After We Fix That, How About We Also Accidentally Break Something Important?

Who, Me? On Monday, The Register readers have two jobs: survive the day, and read the fresh instalment of Who, Me? – the column based on your less-marvellous moments.

This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Spencer" who shared a tale of his time working for a UK government agency as a "third line support/infrastructure guy."

That status may sound lowly, but it was enough that Spencer and a colleague found themselves on a flight to Glasgow "to undertake various tasks at a suitably secure location."

"We'd had a successful day, some IT work and some project meetings," Spencer recalled. Indeed, he even had time to spare before their return flight.

"We decided to check over the 'datacenter' – in reality a small room full of cleaning supplies, stationery, bottled drinks and a CAT5 patch panel.

"We thought it would be a nice little extra bonus," Spencer explained.

Of course, things went wrong. As the duo tidied cables, they managed to knock a fiber-copper media converter box off its perch. Said box smashed a fiber cable as it fell, meaning their attempt to tidy the patch panel had actually disconnected something. Something that was probably important.

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As the pair figured out what they'd done, it became apparent they had picked the worst possible cable to break. This one was an ST to LC cable. For those of you not steeped in cable lore, fiber connectors come in several shapes – ST connectors are round, LC connectors are chunky little wedges.

Here's a look at some common fiber connectors. Because The Reg cares.

SC LC FC ST fiber connectors – Click to enlarge

But we digress: ST to LC cables are not common. But Spencer and his mate needed one – ASAP.

"Panic set in. It was 6:00pm. All shops were closed, and we were far from civilization,” Spencer told Who, Me?

Cue a frantic search in the "datacenter."

The minutes ticked past. The situation did not look good.

"I felt the cold sweat of fear from being completely helpless," Spence recalled.

And then his colleague cleared his throat.

"I turned to see him holding the holy-grail cable. I don't know where he found it, and I didn't care." But Spencer cared very much whether it worked – it did – and that he was able to catch his plane home.

"Lessoned learned – leave things well alone," he told Who, Me? before noting this was not the only such incident in his career. "My colleague had a habit of finding solutions at the last minute. He was my lucky charm on many a job."

Have you ever regretted taking on extra work? Or messed something up just before your triumphant exit? Click here to send Who, Me? an email so we can make you our extra little job on a future Monday. ®