[plug] The raccoon has power over the penguin

[Michael Hunt]

A little light humour for those who may not have seen this on the lwn.net
site

LWN, November 30
The LWN web server had been running without fail since the beginning of
December, 1998, when we placed it at the NetRack colocation facility. We
were getting all set to celebrate the uptime counter turning over one year;
beer had been bought, dancing girls booked, etc. It seemed like a sure bet -
nothing had been able to bring down that server thus far.
We hadn't counted on the raccoon.

Some of you may have noticed that we went off the net last night. A special
team was immediately dispatched to the scene to gather evidence. What was
found includes: a block-wide power failure, signs of extensive chewing in a
power distribution panel, and several pieces of fried critter distributed
over a wide area. The conclusion: while raccoons are not known for listening
to reason (or anything else), this particular one gnawed its way into a
message it couldn't ignore.

The situation was worsened when the battery backup was exhausted, and LWN
went down. We're back, obviously, but the moral is clear. Linux systems can
handle almost everything, but we still can't laugh at Mother Nature....


Michael Hunt