Drunken Employee Shoots Server 309
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."
In his defense (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In his defense (Score:5, Funny)
"Quick, Ned! He's comin' right for us!"
"NNNNNNNNOH-NO, OUT OF AMMO"
Re:In his defense (Score:5, Funny)
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Forget the knife! Clippy did it.
Cheers,
Dave
Re:In his defense (Score:5, Funny)
Forget the knife! Clippy did it.
I always thought that bastard was bent...
Re:In his defense (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:In his defense (Score:4, Funny)
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kill -9mm would be more appropriate.
Re:In his defense (Score:5, Funny)
And they also found that the server was packing several blades...
Re:In his defense (Score:4, Funny)
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Did this guy pull the chute and slide down on his way out?
Re:In his defense (Score:5, Funny)
Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:5, Funny)
"Avoid strong drink. It can cause you to shoot at tax collectors...and miss!"
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Re:Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm...make me attractive?
Re:Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:5, Funny)
This is one of the best opportunities I've seen lately to use either "Insightful" or "Informative" mods to be mean.....
Re:Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:5, Informative)
"Computers have let mankind make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns."
Re:Ahhh alcohol ... (Score:4, Funny)
He's Living the Dream, Baby! (Score:5, Insightful)
Is there a sysadmin among us that hasn't, at one time or another, wanted to shoot a server?
Re:He's Living the Dream, Baby! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:He's Living the Dream, Baby! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:He's Living the Dream, Baby! (Score:5, Funny)
He must have been playing Paranoia the night before.
"You play a troubleshooter. You go out, find trouble, and shoot it."
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Dude, you made my day with that one!
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On that note, it's lucky he went for the server instead of a user.
Re:He's Living the Dream, Baby! (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, this employee was clearly the victim of a BOFH, who in his brilliance not only drove him to drink and made him crazy, but also conveniently destroy the server with evidence of the BOFH's malfeasance. My hat is off to him.
"Automatic" doesn't mean what you think it means (Score:5, Informative)
"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'.
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> 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).
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Re:"Automatic" doesn't mean what you think it mean (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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As if the gun being chrome or blue or purple or pink makes any difference.
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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
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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.
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associated with many other weapons too, as there is .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP, etc.
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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
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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.
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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
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The 1911 pattern .45 ACP is still produced today and is still one of the most popular and commonly-used pistols on the market.. Not archaic, just a classic.
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actually, the gun manufacturers still use the terminology. several of my weapon's manuals have titles such as "Colt Automatic Pistol .45 ACP"
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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.
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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)
They always try to blame it on the hardware.
The real question... (Score:5, Insightful)
Has anyone considered that maybe the server deserved it?
with apologies (Score:5, Funny)
I shot the server
(but I did not shoot the disk array)
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Re:with apologies (Score:5, Funny)
I shot a server room AC in reno, just to watch it fry
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Re:with apologies (Score:4, Funny)
The server was then heard to be mumbling "knockin' on heaven's door".
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Said it gave him an error message and made him cry
Went to his truck and got a
Bubba shot the server last night
I call shenanigans (Score:3, Insightful)
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If it was a mainframe 100K might have been on the low side. The price may have also included the software on it..
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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...
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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)
The true cost (Score:3, Insightful)
They are including the cost of running and maintaining Windows on it.
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Self-defence (Score:5, Funny)
Social engineering.... (Score:2)
taken one step further.
Is the server OK? (Score:5, Funny)
If it was it an Apple server it is self defence... (Score:2, Funny)
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Should of had a HP sever (Score:3, Interesting)
Should of had a HP sever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFyXlb26ihs [youtube.com]
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A winning combo (Score:2)
What could actually go wrong with that?
here's a new crime: "servercide" (Score:2)
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
Flame on (Score:2)
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)
That's what slashdot wants to know.
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What do we learn? NEVER piss off a Sysadmin! (Score:2, Interesting)
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,
Makes me wonder (Score:2)
What's the SNMP trap for "Oh on! I've been shot!" ?
Additional information (Score:5, Funny)
The police who responded immediately called for backup.
What? No explosives? (Score:2)
Server shot first (Score:5, Funny)
Funny... I was just hearing from George Lucas that the server shot first.
Been there myself. (Score:2)
Inspired cover song: (Score:4, Funny)
"I shot the server, but I didn't shoot no DVD"
Watch the console (Score:3, Funny)
You can (Score:2)
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$100k isn't that much really.
Sure it is a bit more beefy then the average Server but not to outrageous.
A virtualization server, with a lot of ram and storage can get really expensive really fast.
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You're probably right, I just don't deal with anything that big so it's foreign to me. Heck, I have to max out a Dell R910 to get anywhere close to 6 figures and I'm still short, and that seems like overkill for whatever this company would need. I only pick on Sun cause they're one of the few where I've seen preconfigured systems (SPARC systems) starting in the 6 figure range. I sure haven't seen it in the X86 world. Thanks for the info.
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I would imagine that that would be the amount for the hardware and software setup and configuration. They probably got everything from a vendor, set up and ready to go, and if the money value has any bearing on real life, it's probably the replacement cost of everything ready to go again. It could be the cost of the entire system project, but that would be extremely cheap for server, set up, soft
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I could see him taking out 100k in servers if he hit the rack at the right angle. Even lower end Servers can easily cost 5k per U. And I bet a bullet could go through most or all of a 40U rack.
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Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
If he has a CCW permit and the business he was at does not have a posted sign or policy and he was following local laws and ordinances, it's fully within his right to carry if he feels the need to. Why does it matter if he was at his desk job or anywhere else? He may live in a very bad part of town, or the business he's works at could be in a high crime area. You don't fully know the details and asking "why does he need X" is no different than asking "why does this person need privacy if he's not doing anything wrong" or any asking why anyone would be doing any activity that you yourself might not agree with or may find questionable, even if it is fully within his rights under the law.
You tread a slippery slope...
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More to the point, I got the impression that this was after hours, so he wasn't necessarily carrying "at work". He essentially went to some local "Concert at the Park" deal that evening, got drunk, and went back to work specifically to shoot the computer. At least that's how I read the story.
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As an aside, Why does a mortgage worker have a conceal and carry permit and a need to pack heat at his desk job?
Because the US Constitution says he can. If you require another reason, you should find another country in which to live.
Its a free country. He has a right to be an idiot. He has a right to own and carry weapons. Unfortunately he used both of his rights at the same time.
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So, things like being able to walk around in the open, and go where you want, is also a mere privilege, granted to you by the State?
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The forefathers didn't have access to semi-automatic handguns which could fit in their pockets.
The forefathers had access to fucking artillery pieces. Cannons were available to private ownership and use throughout the first century of US history, and were especially common on the frontier where they were an important force multiplier for small settlements vs. natives. For that matter, you could own and operate your own private warship during the same period if you could afford it, with as many cannons as you could
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Times change
But ignorance does not, which is exactly what such statements prove. You seriously need to learn some extremely basic history before you respond further.
The first amendment has maintained its power exactly because the second amendment exists. The only reason the second amendment isn't first is because they wanted it understood the new country they created was built first on the pen and second on the sword; only after the pen has failed. Furthermore, they specifically granted the power to ensure a corrupt go
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Actually, I believe it was "killall -45"