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Russia Thinks Someone With a Drill Caused the Recent ISS Air Leak (arstechnica.com)

Last week, NASA discovered a small pressure leak on the International Space Station. U.S. and Russian crew members managed to trace the leak to a 2mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle and patch it with epoxy. The drama might have ended there, as it was initially presumed that the breach had been caused by a tiny bit of orbital debris, but Russian news outlets are reporting that the problem was a manufacturing defect. "It remains unclear whether the hole was an accidental error or intentional," reports Ars Technica. "There is evidence that a technician saw the drilling mistake and covered the hole with glue, which prevented the problem from being detected during a vacuum test."

"We are able to narrow down the cause to a technological mistake of a technician. We can see the mark where the drill bit slid along the surface of the hull," Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, told RIA Novosti. "We want to find out the full name of who is at fault -- and we will." From the report: NASA spokesman Dan Huot, based in Houston where the space station program is managed, deferred all comment on the issue to Roscosmos. The spacecraft was manufactured by Energia, a Russian corporation. A former employee of the company who is now a professor at Moscow State University told another Russian publication that these kinds of incidents have occurred before at Energia. "I have conducted investigations of all kinds of spacecraft, and after landing, we discovered a hole drilled completely through the hull of a re-entry module," the former Energia employee, Viktor Minenko, said in Gazeta.RU. "But the technician didn't report the defect to anyone but sealed up the hole with epoxy. We found the person, and after a commotion he was terminated," said Minenko. In this case, the technician used glue instead of epoxy. As the Soyuz hull is made from an aluminum alloy, it could have been properly repaired on Earth by welding, had the technician reported the mistake.

151 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Cultural meaning of terminated by axis_omega · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am pretty sure that terminated in Russia is not a good thing.

    --
    It's funny how I make sense to others and not myself...
    1. Re: Cultural meaning of terminated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In America, you get fired.
      In Soviet Russia, fire gets YOU.

    2. Re:Cultural meaning of terminated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Cultural "did-you-know" time! In Russian culture, one does not speak of "termination". The official/neutral word for being fired is "uvolen", literally, "made free". (As in freedom, not as in beer.)

    3. Re: Cultural meaning of terminated by jd · · Score: 5, Funny

      employee = malloc (sizeof(job));
      free(employee);

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    4. Re:Cultural meaning of terminated by gtall · · Score: 1

      Now, let's not bring Putin into this...

    5. Re:Cultural meaning of terminated by gnick · · Score: 1

      He was fired. Out of a cannon.

      Canonized?

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    6. Re:Cultural meaning of terminated by balbeir · · Score: 1

      He was fired. Out of a cannon.

      Canonized?

      Who says there are no such thing as a free launch?

    7. Re:Cultural meaning of terminated by ole_timer · · Score: 1

      in the UK it's made redundant...

      --
      nothing to see here - move along
  2. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Not sure if dysphemism for "fired", or ...

    Smell this perfume I bought for my mistress, tovarich ...

    ( Novochok )

  3. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And why technicians fear to report anything..

  4. Let's be real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason there are issues because people fear losing their jobs if they report a mistake of their own doing. It happens at some companies that don't realize that a mistake is part of normal business operations and thusly an expected cost.

    They should find the person that did this and interview him and then hold his management responsible.

    1. Re:Let's be real by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mistakes happen where people work. Show me a person that makes no mistakes and I show you a person that does not work.

      What sets good and mediocre companies apart is how they deal with the mistakes that happen and how they mitigate them.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Let's be real by gweihir · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The problem is not the hole (mistake 1), the problem is attempting to fix it incompetently (mistake 2) and hiding mistake 1 (mistake 3). From the drill-bit-slides, this was also a low-skill person that should not have been allowed near the vehicle (mistake 4). I mean, when I drill aluminum, the result does not look anywhere this bad and I am just an amateur.

      This does not qualify as normal mistake anymore. This is a cluster of negligence and dishonesty that is pretty bad.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:Let's be real by Dare+nMc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > I mean, when I drill aluminum, the result does not look anywhere this bad and I am just an amateur.

      Yes, but how many holes does your drill have to make in aluminium before it can be replaced or sharpened with a jig.

      It could still be more about equipment, and poor factory management than about unskilled labor. A slightly bent drill bit does exactly those marks, and using a punch on every one of thousands of rivet panels might not be required/allowed at that place.

      I just finished a factory five chassis, drilling many many thousands of rivet holes in aluminum, likely very similar to what work was done on this body. Drill bits get killed doing this job by hand easily, as you line the two panels overtop each other before drilling to make sure the holes align correctly, and drill through both. You will occasionally have a gap (that rivets would eventually pull together) and the bit jumps between those sheets (after drilling though the top sheet into the bottom sheet) it will inevitably not come through clean and side load the bit causing it to be bent or chipped. Most of the time a drill bit was dead on average of 10-20 holes, but it could be after one, or a hundred drills. And these type of factory jobs in lower wage/class oriented countries tend to be overly stressed on preventing theft by over control of access to all supplies.

      And I bet those aluminum panels are every bit as tough or more than the ones on my car. It isn't like drilling into freshly cast aluminium, these panels have been worked to have a hardened surface.

    4. Re:Let's be real by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Aluminum isn't just worked for hardening, it's heat treated. You can drill through treated aluminum again and again with a good drill bit, though. I did a project with 2024-T3 and as long as I cooled the bit it would last ridiculously long.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Let's be real by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Indeed the problem isn't the hole. The problem is the way the issue was handled. Someone made a mistake drilling a faulty hole. Ok. Now the next step should have been to report this and result in the part being replaced with a known good one. Case closed. What did happen was that the person tried to hush it up. The problem here is not the person trying to cover his mistake up but the fact that he feels it's necessary or even that it's a good idea. And that's not the fault of the person that drilled this hole but a flaw in the way this company handles such human error.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:Let's be real by Dare+nMc · · Score: 1

      > Aluminum isn't just worked for hardening, it's heat treated.

      Were talking about thin plate,
      It is not strengthened by heat treatment; instead, it becomes stronger due to strain hardening or cold working of the material.

      > you can drill through treated aluminum again and again with a good drill bit, though

      Of course you CAN. Once you have hand drilled 10,000 rivet holes with a 1/8" drill bit, only then will you understand what this guy's job is like and how wrong your statements are for this application.

    7. Re:Let's be real by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Were talking about thin plate,
      It is not strengthened by heat treatment; instead, it becomes stronger due to strain hardening or cold working of the material.

      Plate and sheet both are regularly tempered. I don't know what grade of Aluminum this hole was in, do you?

