Erik Brooks

Ok, this blog entry had me REALLY curious.

I just had to go find this technote.  But... it's gone!  "Error: Document not found."  So I search the technote db for "Russ", "8.5 panic", etc.  No go.  So I hit the web and start searching.  Still nothing.

Fortunately, there's Google cache to the rescue!

Edit: Looks like the cache expired.  Click here to issue another search, and click the "Cached" button for the first link.

So I'm cracking up laughing at this point.  This screams of internal debate...

Developer: "Hey Russ, what do we do if somebody hits this particular code fork?"

Russ: "Well, nobody should ever hit that.  Ever."

Developer: "Yeah, but what if somebody does?"

Russ: "Well then you can have them talk to me, because I'll want to see that first hand.  That'd be like winning the lottery."

Developer: "Um, ok..."

Oh, and I know *who* Russ is, though we've never talked or met personally (Russ, if you're reading this, I honestly mean no offense).

Then I get to my favorite bits of the technote:

- Symptom: "Panic message is unusual and not descriptive."

Ya think?  But wait, it gets better...

- Resolving the problem: "...currently there are no plans to address the issue."

Bwahahahaha!  Now, I'm sure they're not just going to leave this error message around saying "talk to Russ" (which is probably why they removed the technote), but the fact that somebody typed up this technote, logged it, got it marked as "no plans to fix" and updated and published it is cracking me up.  Throughout the comedy, multiple somebodies at Lotus Support were being diligent and doing their damndest to make sure that -- come hell or high water -- this thing got documented, reviewed, and published.

I haven't seen this exact crash yet, but I expect to as we start stress-testing our massively complex Domino web app on 8.5.  If I see it, I'll take a screenshot for prosperity.  While I'm not exactly glad to see a crash inside of ServerReadEntries() (we do, um, a bazillion of those a day), it tickles me to no end to see a flash of humanity leak out of the classically buttoned-down IBM online support database, and Domino 8.5 Gold.