What was your last OOPS?

[sonnie]

What was your last OOPS!

A few days ago I began uploading files to a site for a shopping cart. Around 6:00 PM my
wife informed me it was “our time”, so I simply logged off and relaxed for the rest of the
evening. The next morning I received a call from the local business who owns the site. The
business sells new retail products but offers used products on Ebay. The images used on
Ebay are hosted on their site. They had been inundated with emails from Ebayers (is that
really a term?) asking why they were being asked for a password to view the item. Guess
quite a few actually emailed Ebay, asking why they were being asked for their username
and password after already being logged on. I immediately brought up the site, and sure
enough, was asked to provide a username and password.

I had overwritten the .htaccess file on the site, making the entire site password protected
(401) return. So for around 15 hours, customers were trying to figure out what their
username and password was. Please keep this within this Forum, but I actually found some
humor in all of this. Like (ebay) “you cannot see pictures of this item unless you provide a
password, that’s that”.

Anyway, I learned a lesson. Don’t do ANYTHING on a site without checking the results.

Thanks, and your OOPS! would be appreciated to help me avoid future OOPS!

[Leisa]

I can't think of a really good "latest" oops, but I can think of an early oops. It's not all that good but I'll throw it out there.

My first website attempt:
I created my pathetic little pages, uploaded them (after several hours of figuring out how to make that happen) and was sooo proud of myself.

When I went to show off my achievement at my then job, all I had were red x's where all my purdy little images should have been. I scratched my head and thought, "you mean I can't link to my hard drive?"

[sonnie]

Thanks Leisa,

Yeah I know, I'ts those pesky little links like C:// something that can just make your day miserable.

[minstrel]

The last "OOPS!" time I can remember vividly is when I impulsively used the words, "I think you're wrong" in conversation with a woman... ;o)

(ducking again - I hate the sound of those cast iron frying pans hitting the part of my skull that protects my frontal lobes - which of course begs the question as to whether, if I hadn't heard that sound so frequently in the past, I'd be better at inhibiting these impulses...)


Thought for the day: "If you're not living dangerously, you're not really living."

[sonnie]

Thought for the day: "If you're not living dangerously, you're not really living."

Well, I agree, if we're not living dangerously, we're probably not living life to it's fullest. But then again, who determines this?

Thanks, and minstrel, thanks for your help whether you remember it or not. You helped me out on a problem and probably don't remember, as many people as you reply to. Just letting you know, it helped.

[minstrel]

Thanks, and minstrel, thanks for your help whether you remember it or not. You helped me out on a problem and probably don't remember, as many people as you reply to. Just letting you know, it helped.
I'm embarassed to admit I don't remember but it's true I don't... I do remember exchanging ideas/opinions with you previously, however, and if something I said was helpful that's definitely gratifying... :o)

[redcircle]

The other night I was sshed into my site doing some remote editing. I then wanted to download the stylesheet to my computer. Ok.. everything downloaded ok. Then I realized that I uploaded the css file from my computer to the host. 4 days work and no backup. Thankfully I was able to find the css file in my browsers cache. Just about had a heart attack.

Before building sites i used to sell them; working for other slave drivers err design companies....

one unprecedently horrible boss in Deerfield beach Florida sent me to pitch an Ecommerce site to a new prospective client.

i arrived, dressed to the 9's in suit and tie/ briefcase, pda, laptop etc....

after delivering a nervous, sweaty pitch to a roomful of suits and ties w/ a cruddy powerpoint demo....the CEO of the company asked me to log on to the www and show me a working shopping cart..etc.....from one of our design/clients websites....

thinking i came prepared, i went to my laptop, brought up the site on the screen, and by this time i like had everyone crouching over my shoulder to take a look....

but my BOSS had given me an incorrect password for the demo....and the securityware in the site LOCKED ME OUT of the password input area for too many consecutive wrong password entries!.......

i was simply too embarrassd and turning thirty shades of red to even look up...i literally just sat there staring into the keyboard w/ all these people looming over my back.....the silence was deafening........

after about three minutes of pure silence, the CEO said, "Ah...Daren...what EXACTLY are we supposed to be looking at?"...........i could just barely turn around to whisper..."ah i think i have to call my boss" and dashed out to make a frantic cell phone call.....

when i went to go back in the conference room (couldn't even get my boss on the phone) the CEO met me at the door and just handed me back my breifcase (stuffed really with only computer magazies & related items to make it feel like i had a lot of important documents in it.... lol) and my pda that i had left up on the podium....... and quietly showed me to the door outside to the parking lot.....

i remember the day like it was yesterday (actually it was the summer of 2000) becasue back then i still was trying to quit smoking and i was wearing "the patch" and nonetheless to say that right after my presentation i ripped off the patch and raced to the store to buy and subsequently chain-smoke a pack of Camels......lol....

