Server crashes traced to one very literal knee-jerk reaction

Who, Me? A weekend of unwinding is behind us, so The Register returns to work on Monday with a fresh installment of "Who, Me?" – the reader-contributed column that reveals how you got in a tangle, and then extricated yourself.

This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Carter" who shared a story from the latter half of the 1990s when he worked at a telemarketing company.

"It was the time of Novell networks, RG58 cables, and bulky tower PCs," he told The Register. It was also a time before the telemarketer's IT department employed specialists. Carter and his two colleagues – boss Mike and part-time student Stefan – therefore handled tasks ranging from programming to support, and everything in between.

The trio's server room housed a colorful collection of machines scattered across shelves and shoved under desks. If a computer needed work, the team used KVM switches to connect ...