Brainfarts at work and other gobsmacking stories

ubercal said:
@r00igev@@r for deleting the /var directory on his server :ROFL:
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That didn't cause an outage and I restored it at a convenient moment.

Unlike a work colleague who did a no router eigrp on the core and when he realized the mistake ran through the building in his socks to the data centre. He would sit at his desk and take off his shoes.

Everyone saw him as they all looked up when the network died.
 
r00igev@@r said:
That didn't cause an outage and I restored it at a convenient moment.

Unlike a work colleague who did a no router eigrp on the core and when he realized the mistake ran through the building in his socks to the data centre. He would sit at his desk and take off his shoes.

Everyone saw him as they all looked up when the network died.
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Sounds like the DBA I knew who typed in "drop table waybill;" on production, at a logistics company.
When he realised he was on prod he panicked and pulled out his network cable .... too late, she cried
 
Sinbad said:
Sounds like the DBA I knew who typed in "drop table waybill;" on production, at a logistics company.
When he realised he was on prod he panicked and pulled out his network cable .... too late, she cried
Click to expand...
Hiding the evidence is always a good strategy.

But the talking about unplugging: A techie was sent to a remote location to troubleshoot a link. When he arrived he unplugged the main router to charge his phone. Three hours later the NOC finally worked out what went wrong. In all this time they were talking to him on his phone.
 
news.sky.com

Every flight across US grounded due to computer system glitch

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was working to restore its Notice to Air Missions system which alerts pilots of potential hazards along a flight route. Some 4,013 flights within, into or out of the US have been delayed, according to a flight tracking website, and 710 cancelled.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
This happened ages ago:

So fresh out of trade school I go with two senior electricians to switch a distribution board. Now like most industrial applications, it has redundancy built in. Two main breakers (incomers) and a breaker able to parallel the two (tie) . These were old breakers with purely mechanical interlocks and hand operated emergency trips.

To be able to access the bay to remove the breaker for service, you need to push a button unlocking the bay with the removal gear. This however was also connected to a lever tripping the breaker (emergency shut down of sorts).

These are normally arranged in the middle of the board with each incomer feeding half and the tie sitting open in the middle till shtf when it will close (upstream transformer blows or whatever)

So my colleagues Transfers the board via the protection set up to do so in order for us to inspect and maintain one incomer. He turn to ask me if I understood and agree. Yep. OK well he turns back to remove the breaker. Problem is he is now facing the tie. I see his hand move toward the button and as I wanted to shout to stop he trips out the tie breaker, killing off half the industrial board. Quickly realizing his error he switched back, but not all of the processes recovered from that 5 or so second dip. Probably destroyed a good few randelas of product.

So far the biggest brainfart I played a part in.
 
Also ages ago:

Qualified for just over a year and had to stand in on the winder. (The lift that takes you underground)
Some problem on the braking system and i suspected an 0-ring popped and got stuck in the one hydraulic valve.
Switched off the hydraulic pumps, locked out and started loosening the valve hex screws. Fokol. This valve was sticking to the manifold like a vjayjay to a tile floor.

So I yanked on it and BOOM ! In a split second i'm soaked in hydraulic oil. Even the electrical foreman who stood a couple of meters away had oil on him. (After fixing the valve who had an o-ring stuck in a port i went to the change house to put on another overall, my underpants were so soaked with oil I through it away)

The problem: Even after stopping the pumps, there's an accumulator still filled with oil under pressure. 10MPa.
(Stored energy). Things could have gone seriously south.
 
Once went to a female managers desk to ask a question. Busy day and thinking in my head I want to ask if I am correct in assuming something. When I got to her had a total brainfart and it came out as, am I erect...

Felt like a chop, but luckily she has a good sense of humor and we still laugh about (and she mocks me about it) till today
 
r00igev@@r said:
Hiding the evidence is always a good strategy.

But the talking about unplugging: A techie was sent to a remote location to troubleshoot a link. When he arrived he unplugged the main router to charge his phone. Three hours later the NOC finally worked out what went wrong. In all this time they were talking to him on his phone.
Click to expand...
You got to be joking
 
Sinbad said:
Sounds like the DBA I knew who typed in "drop table waybill;" on production, at a logistics company.
When he realised he was on prod he panicked and pulled out his network cable .... too late, she cried
Click to expand...

I've done this before (who hasn't :p), dropping a table on prod that all the reports used...that feeling when your heart just drops. Anyway, could luckily restore a copy from the dev system quickly enough.

Nowadays I colour code all my db connections: dev = green, prod = red!
 
prod said:
I've done this before (who hasn't :p), dropping a table on prod that all the reports used...that feeling when your heart just drops. Anyway, could luckily restore a copy from the dev system quickly enough.

Nowadays I colour code all my db connections: dev = green, prod = red!
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It sounds like that FAA did that as well but they said a "File was corrupted". Jaja.
 
Nothing big my side, except got a call for network down at the office. It was a set of parkhomes and a user unplugged the cabinet switch in order to boil the kettle.
 
Not a biggie: years ago I was in a team developing a front end for our client in order for them to send out marketing SMSs using some bulk SMS provider. During testing we send all sorts of SMSs to test numbers, one reading: "test test testicle!". Fast forward several weeks and we had to demo the front end, during the demo the client asked that I show him how it looks from the bulk SMS provider's interface, so I logged into their portal and low and behold, all the test messages appeared, along with "test test testicle". Was a pure red face moment, some awkward chuckles and head shakes here and there while I was furiously trying to click away.
 
Worst Ive done was to, in a moment of what can only be described as insanity, disable the network adapter of a server as was remotely logged onto. Had to get someone at the datacenter to walk over to the machine and enable it again.
 
prod said:
Not a biggie: years ago I was in a team developing a front end for our client in order for them to send out marketing SMSs using some bulk SMS provider. During testing we send all sorts of SMSs to test numbers, one reading: "test test testicle!". Fast forward several weeks and we had to demo the front end, during the demo the client asked that I show him how it looks from the bulk SMS provider's interface, so I logged into their portal and low and behold, all the test messages appeared, along with "test test testicle". Was a pure red face moment, some awkward chuckles and head shakes here and there while I was furiously trying to click away.
Click to expand...
LOL I have a similar one. Long story short everyone in the office knew about prof Test Tickle, a test user the developers used. One of the devs generated some invoices (addressed to the prof) to demo some work to one of our directors (a veeeeerrrry prim and propper antie). She wasnt impressed.
 
prod said:
Not a biggie: years ago I was in a team developing a front end for our client in order for them to send out marketing SMSs using some bulk SMS provider. During testing we send all sorts of SMSs to test numbers, one reading: "test test testicle!". Fast forward several weeks and we had to demo the front end, during the demo the client asked that I show him how it looks from the bulk SMS provider's interface, so I logged into their portal and low and behold, all the test messages appeared, along with "test test testicle". Was a pure red face moment, some awkward chuckles and head shakes here and there while I was furiously trying to click away.
Click to expand...
A new guy starting at work. He was trouble-shooting why the Windows net message wasn’t working for a user. He logged onto the company domain controller and broadcast “WHY THE F**K DOES THIS NOT WORK?” to all the thousands of computer screens in the company.
 
Once had a female Boilermaker in my class. She qualified at Transnet. I had to check her competence to issue her a certificate to use a cutting torch.
She tried to light the torch but fokol happened. Tells me the gauges shows zero so the cylinders are empty.
I tell her that i guarantee the cylinders are full, but she insisted it's empty.

She never opened the cylinder valves in the first place. Stamp: Incompetent.
 
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