"Can you turn it back on. Please?"
Working on the national broadband wholesale system at a large telecommunications provider about 15 years ago, I had written a python application that automatically fixed a problem with a SQL query that regularly collided with a mistake in the order in which mainframe messages were sent to the system. The collision, when it happened, blocked all outstanding broadband wholesale orders (so every order for broadband in the UK). It was running very nicely for about a month when a busy-body noted that Python was not an officially supported language at this telecommunications provider. So my boss told me to turn it off. At this time we were seeing a huge increase in broadband orders and so after 3 days of a support team frantically trying to correct the problem manually I was asked very nicely if I wouldn't mind turning it back on again. Please.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
