The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

I encountered the same problem (circa 1999) - I think it was the 3D flying text rather than pipes, and we didn't have the idiot CTO to insist on keeping the screensaver. It took me a few days to figure it out, since the server always worked fine and had no load when you were looking at it.

JiP · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

My mom once had not so much as a screen saver, but a wallpaper installed. She complained about her PC being slow.

I checked the background picture, it was a 350k jpeg. Turns out, when used, in memory, it took up 16M, which was half her RAM back then. Changed wallpaper back to 'none' and the PC again was behaving as well as could be expected from any machine with those specs at the time.

Just a tad different memory effect than tiling a 3k pattern bmp as a wallpaper...

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

This actually happened to us, though not on a web server. I was doing database and server admin work for a police department back in the 90's, and around 4:15pm this one precinct would call up saying their server was down. We'd remote in and it seemed fine. Then 10-15 minutes later it would die. Turns out the precinct admin set the server's screen saver to Pipes because it was pretty, the server was in the admin's office.

We then issued a memo that all server screen savers would be the login screen saver and deleted all of the 3D ones.

Definitely one of the best jobs that I've had. We had secretaries using magnets to hold boot floppies to their copy stands, we had people disconnecting coax cables from the T adapter, all sorts of fun! We actually ran Office over the network because we didn't have enough hard disk space for both Windows and Office.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Martin:
People complaining of slow website? In 1990?
Please!

Please learn the difference between "1990" and "the 1990's."

herby · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Then there is the case of "optimizing". A company wanted to "optimize" their operating system (this was, thankfully, before Microsoft), so they did an analysis of their tasks on the operating system. They figured out that a certain loop ran quite a bit, so a big meeting was called and they looked at the instructions that this often used loop was executing, and optimized these instructions in the CPUs microcode. Then then started their operating system, and again looked for places to optimize. Again this same loop was using a big percentage of the operating system time, and they needed to optimize again. This loop proceeded for quite some time until someone noticed that this optimization was taking place in the idle loop. Yup, they optimized the idle loop.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

A REAL CTO would ask Paul what he did to fix it, and accept his explanation after seeing proof.

A REAL CTO wouldn't worry about which screen saver to run on a server that no one sees.

Makes me wonder how this idiot got to be CTO in the first place.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

As far as I recall, the dual 200mhz pentium server mentioned in the OP would not be capable of playing a full-screen resolution video in any way whatsoever.

What 'nice format'? At that year, commercially produced DVDs was the bleeding edge format, and you couldn't produce mpeg video files without specialized, expensive software. And that wasn't available on the torrent sites that didn't exist back then.

chubertdev · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Lorne Kates:
Take a video of the screensaver running.
Disable the screen saver.

Write a custom script to play the video (looped) after so many minutes of inactivity (and stop the video when the keyboard/mouse moves).

Make sure the video is in a nice format, and the video player is hobbled to only use a fraction of the CPU the screen saver would. Hopefully playing a video is less expensive than constantly rendering the pipes.

"We've implemented a static pipe-rendering policy to ensure the optimization and the fat-ness of our pipes."

webhamster · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Geoff:
It was also not uncommon in those days for the web server to be a single machine with no redundancy in tower(not rack) configuration to be sitting on the floor of the telephone DMARC room with its monitor and keyboard precariously set on top of it. There might have been a UPS on the floor next to it if you were lucky and the server would actually be plugged into it if you were very lucky.

I believe we may have worked together at some point...but you forgot to mention the primary AND secondary DNS being on the same server too.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Priceless!!!

Vilx-:
Pipe Recommendations
As an aid to our customers, the following is a list of pipe recommendations for laying waterlines and other such uses around the drill site. Naturally, each drill site requirement or customer preference will cause variations. The following list is only offered as a general guide for pipe selection.

All pipe is to be made of a long hole, surrounded by metal or plastic, centered around the hole.

All pipe is to be holed throughout the entire length. Do not use holes of different length than the pipe.

The ID (Inside Diameter) of all pipe must not exceed the OD (Outside Diameter). Othervise the hole will be on the outside.

All pipe is to be supplied with nothing in the hole, so that water, steam or other stuff can be put inside at a later date.

