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I made this network so resilient nothing could possibly go wro...
Who, Me? All the redundancy in the world can't help a 'brown trouser' mistake
Networks28 Oct 2024 | 99
Who, Me?
What is Who, Me?
Who, Me? is a weekly column in which our readers confess to catastrophes they created in the pursuit of IT excellence - and usually managed to get away with.
The column is a light-hearted look at the world of work and tech.
We're always open to new stories we can feature in Who, Me? If you have one to tell, drop an email to whome@theregister.com to anonymously own up to tech mess you caused.
Linux admin asked savvy scientist for IT help and the boffin blew it
Who, Me? In science, every day is about testing hypotheses. Such as: 'plugging this thing in here is OK, right?'
Networks21 Oct 2024 | 93
Compression? What's that? And why is the network congested and the PCs frozen?
Who, Me? The only thing worse than a Reply All storm is a Send All storm
Software14 Oct 2024 | 101
After we fix that, how about we also accidentally break something important?
Who, Me? You had one job – doing extra is nice, but dangerous
Networks07 Oct 2024 | 101
Personalized pop-up was funny for about a second, until it felt like stalking
Who, Me? The call was coming from inside the house
Software30 Sep 2024 | 76
Did you hear the one about the help desk chap who abused privileges to prank his mate?
Who, Me? The result was no joke, thanks to a Microsoft glitch
On-Prem23 Sep 2024 | 91
BROADER TOPICS
I don't know what pressing Delete will do, but it seems safe enough!
Who, Me? You've got mail … actually no, you've got nothing
Software16 Sep 2024 | 102
Python script saw students booted off the mainframe for sending one insult too many
Who, Me? Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
Software09 Sep 2024 | 96
Techie made a biblical boo-boo when trying to spread the word
Who, Me? The technology was willing, but the cache was weak
Software02 Sep 2024 | 61
Bargain-hunting boss saw his bonus go up in a puff of self-inflicted smoke
Who, Me? Buying PCs off the gray market can (literally) blow up in your face
Personal Tech26 Aug 2024 | 154
Developer tried to dress for success, but ended up attired for an expensive outage
Who, Me? Debugging software on the waterfront is a strangely dangerous task
Columnists19 Aug 2024 | 160
Cigarette break burned out a huge chunk of Africa's internet
who, me? A fake hacker trying to take credit didn't help much, either
Networks12 Aug 2024 | 66
Hello? Emergency services? I'd like to report a wrong number
Who, Me? 911 is no joke
Networks05 Aug 2024 | 115
Never put off until tomorrow what someone could erase today
Who, Me? When even tape can't save you, procrastination is a problem
Storage29 Jul 2024 | 48
Facebook prank sent techie straight to Excel hell
Who, Me? When someone kicks a chair across the room out of fear they'll be fired it's stopped being funny
Software22 Jul 2024 | 123
There is no honor among RAM thieves – but sometimes there is karma
Who, Me? Techie left spitting chips made sure the boss was, too
Offbeat15 Jul 2024 | 98
Outback shocker left Aussie techie with a secret not worth sharing
Who, Me? That's not an outage … that's an outage
Off-Prem08 Jul 2024 | 171
An arc welder in the datacenter: What could possibly go wrong?
Who, Me? Not much if wielded by the experienced and careful operator in this story – but he was not the only actor in this tale
On-Prem01 Jul 2024 | 160
Admin took out a call center – and almost their career – with a cut and paste error
Who, me? Have you heard the one about the techie who forgot what was on the clipboard?
Cyber-crime24 Jun 2024 | 54
Techie installed 'user attitude readjustment tool' after getting hammered in a Police station
Who, Me? Measure twice, trust never
On-Prem17 Jun 2024 | 129
Seething CEO shoulder surfed techie after mistaken takedown of production server
Who, Me? What's in a name? Quite a bit, it turns out, when 50 servers all have the same one
Software10 Jun 2024 | 75
Screwdrivers: is there anything they can't do badly? Maybe not
Who, Me? We're starting to wonder if any of you know what those things are actually for
On-Prem03 Jun 2024 | 232
A thump with the pointy end of a screwdriver will fix this server! What could possibly go wrong?
Who, Me? No, nothing’s broken. I’m just working under this desk for … reasons
On-Prem27 May 2024 | 112
Techie invented bits of the box he was fixing, still botched the job
Who, me? This is why all-nighters are a bad idea
Storage20 May 2024 | 73
One bank's brilliant upgrade was another bank's crash
who, me? Who's the more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?