      Of course you CAN. Once you have hand drilled 10,000 rivet holes with a 1/8" drill bit, only then will you understand what this guy's job is like

      Well, I've drilled hundreds of rivet holes with a 5/32" drill bit, so I have a pretty good idea. If you go through fast enough to rapidly damage the bit you'll wind up with shavings in between the layers and they won't be pulled close with the rivet at all. If you go slowly, and cool the bit between uses, it will last hilariously long.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Let's be real by gweihir · · Score: 1

      This is a space vehicle. If you cannot afford to replace drill-bits before they go bad, we have mistake 5 in addition, gross mismanagement of funds.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    9. Re:Let's be real by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      This is a space vehicle. If you cannot afford to replace drill-bits before they go bad, we have mistake 5 in addition, gross mismanagement of funds.

      I wonder how many holes you'd have to drill before you could justify a sharpener. Since it would have to be a high-tech space sharpener to avoid throwing metal dust everywhere, probably a whole hell of a lot.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:Let's be real by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Probably a management issue or corporate culture, yes.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    11. Re: Let's be real by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Why do you think I left development and entered security testing?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    12. Re: Let's be real by c6gunner · · Score: 2

      And that's not the fault of the person that drilled this hole but a flaw in the way this company handles such human error.

      That's a pretty big assumption. I work in a place where making a 6-figure mistake will result in, at worst, a written reprimand, and most of the time not even that much. The entire culture is built around accountability and owning up to your mistakes. Yet we still occasionally get idiots trying to cover up mistakes instead of admitting to it and handling it properly.

      Some people just hate admitting that they fucked up.

    13. Re:Let's be real by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      one should NEVER be using a damn hand drill on spacecraft.

    14. Re:Let's be real by gweihir · · Score: 1

      As usual, if you know what you are doing, there is no problem at all. The tool is not the problem.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    15. Re: Let's be real by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Would not surprise me at all if that is what happened here.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    16. Re:Let's be real by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Here is news for you: They are _everywhere_ !

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    17. Re:Let's be real by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Mistakes happen where people work. Show me a person that makes no mistakes and I show you a person that does not work.

      What sets good and mediocre companies apart is how they deal with the mistakes that happen and how they mitigate them.

      Remember that next time something happens and the public calls for blood.

      Because people want to blame the person "at fault", whether it's a driver of train or a plane or something that could've caused the accident

      The problem is people want revenge - they want to know the person who "did it" and fire their ass. It's perfectly human nature to want revenge. Problem is, the government is beholden to such sentiment - the people want blood, the government must give them the blood otherwise it feels like a coverup. No amount of fault finding will placate victims and their relatives other than knowing the guy responsible was fired.

      Enlightened companies know to not blame the individual but to enact processes and safeguards to ensure that the situation won't happen again. (Because firing the person responsible means the mistake wasn't learned - just that the person who made it and possibly knows how ot prevent it is now gone from the company). And there are many processes to help identify the root cause of a problem.

      But people still want the head of the perpetrator.

    18. Re: Let's be real by bestweasel · · Score: 1

      Yes but your drilling would also look like that if you drank a litre of vodka before your shift.

    19. Re: Let's be real by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      That's it isnt it? You thought the drilling if the hole happened in space... That it was a station tech who lied about puncturing a whole in the space station they were on and breathing air from.

      Yeah. And I think that person was a Russian who did it on purpose.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    20. Re:Let's be real by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      The problem is not in the person but in the policy. Always. The only way the person can directly be the problem is if the person had the power to change the policy.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    21. Re: Let's be real by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      You think the way a person able to make 6 figures mistakes is treated is comparable to how a guy is treated that drills holes into metal tubes?

      What a mistake of you costs is only meaningful when compared to what your work is worth to your employer. If you make 7 figures on a daily base, making a 6 figures mistake per day is trivial. Cost of doing business. If you're a guy drilling holes and essentially doing a job that a machine for 6 figures could do flawlessly, that mistake could well cost your head.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Traditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Traditional Russian acts of courage and character: 1. Topple a Tatar on a horse before he burns Moscow, without any weapons. 2. Wrestle with a tiger, shirtless 3. Caviar and vodka 4. Travel to space with a holey space craft.

    1. Re:Traditions by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Old joke: Wealthy merchant tells man he can marry his daughter if he manages to do 3 things:
      1. Drink a full bottle of vodka
      2. Wrestle a bear to the ground
      3. Fuck his grandma

      He downs the bottle, heads into the bear den and after half an hour of screams and battle sounds, he emerges with scratches all over, yelling "Ok, where's the hag I have to fight with?"

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Traditions by mrbester · · Score: 1

      Technically, he probably managed #2 when getting confused with #3. Or he was Goldilocks's brother in an updated Brave-inspired retelling so didn't realise he'd done #2 and #3 at the same time...

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    3. Re:Traditions by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Travel to space with a holey space craft.

      So that's what it was about... He added an extra character by mistake?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Traditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A sceptic in me suspects he never really confused #2 and #3. He did #2, and then, as there was no witnesses present to say what he actually did, tried to weasel out of doing #3 !

    5. Re:Traditions by gtall · · Score: 1

      I thought it was wrestle with caviar and vodka...shirtless.

    6. Re:Traditions by gtall · · Score: 1

      Yep, all them people around Trump and himself benefiting from Russian money...nope, nothing to see here, move on.

    7. Re:Traditions by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      /. is the only place I know where you can tell a silly joke and people will start analyzing and overthinking it...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Traditions by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      /. is the only place I know where you can tell a silly joke and people will start analyzing and overthinking it...

      That proves it; slashdot is the only place you know!

    9. Re:Traditions by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Nah, the other places I frequent either people laugh about it, say it's nasty/boring or (this is the majority) roll their eyes and tell me to stop telling unfunny, old jokes.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:Traditions by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      Septic is what is going to happen if he doesn't treat his wounds by pouring vodka over them.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    11. Re:Traditions by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Most of that is analysis. Just so you know.

  6. Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fault by raymorris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, told RIA Novost "We want to find out the full name of who is at fault -- and we will."

    Facepalm! Dmitry Rogozin is at fault, you nitwit.

    The problem is that the workers were afraid to admit a mistake and get it fixed - to the point that they'd rather jeopardize the mission by hiding the mistake than acknowledge an error. So this jackass responds with "we will find out the full name of the person [and then ...]". That attitude IS the problem, dummy. To fix the problem, your statement would need to be "we want to find out why workers are afraid to acknowledge errors and fix the organizational culture so that errors can be acknowledged and fixed properly, rather than hidden."

  7. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by Dins · · Score: 2

    Sure, fired. Literally.

  8. We will find someone who is responsible. by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    "We want to find out the full name of who is at fault -- and we will."

