[SPAM] FW: RE: The logs could do with a courtesy flush

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Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

Wait don't you work at AWS? Why do you have a server room?

# ? Feb 25, 2020 17:23

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# ? May 31, 2024 13:20

Agrikk: Oct 17, 2003; Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.

The short version is that a power cable had come loose at the very top of the freight elevator shaft and slack allowed it to drape. The top floor of the building was a storage area accessed once in a blue moon by custodial staff and when a custodian rode the freight elevator lift to the tippy top floor the top of the elevator would touch the cable in just a specific way. Over the years the shielding had come off the cable and when the elevator touched the cable the circuit would ground. The only thing else on that specific circuit? My server room.

I would get a call, and by the time I got to the building the janitor would have fetched what he needed to fetch and taken the elevator down, disconnecting the ground and the power would be back on. So I'd have to power up all the UPSes and the servers in the room. It was an incredible catch by the building electricians working the problem when they found it. (And we also got a citation from the Fire Department for having an electrical system not up to code in a hundred year old building.)

But you want to talk about cargo cults?

The poor office had all kinds of theories about why their servers would drop roughly once a month. Every fifth tuesday. No, the first five days of the month. No, whenever we run the AR report. No, payroll. No, Bob from Accounting goes to the doctor for his treatment. No, Agrikk wears a suit to work.

All of these are loosely coupled with monthly cycles which also included custodial visits to the top floor.

Thanks Ants posted:

Wait don't you work at AWS? Why do you have a server room?

This was 1997. The cloud didn't exist yet. But Compaq servers did. Lots and lots of Compaq servers.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 17:26

Arquinsiel: Jun 1, 2006; "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

Presumably the server room wasn't on the top floor, so it didn't reset the second you left via elevator? Also sounds like you were lucky that the janitor didn't ground the elevator through himself sometime :stare:

# ? Feb 25, 2020 17:30

totalnewbie: Nov 13, 2005; I was born and raised in China, lived in Japan, and now hold a US passport.

I am wrong in every way, all the damn time.

Ask me about my tattoos.

I love stories like these. If I could work on solving problems like this for the rest of my life I'd die happy.

But invariably 99/100 it's someone's space heater.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 17:32

The Fool: Oct 16, 2003

Agrikk posted:

The short version is that a power cable had come loose at the very top of the freight elevator shaft and slack allowed it to drape. The top floor of the building was a storage area accessed once in a blue moon by custodial staff and when a custodian rode the freight elevator lift to the tippy top floor the top of the elevator would touch the cable in just a specific way. Over the years the shielding had come off the cable and when the elevator touched the cable the circuit would ground. The only thing else on that specific circuit? My server room.

I would get a call, and by the time I got to the building the janitor would have fetched what he needed to fetch and taken the elevator down, disconnecting the ground and the power would be back on. So I'd have to power up all the UPSes and the servers in the room. It was an incredible catch by the building electricians working the problem when they found it. (And we also got a citation from the Fire Department for having an electrical system not up to code in a hundred year old building.)

But you want to talk about cargo cults?

The poor office had all kinds of theories about why their servers would drop roughly once a month. Every fifth tuesday. No, the first five days of the month. No, whenever we run the AR report. No, payroll. No, Bob from Accounting goes to the doctor for his treatment. No, Agrikk wears a suit to work.

All of these are loosely coupled with monthly cycles which also included custodial visits to the top floor.

This was 1997. The cloud didn't exist yet. But Compaq servers did. Lots and lots of Compaq servers.

This is 500 mile e-mail quality

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:02

ConfusedUs: Feb 24, 2004; Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!

The Fool posted:

This is 500 mile e-mail quality

A few years ago, I had to prove to a customer we weren't sending his data to California (from Germany) and used the speed of light to prove it. No, there's no way that server which is 6ms away is on the other side of the globe.

