Big Red Button Disasters? 508
FredDC asks: "The Daily WTF has a story about a Big Red Button disaster. What Big Red Button disasters have you experienced? Which ones have you caused? Are there any that you've heard about, or do you know of any that can happen any day now?"
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, he was saying something to the effect of, `` '' (literally, ``it's unnecessary'', though, used more like ``don't do it!''), but is that really relevant?
Re:First Job Ever (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess every new database programmer has done this at least once, but yeah.
Re:The Magic Switch (Score:3, Insightful)
I do have one idea: The ground from the wire was not absolute ground. If it was relative ground, and linked to absolute ground, it would, for sure, crash the machine.
Magic sparks fly when you hook up on a TV the chassis ground with the "ground plug" ground.
Re:What kind of idiot... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What kind of idiot... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fresh out of high school I was a janitor who happened to clean the data center at a big business. I was in this job because I needed to raise money for college (it paid $12/hr believe it or not, which was a fair sight better than pretty much any other job I could have landed at the time). It was a foot in the door, and I eventually worked my way through college and up the corporate ladder in the very same company. Now I'm responsible for the servers which occupy that same space which I used to clean.
Fortunately the guys working in the data center weren't as narrow-minded as you; while working as a janitor I would regularly take a few minutes to help them diagnose some problem with their Windows boxes or just help them put together some new hardware. While it's possible they were patronizing me because they saw in me some spark of what they saw in themselves, I also genuinely believe that they were grateful for the assistance, and at the very least at least they didn't judge me because of my position in life.
I have never since worked as hard in my life as I did while a janitor. I have never since in my life been looked down on by as many people. You cannot imagine how being constantly surrounded by people who look down on you saps your self confidence and opinion of yourself. Working to clean the filth that other people generate, and in service to these people, they will often not even acknowledge your presence even if you address them directly. It was one of the worst periods of my life, and I also regard it as one of the most valuable.
Today I use people's attitude toward janitorial or maintenance staff as a litmus test of their personal character and it has yet to let me down. For example, once while interviewing a job candidate, the janitor came into the room to empty the trashcans. The candidate showed obvious distaste, and I recommended against this person for the job. They got the job in spite of my recommendation, but within 8 months they were shown the door; this same attitude, which they were not even able to mask during an interview infested the rest of their inter-personal relationships. They were a nightmare to work with or even just be around.
Whenever you think you are better than someone else because of what they do or because of who they are, that self-same thought makes it not so.
Re:What kind of idiot... (Score:4, Insightful)
One janitor got a bug up his butt and decided he'd use those outlets for his floor polisher, "because the next closest outlet is another 10 feet away" and apparently he couldn't be bothered to walk that far. It was a big and crufty enough piece of equipment that he blew up the nearest power supply whenever he did it. These were not cheap machines either, and they were crucial to the operation of the line. So whenever he did it there was about $400 in parts, a call-out, and an hour or two of downtime on the line at probably $20,000 an hour.
After about 3 of these my friend figured out what was going on, and lurked until he caught the guy plugging in, and confronted him. The guy got belligerent and said basically "Screw you, big fancy white shirt in a tie, I'll do whatever the f**k I want, I don't give a crap if it costs the company $30,000 every time I do it, and I'm in the union so good luck doing anything about it!"
Turns out, a VP was lurking around the corner and witnessed the whole thing. The guy got a quick lesson that the union wasn't the impenetrable barrier to justice that he thought it was. He was on his ass in the street in about 10 minutes.
You always hope for that kind of instant karma, but you rarely get it.
Re:OT: Nevermind, it eats non-ASCII on submit. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What kind of idiot... (Score:3, Insightful)
It wasn't wanting to restrict access to the data center to which I objected. It was the "or else he wouldn't be a janitor" parenthetical.
Nothing wrong with that. If you're a janitor at 20, then maybe you're a college student. If you're still one at 30, then you're either mentally deficient or have no ambition at all. You can walk into this country speaking no English and work your way into a decent position (hell, manage a grocery store or something) in 10 years. All it takes is drive.