Geekery at work
I work with a bunch of system administrators. For a geek like me, it’s a great opportunity to get to play with the latest technologies and learn from experts. (Okay, so I don’t get to play with the technology. I watch other people use the tech and I write about it.)
A high priority ticket came in today for a Windows server that was partially booting and then coming up to a black screen. I immediately had flashbacks to the old Windows machine I had, affectionately nicknamed the Hoover because of the noise of the cooling fans. The Hoover died a gnarly death with only a black screen to cry its woes while the scent of burning plastic rose from its case. The Windows error messages were useless. I had to use a Linux boot disk to diagnose the problems (yay for obscure kernal panic codes!). At least, while it still came up to at least the bios screen before the motherboard melted down.
It was nice to feel that I can periodically contribute technical suggestions even though I’m just the technical writer.