• Frist (unregistered)

    !!!

  • Maxim Borgi (unregistered)

    !frist

  • Zeh (unregistered)

    This is pure genious! Unfortunately, it is also true for a lot os us!

  • starsky51 (unregistered)

    Brilliant!

  • Oliver Jones (google)

    The WTF here? Whoever drove photoshop for that image never saw an actual Hollerith card. That huge sheet looks like six pages of greenbar paper.

    Damn. I'm old. But I do know how to get stuff done. And my shop did have a go-live on Tuesday.

    And, I still like Gene Zeigler's poetry. http://geneziegler.com/clocktower/DrSeuss.html

  • Ulysses (unregistered)

    No, TRWTF is the eggshell attitude to the word Christmas.

  • JustSomeDudette (unregistered)

    Loved it

  • Remy Porter (google) in reply to Ulysses

    Personally, I've taken to using "Happy Christmas" and "Merry Holidays" just to annoy people.

  • Captain Obvious (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter

    Thanks for the much needed laughs this morning! Happy Christmas!

  • Nigel (unregistered)

    Yes, Oliver Jones is right. That's the biggest damn punch card I've ever seen. Normal size I was going to guess at 8" x 3" but actually 7 3/8" x 3 1/4" (Thanks Wikipedia).

    Punch cards are normally found in packs, tied together with rubber bands. Mine (in Uni) used to come back with a line printer job log telling you it failed to compile (missing semi-colon on card 27). Normally 24 hours after submission. You soon learned to be careful...

    Happy Days!

  • FooBar (unregistered)

    Hahaha! I loved the ending

  • Bruce W (unregistered)

    The ending is awesome!

    My company has a code freeze December and January - meaning everything gets piled up for release in February. Three years in a row we had major releases over the top of or close to Valentine's Day. Not a way impress spouses and significant others. The fourth year I argued strongly with the PMs and the executives early in January to not have another Valentine's Surprise.

  • Remy Porter (google) in reply to Nigel

    Check both the title and the alt-text on the image.

  • Got It! (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that "troll" and "COBOL" don't rhyme, right?

  • Remy Porter (google) in reply to Got It!

    Half-rhyme is still a kind of rhyme.

  • Bill T (unregistered)

    Having been involved with a go-live around Christmas (well, it was actually one week before, but close enough for me!) I fell out of my chair when I read the last diatribe.

  • Herby (unregistered)

    Why does everyone say it is the PM's fault.

    Probably because it is. They are management after all.

    Oh, yes, and COBOL still runs quite a bit of things where $$ is concerned. It probably will for quite a while.

  • O(log n) (unregistered)

    Brought a smile, thank you.

  • Weng (unregistered)

    I am working from a buddy's house tomorrow with a bunch of other friends. And by that, we mean we'll log into our respective IM services and get drunk.

    Except one guy. Who is a sysadmin and is doing a patch release. He doesn't think it's a bad idea because "nobody will notice until Tuesday if it breaks"

    Which actually has a chance of not being too incorrect - he works for the federal government.

  • Charleh (unregistered)

    +1 from me, most entertaining thing I've read in the last 8 minutes.

  • Ken (unregistered)

    Worked there and with that guy.

  • Worf (unregistered)

    I finally found out what "spindle" was on the punch cards. Remember "Do not fold, mutilate or spindle"?

    (It's the spike you see at restaurants - apparently they used to be called "spindles" instead of spikes and every office had one, not just restaurants).

  • Zbygniew Prlwytzkofsky (unregistered)

    That was ja a really good laugh. Vielen dank!

  • Zbygniew Prlwytzkofsky (unregistered)

    That was ja a really good laugh. Vielen dank!

  • (nodebb)

    Looks like I have to be that guy...

    "WHOSE IDEA", not "WHO'S IDEA".

  • Hannes (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that there are no unicorns and rainbows hidden! I AM DISAPPOINT!

  • NEuRO Sarnum (google)

    Thanks for this entertaining article :)

  • UptimeNotEssential (unregistered)

    We didn't have a release, but we had a "fire suppression system test" which involved shutting down the datacenter, then the day after everything was turned on (christmas eve, and the metaphorical fires of services that didn't come up quite right were still burning), there was an "energy curtailment" that involved shutting down non-essential systems like the card-key access to the building, so that the folks who were NOT on holiday, STILL could not get physical access to any servers.

  • CE (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter

    I do believe that "Happy Christmas" is actually common in the UK.

Leave a comment on “'Twas the Night Before Go-Live”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article