• (cs) in reply to Benjamin Nitzburg
    Benjamin Nitzburg:
    Reminds me of the time I interned at my highschool before college. I wasn't there that day, but I heard all about it a few days later. Apparently, a kid saw a disconnected ethernet cable hanging below the computer desks. He didn't know that the cable was connected on one end (probably for a laptop), so he plugged it back into an empty ethernet slot in the wall. The resulting mess of having the same ethernet cable connecting to two ports on a switch caused an "ARP storm" and massive packet loss.

    ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) associates MAC addresses to IP addresses. ARP packets are sent as broadcast. If ports 1 and 2 are connected to PCs, and ports 3 and 4 are looped, then when the PC sends an ARP request for the PC on port 2, it goes to the switch, which sends the packet out ports 2, 3, and 4. The switch gets the ARP request on port 3 back out port 4, and retransmits it to ports 1, 2, and 3. The switch also gets the ARP request on port 4 back out port 3, so it retransmits it to ports 1, 2, and 4. It keeps going, and going, and going . . .

    This happens with any broadcast traffic. It doesn't have to be an ARP request, just anything with a broadcast address. This is what the layer 2 Spanning Tree Protocol is supposed to prevent. All things being equal, it should have blocked port 4. Although there's a physical connection, there is a logical block between ports 3 and 4 so that the loop doesn't occur. However, if ports 3 and 4 are programmed to only be attached to endpoint devices (Cisco calls it PortFast; not sure what other companies call it), then Spannning Tree Protocol is effectively disabled on those ports and you can still end up with a loop like was described above.

  • (cs) in reply to Mister Cheese
    Mister Cheese:
    Kuba:
    Connecting a network port to "live mains" (some wires to live, some to neutral) will, usually, blow up that port's isolation transformer and balancing resistors and related PCB traces inside of the switch's port card, and that's about it. That port on the switch won't ever work again. The story seems quite implausible, because when you actually try it (DON'T unless you have proper EE background), it won't cause any sort of networking disruption as in "increased" network load etc. You can't generate any sort of a valid network traffic with a 60Hz AC source. Most modern switches are store-and-forward, they don't store invalid packets. Good luck generating a correct CRC with a 60Hz sine wave ;)
    I'm guessing that it wasn't directly wired into the mains, but after the breaker was turned on there was a bit of induced current which caused the problem. Now, if they'd twisted the pairs together correctly instead of separating them, and therefore breaking the idea of an unshielded twisted-pair, none of this would have happened... maybe...
    That's even more benign: you won't generate anything resembling a valid packet using 60Hz. Any switch will reject that. Heck, I doubt an Ethernet PHY will generate anything at the output when you feed it with a 60Hz sine wave. It will be attenuated by a factor of 100 or so by the magnetics, then the PHY needs to see valid edges at a correct switching rate for its PLL to lock onto the clock and start spitting out bits, um, nibbles. So no, I still think there's some detail missing from the story. 60Hz could possibly saturate the magnetics and cause existing traffic on that same wire to get drowned out. But it wouldn't work in reverse -- creating traffic where there's none, when all you have is 60Hz, nope, I don't buy it.
  • (cs) in reply to Actual Electrician
    Actual Electrician:
    Wrong. You might want to stop speculating and learn something instead.

    The surface of the Earth is not all at the same potential, and there will naturally be notable voltages between distant locations.

    One of the reasons for this is that the ground is a rather poor conductor and copper wire is a rather good conductor. The two are not in contact throughout, and mains electricity is AC. Thus capacitance alone can create a significant potential difference, without the need for any physical copper-to-ground contact anywhere.

    Any electrician worth their salt knows that exporting the CPC outside the equipotential zone can be quite dangerous, even when the equipment and wiring is in perfect condition.

    Perhaps surprisingly, Wikipedia isn't all that inaccurate about earthing systems - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthing_system

    I concur. The terms "earth" and "ground" are mostly misused outside of certain professional circles. Even low voltage EEs call reference potential "ground" -- heck, logic chips have pins called "GND", even though those have nothing to do with any ground on principle. They are 0V potential references for the IC, that's all.

