Flying tiles of death
Back in the 1970's our computer room became a dangerous place. People (including myself) were tripping on the tiles that covered the raised floor. Nothing like this has ever happened before, and we didn't have any idea why. New/old it didn't matter. One Sunday morning a fellow sysprog was called by the VP of the data center to get his camera down to the DC and take pictures. When the sysprog got down to the data center, he found a couple of tiles ripped off of the floor and thrown all over the place. One, unfortunately, hit a few switch's for disk drives. It's been a long time, so I don't remember the brand, but it was a plug compatible switch for IBM's 2914. He took the pictures (back then the data center was closed on Sunday's). The next day IBM showed up in the VP's office and pleaded guilty to doing the damages. His apology included the fact that he kept tripping on the floor because of the tiles. There was not any major damage done, but I think I heard the number of 750. USD. The VP went through the roof when he heard this has been going on for weeks. He got the head of the Data Center up in his office and demanded why this wasn't this brought to his attention and what was causing the problem? The DC manager didn't know either. That afternoon one of the operators noticed that the cleaning clue was using a dry mop to clean the computer room floor and he had the idea that might be the cause of the issue. The VP called the VP that was responsible for the cleaning of the computer room floor. The people who manufactured the cleaner were brought into the fray, and they denied responsibility saying it was used nationwide and no one else has had the issue. The DC manager was not taking no for an answer as he didn't want to get into any more trouble, so he asked the provider to run tests as it was the only possible candidate. Meanwhile, the cleaning people were ordered to change to the previous cleaner. AÏter 2 weeks the manufacturer came back and said "oops" it was the cleaner. The VP said to replace all the flooring or else you will have a lawsuit. The manufacturer didn't have much choice and if I remember the cost turned to be a lot of money if memory serves me it was 100,000 USD (I could be wrong). We got all new flooring (not that it was old, to begin with). The manufacturer also paid for cleaning supplies for two years. I don't know if there was a recall or not and if it happened at any other DC but we were happy, IBM was happy.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
