-
Hey Guest!
British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!**Upgrade Now**
(PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Computer problem
- Thread starter roofman
- Start date
Share this page
Offline
"Lightning strikes and cleaning crews are both the boon and bane of my existence"
I *had* to followup on this one.
Back "in the day" I wondered why one of my buildings lost all 'net connection between 5am and 7am. Network connections lost, automatic updates terminated, backups FUBAR, etc.
So after several days of worrying about this, I dragged myself to work around 4:45am. Just before 5am I saw a cleaning crew arrive and head for their assignments. I followed one guy up to the floor where the network connections "merged".
The network junction was in a hallway of a 1960s building, where ethernet cabling and equipment were added in 1989 "on the cheap". The equipment was out of the way, just next to the janitorial closet. The cleaning guy was "portly", shall we say. I watched him open the closet, get his vacuum, and slide between the network junction on one wall and router racks on the other - only about two feet apart - to do his morning rounds.
As he slid by the racks, his belly would pull the router rack sideways as he passed by; the router power cable was pulled just slightly out of its wall socket. It would remain that way until "the belly" finished his work and came back through the hallway. You guessed it - he walked one way at 5am, and back the other way at 7am.
"And the gods of love look down and laugh, at what romantic fools we mortals be."
Perfidia!
Tom
I *had* to followup on this one.
Back "in the day" I wondered why one of my buildings lost all 'net connection between 5am and 7am. Network connections lost, automatic updates terminated, backups FUBAR, etc.
So after several days of worrying about this, I dragged myself to work around 4:45am. Just before 5am I saw a cleaning crew arrive and head for their assignments. I followed one guy up to the floor where the network connections "merged".
The network junction was in a hallway of a 1960s building, where ethernet cabling and equipment were added in 1989 "on the cheap". The equipment was out of the way, just next to the janitorial closet. The cleaning guy was "portly", shall we say. I watched him open the closet, get his vacuum, and slide between the network junction on one wall and router racks on the other - only about two feet apart - to do his morning rounds.
As he slid by the racks, his belly would pull the router rack sideways as he passed by; the router power cable was pulled just slightly out of its wall socket. It would remain that way until "the belly" finished his work and came back through the hallway. You guessed it - he walked one way at 5am, and back the other way at 7am.
"And the gods of love look down and laugh, at what romantic fools we mortals be."
Perfidia!
Tom
Offline
Heeheehaaahaa!!!! Whadda kick! What're the chances of doing accurate diag's on THAT the first go?!?! MCSE's don't get that kind of quality trainin'! IT folks learn to 'think outside th' box' pretty quick.
Last week's 'mystery' was lost connectivity t'wixt a workstation and server. CAT-5 port behind a two drawer file cabinet. Much scrambling about on ladders and testing of ports and switch. All cabling tested correct with sniffer. Intermittant connection, still. Head scratching and then seeing a "clerk" open, then SLAM a drawer shut: cabinet had over time beat the wall port/cable to a point it was no longer solidly terminated at the inside... a quick punch-down with a new RJ-45 socket and all went back to normal. Now there's a 1"x2" lumber strip behind that cabinet to prevent impact. Always check th' "dumb stuff" first! Too bad I don't seem to listen to my own advice that often... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
Last week's 'mystery' was lost connectivity t'wixt a workstation and server. CAT-5 port behind a two drawer file cabinet. Much scrambling about on ladders and testing of ports and switch. All cabling tested correct with sniffer. Intermittant connection, still. Head scratching and then seeing a "clerk" open, then SLAM a drawer shut: cabinet had over time beat the wall port/cable to a point it was no longer solidly terminated at the inside... a quick punch-down with a new RJ-45 socket and all went back to normal. Now there's a 1"x2" lumber strip behind that cabinet to prevent impact. Always check th' "dumb stuff" first! Too bad I don't seem to listen to my own advice that often... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
G
Guest
Guest
Guest
Offline
Well if you are trading stories, then I'll tell you the one about the cleaner in the UK that unhooked the mainframe to plug in the vacuum sometime...
The site doesn't have a UPS. It wasn't pretty.
The site doesn't have a UPS. It wasn't pretty.
Offline
what??!! my former cleaner is now working in the UK?
On a somewhat more human note - my dean's secretary once called me to say the new dean couldn't see his email. (oy ...)
I walked into his office and saw he had MSWord overlaying the email app window. Told him to put the mouse on the red X in the upper right corner, and click it.
You got it - he picked up the mouse, carefully placed it on the upper right corner of the screen, and clicked it.
"So easy a three year old child can do it. Someone go and get me a three year old child."
T.
On a somewhat more human note - my dean's secretary once called me to say the new dean couldn't see his email. (oy ...)
I walked into his office and saw he had MSWord overlaying the email app window. Told him to put the mouse on the red X in the upper right corner, and click it.
You got it - he picked up the mouse, carefully placed it on the upper right corner of the screen, and clicked it.
"So easy a three year old child can do it. Someone go and get me a three year old child."
T.
G
Guest
Guest
Guest
Offline
How does the line go again?
Something like any work one does to idiot proof a product is wasted effort, as they will just build a better idiot.
Sadly, I feel like I'm doing QA at the idiot factory some days. Last Wednesday comes immediately to mind...
Something like any work one does to idiot proof a product is wasted effort, as they will just build a better idiot.
Sadly, I feel like I'm doing QA at the idiot factory some days. Last Wednesday comes immediately to mind...
AweMan
Jedi Knight
Offline
Reminds me of when I first arrived in South Texas. Working for D.O.D. Our shop P.C. had win NT {The very first version.} The boss got tired of having all of the shop employees playing on it when he wasn`t there. He asked me if I knew of any way he could "Lock it up" when he wasn`t around. I installed a security type screen saver on it {I think it was called Microsoft scenes}{Through the dos prompt via 3 1/2 In. floppy drive}. About a week later sure enough the boss takes a day off, low and behold the I.T. Gurus show up with intentions of doing something or another to his machine. They turn it on, up comes this screensaver asking for a password. {I was standing close by not only to watch but out of curiosity}. The look of dismay on thier faces was worth a million bucks. They had been locking everyone out of machines that had to be used daily trying to secure them. And now they themselfs were locked out. One even asked me if I knew anything about how this program got instaled or what the password was. of course I said "Dang I don`t even know how to turn one of those things on".
I couldn`t believe that none of them had enough smarts to enter the dos prompt and delete that screensaver.
Back on topic ..... sounds like good ole I.E. strikes again!
I personaly don`t care for it and don`t/won`t use it.
my choice is Firefox.
I couldn`t believe that none of them had enough smarts to enter the dos prompt and delete that screensaver.
Back on topic ..... sounds like good ole I.E. strikes again!
I personaly don`t care for it and don`t/won`t use it.
my choice is Firefox.
