people wanted a games console?

  3. Christian Berger

    You'd "simply" have to modify/augment the GUIs

    Since on Windows you have a few common GUI toolkits (some people say Windows mostly is a GUI toolkit) you can fairly easily find out where your GUI elements are. Then you can either translate those elements into those usable with mobile devices, or make a scrolling/panning solution which automagically guesses which areas you want to have.

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