    Reminds me of the old joke of Putin allegedly saying "If we had search WMDs in Iraq, we would have found some!"

    Like every good programmer knows, if you're searching for something, put one of the thing you search at the end of your dataset yourself so your program terminates correctly.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:We will find someone who is responsible. by mrbester · · Score: 1

      I can't help but think how much more interesting it would be if it was discovered that the hole wasn't there before takeoff instead of the more mundane "technician screwed up and tried to hide it" scenario we actually have...

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    2. Re:We will find someone who is responsible. by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 1

      grep WMDs-in-Iraq /dev/kmem
      will sure find some

  9. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Welcome to the wonderful world of Soviet indoctrination. The system is flawless. The problem is the human in the system. We need to eliminate the problem.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Jzanu · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    This is simply evidence of the incompetence of the Russian state itself. Roskosmos was re-nationalized in 2016, after experiencing quality control problems so severe they led to launch failures. This extends beyond Rogozin as director since he was deputy under Popovkin who also had problems with launches.

    The problem is the structure of Russian culture, far beyond this incident being caused by just issue of management philosophy. Putin's culture is one of death, murder, and widespread terrorism directly conducted by Putin himself against the idea of human rights, and against Russia as enemy #1 with the rest of the world as enemy #2. Certainly the claims of sabotage will lead to Russia blaming every other country involved with the ISS.

  11. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    And how old do you think the heads of the space program are? Unless they're 35 or younger, they were indoctrinated by that very system.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Kiuas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To fix the problem, your statement would need to be "we want to find out why workers are afraid to acknowledge errors and fix the organizational culture so that errors can be acknowledged and fixed properly, rather than hidden."

    As a Finn with a couple Russian friends who've left their country because of 'organisational culture' let me give you some perspective. This is Putin's ' Novorossiya' where transparency is nonexistent and those who fail to satisfy the powers that be are thrown into jail in the best case, get into mysterious accidents or commit 'suicides' in the worst case. The space program is a key component in the cold war (which never really ended, it's just changed its nature to be less about armed conflict and more about information warfare) propaganda just as it was in the past, and as such it is of great importance to Kremlin. Whoever made the mistake is not afraid of getting fired, because getting fired is the least of your concerns in this situation. If I were him, I'd already be on my way out of the country and never drink any tea I haven't prepared myself..

    The problem is not the the organisational culture of Roscosmos, the problem is the organisational culture of the entire State Meet the new boss, same as the old boss:

    "Enemies are right in front of you, you are at war with them, then you make an armistice with them, and all is clear. A traitor must be destroyed, crushed."
    -Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in 2001, speaking to journalist Aleksei Venediktov, to whom he added “You know, Aleksei, you are not a traitor. You are an enemy.” (source: David Remnick, “Echo in the Dark,” in The New Yorker, September 22, 2008)

    This is why seeing Trump act like Vlad's obedient little lapdog earlier in the summer here in Helsinki was one of the most absurd things I have ever witnessed in my life. Had you told me ten years ago that you're from the future where the fucking president of the US of A bows down to kiss the ring of Putin and call the European Union a foe, I'd have told you to go get your head checked. Yet here we are. My grandfather who's in his 80s said to me after the press conference that he thinks the Russians are winning, because 'one of the guys is a former KGB agent, and the other is a clueless goof.' Although grandpa is no political scientist, I have a hard time disagreeing with him here.

    --
    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
  13. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Maybe, but he was fired for not reporting a mistake, one that could put lives at risk. If he had reported it, maybe he wouldnt have been fired. Though my guess is fear of getting fired is why he didnt.

  14. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by fintux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which one do you think is better:

    1. Ensure zero mistakes are made, by punishing people who make mistakes, and by other means, or

    2. Create a culture where mistakes that are made are correctly reported and dealt with?

    Hint: The first one is not possible, because perfection is impossible.

    The mistakes should of course be minimized, and intentional incorrect actions, like sabotage, should of course be punished. Of course, you can argue that not reporting a mistake is an intentional incorrect action, but this could be avoided by choosing wisely how mistakes are dealt with. So paradoxally, trying to push for zero mistakes by punishment, you're actually 1) not necessarily reducing mistakes, and 2) additionally causing intentional incorrect actions, thus making the situation worse. If you're a manager, I hope you take some time to consider this.

  15. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by aix+tom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People make mistakes all the time. The only person who makes no mistakes is a person who does nothing.

    So if you punish mistakes, the solution people will come up with is to do nothing. Which will make finishing a project also completely impossible.

  16. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Kiuas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ahahahah... You know Ivan, your propaganda shitposting would be far more effective if your Finnish didn't sound like it came from a 40s black and white movie (no-one in modern Finnish uses the words 'sinjoore' or 'madame' for example) and riddled with typos (you're missing almost every single ä and ö there, and ryssä is written with a y and not a ü which is not even used in the entire language at all you dimwit).

    But ladies and gentlemen of Slashdot: if you had any doubts prior to this point that the Russian trollboys are patrolling this site actively, I give you exhibit A: a dude writing about the Clintons in archaic and misspelled Finnish that clearly does not come through Google translate to try and pass as a native..I mean, A for effort, F for execution man.

    These guys reply to me as ACs almost every single time I mention Putin in any way here, it's almost kinda endearing, like having a sort of pet. You know Ivan, I don't blame you. Work is hard to find in the current shit economy of Russia, and at least you get an indoors work-environment, hopefully decent pay and bonus points for being an obedient little trooper in the Motherlands fight against 'The West. If you ever end up in here, we can go and have a cup of coffee or tea, and don't worry, I'll bring my own Geiger counter. ;)

    Until we meet again, comrade!

    --
    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
  17. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Soviet Union hasn't existed for nearly 30 years now, dude.

    It's back. With communism replaced by fascism, but these two are so similar it's window dressing.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  18. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Jzanu · · Score: 2

    This is simply evidence of the incompetence of the Russian state itself. Roskosmos was re-nationalized in 2016, after experiencing quality control problems so severe they led to launch failures. This extends beyond Rogozin as director since he was deputy under Popovkin who also had problems with launches. The problem is the structure of Russian culture, far beyond this incident being caused by just issue of management philosophy. Putin's culture is one of death, murder, and widespread terrorism directly conducted by Putin himself against the idea of human rights, and against Russia as enemy #1 with the rest of the world as enemy #2. Certainly the claims of sabotage will lead to Russia blaming every other country involved with the ISS.

    Notice that this failure was really due to Putin's culture of terrorism in Russia. His culture means it will be blamed on someone who will die, and then used against the ISS contributors in general.

  19. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know how Russia ended up with Putin? Remember Yeltsin? Remember how we interfered with the 1996 Russian election and altered the result? Yeltsin was in the single digits before the Americans got involved.

