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Bone-Headed IT Mistakes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the throw-yours-into-the-mix dept.

snydeq writes "PCs preconfigured with stone-age malware, backups without recovery, Social Security numbers stored in plain view of high school students — Andy Brandt gives InfoWorld's Stupid Users series a new IT admin twist. Call it fratricide if you will, but getting paid to know better is no guarantee against IT idiocy, as these stories attest."

14 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. How About... by ferrellcat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Deleting hundreds of thousands of White House emails, and not having a backup?

  2. Funstuff, and on topic too... by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://thedailywtf.com/. Even if some of the stories are probably made up.

    --
    C - the footgun of programming languages
    1. Re:Funstuff, and on topic too... by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ah yes, the Daily WTF: the Penthouse Forum of the IT world.

    2. Re:Funstuff, and on topic too... by PitaBred · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Made up"? It's so refreshing seeing an optimist in this day and age ;)

      --
      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
  3. My bigest boneheaded move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was new to the whole *nix thing but had been let loose as root on all the boxes at work. Someone suggested I could/should create a script to customise my environment so that I could run it when I logged on. Problem was I named the script "df" (my initials) and then promptly decided that it needed to go in to the /usr/bin/ directory. Yeah - now you know why I posted anonymously. :-D

    1. Re:My bigest boneheaded move by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Could have been worse. At least your name wasn't "Richard Morton". Imagine the havok a script with those initials would do!

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  4. Re:Don't forget the all too common: Giving yoursel by Broken+scope · · Score: 5, Funny

    See your mistake was believing that you actually had a "trusted IT friend".

    --
    You mad
  5. My favorite by hal9000(jr) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not as major is the Infoworld examples, but I still to this day sometimes forget to set-up a virtual interface when configuring a cisco router. This little command me more often than I care to admit:

    telnet 192.168.1.1
    cisco-router$ en
    cisco-router$ config t
    cisco-router(config)# int g0/1
    cisco-router(config-if)# ip address 10.1.1.1 mask 255.255.255.0
    Connection Closed

    Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

  6. What to do... by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Database take a dump? No backup of the transaction log? Fear not! With just two easy steps, your life will be back on track:

    1. Update Resume`
    2. Leave Town!

    --
    The game.
  7. used to work with a guy by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used to work with a guy who did the "useless backup" thing. He set up an automated backup system that encrypted the files to tape. It ran fine for a long while. But when we had a server failure and needed to recover from the backup tapes, he couldn't remember what the decryption password was. All he could do was sit there saying "I remember that it was a good one." I just wanted to smack him...

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  8. Re:Don't forget the all too common: Giving yoursel by bsDaemon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clicking on a link that my trusted IT friend sent me... Would that one be directly responsible for your current career as "posting on slashdot in the middle of the day?"

  9. Re:Printer Friendly Version by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sorry, I have no mod points to offer you at this time, please accept this following post's attempt to draw more attention to your funny/informative post as a substitute.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  10. Biggest bone-head ever by FranTaylor · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of my co-workers once decided to install a beta version of Windows NT on the company's Novell file server, which EVERYBODY used for EVERYTHING. He did this in the evening when noone would notice and then he left for two weeks' vacation!!! I have never in my entire life met a more arrogant SOB. The entire company was down for over a day as we restored the server from a backup.

    The boss refused to fire him (out of a cannon), so we filled the entire volume of his office with computer boxes. We went up and over the drop ceiling to deposit the last few boxes so he could not even open the door. When he returned from vacation, it took him a whole day to figure out how to get the boxes out.

  11. Re:Printer Friendly Version by shrikel · · Score: 4, Funny
    While I agree with your sentiment, you are overly exaggerating their distraction level. To be more fair, you should have formatted your post like they did:

    I

    [Do you like things that start with "I"? Take our IT IQ test!]

    don't know

    [For more stories about people not knowing things, check out "Stupid user tricks" and "More stupider user tricks"]

    what you're talking about

    [Are people talking about you behind your back? Read our "Top 10 reasons to be paranoid" and find out]

    . Those text

    [If you enjoy reading text, you might enjoy "Stupid hacker tricks" and "Stupid hacker tricks 2: The folly of youth"]

    ads

    [Is malware putting your system at risk? Take our Network Security IQ Test]

    weren't irritating

    [Is your job getting on your nerves? Check out "The 7 dirtiest jobs in IT" to see how much worse it could be]

    at all!

    --
    Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.