News: 1604045708

Not just because the wrath to the user was not forthcoming, but because the sub0heading kind of gave it away.

You know, a bit like asking if someone's heard a joke by describing the punchline.

BTW, County Durham?

Not Country Durham - the article said "janitors", so that must be Scotland. They're called caretakers in England.

Unless it was MI5.........

I had moved to server support by the time I got a gig at a London Borough. The best story was a councillor who also had a title. They were very pushy and demanding. They also had a habit of losing phones before graduating to crackberries which they were equally adept at losing. The end came with a daily fail moment while one over the eight at the wheel of a car.

This was all too common "in the day". So much so I almost didn't bother to read the article.

Running support for a small software/hardware house I learnt very quickly that you don't just ask them to check the cable is plugged in correctly, you get them to unplug it and then plug it back in firmly. One user who should have been intelligent enough to know better didn't heed the instruction but confirmed they'd done so. Cue call to 3rd party hardware support, and the engineer finds the plug into the PC hanging half-out of the socket. I don't think the user's immediate boss, a senior consultant for a large insurance company, was very impressed with the near £100 bill (equivalent to around £300 today as it was 30 years ago) for the unnecessary call out.

Another power supply one at the time involved an IBM PS/2 Model 50. They had a known fault that the PSUs would fail if they were switched* off and on again too quickly or if there was a brief interruption in power. Call from user to say she'd gone for coffee, come back to her desk and the computer was dead. Interrogation over the phone didn't elicit an admission of turning-off-and-on or a power failure but again it was a call to hardware support, IBM this time, and the engineer arrives with the replacement PSU**. When the user's boss saw the engineer he confessed, while she was at coffee he'd knocked the cable out of her computer and shoved it back in hoping no one would notice. Fortunately for them IBM didn't charge for the callout.

*I do mean switched, as in a big toggle switch that went clunk!

**Engineers maintaining PS/2s invariably carried spares of these.

"IBM didn't charge for the callout" - those were the days...

Recetly ex-IBMer over here. Last time I did a free callout was 4 years ago.

Nothing hit the books owing to the nature of the issue and the nature of the customer.

Sometimes you just do things because it's the right thing to do, money be damned.

In the days of separate switches for monitors and computer cases, you could almost guarantee that one of them would be off. Sometimes the luser would turn the one that was on off, and then the one that was off on. Blinken-lights didn’t seem to help these people...

We got to relive these time quite recently with the introduction of digital TV. At my grandma's, it was invariably either the digital receiver or the screen that was off, with my grandma fumbling, two remote control things in her hands.

Oh yes. I've been sworn at about that. Me "Is the computer turned on at the plug socket". Salesperson "Of course if f***ing is, do you think I'm stupid?" Hmm, better not comment. Wander across to his desk, machine is humming happily away. Me "Is the monitor turned on?" "What's a monitor?" "The TV thing". Again, "Of course if f***ing is." "Is it plugged in?" (Having already looked under desk and seeing that it's not). Silence...

Apropos of blinkenlights - back in the days before LEDs were common mains power indication was almost always by neon lamp. Which had an odd property... as they got old, they decided they weren't going to ionise the neon properly without the help of a little daylight (I think they used tiny amounts of tritium to trigger the ionisation).

The net result: lamps that wouldn't work in the dark... you'd walk into a dark equipment room, and the power indicators would be out, or flickering, or in extreme cases actually working properly. Turn the lights on and the neons would all spring to life and sit there looking as if butter wouldn't melt...

Lister: "You just unplugged the console!"

Cat: "Right! I'm blow drying my hair."

Never gets old.

Never gets old, just like talkie toaster....

Socket switches seem like a weird idea. I can understand if the socket is controlled from the room entrance, so you can put a lamp there that you can switch on when you come in, but what's the point to put it on the socket? If the appliance itself doesn't have a switch, just unplug it...

