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Admin
The real wtf is no ups.
For the cleaning crew stories, the real wtf is no ups plus no physical security.
My own ups wtf is pressing the test button on a ups thinking that it would test the input side rather than interrupt power on the output side. Is that my wtf or APC's?
When this happened, a few hundred data-gathering devices dropped their data on the floor of the server room while coins and tokens were being dropped into and out of the aforementioned data-gathering devices. About 95% of the "into" becomes "out of", btw. ding ding ding
Admin
Been there, seen that. In retrospect, I probably should have torn the guy several new orifices instead of being polite about it, but it had been a long day...
Admin
Reminds me of the UL (?) about the server crash that was traced to the cleaning crew unplugging the machine to plug in their vacuum cleaner after-hours.
That's no urban legend...
A co-worker maintaining a multi-client system that needed special h/w left the case open an the HDD sitting on the frame, so that he could switch hard drives, thus easily switching client configurations. (This was 10 years ago, so cool it with the snarky comments.)
One day, he noticed that the machine (in a room down the hall) would "flicker" and reboot around 5:30PM. This was not noticed at first as a pattern, since he didn't always work on that system at 5:30PM.
Eventually, he did, though, and stood near the box as the old cleaning lady (she was really sweet, but a bit dim and of course knew nothing of technology) walked by and swished it with a feather duster, thus causing the machine to reboot.
Admin
Admin
Talking about MIDI playback ... I have a SoundBlaster Live! in my PC, and the MIDI support with the default drivers could get really bad. This is what one tune sounded like. (There's also a recording of when CD-ROM access would slow my audio right down by causing Windows to repeatedly fail to update the card's ring buffer.)
This is the original MIDI file which sounds pretty good now that I've gone over to kX drivers, even though kX doesn't ship a SoundFont file (required for this card) and I rescued the one that came with the official drivers to get any MIDI playback at all. I wish I could remember where the tune came from ... I thought I pulled it from some Win16 PacMan clone but I've been through all the ones I still have and I can't find any with that tune in them so far. Kickass little tune though.
Admin
O_O
WOW ... going through my old MIDI collection and I have some stray Descent MIDI files. Tune 18 (Miranda Mine) sounds rather naff, but 2 (Lunar Scilab) has an incredible intro on a Live!. It's not meant to sound like this, but the Live!, while wrecking some tunes, has an awesome effect on others. Normally I make do with an OPL3 emulation of the Descent soundtrack but it's painfully dry -- lacks the delightful warmth of a real hardware synthesizer (either OPL2/3 or EMU10k*).
I am wondering if KATYZANY came from Nightmare3D ...
Addendum (2007-09-13 22:47): (Ah, found it -- KATYZANY is from Mini Pac Man by Esa Myllyla -- I've worked out why I didn't spot the tune before ;)
Admin
HAHAHAHA you worked for WANG!!
WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !! WANG !!
sometimes i wonder why my boss bothers to pay me
Admin
Wow, Jethris. You are a house who bought a house. And you can type! What are the chances of that?!
Admin
The real WTF was that they only noticed that backup failed, when they tried to getfile out of it! And if they tried it in a month ? in a year ? They still didn't know that the dirve is getting black-out'ed ?
And is their server-room having no, zero UPSes ? How can it be at all that server-room was unplugged - and no one new about this ?
Those bells and whistles should be played when the back failed, nor when restire tried and failed! More so, all those sirens should be sound when the server rome was cut from current, immediately - even before the backup attempt.
Guess those admins do not care is their server room is working or is burned out week agog, they just don't care!
Admin
Reminds me to the great movie "Christmas vacation" with the Griswold family ...
Admin
Still, putting it on the wrong side of the switch is not a good thing. Imagine if the smoke detectors only worked if that common light is turned on!
Admin
One of our clients is a large newspaper with a serious technical infrastructure complete with a dedicated server room (which is more than I can say for most companies). When I first visited them I noticed a sign on the server room proclaiming "No cleaning staff allowed" in large bold letters. It put a smile on my face when I imagined how the sign ended up on the door...
Admin
I call BS.
In the UK, we use different gauge wiring for lighting circuits than for mains circuits, until recently also different coloured wiring. New Electrical Safety Regulations now mean that installations have to be inspected by a qualified professional, signed off and certified safe before they can become live - failure to do this can result in heavy fines.
Daz
Admin
Nope the incompetence is taking a power feed from a lighting feed (not allowed in the UK and any other sensible location).
Admin
Sort of reminds me about my school, where they'd obviously split one large conference room into a smaller conference room and an office. For some reason, they'd kept the wiring for both rooms, resulting in the lamp switch turning the lights on in both rooms simultaneously.