The 500 mile email was on top of my mind when I came up with that.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:05

Rooted Vegetable: Jun 1, 2002

Agrikk posted:

The top floor of the building was a storage area accessed once in a blue moon by custodial staff and when a custodian rode the freight elevator lift to the tippy top floor the top

Just a sec, were there any C-Levels remotely close to this building (working for any organisation whatsoever)? The topmost floor is often used for dickswinging offices all else being equal. I've seen exceptions (like one head of the company on Top-1 because then his office was top of the feature-stairs from the door), and I've seen server rooms not on the lowest floor. That said, a seldom used storage room and server room is atypical for a top floor. I suppose it could be a windowless floor?

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:11

wolrah: May 8, 2006; what?

ConfusedUs posted:

A few years ago, I had to prove to a customer we weren't sending his data to California (from Germany) and used the speed of light to prove it. No, there's no way that server which is 6ms away is on the other side of the globe.

The 500 mile email was on top of my mind when I came up with that.

About a decade ago I had to spend a few hours on the phone with a customer doing pretty much the exact same thing for the opposite reason, explaining how the speed of light means it's impossible to run VoIP phones on a geostationary satellite link without painful latency, no matter how fast the service might be.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:13

The Fool: Oct 16, 2003

Heners_UK posted:

Just a sec, were there any C-Levels remotely close to this building (working for any organisation whatsoever)? The topmost floor is often used for dickswinging offices all else being equal. I've seen exceptions (like one head of the company on Top-1 because then his office was top of the feature-stairs from the door), and I've seen server rooms not on the lowest floor. That said, a seldom used storage room and server room is atypical.

In our building the "penthouse" floor is the machine room. All the hvac stuff goes up there, the maintenance workshop and the janitor supplies.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:13

Agrikk: Oct 17, 2003; Take care with that! We have not fully ascertained its function, and the ticking is accelerating.

Arquinsiel posted:

Presumably the server room wasn't on the top floor, so it didn't reset the second you left via elevator? Also sounds like you were lucky that the janitor didn't ground the elevator through himself sometime

The server room was on the ground floor. Why the circuit for a server room on the ground floor ran though a wire on the sixth floor is beyond me.

And yeah, the extreme danger involved in a 40-amp current grounding out on a steel elevator boggles the mind. I assume the current simply grounded out through the steel frame of the elevator to the elevator shaft and into the earth, but the moment the janitor steps out of the elevator and is standing with one foot on the elevator and one on the building... eeesh.

Heners_UK posted:

Just a sec, were there any C-Levels remotely close to this building (working for any organisation whatsoever)? The topmost floor is often used for dickswinging offices all else being equal. I've seen exceptions (like one head of the company on Top-1 because then his office was top of the feature-stairs from the door), and I've seen server rooms not on the lowest floor. That said, a seldom used storage room and server room is atypical for a top floor. I suppose it could be a windowless floor?

This was a building for a municipal government. I think it was an old Freemason building and the top floor was windowless and therefore used as storage.

Agrikk fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Feb 25, 2020

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:13

wolrah: May 8, 2006; what?

Agrikk posted:

The server room was on the ground floor. Why the circuit for a server room on the ground floor ran though a wire on the sixth floor is beyond me.

Recurrent laryngeal circuit?

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:43

PremiumSupport: Aug 17, 2015

The Fool posted:

In our building the "penthouse" floor is the machine room. All the hvac stuff goes up there, the maintenance workshop and the janitor supplies.

Same with ours, the "penthouse" is actually the machine room for our air handling system.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 18:47

ChubbyThePhat: Dec 22, 2006; Who nico nico needs anyone else

PremiumSupport posted:

Same with ours, the "penthouse" is actually the machine room for our air handling system.

Same in my building currently.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 19:15

Dirt Road Junglist: Oct 8, 2010; We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are

totalnewbie posted:

I love stories like these. If I could work on solving problems like this for the rest of my life I'd die happy.

But invariably 99/100 it's someone's space heater.

It�s ALWAYS a loving space heater.

