Comment On Powerful Stupidity

The Nerve:

But I don't get it.

1) The boss decided that they couldn't have an emergency cutoff switch.
2) Boss hires electrician to eliminate the switch.
3) Electrician doesn't understand electricity and destroys UPS in elimination of switch?
4) Without UPS, servers magically draw more current than with UPS and trips circuit breaker?

The Nerve:

But I don't get it.

1) The boss decided that they couldn't have an emergency cutoff switch.
2) Boss hires electrician to eliminate the switch.
3) Electrician doesn't understand electricity and destroys UPS in elimination of switch?
4) Without UPS, servers magically draw more current than with UPS and trips circuit breaker?

Stupid:

I don't get it

Robert:

TRWTF is saving throws

anoldhacker:

Sorry, TRWTF was letting anyone who would drill into a live UPS touch anything else in the building, ever again, starting RIGHT NOW. I don't care if they got things back online quicker with what they did. They were clearly lucky.

Simon:

The Big Red Button
“Simon, can you ping the exchange server?”
I wrestled myself away from thedailywtf.com to open a command prompt and perform the necessary.
“No Noel, I can’t” I said, growing concerned. Exchange servers work at their finest when they are contactable.
“Simon, can you ping the file server?”
I tapped. Request timed out. “No Noel, I can’t.” I checked an app server. Same result.
“Noel – “ I turned to my left to discuss possible root causes and best strategies. I found an overturned wheelie chair and a heavyset yet determined man travelling towards the server room at a not inconsiderable pace. I quickly considered my options. Soon, close to two hundred of our dear users would discover that the internet was no longer accessible. Shortly thereafter they’d discover that work was impossible. To be the sole sysadmin at base camp in such a situation is unwise. I ran to the secure server room and sealed the door behind me.
Inside I found the stream of language I’d hoped to avoid outside. Noel was shouting at a wall in a manner that was likely to cause spontaneous animation, followed shortly by the first building-led workplace harassment claim. This was growing odd and I was still relatively new to the organisation. I edged closer.
Noel’s bulk was concealing an electrician. A terrified electrician, the colour of a monthlong South African vacation recently drained from his face. He cowered, clutching a drill with a grip implying he no longer knew how to release the hand.
“What in the name of sanity had you drilling into a metal box with uninterruptible power supply clearly labelled on it? You cut power to the whole room!”
Noel ran out of swear words for just long enough to accidentally update me on the root cause. He then tapped into a previously unused reserve of profanity and continued with renewed vigour.
Time passed.
Parentage was questioned.
An anatomically impossible suggestion was made involving the drill.
I tried the power switch on a nearby backup drive. No joy.
“Noel, still no juice!” I said, wary while interrupting him midstream. I’ll spare the gentle reader Noel’s exact phrasing, suffice it to say he did not welcome the news.
Our electrician may have been motivated by a sense of professionalism. I feel it more likely he was spurred on by fear of Noel. Whatever the cause he made a sudden and unexpected dart for the circuit breaker, flipping a switch and causing a crescendo of flashing lights and churning disks. Noel stopped.
“Right Simon, this is gonna be messy. Odds are not all of them will come up and the sales guys are probably shouting by now. We’ll have to...”
Noel stopped, listening. It was quiet. A little too quiet. The noise that failed to envelop us was noted as entirely unlike what one would expect spinning discs to make. The loose change in our electrician’s pocket jangled as he shook. He flipped the circuit breaker again. Same result. His hand reached for the third attempt but was stayed by Noel. Servers don’t especially enjoy unexpected powerdowns and it was Noel’s opinion that one every few minutes would increase his workload unduly.
“It can’t handle the load” was the reasoned root cause as identified by our electrician. Noel looked to the ceiling. Some fifteen feet above us ran the twist in plugs feeding power to the organisation’s IT infrastructure. A large man, in his kinder moments he referred to me as a skinny runt who probably had worms. Without saying anything I realised I would be the one to rise to the challenge in a rather literal sense. He still objected when I stood on his shoulder, but seemed much relieved when we restored power, one bay at a time.
So what was the root cause? The facilities department had learned of the existence of a large red emergency power stop button by the server room main entrance. True, the room was accessible to only seven and we were fully briefed as to its presence and function, but this was deemed an unacceptable risk. They decided a cover was required, and required urgently. So urgently in fact that they broke change control and sent in an electrician to work on a live power box at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon. Since then the electrician moved on, facilities were barred from entering unescorted, Noel’s blood pressure declined and I drafted a thoroughly plausible explanation as to why my shoeprints could be found above the two metre level.

