Holy Computer Use

Nearly a week into Lent.  And you've probably learned to resist most temptation.  So now let's move onto the advanced stuff.

Now we all know that people's attitudes towards each other are far worse when they're driving than when they're face to face.  Unless, according to some stories, you are Prime Minister, in which case you're better off in a car because then any mobile phones you throw are liable to bounce off the car windows.

But there's another environment in which behaviour becomes even worse - the world of computing,  Consider an example from the world of IT incident logging systems.  Let us consider the interaction between an overnight computer room operator, who we will call for the sake of argument "Norman" and a C++ Developer, whom we will call "Jeremy".  "Jeremy" wears a T-shirt that he rarely washes, and that you can only find funny if you understand the concept of "recursion".  And if your name is Jeremy.  On the other hand, deep down at heart, he's a good bloke.  He wants the world to be a better place.  And so does Norman.  So how did it come to this?

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NORMAN 04:45 - System gave disk space warning. Deleted archived log files and restarted process.  Warehouse Control System delivered all the lettuces to the deep freeze section.  Phoned Jeremy, who recommended we delete and recreate the Tote History File to re-initialise the pick routes.  Did this, restarted process and all now well.

JEREMY 08:44 - Just got in and system running smoothly.  Lettuces were unfortunately destroyed.  There's a doc in Sharepoint indicates that when there's a disk space warning, you should cancel the background Conveyor Router before deleting the log file - if you'd done this we'd still have the lettuces, lol.


NORMAN 08:51 - The Operating Instructions don't detail this document.  Can you update?  Maybe next time the lettuces won't have to die - you wouldn't want that on your conscience again ;)


JEREMY 09:01 - *My* conscience? The OpInst clearly says you should follow the "Out of Disk Space" documentation.

NORMAN 09:11 - We used version 1.1 of the "Disk Space document.  It didn't mention the Conveyor Router.

JEREMY 09:14 - There's a version A.  We moved to the lettering version control after the DC Swap-Out last month.

NORMAN 09:17 - Well, nobody told us.


JEREMY 09:18 - We held a meeting.


NORMAN 09:19 - Well maybe you developers did.  Perhaps next time you hold a meeting you should invite the Ops department as well.  THEN WE'D KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG IN THE NIGHT.

JEREMY 09:20 - WE INVITED THE HELP DESK.  WE EXPECTED THEM TO INFORM YOU.

NORMAN 09:21 - You probably invited the Help Desk because it's the only way you get to meet girls.  No wonder we never got the information - you sad acts probably just spent your time flirting with Vera.

JEREMY 09:22 - Yeah?  Well do you wonder where your girlfriendwas at 04:45 this morning?  Why do you think she's so keen on you working the night shift?  I bet she was round with the boys from Goods Inwards again.

HELPDESK 10:17 - Traced the problem with the Warehouse Control System.  "Overheight, Overweight" warning was due to Jeremy being strapped to a tote and fed into the Automated Crane Storage system.

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You see how quickly things can go downhill if you only communicate in ASCII?  So a simple moral for the day - why not pick up the phone instead, ideally before someone gets delivered into an Automated Storage and Retrieval System?  You know it makes sense.