All pipe should be supplied without rust. This can be more readily applied at the job site. (Note! Some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipe. If available in your area, this new product is recommended as it will save a great deal of time at the job site)

A long pipe over 500ft (153m) in length should have the words LONG PIPE clearly painted on each end, so the drill crew will know it is a long pipe.

Pipe over two miles (3,2 km) in length must also have the words LONG PIPE painted in the middle, so the crew will not have to walk the entire length of the pipe to determine whether it is a long pipe or short pipe.

All pipe over 6in (152mm) in diameter must have the words LARGE PIPE painted on it, so the drill crew will not mistake it for a small pipe.

Flanges should be used on all pipe. Flanges must have holes for bolts quite separate from the big hole in the middle.

When ordering 90 deg, 45 deg or 30 deg elbows, be sure to specify right-hand or left-hand. Othervise you will end up going in the wrong direction.

Be sure to specify to your vendor whether you want level, up-hill or down-hill pipe. If you use down-hill pipe for going up-hill, the water will flow the wrong way.

All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads. Do not mix the threads. Othervise, as the coupling is being screwed on the pipe, it is unscrewing from the other.

snoofle · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

webhamster:
Geoff:
It was also not uncommon in those days for the web server to be a single machine with no redundancy in tower(not rack) configuration to be sitting on the floor of the telephone DMARC room with its monitor and keyboard precariously set on top of it. There might have been a UPS on the floor next to it if you were lucky and the server would actually be plugged into it if you were very lucky.

I believe we may have worked together at some point...but you forgot to mention the primary AND secondary DNS being on the same server too.

But...but... it takes less resources to run it that way!

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

faoileag:
Magnus:
faoileag:
Can anybody please tell me why you would run a screen saver on a server?? Even the ones sporting MS operating systems usually run in the server room, and the only screen saver you would need is the power button on the monitor attached to it for the occasional maintenance.
Because you had monitors attached.
I see. You need a screensaver when there is more than one monitor attached ;-)
SCNR

Because pressing a key (or touching a mouse, if you had one attached) would be quicker.

Additionally, with screensavers that give interesting info (like then one Novell Netware sported) keeping the monitor on is a good thing.

Magnus

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Coyne:
Just being devil's advocate here, as I'm sure it is all quite reasonable. So let's take a peek inside the manager's brain: ... 5) Everyone knows that screen savers do not use CPU. I use one on my desktop and my programs are still running happily away when I switch off the screen saver. ...

I recall seeing an article around 2000, plus or minus 2 or 3 years, that a study found the top user of CPU by software category ($drumroll) Screensavers.

iirc, that was PCs in business and home use. Not sure if that included PC's used as servers.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

webhamster:
Geoff:
It was also not uncommon in those days for the web server to be a single machine with no redundancy in tower(not rack) configuration to be sitting on the floor of the telephone DMARC room with its monitor and keyboard precariously set on top of it. There might have been a UPS on the floor next to it if you were lucky and the server would actually be plugged into it if you were very lucky.

I believe we may have worked together at some point...but you forgot to mention the primary AND secondary DNS being on the same server too.

You also forgot to mention the time when the secretary who substituted as network admin at the remote site just happened to mention that she couldn't figure out where that blasted beeping was coming from

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Coyne:
So let's take a peek inside the manager's brain:

I am the boss. I am in charge. Therefore, I'm smarter than the peon

Aaaaand there it is. We found the root cause of the performance issues!

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

faoileag:
I remember an email from 1996, when somebody was asking me if I could split my webpage (40k) into several pages, because "anything over 20k takes ages to load from my college access, if it finishes at all".
Or some personal experience from 1995: with a 1200/1200 modem, a small (80k) gif took nearly an hour to load :-)

But tell that to the kids today, and they won't believe you! ;-)

You had 1200 baud modems? Wow! When I started in this business, we had 330 baud modems and ASR 33 teletypes. I remember when we got the 1200 baud modems -- and the DecWriters that could actually print at that blazing speed.

I recall when I first starting using the Internet, I guess in the 1990s sometime, I was browsing around what was out there and found AT&T's web site. Their home page had a GIF that filled the screen -- maybe 640x480 or 800x600 back then. Over our dial-up connection it took several minutes to load. Okay, pretty picture. So I clicked a button to take me to the next screen. Another full-screen image that took several minutes to load.