I believe this sort of thing is inevitable when you are the first (tribe/group/unit/army/nation...) to introduce something without having the benefit of someone else already having tried it for you. Those typical British separate faucets for hot and cold water made perfect sense those hundred years ago when Britain introduced rules for going about with public water mains. Today they are a relic of a industrious past, but you can't quite get rid of them. Same with those funny German EC cards and many other examples. I, for one, find the socket switches a good idea. My certified electrician apparently does not, he resisted vigorously when I instructed him I wanted my sockets for kitchen appliances switchable (I reside in the metric part of Europe where these are not mandatory).

And your certified electrician was right, it is another (unnecessary) moving part which can fail. If it fails in the off position, it is an annoyance. If it fails in the on position but shows off, it can be dangerous. In continental Europe sockets are expected to be live unless the power to the socket and the group it belongs to was cut, preferably with a lock on the central switch for the group.

In the over half century I have been around.

BS1363 FTW

Socket switch failure coming in 3 ... 2 ... 1

> Socket switch failure coming in 3 ... 2 ... 1

Coming, ready or not!!

I've had several extension leads with individual switched sockets fail on.

The only time I've had a wall socket fail was when the switch jammed and wouldn't move at all. Turned out the bloke doing the tiling had let a big blob of plaster drop through the cable cutout and it had set solid in the socket.

I've never had an MK socket switch fail, but I've had switches fail on unbranded sockets, and have replaced several by MK (other reputable brands may be available). Lots of shoddy stuff around now.

I'm nearly 65, have lived with switched 13A sockets every day of my life and have worked in schools' IT support, where sockets have to put up with a lot. I have never, ever, known the switch of a socket to fail in either direction except for one case, where a jammed switch apperared to be, and was, off. Now those poxy 3.19A fuses that some multiway extension leads have is another matter...

Are you also opposed to light switches? After all, you can just remove the bulb.

Remove the bulb? Stuff and nonsense. Just use sunglasses or a blindfold.

Coincidently I had a switch fail about a week ago. But it was a cooker isolator switch not a socket and it failed 'off' when switched off for the first time in probably 10 years.. Cue massive hissy fit as I was denied my Saturday morning croissant.

In my "equipment rack" (i.e. stuff on some shelves in the spare bedroom) I've got stuff that's on all the time and stuff that I only turn on when needed. The socket strips I use for this have switched sockets. If they didn't, and I had to plug and unplug kit as required then there'd be an unholy tangle of mains leads and a lot of angry shouting when I needed to plug the A3 printer in.

As for the failing switches - in my half century of life on the planet I've never come across a failed socket switch. My mum turns off every socket in the house every night except for the bedside light and she's never experienced a failed socket to my knowledge. She experiences a very annoyed son every time he visits because when he puts the toaster on in the morning it seems to be working (it's a Dualit, so the mechanical timer whirrs) but it's turned off at the wall. She says that if I went home more often I'd remember.

Yes, he explained it to me in similar terms (not only are the sockets expected to be live at all times, there was, too, no switch available for this purpose, as no manufacturer would test and sell a switch for a type of operation which is not permitted by regulation). He further explained the importance of standard and as-expected behaviour of home electrical appliances. We finally managed to arrive at a legal, workable and overall sensible solution, but it was no easy feat. I wish I had the option to just put some switch-equipped sockets - of course, only where I want them, keeping the rest as it is. Coming to think of it, instead of a kitchen isle I wish I had built a British isle. See icon.

Is the backbox size compatible? Could you swap the sockets for UK ones and put new plugs on the appliances :)

In continental Europe sockets are expected to be live unless the power to the socket and the group it belongs to was cut

Sockets should be expected to be live at all times, until you've verified with a tester that they are not, no matter what position any switch, anywhere, is in.

I have never, ever known a switchable socket to fail. And even if it did fail in the "on" position, how is this any worse than a none-switchable socket that is on all the time anyway?

Anyone in the UK performing electrical work on a mains device knows to unplug it to be sure anyway.

"the first (tribe/group/unit/army/nation...) to introduce something without having the benefit of someone else already having tried it for you."

The punchline to the joke of course being that the Brits weren't actually first, did actually have the benefit of learning from the efforts of others, had two attempts at it and still managed a mediocre result no better than other's first efforts at standardisation.