    You know what happened next? The US financial "experts" pushed Yeltsin to introduce neo-liberal shock therapy economics to the new Russian Federation. Ended up crashing the economy and leaving more in poverty then ever before. The number of people living in poverty in the former Soviet Republics rose from 14 million in 1989 to 147 million in 1998. As a result of the 1998 financial collapse and the devaluation of the ruble, the life savings of tens of millions of Russian families disappeared overnight. In the period from 1992 to 1998 Russia's GDP fell by half - something that did not happen even under during the German invasion in the Second World War.

    Under Yeltsin's tenure, the death rate in Russia reached wartime levels. Accidents, food poisoning, exposure, heart attacks, lack of access to basic healthcare, and an epidemic of suicides - they all played a role. David Satter, a senior fellow at the anti-communist, Washington DC-based Hudson Institute, writing in the conservative Wall Street Journal, described the consequences of this victory of Democracy: "Western and Russian demographers now agree that between 1992 and 2000, the number of 'surplus deaths' in Russia - deaths that cannot be explained on the basis of previous trends - was between five and six million persons."

    This secured Putin as a savior to Russians when he reversed it, and soured Russian public opinion to the US.

    "Liberal order" visionaries are quick to give their ideas credit for the prosperity of nations from Western Europe to the Pacific Rim, finding causation in correlation. They deny such a direct link between their ideas and the problems of post-Soviet Russia. Yet it is hard to accept that measures like sudden privatization and the rise of monopolies in a corrupt country were not related to asset stripping and capital flight or that "eliminating the housing and utilities subsidies that sustained tens of millions of impoverished families" did not play a major part in the social ruin that followed. Western technocrats, diplomats, and politicians were deeply implicated in the new order's design.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  20. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by zmooc · · Score: 1

    It's so sad/funny to know that the top comment describing the one and only right thing to do will just remain here, hidden in the comments section.

    --
    0x or or snor perron?!
  21. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, told RIA Novost "We want to find out the full name of who is at fault -- and we will."

    Facepalm! Dmitry Rogozin is at fault, you nitwit.

    The problem is that the workers were afraid to admit a mistake and get it fixed - to the point that they'd rather jeopardize the mission by hiding the mistake than acknowledge an error. So this jackass responds with "we will find out the full name of the person [and then ...]". That attitude IS the problem, dummy. To fix the problem, your statement would need to be "we want to find out why workers are afraid to acknowledge errors and fix the organizational culture so that errors can be acknowledged and fixed properly, rather than hidden."

    That kind of attitude is incompatible with 'come down on them like a ton of bricks' management methods and the right wing enforcers who run Russia on behalf of the oligarchs love that crap.

  22. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State, who said "fuck the EU." She was nominated by Obama. You remember Obama, the same man who bugged Merkel's phone? The US regarding EU as a foe didn't start with Trump.

    Who can blame Obama for his views? What do you call people who rip you off on trade to the tune of $150 billion every year? The EU is a security free-rider that exploits American generosity to run a massive trade surplus. For a continent flush with cash and a large budget surplus, every member should be able to spend an adequate amount on its own defense. The EU needs to create its own collective defense treaty without US involvement.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  23. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    I've been a Slashdot commenter since this was a newfangled "weblog" called Chips & Bits. If you'd like to have an argument, you can try to refute what I said. Calling me a dirty foreigner and spewing whataboutism isn't an argument.

    Putin is in power today because of the Western neoliberals who dynamited the Russian economy, caused mass deaths, and tampered in an election. More info: http://www.globalresearch.ca/u...

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  24. When I first read the headline by Daralantan · · Score: 2

    When I first read the headline, I thought it was going to be some story about Putin thinking someone drilled a hole into the hull (while in space) to sabotage the ISS.

    1. Re:When I first read the headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When I first read the headline, I thought it was going to be some story about Putin thinking someone drilled a hole into the hull (while in space) to sabotage the ISS.

      Another article elsewhere gave a quote from someone who suggested that that was one possibility, but then went on to list a lot more reasonable suggestions.

  25. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    So, your genius solution is to start a war with a nuclear power. What a great idea that will totally not end horribly.

    I love your idea of the "EU armies". If they existed, that might be a good idea.

    You're aware the "Free Syria" rebels are head-chopping Islamists? Al-Nusra? You certainly are getting a bizarre, filtered form of news if you don't know this. To anyone else reading, a quick video: https://youtu.be/y1oEoCRkLRI?t...

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  26. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by GuB-42 · · Score: 2

    Mistakes by themselves shouldn't be punished. They are the consequence of something, and that something should be dealt with.

    It may involve punishing the employee, for example if the employee refused to follow a procedure, he may be punished for that, but not for the mistake itself. And even in that case, one should investigate why the procedure wasn't followed. Maybe it is simply impossible to follow, or that it is too time consuming for the stated goals.
    Or it can be that the employee simply does the job poorly, but then again, why? Maybe he is just bad and he should get fired but for poor performance rather than for the mistake itself. But it may be because he just needs training.

    If you just punish employees for their mistakes without going for the root cause you may end up firing loads of perfectly good employees and not fix anything. For example if the issue is caused by a manager giving tasks to untrained employees, he is the problem, not the guy holding the drill.

  27. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by novakyu · · Score: 1

    In a kiln?

  28. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Jzanu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is simply evidence of the incompetence of the Russian state itself. Roskosmos was re-nationalized in 2016, after experiencing quality control problems so severe they led to launch failures. This extends beyond Rogozin as director since he was deputy under Popovkin who also had problems with launches. The problem is the structure of Russian culture, far beyond this incident being caused by just issue of management philosophy. Putin's culture is one of death, murder, and widespread terrorism directly conducted by Putin himself against the idea of human rights, and against Russia as enemy #1 with the rest of the world as enemy #2. Certainly the claims of sabotage will lead to Russia blaming every other country involved with the ISS.

    This is still the truth, no matter how many Russian paid trolls with mod points try to hide it from general viewing.

  29. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fau by reiterate · · Score: 2

    Your source: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/G... (It's not a good one)

  30. Re:cold war spy thriller.. by BinBoy · · Score: 1

    Personally, I blame the Russians.

  31. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by jd · · Score: 1

    Is being placed under the rocket vents the same thing as fired?

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  32. DO NOT EVER REPAIR ALUMINUM BY WELDING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    NO NO NO NO NO

    It could NOT have been repaired on Earth by welding.

    DO NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVEN THINK about repairing stressed aluminum by welding. Once aluminum has been fatigued, welding only damages and weakens it further.

