Weird and Wacky Engineering
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Bellhop
It's always interesting when the "Dead Letter Office" of the USPS delivers a ...
David_O
Never mind out of order email delivery. Several years ago we pre-shipped some ...
"Arrgghh," said I…
Clive Maxfield
10/31/2012 3:08 PM EDT
I was rushing to get out of the office on Monday evening. My final task before running out of the door was to send an email to someone saying something like:
As soon as I'd pressed the "Send" button I shut my computers down and headed for the hills. On Tuesday morning when I came into work, the UBM / EE Times servers based in the North East were not available. The power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy had taken everything down, so I had no email or instant messaging or VPN access into the main systems.
Not to be deterred, I carried on working using my backup systems and personal email address and so forth. As part of this, of course, I sent the promised document and promptly forgot all about it.
When I came into work today, I powered up all of the systems in the pleasure dome (my office) as usual. Hurray! The UBM / EE Times servers based in the North East were back online. My UBM email system leapt into action with messages flying back and forth.
So I was somewhat puzzled when I received a message from my friend saying "What are you talking about? You already sent me that document."
This resulted in a ping-pong of emails until we worked out what had happened – my original message from Monday evening hadn’t gotten through, so my friend had received my messages out of order. From his perspective, he'd first received the document in question, and then a day later he'd received a message saying I wouldn’t be able to send the document until the following day.
Fortunately, my delayed message was innocuous in nature, but I can imagine some that might not be. Consider, for example, what might have happened with a message like:
…or perhaps…
…or maybe even… but no, why should I do all of the work? How about you – can you share any messages – real or imaginary – whose delay might have unintended results?
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
Arrgghh! – today was a $%^%^& day and I'm way behind – I’ll spin that document first thing in the morning and get it to you ASAP.
As soon as I'd pressed the "Send" button I shut my computers down and headed for the hills. On Tuesday morning when I came into work, the UBM / EE Times servers based in the North East were not available. The power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy had taken everything down, so I had no email or instant messaging or VPN access into the main systems.
Not to be deterred, I carried on working using my backup systems and personal email address and so forth. As part of this, of course, I sent the promised document and promptly forgot all about it.
When I came into work today, I powered up all of the systems in the pleasure dome (my office) as usual. Hurray! The UBM / EE Times servers based in the North East were back online. My UBM email system leapt into action with messages flying back and forth.
So I was somewhat puzzled when I received a message from my friend saying "What are you talking about? You already sent me that document."
This resulted in a ping-pong of emails until we worked out what had happened – my original message from Monday evening hadn’t gotten through, so my friend had received my messages out of order. From his perspective, he'd first received the document in question, and then a day later he'd received a message saying I wouldn’t be able to send the document until the following day.
Fortunately, my delayed message was innocuous in nature, but I can imagine some that might not be. Consider, for example, what might have happened with a message like:
“…and if I don’t hear back from you by tomorrow morning, I plan to sell the damn thing for whatever I can get…”
…or perhaps…
“I will be at the end of the parking lot just under the ‘Hello Kitty’ sign wearing nothing but my red overcoat until 8:00pm…”
…or maybe even… but no, why should I do all of the work? How about you – can you share any messages – real or imaginary – whose delay might have unintended results?
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
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SylvieBarak
10/31/2012 5:09 PM EDT
Deliver the $10,000 in clean crisp unmarked bills before tomorrow at midnight, or you'll never see snuffles the pet hedgehog again.... muahahahahah
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Max the Magnificent
10/31/2012 5:10 PM EDT
You got me -- I am literally laughing out loud in my office -- GOOD ONE!!!
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Duane Benson
10/31/2012 5:10 PM EDT
"Please don't ship that. I'll pick it up myself." or the close corollary: "I don't work at the old place anymore. Sent it to my new office at..."
Both have, unfortunately, happened.
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ost
11/1/2012 3:33 AM EDT
I assume you will come back to us with reports on some real working devices running some real working apps. This will be exiting :)
My head has been thinking what this rascal could do for my line of interests.
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ost
11/1/2012 3:33 AM EDT
oops, this got posted under the wrong article.. Been pressing backspace I guess..
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rfindley
11/1/2012 5:25 AM EDT
Also in the 'mixed message' category: I had a housemate in college -- a real trickster -- who liked to answer 'wrong-number' phone calls as if he were the intended recipient. I could only hear one side of the conversation, of course, so I usually didn't know what he was up to until it was too late. Here's one particularly cringe-inducing call that I remember overhearing:
"Hello?"
(...)
"Sorry, he's in the shower."
