Comment On A Support Marathon

1:53 AM, and Sacha's phone was ringing loudly. The woman on the other end of the line was trying to speak calmly, but the fear in her voice was obvious. It was clear that this was the first big production failure she'd had to deal with. [expand full text]
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Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:08 • by Benny (unregistered)
Leah, here's an idea... Grab more than one tape.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:18 • by blargy (unregistered)
... I suppose 24 is almost 25, but I still call it 24 not 25..

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:20 • by Boris (unregistered)
In soviet russia, SLA misses YOU!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:21 • by Dan (unregistered)
Hey wait... That's not Irish Girl! But a good try considering what day it is.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:24 • by Dan (unregistered)
And BTW, the WTF details are missing. What did the Guru suggest that caused Leah to run the miracle mile? What was the simple fix? WTF?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:28 • by snoofle
249899 in reply to 249896
Dan:
And BTW, the WTF details are missing. What did the Guru suggest that caused Leah to run the miracle mile? What was the simple fix? WTF?

Yeah Jake, WTF!?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:29 • by Zylon
More WTFery, less attempts at creative writing, please.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:29 • by Lame (unregistered)
Wow, all that filler and fluff text, and no WTF? Or the WTF was that there was some bug that made her run back and forth? I don't get it. Lame.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:29 • by daniel (unregistered)
I don't think this is much of a WTF, but I enjoyed fantasizing about military IT girls. Thanks anyway!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:32 • by ThomsonsPier
25km is about 15 and a half miles. That isn't a marathon, though I suppose an accurate title would be less memorable.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:36 • by Bob (unregistered)
Just give it some 9s...

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:52 • by Osno (unregistered)
So? Where's the WTF? That the tapes are too far away and this girl didn't bring more than one in the last, say, 10 runs?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:53 • by Code Dependent
Uh... huh?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 11:54 • by dpm
Three and a half hours later {...} The poor girl had run a 30 meter dash some 400 times


60 meters x 400 = 24000 meters = 24 km = 14.4 miles

400 dashes / 210 minutes = 1.9 dashes / minute = 114.3 meters / minute = 1.9 meters / second

I agree, she must be in good physical shape to keep that rate up for that long.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:00 • by ounos

Despite having heard and occasionally using all kinds of ...

Come you f#cking grammar Nazis, come! We are ready for you!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:07 • by evilspoons
Yeah, the real WTF is that she was too dense to just grab an entire box of tapes after, say, the fifth one.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:08 • by ounos
Also, I call bull. After the 5th time, she must have brought with her as many tapes as she could. If she could find anything with wheels, even a chair, that would drammatically reduce the back-and-forth. "Obviously, she run 24 km". Yeah, right.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:09 • by computerquip (unregistered)
249913 in reply to 249901
Lame:
Wow, all that filler and fluff text, and no WTF? Or the WTF was that there was some bug that made her run back and forth? I don't get it. Lame.

^

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:15 • by RogerC
249915 in reply to 249907
Osno:
So? Where's the WTF? That the tapes are too far away and this girl didn't bring more than one in the last, say, 10 runs?
Military intelligence.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:16 • by idfk (unregistered)
I don't get it.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:21 • by dkf
249917 in reply to 249911
evilspoons:
Yeah, the real WTF is that she was too dense to just grab an entire box of tapes after, say, the fifth one.
You do stupid stuff when you're panicking. But 3.5 hours is a long time to get over the panic...

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:22 • by daniel (unregistered)
TRWTF is.. er.. ?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:22 • by JamesQMurphy
The real conversation between Sacha and the mainframe guru:

Guru: It's just a faulty tape-mount issue. All you'll have to do is change this parameter in the JCL file and re-submit the job for execution.

Sacha: Ok, no problem.

Guru: Hey, who's working in the NOP tonight?

Sacha: The new girl, Leah. Why?

Guru: Wanna have some fun?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:26 • by Zach Bora (unregistered)
I want my 5 minutes back!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:28 • by Jake (unregistered)
249921 in reply to 249910
ounos:

Despite having heard and occasionally using all kinds of ...

