https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/26/who_me/ # # Sign in / up The Register(r) -- Biting the hand that feeds IT # # # Topics Security Security All SecurityCyber-crimePatchesResearchCSO (X) Off-Prem Off-Prem All Off-PremEdge + IoTChannelPaaS + IaaSSaaS (X) On-Prem On-Prem All On-PremSystemsStorageNetworksHPCPersonal TechCxOPublic Sector (X) Software Software All SoftwareAI + MLApplicationsDatabasesDevOpsOSesVirtualization (X) Offbeat Offbeat All OffbeatDebatesColumnistsScienceGeek's GuideBOFHLegalBootnotesSite NewsAbout Us (X) Special Features Special Features All Special Features Cloud Infrastructure Week Cybersecurity Month Blackhat and DEF CON Sysadmin Month The Reg in Space Emerging Clean Energy Tech Week Spotlight on RSA Energy Efficient Datacenters Vendor Voice Vendor Voice Vendor Voice All Vendor Voice Amazon Web Services (AWS) Business Transformation DDN Google Cloud Infrastructure Hewlett Packard Enterprise: AI & ML solutions Hewlett Packard Enterprise: Edge-to-Cloud Platform Intel vPro VMware (X) Resources Resources Whitepapers Webinars & Events Newsletters [front] On-Prem 50 comment bubble on white If we plug this in without telling anyone, nobody will know we caused the outage 50 comment bubble on white The whole incident could have been avoided by spending some spare change on a fastener icon Matthew JC Powell Mon 26 Feb 2024 // 06:29 UTC # Who, Me? What? Monday? Again? Didn't we do Monday last week? OK, fine. Welcome once again to your soft landing pad into the working week - the oasis we call Who, Me? in which Reg readers unburden themselves with tales of tech tribulations. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Padraic" who spent some time in the 1990s working in a manufacturing facility on the west coast of Ireland. The firm, which is now defunct (no fault of Padraic's we're sure) made various items of telecommunications equipment, some of it custom PCBs destined for call centers. One fine day, Padraic and a colleague were required to install a PBX in the server room, to test new software. The server room wasn't really built for such things - the PBX was a chunky 32kg box, and the room was tightly packed with five or six racks of Sun SPARC Enterprise servers. As Padraic puts it, "there was barely enough room to swing a Celtic kitten." [front] Nonetheless, they managed to drill holes for rack mounts, heave the PBX into place and install some PCBs - all before lunch. [front] [front] At which point they couldn't help but notice some frantic activity from sysops who seemed to be running about frantically. The servers were down! The production line had stopped! Hundreds of thousands of punts (that's olde-timey currency for you youngsters who don't remember life before the Euro) were evaporating by the minute! [front] Well, thought Padraic and his colleague, we'd best be out of the way while you sort that out. * Self-taught-techie slept on the datacenter floor, survived communism, ended a marriage * 'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand * Developer's default setting created turbulence in the flight simulator * One person's shortcut was another's long road to panic Returning from lunch, the place was still just as chaotic. Management was involved now, looking furiously at the sysops who were unable to restore normality. Padraic and pal resumed installing PCBs in the new PBX and, as they did so, noticed a big fat SCSI cable on the back of one of the machines that was just ever so slightly off-kilter and therefore not making a clean connection. Clearly, one or the other of them had nudged it out of the way at some point during their morning's labors. Padraic looked at his colleague, who looked back at him. They exchanged a quiet understanding between them, and pushed the cable the few millimeters required to get it back in place. Not a word was spoken - especially not to any of the frantic sysops. When they finished installing the PBX, Padraic did venture to ask someone about the server situation. All fine! Everything just came back on line! No-one even knows why! A complete mystery - one of those things that's probably best left unsolved. [front] Now, you may be thinking to yourself "Didn't SCSI cables usually have clips on them to stop exactly this sort of thing from happening?" And you'd be right. But as Padraic explained: "In this multi-million punt, state-of-the-art installation, nobody had bothered to fit the little 10p clips on the SCSI sockets which are designed to hold the cable connectors in place." So it wasn't entirely his fault, to be sure. Ah the 10p saving that ends up costing thousands - classic. If you've ever found yourself in a mess that could have been prevented by some spare change, let us know about it by clicking here to send an email to Who, Me? and we'll use your story to soften some future Monday morn. (r) Get our Tech Resources # Share More about * Who, Me? More like these x More about * Who, Me? Broader topics * Sysadmin More about # Share 50 comment bubble on white COMMENTS More about * Who, Me? More like these x More about * Who, Me? Broader topics * Sysadmin TIP US OFF Send us news --------------------------------------------------------------------- Other stories you might like Self-taught-techie slept on the datacenter floor, survived communism, ended a marriage Who, Me? This is what happens when you get promoted too fast, too soon Software19 Feb 2024 | 85 'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand Who, Me? Sometimes you can have too many people in the room On-Prem12 Feb 2024 | 44 Developer's default setting created turbulence in the flight simulator who, me? What is it? It's an instrument used to train pilots, but that's not important right now Software5 Feb 2024 | 121 Employing your cloud data warehouse to scale up AI/ML AI can unlock the power of enterprise data, providing companies can get it to the right place in the right state Sponsored Feature [front] One person's shortcut was another's long road to panic Who, Me? Clever techie thought of everything - except someone else's stupidity Storage29 Jan 2024 | 73 Poor communication led to complete lack of communication Who, Me? Didn't you fix that? Me? I thought you fixed that! Software22 Jan 2024 | 31 WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager Who, Me? Who's going to complain about free labor? Software15 Jan 2024 | 159 New year, new bug - rivalry between devs led to a deep-code disaster Who, me? How badly do you want your name in the About box? Software8 Jan 2024 | 110 PLACEHOLDER ONLY Someone please write witty headline here Who, Me? Some jokes don't deserve an audience Software18 Dec 2023 | 119 Enterprising techie took the bumpy road to replacing vintage hardware Who, Me? Nice ridiculously redundant drive you've got there - what a pity if something ...happened to it Storage11 Dec 2023 | 107 Sysadmin's favorite collection of infallible utilities failed ... foully who, me? Unnecessary 'maintenance' turned into a fragging foul-up Storage4 Dec 2023 | 57 IT sent the intern to sort out the nasty VP who was too important to bother with backups Who, Me? Kid escaped from the executive suite without screwing things up Personal Tech27 Nov 2023 | 90 The Register icon Biting the hand that feeds IT About Us* * Contact us * Advertise with us * Who we are Our Websites* * The Next Platform * DevClass * Blocks and Files Your Privacy* * Cookies Policy * Privacy Policy * T's & C's * Do not sell my personal information Situation Publishing Copyright. All rights reserved (c) 1998-2024 no-js