Top 10 Signs Your Network Admin has Gone Rogue

July 25th, 2008 by Julia Lim

Terry Childs captivated much of the IT world over the past week and a half with his lock-down of San Francisco’s IT system. Instead of watching a bunch of police chasing a white Bronco, this time the coverage amounted to many many articles, blog posts, comments, and long email chains. It seemed I would read one thing and the very next one would contradict or shed more light on some aspect of the case.

Depending on who you talk to, he is:

a) a hero

b) a disgruntled worker

c) in need of a serious work/life adjustment

d) in need of $5 million and/or a better lawyer

e) all of the above

Surprisingly strong opinions, regardless of what you choose.

We chose to lighten things up a bit and, as we always try to do, figure out how to help our customers be proactive. So here it is, the Top 10 Signs Your Network Admin has Gone Rogue:

10) David Letterman has a Top 10 list called “Top 10 Signs Your Network Admin Has Gone Rogue”

9) Your Admin is the only one with the network device log-ins and refuses to share them with anyone else.

’8) His presentations about network configuration include the words “Magic” and “Burn after reading”.

7) Instead of email, he forces everyone to use the Suggestion box placed outside of his door…and then places a very obvious nanny-cam hidden in a teddy bear right next to it.

6) He begins to grow out his sideburns and every question directed to him in meetings results in the same response, “Do you feel lucky today, punk?”

5) He has the mayor on speed-dial.

4) He starts wearing very big shoes to the office and accosts random people in the hallways asking if they think they could fill them.

3) He refuses to write router and switch configs to flash citing network security concerns.

2) He calls you and asks for a $5 million salary advance; caller id flashes “Department of Corrections”.

And #1: You’re the City of San Francisco

Enjoy your lock-down free weekend!

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July 14, 2010 -- Enterprise Network Management Systems: Notes from the Architect

Tagged with: Network Administrator, San Francisco, Terry Childs, Top Ten

4 comments

4 Comments Add your own

1. Links List 8.8.08 | Scien&hellip | August 8th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

[...] finally…8/8/08…the Olympics are here! Network administrators around the world, except for Terry Childs, will be eyeing office network bandwidth closely as people go online to watch streaming video of [...]
2. Terry Childs - the Penult&hellip | August 31st, 2009 at 4:58 pm

[...] the time, I have to admit, we poked some fun at it, coming up with our own Top 10 Signs Your Network Admin has Gone Rogue. I mean, the stories coming out of the SF IT office were funny. But 14 months later, Terry Childs [...]
3. Links List 05.07.10 | Sci&hellip | May 7th, 2010 at 10:01 am

[...] and the entire situation!) We’ve been following this story of the rogue sysadmin since it began in July of 2008. Terry’s attorney plans to appeal, but in the meantime the controversy continues [...]
4. Terry Childs – The &hellip | August 9th, 2010 at 3:02 pm

[...] eclipsed by the scandal shaping up around Mark Hurd leaving HP, rogue administrator Terry Childs was finally sentenced to four years in prison (out of a maximum five years possible) – two [...]

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