Come you f#cking grammar Nazis, come! We are ready for you!
I *hate* Illinois grammar Nazis!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:29 • by DaveK
249922 in reply to 249915
RogerC:
Osno:
So? Where's the WTF? That the tapes are too far away and this girl didn't bring more than one in the last, say, 10 runs?
Military intelligence.
[citation]

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:30 • by Peter (unregistered)
I, pant, don't, pant, get this, pant

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:32 • by Randy (unregistered)
25km in 3 hours in high heels?? Leah should try out for the olympics or something. With a little training, she could break world records!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:35 • by Ken B (unregistered)
249926 in reply to 249909
dpm:
Three and a half hours later {...} The poor girl had run a 30 meter dash some 400 times
60 meters x 400 = 24000 meters = 24 km = 14.4 miles

400 dashes / 210 minutes = 1.9 dashes / minute = 114.3 meters / minute = 1.9 meters / second

I agree, she must be in good physical shape to keep that rate up for that long.
You forgot:

400 tapes * 10 seconds to change tape (she had a lot of practice!) = 4000 seconds (66 2/3 minutes) lost to tape changes.

210 minutes - 66 minutes = 144 minutes for running

400 dashes / 144 minutes = 2.8 dashes / minute = 167.4 meters / minute = 2.8 meters / second

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:44 • by Shnebby (unregistered)
The real WTF is he is acting like military computer techs are going to get a soap party. Those parties are reserved for real soldiers, when mistakes cost lives. These are the guys that got time out cards when they were under too much stress. I noticed he used "military" and not Marines or Army. I am guessing Air Force. Forgive me if I don't "cry you a river" after messing up SLA, at least you will still have a job.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:47 • by Zapp Brannigan (unregistered)
249928 in reply to 249927
Shnebby:
The real WTF is he is acting like military computer techs are going to get a soap party. Those parties are reserved for real soldiers, when mistakes cost lives. These are the guys that got time out cards when they were under too much stress. I noticed he used "military" and not Marines or Army. I am guessing Air Force. Forgive me if I don't "cry you a river" after messing up SLA, at least you will still have a job.
Good men didn't die face down in the mud in Vietnam so you could miss your SLA. This is your tape drive there are many like it but this one is yours.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:48 • by Anon (unregistered)
249929 in reply to 249900
Zylon:
More WTFery, less attempts at creative writing, please.


I'm not usually one of those "this WTF is crap, I want by $0.00 back", but this one is one of the worst in a long time. Really hard to read and seemed to be missing an effective punch-line.

I don't usually click on the ads on this site, but today I'm going to not click them on purpose!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:50 • by Anon (unregistered)
249930 in reply to 249929
Anon:
Zylon:
More WTFery, less attempts at creative writing, please.


I'm not usually one of those "this WTF is crap, I want by $0.00 back", but this one is one of the worst in a long time. Really hard to read and seemed to be missing an effective punch-line.

I don't usually click on the ads on this site, but today I'm going to not click them on purpose!


On the other hand, the lady in the picture is quite easy on the eye. Unlike the writing.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 12:54 • by Deke (unregistered)
hoping to have the dream where he's an eskimo


Frozen winds began to blow?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 13:40 • by AC (unregistered)
249934 in reply to 249928
Zapp Brannigan:
Good men didn't die face down in the mud in Vietnam so you could miss your SLA. This is your tape drive there are many like it but this one is yours.


This is my mag tape, this is my gun. This is for mounting. This is for fun.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 13:46 • by Buffled (unregistered)
249935 in reply to 249922
DaveK:
RogerC:
Osno:
So? Where's the WTF? That the tapes are too far away and this girl didn't bring more than one in the last, say, 10 runs?
Military intelligence.
[citation]

The real WTF is you people who leave in all the extra crap in the cut-n-paste URL. I'm referring to: &start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 13:50 • by Xanthus179
So, if that many tapes were suddenly needed for a backup, had the regular backups not been running correctly?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:05 • by topcat_arg
The Real WTF is that she's obviously blond, but the picture is from a ginger one.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:07 • by AC (unregistered)
249941 in reply to 249936
Xanthus179:
So, if that many tapes were suddenly needed for a backup, had the regular backups not been running correctly?

