[rescue] Oh no! This poor Origin server.....

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 @ 14:17 -0600, Jonathan C. Patschke said:

> On Thu, 1 Apr 2004, Thomas Gallaway wrote:
> 
> > Actually I had to watch maybe 6 month ago when some .gov agency who had
> > a warehouse across the street where taking apart sun e6500 and disk
> > arrays and then smashing the parts with hammers.
> 
> All those computers, whose memories "may have"[0] held onto fragments of
> classified information, smashed to bits by a paranoid government with
> enough firepower and make anyone who angered them just "vanish".

I had a really frustrating experience at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
in 1995.

I had a $4000+ MVM177 board (Motorolla 68060 for VMEbus) that I needed
to take home.  The moron in charge of egress said no, and I found my
board *in her bare hands* outside of its static bag when I went into her
office.

You can guess... around and around we went about the implications of the
ROM and RAM on the board.  I had already removed the EPROM, but could
not remove the flash because it was soldered to the board.  She didn't
want the tape leaving either, though I explained it had code on it that
KAPL contracted us to write there, and which had to be taken home to
continue.  Further, I had a printout of the tape directory signed by a
security rep in my location.

The basic problem was that she had no idea what either the board or the
tape was, or how to check them.  I countered though.

Basically I told her I wanted a receipt with her name on it for $4750
explaining why.  I also said I was bothered by the lack of technical
knowledte among egress personnel and that I'd be talking to someone
about that.  I also called from her office and complained to my
local supervisor/contact.

Ten minutes later I was walking out the gate with my board, *and* my 8mm
tape.  

The security guards there themselves were a pretty good bunch, but some
of the others were morons.

People like her *hurt* security, and *cause* security problems.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The trade of governing has always been
monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of
mankind.  -- Thomas Paine"]