    Back on topic, the bit of the story that had me wincing were the wirenuts. Those are quite simply the most evil invention ever in the history of electricity. I'm really glad that they're banned almost everywhere outside of North America.
    I come from Europe and I did wince at them at the beginning. But I began to appreciate that they are, in fact, a better engineered connector than standard Euro-style screw block. The problem with screw blocks is that thermal cycling will eventually get the screw loose, there's not much you can do about a simple screw in a brass or plated steel block.

    The wire nuts have a spring that puts constant pressure on the twisted conductors, and almost guarantees that the contacting are under sufficient pressure is an approximately gas-tight joint. Due to spring action, the pressure is applied in spite of thermal cycling of the connection.

    Then you have wire nuts that come with preapplied sealants of all sorts, for direct burial, aluminum-to-copper, and such. Doing direct burial in Europe is a pain in comparison, and in post-sov countries I've never seen anything special used for aluminum wire. Just bog-standard terminal blocks, although older style where the wire was retained by a flat metal plate held down by a screw against another flat plate. Newer style blocks may have a small springy plate, but the screw goes into a metal sleeve, and wires rest in it. Back there I would always get oversize blocks and overlap wires over the entire length of the terminal sleeve, so that they'd be under both screws. It always felt very "rickety" compared to U.S. wire nuts.

  • (cs) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    Or it's reciprocal.

    Is it, now?

  • (cs) in reply to Kasper
    Kasper:
    But I recall seeing a Win 9x machine that needed a push ...

    ... over a cliff.

  • (cs) in reply to Xythar
    Xythar:
    This one almost felt like reading bad fanfiction.

    Not enough Mary Sue.

  • (cs) in reply to ArtFart
    ArtFart:
    Turned out the problem was that the building had "through-the-floor" wiring, with outlets in the cubicle walls hooked up to "tombstone" outlet boxes sticking up from the floor. The one in my cube was right next to the table the computer was on, just a little in front of it. As it happened, the electrical code for the city this was in allowed for wiring in "commercial" spaces with the only ground connection being via the conduit joints--and that tombstone on my floor had become a little loose. When I pushed my chair back from my desk, often one of the casters would hit the tombstone and momentarily break the ground connection. We disconnected the Ethernet cable and measured an intermittent 60 volts AC, open circuit, between the cable shield and the third-wire "ground" when we wiggled the tombstone. That was either tweaking a watchdog timer or making the power supply have enough of a hiccup to reset the machine.
    Grounding via conduit: it gives me shivers. I never do it, even in the U.S. I always assemble metal conduit and device boxes carefully as if they were a grounding conductor, and run a copper grounding conductor nevertheless.
  • Dave (unregistered)

    This is the first time I've ever encountered wire nuts. A quick check indicates that they're illegal to use here (not compliant with electricity safety codes). Are these things really used in the US to make long-term connections for mains power cables? What's the failure rate for them over time?

  • The Troll (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    boog:
    ...threats that 'heads would roll'...
    I know I always solve problems so much faster when threatened with decapitation.
    Your not too smart, are you?

    Stupid jerk (yes I'm talking to you "frits").

    STUPID because of your inept comment.

    JERK because you probably haven't experienced a moment of pressure in your life or when you have you just dodged the bullet or passed the buck.

  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to Kuba
    Kuba:
    Actual Electrician:
    Back on topic, the bit of the story that had me wincing were the wirenuts. Those are quite simply the most evil invention ever in the history of electricity. I'm really glad that they're banned almost everywhere outside of North America.
    I come from Europe and I did wince at them at the beginning. But I began to appreciate that they are, in fact, a better engineered connector than standard Euro-style screw block. The problem with screw blocks is that thermal cycling will eventually get the screw loose, there's not much you can do about a simple screw in a brass or plated steel block.

    What about butt crimps + heatshrink over the top, which is what's used here? I'd be pretty reluctant to use screw blocks except for terminating cable runs somewhere, for joining it's always butt crimps and heatshrink over the top.

  • David Martensson (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Interesting that connecting a network port to live mains electricity didn't blow the switch to Kingdom come...

    Must be that weedy stuff you USians call electricity. (joke)

    That said, did you know that the voltage called "earth" or "ground" isn't the same everywhere? No, neither did I. I remember the tale, told to me by a guy who saw it, of two buildings, one at the top of a hill, one at the bottom. They were linked by a 75-ohm coax cable carrying a primitive one megabit network protocol based on Arcnet. The two buildings were far enough apart that the different earth potentials caused several amps to flow through the signal ground of this poor cable...