Like, if your building is too cold because someone read something about AC or northern blood or whatever and thinks 68 degrees is better for productivity, go take it up with HR or whatever.

But if you�re wearing summer outfits in February and then bitching that it�s cold because the building has bad HVAC and it�s drafty, I�m going to confiscate the loving space heater that keeps knocking 10 of my designers offline every time it pops a breaker and I�m leaving a sticky note that says, �TRY PANTS�

# ? Feb 25, 2020 19:24

Canuck-Errant: Oct 28, 2003; MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS; Grimey Drawer

Why not an overclocked Athlon?

# ? Feb 25, 2020 19:32

SyNack Sassimov: May 4, 2006; Let the robot win.
��--Captain James T. Vader

Dirt Road Junglist posted:

It�s ALWAYS a loving space heater.

Like, if your building is too cold because someone read something about AC or northern blood or whatever and thinks 68 degrees is better for productivity, go take it up with HR or whatever.

But if you�re wearing summer outfits in February and then bitching that it�s cold because the building has bad HVAC and it�s drafty, I�m going to confiscate the loving space heater that keeps knocking 10 of my designers offline every time it pops a breaker and I�m leaving a sticky note that says, �TRY PANTS�

Aren't you afraid every other woman on earth will crucify you for posting things like this?

(I was unaware until recently that the 68-70 degree "norm" was developed basically for white men in the 50s and that's a large part of why women are generally too cold in offices).

# ? Feb 25, 2020 21:11

AlternateAccount: Apr 25, 2005; FYGM

Super Soaker Party! posted:

Aren't you afraid every other woman on earth will crucify you for posting things like this?

(I was unaware until recently that the 68-70 degree "norm" was developed basically for white men in the 50s and that's a large part of why women are generally too cold in offices).

Please tell my wife this, who is perfectly comfortable keeping the house at 66 in the winter during the day.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 21:31

Laranzu: Jan 18, 2002

Super Soaker Party! posted:

Aren't you afraid every other woman on earth will crucify you for posting things like this?

(I was unaware until recently that the 68-70 degree "norm" was developed basically for white men in the 50s and that's a large part of why women are generally too cold in offices).

It also stank of cigarettes and booze back then do maybe more airflow was needed.

I wear jackets to work even in the summer. 75 degrees please. It makes my wrists hurt less.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 21:40

Dirt Road Junglist: Oct 8, 2010; We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are

Super Soaker Party! posted:

Aren't you afraid every other woman on earth will crucify you for posting things like this?

(I was unaware until recently that the 68-70 degree "norm" was developed basically for white men in the 50s and that's a large part of why women are generally too cold in offices).

Nah, it's a hill I'll die on. Like I said, if it's cold because the office is run by men in suits, that's some BS. But if there's literally nothing we can do to make it warmer, and you still insist on wearing your summer funtime sun dress and sandals to work in the middle of winter, and then physically blow up other people's ability to work because of it, that's on you.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 21:50

D34THROW: Jan 29, 2012; RETAIL RETAIL LISTEN TO ME BITCH ABOUT RETAIL

AlternateAccount posted:

Please tell my wife this, who is perfectly comfortable keeping the house at 66 in the winter during the day.

I crank the air down to 62 at night and keep it at 66-68 most of the day. If it gets over 70, my wife and I both start to get super-hot :shobon:

Of course, it may also have to do with the fact that lovely air filters, a twenty-year-old AC, and a dotty old lady owning this house before us led to crap-clogged coils and summer temperatures reaching 90 in the house. And the two guinea pigs we lost to heatstroke due to this.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 22:03

wolrah: May 8, 2006; what?

Super Soaker Party! posted:

Aren't you afraid every other woman on earth will crucify you for posting things like this?

(I was unaware until recently that the 68-70 degree "norm" was developed basically for white men in the 50s and that's a large part of why women are generally too cold in offices).

That men tend to prefer cooler temperatures is pretty obvious, but IMO the idea that cooler temperatures are sexist or even just don't consider women is pretty silly.

