Famous operational issues

Fri Feb 19 05:04:58 UTC 2021

On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 9:40 AM Warren Kumari <warren at kumari.net> wrote:
> 4: Not too long after I started doing networking (and for the same small ISP in Yonkers), I'm flying off to install a new customer. I (of course) think that I'm hot stuff because I'm going to do the install, configure the router, whee, look at me! Anyway, I don't want to check a bag, and so I stuff the Cisco 2501 in a carryon bag, along with tools, etc (this was all pre-9/11!). I'm going through security and the TSA[0] person opens my bag and pulls the router out. "What's this?!" he asks. I politely tell him that it's a router. He says it's not. I'm still thinking that I'm the new hotness, and so I tell him in a somewhat condescending way that it is, and I know what I'm talking about. He tells me that it's not a router, and is starting to get annoyed. I explain using my "talking to a 5 year old" voice that it most certainly is a router. He tells me that lying to airport security is a federal offense, and starts looming at me. I adjust my attitude and start explaining that it's like a computer and makes the Internet work. He gruffly hands me back the router, I put it in my bag and scurry away. As I do so, I hear him telling his colleague that it wasn't a router, and that he certainly knows what a router is, because he does woodwork...

OK, Warren, achievement unlocked. You've just made a network engineer
to google 'router'....

P.S. I guess I'm obliged to tell a story if I respond to this thread...so...
"Servers and the ice cream factory".
Late spring/early summer in Moscow. The temperature above 30C (86°F).
I worked for a local content provided.
Aircons in our server room died, the technician ETA was 2 days ( I
guess we were not the only ones with aircon problems).
So we drove to the nearby ice cream factory  and got *a lot* of  dry
ice. Then we have a roaster: every few hours one person took a deep
breath, grabbed a box of dry ice, ran into the server room and emptied
the box on top of the racks. The backup person was watching through
the glass door - just in case, you know, ready to start the rescue
operation.
We (and the servers) survived till the technician arrived. And we had
a lot of dry ice to cool the beer..

-- 
SY, Jen Linkova aka Furry