After 3 or 4 screens it occurred to me that I had re-learned a valuable lesson: An application that seems way cool on my computer may not work so well for others. In this case, I'm sure that when they viewed the web site at their offices over a high speed local network, or from a site with T1 lines, those pictures popped right up and the sight seemed really cool. But for the majority of users, who in those days would be running 14.4k or less over dialup lines, it was almost unusable.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
After a few moments, he looked at the log and when the screen saver kicked it, it monopolized the entire processor on their dual CPU box.
TRWTF is how the screen saver kicked the log. It could have stubbed a toe from that! Maybe he should have used a bucket instead?

He should run the overflow from the pipes into the bit bucket.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Well duh, you can run a website with out generating the tubes!

da Doctah · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Vilx-:
Pipe Recommendations
As an aid to our customers, the following is a list of pipe recommendations for laying waterlines and other such uses around the drill site. Naturally, each drill site requirement or customer preference will cause variations. The following list is only offered as a general guide for pipe selection.

All pipe is to be made of a long hole, surrounded by metal or plastic, centered around the hole.

All pipe is to be holed throughout the entire length. Do not use holes of different length than the pipe.

The ID (Inside Diameter) of all pipe must not exceed the OD (Outside Diameter). Othervise the hole will be on the outside.

All pipe is to be supplied with nothing in the hole, so that water, steam or other stuff can be put inside at a later date.

All pipe should be supplied without rust. This can be more readily applied at the job site. (Note! Some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipe. If available in your area, this new product is recommended as it will save a great deal of time at the job site)

A long pipe over 500ft (153m) in length should have the words LONG PIPE clearly painted on each end, so the drill crew will know it is a long pipe.

Pipe over two miles (3,2 km) in length must also have the words LONG PIPE painted in the middle, so the crew will not have to walk the entire length of the pipe to determine whether it is a long pipe or short pipe.

All pipe over 6in (152mm) in diameter must have the words LARGE PIPE painted on it, so the drill crew will not mistake it for a small pipe.

Flanges should be used on all pipe. Flanges must have holes for bolts quite separate from the big hole in the middle.

When ordering 90 deg, 45 deg or 30 deg elbows, be sure to specify right-hand or left-hand. Othervise you will end up going in the wrong direction.

Be sure to specify to your vendor whether you want level, up-hill or down-hill pipe. If you use down-hill pipe for going up-hill, the water will flow the wrong way.

All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads. Do not mix the threads. Othervise, as the coupling is being screwed on the pipe, it is unscrewing from the other.

There needs to be something in there about teakettles at random points of flexion.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

I've read a story very similar to this before (although possibly with 3D Flowerbox). I thought rehashes were supposed to be called ‘Classic WTF: Title’?

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Andrew:
NotAPussyLikePaul:
Paul is a WTF too. Just tell the guy he is wrong and never ever would I have done a request for a bigger "network pipe".

Yeah, Paul screwed up at least 3 times here:

His only explanation to his boss was "It was something really simple", instead of actually explaining the problem the first time.

"Proving" the source of the issue to his boss via a simulated environment rather than just showing him the test logs he already had (as was mentioned).

Giving up completely in the end.

You screwed up at least 3 times here:

You assume that the obfuscated version posted here is exactly how it happened.
You assume I didn't demonstrate to the CTO how much slower it was when the screen saver kicked in. I literally had a download going on the fancy server with a speed meter, and showed him "slow, wiggle the mouse, fast". Didn't help.
You think once an idiot CTO makes up his mind about something that any force in the world other than a CEO will change it.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Bill Coleman:
Makes me wonder how this idiot got to be CTO in the first place.

Friend of the founder, of course.

notchulance · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Man.. back in the Day..! Hosting your own!

robbak · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Vilx-:
Pipe Recommendations
As an aid to our customers, the following is a list of pipe recommendations for laying waterlines and other such uses around the drill site. Naturally, each drill site requirement or customer preference will cause variations. The following list is only offered as a general guide for pipe selection.

...

All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads. Do not mix the threads. Othervise, as the coupling is being screwed on the pipe, it is unscrewing from the other.

