This weekend I was asked to consult on a fascinating issue.

$_client_company has legacy systems that still rely on VAX, believe it or not.

They moved to a new building, and when they brought the old systems back up after the move, the unit turns on, but does not boot, does not self check, etc...

They had been working on it for about a week.

I wish I could take credit for this, but it was actually one of my guys that put together a hardware debugging platform so we weren't dependent on native outputs.

Essentially, something was happening that looked a lot like this, for example:

MOVL #12, R6 ; Expected result - GP Reg 6 contains literal 12.
; Actual result - GP Reg 6 contains rando.
; Repeated attempts to modify R6 change rando.

As a troubleshooting step, we swapped out quite a lot of hardware with spare bits, and there was no notable change to the results of our testing and debugging.

And then, a bright fellow on their side of the equation started asking the right questions. As it turns out, on the other side of the thin wall against which their VAX system lived is a mechanism that involves the use of neodymium magnets in its daily operation.

We moved the system to the opposite side of the room (quite an undertaking in itself), degaussed the fuck out of it, replaced the bits most likely to have suffered permanent damage, and when we were all done, INCREDIBLY, it turned on and ran self check.

They had to restore VAX and backups, but that was their problem, not mine. After what I saw there, I'm not sure I would trust that system again. I'm shuddering thinking about all the perfectly good spare parts we unknowingly subjected to strong magnetic field. It's a damned good thing I don't have a pacemaker.

I'd also like to have a conversation with whomever it was that planned this move - putting large legacy systems on the opposite side of a wall from giant, incredibly powerful magnets wasn't the brightest idea in the world, and that person is probably being overpaid.

My own contributions were minimal, and yet, I'm still getting paid for having been there. Not sure how I feel about that.

Holy shit, it's late. I gotta get to sleep.