Slashdot Mirror
Equipment Suppliers You Can Trust?
Steve Gray asks: "It has happened to all of us at some time or another. You're two weeks from deploying an application, but suddenly your testbed server falls over, and just won't get back up. After fighting with a variety of companies to try and get parts delivered for Tuesday, I'm finding that most companies will stall your order for days for reasons from random extra checks through to migration of lesser known species of Vole, business needs be damned! Who do Slashdot readers turn to when technology goes wrong? Do you trust them to deliver by tommorow, without fail?"
Duct tape.
I trust no one but Sony.
Now there's an honest, reputable, and sincere company!
always do like NASA, and buy the spare parts you need from ebay
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Do you trust them to deliver by tommorow, without fail?
Heck, I don't even trust them to spell "tomorrow".
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
Gawds. We used to have actual Field Service contracts which guaranteed two hour response time, and that meant someone was on site in two hours, not returning a call within that time.
Ahh, yes.. Fedex would deliver a box just as the IBM tech was walking through the front door to replace a part BEFORE it had failed completely causing the dreaded down-time.
Now THAT was Scottish.
*sigh*
failed to reboot after a power failure, cutting off half our building
So your computer was like propping up some sort of giant guillotine? That's one way to get deadlines met!
At least you didn't get nailed for it.
I've had some great jobs and some not-so great jobs. The one I'm at now is in the middle. I have the opportunity to learn some stuff that's not too easy to get a lot of hands-on with while not being a specialist. I trust myself not to f*ck anything, because I am careful, I document, and I have a lot of experience in the field. Unfortunately, a lot of my time is taken up doing "lesser" work because I can't trust the other guys to do things right. I know that in the place I work, I'll get the shaft if something critical (such as a backup) can't be restored, even though the backup system is in place, documented, and easy to maintain. I end up doing a lot of it just to make sure I don't eat the shit for a failure.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Yeah, I get emails from AnySystem because I bought an Ultra 5 from you guys on Ebay. Overpriced does not even begin to describe your prices. I have to admit that the emails start off very exciting, telling me about the great deals that you have to offer, but when it comes down to price, I can't say that paying near original retail for a Sun Blade 100 that's worth, oh, about 50 bucks is very exciting to me (although if somebody pays you, I'm sure it's quite exciting!)
-h-
365 weeks a year?
my password really is 'stinkypants'
Did they hire you for your low UID?
my password really is 'stinkypants'
You may or not be aware, but used car junk yards now keep similar databases, and can find you parts that are sitting on a junked car in another state, and you can have it shipped to you -- for a nice premium, of course, but if you need it, you need it.
And of course if it's just a motor mount, you can usually improvise. You could probably take another motor mount off the car (assuming they're identical) and bring it to a welder or a machinist who could have worked something out for you.
A place that I worked at, the sys admin would keep a hiking backpack in his office. When people would ask what it was for, he would say it was for when something went wrong at the office. Everyone always laughed about how he was just ready for the next big one or something.
This went on for awhile until the new manager decided that he wanted something off of backup instead of being careful. Right in front of the manager, he grabbed his hiking backpack and walked into our MDF with a "See you in 2 days!" He setup an entire camp in the MDF, complete with 1 man tent, sleeping back (ear protection), clothes line between the racks and everything. The only reason he came out was to eat or leak. The manager got the idea and has been more careful ever since. [note: this was a very OLD system that took forever to restore]
This is not my sandwich.