• Meep (unregistered) in reply to the beholder
    the beholder:
    sukru:
    Richard:
    Most of those old beige boxes with the mechanical power switches, you could release the button and push it again quickly enough to prevent a power-down.

    You might want to practice a few times before doing it on a production server, though.

    I used to do this all the time! As long as you can re-press the buttons before the capacitors discharge, nothing happened.
    I did it several times too when those buttons were the norm, but Paul couldn't have the luxury. It wasn't his machine, so he couldn't be sure how much the button would push back until it reached the stage where you have to press it again.

    The article calls the lack of ACPI a "small blessing of old hardware". I have to disagree. Were they using newer hardware Paul would release the button at Manny's scream and all would be ok.

    It'd start to hibernate or some shite. ACPI pretty much means that power button does whatever it feels like.

  • Meep (unregistered) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Remy Porter:
    I can see it now, one of these people reads TDWTF today, and goes, "What? Holy crap, that guy still believes that was a real production server? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

    Best. Prank. Ever.

    Sadly, it probably wasn't.

    I thought it was a prank, too, until they got him a bucket and decided someone else had to flush the bucket.

    No rule that says you can't prank several people.

  • Meep (unregistered) in reply to Sockatume
    Sockatume:
    Of course, MacGuyver would've opened up the machine and hotwired the power switch.

    Or just get a wooden dowel or metal rod and jam it into the power switch. You could test it on another computer.

  • (cs)

    I call BS on this story.. A little too much narrative here.

  • Patrick (unregistered) in reply to Rhywden
    Rhywden:
    Simon Peyote Joints:
    I'm no expert - wouldn't holding the power button for 5 seconds on most machines trigger a hard shutdown?
    Story covers that one: "No ACPI".
    And you know what that means. If you can release the button and re-press it fast enough (which is kinda easy to do) you can then let go without powering down the machine.
  • Val (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    The threat would have been enough to release the button. "Good luck in court, asshole" followed by releasing the button and walking out.

    Any company that stupid DESERVES to lose millions of dollars.

    Well, imagine yourself in the place of his co-workers. Would you have liked if some random new guy would destroy your job just because he was feeling smug?

  • Val (unregistered) in reply to Patrick
    Patrick:
    Rhywden:
    Simon Peyote Joints:
    I'm no expert - wouldn't holding the power button for 5 seconds on most machines trigger a hard shutdown?
    Story covers that one: "No ACPI".
    And you know what that means. If you can release the button and re-press it fast enough (which is kinda easy to do) you can then let go without powering down the machine.

    Would you take your chances with 10 million USD in the equation?

  • (cs) in reply to Val
    Val:
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    The threat would have been enough to release the button. "Good luck in court, asshole" followed by releasing the button and walking out.

    Any company that stupid DESERVES to lose millions of dollars.

    Well, imagine yourself in the place of his co-workers. Would you have liked if some random new guy would destroy your job just because he was feeling smug?

    I suppose not, but again any company that keeps everything that keeps them afloat on an unmarked computer situated in a random cubicle where anyone can turn it off doesn't deserve to stay in business. That kind of stupidity should not be rewarded, it should be punished swiftly and decisively as a warning to other idiots that such behavior is NOT tolerated.

  • Chuck Conway (unregistered)

    The real WTF was he did not quit the place.

  • Bill C. (unregistered) in reply to Patrick
    Patrick:
    If you can release the button and re-press it fast enough
    I'm equipped to do that.
    Patrick:
    (which is kinda easy to do)
    What? Hey! Way to destroy a man's ego.
  • DavidN (unregistered)

    As long as he left guilt-free in the end.

  • Konrad (unregistered) in reply to hobbes

    I'm guessing it was an AT power supply, not an ATX power supply. Meaning that the power button was linked directly to the power supply, not to the motherboard.

  • (cs)

    Not a single comment mentioning molly-guards? Damn kids. I'm assigning all of you a five-page essay on the Jargon File.

  • Neil (unregistered) in reply to Neil
    Neil:
    I'm looking at you, <!-- <b>Tokyo</b> &amp; <b>Beijing</b> - see you at <a href="http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/QCon-Tokyo-2012--QCon-Beijing-2012.aspx">QCon</a> (April 16-20) -->
    Well, I'm not any more, this has since been fixed. (But today I noticed a stray

    in the source of the InsertSql() article instead...)
  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to hobbes

    Because on a machine this old, the power switch IS an actual physical switch; not just a momentary switch.

  • Dan F (unregistered)

    The only thing that could have made this story better was if after holding the button all day and finally being able to release the button (not to mention himself), the computer had kept chugging along as it had been. Not unlikely for the switch to be busted given the state of everything else in the place...

  • (nodebb)

    Commenting on this article at the direction of @Lorme-Kates. https://what.thedailywtf.com/post/961920

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