The Nerve:

anoldhacker:

Sorry, TRWTF was letting anyone who would drill into a live UPS touch anything else in the building, ever again, starting RIGHT NOW. I don't care if they got things back online quicker with what they did. They were clearly lucky.

I'm making a major assumption here in thinking this story is real, but it would seem that the power was cut when he flipped the circuit breaker. That is stupidity on the level of not understanding how cutting power is going to affect regular business operations, but NOT stupidity on the level of a licensed electrician not understanding that he needs to cut off power before starting work. I am not a licensed electrician, and I know that much.

how many users were useless at the moment

Eaten by a Grue:

how many users were useless at the moment

Of course, he probably neglected to mention how many users had been useless before the power was cut.

and decided to do an end-run past change-control to "fix" it

They decided a cover was required

The Nerve:

anoldhacker:

Sorry, TRWTF was letting anyone who would drill into a live UPS touch anything else in the building, ever again, starting RIGHT NOW. I don't care if they got things back online quicker with what they did. They were clearly lucky.

I'm making a major assumption here in thinking this story is real, but it would seem that the power was cut when he flipped the circuit breaker. That is stupidity on the level of not understanding how cutting power is going to affect regular business operations, but NOT stupidity on the level of a licensed electrician not understanding that he needs to cut off power before starting work. I am not a licensed electrician, and I know that much.

It was hectic, and he may have trampled an intern.

AA:

The Nerve:

anoldhacker:

Sorry, TRWTF was letting anyone who would drill into a live UPS touch anything else in the building, ever again, starting RIGHT NOW. I don't care if they got things back online quicker with what they did. They were clearly lucky.

I'm making a major assumption here in thinking this story is real, but it would seem that the power was cut when he flipped the circuit breaker. That is stupidity on the level of not understanding how cutting power is going to affect regular business operations, but NOT stupidity on the level of a licensed electrician not understanding that he needs to cut off power before starting work. I am not a licensed electrician, and I know that much.

Do you know enough to realize that drilling into a box that powers the server room when the power is out is still a bad idea even if you've disconnected said box from the mains?

The Nerve:

Really confused about the units...how does "above the two metre level" (6.6 feet) translated to 15 feet? And why would an Englishman mix the two?

CT:

Even with the original story posted, I still don't get how we go from "big red switch next to the door needs a cover" to "some electrician drilled into a UPS". Do these two parts of the story relate to each other at all ? Did the electrician plan to use parts of the UPS to fashion a make-shift cover ? Why would he drill into the UPS instead of unscrewing it's screws ?

None of this makes any sense. Terrible submission made worse by the editor.

CT:

Even with the original story posted, I still don't get how we go from "big red switch next to the door needs a cover" to "some electrician drilled into a UPS".

Ren:

Yes, the original story is much, much better written. It should be a featured comment ASAP.

The copywriting here almost equals the horrible standards of /b/, and that's terrible.

CT:

Even with the original story posted, I still don't get how we go from "big red switch next to the door needs a cover" to "some electrician drilled into a UPS". Do these two parts of the story relate to each other at all ? Did the electrician plan to use parts of the UPS to fashion a make-shift cover ? Why would he drill into the UPS instead of unscrewing it's screws ?

None of this makes any sense. Terrible submission made worse by the editor.

Hear a Blog - We are currently narrating this post.

Anon:

TRWTF is this story

Ren:

Yes, the original story is much, much better written. It should be a featured comment ASAP.

The copywriting here almost equals the horrible standards of /b/, and that's terrible.

Udas Riest:

Anon:

TRWTF is this story

TRWTF is Remy Porter.

The:

THIS is the featured comment? This article could not get any stupider.