Client tells techie: You're not leaving the country until this printer is working
- Reference: 1723793292
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/08/16/on_call/
- Source link:
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Tom" who told us about the time he was despatched from his UK home to an African nation, where his client operated both a mining company and the national airline.
The job involved implementing a messaging system for the mining company. Tom's role was to get it running and talking to a teleprinter from a third-party vendor.
[1]
The printer wouldn't work, the job ran late, and the client was greatly displeased.
[2]
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So displeased that it sent word to the airline it controlled: Tom was not to be allowed onto a plane out of the country without its approval, which would only be forthcoming once the job was done.
A chap from the printer-maker eventually showed up, and within half an hour he and Tom had fixed the problem.
[4]
Job done and time to go home – but the flight ban had not been lifted.
Tom began to wonder if he faced an extended stay in Africa.
A kindly exec at the mining company offered to pay Tom's fare home on the only other airline that flew from this African nation. He provided Tom with the details of his offshore bank account and accepted promises of future repayment.
[5]
That second airline only flew to Brussels, but Tom figured he'd make it home to the UK without much trouble.
So he took the flight – on a vintage 707 that provided a few scary moments – and arrived unscathed in Brussels (sadly too late to make it home that night).
[6]Techie told 'Bill Gates' Excel is rubbish – and the Microsoft boss had it fixed in 48 hours
[7]Yes, I am being intolerably smug – because I ignored you and saved the project
[8]Customer bricked a phone – and threatened to brick techie's face with it
[9]Dangerous sandwiches delayed hardware installation
At the time of this story, communications between this African nation and Europe were not easy, so Tom had not been able to inform his employer about his suddenly changed travel plans. He had, however, visited Brussels often enough to feel confident of finding a place to rest his head.
That confidence turned out to be misplaced, as Brussels was hosting a large event of some sort and there was no room to be found at any inn.
In desperation, Tom visited a chain hotel at which he'd spent many nights, in the hope he might perhaps find a sympathetic ear having sent so much business its way previously.
The front desk staff told him the entire hotel was full. Indeed, so full even the Presidential Suite had been partitioned into separate rooms to provide a little extra capacity.
Tom then saw a flicker of inspiration flash across the hotel staffer's eyes and watched as she disappeared into a back office for a conversation with her manager.
Tom was told the hotel did have a place for him to sleep. He was led to the top floor – and into a very grand living room, where a rollaway bed awaited.
The living room was part of the Presidential Suite and, as is the way in such facilities, could be isolated from the bedrooms. Tom had the Suite's living room, dining room, conference room, kitchen – and two bathrooms – to himself.
"The only thing missing was a bedroom, but I cared not a jot," Tom told [10]On Call .
When he left the hotel the next morning it charged him the price of a normal, boring, regular hotel room.
Tom found a flight home without incident.
"So, sadly no movie stars or jacuzzis involved, but that was my night in the Presidential Suite," he told On Call.
Has a client prevented you from leaving? Or sent you on a strange trip? [11]Click here to send On Call an email so we can share your story on a future Friday. ®
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/09/on_call/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/02/on_call/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/26/on_call/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/19/on_call/
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Closest experience I had
Was a consulting gig in Dearborn in 2003, where I almost was stranded in the huge east coast blackout. I typically took the Thursday 4:30 flight out of Detroit each week, and I showed up at the airport without incident, at my gate ready for normal boarding to begin which typically happened around 3:45. Saw a notice that the flight was delayed by 30 minutes. Not a big deal, that sort of thing happened all the time but since it was a direct flight home and terminal flight on that route for the day it didn't matter to anyone's schedule so none of us were concerned. I went up to a little cafe above the gate to grab a bagel to pass the time. Then the power went out. OK a little weird since its an airport, but it was mid August so wasn't something I saw as too much of a red flag nor did others in the vicinity.
A couple of us went down to the gate to inquire if the power outage would prevent departure. I figured the plane is sitting right there and surely they have backup power for ATC so they could probably make it work. Sorry, she says, "if the plane had pushed off from the gate then it would be able to leave, but we can't release one at the gate until the power returns". After about an hour she said she didn't think they'd fly because even if the power comes back schedules will be pretty snarled and smaller flights like ours are likely to be the first to be canceled. Oh well, I figure I'll have to go rent a car to go back to my corporate apartment.
In the main airport near the rental car location it was pure chaos. They had to do everything by hand, didn't know what cars they had, etc. but they were pretty sure there wouldn't be enough for the people already in line, let alone those of us just coming up. Cell service was impossible too, so there was no one to call. I came upon a few other people in similar circumstances who were talking about getting a limo to take them back to Chicago, which they knew still had power. I figured that would work for me, I could rent a car from there to get the rest of the way. It took some doing, and cost us I believe $200 each for four people, but we set out at around 6:30 for O'Hare (where the other people's cars were) and it was eerie drive for the first 45 minutes not seeing any lights anywhere.
Finally we saw civilization, got to O'Hare, I rented a car, drove back home then another 30 miles beyond it to the airport where MY car was parked, and finally got home around 1:30am my time (2:30 am Detroit time) I could have saved an hour by waiting to get my car the next day, but I just wanted to get the whole thing over with. I really dodged a bullet finding that limo, otherwise I guess I would have been hanging out at the airport until power returned the following day! If it wasn't for that brief delay I would have been on the runway somewhere when the power went out, and had a much easier trip home!
Re: Closest experience I had
Wasn’t previously aware of (am right-pondian, didn’t remember) this blackout, which has its own Wikipedia entry - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 according to which:
The blackout's proximate cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of FirstEnergy, which rendered operators unaware of the need to redistribute load after overloaded transmission lines drooped into foliage.
Thanks for the story!
Not quite at the same level, but in the 90's I was doing work for a company that was in the process of building a satellite communications network (it never saw the light of day - they ran out of money long before they were ready to launch their first satellite). My responsibility was with a part of the ground network system. One week I (plus my boss in that company and few other people) flew out to Japan to visit the ground segment prime contractor; it was a sort of multi-function visit, with my job being to witness and sign-off factory acceptance tests for the part of the ground segment that I was responsible for. This was scheduled as a two-day job, with me returning to the UK at the end of it. The first day started OK and the morning tests proceeded fine. After a break for lunch, testing resumed and things went distinctly runny - a test aimed at proving some critical functionality failed completely and pretty spectacularly . Nothing I could do; I just stepped back and watched quietly while the prime contractor's minions rushed about trying to work out what was wrong, and management bodies panicked.
I reported this to my boss in the evening, only to be told that I would have to stay in Japan as long as it took; we had to sign things off to keep to the schedule, and if that inconvenienced me then so be it. I have to admit, I was not a happy bunny at that prospect!
The next morning, I rolled in to he prime contractor's sight to be greeted with smiling minions and management - they had found the problem at 2:00am (it turned out to be a small error with big consequence - they had not purged an old configuration before starting the test, which meant that the equipment was in a very odd state). They thanked me for me patience and understanding the previous day (nice to be appreciated) and we cracked on with the testing. We managed to get it finished in time for me to get to the airport and catch my scheduled flight home, with me filling in my paperwork on en route and faxing it to them the next working day.