• (cs)

    "See you next Tuesday," Manny said.

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=See-you-next-Tuesday

  • Simon Peyote Joints (unregistered)

    I'm no expert - wouldn't holding the power button for 5 seconds on most machines trigger a hard shutdown?

  • (cs) in reply to Simon Peyote Joints
    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".
  • Luke (unregistered) in reply to Simon Peyote Joints

    Without ACPI it's a simple push and release button.

  • (cs)

    I think everyone would have been better off if he'd let the system power down. Sure, they'd have lost millions and jobs would have been lost, but it might have convinced management to re-organize into something more sane.

  • Smug Unix User (unregistered)

    I was expecting it to be a prank on the new guy.

  • TM (unregistered)

    I'd have totally released that button!

  • (cs) in reply to Smug Unix User

    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.

  • Bongo (unregistered)

    "Paul apologised for not shaking hands."

    Best sentence of this article.

  • T.R. (unregistered)

    Now THAT is a big one... So the entire business was relying on a single machine never having a disk failure, hard reboot, be hit by a power cut, among a million other things that could cause it to reboot or be shut down. Such a machine, I would imagine would be at least load-balanced and be kept in a clean, climatized place not directly accessible by the dev team...

  • (cs) in reply to T.R.
    T.R.:
    Now THAT is a big one... So the entire business was relying on a single machine never having a disk failure, hard reboot, be hit by a power cut, among a million other things that could cause it to reboot or be shut down. Such a machine, I would imagine would be at least load-balanced and be kept in a clean, climatized place not directly accessible by the dev team...
    Bet you still believe in the Tooth Fairy, too.
  • some pony (unregistered) in reply to T.R.

    Are you kidding me? These kind of machines are historically an old desktop system of one of the devs that he doesn't use personally anymore because it is too flaky. They preferably run at the dev's home address, without UPC, in an airtight closet about the size of the machine's casing.

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to T.R.

    Ha. The only difference between the story and reality is that someone usually has the foresight to stick the label over the power button.

    I'd have let go of the button as soon as the idiot threatened me. "How are you going to pay your lawyers when all your customers leave - which is exactly what's going to happen as soon as I make this farce public."

  • Sockatume (unregistered)

    Of course, MacGuyver would've opened up the machine and hotwired the power switch.

  • Sockatume (unregistered)

    "I'd have let go of the button as soon as the idiot threatened me. 'How are you going to pay your lawyers when all your customers leave - which is exactly what's going to happen as soon as I make this farce public.'"

    Publicised your sophisticated physical-access hacker attack? Let's face it, the company did the best they could do against your supervillain-esque malevolence.

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

    MacGuyver was fired the other week for using equipment from an non-approved vendor. Sure, the paperclips we get from the no-bid contract with the boss' nephew's office supply hut costs $50 each, but they're SOX and PCI compliant paperclips!

  • (cs)

    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

  • Ironside (unregistered)

    I want $500,000 in cash and a helicopter outside or I release the button.

  • (cs)

    The part I didn't get: why does someone press the power button on a computer without any need? Especially on the first day being toured around? I call BS.

  • Jens (unregistered)

    I'd have jammed the switch down with a toothpick. BTDT.

  • (cs) in reply to TGV
    TGV:
    The part I didn't get: why does someone press the power button on a computer without any need? Especially on the first day being toured around? I call BS.
    Ah, the comment above me explains it: someone fucked up with the html comments, and that makes the story particularly weird.

    DON'T TOUCH THE <!--!! WE DON'T READ COMMENTS! WE'RE PROGRAMMERS!

  • TheSHEEEP (unregistered)

    Why he did not immediatly quit after that incident (or, well, after the paid off-time) is beyond me.

  • Unknown (unregistered)

    4 needles and a couple more guys and it becomes very easy to safely switch with someone.

  • (cs)

    Is it normal not to have a computer assigned to you?

    I'm certain it's normal to have a server room which is separate and away from any kind of common traffic.

    Millions of dollars lost due to a reboot? Nothing about that makes any sense.

    I'm guessing the legal team's case would consist of "We're bigger than you".

    I'm sure this has all been covered by now.

  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    Oh yeah, Firefox 3.6 or so does that. That's what finally got me to switch to Seamonkey on this computer a few months ago. I think the TDWTF article in question is even still in the tab set when I start up FF.

    Seems the HTML/SGML standard for comments has a WTF in how the "--" of "<!--" and "-->" of comments are interpreted. Hint: not how you'd expect. Newer versions of Gecko do what you would expect, spec be dammed. (Now if we could only get rid of that crazy Javascript semicolon rule, then we could solve all of the problems in the Mid-East.)

  • Ironside (unregistered)

    Serious question: If he let go and they sued him but lost would he make money from it? Ie compensation? or is it a (lose money or lose nothing) situation?

  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered) in reply to Unknown
    Unknown:
    4 needles and a couple more guys and it becomes very easy to safely switch with someone.
    Toothpicks and Bic pens.

    Also, FWIW, I read Janice's voice as Linda from Bob's Burgers. That nice Jewish Mother accent, dripping with sarcasm, is just perfect for her lines.

  • hobbes (unregistered)

    Why not trace the pins to the jumper on the motherboard, wiggle it off slightly and bridge them manually with a pair of clips and some wire?

  • (cs) in reply to Ironside
    Ironside:
    Serious question: If he let go and they sued him but lost would he make money from it? Ie compensation? or is it a (lose money or lose nothing) situation?

