Old Buildings Are Wired Funny

Once upon a time, at my old job, a staff person had been promoted and was given her own office. She decided she wanted her computer in a corner and I set it up by her request. Normally she kept regular hours but once in a while she would come in early or stay late. Soon after she moved I started getting messages or emails about odd occurrences. The PC would not always start in the morning, then start on its own when she wasn't looking. Sometimes the PC would be on when she came in, yet she was sure she had turned it off the night before. In the evening it would just shut off unexpectedly. Unfortunately a lot of this happened when I wasn't in the office and they weren't regular events.

One day I was in a little after 5 PM when she called to tell me her machine had just shut off and that it wouldn't start again. I went up and realized everything connected to that outlet was off. The circuit breakers were fine so I decided to check the equipment in the other rooms. I started with the adjacent room and found nothing unusual. As I entered the next room over I flicked on the lights to inspect the equipment. Immediately I heard the staff person yelling from the other office that the computer had turned on. I laughed and I laughed. This office was relatively far from the outlet her computer was connected to. Old buildings can be amusing.

I was reminded of this recently when I was told by a colleague that a group of people in her non-profit could only receive email between 9 AM and 5 PM. After much investigating of network settings, it was discovered that the hub that provided the room with connectivity was attached to an outlet that was connected to a light switch in the office of a very punctual woman.