I’ve lived here a few years, now, and I still get quite confused as to the mentality of the people here. 

I’m not quite certain how this snuck in, or how there was no coverage for it, or how it even managed to get voted in.  I do know that no one put any thought into the ramifications of what they were doing.

What am I talking about?  The ammendment to the Texas Constitution requiring all computer repair personnel to have a Criminal Justice degree or be a licensed Private investigator.

Don’t believe me?  Check it out: IT Wire is carrying the story.  I’m trying to find even a hint of it in the local news; but, interestingly, the news services here are quite silent about it. 

Some say, “Well, it depends on what you mean by investigation.”  The reality is - any time you open a non-pulic computer up and access its hard drive, you have full, unharnessed access to the data.  This, therefor, would require a license.  Whether you access that data or not is a moot point - the fact of the matter is, you could. As well, please see the definitions listed below. It is impossible to troubleshoot without “investigating”.

By that thinking, and by the thinking of this most inane ammendment…

It strikes me…

That every single person in City Hall’s IT department is doing their job illegally, right this moment.

Every person at Geek Squad, every person in any corporate IT department, any person at the television stations, radio stations or other IT departments, anyone doing anything to access a computer that is non-pulic that requires troubleshooting (hello, troubleshooting is most definitely “investigating”) - is now doing their jobs illegally in the state of Texas.

The other thing that makes me shake my head in bafflement…how could they have thought this was a good idea?  It effectively brings the state of Texas to a screeching halt technologically for 2 to three years while computer technicians scrabble to get the degrees/licenses required to do their job.

In addition, by this thinking - it could be stretched by a small margin to require any person with any access to any non-public machine containing any confidential data (MD5 keys, firewall, routing, IP addresses, not to mention computers with corporate documents, etc - not just personal machines) to obtain a license/degree.  Myself and other engineers who have to troubleshoot for a living (corporate, non-public machines) often have confidential data at our fingertips while we drag our way through customer’s setups to figure out the kink that is causing the problem…therefor…we, too, would be unable to do our jobs in the state of Texas until we obtained said degrees/licensure.

Exactly how, pray tell, was this thought out?

Note: The IJ has a post online about it as well.

By the way - read carefully on the IJ one, it makes it clear that not only the repair personnel are held accountable.  Anyone who uses an unlicensed shop/person can also be subjected to the penalties.

Definitions:
Investigation: 

Troubleshooting:

 Ergo - one must investigate to successfully troubleshoot.

Oh I am so ready to spit nails.

Last week TWC kills my account for no reason - and restores it in 24 hours.

Today I come home to find a notice on my door of termination of service from the gas service. Um.

A) no previous notice that they were even considering it - just BLAM done
B) I pay my bills in full every month

I have a bank statement upon bank statement that shows quite clearly that I’ve never missed a payment.

Yeah, I’m livid. No shower tonight unless I want it ice cold. No dinner tonight unless I cook it in the microwave. Bright side - at least I just have to deal with no dinner and no shower instead of dead of winter and no heat, no dinner and no shower.

Bet your tukus I’m going to be on the phone first thing in the morning getting restitution, though.