I worked for Government Agencies on the big mainframes which are still quite popular today although they have got far more robust and smaller. But on the Graveyard Shift I was working at the Police Headquarters when the computers went down. Now normally this would not have been a big issue but we had just switched all incoming emergency calls over to this system to dispatch the proper service to the area required. This central complex controlled the whole of Queensland so it was fairly important that we got things running ASAP.
Well 30 minutes latter we had it all back up and running smoothly and about 10 minutes latter it all came crashing down again. By this time we where getting more than a bit worried and the Sergeant in charge was screaming about computer malfunctions and the like.
You should all know how it goes.
Lossy Techs Lossy equipment and so on Bla Bla.
After a complete shutdown and reboot we had it all up again running smoothly and again ten minutes latter it failed again. Naturally we could find nothing wrong with anything and by this time had gone completely crazy with worry and wondering just what was happening.
This continued all that night and we where tearing our hair out by the end of the shift I being the senior Tech there stayed on to brief the oncoming techs as to what had been happening the previous night.
Well that shift finished and the Sarge walked out complaining about substandard equipment that he had to work with Bla Bla and I stayed on to show the day guys what we had been experiencing the previous night. Naturally nothing went wrong and it worked perfectly all day. I grabbed a few hours shut eye with instructions that if anything went wrong to wake me immediately and we could get to work tracing the problem. For the next two shifts nothing so much as even looked like not working perfectly but when the Grave Yard Shift started again all hell broke loose as it failed again about 10 minutes after the hand over of shifts.
This continued for several hours and I finally came to the conclusion that it had to be something that was unique to the night shift that was causing the problem. So I began looking around for potential problems.
I found the Sargent's analog Mobile Phone on his desk under the monitor switched on and every time it sent out a signal to locate itself the system shut down. It didn't matter that there was a great big sign on the door to not bring in mobile phones he just ignored this and then complained when his phone took down the system.
By this stage I was far less than happy and turned off his phone threw it into the trash basket and forgot about it. We had the system up and running with no problems for the rest of the shift, well nearly as just before we where due to leave he discovered his mobile phone missing and called in the Riot troops. It didn't matter that we where in a secure building that no one could just walk in and out of he started a search for his stolen phone and when I became aware of what was going on "Now by this time I had spent well over 24 hours there fault finding and was not overly happy when I found what the problem actually was." In my most diplomatic voice I told him just what a fool he was and then questioned weather his parents where actually married or not then I said something to the effect that he should not be in that position as he was illiterate as well. Yes I was really pissed off by that time and then suggested he look in his rubbish basket to find his stolen property "unfortunately the cleaners had been in and emptied all the rubbish baskets so it was not an easy find." But he eventually got the idea that I was not very happy with him and his actions possibly my threats didn't help either as I think I said something about making a formal complaint to the boss of the section not his immediate superior but the head honcho and actually put it in writing just why we had had the failures for two nights running. He eventually backed down and apologized.
Then I left the building only to find that my car was not where I left it. Apparently it had been noticed that it was still there and the Police being the bright sods that they are had it towed because I must have forgotten it when I went home. It didn't matter that I had signed in and not singed out they just had it removed.
Well I was in great form by this stage and was more then willing to rip heads off as I had wasted so much time over such a foolish mistake. It was at this point in time that the Good Sargent came to my rescue and demanded that they get my car back not in 10 minutes but now. I think he was trying to make it up to me for all the problems that he had caused me and the fact that the impound yard was locked didn't matter they had to retrieve my car NOW or he would make an official complaint to the Commissioner himself about their sloppy work.
Anyway I eventually got my car returned and went home and slept for the next day or two and when I wrote up my fault report I just said "A Minor Technical Misunderstanding caused the problems!"
The strange thing is that I've mellowed quite a lot since then and once I stopped doing any Government or Medical work I just now laugh at everything that goes wrong and do not get personally involved.
Just a short post script now. Several years latter when PC's became all the rage the Police Department put out a tender for PC's for all their stations. Apparently the Sergent who I had a run in with had been promoted to procuring and deliberately bought Apples because of a "Homicidal Lunatic IBM Tech who had chewed him up Spat Him Out and then Trampled him into the floor" Apparently it wasn't considered as a good example for his fellow Police Officers to have to put up with so anything that didn't have the initials IBM on the front cover won the contract. By that time I was long gone and only heard about it after a few years and couldn't stop laughing. It's only taken something like 18 - 20 years but they are now transferring to IBM Clones for all their new PC's.
I must have left a lasting impression on that guy, I do not think he will ever forget me or the way I carried on when he upset me.
Col
