Pardon my snoring

An early post today! One of the joys of working in showbiz is the 4:43am wakeup call because something's not working. This morning it was a server that creates the ticker for our Binghamton station: it didn't come back up after a Windows Update. Thanks a bunch, Microsoft. At least the problem was easily remedied and caused no real harm.

Equipment failures spawn some of the more entertaining questions and comments:

"Why does the Chyron only fail when someone's using it?"
"Will the IT department email us when we can restart Outlook?"
"You should put up a slide to let people know the transmitter's down."
"Can't you undelete that bad edit?"
"I don't care if the projector lost the loop; you should keep a spare."
"The live truck lost its brakes? Then drive it to a flat spot to set up the hit."
"It's smoking... is that bad?"
"Can't you fix it some other time?"
"You can't remote into the server if it's off?"
"Sure I unplugged it, but that can't have anything to do with the problem."

Henceforth, we shall adopt a proactive paradigm. From now on all failures will be carefully chosen, targeted and scheduled for maximum effect. To that end, I have created a new application to manage disruption on a more intentional basis:



This also lets me inflict maximum chaos on those who most greatly annoy me.

Twenty years ago one of our veteran control room operators gave me this bit of wisdom: "When the phone rings at three in the morning, it ain't Publisher's Clearing House calling to say you've won."

Time for more coffee... I really need to wake up before it's time to go home.