Offbeat13 May 2024 | 44
Techie's enthusiasm for decluttering fails to spark joy
Who, me? Thankfully, luck – and a handy greybeard – came to the rescue
Columnists06 May 2024 | 57
Software support chap survived breaking his customer
Who, Me? Sometimes there's more than enough blame to go around
Software29 Apr 2024 | 89
Rarest, strangest, form of Windows saved techie from moment of security madness
Who, Me? For once, Redmond's finest saved the day – by being rubbish in unexpectedly useful ways
Security22 Apr 2024 | 93
Tired techie 'fixed' a server, blamed Microsoft, and got away with it
who, me? If you're too exhausted to think, maybe you shouldn't be doing tech support
On-Prem15 Apr 2024 | 66
Windows 95 support chap skipped a step and sent user into Micro-hell
Who, Me? Every byte, and executable, counted when trying to fix Redmond's finest
OSes08 Apr 2024 | 81
You break it, you ... run away and hope somebody else fixes it
Who, Me? Enthusiastic young tech decided to simplify the mainframe, with unexpected results
On-Prem01 Apr 2024 | 63
DBA made ten years of data disappear with one misplaced parameter
Who, Me? Greybeards thought it was clever, making this an educational experience in more ways than one
Databases25 Mar 2024 | 41
Yes, I did just crash that critical app. And you should thank me for having done so
Who, Me? Quick thinking turned poor judgement into genius proactivity
Software18 Mar 2024 | 76
Intern with superuser access 'promoted' himself to CEO
Who, Me? Older and wiser colleagues couldn’t see the funny side
Software11 Mar 2024 | 64
Health system network turned out to be a house of cards – Cisco cards, that is
who, me? Pride came before a fall for techie who thought he knew it all
Networks04 Mar 2024 | 57
If we plug this in without telling anyone, nobody will know we caused the outage
Who, Me? The whole incident could have been avoided by spending some spare change on a fastener
On-Prem26 Feb 2024 | 69
Self-taught-techie slept on the datacenter floor, survived communism, ended a marriage
Who, Me? This is what happens when you get promoted too fast, too soon
Software19 Feb 2024 | 87
'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand
Who, Me? Sometimes you can have too many people in the room
On-Prem12 Feb 2024 | 45
Developer's default setting created turbulence in the flight simulator
who, me? What is it? It's an instrument used to train pilots, but that's not important right now
Software05 Feb 2024 | 123
One person's shortcut was another's long road to panic
Who, Me? Clever techie thought of everything – except someone else's stupidity
Storage29 Jan 2024 | 73
Poor communication led to complete lack of communication
Who, Me? Didn't you fix that? Me? I thought you fixed that!
Software22 Jan 2024 | 31
WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager
Who, Me? Who's going to complain about free labor?
Software15 Jan 2024 | 159
New year, new bug – rivalry between devs led to a deep-code disaster
Who, me? How badly do you want your name in the About box?
Software08 Jan 2024 | 112
PLACEHOLDER ONLY Someone please write witty headline here
Who, Me? Some jokes don't deserve an audience
Software18 Dec 2023 | 118
Enterprising techie took the bumpy road to replacing vintage hardware
Who, Me? Nice ridiculously redundant drive you've got there – what a pity if something …happened to it
Storage11 Dec 2023 | 107
Sysadmin's favorite collection of infallible utilities failed … foully
who, me? Unnecessary 'maintenance' turned into a fragging foul-up
Storage04 Dec 2023 | 57
IT sent the intern to sort out the nasty VP who was too important to bother with backups
Who, Me? Kid escaped from the executive suite without screwing things up
Personal Tech27 Nov 2023 | 90
Why have just one firewall when you can fire all the walls?
Who, Me? 'Support monkey' turned network isolation job into a banana skin
Networks20 Nov 2023 | 88
Bright spark techie knew the drill and used it to install a power line, but couldn't outsmart an odd electrician
Who, Me? Shocking problem turned out to be a frame-up
On-Prem13 Nov 2023 | 111
Shock horror – and there goes the network neighborhood
Who, me? Curious tech learned an important lesson about keeping a grip in tight situations
Offbeat06 Nov 2023 | 124
After nine servers he worked on failed, techie imagined next career as beach vendor
Who, Me? Sadly (?) that idyllic outcome didn't eventuate even after some very risky repairs
Software30 Oct 2023 | 50
That script I wrote three years ago is now doing what? How many times?
Who, Me? Whipping up a RAID repair nearly produced data doom
Storage23 Oct 2023 | 76
One door opens, another one closes, and this one kills a mainframe
Who, Me? The Reg brings you balanced coverage of retro-tech
Systems16 Oct 2023 | 108
Scripted shortcut caused double-click disaster of sysadmin's own making
Who, Me? Tech remembers why those safeguards were there there to start with
Software09 Oct 2023 | 109
Lost your luggage? That's nothing – we just lost your whole flight!
Who, me? Tech's second day on the job nearly saw his high-flying career grounded
Databases02 Oct 2023 | 97
No, no, no! Disco joke hit bum note in the rehab center
who, me? Techie tried to dunk on a co-worker, and found himself absolutely soaking wet
Offbeat25 Sep 2023 | 87
Chap blew up critical equipment on his first day – but it wasn't his volt
Who, Me? Where there’s smoke, there’s ire
On-Prem18 Sep 2023 | 120
Watt's the worst thing you can do to a datacenter? Failing to RTFM, electrically
Who, me? A subtle change to a vital piece of equipment almost derailed a major project
Systems11 Sep 2023 | 165
Sure, give the new kid and his MCSE power over the AS/400. What could possibly go wrong?
Who, Me? All he did was follow the example of the boss. And fail to foresee obvious consequences
On-Prem04 Sep 2023 | 76
Polishing off a printer with a flourish revealed not to be best practice
Who, Me? Tech's pride in his work fed a hungry mechanical monster
On-Prem28 Aug 2023 | 81
Lesson 1: Keep your mind on the ... why aren't the servers making any noise?
Who, Me? Quest for redundant cables almost resulted in a redundant techie
On-Prem21 Aug 2023 | 86
The price of freedom turned out to be an afternoon of tech panic
Who, Me? It can be so hard to tell one column from another in a spreadsheet. They all look the same
Software14 Aug 2023 | 79
Biting the hand that feeds IT
