Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Sysadmin crashed computer recording data from active space probe

‘I’m the reason we missed seeing aliens’, jokes nervous reader

Who, me? Welcome again to Who, Me? The Register’s new column* in which readers confess to times they performed sub-optimally and broke important stuff.

This week, meet “Fred”, who begged us “Oh God, please don't use my real name or contact info.”

Fred’s desire for anonymity stems from the fact that in the late 1970s he worked for a Very, Very Famous Space Agency on two Very, Very High Profile Space Probes.

And he broke one for a few minutes.

“My primary job was repairing the computers controlling the spacecraft,” Fred explained. One of the missions he worked on “was winding down a bit so I was asked to remove some equipment from one of the rooms where its peripherals were stored.” Once the old stuff had been chucked, Fred would put in the new stuff for the more active mission

“The last thing to remove was an IBM 1403 printer. However, I was not familiar with its connectivity to the IBM 360 mainframe … but I proceeded to remove the two large cables attached at the bottom anyway and moved the printer out into the hallway.”

Image: Serazetdinov http://www.shutterstock.com/fr/pic-114819721/stock-vector-illustration-of-a-strong-blast-of-brain.html

'The capacitors exploded, showering the lab in flaming confetti'

READ MORE

“Not a minute later one of my co-workers ran into the room yelling ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?’”

At this point in proceedings, Fred was unaware of any issues so explained what he’d been told to do.

He quickly received the news that whatever his instructions, implementing them had taken down the mission and it had missed three minutes of data from the spacecraft.

“When I repeat the story to some close friends, I usually end with ‘And that was the three minutes when the spacecraft found life on another planet."

Whatever knowledge humanity missed out on, Fred learned that “with IBM mainframe peripherals, you had to stop the computer and terminate the Bus and Tag cables before restarting, otherwise the system comes to a screeching halt.”

What have you brought to a screeching halt, and what happened afterwards? Click here to share your story with Who, me? and we might just be able to slot you in here on a future Monday morning. ®

* Who, me? is a companion piece to On-Call, our weekly story of tech support trauma caused by silly users, bilious bosses or incompetent colleagues. In Who, me? the joke’s on you, for having messed things up all by yourself.

 

Similar topics

Similar topics

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like