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Drunken Employee Shoots Server 309

Posted by samzenpus
from the pc-load-letter dept.
Target Practice writes "A drunken mortgage worker at RANLife Home Loans decided for unknown reasons to take out the company's $100,000 server with a .45-caliber automatic, blaming the damage on an imagined assailant who: mugged him, assaulted him with his own weapon, drugged him, and then broke into his office to shoot said server. According to acquaintances, he had threatened earlier that day to shoot the server and maybe himself."
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Drunken Employee Shoots Server More

Drunken Employee Shoots Server

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  • In his defense (Score:5, Funny)

    by elrous0 (869638) * on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:40AM (#33380418)
    Police did find a knife on the floor, corroborating his account that the server came at him first.

  • Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by oldspewey (1303305) on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:43AM (#33380456)
    Alcohol. Is there anything it can't do?

  • He's Living the Dream, Baby! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:44AM (#33380476)

    Is there a sysadmin among us that hasn't, at one time or another, wanted to shoot a server?

  • "Automatic" doesn't mean what you think it means (Score:5, Informative)

    by NevarMore (248971) on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:44AM (#33380478) Homepage Journal

    "Automatic" probably does not mean what you think it means.

    "Automatic" weapons are typically ones that fire continuously as long as the trigger is pressed.

    It can also mean "automatic" as in it resets for you. This second usage is a little archaic and is now commonly called 'semi-automatic'.

    • He could have had a MAC-10 or a Thompson....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jedidiah (1196)

        > He could have had a MAC-10 or a Thompson....

        He could have had a Tommy Gun too but in all likelihood he just had M1911 pistol or something similar.

        Between anti-gun/anti-prole liberal media and the tendency to overhype stuff, there will likely never be an accurate account when it comes to firearms.

        "automatic" just sounds more exciting.

        Nevermind that it really doesn't conform to the vernacular understanding of that term (in guns or anything else).

        • The irony. A guy bitching about accuracy in gun stories screwing up what a "Thompson gun" is.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by klubar (591384)
          I don't why it matters if he had a PC or an Apple server? Or why the Media Access Control address of the device is important.
      • That would have been cool if he had shot at the server with a MAC-10 like Jason Mewes shot at a winged Ben Affleck in "Dogma" yelling "Suck a duck!". Of course, you really don't need a reason to machine-gun Ben Affleck. Hey, maybe the guy looked at the server but saw Ben Affleck?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by oodaloop (1229816)
      To the layperson, automatic can mean either semi- or full-. Austin Powers said, "I've got my 9 milli automatic!" If you're referring to a belt-fed weapon though, most people don't say it's an automatic. They said it's fully-automatic or full-auto.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by scosco62 (864264) *
        I think it's a holdover from the "Roaring Twenties" - I don't think any reasonable person familiar with firearms has used that term in North America, in the last twenty years. The problem is that the media professionals (either intentionally or unintentionally) use the term to describe a particular firearm, neglecting to understand the ramifications of using an archaic term. I do believe that it's more a case of laziness more than overt anti-gun alarmism; but who knows. Think Edward G. Robbinson.

        • Re:"Automatic" doesn't mean what you think it mean (Score:4, Informative)

          by jedidiah (1196) on Thursday August 26 2010, @09:26AM (#33380978) Homepage

          It's not "laziness". It's intentional and overt manipulation. They want to sex up the article.

          "Man fires pistol into computer" just isn't sexy enough.

          It sounds more like Alexander Hamilton losing his temper than Rambo. It's not exciting enough.

          • My favorite is how they usually describe the gun on the news as "black". "The man in the ski mask threatened the store owner with a black semi-automatic handgun" BINGO! I'VE GOT (scary buzzword) BINGO!"

            As if the gun being chrome or blue or purple or pink makes any difference.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Ben4jammin (1233084)
      People not familiar with firearms tend to get confused on the difference between "automatic" and "auto-loader".

