Re: Quick Tale: Lost production database because of keyboard and Veritas Cluster Server

I guess SP4 is unfamiliar because I rarely have the privilege of using Sun workstations or terminals; I apologize for my ignorance profoundly; in the AT&T/Lucent environment you often don't know what's going to be hooked up to what. Hardly a reason to jump down my throat, but it seems that is the generally accepted modus operandi. I wasn't raised by wolves, and was taught courtesy and basic manners. Heck, I couldn't get a 3B2/600 to boot until a buddy borrowed an HP terminal from work to be the system console.

If the fundamental reason of this newsgroup is to exchange knowlege and help one another, it would seem that ridiculing people less knowlegeable than yourselves is counterproductive.

Touching anything on a live production system is something I would never do; but it has happened and a person has a problem. All I have mostly seen are variations of "How could you be so STUPID?" or lists of things that if done before the fact could have prevented the current situation. And now, jumping down my throat because I objected to treating someone with a genuine mess on their hands as an object of ridicule instead of offering useful assistance, and then treating me with a similar level of contempt.

That seems rather contemptible behavior in itself. If everyone coming in here knew as much as all the experts chewing on this guy, then there'd be no questions asked that needed answering. I hope the people who treated this guy (not "my friend", never met him, don't know him, just know he is a fellow human being in trouble) and me with such venom treat their coworkers / team members / subordinates with a bit more tact and sensitivity when they come and ask for help.

I guess I am just a stupid guy who's worked with Oracle for many years. But I don't treat people like dirt because they don't know everything.

Does this mean I get the right to ridicule people who don't know how and where Californium is made, what its uses are, and its hazards and risks? Or any other item that might be "obvious" knowlege to me, but mightn't be to others? To belittle and ridicule people in need of help, and then even to go on to attack someone who feels that is wrong, does not show the best qualities of mankind to me at least.

If this man died of electrocution because of a mistake in wiring a 440 volt, 440 amp panel, would you compose an epitaph for him that read "What an idiot! He didn't check to see if the feeder line was tagged and locked down, he didn't test the circuit to ensure it was not energized, he didn't keep one hand behind his back..." and say those words over a half - incinerated corpse, with the smell of roast pork still floating in the air? (That's what burned corpses smell like.)

We lost someone at Lucent that made a mistake like that; I do not recall hearing debates and criticism about how stupid he was to end up dying horribly and this and that and all he should have done or not have done. We were worried about his family, and how to better prevent such accidents in the future.

Well, have at it. I thought we were put on this Earth to help those in need, not to humiliate them for needing help.

RSH. Received on Thu Feb 28 2002 - 01:10:42 CST