"Let me upload these programming changes to the robotic arms... Oh no." Tech Support |
| "Let me upload these programming changes to the robotic arms... Oh no." Posted: 30 Jan 2022 09:27 PM PST An old, short story from a previous coworker. He was working at an automotive manufacturing plant many years ago and was reprogramming the paint robotic arms for the incoming new truck model. He uploaded the changes and started the automated painting system with a test truck frame to see how the the paint job is done. He had his hand over the emergency stop button in case anything went wrong. All he remembered from the immediately ensuing chaos was that one of the robotic arms struck a steel beam and broke off its nozzle, so now a solid jet of paint was spraying everywhere. Another arm spazzed out and repeatedly smashed the frame like a hammer, caving in the truck's roof. He said he was so shocked that he didn't press the emergency stop until he heard yelling. It took a long time for the paint fumes to be vented out so they could go in, clean up the paint mess and repair the damages. Oh, and it was the day when the plant management was giving corporate executives a tour of the place. I asked what did their facial expressions look like when they saw the ruined paint station, and he said it "pure horror". He wouldn't tell me what nicknames he got from his coworkers at that place. [link] [comments] |
| Yes, I accept the risk, just do it. Posted: 30 Jan 2022 11:07 PM PST This might not be the right place to post, but I think it might be educational for junior devs and admins. I was an infrastructure engineer, with a bunch of different hats, one of which was FTP administrator. Business groups would submit requests to set up FTP interfaces between my company and other external companies for exchanging files securely. Usually it was because security caught business users sending sensitive files unencrypted over email. One morning I check my inbox and find a request to set up an interface with a company whose name looks vaguely familiar. It's a company that verifies credit cards or details or something, really doesn't make any difference to me but I'm trying figure out where I've heard the name before. Then I realised this company was being referenced in articles implying the books are not quite right. So, ever diligent, I alert the requester to these articles, ask them if they want to do some due diligence of they own before they plow ahead with their very expensive project. I'm told it's none of my business, I'm just an infrastructure engineer, we are the brilliant minds in charge of partnering and so on. But it just doesn't sit right with me. So I progress with the project as requested and send some quiet emails to people I know who work in risk and fraud within the company, ask them if they are aware, and how comfortable they are with it. Turns out, no they know nothing about the project and they are not at all comfortable being in partnership with this particular company. They ask questions, hold meetings and get the same response as I did, only maybe more hostile. We are ready to move into production, but I won't budge. Eventually we kick it upstairs. If the CFO will sign off as accepting the risk, I'll implement. He does, immediately. That was easy, they think. The next week, the external company stops replying to emails. Files are going out, but nothing is coming back. Literally within a week, the news breaks that the external company we have a partnership with has been committing fraud. We have to disable the process, investigate any data we sent, look for alternative partners and then start all over again with the new credit card agencies. Lesson 1. If someone answers your questions aggressively, they are probably hiding something. [link] [comments] |
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