This one's the kicker. Anyone who puts a smidgen of thought into it will know that using a coupler that 'mixes the threads' is the way to avoid this 'problem'.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Would have been cheaper to turn off the screensaver on the Server, buy a small machine to do nothing but run the screensaver and (maybe) switch around the monitors so the CTO/CIO didn't know.

I worked with a guy once who said that their company had a special machine just for the auditors. When they came in to check, that was where they looked. Everything was perfect. Of course that wasn't the live machine, but details, details...

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

robbak:
Vilx-:
Pipe Recommendations
As an aid to our customers, the following is a list of pipe recommendations for laying waterlines and other such uses around the drill site. Naturally, each drill site requirement or customer preference will cause variations. The following list is only offered as a general guide for pipe selection.

...

All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads. Do not mix the threads. Othervise, as the coupling is being screwed on the pipe, it is unscrewing from the other.
This one's the kicker. Anyone who puts a smidgen of thought into it will know that using a coupler that 'mixes the threads' is the way to avoid this 'problem'.

That's it! That's it! Where were you when the Chief Executive needed you? Your advice would have avoided all that unscrewing trouble after laying pipe at the drill site.

bgodot · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Paul T:
The company in question was named after an unusually colored fresh water crustacean.

Blue Oyster Cult?

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Coyne:
So let's take a peek inside the manager's brain:

Through the left ear, or the right?

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

"The 1990s, a simpler time, when ... the most amusing thing a computer could do was render 3D pipes, or flying toasters"

Surely you're joking. The 90s was a golden age of video games, producing genre-defining classics. Wing Commander, Dune 2, Doom, to name a few.

Did I miss something here? Was that meant to be a joke?

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Peteris:
As far as I recall, the dual 200mhz pentium server mentioned in the OP would not be capable of playing a full-screen resolution video in any way whatsoever.
What 'nice format'? At that year, commercially produced DVDs was the bleeding edge format, and you couldn't produce mpeg video files without specialized, expensive software. And that wasn't available on the torrent sites that didn't exist back then.

mIRC and BBS's were your friends back then young padawan.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Len:
"The 1990s, a simpler time, when ... the most amusing thing a computer could do was render 3D pipes, or flying toasters"
Surely you're joking. The 90s was a golden age of video games, producing genre-defining classics. Wing Commander, Dune 2, Doom, to name a few.

Did I miss something here? Was that meant to be a joke?

Sir, I salute you 1000 times for your dune 2 reference, I just got a tear in my eye. Best. RTS. EVAR... (Next to C&C: Red Alert that is)

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Paul T:
The company in question was named after an unusually colored fresh water crustacean.

Zoidberg Inc?

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Medinoc:
TRWTF is that a bleeping screen saver would not run with reduced CPU priority. Especially a multi-thread one.

Just want to remind you that we didn't have multithreading at that time. The closest thing we have is named fiber and is very difficult to write and manage.

Btw, since this is a dual-CPU machine, and I don't think the screensaver is written to consume multiple CPU, why on earth does it supposed to affect web server performance that way? At most it should have affected half of the requests only.

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Geoff:
Yes you should do that today. I think you are seriously underestimating just how immature much of, though not all of, the industry was when the hardware in question was in wide use. While virtually nobody in an IT specific role today would be that clueless; it was not nearly so uncommon in the mid '90s.
It was also not uncommon in those days for the web server to be a single machine with no redundancy in tower(not rack) configuration to be sitting on the floor of the telephone DMARC room with its monitor and keyboard precariously set on top of it. There might have been a UPS on the floor next to it if you were lucky and the server would actually be plugged into it if you were very lucky.

Actually it was in pizza-box configuration (Sparc 1+). It ran for years without a UPS, until we finally had a power cut and found out on trying to restart it that at some point in the past it had lost its superblock.

Steve The Cynic · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Cheong:
Just want to remind you that we didn't have multithreading at that time. The closest thing we have is named fiber and is very difficult to write and manage.

I'm not in the mood to be polite here, so I'll just speak my mind without the usual censors. What you said here is bollocks (translation: utter bullshit).

