Misconfigured Webserver, Threats to Call FBI 564
the_harlequin writes "The Register is reporting that a city manager threatened to call the FBI over a misconfigured webserver. From the article: "The heartland turned vicious this week when an Oklahoma town threatened to call in the FBI because its web site was hacked by Linux maker CentOS. Problem is CentOS didn't hack Tuttle's web site at all. The city's hosting provider had simply botched a web server."
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Law Suit! (Score:2, Funny)
!!!!~11111!!! (Score:5, Funny)
He forgot the 1s but the tilda was creative.
it's happening all over the place (Score:2, Funny)
22 Years Experience? (Score:2, Funny)
"Someone unplugged my keyboard- Call the FBI Alice!!!"
Yet another Oklahoma Joke (Score:3, Funny)
oh man.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:5, Funny)
The tilde was quite creative too.
That's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
Non sequitur (Score:5, Funny)
HAX (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder how long it'll take him (Score:5, Funny)
...to complain about a DDOS attack. Behold, the power of Slashdot!
It probably was Buttle... (Score:5, Funny)
Hacked... (Score:2, Funny)
Blind leading the blind (Score:2, Funny)
Hmm... 22 years as a manager, maybe. As if that counted for anything. Then, to make matters worse, he talked to a 'network administrator', who thanks to MS always refering to windows admins as 'network administrators' is a just a windows admin. A case of the blind leading the blind. Or, the windows admins leading the windows users.
oh man..Clear and present danger. (Score:1, Funny)
Why? I never got one. I do however have a lovely ulcer collection.
Well Tuttle, OK *IS* a major terrorist target (Score:5, Funny)
-Eric
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:3, Funny)
The comic-sans on his website [tuttle-ok.gov] is hilarious as well.
-Jessequalified public officials (Score:2, Funny)
Rest assured people of Oklahoma, your IT is in good hands!
He tried emailing the FBI... (Score:5, Funny)
Can you imagine? [slashdot.org]
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:1, Funny)
I g0nna 5U3 J00!
I b c0mput3r literit! I k3n d0 it!
God. People this stupid and obtuse (fewer problems with people who're more friendly in their stupidity) make me want to go out on a shooting spree.
If I'd been Johnny, I'd have told the guy to go fuck himself after about the first threat and then blackholed his e-mail address.
Re:Law Suit! (Score:3, Funny)
"I have no fear of the media, in fact I welcome this publicity."
You think he still welcomes it today?
Tuttle? (Score:5, Funny)
Help entertain the tech community (Score:5, Funny)
Subject: Need your help in entertaining the tech community
Jerry,
I understand that you have 22 years of experience computer systems engineering and operation are are computer literate. I need your help in entertaining the Internet technical community.
I think it would be hilarious if we loaded the default page on on a web server for the city (one with instructions on how to fix the problem) and then complained about it to the the maker of the operating system. Yuk, yuk! We can even (get this) whine that all the computers in the building show the same default page when you surf to the site. Bwaaahhhaaahhhaaa! Then (I can hardly contain myself) let's accuse the poor saps of hacking our server and threaten to call the FBI!!! Teeehhheeehhheeee!
Oh, oh, my sides hurt. This is going to be great. You setup the server and I'll.... Oh, I'm just reading slashdot and see that you already done it. Well, I guess you thought of it before me. Good one.
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:2, Funny)
I am please to serve the citizens of the City of Tuttle.
I guess it's a good thing he isn't running the school board or anything.
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:5, Funny)
I doubt we all visit Slashdot every day.
I thought I had seen him before.. (Score:5, Funny)
I found the problem (Score:2, Funny)
Be sure that if you email him, to use crayon type fonts and only primary colors.
Re:22 Years Experience? (Score:1, Funny)
What are they talking about? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Law Suit! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yet another Oklahoma Joke (Score:4, Funny)
This just confirms what we Texans have known for years...(ducking for cover).
You really have to worry about a place that feels it needs to reassure people that 'Oklahoma is OK'.
Aw, C'mon guys... (Score:3, Funny)
Come to think of it, why doesn't every one do that?
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Blood AND Marriage surely
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Everybody should send him an email :) (Score:1, Funny)
Sure... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Interesting study on incompetence (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Sure... (Score:3, Funny)
Computer *literacy* (Score:5, Funny)
Um, sir, I don't think 'computer literacy' refers merely to the ability to read text on computers...
Too much patience (Score:3, Funny)
Then I would have posted it on slashdot while the error page was still up for additional comic relief
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:4, Funny)
(over the phone)
User: My password doesn't work!
Me: Is the capslock on?
User: No.
Me: Are you sure? Please check and make sure it isn't on.
User: It's not on.
Me: I'll be right over
Me: You're capslock is on.
Or this:
(over the phone)
User: The server is down. Come over here and fix it.
Me: Let me check
Me: Everything looks fine.
User: No it's not. The server is down.
Me: Can you be more specific? What can't you access?
User: The server. Fix it.
Me: I'll be right over.
User: See, it won't come up. Fix it.
(The problem? The user is trying to access some website that isn't responding. Somehow I'm responsible for every server on the Internet...)