    A spinning drill bit that ultimately caused a hole would have certainly yielded the aluminum in the immediate vicinity, and attempting to weld it only would have made it weaker.

    YOU CANNOT FIX BROKEN ALUMINUM WITH WELDING..

    For the love of Pete, are you trying to get someone killed, besides the guy who covered this up?

    1. Re:DO NOT EVER REPAIR ALUMINUM BY WELDING by avandesande · · Score: 1

      It is not stressed aluminum but thanks for the info. The force of the vacuum of space (15psi) on a 2 mm hole is very small.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
  33. Uh oh by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Fellow had better change his name and get a food tester ...

    1. Re:Uh oh by mschaffer · · Score: 1

      At least change his middle name. Apparently they "want to find out the full name of who is at fault".
      Is there a loophole in Russia that you can get off scot-free if someone doesn't know your full name? I thought they routinely sent out the goon squad with less information.

  34. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Kiuas · · Score: 1, Informative

    It was Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State, who said "fuck the EU." [youtu.be] She was nominated by Obama

    So you contrast a phone call on Youtube that I cannot even in any way verify to be from the actual people you claim it to be from, to the sitting president of the US openly calling the European Union an enemy. How the hell does that make any sense? The Union and the US have had their disagreements in the past as well and no-one is denying that, but geopolitically speaking the alliance between the continents has been strong ever since the 2nd world war, and the Trump era marks a clear shift in this policy. This is obvious to anyone who follows global politics even at a cursory level.

    What do you call people who rip you off on trade to the tune of $150 billion every year?

    Uhm.... people that the Americans like buying stuff from? I mean, no-one's forcing Americans to buy European cars and other stuff, but you guys seem to like it. I thought you of all people would understand this, since you've been the nr. 1 proponent of free trade for decades, and are the world's second largest export economy after China.

    The idea that everyone needs to be trading the exact same amount with everyone else lest someone is getting 'ripped off' is ridiculous. It's called trade because your exchanging money for goods and services that you want-

    The EU is a security free-rider that exploits American generosity to run a massive trade surplus.

    I agree that European defense spending overall is too low. The collapse of the soviet union lulled many into a false sense of security and defense spending was cut in many places. However at the same time calling it 'exploitation' as if the US did not have their own interests in mind with their defense spending here is misleading to say the least. That is, to say that the US is doing this out of sheer generosity and not because global stability is something you also benefit from is twisting the truth. You have troops and based all over the world because of this, and no-one's forced you to do that, you've done it out of your own volition after the last world war presumably because you don't fancy a new one, and neither do we.

    Moreover, 150 billion represents ~1/rth of the total US defense spending. I did some googling and according to this your defense spending in Europe is about 5 % of your total defense budget, which comes down to about 30 billion. That's still a lot obviously, but even if that were to be eliminated entirely we'd still be running a surplus.

    That being said, European defense spending has been on the rise for a few years now, since before Trump.

    For a continent flush with cash and a large budget surplus, every member should be able to spend an adequate amount on its own defense.

    Agreed. This is also why we're not in NATO and are actually paying for our own defense. However note that this does not mean NATO should be done away with. Defense spending needs to be increased, for numerous reasons of which Russia is only one but that still doesn't mean we shouldn't be allied with the US, because of all the major players out there in the field of geopolitics, the US is far closer to EU in terms of values and policies than say, China or Russia.

    The EU needs to create its own collective defense treaty without US involvement.

    Agreed again, and that's now beginning. You must understand that since the EU is a trade zone and not a federation, EU-wide defense co-operation has been a difficult subject because any notion of an 'EU army' is often perceived as a step towards federalization and that's something that the majority of people do not like, s

    --
    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
  35. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by v1 · · Score: 1

    People make mistakes all the time. The only person who makes no mistakes is a person who does nothing.

    I can't completely agree with this. While mistakes can/will/do happen, there are different degrees of mistakes, and you can't call them all equal. They range from "that outcome was essentially completely impossible to have foreseen or predicted" to "gross negligence". At one end you have "freak accident" and at the other end you have "incompetence".

    I agree that people should not be fired for (or fear being fired for) accidents, but gross negligence / incompetence should be a firing offense. This should intensify when the mistake has a significant risk of loss of life or significant property damage, or where there were numerous protocols and procedures in place to prevent it that were all bypassed to allow the mistake to occur.

    Drilling a hole in a space ship could certainly lead to loss of life or severe damage. I would HOPE there were significant procedures in place for determining where to make holes. I wonder why the problem was not caught by independent inspection after the work also. I realize there was a pressure test, but that's a very general final test for the entire product, and if you're going to be compromising the hull during production (for holes that need to be there) then that work should be inspected visually by someone other than the worker after the work is done, and not be relying solely on the pressure test at the end to make sure nobody messed up in the last six months somewhere.

    Given that this mistake could be successfully covered up by a bit of epoxy, it seems fairly safe to assume that they were insuring quality by threat of termination rather than by rigorous post-inspection, which is a process that more strongly encourages cover-up of mistakes. If that's the case, you have created a culture where cover-up is an option worth considering, which can only be fixed by making serious changes to your manufacturing and vetting processes. "Cover-up" should never be an option worth considering when lives are on the line.

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  36. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    "after a commotion he was terminated" Not sure if dysphemism for "fired", or ... "

    Just a shoddy translation is my guess.

  37. Russians hacked the space station by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    n/t

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  38. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Mr+Foobar · · Score: 2, Funny

    SlashDot is an international forum. Please speak English.

    --
    -> I dislike sigs...
  39. Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Their best engineers understand they have the worst manufacturing in the world. That's why everything they make is big, ugly, but it always works.

  40. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by shortscruffydave · · Score: 2

    Welcome to the wonderful world of Soviet indoctrination. The system is flawless. The problem is the human in the system. We need to eliminate the problem.

    The beatings will continue until morale improves

  41. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    A Russian ass whoopin'.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  42. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by gtall · · Score: 1

    Really? And just where did Putin and his cronies come from?

  43. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by gtall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yep, the U.S. is responsible for Russia's problems. Putin is an enlightened civil servant and Russia would be a paradise were it not for the naughty U.S. casting a baleful eye in its direction.

    In other news, down is up, Trump is smart, the law of gravity is merely a suggestion.

  44. "Someone" With a Drill -- *Really*?? by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

    I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens. Proof Positive: A talking head on TV.

    And this is why Trump wants a space force -- Space Alien Terrorists. Or Astronaut Terrorists, same thing, just inside out. OR: an ISS Astronaut is actually an ALIEN -- that's even worse, They're Already Here.

    First they travel here to get our technology, then our women, and then our water. We're in trouble!

