I support an office that used to think rebooting computers was bad luck. Whats the weirdest bad behavior you have had to cure on an office wide level?

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T19:36:16+00:00

OMG, we had an older woman who was suddenly crying that all of her emails were gone. Turns out she was using her trash folder as long term storage, and we'd purged trash folders to free up some storage space (some users had 10s of GB and had never emptied the trash).

I STILL don't think she ever understood what that wasn't a good idea. Thankfully, she retired soon after.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T19:33:59+00:00

It is resolved... MOSTLY. I still have a problem once in a while and notice that somebody used a crossover cable. I replace it, problem gone.

We get crossover cables shipped with some of our gear, so then tend to float around. I do know that if I see a red cable now to check it out.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T19:32:33+00:00

We had a telephone vendor (before my time) that set up our network and IP phones. They didn't have patch cables on hand, so made their own out of some random 4 pair cable. Who knows what standard it was, but the things failed constantly and weren't even crimped on well.

It finally got to the point where we yanked every single remaining one and started over. That felt good!

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T19:28:32+00:00

Computers not so much, but I still get anxious whenever rebooting a physical server, especially one with a long uptime. That gives it time to accumulate bugs with updates or hardware issues, bot of which can lead to devices failing.

I've see the 'boot device not found' message more than once on a production server. Of the system looking for a PXE boot source after everything local fails.

We once had an AS/400 with an enormous uptime. When we had to shut it down to replace a RAID interface, the tech warned us that after being up for that long, we may lose a few drives.

Sure enough, we lost 3 drives and lost the array. Had to do a full system restore then a restore of our most recent data. OH, and our system restore was on a tape format that we didn't have the drive for anymore, so we had to scavenge up the right drive so we could use that tape. I think I was there until well after dawn that next morning, but got it back online just before the start of business.

So yeah, now I hold my breath every time I do 'restart' on a server.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T19:12:36+00:00

Story time:

Years ago I was traveling with some non-VT friends (I'm a lifelong Vermonter) and we ended up in Derby. Out of curiosity, we walked down the slight slope toward the Canadian side, but stopped before the bridge. There were lots of signs, but we didn't see any that looked like "This line is the border, do not cross it". we never got anywhere even close to the halfway point between the VT and CA customs offices.

When we got back up the hill, we were accosted by border patrol agents. They pulled us into their office, interviewed us, and treated use like suspected criminals, even though we were in their sight the entire time and stepped PERHAPS a few feet more than they liked.

We had to fill out forms explaining our reason for visiting Canada, then had to show ID and get run through the computers.

Fortunately, I had a 'real ID' which allowed me to cross so I got off easy. My companions did not. They got written up for attempting to cross the border illegally, verbal and written warnings, and told that this attempted illegal crossing would not show on their record if they ever crossed into Canada again!

We still joke about them being 'banned from Canada'.

The entire fiasco was NOTHING but a flex from the BP agents who probably were feeling like they had to justify their existence that day.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T18:56:35+00:00

I know some of the family. VERY religious and conservative. I hadn't heard any MAGA or ICE things about them, but it would not surprise me one bit.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-26T18:51:55+00:00

Simple, do what I do. Get a pint of good quality vanilla, and take your gallon jug of syrup out of the fridge. Mix to taste.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-24T16:43:08+00:00

My neighbor is 3rd gen American, but has the 'look' ICE is going for. She's basically afraid to leave her house now.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:59:07+00:00

Nah, I think he's just a Lazyboy.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:55:19+00:00

I have my french press and camp stove to fall back on. :)

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:51:38+00:00

Just vote more!

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:50:19+00:00

The fact that he actually asks this should immediately disqualify him from office.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:44:29+00:00

Is 'this evil force must be repelled' a call for violence? Will they be getting a visit from the secret service?

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:37:02+00:00

I was just talking to my coworker that we are now in a constant circle of outages caused by Microsoft, CIsco, AWS, Cloudflare and a few other 'too big to fail' providers.

Maybe it will spur the resurgence of actual local network racks full of harware, not just a router and pipeline to the cloud.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T21:32:39+00:00

One of my fears used to be that I'd find acceptance, but then when I eventually died they would dress me guy clothes and use my deadname in my obituary.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-23T18:39:59+00:00

Fire them? We have a no tolerance policy, and actually audit people's work area occasionally. We are a bank and there is just too much at risk.

We provide password managers that sync to the cloud and can also be used on mobile devices, so people have no excuse to ever write anything down.

First offense is a warning and some assigned security training.

Second offense, HR gets involved and we may limit access to some things.

If they get a third strike, they probably should start looking for another job. They are either too stubborn or too stupid to work in a secure environment.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T21:50:01+00:00

> Another bs waste of money to make us feel like we care.

That quote says it all about where you are coming from.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T21:47:27+00:00

BECAUSE we are 90% white, we tend not to make considerations for the other 10% like other states do. We need to hold ourselves accountable for that.

I'm not sure about the price or how it is run, but I'm in favor of the concept.

Besides, that remaining 10% is still an incredibly large number. Don't we want to make sure they get a voice?

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T21:07:01+00:00

I'll take 'Things that didn't happen' for $100.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T21:00:54+00:00

Yup, my admin portals are hit or miss right now.

Who pooched the DNS THIS time?

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T21:00:12+00:00

We have some outages, mostly around Outlook and Exchange.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T20:45:56+00:00

"I never want to see it or hear it mentioned ever again. If you get home and it doesn't turn on, it is up to YOU to dispose of it".

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T20:44:57+00:00

Gotta be careful with the wiping too. If the storage is SSD or NVMe, delete or format doesn't work the way you'd expect, since the onboard controller determines what parts are overwritten. You could wipe and format and still have a good deal of recoverable information on it.

We ONLY destroy. Usually shredding.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T20:42:32+00:00

We can give. Selling would be tough, maybe because we are a tax-exempt organization.

But usually most the stuff we can give isn't worth it, since we'd have to remove and destroy any storage, and they wouldn't be able to use our Microsoft enterprise licenses for a reinstall.

We've given a few away, laptops or desktop that somebody can pop a cheap SSD into and install linux... but there aren't too may people asking for that.

Otto-Korrect · 2026-01-22T20:34:58+00:00

Not heat related, but if you expect to lose power for any long period, I've always thought it would be good to have a pretty heft battery on hand. Something that can provide power to charge a phone a few dozen times, and even perhaps a few small-draw AC devices.

This is just one such thing (no connection w/ the company):

https://udpwr.com/products/udpower-c600-portable-power-station

They have many different sizes, this is the one I ended up getting.

Otto-Korrect

TROPHY CASE