Friday Funday: IT and the dead

The lighter side of local government

Throughout my career, I’ve always tried to cultivate a relationship with an IT guy or gal. You want to have that little personal touch and that assurance that your request might just jump the queue. That means generally being nice and making sure that you always reboot or check that the dang PC is plugged in before you call them out. And whatever you do, don’t make ‘em angry. Somebody in San Francisco city government forgot all about that. (Link to full story at the San Francisco Chronicle)

A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Prosecutors say Childs [the engineer], who works in the Department of Technology at a base salary of just over $126,000, tampered with the city’s new FiberWAN (Wide Area Network), where records such as officials’ e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail inmates’ bookings are stored.

Putting the fun in funeral

Lambeth Cemetery hosted a third annual cemetery open day and, of course, being the local government junkie that I am, I took the whole family. There were displays of odd hearses, bio-degradable coffins, fancy urns and options for sea burial. There was even a company called Colourful Coffins which allows you to design your own final container with any kind of design. Oddly enough, the guy selling them was a supporter of my most hated football team (American college football that is) so we got to talk a little pre-season trash.

Novelty hearse