Regarding the whole NCAA bracket thing (OK, this is actually a labor post):

[Brickbat]

I was listening to NPR's Marketplace this morning and they had a bit on CBS' decision to stream all the games online. They were talking about how it was an unusual but ultimately lucrative decision for CBS, because it didn't take away from the TV vierwership. So many of the games in the first couple rounds are played during the day, and so many people watched online...at work.

"And there was a little 'boss button' on the screen, wasn't there?" the Marketplace host asked.

The CBS spokesman cackled and wheezed with mirth. "Yes, yes," he panted, hardly able to get the words out because he was so overcome with delight, "Yes, you could press the 'boss button' and that would bring a spreadsheet up on the page and cover the screen! Ha, ha, ha!"

Yeah -- teachers, carpenters, cops, fire fighters, sewer workers, garbage haulers, pipefitters, plumbers, steelworkers...they're the lazy ones looking to game the system.

Fucking capitalism.

(ETA: And yeah, this was kind of a bait-and-switch OP subject. Sorry.)

[emulatorloo]

1. I don't follow you. "Boss Key" has been around for ever

It is a standard joke that games etc put into their software,

Sounds like they were joking about that. I don't understand how you think it is "anti-labor".

Wikipedia article on Boss Key


Boss key
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key

A boss key is a special keyboard shortcut used in computer games or other programs to quickly hide the program and possibly display a special screen that appears to be a normal productivity program (such as a spreadsheet application). One of the earliest implementations was by Friendlyware,<1> a suite of entertainment and general interest programs written in BASIC and sold with the original IBM AT and XT computers from 1982 to 1985. When activated (by pressing F10), an ASCII bar graph with generic "Productivity" and "Time" labels appeared. Pressing F10 again would return to the Friendlyware application.

In computer games

The purpose of the boss key is to make it appear to superiors and coworkers that an employee is doing his or her job, when they are actually playing games or using the Internet for non work-related tasks. This was a fairly common feature in early computer games for personal computers (discounting the Internet part, which wasn't available yet), when most boss keys were used to show dummy DOS prompts. The use has faded somewhat as modern multitasking operating systems have evolved. However, some programs still retain a boss key feature, such as instant messaging clients or their add-ons. The most current prominent example of a boss key is CBS Sports' "boss button," which is available in the window of their popular streaming coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. N-game by metanet software allows you to press the tab key to put the game in a "boss mode" setting.

Certain computer games have taken the idea of the boss key and used it to comic effect. Infocom's adult-themed Leather Goddesses of Phobos (only the IBM PC version) had a boss key which would hide the game and show a screen designed to look like a Cornerstone database view. Upon closer inspection, however, the screen was not exactly boss safe, being populated with order info on rather ridiculous adult items, including an "inflatable milkman". Sierra On-Line's comedy/sci-fi adventure game Space Quest III had a so-called boss key available from the game's pulldown menu. However, when the user selected it, the screen would cut to black and inform the user that his or her boss wouldn't be happy if he or she knew how long the user had been playing the game. It then displayed the total elapsed game time.

[MattSh]

2. Well...

A boss key only works if you're sitting behind a computer all day.

No computer, no boss key.

These people...

===> Yeah -- teachers, carpenters, cops, fire fighters, sewer workers, garbage haulers, pipefitters, plumbers, steelworkers...they're the lazy ones looking to game the system.

...don't sit behind a computer all day.

[emulatorloo]

3. The part I don't get - did the CBS and MarketPlace attack teachers, cops, firefighters etc

or did they just joke about the "Boss Key"?

[Brickbat]

4. I'm commenting on the fact that the people who are currently being demonized for being lazy and

overpaid in our culture (and who have been demonized as such for some time) are not the ones sitting behind computers using "boss keys." I know about the idea of a "boss key" -- I'm objecting to the culture that treats office workers screwing around as a funny obvious given, but that freaks out when two people are filling a pothole ("one to fill it and one to watch!").

[emulatorloo]

5. Thanks, I appreciate it. n/t

[Brickbat]

6. You're welcome!

:toast:

[Brickbat]

7. Shameless kick.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. ALT-TAB

Use it all the time :)