We found out about this when the school nurse was working in her office, and we were trying to use a projector in a dark room. Let's just say, she was mildly annoyed by our turning the lights off all the time.
Admin
You should put locks on your power cords so they can't be unplugged without a key. There is probably some company that makes such devices. Securing your power supply should be part of your security plan.
Admin
Admin
yes
Admin
Admin
So what does this have to do with anything? In the US, we don't use different colored wiring; it's marked with different sizes (in "gauge"), and even though you're required to have an inspection there are hundreds of thousands of feet of wiring installed without one (it's called "do it yourself", and the materials are readily available). You're also subject to heavy fines if you don't get the inspection (as well as having to remove the wiring), but that only applies if you're caught. Chances of that happening in residential (or even most smaller commercial) buildings are slim, except during the initial construction.
How do they enforce things in the UK? Do you have inspectors randomly dropping in to inspect the wiring in your house, just in case you've decided to do some work? Or do authorities restrict purchase of wiring materials?
Admin
I don't know what "other sensible location" means, but it's not allowed in the US either; that doesn't stop an incompetent person from doing it anyway. (Nor does it not being allowed in the UK - the UK has its' share of unqualified technical people as well.)
Admin
Admin
I do that sometimes... But if someone popped up and asked me what I was doing, that would be kinda offputting...
Admin
I have the same thing happening with my Washer and Dryer in my basement... I was able to wash clothes fine, but one of my housemates said the washer never filled with water... Good stuff!
Admin
Random, government-mandated checks don't work. Go with the money. I think, in the light of recent events during the Bush presidency, Americans may have forgotten this fairly basic tenet.
Admin
That "Nick" looks pretty messed up. Apparently, Tahoma isn't distributed with an italic or bold italic font (at least, not to me, on win XP home, 32) so it's automatically and messily obliquified.
Admin
Poor SOB... I feel his pain!
Admin
Adding to the likely 50 messages, the REAL WTF is why is there no UPS between the NAS and building power!?!?!?!!?!?
OMFG
Smack these people with a <pinball> upside the head!
Admin
Tough. It just amazes me to this day that people thought Windows 9x was better than a Mac. Changing your startup drive since day 1 has meant a trip to the Startup Disk control panel (nee Sys Prefs) followed by a very simple click & restart. On an icon. Day 1 = 1984 (maybe after the first hard disks appeared.)
Admin
Thanks so much. I can die happy now.
(Incidentally, you don't need the second "e" on nee, unless you're either female or an illiterate horse.)
Admin
Drop me an email, I'll give you my ex-wife's name and number.
Admin
It doesn't matter about the UPS sometimes. New server on the test bench, doing unit tests. Cleaning crew didn't want to get into trouble for unplugging the UPS, so plugged very large floor cleaning machine INTO the UPS - UPS goes smoke, server power supplies (redundant, to be hooked to separate UPS systems at installation) go smoke, system goes back to vendor for expensive rework. Found out what happened because cleaning crew wrote up "inoperative electrical outlet"...
Admin
OK, that may be true in general. However, I was working as a sysadmin in a university department with Macs, back in 1995. I was putting system software 7.5.5 (it wasn't called Mac OS until 7.6, which had the additional charm of not supporting the Mac IIfx) on our machines. I used an external SCSI disk with a universal system folder for all machines, and unblessed system folders (by having the System suitcase moved out) for each specific model (MacII IIcx, IIci, IIfx, SE, SE/30, LC, LC II Quadra800 etc, etc - we had just about every kind.) Most machines booted up fine from the external disk - except the old MacII machines. Had done this 100s of times before, no problem, but this time anything I did just didn't work. The only way I could get them to boot was to remove the lid of the machine, unplug the power from the internal disk, boot from the external disk, reconnect power to the internal disk, and then mount it with SCSIProbe.
So while I am sure the number of WTFs with Macs are fewer than with PCs, there certainly are a few that have made me shout out WTF?!?! very loud.
Sin Tax
Admin
About the uplugging... reminds me of our new Data Center which opened last year.
Of course, we had to show it off. Have about 90% of our servers on, live. This is a hospital. A lot of the doors around here require you to hit a button to open the door or release its locking mechanism.
You probably guessed it - one of the "big wigs" hit the emergency power disconnect button on his way out thinking it was the door release... everything went down.
They have since put covers over them that you have to flip up to get to the power buttons...
Admin
Recently I've noticed that some surge protectors come with big honking buttons to perform "instant reset". What happens if you bump that button accidentally while power is normal?
But what I really want to know is how much of a hair trigger they have in interrupting power under adverse conditions. If they work like I would want, they'd shut off when I had runaway voltages due to a dropped leg on the 220 feed into the house (or however that's described). Several wall warts plus the brains of a clothes dryer got fried. One light weight surge protector actually smoked - hard. (US power, btw) What would be bad is if they shut off every time the power says "boo!" like some kind of fraidy cat.