      Automatic=1 trigger pull (and hold) and it fires until the clip is empty Auto-loader=1 trigger pull (and release) means one shot fired and the next round loaded in the chamber

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by HopefulIntern (1759406)
        What about a handgun that, when no more rounds are chambered, the slide stays back with the breech open so that when a new mag is popped in you can simply release the slide to chamber another round? As opposed to a pistol that needs to be cocked for every new mag inserted? Is there a name for that?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by bsDaemon (87307)

      The Colt 1911 Govt model is usually referred to as a "single-action automatic". It is chambered for .45ACP, the ACP being "Automatic Colt Pistol". It's the traditional term associated with this weapon.

      • associated with many other weapons too, as there is .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP, etc.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jedidiah (1196)

        An M-16A1 is described by the USMC as a "semi-automatic". So clearly this generic use of the term "automatic" is probably a bit archaic as well as not being sufficiently precise (even for back in 1911).

        THIS is the sort of nonsense that's killing them and has been since before the rise of the Internet Blogger.

        OTOH, simply refering things to what that are (pistol,rifle,machine gun) goes a long way to clear this sort of stuff up. Journalists are supposed to be providing that information rather than obscuring i

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by bsDaemon (87307)

          Really? Because the A1 was a select-fire rifle with safe-semi-full modes. The A2 has safe-semi-burst modes, where one trigger pull fires 3 rounds.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by knight24k (1115643)

          An M-16A1 is described by the USMC as a "semi-automatic". So clearly this generic use of the term "automatic" is probably a bit archaic as well as not being sufficiently precise (even for back in 1911).

          umm...since when? I spent 6 years in the Marines and at no time was an M16 ever referred to as a semi-automatic. It was and is a select-fire assault rifle and believe me they drilled that shit into our skulls. The A2 was capable of burst mode, but was also a select-fire weapon. I don't know where you got th

    • actually, the gun manufacturers still use the terminology. several of my weapon's manuals have titles such as "Colt Automatic Pistol .45 ACP"

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by karcirate (1685354)

      Generally, the media will call a semi-auto an automatic. It's much more sensational.

      And it happens to be that the caliber in this case was .45 ACP, which stands for Automatic Colt Pistol.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by WinterSolstice (223271)

      No, your second example is actually in very common usage. Nobody I know calls their 1911 types (Kimber, Colt, etc) a "semi-automatic" unless they're being pedantic.

      "The .45 ACP (11.43x23mm) (Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as the .45 Auto by C.I.P."
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_ACP [wikipedia.org]

      A *lot* of people call them a 45 auto. It's because there was also a 45 single action in popular use at the time, often called a Colt 45.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Single_Action_Army [wikipedia.org]

      Example: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=45+aut [lmgtfy.com]

  • yeah (Score:4, Funny)

    by Velox_SwiftFox (57902) on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:44AM (#33380480)

    They always try to blame it on the hardware.

  • The real question... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:46AM (#33380494)

    Has anyone considered that maybe the server deserved it?

  • with apologies (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sporkinum (655143) on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:46AM (#33380498)

    I shot the server
    (but I did not shoot the disk array)

  • I call shenanigans (Score:3, Insightful)

    by $RANDOMLUSER (804576) on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:48AM (#33380550)
    A $100,000 server? At a loan company? Damn, $100,000 is a LOT of box for a Physics department at a large university.

    • If it was a mainframe 100K might have been on the low side. The price may have also included the software on it..

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RMH101 (636144)
      Presumably someone was asked to put a cost on replacement including all the licences, internal charging of their tech department to rebuild, reconfigure, etc. A midrange server running Oracle enterprise and a few big apps can cost quite a bit when inflated that way.
      It's a bit like when cops do a drug bust and quote the value of the seizure as if it were all chopped up into single gramme baggies and sold at full street price...

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The server running our production ERP software is a Sun M8000 that's in the $500k range. Not shenanigans at all...

    • Re:I call shenanigans (Score:5, Funny)

      by dallas996 (1887246) on Thursday August 26 2010, @10:26AM (#33381672)
      "a lot of box" and "Physics department" are two terms not often associated with one another.....

