All of the student records were on a mini frame IBM as400 from 1986.
The only connectivity to this device was via a 100 MB ethernet connection. There were no backups. The tape drive that was used for backing up this data I had gone defunct well before my time at the college.
I started noticing errors in the connection logs and I notified the CIO, saying that we needed to replace this box or upgrade it or do something before the connection failed or else we could lose access to data that we are federally required to maintain.
They noted my concerns, and then they let it go.
About 6 months later, the ethernet card failed.
I let them know that our only way to get data into or out of this machine has gone offline and cannot be resuscitated.
They asked me to fix it I told them I can’t. The card was down. I had gone through the proper processes of rebooting the machine and opening it up to take a look but couldn’t find anything wrong with it I tried reseating the card, but this system is old as shit and they didn’t make parts for it anymore and even if they did the school would have to buy it and the school is too cheap to buy them.
People are running around scared for losing their jobs because the consequence for this not coming back up could be so severe as to cause the entire college to be shut down.
Okay so now that the stage is set, a few days later the former IT guy happened to stop by the college. This dude was 70 something years old if he was a day, and I saw him out in the corridors.
I walked up to him, I was like hey man just so you know the as400 network connection is down, do you have any tips on how I might bring it back up?
He said hang on a second.
I let him into the server room and he waved his hands in the air over the as 400 and said try it again.
And sure as shit, the fucking network connection came back up.
I lost my shit.
The administrators for the college lost their shit.
Everyone’s fucking mind was blown, and somehow they suddenly magically had the money to purchase a cloud as400 and upload all of our data to it within the next 6 weeks.
I got to retire that box but I’m never ever going to forget how somebody fixed a 40 year old ethernet card by waving their fucking hands in the air
Magic! Have you ever tried magic yourself? I mean stage magic, not the one with old ladies looking into glass balls and puffing weird smoke.
One of their principles is: “It always happens before it happens”. Means, you have to prepare things and then, when things appear, it looks like magic because nobody has watched you when you prepared it.
My explanation to that magical AS400 is this:
The old IT guy wasn’t there by accident. No way. He was there because somebody had called him. He was the only known person who could ever fix the problem after all. Then he had fixed the AS400 already, while you did not watch. Later when you met him, he decided to play his little show, and well, later he had a good laugh…
My friend recently introduced the concept of the machine spirit to me; the idea that all computers and machines have spirits and that the more complex and complicated the machine and software, the higher the level of technomage required to submit it. Most computers and desktops have low machine spirits so people with basic knowledge can make it work, but machines with purpose or that are complicated require high level technomages to operate. I think about that sometimes when I can fix my friends stuff in minutes but my machine will have issues that take days or weeks to fix.
I worked for a college for a while.
All of the student records were on a mini frame IBM as400 from 1986.
The only connectivity to this device was via a 100 MB ethernet connection. There were no backups. The tape drive that was used for backing up this data I had gone defunct well before my time at the college.
I started noticing errors in the connection logs and I notified the CIO, saying that we needed to replace this box or upgrade it or do something before the connection failed or else we could lose access to data that we are federally required to maintain.
They noted my concerns, and then they let it go.
About 6 months later, the ethernet card failed.
I let them know that our only way to get data into or out of this machine has gone offline and cannot be resuscitated.
They asked me to fix it I told them I can’t. The card was down. I had gone through the proper processes of rebooting the machine and opening it up to take a look but couldn’t find anything wrong with it I tried reseating the card, but this system is old as shit and they didn’t make parts for it anymore and even if they did the school would have to buy it and the school is too cheap to buy them.
People are running around scared for losing their jobs because the consequence for this not coming back up could be so severe as to cause the entire college to be shut down.
Okay so now that the stage is set, a few days later the former IT guy happened to stop by the college. This dude was 70 something years old if he was a day, and I saw him out in the corridors.
I walked up to him, I was like hey man just so you know the as400 network connection is down, do you have any tips on how I might bring it back up?
He said hang on a second.
I let him into the server room and he waved his hands in the air over the as 400 and said try it again.
And sure as shit, the fucking network connection came back up.
I lost my shit.
The administrators for the college lost their shit.
Everyone’s fucking mind was blown, and somehow they suddenly magically had the money to purchase a cloud as400 and upload all of our data to it within the next 6 weeks.
I got to retire that box but I’m never ever going to forget how somebody fixed a 40 year old ethernet card by waving their fucking hands in the air
Hahaha, he was having you pretty good! 😅
Magic! Have you ever tried magic yourself? I mean stage magic, not the one with old ladies looking into glass balls and puffing weird smoke.
One of their principles is: “It always happens before it happens”. Means, you have to prepare things and then, when things appear, it looks like magic because nobody has watched you when you prepared it.
My explanation to that magical AS400 is this:
The old IT guy wasn’t there by accident. No way. He was there because somebody had called him. He was the only known person who could ever fix the problem after all. Then he had fixed the AS400 already, while you did not watch. Later when you met him, he decided to play his little show, and well, later he had a good laugh…
My friend recently introduced the concept of the machine spirit to me; the idea that all computers and machines have spirits and that the more complex and complicated the machine and software, the higher the level of technomage required to submit it. Most computers and desktops have low machine spirits so people with basic knowledge can make it work, but machines with purpose or that are complicated require high level technomages to operate. I think about that sometimes when I can fix my friends stuff in minutes but my machine will have issues that take days or weeks to fix.