    I have had the same experience when our office spanned two separate buildings built wall to wall and where some one some time had opened up between the buildings to make a bigger office.

    When we extended the network to the other part we got strange disturbances that was not identified until one college felt a jolt touching one of the coax cables (TBase2 network).

    When we measured it there was a 90 volt potential difference due to the different parts of the offices was on different phase circuits, very exciting :P

  • Kurgan (unregistered) in reply to confused of t. wells
    confused of t. wells:
    So, what was the thump?

    Read "The tell-tale heart"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tell-Tale_Heart

    and you will understand.

  • Smarter-than-you-but-who-cares (unregistered) in reply to frits

    You're not too smart, are you?

  • Anonymous Cow-Herd (unregistered) in reply to The Troll
    The Troll:
    frits:
    boog:
    ...threats that 'heads would roll'...
    I know I always solve problems so much faster when threatened with decapitation.
    Your not too smart, are you?

    Stupid jerk (yes I'm talking to you "frits").

    STUPID because of your inept comment.

    JERK because you probably haven't experienced a moment of pressure in your life or when you have you just dodged the bullet or passed the buck.

    0/10. Must try harder. Call yourself a troll?
  • chkarrer@aman'thul (unregistered) in reply to Keith

    Yes, since the problem only occurred when a computer was active on that cable (the original PC, the author's laptop).

  • (cs) in reply to Phelps
    Phelps:
    frits:
    Your not too smart, are you?
    You're.

    You might want to make sure you use the right words when you try to convince people how stupid you think someone else is.

    Misusing your/you're, they're/their/there etc. does seem to be a good indicator of mediocre intelligence.(Only applies to people whose 1st language is English, of course)

  • Peter Gordon (unregistered)

    That etherkiller reminds me of a support call I had when I worked for an IT support company many years ago. The client was complaining of poor network performance, and general connection issues. The network was 10base2 coax cables, which was standard for that time

    I turned up, and verified that indeed the network was unreliable. I then started the hunt for the dodgy network cable or terminator that could be causing the problem, but when I touched one of the T junctions, I got a nasty electric shock. A big one. I called my boss and said that the network cable seemed to be live. He told me not to be silly and it must have been static. Now, I know what a mains jolt feels like, but after talking to my boss I was doubting myself, so I went back to work. BZZzzapp! OUCH! That is definately mains. I called my boss again, and he still doesn't believe me, but came out to the client site.

    It was quite fun watching him touch the cable and declare "OW! SHIT! That IS mains!".

    Turns out that in one of the power strips in one of the offices, the earth wire had come loose and touched the live, and all the computer cases and network cables had mains.

    Amazingly, nothing was damaged, and once the power strip was swapped out, everything worked properly again.

  • Percy Cute the Unbeliever (unregistered) in reply to D-Coder

    [quote user="D-CoderSeriously, any forum that doesn't moderate comments eventually is overrun by kooks, kids, or krackpots who drive away the interesting posters. Then everyone stops reading the forum (except a few kooks etc). Then advertisers stop advertising. Then Alex starves to death.[quote]

    ^This^

  • (cs) in reply to C-Octothorpe
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    The best part is that the drooling morons are too stupid to dial an office phone properly, and have called 911 three times this month. The first responders will not be quick in coming. It took them over an hour to get here last time. I took the dial-out code off today and bet a co-worker a hundred dollars that they'll still call 911.
    They "accidentally" call 911, or because of "accidents" that you have absolutely nothing to do with...
    I get the feeling you and I would make a great team.
    I'm sure that we'd be on a first-name-basis with the guys down at Health and Safety...
    Whose Health & Safety would depend entirely on our good will :)
    ... and if the GFCI outlets are working to spec.
    YES!
  • Almafuerte (unregistered)

    Either totally fake or the admin is incompetent.

    A bit of induced current into a single port of a switch shouldn't cause a network outage of THAT kind. It could blow the switch, or it could maybe hang it. If he didn't try resetting the main switch first, he's an incompetent idiot.

  • the apprentice (unregistered)

    TRWTF is this story.