Windows NT 3.1 had threads FFS. ALL(*) 32- or 64-bit versions of Windows support threads, right from the very beginning, in 1993. You know, twenty years ago. OpenGL wasn't introduced in Windows NT until 3.51, so there was multithreading available for the programmers of the screensavers.

(*) The bogus Win32S API add-on for Windows (not-NT) 3.1x did not support threads, but that was (a) bogus and (b) not a 32- or 64-bit version of Windows.

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Um...just a guess here...he got to be CTO because his brother-in-law was the President and his father-in-law was the CEO..?

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

faoileag:
But tell that to the kids today, and they won't believe you! ;-)

Right! We used to get up at 10:30 at night, half an hour before we went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison for breakfast, work 27 hours a day down in server room, PAY the CTO for permission to come to work, and when we got home our mum and dad would kill us all and dance on our graves singing "Hallelujah"!

Pass me a glass of that wine, Obediah...

pscs · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Len:
The 90s was a golden age of video games, producing genre-defining classics. Wing Commander

Oh, wow. Wing Commander - almost forgotten about that. That's the game that I imported a SoundBlaster all the way from the US (to the UK) for (you couldn't buy decent sound cards in the UK at the time).

I'm fairly sure I've still got a copy somewhere - but bet it won't run on a Windows 7 PC... (and I'd have to find a 5.25" drive somewhere)

They should relaunch it - it'd run easily on a mobile phone/tablet nowadays.

RichP · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Ol' Bob:
Um...just a guess here...he got to be CTO because his brother-in-law was the President and his father-in-law was the CEO..?

That's part of it, plus his daughter was sick.

Mason Wheeler · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

pscs:
Len:
The 90s was a golden age of video games, producing genre-defining classics. Wing Commander

Oh, wow. Wing Commander - almost forgotten about that. That's the game that I imported a SoundBlaster all the way from the US (to the UK) for (you couldn't buy decent sound cards in the UK at the time).

I'm fairly sure I've still got a copy somewhere - but bet it won't run on a Windows 7 PC...

It probably would under DOSBox.

chubertdev · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Murk:
Sir, I salute you 1000 times for your dune 2 reference, I just got a tear in my eye. Best. RTS. EVAR... (Next to C&C: Red Alert that is)

Red Alert 2, I assume you mean. Frank Klepacki has GREAT music to work to.

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

I worked in a company where this sort of thing was done. But it wasn't pipes, it was something called Night Bird.

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

You had 1200 baud modems? Wow! When I started in this business, we had 330 baud modems and ASR 33 teletypes. I remember when we got the 1200 baud modems -- and the DecWriters that could actually print at that blazing speed.

If you are going to quote hisory...get it right. ASR-33's used 110 baud modems (10cps, but 11 bits per char), then came 300 baud modems (30 cps, now and forever 10 bits per character). Extra bonus point for what 134.5 baud was used for, and why!

FWIW: I still own (And occasionally turn on) a 1968 DEC PDP-8/e along with 3 ASR/33 and a few DecWriters (LA120's). PArtialy for the "good old days" feeling, partially to heat the basement, and dry out all the dampness...

Silverhill · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

Vilx-:
Pipe Recommendations
As an aid to our customers, the following is a list of pipe recommendations for laying waterlines and other such uses around the drill site. Naturally, each drill site requirement or customer preference will cause variations. The following list is only offered as a general guide for pipe selection.

All pipe is to be made of a long hole, surrounded by metal or plastic, centered around the hole.

All pipe is to be holed throughout the entire length. Do not use holes of length different from that of the pipe.

The ID (Inside Diameter) of all pipe must not exceed the OD (Outside Diameter). Otherwise the hole will be on the outside.

All pipe is to be supplied with nothing in the hole, so that water, steam, or other stuff can be put inside at a later date.

All pipe should be supplied without rust. This can be more readily applied at the job site. (Note! Some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipe. If available in your area, this new product is recommended as it will save a great deal of time at the job site)

A pipe over 500 ft (153 m) in length should have the words LONG PIPE clearly painted on each end, so the drill crew will know it is a long pipe.

Pipe over two miles (3.2 km) in length must also have the words LONG PIPE painted in the middle, so the crew will not have to walk the entire length of the pipe to determine whether it is a long pipe or short pipe.