You youngsters probably don't know this, but there is another use for tape besides backups. Storage. We actually used to store data on tape. Because the disks (called DASD, or Directly Attached Storage Device) were so small and expensive. A standard programming assignment in university used to be to write a program that would merge sorted data from two tape drives and output it to a third tape drive, and believe me, there's no way two full tapes worth of data would fit onto your DASD.

So I'm guessing Leah's batch job was just searching through the entire data library for a particular record, which maybe didn't even exist but the program had to search for it anyway.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:15 • by Anon (unregistered)
249942 in reply to 249941
AC:
Xanthus179:
So, if that many tapes were suddenly needed for a backup, had the regular backups not been running correctly?

You youngsters probably don't know this, but there is another use for tape besides backups. Storage. We actually used to store data on tape. Because the disks (called DASD, or Directly Attached Storage Device) were so small and expensive. A standard programming assignment in university used to be to write a program that would merge sorted data from two tape drives and output it to a third tape drive, and believe me, there's no way two full tapes worth of data would fit onto your DASD.

So I'm guessing Leah's batch job was just searching through the entire data library for a particular record, which maybe didn't even exist but the program had to search for it anyway.



That would explain why she didn't bring back more than one tape at a time. Everybody else in the comments assumed the mainframe was asking for any tape, it may well have been asking for specific tapes and she couldn't take more than one tape because she didn't know which tape it would ask for next.
Thanks old man!

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:16 • by Charles400
The real WTF is that there is no Irish girl on St. Patrick's Day.

watch out where the huskies go

2009-03-17 14:21 • by RegEx fan (unregistered)
... and don't you eat that yellow snow

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:25 • by cwalken@twitter is funniest thing ever today (unregistered)
TRWTF is that once again we're continuing to propagate the whole 'haw haw girls in IT are stupid' mentality which makes us look like a bunch of knuckle dragging, soft palmed, sticky bedroom poster winners. This story wouldn't have even been posted if it wasn't a girl (or horse-ladyboy hybrid) running.

Was hoping in the end that Sacha/Guru would have at least realized some fubar in the 'fix' and that's why making the girl run was funny as they forgot to carry the one, or that WOPR became self aware and had a blood lust for tapes or something.

Knee-jerk reactionary comments may begin..... now

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:46 • by Aaron
So...

- What was the bug?
- What was the fix?
- How long was the dash really, and how many times did she actually run before realizing it would be quicker to bring over a box at a time?
- What's with the absurd amount of embellishments and filler on a story that was probably originally a few sentences comprising no more than 50 words?

I understand that stories have to be anonymized, but there's anonymization and then there's creative writing.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:52 • by Inuit (unregistered)
The real WTF is that he is dreaming to be an eskimo....

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 14:53 • by DaveK
249950 in reply to 249935
Buffled:
DaveK:
RogerC:
Osno:
So? Where's the WTF? That the tapes are too far away and this girl didn't bring more than one in the last, say, 10 runs?
Military intelligence.
[citation]

The real WTF is you people who leave in all the extra crap in the cut-n-paste URL. I'm referring to: &start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
The real WTF is that you would care. What are you doing, retyping the URL manually instead of clicking on it?

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 15:10 • by Anonymous Coward (unregistered)
plz post more of the cute redhead in business attire, kk TIA.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 15:30 • by Exick (unregistered)
TRWTF is that he mentions using all those acronyms all the time without knowing their meanings, but then like a dumbass doesn't bother explaining what SLA is.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 15:41 • by that one guy (unregistered)
249957 in reply to 249919
JamesQMurphy:
The real conversation between Sacha and the mainframe guru:

Guru: It's just a faulty tape-mount issue. All you'll have to do is change this parameter in the JCL file and re-submit the job for execution.

Sacha: Ok, no problem.

Guru: Hey, who's working in the NOP tonight?

Sacha: The new girl, Leah. Why?

Guru: Wanna have some fun?



EXACTLY! I remember doing similar when I was in the military.

Re: A Support Marathon

2009-03-17 15:55 • by AlpineR
249958 in reply to 249904
ThomsonsPier:
25km is about 15 and a half miles. That isn't a marathon, though I suppose an accurate title would be less memorable.

marathon: any long and arduous undertaking

Considering that she had to reverse her momentum after each 30 m segment, I'd say the undertaking was indeed arduous.
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