  • dv (unregistered)

    Two stories from a distant past, when I used to help building the network in our college dorm:

    1. This was before we did UTP cabling and had therefore a 10Mbit/s coaxial with bus topology. One day the maintenance guys were asked by somebody to fix his power outlet. They did so by mixing up the cables and connecting live to earth and vice versa. After the "victim" plugged his computer in, there was a whole lot of smoke from a whole lot of rooms on the same dorm level and all of the NICs were toasted (some taking whole computers with them).
    2. This was when we wired a new dorm block, using the new and nice UTP CAT5e 100Mbit cabling. We also decided to move the fibre interface and the whole old server room to the new dorm block. After we set it all up, laid all the cables, patched all the patch panels and crimped all the ends, we connected the (then very new and very expensive network gear and local servers) and fired it up. One small thing remained - a hole needed to be drilled for the very new fiber optic WAN connection (replacing the old T1). So the maintenance guys came with a driller and managed to drill a nice clean hole right into the water pipe running inside the server room wall. Before someone managed to turn off the water, the servers were literally waist-deep in the water.
  • Anonymous Cow-Herd (unregistered) in reply to method1
    method1:
    Misusing your/you're, they're/their/there etc. does seem to be a good indicator of mediocre intelligence.(Only applies to people whose 1st language is English, of course)
    As is using 1st instead of first in prose other than for dates.
  • (cs) in reply to Nagesh

    We had a cable like that and it worked like a charm. It was connected to a computer directly and not to a random other cable though...

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Dave
    Dave:
    This is the first time I've ever encountered wire nuts. A quick check indicates that they're illegal to use here (not compliant with electricity safety codes). Are these things really used in the US to make long-term connections for mains power cables?

    Yes. If you buy a ceiling fan or light it'll come with wire nuts for installing it. I don't trust them and wrap them liberally with electrical tape too.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Interesting that connecting a network port to live mains electricity didn't blow the switch to Kingdom come...

    Must be that weedy stuff you USians call electricity. (joke)

    What's a USian?
  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous Cow-Herd
    Anonymous Cow-Herd:
    The Troll:
    Stupid jerk blah blah <snip>
    Call yourself a troll?
    user="The Troll"

    Yes, I believe he did...

  • (cs) in reply to operagost
    operagost:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Interesting that connecting a network port to live mains electricity didn't blow the switch to Kingdom come...

    Must be that weedy stuff you USians call electricity. (joke)

    What's a USian?
    Opposite of YOUenites, I think...
  • (cs) in reply to Benjamin Nitzburg
    Benjamin Nitzburg:
    Reminds me of the time I interned at my highschool before college. I wasn't there that day, but I heard all about it a few days later. Apparently, a kid saw a disconnected ethernet cable hanging below the computer desks. He didn't know that the cable was connected on one end (probably for a laptop), so he plugged it back into an empty ethernet slot in the wall. The resulting mess of having the same ethernet cable connecting to two ports on a switch caused an "ARP storm" and massive packet loss.
    Either it was really a multiport repeater (aka a hub) or a switch with the spanning tree protocol turned off. That port should have been partitioned immediately.
  • (cs) in reply to Maria
    Maria:
    Ave:
    I don't understand what people mean by "original Memes". They just occur. You don't "produce" them intentionally.

    Yeah. Like last week when we were talking about douching. Does anyone remember that?

    I was informed that "douchebag" doesn't refer the hygienic product itself, but the used liquid leftover from it's use.

    Now that I'm thinking about it - what if you drank the fluid?

    Or, like, what if you saved it over the months until you had a bunch of it and just chugged it? Or baked it into a cake or something and served it to people? Like Hannibal Lecter covertly feeding people other people except instead of human meat it's used vaginal cleaning juice?

    Anyway, yeah, memes just pop up.

    I, for one, welcome our new bacterial vaginosis overlords.

  • (cs) in reply to foo
    foo:
    Wow, a memefest and noone's said brillant yet.
    Dear FOO,

    In case you can’t tell, this is a grown-up place. The fact that you insist on referencing ridiculous memes clearly shows that you’re too young and too stupid to be using TDWTF.

    Go away and grow up.

    Sincerely, Bert Glanstron

  • A Gould (unregistered)

    OK, I'm amazed no-one's picked up on the actual WTF here:

    If you flip a switch, and thirty seconds later the network is down? Maybe flip the switch back.

  • Hortical (unregistered) in reply to A Gould
    A Gould:
    OK, I'm amazed no-one's picked up on the actual WTF here:

    If you flip a switch, and thirty seconds later the network is down? Maybe flip the switch back.