The schuko plugs used today across most of Europe with no real issues were introduced in the early thirties (after half a century of electrification), while the huge clunky british three-square-pin things with the overcomplications of fuses, switches etc. were standardised in 1947 as a complete clean-sweep modernisation of the round-pin arrangement they previously standardised on between the wars which in turn had codified the various manufacturer-specific type that had been around since the 1880s.

The current US plugs and sockets were also defined in the 1940s, and they similarly felt no need for switches, in-plug fuses etc. even in the 250V versions.

I don't know the actual reason but it makes it much safer to plug the iron in when it doesn't have a plug on it, just an inch or so of bare wire at the end of the cable. You use a plastic tail comb in the earth socket to pop the shutters then shove the wires in the live and neutral sockets. Pull out the comb and the shutters hold the wires in place. That's what my mum used to do when I was a kid. I've no idea why the iron didn't have a plug on it. The hairdryer had a plug which plugged into a ceiling light socket.

Why would you use a plastic comb tail when a Yale door key seems almost designed for this purpose? And they're conducting, too, so you're nicely earthed as you use it.

I remember my father's trick to be to put the bare wires over the relevant hole and plugging something else in on top to release the earth and hold the wires in place. Mainly done when he was repairing/testing some electronical type device and couldn't be bothered to wire a plug.This was back in the days when new stuff often didn't come with a plug attached.

The scary bit, though not to me at the time as it was just 'normal', was that he was fully qualified in electrical/electronic engineering, and worked at the local nuclear power station. Mind you he did have a reputation locally as being able to fix anything electrical or electronic. You never asked how, or looked to see what he had done, just be safe in the knowledge it now did what was expected of it.

You use a plastic tail comb in the earth socket to pop the shutters then shove the wires in the live and neutral sockets.

Also works to fit a continental laptop PSU plug into a UK socket when you're in a hotel & discover you've forgotten your adapter.

There once was a time when according to the standards plugging something in and unplugging was only allowed with the power switched off. The British kept this up a bit longer than most other countries.

And I think it is right.

Being probably the safest system.

I see nice little sparks occasionally in the US when I plug things in or pull them out.

The British kept this up a bit longer than most other countries.

The older UK BS546 (round pin) sockets usually had switches, especially for the 15A variant, but the newer UK BS1363 socket outlet dates from the late 1940s and originally didn't specify a switch. The switch was added back to BS1363 in the late 1960s.

I'd guess that switches were originally required as being safer for DC supplies to avoid drawing an arc and burning contacts if the plug was withdrawn while the appliance was switched on, which is less of a problem for AC. Adding them back to BS1363 may have been a safety measure, since many devices available from the 60s onward didn't have a switch on the mains side of the supply.

One place where I worked (decades ago) the head sysadmin said that the fire safety officer (from the fire brigade) told him that there were more fires caused by worn-out sockets from people unplugging stuff for safety, than from things left plugged in when not needed.

I find that hard to believe, but that line of thinking could lead to providing a switch on the socket.

We have switched sockets in Australia too, and the standard goes back to the 1930s.

They are useful for

• switching off a device when not in use to avoid "vampire devices" (devices which, while apparently dead, suck a small amount of power throughout the night). Collectively, those devices consume a significant amount of power across a whole country.

• isolating at least the active line when not in use from power surges caused by lightning. It doesn't prevent neutral strikes. (Only the active is switched in Australian power points, IIRC.) This is becoming less important as new equipment detects and responds to strikes more quickly... but plenty of people have home cinema setups worth many thousands that is actually only used a few hours a week.

• reducing aging of the power supply in devices. My Region A Blu-Ray player is not easily replaceable.

• power-cycling a troublesome device, most recently for me a printer.

You get the idea, I hope.

I *have* had one fail. It was a brand new double socket just installed to replace a single, and it failed with the contacts closed but the rocker movable between on and off. When changing a circular saw blade, I don't rely on the switch, but pull the plug right out and place it in my field of view!

...of a particular council.

