White Lies Help Stressed Computer Users

An anonymous reader writes "Simple tricks allow one to appear to be hard at work in the office while actually forwarding calls, e-mails and instant messages to your mobile phone. One can backdate e-mails through rolling back a computer's built-in clock or use background phone noises to concoct convincing excuses not to go to work."

Backdate e-mails

[baadger]

"One can backdate e-mails through rolling back a computer's built-in clock"

Unfortunately "Received:" headers add their own date e.g.

Received: from mta02-winn.ispmail.ntl.com (mta02-winn.ispmail.ntl.com [81.103.221.42]) by mx2.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id xxxxxxxxxxxx for ; Sun, 17 Jul 2005 03:56:09 -0400 (EDT)

Re:Why?!!!

[wfberg]

Why aren't the message times marked by the SMTP server itself?

They are, just look for the Received: header. Some software (Outlook) makes it hard to look at these headers, but they are there.

Even then, why does the SMTP server accept e-mails from the past?

Because of the store-and-forward nature of SMTP. In a typical situation, your mail is first delivered to your local SMTP server and then sent to the remote SMTP server. And some sites have complicated setups with multiple servers even within their own organization forwarding the messages a few times. Since delays and downtime can creep in a few places, there's no good reason to deny "old" messages. Although unlikely dates are usually flagges by anti-spam software as being suspicious.

More generally, SMTP doesn't try to check the authenticity of message headers or content in any way. Which is why you can also "forge" the From-address, etc.

Tricks

[Ratbert42]

I know plenty of guys that leave their desk set up so you'd have no idea they left for the day. A jacket on the back of their chair, a cup of coffee next to the keyboard, an open document, keys on the desk, etc.

One I discovered is that you can take a full-sized screenshot and use Windows XP's built-in slideshow screensaver to display that as a locked screensaver. Hide your clock, take a shot of a Word document, and your locked, idle PC looks like you're in the middle of work.

Re:How to use this to make workers look bad

[kryten_nl]

Everyone now will be looking for the back office Richard Pryor type (I forgot the name of the movie) as a scapegoat.
Superman 3 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086393/ [imdb.com]

American workers are already being called the laziest in the world (by conservatives, mind you) while statistics show them to be among the most productive (overall, if not per hour). If we're such collective goof offs then why are we so productive?

Because:

1. You don't have as much vacation days as Europeans
2. Minimum wages are so low and without a wellfare state, some people have to work two jobs just to get by.
3. You have this collective 'Best <insert noun> of the world' attitude

Another ad on /.

[LBt1st]

Seemed more like an ad for a book. I'll admit I only read half TFA because you need javascript enabled just to view the 2nd page. -Kevin

Tip for mobiles in the UK

[caluml]

Tip: In the UK, forward your mobile to a friend, and get them to forward back to you. Anyone dialling either of you will get the "network error" message.

Re:How to use this to make workers look bad

[erlenic]

I also have a problem with the minimum wage. Specifically, having one is a bad idea. Read Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly [gmu.edu]. It might open your eyes.

Or actually...

[Spy der Mann]

it could be that bosses have unrealistic expectations about their employees in the information age *cough* Electronic Arts *cough*