    Patient: "It's hurts when I do this." Doctor: "Don't do that."

  • (cs) in reply to Hortical
    Hortical:
    A Gould:
    OK, I'm amazed no-one's picked up on the actual WTF here:

    If you flip a switch, and thirty seconds later the network is down? Maybe flip the switch back.

    Patient: "It's hurts when I do this." Doctor: "Don't do that."

    Cue zunesis' pervertization in three... two... one...

  • (cs) in reply to A Gould
    A Gould:
    OK, I'm amazed no-one's picked up on the actual WTF here:

    If you flip a switch, and thirty seconds later the network is down? Maybe flip the switch back.

    1) Who flipped the switch - was he working on the network outage? 2) How many people knew he flipped the switch? 3) What did he do immediately after flipping the switch?

    While your suggestion clearly would have been a great solution, how would anyone have known to try it?

  • Peter (unregistered) in reply to hoodaticus

    Which one of you is the BOFH and which is the PFY?

  • (cs) in reply to Peter
    Peter:
    Which one of you is the BOFH and which is the PFY?
    Yes.
  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Hortical
    Hortical:
    A Gould:
    OK, I'm amazed no-one's picked up on the actual WTF here:

    If you flip a switch, and thirty seconds later the network is down? Maybe flip the switch back.

    Patient: "It's hurts when I do this." Doctor: "Don't do that."

    Supermodel goes into doctor's surgery, saying "I hurt everywhere." The doctor asked her to elaborate.

    The supermodel poked her knee with her finger. "Ow! That hurt!" Then she poked her cheek with her finger. "Ow! That hurt!" Then she poked her midriff with her finger. "Ow! That hurt!" Then she poked her earlobe with her finger. "Ow! Even that hurt!"

    The doctor looked at her for five seconds, then said, "I believe you've broken your finger."

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis
    the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    The best part is that the drooling morons are too stupid to dial an office phone properly, and have called 911 three times this month. The first responders will not be quick in coming. It took them over an hour to get here last time. I took the dial-out code off today and bet a co-worker a hundred dollars that they'll still call 911.
    They "accidentally" call 911, or because of "accidents" that you have absolutely nothing to do with...
    I get the feeling you and I would make a great team.
    I'm sure that we'd be on a first-name-basis with the guys down at Health and Safety...
    Whose Health & Safety would depend entirely on our good will :)

    <3 <3 <3

    Bromance. Gotta love it.

    XOXOXO

    Sheesh! Get an office, you two!

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    Dave:
    This is the first time I've ever encountered wire nuts. A quick check indicates that they're illegal to use here (not compliant with electricity safety codes). Are these things really used in the US to make long-term connections for mains power cables?

    Yes. If you buy a ceiling fan or light it'll come with wire nuts for installing it. I don't trust them and wrap them liberally with electrical tape too.

    I've never had one fail. Wire nuts are compliant for connections in the NEC (compression fittings). The problem is that the wire nuts that come with fixtures STINK. Buy UL listed ones at a hardware store in 12 and 14 gauge and throw the unsafe junk away. Don't pre-twist the wires; let the wire nut do it.

  • the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis (unregistered) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    The best part is that the drooling morons are too stupid to dial an office phone properly, and have called 911 three times this month. The first responders will not be quick in coming. It took them over an hour to get here last time. I took the dial-out code off today and bet a co-worker a hundred dollars that they'll still call 911.
    They "accidentally" call 911, or because of "accidents" that you have absolutely nothing to do with...
    I get the feeling you and I would make a great team.
    I'm sure that we'd be on a first-name-basis with the guys down at Health and Safety...
    Whose Health & Safety would depend entirely on our good will :)

    <3 <3 <3

    Bromance. Gotta love it.

    XOXOXO

    Sheesh! Get an office, you two!

    Hopefully, you three.

