and the link text said nothing about it, just something generic as mandatory

got it... the mod is Native Mod Loader, and the prereq is "Ability to read"

from test-english.com/reading

lol

I will put that as a requirement for some projects

I like to watch air disaster investigation channels on youtube, and try to apply the "lessons learned" on my job, even if I don't fly an Airbus...

one of the safety rules is the "sterile cockpit", where during critical phases of the flight you are only allowed to talk about the tasks for that phase. and one of those changes the operator had almost 20 open windows, no kidding... production, testing, dozens of notepads with notes, several emails...

@ThoriumBR oldschool yo?

teams messages popping up, he answering them... that's how one colleague did a shutdown in the middle of the day on a production environment and took down dozens of linux servers

rofl

I am 40, so for some time I was the youngest kid on the support team... almost everyone else started working on the field before I was born.

shutting down the 'wrong' server is something one of my co-workers used to do a lot ._.

and I try to move myself to fields that little people work, are strange, difficult or both. So I ended up on zVM, and now got VSE on my plate too...

tbf, job security :D

@JourneymanGeek on zVM there's a setting called "validate shutdown"... you only can shutdown if you pass the correct system name...

You underestimate how dumb people can be :D

so if you just run SHUTDOWN it won't do it and say you need the system name... you have to enter SHUTDOWN SYSTEM VMPROD1 for instance

dumb is different from alt-tab to the wrong screen and type SHUTDOWN...

distraction can bite even the smartest ones

@JourneymanGeek but I have to be in tune with modern tech too, otherwise I could end up like a typewriter mechanic...

so now I am specializing on cloud, but on reverse... finding ways to bring things down from the cloud to on-prem

@ThoriumBR for this in the 'modern' context, obviously coloured command windows?

@JourneymanGeek green on black windows... all look the same, and if you don't pay attention, you are not where you think you are

My org's solution was an unholy abomination of java and putty to automate things

@ThoriumBR what terminal emulator?

I sometimes change the background for prod systems to be darkest-red, so I know I am on prod

When I puttied on multiple hosts, I used to name the window by host

the protocol is called 3270, runs on port 23 but isn't telnet, and there's several emulators depending on the account... bluezone 3270, ibm personal communications, reflections workspace, x3270/ws3270, there's a few...

@JourneymanGeek this works too, until you are in the middle of a crisis, middle management is pinging you nonstop and the client loses a few thousand dollars per minute the system is down...

@ThoriumBR I scottied a lot :D

and you go to one system, copy the startup parameters, go to the next, save the config, check the message from the manager, get back and shutdown.... the wrong server...

also when that happened I was generally the guy who handled middle management when the specialised people were doing the 'actual' work

(I mean, the DBAs would be working, and I'd go "don't answer the phone, I'll deal with the manager") :D

a trick that I used to scare managers away (back when I worked on an office) was to answer their questions on the most technical and detailed way possible and ask what they wanted me to do, in the front of everyone

after two or three times they got afraid of asking me anything...

when I had a team, usually we elected one of us to be on the door stopping anyone from entering and asking

specially those managers that had technical background and would come to offer advice...

Oh I did that too

though, my boss reacted by looping me into email threads way above my paygrade, then not really being very useful

@ThoriumBR this was literally my speciality

it wasn't mine, so I usually got the console... I am way better at the consoles than with people...

.... I did both, but I was also better at running interference than anything else.

ALSO, I'd occationally yell at my boss when he was being an idiot :D

I think I at least once got a text going "dude, you're going to give him a heart attack"

"Good" :D

hahaha