(...)
"No, she's in the shower too, heheheh."
(muffled yelling)
"Uhh, well, you'll have to ask him yourself."
(more yelling)
"Okay, I'll tell him you're on your way."
(...)
"Okay, I *won't* tell him.... Okay, bye."
I'm guessing some poor unsuspecting fellow had a rather unpleasant day.
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Max the Magnificent
11/1/2012 10:10 AM EDT
So that was YOUR housemate was it -- now I know who to blame!!!
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sudo
11/5/2012 2:05 AM EST
It's nothing to do with delayed emails but it's kind of funny.
One place I used to work for was stacked with a great bunch of people, mostly scientists and engineers. They were wery witty and had a WICKED sense of humor.
A new colleague has just started to work at our section and every day his wife would call and ask for him. Even though she never introduced herself, after a while, the people picking up the phone worked out who she was. So, after a couple of weeks, as usual, she called again, around lunchtime. The guy who picked up the phone said "Ah, sorry, Tom is not here. His wife came in and they went out together for lunch." Later that day, poor Tom (not real name) had A LOT to explain at home.
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Max the Magnificent
11/5/2012 10:11 AM EST
Ooooohhh -- that's harsh!!!
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FlyByPC
11/1/2012 10:26 AM EDT
"Boss, you know that new gadget we're working on? Yeah, you might want to go with a static demo this weekend, or it might let the Magic Smoke out in front of our new client. Just sayin'."
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wu0f
11/1/2012 11:21 AM EDT
Several years ago now I received an e-mail from my son from his high school account reminding me of a wrestling meet that afternoon. I had known about and went to a meet day before but didn't know of one that day. I called the school and asked where the meet was. They didn't know of any scheduled meets so I relayed what was in my son's e-mail. They said that they would have to check. A little while later my son called to see what I needed. I told him about the e-mail and he said that he ‚had sent that yesterday‘. It turns out that the e-mail showed up in my inbox just about 24 hours late. The time was about right but I hadn't looked at the date.
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Doug21201
11/1/2012 2:33 PM EDT
For various reasons, one of my computers lives on UTC time. Sometimes people are surprised when they get an email from me that appears to have originated 4 or 5 hours into the future.
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Max the Magnificent
11/1/2012 2:49 PM EDT
A few days after the film "The Day after Tomorrow" came out I went to see it.
Two days later someone asked if I;d seen it, which resulted in the following conversation:
Q: Have you seen "The Day After Tomorrow"?
A: Yes, I saw it the day before yesterday!
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WKetel
11/1/2012 6:51 PM EDT
I worked at one company that had a junk phone system that would often delay my message notifications by several hours. So at noon I would be notified of an emergency that happened at 5AM on a production line, asking me to contact them when I got in at 6AM. Evidently the system was programmed to delay things for me because of somebody's personal gripes. Eventually I got into the habit of calling the plant every morning to check for problems. Then the management at our place got upset about my long distance phone calls. Eventually I left that company and started working for decent folks.
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Andy_I
11/2/2012 11:43 PM EDT
This wasn't in a work situation, but the following just happened to me two weeks ago.
I have my Gmail account set up to automatically import email messages from another personal email account that I have. For the last few years this regular import of new messages has been running just fine.
Then all of a sudden the database must have gotten messed up, because Gmail started re-importing old email messages from the other account, all over again. Tens of thousands of them.
As this begins, I see a message show up in my Gmail Inbox, asking me a question. I failed to notice that the message was dated October 2010. It seemed kind of odd, and vaguely familiar, but I replied to it anyway.
Fortunately for me, I was saved the embarrassment by the fact that the originator's email address had changed since 2010, so my reply to him bounced. It was then that I noticed the time-warp!
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David Ashton
11/3/2012 7:34 PM EDT
Our service manager job system had a habit of resurrecting old jobs some time after they'd been closed. Which initially resulted in my making irate phone calls to customers asking why they'd put a job in again when I'd done that weeks ago. To which they meekly (or sometimes not so meekly) replied that they were quite happy and working fine and hadn't put another job in. I now check the history on jobs like this before I contact the customer again...
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David_O
11/6/2012 6:56 PM EST
Never mind out of order email delivery. Several years ago we pre-shipped some test equipment. Then came the "you had better get on the plane, the equipment will have cleared customs by the time you arrive". Er - no. About two weeks later I finally got my hands on it and could actually start work.
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Bellhop
11/8/2012 4:22 PM EST
It's always interesting when the "Dead Letter Office" of the USPS delivers a piece of mail 30 years late.
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