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:5, Funny)
I was contracted to help a new guy learn the ropes in his new job as "engineer." One day he called and complained that his mouse didn't work. I asked a few questions to get a hint what it was or wasn't doing, expecting it to be unplugged, dirty or just plain broke. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it, and I finally asked, "OK, what is it doing that makes you say it's not working?" He answered, "It just doesn't work right."
I offered to make the hour drive at my usual rate, and he agreed. I went to his office and asked him to show me what was wrong. He was holding the mouse SIDEWAYS, so every time he moved it, the cursor went 90 degrees from the direction he wanted, and he said, "See? It doesn't work right."
I thought to myself, "Hunh, I didn't think to ask THAT one, so much for the 'intuitive interface," turned the mouse, said "Now try it."
Yes, it does sound too bizarre to be true, but remember... it was in Oklahoma.
Re:Law Suit! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:4, Funny)
User: My computer won't come on.
me: Did you plug it in?
User: Yes.
Me: What happens when you turn on the computer.
User: It makes a weird sound
Me: I better come over and take a look.
I go over and turn the monitor on for her. The weird sound was the hard drive turning on and the initial beep.
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Untill the end of December '05 I worked for this small company. My boss was one of those people who think they are absolutely never wrong, and bend their own statements if they are proved definitively wrong. He knows absolutely nothing about computers. Once, this happened:
Him: I have a virus. Why do I have virus? You're the worst IT-man this company has ever had.
Me: You dont have a virus. That's impossible per definition. Wanna bet $100?
Me: So, uh. Where is the virus?
Him: [enters a website URL. Clicks a link, get's a website that says "YOU HAVE A VIRUS!"
At least I got $100...
Re:!!!!~11111!!! (Score:2, Funny)
It's not enough merely to claim incompetence; you have to really believe it. I sense doubt in your voice.
Customer Service stories (Score:4, Funny)
some of my favourite - it really happened to me - IT customer service stories.
I spent a year or so working in a retail computer outlet in a large discout chain (I blame Apple for this, it was during their flirtation with selling Apples through non-reseller chains). It was during the same period that IBM compatibles changed from 5.25" to 3.5" floppy drives. I had a customer come in and buy a new 3.5" drive one afternoon. The following day they came back with the drive asking for a replacement, as it was clearly faulty. They complained that they had installed in into thier computer and tried to use their exisiting disks in it and none had worked. After further enquiy, it turned out that they had found their 5.25" disks had not fitted in the drive, so they had cut them down with a pair of scissors to make them fit, having done so, they found the new drive incapable to read them.
Same place, different customer. Came in wanting a warranty replacement on their new keyboard, it was giving erratic multi-keystroke responses. The keyboard was bent with a tire track across it.
Same place, yet another customer. Sold them a new PC with a fax modem as one of the items on the component list. The following weekend they came back into the store to find me. They had a question, could I perhaps show them on the floor demonstration unit where to load the fax paper.
Same place (I hated the place with a vengence), different customer. Came in with their brand new Apple Powerbook demanading a warranty replacement. It was a PB 180 (I think) with the grey rectangular power brick adaptor. The computer had shorted out and they demended that Apple replace it. The AC adaptor no longer had the block transformer on the end of the cable, instread it had a standard 3 pin plug on the end. When asked why this was the case, they said that the block had not fitted to the powerpoint on thier skirting board, so they had cut it off (the transformer) and installed the new plug on the end of the cable. They could now understand why I refused to process the claim as a warranty issue.
Different place, different customer. Was asked to do an insurance assessment on repairing a computer which had been sprayed with a chemical fire extinguisher some weeks earlier, it had not been cleaned in the interim...
I've got dozens more, but they're my favourites. So glad I don't do retail any more.
I had one like this, too... (Score:3, Funny)
At that time, our software was copy-protected by means of a parallel port dongle that absolutely would NOT work correctly if there was a printer daisy-chained off the dongle, and the printer was turned off. Because this was an entirely predictable failure mode, the error message read something like: "Security verification error. Make sure your software key is installed on the parallel port, and ENSURE THAT THE PRINTER IS TURNED ON (if you have one)"
So the first question I ask the guy when he gets transferred over to me is whether or not he has the key installed, and whether his printer is turned on. "Of course it is - I wouldn't be calling if I hadn't already checked that!". So I ask him exactly what the error message is, and he tells me it's the one I paraphrased above, which you will recall only happens if your printer is turned off.
Now, it's possible that his key has gone bad in a way that no other key we've had fail before ever has, but it doesn't seem terribly likely to me, so I ask him if he can check to make sure the little green light on the printer is illuminated. He claims that it is, and starts getting very agitated about how much of a problem it is for him that he can't run the analysis he needs to run, and we need to fix this pronto.
So, I load a new printer, a new key, a new cable, and anything else that might be useful into the company van, and drive out to this factory (2.5 hours one way). When I get there, I go into the plant, turn on the printer, and drive back.
Total time onsite: less than 5 minutes
Total drive time: 6 hours (rush-hour on the way back)
Total cost to customer: $350 (or about $600 in today's dollars)
1 hour minimum labor @ $50/hour
6 hours drive time @ $50/hour
[[ insert your own "priceless" MasterCard advertisement here ]]