    I'm sure it would come down to where in the world he was, and how good both legal teams were. Maybe Redacted Inc could argue malice, or willful negligence. It's unlikely they'd get $10M from an individual, but they might get something.

    If they lost, he might be entitled to lawyers fees. Since it was his first day, he'd almost certainly be in some sort of probation period, where they could fire him for any reason. It's unlikely he could sue them for wrongful dismissal. He might have a good trauma/emotional hardship case on his hands, though. Especially if he could prove neglect on their part

  • (cs)

    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.

  • (cs) in reply to ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL
    ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
    Unknown:
    4 needles and a couple more guys and it becomes very easy to safely switch with someone.
    Toothpicks and Bic pens.

    Also, FWIW, I read Janice's voice as Linda from Bob's Burgers. That nice Jewish Mother accent, dripping with sarcasm, is just perfect for her lines.

    I will now re-read Manny's lines as Louise.

  • Richard (unregistered)

    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.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    For various complex and not necessarily valid reasons, I'm on Firefox 3.6.23.

  • Anon. (unregistered) in reply to TheSHEEEP
    TheSHEEEP:
    Why he did not immediatly quit after that incident (or, well, after the paid off-time) is beyond me.

    That, at least is obvious. If you were going to quit after, you wouldn't spend the time hanging around holding the button down.

    That said, I call BS on the whole story. Any one of the WTFs would be acceptable on its own, but all of them in a single story? nope.

  • Sarah (unregistered)

    Anyone else who would like watch the movie Speed with me?

  • (cs)

    Am I the only one who giggled at "he had creamed and sugared his 'I's and 'T's"?

  • DES (unregistered)

    RAM still has to be installed in identical pairs. At least on server hardware.

  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered) in reply to Lorne Kates
    Lorne Kates:
    I will now re-read Manny's lines as Louise.
    Damn. And Paul as Bob works really well, too. Gene can be Daryl. But there's nobody left to be Tina.

    Kristen Schall's voice is awesome. She's one of the main reasons I watch 30 Rock.

  • (cs) in reply to ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL
    ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
    Lorne Kates:
    I will now re-read Manny's lines as Louise.
    But there's nobody left to be Tina.

    She's the server off in the corner with the CPU fan with worn-out ball bearings.

  • (cs) in reply to Simon Peyote Joints
    Simon Peyote Joints:
    I'm no expert - wouldn't holding the power button for 5 seconds on most machines trigger a hard shutdown?
    Some time in the mid-1990s a co-worker of mine was doing a multi-disk software install from floppies. This was in the days just before CD-ROM drives became common and installing something like the Visual Studio 2.0 or a TCP/IP stack meant going through a dozen or more 3.5" floppies.

    After the second or third disk he reached out and mistakenly stabbed the power button instead of the eject. He was afraid that rebooting mid-install would corrupt his machine, so he kept the power switch pressed down for the remaining 10 or 15 minutes required to finish the install.

  • F (unregistered) in reply to T.R.
    T.R.:
    Now THAT is a big one... So the entire business was relying on a single machine never having a disk failure, hard reboot, be hit by a power cut, among a million other things that could cause it to reboot or be shut down.

    Of course not. This was only "001". Clearly the business is reliant on a whole raft of additional machines that can also never be allowed to fail, reboot, etc.

  • F (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    Must be one of these damn standards-compliant ones.

  • Grant (unregistered)

    Rewiring to bypass the switch would have been dangerous.

    On newer systems, it's a simple little switch connected to the motherboard, with 5v signalling. On old systems like that the power switch was part of the power supply, switching the hot side of your 110/220v power.

    Of course, you could have just wedged a few toothpicks around the sides of the button to hold it all day...

  • rackandboneman (unregistered) in reply to hobbes

    If these are pre-ATX computers the power switch is usually an actual power switch, and very dangerous to hotwire live.

  • (cs)

    The real WTF is that nobody thought about blue-tac or plasticine.

  • Andrew (unregistered) in reply to dgvid
    dgvid:
    Am I the only one who giggled at "he had creamed and sugared his 'I's and 'T's"?

    Yes. You are the only person in the world who finds humor to be funny.

  • sukru (unregistered) in reply to Richard

    I used to do this all the time! As long as you can re-press the buttons before the capacitors discharge, nothing happened.

  • (cs)

    I like how until the mention of an iPad in the 46th paragraph, there's nothing in the story that indicates when it takes place, and thus how old the hardware is, and thus how much of a WTF it is.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    In real browsers, "--" is a toggle between comment and non-comment. So an odd number of them will confuse any standards-compliant browser.

  • iMortalitySX (unregistered) in reply to Shoreline
    Shoreline:
    Is it normal not to have a computer assigned to you?

    I'm certain it's normal to have a server room which is separate and away from any kind of common traffic.

    Millions of dollars lost due to a reboot? Nothing about that makes any sense.

    I'm guessing the legal team's case would consist of "We're bigger than you".

    I'm sure this has all been covered by now.

    The answer to those...

    Depends on who you work for and what they can afford. I used to work for an MSP where we serviced many small companies. The most frustrating thing was when we would go in, develop/update an application, directly on their server, which is also the customer kiosk machine. No kidding.

    Millions of dollars is possible. One company that we performed services for kept their server/CEO work stations in the CEO's office which was in a metal building. After it got struck by lightning, they lost all their data, and poof. It cost the company something like 1.2 mil in contracts that dropped them quickly afterwords.

    CAPTCHA : minim

Leave a comment on “Trauma Center”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article