    • The true cost (Score:3, Insightful)

      by FranTaylor (164577)

      They are including the cost of running and maintaining Windows on it.

  • Self-defence (Score:5, Funny)

    by seniorcoder (586717) on Thursday August 26 2010, @08:49AM (#33380560)
    Rumor has it that the server was seen holding what the mortgage officer thought was a weapon. The officer drew and repeatedly fired his weapon, pausing to reload 15 times because he believed his life was in danger. The server was fatally hit by 87 rounds, most of them entering through the rear of the chassis. No other weapon was found at the scene. The mortgage officer has been put on temporary desk assignment while an investigation is held.

  • taken one step further.

  • Is the server OK? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Johnberg (1642323) on Thursday August 26 2010, @09:03AM (#33380738)
    The article didn't even mention if the server was ok or not.
  • As there was either a Panther, Tiger or some type of Leopard inside.
    • Yes, but a tiger is only efficient if someone's coming at you with a basket of raspberries.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by mjwx (966435)
      If he had to use an Apple server, he could easily claim temporary insanity.

  • Should of had a HP sever (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Joe The Dragon (967727) on Thursday August 26 2010, @09:03AM (#33380752)

    Should of had a HP sever

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFyXlb26ihs [youtube.com]

  • Booze and a loaded handgun.

    What could actually go wrong with that?

  • Of course, on a military system I saw something in the software requirements about how the system software had to protect the computer from kinetic penetration. I asked if having the software raise Shields was an adequate software solution (leaving it to the hardware people to actually build those Shields: "Implementing this API in hardware is not a software problem....")

    In the same document, by the way, was this tid-bit under environmental considerations: "The software shall recycle bits and shall make

  • I honestly wasn't trying to flame, I'm legitimately curious as to whether he shot a single $100,000 machine or that's just a number the authorities are throwing out there as the "intrinsic worth" of the machine, e.g., includes the cost of recreating the data stored, etc.

    At that price it just sounds more like a huge Sun SPARC system or something, I'm just curious what.

  • But was it Windows or Linux ? (Score:3, Funny)

    by mbone (558574) on Thursday August 26 2010, @09:13AM (#33380864)

    That's what slashdot wants to know.

  • Booyakasha! That's the Law Of Karma for you, in form of a Crazed, Drunken Gunman/Sysadmin. Didn't they learn from the case of State Of California trying to get passwords from a Lonely Sysadmin, Terry Childs [wikipedia.org] ? Sysadmins Are Crazy! They have to be, to make sense out of all that Chaos! Don't mess with them or be prepared to take the occasional bullet in your servers! ;) Anyway, a Loan Company probably deserved this after what they have done to drive people into economical crisises.

    Relating to Terry Childs,

  • What's the SNMP trap for "Oh on! I've been shot!" ?

  • Additional information (Score:5, Funny)

    by Intron (870560) on Thursday August 26 2010, @09:32AM (#33381036)

    The police who responded immediately called for backup.

  • When it comes to aggression versus servers, you can't beat the Gallery of Exploding Servers [datacenterknowledge.com]. Some serious mayhem inflicted upon hardware.

  • Server shot first (Score:5, Funny)

    by Necreia (954727) on Thursday August 26 2010, @09:43AM (#33381168)

    Funny... I was just hearing from George Lucas that the server shot first.

  • Except that I wasn't boozed up. And luckily didn't have a gun.

  • Inspired cover song: (Score:4, Funny)

    by pinkushun (1467193) on Thursday August 26 2010, @10:03AM (#33381376) Journal

    "I shot the server, but I didn't shoot no DVD"

  • Watch the console (Score:3, Funny)

    by Timosch (1212482) on Thursday August 26 2010, @10:28AM (#33381692)
    BROADCAST MESSAGE FROM USER root: The system will be shot down now!

Don't hit me!! I'm in the Twilight Zone!!!