DAREN ;-0
http://WebPageTurner.com

[labrynth_of_fire]

My last oops....rather not talk about it :)

[redcircle]

thinking i came prepared, i went to my laptop, brought up the site on the screen, and by this time i like had everyone crouching over my shoulder to take a look....

but my BOSS had given me an incorrect password for the demo....and the securityware in the site LOCKED ME OUT of the password input area for too many consecutive wrong password entries!....... <snip!>


That really wasn't your fault that you didn't know the password.

[ronniethedodger]

thinking i came prepared, i went to my laptop, brought up the site on the screen, and by this time i like had everyone crouching over my shoulder to take a look....

but my BOSS had given me an incorrect password for the demo....and the securityware in the site LOCKED ME OUT of the password input area for too many consecutive wrong password entries!....... <snip!>


That really wasn't your fault that you didn't know the password.

I agree redcircle....I think Daren needs to dig a little more deeper than that !!! ;-)

thinking i came prepared, i went to my laptop, brought up the site on the screen, and by this time i like had everyone crouching over my shoulder to take a look....

but my BOSS had given me an incorrect password for the demo....and the securityware in the site LOCKED ME OUT of the password input area for too many consecutive wrong password entries!....... <snip!>


That really wasn't your fault that you didn't know the password.

I agree redcircle....I think Daren needs to dig a little more deeper than that !!! ;-)

OOOPSSS i forgot to include all the character sketching of my boss.....the "ooops" was actually ME agreeing to work for somebody who required me to sign a work contract 3 minutes into my first interview.....this guy was a real piece of dishonest work & exploited me from day 1.......this same boss also sent me to another "lead" with a (business card) design template that supposedly "he" made......upon getting to the prospective client's office they remarked that they had seen the same template on the web & then subsequently showed me on the monitor the URL where my boss had bought them from.....

so i guess my "ooops" is being naive because i used to believe everything that people said/told me in this business when i first started....lol...



DAREN!
http://WebPageTurner.com


going for pizza now....

[ronniethedodger]

.......this same boss also sent me to another "lead" with a (business card) design template that supposedly "he" made......upon getting to the prospective client's office they remarked that they had seen the same template on the web & then subsequently showed me on the monitor the URL where my boss had bought them from.....


My, my, my !!! That is positively the worst thing that I have ever heard. Absolutely embarrassing and totally humiliating.

I vote for Daren's story as the worst OOOPs.

Out of curiosity...how much do you spend a year on counseling? =)

[mikmik]

minstrel is lucky to be alive.
The last "OOPS!" time I can remember vividly is when I impulsively used the words, "I think you're wrong" in conversation with a woman... ;o)

Ever since, he has suffered from 'post acute-trauma amnesia' in the presence of females (me, I just got brain damage) lol *;0(

[minstrel]

minstrel is lucky to be alive. Ever since, he has suffered from 'post acute-trauma amnesia' in the presence of females (me, I just got brain damage)
What makes you think I didn't? ;o)

[mikmik]

minstrel wrote :
What makes you think I didn't? ;o)
Uhmmm, good question. Because, as a man, I didn't notice. Come to think of it, I was notified by a WOMAN Dr. and a TEAM of female support staff.
Now I get it!

[SyrenSong]

Ahem, bringing us back to the original topic.... ;)

The worst Ooops! I ever had was when I was first getting used to DreamWeaver.

The server had crashed and the needed to be moved to a new host. In addition to needing to update some of the pages to match what had been server-only files the customer hadn't backed up, it seemed like a great time to correcting some coding inconsistencies that had been causing problems on the site during updates.

Being the wonderful and powerful program DreamWeaver is, I got really excited and figured this was the perfect time to convert the site from hand-coding to DreamWeaver, especially since it was a relatively large site (80+ pages). I did a find-and-replace globally, without backing up the site first.

YIKES! Next thing I knew, I had broken graphic links all over the place. Graphic placement was all screwed up on some pages, but not others. And some of my hyperlinks were a disaster area, too.

It took several hours to figure out where all the problems were an fix them. I ended up with more consistency than I had originally planned, but if I had created the backup first and made the changes folder-by-folder, instead of globally, I'd have saved myself a ton of time!

Lesson Learned: Backup! Always Backup!!! LOL!!!

