I wish to make a thread exclusively regarding tech fail.
Please:
- Share your tech fails (Mac, Windows, Linux, your mobile, work equipment sucking etc)
- Share your tech fail stories (i.e. derp people at work, or retarded policies/constraints, your job)
- Funny tech pics (real screenshots are a plus, with stuff blurred out for protection if need be) are a plus
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So I was recently made aware of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkins..._of_triviality (tl;dr - the time spent on any item will be in inverse proportion to its cost and importance) where although prior to knowing the term I knew it existed in some form or another but I was never fully able to give it a term and understand it.
Now that I am aware of it, I can't help but seeing it in full force for everything I do.
So case in point. I had to work over the weekend, 6 hours, to upgrade a server's software, with 2 external parties involved, 3 if it all went shit. At the same time, I also had a seperate piece of work that would literally take 5 seconds (changing a drive letter on another server within an application).
I done the upgrade work solo; no one questioned it, it was approved with a simple "yes" in our meetings by the client. If I fucked up it would involve 3 parties to get it back together again (2 different backups/restores, and also testing), and is a portal for people to submit information over that could result in lost lives if it's not available.
The second piece of work (changing a drive letter), was suspended for a while so they could question it more. Due to the suspension, there was some delay in the dates in getting it approved for a deployment date. After a few days I answered all their questions fine; and a date has been set for the week about. Which... I forgot about (due to how trivial the change is).
Oh dear the (laughable to me) grilling I am getting over this. Despite my protests, I just couldn't take the grilling seriously and kept arguing back sarcastically (not to the client but to my own manangers). They somewhat understand, but were still disappointed in me. No pat on the back for the almighty crucial upgrade I done over the weekend though. Nope!
(the other point of this law is how willing people are to jump in to have an opinion of something to prove their worth, not initially mentioned but extremely relevant here. Hence, everyone jumping on me because I forgot about such an unimportant change lol)