All pipe over 60 inches (1.52 m) in diameter must have the words LARGE PIPE painted on it, so the drill crew will not mistake it for small pipe.

Flanges should be used on all pipe. Flanges must have holes for bolts quite separate from the big hole in the middle.

When ordering 90°, 45°, or 30° elbows, be sure to specify right-hand or left-hand. Otherwise you will end up going in the wrong direction.

Be sure to specify to your vendor whether you want level, up-hill or down-hill pipe. If you use down-hill pipe for going up-hill, the water will flow the wrong way.

All couplings should have either right-hand or left-hand threads. Do not mix the threads. Otherwise, as the coupling is being screwed on the pipe, it is unscrewing from the other.

A few additions I've seen:

All pipes shorter than 1/8" (3 mm) are very uneconomical to use, requiring many joints. They are generally known as washers.

Joints in pipes for piping water must be watertight. Those in pipes for compressed air, however, need only be airtight.

Lengths of pipes may be welded or soldered together. This method is not recommended for concrete or earthenware pipes.

Other commodities are often confused with pipes. These include: conduit, tube, tunnel, and drain. Use only genuine pipes.

Scottish Regiments in the Army use Army pipes in unusual ways. These are not approved of in engineering circles.

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

TheCPUWizard:
Extra bonus point for what 134.5 baud was used for, and why!

2741's, but I never thought of wondering why. Would it be because the mechanical speed of rotating the typeball and splatting the paper pretty closely matched the CPS of that data stream? Let's see, 1.5 stop bits, so 9.5 bits per character, so 14 CPS, yeah I bet that's it.

TheCPUWizard:
FWIW: I still own (And occasionally turn on) a 1968 DEC PDP-8/e along with 3 ASR/33 and a few DecWriters (LA120's). PArtialy for the "good old days" feeling, partially to heat the basement, and dry out all the dampness...

Hey, don't forget us software types. #define LITTLEENDIAN TRUE #define BIGENDIAN FALSE #define MIDDLEENDIAN FILENOTFOUND // DEC

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

The solution is simple. Dual-VGA switch, second PC running only pipes screen saver.

2013-04-09 Reply Admin

pscs:
Len:
The 90s was a golden age of video games, producing genre-defining classics. Wing Commander

Oh, wow. Wing Commander - almost forgotten about that. That's the game that I imported a SoundBlaster all the way from the US (to the UK) for (you couldn't buy decent sound cards in the UK at the time).

I'm fairly sure I've still got a copy somewhere - but bet it won't run on a Windows 7 PC... (and I'd have to find a 5.25" drive somewhere)

They should relaunch it - it'd run easily on a mobile phone/tablet nowadays.

It would run easily on a phone? Interesting for a game that wouldn't even run on a damn PC half the time!

2013-04-10 Reply Admin

RichP:
(side note: we had an email server with redundant power supplies... that used a single power cord. Also had a webserver with real dual supplies (each with its own cord) which inevitably ended up plugged into the same power strip.

That's not completely silly: it means you can move the server without switching it off, by moving one of the plugs to an extension cord running to the new location.

Captcha: secundum - don't forget to plug the secund, um, power supply back in when you're, um, done moving the server.

2013-04-10 Reply Admin

pscs:
Len:
The 90s was a golden age of video games, producing genre-defining classics. Wing Commander

Oh, wow. Wing Commander - almost forgotten about that. That's the game that I imported a SoundBlaster all the way from the US (to the UK) for (you couldn't buy decent sound cards in the UK at the time).

I'm fairly sure I've still got a copy somewhere - but bet it won't run on a Windows 7 PC... (and I'd have to find a 5.25" drive somewhere)

They should relaunch it - it'd run easily on a mobile phone/tablet nowadays.

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/wing_commander_1_2 For 6 dollars you can have it running on any Windows from XP and up, or OSX. They do not port games for mobiles and tablets, tho.

Incidentally, my captcha is something that also regards sound cards. I just don't remember what Gravis was back then.

2013-04-10 Reply Admin

I remember that issue well, we had a long running engineering simulation which used to take a 30 minutes to run so we had a dedicated workstation in the corner and pipes kept getting turned on because everyone always wanted to play "spot the teapot" - every now and then instead of a normal junction it would display a teapot.

A Fat Pipe

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