[mikmik]

Syrensong wrote:
YIKES! Next thing I knew, I had broken graphic links all over the place. Graphic placement was all screwed up on some pages, but not others. And some of my hyperlinks were a disaster area, too.
LOL! I can just imagine the look on your face! It is funny how many things correspond to what's in the ' find' box.

[ron sheldrick]

Having worked in IT systems development for 28 years, although it seems a pain, it pays dividends to create a test suite for your website.
Viz; a test plan that runs through and tests everything when you make changes.
It can be labourious to set up but after that each time you add or change something, then you just add to or change the test plan and then run it. I usually run it overnight.
From bitter experience I know that "the little cosmetic change the customer asked for" can bring down the whole site.

[SyrenSong]

LOL! I can just imagine the look on your face! It is funny how many things correspond to what's in the ' find' box.

Yeah. I only wish I had a camera handy, but no tape recorder! ;)



From bitter experience I know that "the little cosmetic change the customer asked for" can bring down the whole site.

So are you going to share? Or just leave us hanging? <nudge, nudge> ;)

[dealercrm]

Accidentally unplugged a reboot box (that was not secured properly) that was providing power to the main Database server, primary web server, and primary name server. It would have been great if the reboot boxes were setup in a better architecture both physically and system wise. Unfortunately this system was inherited by me to improve, didn’t think I would do a stupid thing like unplug the main guts before I made improvements. This unplug resulted in about 6 hours of downtime for the database and 6 minutes of downtime for web and dns. Come to find out the database server’s backup routine was about 2wks behind so surgery had to be done manually to regain the production system. Hey, but we could deliver static web pages… Yippie…. What a inherited mess. Just wish I didn’t have the reboot machine fall on my head.

[webgoddess68]

Got a gal who was switching from myphpnuke to nuke7.0 and needed database conversion. Found a script that was supposed to convert some of the info for me...ran it...it wiped out the info already in the new database. Oy! She freaked. Still trying to hash out the conversion on it, but got her members back in there!

[DrTandem1]

I have made my share of mistakes, but usually, they are not cause for panic, because I always work on a back-up copy that I name slightly different from the production file. I then test the new version. Once I am satisfied with it, I rename the original copy and then re-name the new version to match the production version and overwrite the exisiting production version. I then delete the new version that has a similar name.

If anything is to go wrong, I still have the original.

I have FTP'd and overwritten the index file of a site with the index file to another unrelated site. I have quickly noticed this error and have replaced the file with the proper one. Hopefully, the duration was short enough that no one else noticed. Again, having a back-up has always saved me.

If you don't have time to make a back-up, when are you going to have time to re-build what you may destroy?

[TrafficProducer]

“our time”, So much for some quite time.

Uploading old pages, instead of new ones is one error I've done a few times.

:) (Joke) But!! Hey! no one goes on my sites so no one notices anyway...

Tip:- Just Crash out for Christ-mess.

[OneMoreBite]

I've had my share. Here's a recent submission:

On my sites I have the .htaccess files hidden. I edit them by downloading and re-uploading, and I can see them via a web page. I run a subscription based site http://www.daytradersbulletin.com and occasionally run into other sites "borrowing" our content. When one of these sites is especially bothersome I can direct the server to refuse that IP. I also have a script that sends me an e-mail for every 404 on the site, which helps me track down bad links, etc.

Sometimes I suddenly get a hundred or more 404 errors caused by a certain website download product known as ProgramShareware.

While whiling away the time one day I happened upon a forum of wise programmer types who were discussing ProgramShareware and other bothersome programs and how you could edit .htaccess to refuse them access. This seemed like a great idea so I happily plugged the the code into my .htaccess file and let it fly.

Immediately I knew something was wrong, as I suddenly could no longer reach my site. Remember, people pay for access to our subscriber's area and during trading hours they WANT IN, and I just slammed the door shut. I had to move fast.

I tried to access the web based editing page to no avail. Site down. I quickly went in via my FTP software, but couldn't see the file anyway (it's hidden). Then I raced to use telnet, but just as quickly realized I couldn't see the file there either since, and I don't know how to use Pico to edit via Telnet anyway (at least not in a pinch - I could grab a book, but I didn't have time).

Sweat's starting to bead on my forehead, and I haven't alerted anyone to the problem. It's been about two minutes for me to flail around.

I shoot an e-mail to support at my hosting company, and wait. Less than 10 minutes later I'd received a reply saying they'd restored my .htaccess file, and created a backup of my edited version. The thought of just uploading an unedited copy didn't occur to me.

Needless to say I haven't tried again, but I'd still like to ;-)

Kathryn

[gwsoccer14]

Here is a major OOOPS. I accidentally dragged an entire folder into another folder, and needless to say all the links then failed.