  • Drew (unregistered)

    Point of Entry? Ports of Entry? Point of Existence? Portal of Evil? Place of Employment? Process of Elimination? Panel of Experts? Port Of Embarkation? Post Occupancy Evaluation? Perl Object Environment? Problem of Evil? Principles of Engineering? Physician Order Entry? Pipe Organ Encounter? Provider Outreach and Education? Point of Embarkation? Polyolefin Elastomer? Proofs of Entitlement? Piece of Eight? Parallel Operating Environment? Point of Exposure? Program Office Estimate? Projected Operational Environment? Plan of Exploration? Probability of Exceedence? point of ending? Post Office Express? Predict, Observe and Explain? Privately Owned Enterprise? Point of Essence? Proof of Export? Priority of Effort? Precise Orbit Ephemerides? Posture of Engagement? Program of Execution? Personally Owned Equipment? protubérance occipitale externe? Pay Option Election? Process Overall Efficiency? Projected Operating Employment? Professional Office Enterprises? Proof of Enabler? Proposed/Projected Operational Environment? Point Operating Equipment? Point of Equilibrium? Precio de Oportunidad de la Energía? Proactive Office Encounter? Power-Over-Ethernet?

  • the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis (unregistered) in reply to C-Octothorpe
    C-Octothorpe:
    Hortical:
    A Gould:
    OK, I'm amazed no-one's picked up on the actual WTF here:

    If you flip a switch, and thirty seconds later the network is down? Maybe flip the switch back.

    Patient: "It's hurts when I do this." Doctor: "Don't do that."

    Cue zunesis' pervertization of children ages three... two... one...
    Don't go any lower! I'm about to cream myself here!

  • love my zune (unregistered) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    zune:
    Askimet:
    Peace on Earth? Purity of Essence?
    Piss on Edifice
    Puke over everyone
    Pussy on Erection
  • Your Retarded (unregistered)

    Since when did you use UTP cable for mains power?

  • (cs) in reply to the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis
    the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis:
    QJo:
    the subtle (but violating) touch of zunesis:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    C-Octothorpe:
    hoodaticus:
    The best part is that the drooling morons are too stupid to dial an office phone properly, and have called 911 three times this month. The first responders will not be quick in coming. It took them over an hour to get here last time. I took the dial-out code off today and bet a co-worker a hundred dollars that they'll still call 911.
    They "accidentally" call 911, or because of "accidents" that you have absolutely nothing to do with...
    I get the feeling you and I would make a great team.
    I'm sure that we'd be on a first-name-basis with the guys down at Health and Safety...
    Whose Health & Safety would depend entirely on our good will :)

    <3 <3 <3

    Bromance. Gotta love it.

    XOXOXO

    Sheesh! Get an office, you two!

    Hopefully, you three.

    Only on weekends... when you're a girl.

  • (cs) in reply to Peter
    Peter:
    Which one of you is the BOFH and which is the PFY?
    C-Octo is the BOFH. He's the one who bastardized me.
  • (cs) in reply to immitto
    immitto:
    D-Coder:
    galgorah:
    YR:
    What kind of admins are these that do not filter browsing content?
    Us admins only have access to moderate the forums. Articles are a seperate deal.
    I move that moderators be allowed to moderate the comments.

    Seriously, any forum that doesn't moderate comments eventually is overrun by kooks, kids, or krackpots who drive away the interesting posters. Then everyone stops reading the forum (except a few kooks etc). Then advertisers stop advertising. Then Alex starves to death.

    Some will contradict me, but I think that would be a bad outcome.

    Wanna get rid of kooks, kids and krackpots? Maybe start with some of the registered users...
    Maybe leran 2 read.

    Please do not send me ur codez.

  • Just some techie (unregistered)

    The telltale heart didn't "thump", and there's really no parallel to it that fits this tale.

    Also, nobody uses twisted pair cables for electricity except in the case of powered phones, and even those are such low voltages that network ports aren't adversely affected.

    Splicing two network cables like that is kinda WTFish, but if the pairs aren't kept too far apart it might actually work just fine. It would not cause an entire network to fail.

    Sounds like today's WTF is in fact the article itself.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered) in reply to anon
    paul:
    Wow, I just read two pages of yesterday's comments. I don't understand how so many people can be so baffled by the difference between encoding and encryption. Truly, the intelligence level of our society is in steep decline.
    anon:
    Wow, I just read yesterdays comments also. I don't understand how so many people can be confused between a real post and an unbelievably obvious troll. I also do not understand how someone cannot grasp that if they want to comment on yesterday's discussion, they should post in yesterday's discussion, not today's. Truly, the intelligence level of our society is nonexistent.

    But then who will troll the trollmen?

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