Very old BOFH comments
In the U.S., most shops discontinued using Halon because it was expensive, you could never test the system (because it was too expensive), and too many bosses actually read the warnings. CO2 is the best we have, though it won't stop a really big fire. However, most BOFHs, like myself, never got around to removing the warning stickers (way too much work). As for CRTs, the phosphorus coating on the screen is what was dangerous, not so the electron beam. Granted the number of millirads of exposure in one day wasn't that bad, but overtime, given that you were sitting about 3 feet from the screen, millirads began to build up. Then you'd go home an sit in front of another CRT for hours. They do make great targets and generate a unique noise when they implode. However, I'm not an alarmist, given the radon gas coming up from under the house, the constant bombardment of cosmic rays, various kinds of radiation from our local star, and U.S. physicians love of X-raying you for everything possible, if you haven't developed a cancer of any sort by age 40, you're usually good to go. As for the sales swamp creatures mentioned in the article, a 2 story drop isn't good enough, 4 stories is more fun. During my 40 years in IT (before it was called IT even) the H&S toads were never allowed in the server room as they were a danger to the servers as they could never be trusted not to press a power button or reset. They could look into the server room, if they could find an open space between the Halon warning stickers covering the glass door.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
