Matthew JC Powell

Fed up with slammed servers, IT replaced iTunes backups with a cow of a file

who, me? Pigs might fly before youngsters listened to IT instructions – so the IT manager made sure chickens came home to roost

Personal Tech05 Jun 2023 | 90

Seriously, boss? You want that stupid password? OK, you get that stupid password

Who, Me? Fed-up techie wields the magic of malicious compliance on his way out the door

Offbeat29 May 2023 | 98

Rigorous dev courageously lied about exec's NSFW printouts – and survived long enough to quit with dignity

Who, Me? Log files don't lie and in this case one nasty incident spoke to a far deeper malaise

Security22 May 2023 | 85

An important system on project [REDACTED] was all [REDACTED] up

Who Me? Luckily, [REDACTED] was there to save the day

Security15 May 2023 | 45

Owner of 'magic spreadsheet' tried to stay in the Lotus position until forced to Excel

who, me? Sometimes legacy systems must be preserved to safeguard a vital function. This was not one of those times

Software08 May 2023 | 123

Your security failure was so bad we have to close the company … NOT!

Who, Me? There are pranks, and savage pranks, and this prank when the CTO and HR ganged up on a very stressed techie

Security01 May 2023 | 47

Support chap put PC into 'drying mode' and users believed it was real

Who, Me? Who annoys auditors? It's like picking on alligators – it won't end well

Personal Tech24 Apr 2023 | 81

Pager hack faxed things up properly, again, and again, and again

Who, Me? Where else can you read a story that starts with a Wang hack and ends with a wedding?

Offbeat10 Apr 2023 | 81

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

Who, Me? Realization they'd burned money for ages led to smoldering solution rather than angry conflagration

Networks03 Apr 2023 | 131

Botched migration resulted in a great deal: One for the price of two

Who Me? Moving premises can have all manner of hidden traps. Here's one to watch for

Networks27 Mar 2023 | 99

IT phone home: How to run up a $20K bill in two days and get away with it by blaming Cisco

Who, Me? Badly configured routers ended up costing a bundle

Networks20 Mar 2023 | 141

Don't worry, that system's not actually active – oh, wait …

who, me? Fat-fingered admin escaped because the last false alarm was caused by a frozen pizza and a toaster oven

On-Prem06 Mar 2023 | 262

Backup tech felt the need – the need for speed. And pastries and Tomb Raider

Who, Me? Ignoring the manual led to near-failure of mission to escape with precious pile of verified DVDs

Storage27 Feb 2023 | 92

A tip for content filter evaluators: erase the list of sites you tested, don't share them on 100 PCs

Who, Me? The sysadmin who made this mistake just barely survived the NSFW backlash

Software20 Feb 2023 | 182

Learn the art of malicious compliance: doing exactly what you were asked, even when it's wrong

Who, Me? Smart-alec worker found a way to avoid nasty, boring jobs – by doing what he was told

Security13 Feb 2023 | 208

Eager young tearaway almost ruined Christmas with printer paper

Who, Me? In the age of tractor-fed printers and perforated paper, telling a junior to tear it up was close to negligence

On-Prem06 Feb 2023 | 97

Shag pile PC earned techies a carpeting from HR

Who, Me? Thankfully a veep with a sense of humor pulled the rug out

Personal Tech30 Jan 2023 | 48

Dear Stupid, I write with news I did not check the content of the [Name] field before sending this letter

Who, Me? This is what happens when database field names are changed without proper documentation

Software23 Jan 2023 | 103

Mixing an invisible laser and a fire alarm made for a disastrous demo

Who, Me? Dark deeds are no way to close a deal

Science09 Jan 2023 | 60

Meet the merry pranksters who keep the workplace interesting, if not productive

Who, Me? What to do with the boss who refuses to answer the phone? Or wants a bigger cubicle? Revenge, that's what

On-Prem26 Dec 2022 | 91

When we asked how you crashed the system we wanted an explanation not a demonstration

Who, Me? One dumb downtime-inducing panic is survivable. The second is a career-killer

Offbeat19 Dec 2022 | 110

Server installer fails to spot STOP button – because he wasn't an archaeologist

Who, me? Confoundingly camouflaged control covered in cruft confounds careful contractor, crashes kit

On-Prem12 Dec 2022 | 159

Programming error created billion-dollar mistake that made the coder ... a hero?

who, me? No crypto needed, just a project with a tough deadline that nobody minded missing

Software05 Dec 2022 | 192

How not to test a new system: push a button and wait to see what happens

Who, me? How to make an IBM engineer hyperventilate, or get a promotion: see above.

Systems28 Nov 2022 | 88

Job 1: Get the boss on the network. Job 2: Figure out why Job 1 broke the network for everyone else

Who, Me? Running a theme park Help Desk was a non-stop roller coaster ride, and not in a fun way

Networks21 Nov 2022 | 52

Just follow the instructions … no wait, not that instruction to lock everyone out of everything

Who, Me? When RTFM goes bad

On-Prem14 Nov 2022 | 164

Run a demo on live data? Sure! What could possibly go wrong? Hang on. Are you sure that's not working?

who, me? To quote the great philosopher Han Solo: Don't get cocky

Software07 Nov 2022 | 56

Data loss prevention emergency tactic: keep your finger on the power button for the foreseeable future

Who, Me? When switches really were switches, one reader managed to avert a potential disaster

Systems24 Oct 2022 | 131

Loathsome eighties ladder-climber levelled by a custom DOS prompt

Who, Me? This wasn't WarGames – it was far more serious

Software17 Oct 2022 | 114

Bad UI killed the radio star

Who, Me? Rules, it turns out, are not meant to be broken. Especially by the person who wrote the rule about how to protect data

Storage19 Sep 2022 | 44

Chemical plant taken offline by the best one of all: C8H10N4O2

Who, Me? Who doesn't like a cup of coffee? Anything electrical, that's who

Systems12 Sep 2022 | 135

You can never have too many backups. Also, you can never have too many backups

Who, Me? A Reg reader comes to appreciate the value of paper

Columnists29 Aug 2022 | 116

In a time before calculators, going the extra mile at work sometimes didn't add up

Who, Me? New kid on the block risked decimating colleagues' side hustle

Software22 Aug 2022 | 351

Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols closes hailing frequencies

OBIT Singer and actor was a trailblazer on and off the screen

Networks01 Aug 2022 | 47

Apple seeks patent for 'innovation' resembling the ZX Spectrum, C64 and rPi 400

Cupertino seeks signoff on computer and keyboard in one unit – we've seen that somewhere before …

Personal Tech28 Feb 2022 | 204

Facebook may soon reveal new name – we're sure Reg readers will be more creative than Zuck's marketroids

Poll We've kicked things off with the most splendidly evil fictional corporations, feel free to share your ideas

Offbeat20 Oct 2021 | 239

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