    --
    If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
    1. Re:"Someone" With a Drill -- *Really*?? by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Even worse... it's ILLEGAL Space Alien Terrorists!

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  45. They should ban drills by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Drills don't cause air leaks, people do.

  46. in Soviet Russia ... by aliquis · · Score: 1

    ... Soyuz drills hole in you!

  47. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Add in extremely tiresome and complicated processes to document the mistake, the actions taken, who approved the repairs, who inspected the repairs, etc. One could generate a small book on welding a hole if one desired. If required to do so, one might consider patching it with something readilly available and not telling anyone. Making it easy to report errors, document the corrective actions, and track them is the best way. If management is not aware that problems are occuring as employees are fixing them off-book, they can't change anything to lessen the rate of the problems. They may amke changes that increase the rate of problems and pat themselves on the back as costs are reduced without impact to measured performance criteria.

  48. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    By that line of reasoning, Al Queda operatives should go around making sarcastic comments that American's should "just get over it" on the subject of 911. American Exceptionalists are, and always have been, a million megatons of bullshit crammed into a five pound sack.

  49. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In general this is quite true.
    In jobs where perfections is demanded, problem occur, because people are afraid to report mistakes. Often these mistakes could had happened to anyone, but that one guy was the one who did it that day. However they will get fired for making that mistake without learning from it and will need to fire the next guy.
    So being the problem isn't fixed, and you could get fired with one off action that lasted less then a second. If you messed up, you are not going to report the problem. you will probably just patch it up, and continue on.

    I do a lot of Database work. Sometimes I mess up on my delete command. Now experience has taught me to have a plan for when I mess up. But I still mess up. And others that work with have done the same thing. Now I have some Jr developers on my team, they go into panic the first time that happens. Other then yelling at them, or giving them a hard time, I will work with them to recover as much data as possible and work on getting the data in place. After the experience they are less likely to make the same mistake, and they are better now knowing how to retrieve from backup and make preemptive backups beforehand.
    Now if they keep on messing up and deleting the data after going via the process over again. Then I will get tough on them. Making a mistake is fine, making the same mistake over and over again isn't, especially if there are things you can do to stop it.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  50. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or he may had reported it, and his manager told him to patch it up. But being no paperwork when the problem happened, the fingers got pointed down until there was no one left to point too.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  51. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    The technician wasn't fired for the drilling, but because it was suppose to be shipped to the Americans, and he placed the wrong label on it.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  52. Indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Some drunk with a tremor at the assembling line.

  53. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    You might want to read up on the history of skinheads. Especially some of the older skins might be a trifle miffed if you lump them in with the far right.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  54. Brings to mind joke about lowest price by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Seriously, this is weird that somebody would make such a mistake and not report it. I just wonder if maybe it was debris, but simply resembles a drill? However, if they have glue on the inside, than not.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  55. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fau by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    Hahaha, Russia's "economy" always was self-dynamiting. Always was a backwards fucked up country that couldn't get communism nor capitalism right. Don't blame others for your perpetual failings.

  56. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For a continent flush with cash and a large budget surplus, every member should be able to spend an adequate amount on its own defense.

    Defense from who? NATO destroyed Libya, and some of it's member nations were behind the destructions of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It's the rest of the world that needs defense from the United States and its poodles, not the other way around.

  57. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Do you even have a brain stored away somewhere, or is that dirty cavity in your head your claim to having one? A mistake was made. It was swept under the rug. Why was it hidden away? Because the one who made it was too scared to admit to it and fess up so it could be dealt with. It's called a rational, coherent explanation with a high probability of being what actually happened.

    It's the same story everywhere where there are heavy punishments for simple mistakes; People will do anything to hide their goofs - and goof people will, because as already the Romans noted, "It's human to err" - because the consequences of getting caught goofing is so dire that hiding it and hoping that nobody notices, or perhaps getting the chance to put the blame on someone else is a much more attractive alternative than fessing up.

    The only other explanation which would fit would be outright sabotage, but that's exceedingly unlikely and squarely puts the burden of proof on the shoulders of anyone who would make such allegations.

  58. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

    He was fired for engendering lives of astronauts by damaging the capsule, not reporting it and covering his mistake by improperly "repairing" it.
    The choice he had was:
    - report: get punished, possibly fired, but maybe just losing bonus
    - not report: possibly causing crew to die

    In this case it is even worse, the guy just glued the hole (really?), the glue dried and fell off when docked.

  59. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fau by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    Sigh. You idiots don't seem to comprehend that hole is too tiny to be a serious problem. A person who wanted to make a serious problem would not have done that. The ISS will be fine.

  60. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by AlwinBarni · · Score: 2

    Well, I think it's the best comment about the issue.

  61. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fau by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    No lives were jeapordized by the tiny hole, you drama queen. The ISS can have bigger holes from micrometeors and they would be repaired too.

  62. Terminated or... by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Not sure if dysphemism for "fired", or ...

    In Russia that's not an entirely idle question. Most probably it just means fired from their job but not with 100% certainty. I can show you unambiguous examples of people literally ending up in rivers or "having a car crash" after causing problems for those in positions of power. After the recent sports doping scandals there are numerous people who ended up dead under circumstances that can only be described as suspicious at best. I'm not implying anything terrible happened or that Russia is a terrible place but it's not even a question that terminated could have the other meaning in the right circumstances in that particular country. Just like the US, Russia has some rough edges here and there.

  63. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

    Not arguing with what you have said I just would like you to remember that there were many countries in the same situation as Russia, going through the same transition as Russia, which did not end up this way (practically the whole eastern block).

    Russia has so vast resources of almost everything (including know-how and highly educated people) that blaming US for its situation is little bit extreme.

  64. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Informative

    What do you call people who rip you off on trade to the tune of $150 billion every year?

    I call them "trade partners". I also call people who regard a trade deficit as "ripping off" "abyssmally ignorant of the basic facts of economics." A trade deficit is when a country sends us more good then we send them--for which they take dollars that *we print*. This is bad?

  65. Never attribute to malice... by DrXym · · Score: 1
    ... that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

    Probably some worker ran a power tool into the lining and then either they or their superiors tried to patch it up paint over it to conceal the error.

    1. Re:Never attribute to malice... by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

      Now the astronauts have found this they must be wondering what issues remain that they haven't discovered.

      --
      Nullius in verba
  66. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Putin is an enlightened civil servant

    Your logic processing unit is broken if you think that the parent somehow implied Putin would be good if it weren't for the USA.

  67. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Don't be so self important. Why would Russia give a shit what happens on Slashdot let alone pay someone to work up mod points and attempt to downvote when someone says something bad about them.

    Not everyone who disagrees with something gains financially as a result.

