Site Outage - August 7th 2020

[Jules]

I'm afraid we're having some difficulties at present. Please bear with us if you're having trouble using the Forum, or visiting the Manband Archive.

Service will be resumed as soon as possible.

[Jules]

Service restored. Please let me know if you find any other problems.

[Rob W]

Don't know what the problem was, but thank you 🙂

[Jules]

PHP pre-processing issue on the hosting server resulted in both the Archive and the Forum just serving up blank pages.

Fixed by the lovely hosting service support people on Monday morning.

I think it may have involved turning it off and turning it on again.

[Rob W]

Is turning off and on again, before they'd have banged it on the top a couple of times, or does that come after?

[Tel]

Is turning off and on again, before they'd have banged it on the top a couple of times, or does that come after?

The rules of computer hardware support:

1 - Always assume there is not a current back up.
2 - Turn it off and turn it on again
3 - If that fails, restore to last restore point
4 - If that fails read the manual!
5 - If that fails, feign illness, family death and generally avoid the user.
6 - Always blame Microsoft (even if it's an Apple)
7 - Have a suitable amount of technobabble and acronyms available. (remember, a bug in a program is only an undocumented feature  )
8 - If all that fails then quote some extortionate repair cost, the replace the faulty machine, area, disk etc.

By the time you reach 8, the user is usually so glad to have something that works they will be forever grateful even if all their data went south!

However 2 usually works 

[Jules]

Is turning off and on again, before they'd have banged it on the top a couple of times, or does that come after?

Normally for a valve-powered or steam-driven server, banging the top repeatedly with a clenched fist would come first. Followed by a brief pause and then repeated treatment.

I think these are clockwork though, so that's different.

Slightly more seriously, there's method in the bang it on the top approach, both for valve-driven devices and early solid-state, as it can help re-seat the components in their sockets after repeated heat-related expansion and contraction causes them to gradually escape. You do sometimes need to keep a dustpan and brush handy for the bits though.

[Rob W]

Thank you chaps...

Talk About - no, not A Morning- but banging things with clenched fists, what often works is when the rear offside tail light is out. A bang with a clenched fist often brings it back to life again, as it did when stopped by the police a few years ago. " Err, did you know your tail light isn't working, sir" "Really officer? Let me have a look" Sure enough, rear offside tail light out, two bangs of the lens with clenched fist, " there you are officer...working".