Sometimes code hurts…

I got my start as a sys admin at a company that was in heavy competition with Ticketmaster (as in, the Justice Department asked us for data when they were investigating the possibility of Ticketmaster being a monopoly[1].)  All of my early programming and admin mentors likewise worked at companies that were competing with Ticketmaster.    So, I have to say, I felt a pang when writing this code fragment yesterday:

'cleared_for_ticketmaster' => 'true'

[1] The investigation was suspended in the early stages.  I suspect this was because they were also in the beginning stages of the Microsoft investigation and thought it might look like harassment if they investigated 2 companies where Paul Allen was / had been a principal.

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Tags: ticketmaster

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Mr Beaver’s Data Center Disruption Tactics

Happy Beaver

Beaver Vandalism

Krrzztt

Data Center B[lack] Out

2 Weeks, 3 power outages of up to 6 hours, and counting. Thanks Mr Beaver. Thanks Pacific Power for putting the power lines that feed this area along the Columbia River Slough.

Pretty much all I’ve done is help systems and processes recover from power outages.  (Oh, like you have every system on power filtering UPS’s with automatic generator cutover and a lifetime supply of generator fuel even when it doesn’t make economic sense.) We’ve only lost one PC and one disk, so far. It could be worse, some of the airport landing lights are on the same circuit and have no backup power at all. The power company is now rerouting the power lines away from the beaver.

Photo Credits:

• Happy Beaver by sherseydc
• Beaver Vandalism by B, K, & G
• Krrzztt by Soon.
• Data Center Build Out by Steven Kreuzer

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Tags: beaver, blackout, datacenter

I’d think it was a virus!

 My friend Cloe’s answer to the question “Would you buy a hidden track on an online music site?”

Musicians, listen up!  With very limited exceptions, hidden tracks should only be available on physical media.  The digital equivalent of hidden tracks is free tracks available for download on your website.  If you do have hidden tracks, listing your track list as tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 makes it clear that you either have a hidden track (in which case it’s NOT hidden) OR you can’t count – either way you look stupid!

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Tags: hiddentracks, viruses