It all started when I did a migration from NT4 domains to 2003 Active Directory. 2003 AD was new and shiny so it gives an idea of the timeframe.

Having done the migration fine, it was time to upgrade their Citrix farm. Half a dozen new ProLiant DL360's and a pair of Gigabit Cisco switches.

Again it all went fairly smoothly beyond a bit of application wrangling and the customer was happy and off I trotted.

A few weeks later I was asked to speak to them because "everything was suddenly slow...logons could take 3/4 of an hour" etc etc.

I did some remote troubleshooting and yes indeed it was dog slow.

So I drove to them. This wasn't a little jaunt but a 6 hour drive.

When I got there, I noticed straight away that there was a new network cable suck out of the top of the server rack door (which itself was left ajar), ran across to the server rack opposite and into the guts of said rack.

Traicing the cable and I came across a 3Com (who were pretty defunct by then already) 10Mbps hub. A. Hub. 10Mpbs half duplex at that.

And of course that cable was in the uplink of the Cisco switch pair and then off to the rest of the network. No wonder the thing ran so badly! I was not best pleased with their network manager.

Or the time an application on one server stopped working. Again, did the usual troubleshooting - nothing obvious. Nothing had changed (right...) but when I drove down again and looked at the server in question there was an MS VB6 CD in the drive. Someone had installed an earlier version of the full blown product (whilst live, with users on) that was older than the needed runtimes for tha application.

Oh yes. Happy days.

I recall when I worked at the local college (now a University of course) in the early days of co-ax Ethernet. Operations couldn't figure why performance across the campus varied so much until they found the one very slow* speed, and overloaded, device that was bridging two subnets.

*Memory has faded as to just what the speeds were.

I remember a similar story years ago which I'll cut short.

"Can you check the socket switch?"

"I can't see it. It's too dark."

"Switch the light on."

"I can't. We have a power cut."

I had that one from the other end a couple of weeks ago.

I had reported a problem with a set top box (STB) for the TV. The problem itself was solved, but I received a phone call from support about it. "Yesterday evening it worked, but now it doesn't ... We have a power failure". Laughter on the other end and "I didn't see that one coming".

But the problem was that we kept loosing data! Machine was working fine, the days statistics printed off, but next morning they were missing.

After several days of the same problem I went on site to monitor things. A bit longer run to get to site. Daily stats run off everything fine. The machine was left on so it was still accessible remotely to allow managers to check anything they needed, and shut down later to restart in the morning.

7PM a hand appears around the corner, pulls out the plug and plugs in another plug - without even looking - then the vacuum starts ...

The real irritation here was not so much the hand of god, but the fact that while 'write to disk' was activated on the machine it turned out it only happened when the program shut down! Fixing that fault help a solve other site problems where electricity was an equally mystic provision.

Cleaners

We used to have a cleaner who never turned off the vacuum, she just unplugged and plugged it in.

Took out 3 sockets with arc damage and still did not think it was her fault.

I did asked how she turned off her car, did she pull the plug leads?

I had an old petrol lawnmower which you shut down by shorting the sparkplug to earth - by design. And a socket that cant survive a vacuum cleaner being plugged in/out live sounds like a socket hat is too fragile for real life.

Try thinking about what's in a vacuum cleaner and how much power it uses ... it's perfect spark land so it needs a specifically well designed switch if it's to keep working.

Many moons ago, my dad had the electrical maintenance contract for a local software company. One day he gets a call from the head of facilities.

"There's a big board meeting going on and the room's in darkness, can you get here ASAP and look into it?"

My dad drops his current task and hies himself to the software company. He gets escorted to the boardroom where his first diagnostic test is to flick the light switch, which had the effect of illuminating the room. My dad left shaking his head at the thought of all these people charged with running a company not thinking to check the light switch.

I do hope he sent them a nice invoice like:

Drop work in progress ... 200,-

Drive to site and back ... 150,-

Flick light switch ... 1,-

Sure, but when you're on the bottom of the employment ladder pissing off the bosses because they are stupid, it doesn't help you at all to document their behavior.

You appear to have missed:

Know to flip switch ... 1000,-

:)