Admin
Hence the need for physical security. See also 153311.
Admin
I looked for its' in several dictionaries and was unable to find its meaning. It's a mystery to me.
Admin
This here is Nasir Jones (better known as the rapper NAS).. not some random Yankee fan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nas
Admin
Admin
Incidentally, I'm still wondering.
What is he doing with his dick in his hands?
Admin
canyon.mid...
That greatest of melodies. Seriously, there are between five and ten things about Windows that do not annoy the heck out of me, and this lovely retro midi is one of them.
(Hint: Clippy is not.)
Admin
This reminds me of an anecdote which I heard a couple of years ago approx 1997.
My brother was working at a Service Company called Getonics. And they had a monthly reoccuring problem at one of the service contracts. Every month on the first working day of the month the network crashed without any reason. So after several tries to debug the problem they decided to come in very early, and they noticed that the network was still running perfectly. Until one of the employee entered the system admin office, walked towards the calendar on the wall and ripped the month page off. POEF network down. It nail of the calendar was put right through the middle of the network cable without making a short circuit. But when he rips of a month the nail would wiggle a bit and short circuit the network and completely crash the network.
Admin
So, essentially you're saying gross incompetence and negligence will be stopped by coloured plastic and bureaucratic red tape? I feel safer already.
Admin
The real wtf here is that he decided to "stay late" until 6:30PM, right? (Or, does everyone go home way before 7 or 8pm except me?? I'm depressed...)
Admin
Different wiring for lights and other stuff? WTF?
I have never seen a building here (germany) where I couldn't break the current to both light and electric outlets on the wall at the same time. OK, pending special cases like emergency lighting or special outlets for fridges...
Captcha: craaazy
Admin
I am going to second the "not an urban legend" to the vacuum cleaner thing.
We had a call center in Jacksonville where the metrics gateway would crash about the same time on Tuesday and Friday nights, which happened close to a major database transfer job. While we had some failsafe procedures that made this a minor annoyance rather than a catastrophe (since it was done over a phone line in those days at 14.4kbps), a quick view of the Event Logs showed the machine powered down unexpectedly. We were told that this gateway was in a "secure location" where no one had access to it, and the plugs were "secured" so that accidental unplugging was impossible. So it must be the power supply (which had gone bad in these models before). Two power supplies later, the problem never went away.
Turns out it was a cleaning crew. The "secure" location was a door with a 5-button combo lock (yes, the code was the default 12345), and the wall next to it went a long way without spare plugs, so one cleaning lady would open the door, unplug the first plug there, vacuum, and then plug the old plug back in. The "secured" plugs turned out to be normal outlets, except they were red in color with a sign in the "secure" room that red outlets are NEVER to be unplugged. The cleaning lady either didn't speak English or didn't care.
In a slightly related story, we also had a problem in Frankfurt with a Windows based test system where someone was using it to browse the web for porn, which installed a whole manner of trojans and spyware and all sorts of stuff to the point the box had to be re-imaged constantly. The data center assured us our leased space was in a locked and secured room, on a badge-keyed system, and nobody got in or out without them knowing, and there was no record of anyone coming in or out. So on the next re-image, we installed PCAnywhere, put it up on a spare system and monitor, and watched.
Two days later, one of our guys saw porn on it. We watched someone browse porn, freakish German porn I might add, move the mouse, download stuff, etc, and then tried some pathetic half-assed attempts to cover their tracks. We called the data center and they assured us no one was in the room, we probably got hacked. Furious, we threatened to install a web cam on our next visit, and the problem never happened again.
Later on, we found out the "security logging and locked room" wasn't a badge key at all, but actually a clip board sign-in/sign-out sheet with a door key tied to it with a red shoelace. It hung on a nail next to the door. 100% Honor system. Ja.
Captcha is Atari, which was big in Germany during the 16-bit ST days.
Admin
I think I'll invent an AC socket which can only be unplugged with a key, and I'll be filthy rich. What a WTF it is that anybody can unplug mission-critical stuff from the AC.
Admin
It is clear then that you have no knowledge whatsoever of the english language - Not just that you tried to lookt it up, but that you failed!!! its' is possessive, ie belonging to it.... it's (which many people use instead) actually means it is - Why do so many people try to be cockheads and poit out bad grammar - when clearly they don't actually know what they're on about either
Admin
This reminds me of my current job, where the electricians have wired the two 2400W wall heaters to the same circuit as our lighting (which is of course on a 10A fuse). Therefore, as soon as one turns on more than one heater at once, we lose our lighting until the circuit breakers can be reset, which is often followed immediately after by someone turning their heater back on.
This job would certainly provide a lot of WTF's :p
Admin
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