Gawd! I have had similar situations, and in one case a tech cut some wires for a building that was being ripped apart for refurb. He grounded a speaker hot wire for a PA system, after I told the techs to not cut any PA wires as we were keeping that system for the refurbed building. Not only did it destroy the PA amp, I was in the computer room where the PA tube amp was located and heard the amp sizzle and saw it catch fire. I unplugged the amp, managed to get the fire out (good thing I was in there at the time), and went into the showroom just as the tech was cutting a 2nd set of wires for the PA speakers. I told him what just happened. He denied being responsible. I had him lower the power lift, then asked which wires he just cut. He pointed to the various wires, then announced it was 5:00 and he was now off duty. I raised the lift to each of the speakers where he had cut and found a power lead wire laying bare against the same metal framing as the PA ground. These are externally powered speakers, with the power coming from the PA amp. The foreman was on site, so I fetched him, advised of what happened, had him look at the cut wire that was grounded, then the amp where the surrounding area was burnt. "Must have failed by coincidence", came the response.
I could have spit nails. I priced out a new PA system, nobody had the old 1970 era system we had (which was a real work horse unit), so it meant a new system for the entire building. $15k was the price, with installation. I made certain to document what happened, sent copies to ownership, legal counsel and the construction firm. I also made certain to deduct the $15k from their final payment. There was some bitching and griping, claims that I did not tell them when it happened, they could not have possibly done it, etc. Too bad, I knew they would burn another $15k in legal fees to try to collect, so we were in a good spot. Their final shot was they would never do any more work for us again. They were right about that! Oooo, that really hurt me... As for the ADP field tech who noticed the cause of the problem at Dave Smith's dealership, my guess is that must have been our own dear Beth Baransky-Bulkley who saw the Frontier problem card. She is one sharp cookie (Dave and I are both based in Rochester, NY, and are good friends who know the same techie folks in our area). You were lucky to have had her there. What I need to know is how it is you (Dave Smith) managed to break things so well, because we just know it was not the folks from Frontier <g>... I wonder if they will ever admit it... I am, in fact, in the midst of a fire-storm of sorts myself with a client in Puerto Rico. They wanted to create a CSI enhancement app, using my VFP table data to populate their SQL Server. I suggested a simple ODBC connection so they could use my source data in live cursors, or even to populate and update their native tables by accessing my tables via ODBC. No, they wanted me to produce csv files with newly edited and appended records, with updates every few minutes. No problem, but some of their fields contained nested double-quote characters (parts descriptions, such as [PIPE,8",STAINLESS STEEL]). To prevent problems I converted all nested double-quotes to single-quotes, and all backslash characters to forward slash, to prevent any potential SQL Server Escape issues. Well they decided to code their own csv import routine instead of using the slow SQL Server tools (I have had other clients do the same thing who use SQL Server). They ran into problems. I ended up connecting to their machinery remotely to look at their import routine and found a few logic errors, and proved a standard SQL Server csv import routine worked perfectly. They corrected the problems 3 months ago. Since then I have changed nothing, but 3 weeks ago they began to have problems again. I asked for the record # for the place their import was failing, but they could tell me only a record range. I could find no nested double-quote characters (the error stated there was a delimiter error) or other cause of problems. I was able to import the CSV data into VFP, Excel, PostgreSQL & Access error free. I advise of such and suggested there may have been a change to their custom import routine. Nope, no changes were made... Suddenly the other day I am told I have nested single-quote characters that are causing the problem! I advise I intentionally did the conversion to change double to single quotes months ago, that I had previously advised of the translation I had performed via eMail, and it was functioning fine until 3 weeks ago. But I also said I was willing to simply strip any quote characters entirely when I build out the .csv files if they wished. They wished. So for each CURSOR I used to create the output .csv files I am now using temporary tables. Then I place the table structure into an array, and cycle through each field. For any character field in the output table I perform a REPLACE &mFieldName WITH STRTRAN(STRTRAN(STRTRAN(STRTRAN(&mFieldName, [']), ["], [,], [\], [/])))) for .T. to strip all nested double/single quotes & commas, and convert "\" to "/" (even though that is already done in prior translations, I just wanted to make certain...). I use that table to then produce the target .csv file. I now have an eMail from their IT Director advising she needs to speak with me. Gawd, I love working with these folks, but what else could I have done? It may have been a spanish-english language issue, but I am preparing to take a beating for the sake of preserving an excellent 8 year relationship. They have always been reasonable, and I have always been highly responsive to their every need. Oh well, perhaps cool minds and rational thinking will win the day for all involved. I am trying to not fret too much about it. Oh, I never charged a dime for the work I have done as they are on a recurring license based billing with me, and I promised 8 years ago they were welcome to use my database tables for impending projects, and I would help them do so. No good deed goes unpunished.... Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of David Smith > Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 7:53 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [NF] Humor: hopefully today will be better than yesterday > > > . it wasn't Monday, but it sure felt like one yesterday as our company > experienced a five hour long phone and internet outage right in the middle > of the day. My initial suspicion was our notoriously ham-handed Frontier > techs ( Frontier is a local ISP vendor that companies like Paetec > lease T1's > from for resale to companies like ours ) who were installing a new smart > jack and fiber line for some new bandwidth we had purchased. Seeing as we > dropped offline about five minutes after they arrived, it seemed like a > good bet they may have had a hand in it somehow. As I interrupted > their ham > sandwich and coffee break in the server room to politely enquire what > happened, I was met with a not entirely unexpected round of denials and > indignant looks. So, I dialed up Paetec to have them take a look and talk > with the Frontier guys directly. As the next hour and a half went by they > did loop back tests and assured me everything on their respective ends was > fine, so it must be my router. Hmmm. okay. So while they were doing their > diagnostics ( this is after they returned from their 45 minutes to have > lunch ) I had called ADP ( the folks who administer out Cisco gear ) and > had them dial in to take a look. They saw nothing wrong on their end, but > sent a local tech out to take a look. We're now three + hours in and there > we were in the server room, which is about the size of a decent walk-in > closet. two Frontier techs, the ADP tech, Paetec on the phone, ADP on the > phone. I'm 6 feet tall and 280 pounds but was still the smallest > guy in the > room. I think the temperature was at least 90 in there. Frontier, ADP and > Paetec engaged in a somewhat hilarious round of finger pointing > and then the > ADP tech made noticed something important. The Frontier card was in the > wrong slot. Silence in the room for a solid 10 seconds as > everyone stared at > the card as if there were unicorns jumping out of it. the Frontier guys > cursed, pulled out the card. nothing happened. Fast forward another 15 > minutes of pointless finger pointing and posturing until I > thought to ask if > the circuit was still in loop mode for testing.. More silence. > Paetec takes > the circuit out of mode. internet and phone service is restored. > > > > The punch line: Frontier is returning today to complete their work, as > their card failed to work once it was properly slotted. I'm > looking forward > to hanging out with them the entire time they are on site. J > > > > Thanks, > > Dave > > > > David Smith > > Systems Administrator > > Doan Family of Dealerships > > (585) 352-6600 ext.1730 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > www.upstatedigitools.com > > > > > > --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- > multipart/alternative > text/plain (text body -- kept) > text/html > --- > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