    *Disclosure: This post bought and paid for by the International Consoritum for Counteracting Dumb Posts on the Internet.

  68. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    That people who make mistakes are not punished?

    No people definitely should be punished. They should be punished by going through additional training. They should be punished by sitting in Continuous Improvement Forums. They should be punished by participating in Root Cause of Failure Analysis workshops. They should be punished by being part of creating a process where their perfectly human mistakes are identified and rectified without escallation.

    People who make mistakes should accept to be punished, and if they can't accept that, meaning if they try to hide their mistakes, they should be punished even more.

    Your post is a mistake. Your throught process is a mistake. Since you're on the other end of the internet I ask you to do the right thing for your silly post so that you may learn from it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  69. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fau by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Very good; you've been keeping up. However, this discussion is about Soviet cultural attitudes... which are clearly alive and well.

  70. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by barc0001 · · Score: 1

    Oh there was probably some firing involved. Small arms is my guess. Or the guy ran off and fell on a pile of bullets...

  71. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

    He forced the oligarchs to pay taxes. It was that simple. Those who didn't pay taxes were sent directly to jail and their assets seized by the state, broken up, and sold at auction.

  72. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

    Engendering eh? I think that means pretty much the opposite of what you intended.

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  73. Re:A drill bit?? IT MUST BE CHINA !! by PPH · · Score: 1

    China !

    Chinesium drill bit would never have made it through the aluminum.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  74. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by barc0001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > Now if they keep on messing up and deleting the data after going via the process over again. Then I will get tough on them. Making a mistake is fine, making the same mistake over and over again isn't

    This is the correct way to do things. One of the things I do with a junior who makes a mistake is have them fix it with a bit of guidance, but with them doing the actual work. I find that approach helps people become more careful - they're less likely to carelessly screw something up if they've already gone through all the work it takes to fix it. One particular example springs to mind of a linux server in a QA environment - pre VM days - and a junior mistakenly chmodded everything recursively from / . We could have rebuilt the server and restored backups, but I thought it would be a better lesson to have them fix all the permissions by hand. It took said junior most of the day, but after that they became obsessive about triple and quadruple checking anything they were doing with elevated privileges and they never made that mistake ever again, or any other comparable mistake.

  75. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by PPH · · Score: 1

    Why do you think this kind of behavior is specific to Russia? I've seen the same attitudes at American companies.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  76. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by flink · · Score: 1

    The parent was not in any way arguing in favor of Putin, and no one is denying he is an authoritarian despot. The argument they were making is that US meddling in Russian internal politics and their post-communist economy created the conditions that enabled his rise to power. And now that the situation is reversed with economic disruption causing widespread angst here, Putin is turning the tables on us and nudging our political system to empower an authoritarian despot of our own.

    Fortunately our despot is not nearly as competent as Putin, and he (hopefully) will not be able to hang onto power.

  77. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    "after a commotion he was terminated" Not sure if dysphemism for "fired", or ... "

    Just a shoddy translation is my guess.

    Spoilsport.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  78. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Aighearach · · Score: 1

    But Whatabout Obama?

    Yo, cluestick, your MAGA hat is crooked.

  79. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Do you even have a brain stored away somewhere,

    Do you? Parent poster wasn't talking about any old engineering fuckup that could happen anywhere. He was going on and on and on about this being particular to Russian culture. So, what are the particular details that make this the case, and not anti-Russian hatorade. Point was easy enough to understand the first time - but it seems you were dropped on the head as a child.

    Early and often.

  80. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Your comment would be equally true (which is to say, partially) and equally pointless if you swapped the USes for the Russias, and the Trumps for the Putins. The US and Russia are each (again, partially) responsible for the other's woes. That's what it's like being adversaries.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  81. Soros by sourcerror · · Score: 1

    Raised on a steady diet of Russia Today, I must conclude it must have been done by George Soros personally.

  82. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    You screwed up big time. There is no reasonable way to recover from a recursive chmod from / as root. The irony is you mentioned QA. Just how did you verify every single file on the system had the same permissions as before the chmod was executed?

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  83. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

    A former senior member of my department used to say, "Our systems are perfect...for obtaining the results we are getting, If we don't like the results, we need to change the system. " If you do not like the results you are getting the question to ask yourself is which part of your system is responsible for those results.

    I was going to spend a little time going through the rest of his speech, but realized that if you need that, you missed the point.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  84. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Depends on how many dollars you allow them to have.

    There comes a point when they have enough dollars, you have to ask yourself, how much damage could they do if they developed a desire to spent them? Assuming those dumb poor idiots are just going to do work for you forever is rather fool-hearty.

    I mean, the Saudi Arabians would never in a million years dump oil on the market then use their dollar reserves in order to buy up US Energy companies. They'd also never in a million years buy up our technology companies which we pride ourselves on so much, like Tesla.

    China would never dump steel on the market and use dollars to buy up foundries, steel manufacturing companies and suppliers. Nope, never would happen.

    And Heaven Forbid Russia uses those dollars to buy US Politicians. You've got Trump being accused of being helped by the Russians during the election and Hillary with her insecure e-mail server that was hacked by the Russians. Nancy Pelosi was just informed her limo driver was a spy for 20 years. I wasn't born yesterday ya know.

  85. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

    Lawyers fucked up the planet Earth,

    I hope you don't think that "Love Canal" and the numerous environmental disasters that the US faced were caused by lawyers because they weren't. They were ultimately dealt with (and sometimes cleaned up properly) when the injured parties hired lawyers to bring legal complaints that got the attention of the companies that had been polluting the environment. They got their attention by getting the courts to levy large fines on the companies and making them pay restitution to those they injured.

    I won't bother commenting on any of the remainder of your post - it speaks for itself.

  86. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by onepoint · · Score: 1

    I think this is something that both agencies are really going to hammer someone on.
    And if it's a Russian contractor, all hell will break loose from the Russian side.
    Russians lost 3 cosmonauts due to some sort of air pressure release problem.
    here is the wiki link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and I think the Russians
    will put on a show trial just to convict them and hang them publicly.

    I don't think the American side has a clue about how painful of an affair this was to
    both nations because we lost our crew on the ground. And we re-built a new capsule
    because of that.

    --
    if you see me, smile and say hello.
  87. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by barc0001 · · Score: 1

    > There is no reasonable way to recover from a recursive chmod from / as root.

    No there isn't, that's why it was so much work for the junior.

    > The irony is you mentioned QA. Just how did you verify every single file on the system had the same permissions as before the chmod was executed?

    Well, for openers we had several systems built at exactly the same time and these were relatively newly built so I told him to use another as a guide. Secondly, I'm not stupid, though I see in my previous comment that I didn't really make it clear that after he was done, we ended up decomming and wiping the box anyway. Because you're right, you can't trust a box that's had that level of brain surgery accidentally inflicted upon it even if everything seems to work OK afterward. The junior was a little put out at first, but understood the point of the lesson and laughed about it later.

