4 ms·

it's pretty boring. real life computers aren't at all like hackers or csi:cyber. except for the skateboards, all real sysadmins ride skateboards.

cristobal23 7y ago
sysadmin here; can confirm.
ehsankia 7y ago
Is it real skateboards or boosted boards (or those one wheeled electric boards?).
- namelosw 7y ago
  I guess he mean the one true kind of sysadmins who's job contains moving physically in data center and deal with physical infrastructures. So it's real skateboard.
  - dewey 7y ago
    > So it's real skateboard. Boosted boards are real skateboards too (https://boostedboards.com/ https://boostedboards.com/) and would make moving through a DC even more effective ;)
- ethbro 7y ago
  I believe parent was probably referencing this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kV_i8AefT8I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kV_i8AefT8I But in defense, why be admin if you don't look admin?
thegabez 7y ago
What?! It's the most exciting part of the job. Entire departments coming together, working as a team to problem solve under duress. What's more exciting than that?
- namelosw 7y ago
  I have done similar things several times and I think it would be boring. It's Sunday so I guess they are not together. Instead there could be a lot of calls and working on some collaboration platforms. Everyone just staring at the screen, searching, reporting, testing and trying to shrink the problem scope. If there's a record on everyone there must be a narrator explaining what's going on or audiences would definitely be confused. It's Google so they have solid logging, analyzing and discovery means. Bad things do happen but they have the power to deal with them. I suppose less technical firms(Equifax maybe?) encounter similar kind of crysis would be more fun to look at. Everything is a mess because they didn't build enough things to deal with them. And probably non-technical manager demanding precise response, or someone is blaming someone etc.
- munchbunny 7y ago
  Having done it at both big companies and startups... honestly, the startup version is more interesting. Higher stakes, more resourcefulness required, more swearing, and more camaraderie. The incidents I've been a part of in big company contexts have been pretty undramatic - tons of focus on keeping emotions muted, carefully unpeeling the onion, and then carefully sequencing mitigations and repairs.
robryan 7y ago
Documentary that includes all the technical details wouldn't be. Kind of like the ambulance shows that seem to be popular now, but more technical. Of course the target audience is probably tiny.
- tomjakubowski 7y ago
  It could be good done in the style of Cliff Stoll's Nova episode.
smueller1234 7y ago
No, not at Google. Lore has it in our office that it used to be hacked high speed segways. At least until somebody decided to build a ramp to jump with and the fiery chariot was reduced to rubble. The driver lived.

cristobal23 7y ago

sysadmin here; can confirm.

ehsankia 7y ago

Is it real skateboards or boosted boards (or those one wheeled electric boards?).

namelosw 7y ago
I guess he mean the one true kind of sysadmins who's job contains moving physically in data center and deal with physical infrastructures. So it's real skateboard.
- dewey 7y ago
  > So it's real skateboard. Boosted boards are real skateboards too (https://boostedboards.com/ https://boostedboards.com/) and would make moving through a DC even more effective ;)
ethbro 7y ago
I believe parent was probably referencing this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kV_i8AefT8I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kV_i8AefT8I But in defense, why be admin if you don't look admin?

thegabez 7y ago

What?! It's the most exciting part of the job. Entire departments coming together, working as a team to problem solve under duress. What's more exciting than that?

namelosw 7y ago
I have done similar things several times and I think it would be boring. It's Sunday so I guess they are not together. Instead there could be a lot of calls and working on some collaboration platforms. Everyone just staring at the screen, searching, reporting, testing and trying to shrink the problem scope. If there's a record on everyone there must be a narrator explaining what's going on or audiences would definitely be confused. It's Google so they have solid logging, analyzing and discovery means. Bad things do happen but they have the power to deal with them. I suppose less technical firms(Equifax maybe?) encounter similar kind of crysis would be more fun to look at. Everything is a mess because they didn't build enough things to deal with them. And probably non-technical manager demanding precise response, or someone is blaming someone etc.
munchbunny 7y ago
Having done it at both big companies and startups... honestly, the startup version is more interesting. Higher stakes, more resourcefulness required, more swearing, and more camaraderie. The incidents I've been a part of in big company contexts have been pretty undramatic - tons of focus on keeping emotions muted, carefully unpeeling the onion, and then carefully sequencing mitigations and repairs.

robryan 7y ago

Documentary that includes all the technical details wouldn't be. Kind of like the ambulance shows that seem to be popular now, but more technical. Of course the target audience is probably tiny.

tomjakubowski 7y ago
It could be good done in the style of Cliff Stoll's Nova episode.

smueller1234 7y ago

No, not at Google. Lore has it in our office that it used to be hacked high speed segways. At least until somebody decided to build a ramp to jump with and the fiery chariot was reduced to rubble. The driver lived.