The thing is, if you're someone who prefers it warmer, unless you're an athlete or entertainer you can almost always put on warmer clothing. If you're someone who prefers it cooler, there's only so much you can take off in an office or most public settings without getting judged/asked to leave/fired/arrested. Almost every public space has some kind of written dress code, and many places where you would care what those around you think have an unwritten one as well that you might be judged by even if you're within the letter of the law.

In a lot of cases where there's a disagreement it makes sense to settle somewhere in the middle, but in this case I'd argue at least if your goal is the allow the most people the opportunity to be comfortable you aim a bit low. Those who need to be cooler to be comfortable just don't have the same options as those who need to be warmer.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 23:03

22 Eargesplitten: Oct 10, 2010

There's a limit, though, and part of the problem is that gloves are not very convenient for using the computer. If your hands are cold typing all day loving sucks.

# ? Feb 25, 2020 23:20

nullfunction: Jan 24, 2005; Nap Ghost

22 Eargesplitten posted:

There's a limit, though, and part of the problem is that gloves are not very convenient for using the computer. If your hands are cold typing all day loving sucks.

Type faster to make your hands warmer, duh

# ? Feb 25, 2020 23:42

GnarlyCharlie4u: Sep 23, 2007; I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

nullfunction posted:

Type faster to make your hands warmer, duh

"The heat is in the tools."

# ? Feb 25, 2020 23:57

dragonshardz: May 2, 2017

22 Eargesplitten posted:

There's a limit, though, and part of the problem is that gloves are not very convenient for using the computer. If your hands are cold typing all day loving sucks.

Knitted fingerless gloves could help in this particular situation. And personally I'd prefer to be a little cool over too warm. I can always put on more layers, but I can only get so close to naked before it's an HR issue.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 00:53

Shut up Meg: Jan 8, 2019; You're safe here.

Throw in the companies that find hvac more complicated than rocket science, so Bob in Accounts is a sweaty mess as Ann in HR has frostbite.

We had one meeting room that ran about 10'C cooler than the rest of the already cool floor and people would put on their coats for meetings, whilst those in the open plan floor around them wore t-shirts.

The walls were glass and it looked like a science experiment or a literal refrigerator.

We looked into them as they shivered though a 3hour status meeting and felt genuine sympathy.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 01:07

Dirt Road Junglist: Oct 8, 2010; We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are

dragonshardz posted:

Knitted fingerless gloves could help in this particular situation. And personally I'd prefer to be a little cool over too warm. I can always put on more layers, but I can only get so close to naked before it's an HR issue.

Fingerless arthritis gloves are great, because they're super thin and won't affect your typing.

I buy them for all my friends who complain about typing in cold offices.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 01:32

GnarlyCharlie4u: Sep 23, 2007; I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof

You'll get a lot of weird looks but Latex Gloves do a really good job at insulating your hands AND protecting you from disgusting keyboards if you're a computer toucher.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 03:57

Ghostlight: Sep 25, 2009; maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me

The AC in my office is fixed at 77 degrees fahrenheit.

Much to the chagrin of the Australian lady who is constantly trying to get it up to 83 because she's very cold in her antique lace dresses.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 04:01

Arquinsiel: Jun 1, 2006; "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

Laranzu posted:

It also stank of cigarettes and booze back then do maybe more airflow was needed.

I wear jackets to work even in the summer. 75 degrees please. It makes my wrists hurt less.

I will rarely stop wearing my leather coat. It is only the last two years that Ireland has been warm enough that I had more than one week a year that I didn't have it on. I might have not worn a hoodie over a shirt over a t-shirt with it, but it was almost always on and needed.

dragonshardz posted:

Knitted fingerless gloves could help in this particular situation.

Stop spying on me.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 04:14

bell jar: Feb 25, 2009

sfwarlock posted:

Solution: User is using a Dell USB-C dock, and the (hard-to-see) power button is right above the headphone jack. However he rested his hand as he plugged the headphones in, it pushed down on the button for long enough to signal Windows to shut off.