  88. Re:cold war spy thriller.. by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 1

    I don't see why it would be the Russians.

    /s

  89. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by AlwinBarni · · Score: 2

    Engendering eh? I think that means pretty much the opposite of what you intended.

    yes, should be "endangering" , sorry for my misspelling and thanks for pointing it out

  90. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Arashi256 · · Score: 1

    That's half the problem with Russia's economy long term right there. At any point as a private business person, your assets can be seized by Putin and his cronies. So citizens don't get to foster an attitude of entrepreneurism which might lead to the kinds of technological innovations that would allow Russia to compete globally long-term. Why bother starting a business or getting funding for a clever idea when your business and technologies can be taken away by the state at any time?

  91. Re:"after a commotion he was terminated" by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

    Is small hole, no-one will notice. Break for borscht now, Vladimir?

  92. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    - report: get punished, possibly fired, but maybe just losing bonus
    - Not report: Small chance of detection, very small chance of dead crew, most likely get away with it.

  93. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    Not quite. Putin might want to bring back the Soviet Union - a time when a person could be proud to call themselves Russian, even if the country seldom came close to living up to the ideals it proclaimed. He still has a long way to go.

  94. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

    Don't be so sure. Trump's message is simple, and has a long history of winning over a population in many countries. Patriotism, a dash of religion, demonise the other party, and blame all the evils of the country upon outsiders. It worked for Hitler. It worked for Putin. It worked for Kim Il-sung. So far, it's worked for Trump.

  95. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by swillden · · Score: 1

    There's a parable/joke that goes around, about a new employee who screwed up in a way that cost the company ten thousand dollars. After sheepishly admitting the error to his boss, the employee begins packing up his desk. The boss comes by and says "What are you doing?" The employee replies that he's packing because he's going to be fired. The boss replies "Why in the world would I fire you? I just spent $10,000 training you!"

    Related, when I first joined Google, on the Billing Team, which builds the systems that collect and disburse all of the money that flows into and out of Google, I was told that I wouldn't be a Real Billing Engineer until I'd made a mistake that cost the company a million dollars, and then designed and implemented a change to the system that made my mistake impossible. The point was well made, and well taken: This was a culture in which mistakes were to be learned from, not punished.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  96. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by ole_timer · · Score: 1

    his arms were up!

    --
    nothing to see here - move along
  97. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    the Soviet Union - a time when a person could be proud to call themselves Russian

    Riiight... 62M murdered (Rummel's pretty conservative figures) compared to 21M of Hitler's merry gang. Surely, it must be a honour to work for the glory of such a magnificent regime!

    And, such a great quality of life! It was great to thumb the nose at foul imperialist countries...

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  98. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    So, not just early and often, but from high distances? What is specifically Russian about this scenario. How is this annnnnnnny different than the head of NASA making the same sort of comment on the same sort of mistake.

  99. Re: "after a commotion he was terminated" by barc0001 · · Score: 1

    Seems more plausible you commented throwing doubt on my anecdote in a delusional attempt to seem cool. What I described did happen, and I posted the story with my actual nearly 2 decade old account, Mr. Anonymous *Coward*.

    > In any case, the correct way to run production databases is with a dev copy

    So not only do you try to paint me as a liar, you didn't even bother to read my story. When did I say anything about this being a database server? Because you know, it wasn't one. It was a web server, old Red Hat box circa 2001 running Apache.

    As mentioned, the problem was the entire filesystem from the root had been mistakenly chmodded. Just in case you didn't know, if you go to the root:

    cd /

    and then do something like this:

    chmod 755 * -R

    That's an oops. A big one. But it has nothing to do with databases, unless you happen to have a database running on the afflicted machine. Which we didn't, so no replays, no checkpoints for us. Next time read the comment before tossing in your own two cents (anonymously...) Kay?

  100. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    No idea, that's why I'm asking the parent, who thinks there's something specific to Russia with the response to the leak.

  101. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fa by reiterate · · Score: 1

    You cited it further down in the thread, but it got downmodded out of sight and I still wanted to get points for picking on you. It's all under the umbrella of your batshit, and baby I got that point.

  102. Re: Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at fa by reiterate · · Score: 1

    Also I don't see anything from the Hudson review or WSJ in your comment. You linked a Time cover that doesn't agree with you. You linked the Cato Institute, a think tank founded by a Koch. I don't really care about your theory, especially since you seem unable to present any reliable information on it.

  103. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    An absurd absolute is a restatement of the other person's reasonable position as an absurd absolute. For example, if your point is there is high crime in Detroit, the absurd absolute would be your debate opponent saying something such as "So, you're saying every person in Detroit is a criminal." When your debate opponent recasts your opinion to include an "absolute" word, such as every, always, never, all, completely, universally, and the like, you are seeing cognitive dissonance.

    Some people call what I just described a strawman argument. But a strawman argument refers to any sort of inaccurate recasting of your opponent's argument. That is the generic case. I'm referring to a specific strawman argument that uses an absurd absolute. When your debate opponent recasts your point as an absurd absolute, you won the debate. That's as far as you can go.

    http://blog.dilbert.com/post/160696999931/how-to-know-you-won-a-political-debate-on-the

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  104. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    Talk to short haul truck drivers. They cannot compete against illegal immigrants who do not pay their load insurance.

    Talk to hotel housekeepers, which used to be a unionized job with benefits.

    Talk to union construction workers, who cannot compete when contractors hire undocumented workers who work at a fraction of the pay, and are easily disposed when they get injured.

    Talk to the thousands upon thousands of tech workers and developers and programmers that lost their jobs to HB1 visas and had to TRAIN their replacements.

    Why do we have an inability to train enough nurses and need to import them?

    Functioning economy is a stretch. Not everyone goes to college. Why do you force young people to compete for their first jobs with older immigrants?

    This is off the top of my head, and not some airy fairy myth I KNOW these people.

    This sounds cold but not every potential immigrant's problems are our problem. Not every problem is our problem. The Americans who are hurt the most are the ones who need the low level jobs.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  105. Re:Dmitry still doesn't get it. Rogozin is at faul by PPH · · Score: 1

    A mistake was made.

    Are you certain it was a mistake? It could have been sabotage.

    From TFS:

    We can see the mark where the drill bit slid along the surface of the hull

    That doesn't sound like an accurately located hole. Which would most likely have been made with a jig or started with a punch. Someone just walked up with a drill and it skidded across the surface. A failing grade on a Metal Shop 101 project in high school.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.