* Posts by nwillc

6 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Mar 2018

A floppy filled with software worth thousands of francs: Techie can't take it, customs won't keep it. What to do?

nwillc

Lost at Sea

Worked one job in civilian oceanography where some of the funding came from the US Navy. Whenever so much as a printer they funded was retired, we were supposed to go through hoops and fire with the Navy to prove that it wasn't a military asset. Eventually, we learned that we could just mark things "Lost at Sea" and that would appease them. Never had to throw the stuff overboard either, though it was tempting.

Never let something so flimsy as a locked door to the computer room stand in the way of an auditor on the warpath

nwillc

I remember, back in the day, a secure machine room, which had an associated "public access" terminal room next door. One summer, during a heat wave, when no one was looking, we lifted a floor tile in the terminal area to try and "steal" AC from the machine room. It worked... and out of curiosity we ducked under the raised floor and popped a tile up on the other side of the wall. We were in the machine room. Yeah so much for physical security.

'They took away our Cup-a-Soup!' Share your tales of bleak breakout areas with us

nwillc

Worked somewhere with a beer friday - they never stopped to think that a good chunk of the contractors didn't drink. I remember showing a new person to their desk, and finding every drawer, cabinet, cubby, stuffed with full beer bottles. Apparently the last contractor had wanted to fit in but didn't drink so just stashed them.

nwillc

They tried to charge IT for coffee

Worked one place were they decided the coffee was costing them too much so they bolted on an after market card reader to the existing machine. The idea being we could pay with the cards we used at the cafeteria - where they didn't trust the cashiers with actual money.

Being IT we figured out that if we selected the coffee you wanted, inserted the card, and immediately hit "brew", while yanking the card out,

the reader couldn't process the transaction but the machine started brewing. Left there about a year later ... and the hack still worked.

Sysadmin shut down the wrong server, and with it all European operations

nwillc

Learning what FPO stood for

Years ago I was taking a new sys admin on a tour of our machine rooms. We visited the brand spanking new one when they ask what the bit red button, size of a melon, marked FPO was. I jokingly said, "I don't know... hit it." And...they did. The room went pitch dark ...it was the fire emergency Full Power Off. "What do we do?" they asked. I said "Hit it again" ... lights came on ... "Now Run". We did. Luckily the room was not fully online and none of the servers were production yet....

Sysadmin left finger on power button for an hour to avert SAP outage

nwillc

Back in the day

I was giving a new admin a tour of our "state of the art" machine room. There was was a red button about the size of a cantaloupe marked only FPO. They asked what that was, and I jokingly said "I don't know, hit it." They did.... and the room... yes the entire room proceeded to "Full Power Off". Even the UPSes... they asked "What do we do now?" I could only offer "run".