My Dell USB-C dock doesn't have a power button (that I can find) and it annoys the poo poo out of me. You also can't remove the USB-C to USB-A dongle from it, which I never want to use. It sucks :smith:

# ? Feb 26, 2020 04:39

Entropic: Feb 21, 2007; patriarchy sucks

wolrah posted:

That men tend to prefer cooler temperatures is pretty obvious, but IMO the idea that cooler temperatures are sexist or even just don't consider women is pretty silly.

Baby, It's Cold Inside

# ? Feb 26, 2020 05:09

Dirt Road Junglist: Oct 8, 2010; We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

You'll get a lot of weird looks but Latex Gloves do a really good job at insulating your hands AND protecting you from disgusting keyboards if you're a computer toucher.

100% necessary kit if you do home visits or retail repairs.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 05:25

SyNack Sassimov: May 4, 2006; Let the robot win.
��--Captain James T. Vader

wolrah posted:

That men tend to prefer cooler temperatures is pretty obvious, but IMO the idea that cooler temperatures are sexist or even just don't consider women is pretty silly.

It's...not an idea? It's a fact? The baseline that was used to set the temperature model in the 1970s that many office environments still use to determine what temperature is "comfortable" was literally based on the comfort of one 70 kg 40 year old male.

edit: An easy to read article is this, the actual Nature study is below, 1st page 1st column bottom to top of 2nd column have the relevant info.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2741

(Technically it was based on the resting heat production determined by the basal metabolic rate of said 70 kg 40 year old male, and women generally don't have as high a resting heat production, ergo the cooler temp that is satisfactory for that one 40 year old relatively lean guy doesn't so much work for women).

But bottom line it's not an easy problem because of the vast difference between people - the men / women split doesn't even factor in lean vs obese. I'm a fan of the 60 degree office as I boil above 70, but many people would find that unacceptably cold. I'd agree with what most people have said it being better to keep the office colder as it's easy to put on a sweater and not so easy to strip down to underwear in an office setting, but I'm also just heavily biased as I wouldn't put on a sweater until it's under 50.

SyNack Sassimov fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Feb 26, 2020

# ? Feb 26, 2020 07:47

BlankSystemDaemon: Mar 13, 2009

Physiologically women also tend to have more blood concentrated in the core of their bodies, meaning their extremities get colder.

Not that that study wasn't 100% wrong, because it's barely-scientific in its lack of empirical rigor - however it's demonstrably a lot easier to put on clothes than it is to take it off, in most professional settings.

On the whole I think it's best if people talk about things and try to come to some sort of middle-ground, instead of obstinately claiming that theirs is the only temperature - especially when HVACs can adjust temperatures to such granularity that humans can't tell two settings apart.

BlankSystemDaemon fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Feb 26, 2020

# ? Feb 26, 2020 11:01

Renegret: May 26, 2007; THANK YOU FOR CALLING HELP DOG, INC.

YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE IS *pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt*

Cat Army Sworn Enemy

The "Woman on average are colder than men" factoid is actually just a statistical error.

My wife, who's extremities border absolute zero, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 13:25

AlexDeGruven: Jun 29, 2007; Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box

My wife likes to keep the house at 63 all the time in the winter. Mainly because she's cheap, and since she does the bills, I don't argue.

The part that sucks is that my office is in the basement, and when it's not super cold outside so the heat doesn't run as much, I've seen it get down to 55 down here.

# ? Feb 26, 2020 13:44

PBS: Sep 21, 2015

AlexDeGruven posted:

My wife likes to keep the house at 63 all the time in the winter. Mainly because she's cheap, and since she does the bills, I don't argue.

The part that sucks is that my office is in the basement, and when it's not super cold outside so the heat doesn't run as much, I've seen it get down to 55 down here.

Are you WFH milton?

# ? Feb 26, 2020 14:32