IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith

IT may run on the same protocols everywhere, but the people operating it certainly don't. Put teams from different countries, companies, and working cultures onto the same project and apparently simple questions about responsibility, communication, deadlines, and escalation can suddenly have very different answers. This episode looks at what happens when those differences become part of the technical problem. From assumptions that nobody realised they were making to communication styles that work perfectly well locally but collide spectacularly across borders, we discuss how international IT teams get themselves into trouble — and what years of working across cultures can teach you about avoiding it. And no, the solution isn't another mandatory cultural-awareness PowerPoint. Want even more info ? Read our show notes and related blog post related to this episode : https://blog.ithorrorstories.eu/episode-25-cultural-differences-in-it/ 00:00 Introduction 00:41 Cultural Intricacies 03:12 Sales Challenges 06:02 Engineering Insights 10:32 Crisis Management 14:10 Data Center Differences 16:00 Luxembourg's Unique Edge 17:52 European Culture Wrap-up

Texas, 1978. Robert was working at a cotton co-op running what may have been one of the world's earliest online auction systems. Farmers received punch cards representing their bales of cotton - occasionally complete with enough stray cotton fibres to jam the card readers - while buyers placed bids remotely using leased IBM 3270 terminals and acoustic coupler modems. After an upgrade, the mainframe refused to come back properly. An IPL produced a corrupted device address before dropping the machine into a hard wait. Single-cycling the processor indicated that an UNPK (Unpack) instruction was producing the wrong output from perfectly good input. The instruction itself had effectively broken. And yes, this episode contains a lot of old IBM hardware and mainframe terminology. We know. That's part of the fun. Want even more info ? Read our show notes and related blog post related to this episode : https://blog.ithorrorstories.eu/episode-24-when-unpk-broke/ 00:00 Introduction 00:43 Robert's Background 02:14 IBM DOS 03:27 Cotton Auction System 05:37 Online Auction 07:14 SNA Protocol 09:05 Hardware Issue 13:20 Debugging Unpack 17:13 IBM Fix 21:23 Conclusion

A modern pinball machine isn't just flippers, bumpers, lights, and a very large box making expensive noises. It's a connected computer with software updates, online score tracking, player accounts, remote management, and an Internet connection. Evert Brochez from Torius joins Jack to explain how pinball evolved from electromechanical machines into something that looks suspiciously like an IoT device. But once you connect a pinball machine to the Internet, familiar IT questions start appearing. Who maintains the software? How long will it be supported? What can operators manage remotely? How much do we trust the manufacturer with security and access? We look at modern pinball from the operator's perspective, the realities of software quality, and the surprisingly unanswered cybersecurity questions that appear when the arcade machine becomes another device on the network. Find out more about Torius : Website : https://www.horecaspelen.be/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Bingovit Flippers & Bier Podcast (in dutch) : https://open.spotify.com/show/5kvyHkIfo6HfdlulPeDScL More about Comic Sans : Gent : https://cafecomicsans.be/ Brussels : https://www.comicsansbrussels.be/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/cafecomicsans Want even more info ? Read our show notes and related blog post related to this episode : https://blog.ithorrorstories.eu/episode-23-pinball-as-iot/ 00:00 Introduction 00:34 Pinball Enthusiast 02:20 Pinball Operations 03:54 Maintenance Insights 05:16 IoT Integration 06:53 Player Engagement 09:44 Tech Challenges 13:41 Future Features 21:57 Software Updates 30:19 Conclusion

The Three Envelopes: Blame, Reorganize, Repeat There is an old management joke about an outgoing manager leaving three numbered envelopes for their successor. When the first crisis arrives: blame your predecessor. The second: reorganize. And when the third arrives... prepare three envelopes. We look at why this joke has survived for decades, and why anyone who has worked in corporate IT will recognise far too much of it. From inherited problems and reorganisations to management changes that somehow leave the underlying problems untouched, they explore what the Three Envelopes tells us about blame, accountability, and the wonderfully repetitive nature of IT organisations. Want even more info ? Read our show notes and related blog post related to this episode : https://blog.ithorrorstories.eu/episode-22-the-three-envelopes/ 00:00 Introduction 01:01 The Three Envelopes 05:02 Blame Management 10:28 Management Insights 19:10 Entertaining Anecdotes 23:35 Conclusion

Jack's Rants - Why You Need to Reboot : Why Rebooting Your Computer Actually Fixes Problems "Have you tried turning it off and on again ?" became an IT cliché for a reason. Rebooting clears accumulated state, resets resources, and fixes a surprising number of problems. From Unix uptime bragging rights to mainframe IPLs and Windows servers nobody is allowed to restart, every system has its own relationship with rebooting. Maybe what we really need is a reboot SLA. Want even more info ? Read our show notes and related blog post related to this episode : https://blog.ithorrorstories.eu/jacks-rants-can-i-keep-your-id/ 00:00 Introduction 02:17 Developer Habits 04:01 Mainframes & Servers 06:18 Reboot Realities 08:19 Conclusion