Comment by GuB-42
4 years ago
So, you have an keyboard cable stretched across the walkway, maybe a tripping hazard, unlabeled, that crashes everything when it is unplugged...
It looks a lot like this https://xkcd.com/908/
I have also seen instances of similar things, but usually there is a large sign saying "do not unplug/turn off" and they try to make it as unobtrusive as possible.
The problem here is that it is you were the newbie. It should have been done by a higher up who could then properly chastise whoever was responsible of that mess.
Fundamentally, a large "do not unplug" sign is just like any other failsafe system. Nuclear missile silos, probably the most "do not touch this switch" systems in existence, are only slightly more refined, and have red covers over all the important switches instead.
The alternative is to epoxy the keyboard in. But then when you legitimately need to unplug it, you need to find a hammer.
As an aside, that XKCD strip feels heavily inspired by an episode of the IT Crowd [1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg