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Oops! The Silly Mistakes Thread

Spreadsheets:
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...d=ars&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social

In August 2023, the Police Service of Northern Ireland apologized for a data leak of “monumental proportions” when a spreadsheet that contained statistics on the number of officers it had and their rank was shared online in response to a freedom of information request. There was a second overlooked tab on the spreadsheet that contained the personal details of 10,000 serving police officers.

A series of spreadsheet errors disrupted the recruitment of trainee anesthetists in Wales in late 2021. The Anaesthetic National Recruitment Office (ANRO), the body responsible for their selection and recruitment, told all the candidates for positions in Wales they were “unappointable”, despite some of them achieving the highest interview scores.

In 2021, Crypto.com, an online provider of cryptocurrency, accidentally transferred $10.5 million (£8.3 million) instead of $100 into the account of an Australian customer due to an incorrect number being entered on a spreadsheet.

In 2022, Íslandsbanki, a state-owned Icelandic bank, sold a portion of shares that were badly undervalued due to a spreadsheet error. When consolidating assets from different spreadsheets, the spreadsheet data was not “cleaned” and formatted properly. The bank’s shares were subsequently undervalued by as much as £16 million.
 
Only in Cromer would a burglar carry a stolen fridge on his back.

Fridge-carrying marathon runner stopped by police​

man carrying fridge

A marathon trainee said police nearly mistook him for a thief after they saw him running with a fridge on his back.

Daniel Fairbrother was stopped by officers in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, while practising for the London Marathon, external. He said the officers quickly realised he was not stealing anything and "it ended with them shaking my hand".

A Hertfordshire Constabulary spokesman said: “We would like to wish Daniel all the best with training for the marathon”.

Mr Fairbrother hopes carrying a fridge will help to raise £10,000 for Diabetes UK, external.

“It’s in support of my best mate Sam, who’s a Type 1 diabetic. I tried to undertake a challenge last year which didn’t go as planned, and I promised to come back bigger and stronger," he said.

A fan of Cool Runnings, he has named the fridge Tallulah after the bobsleigh in the movie.

Mr Fairbrother said he was on his second run carrying Tallulah when he noticed a police car turning around.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7wq4y9w5jo
 
A few nights ago I discovered a switch in the hallway of my flat that I've never seen before. I live in a tower block and the hallway is 'L' shaped and quite dark even during the day. I hardly ever turn the light on because I've no need to. However, the other night a screw fell out of my glasses as I was going from the sitting room to the bedroom to go the bed so I turned the lights on in order to find it. That's when I saw the switch. It's about 3" square with a largish button in the middle and is white, the same colour as the emulsion on the walls.

I stood there for a good few minutes trying to figure out how it got there. No one could have broken in and randomly installed a random switch and it wasn't the council, as it's their property, as the front door keys are magnetic and can't be copied plus I have all the three original keys.

I figured the only way to find out what this switch did was to press the button. It was a test button for the f**king fire alarm. It was deafening and went on for about 30 seconds. This was at 1am in the morning.

Then I remembered about 6 to 8 months ago the council did upgrades to the fire alarms in the building. No one told me about the test button.

I hurriedly turned all the lights off in case any neighbours came knocking to complain.
 
kesavaross said:
A few nights ago I discovered a switch in the hallway of my flat that I've never seen before. I live in a tower block and the hallway is 'L' shaped and quite dark even during the day. I hardly ever turn the light on because I've no need to. However, the other night a screw fell out of my glasses as I was going from the sitting room to the bedroom to go the bed so I turned the lights on in order to find it. That's when I saw the switch. It's about 3" square with a largish button in the middle and is white, the same colour as the emulsion on the walls.

I stood there for a good few minutes trying to figure out how it got there. No one could have broken in and randomly installed a random switch and it wasn't the council, as it's their property, as the front door keys are magnetic and can't be copied plus I have all the three original keys.

I figured the only way to find out what this switch did was to press the button. It was a test button for the f**king fire alarm. It was deafening and went on for about 30 seconds. This was at 1am in the morning.

Then I remembered about 6 to 8 months ago the council did upgrades to the fire alarms in the building. No one told me about the test button.

I hurriedly turned all the lights off in case any neighbours came knocking to complain.
Click to expand...
You should stick a label on it to remind you!
 
kesavaross said:
A few nights ago I discovered a switch in the hallway of my flat that I've never seen before. I live in a tower block and the hallway is 'L' shaped and quite dark even during the day. I hardly ever turn the light on because I've no need to. However, the other night a screw fell out of my glasses as I was going from the sitting room to the bedroom to go the bed so I turned the lights on in order to find it. That's when I saw the switch. It's about 3" square with a largish button in the middle and is white, the same colour as the emulsion on the walls.

I stood there for a good few minutes trying to figure out how it got there. No one could have broken in and randomly installed a random switch and it wasn't the council, as it's their property, as the front door keys are magnetic and can't be copied plus I have all the three original keys.

I figured the only way to find out what this switch did was to press the button. It was a test button for the f**king fire alarm. It was deafening and went on for about 30 seconds. This was at 1am in the morning.

Then I remembered about 6 to 8 months ago the council did upgrades to the fire alarms in the building. No one told me about the test button.

I hurriedly turned all the lights off in case any neighbours came knocking to complain.
Click to expand...
:rofl:
Three words - You. Daft. Twat.
 
Considering it looks like a new building project, the contractors wouldn't be too fussed about it all.
Look at all the 'one-and-a-half' houses that result from a contractor buying up half of large back gardens then linking the shoe box to the road by a narrow driveway.
 
The builder explains..

Kind of.. if he hadn't done it, it would've held up completing the build. He says he council are moving the lamppost but the council say..
A Tameside Council spokesperson said: ‘We have spoken to the developer and they have agreed to remove the lamppost and replace it nearer a neighbouring boundary wall.’
Click to expand...
 
Read a short explanation of the case on Yahoo!News.
Builder explains that out of all the lamp posts on that street, that one was out of line, further from the kerb. They had to put in a 'temporary fix' in order to keep to construction time targets. It requires the council to take down the light and move it closer to the kerb which would've taken weeks. They did this with the permission of the purchaser, letting them know that when the council get around to it then they'll make good the roof.
 
Just reading about the guy (Salisbury Haley) who cocked up the laying out of the street grid in Santa Barbara, California.

Due to the fact that his survey chains were broken and held together with oxhide, they then expanded on damp mornings and contracted in the sun, thereby meaning that he ended up as much as 45' (13.7 metres) out of true by the time he had crossed the city and blocks which should have been exactly 450 feet, ranged from 450 to 464 (137 to 141 metres) on a side.

According to the Wiki entry on this, the problems caused by these misalignments still persist today.

As much of an arse as he was though- would a slight kink really cause problems today?

santa b.jpg
 
Floyd1 said:
Just reading about the guy (Salisbury Haley) who cocked up the laying out of the street grid in Santa Barbara, California.

Due to the fact that his survey chains were broken and held together with oxhide, they then expanded on damp mornings and contracted in the sun, thereby meaning that he ended up as much as 45' (13.7 metres) out of true by the time he had crossed the city and blocks which should have been exactly 450 feet, ranged from 450 to 464 (137 to 141 metres) on a side.

According to the Wiki entry on this, the problems caused by these misalignments still persist today.

As much of an arse as he was though- would a slight kink really cause problems today?

View attachment 73745
Click to expand...

Years ago l saw a telly series (Map Man with Nicholas Crane?) about the mapping of the UK by the Ordnance Survey. They started in the south of England, establishing trig points, taking multiple bearings and using actual metal chains to measure distances.

Their final measurement was taken somewhere in the north of Scotland, months or years later.

They were eighteen inches out…

:omg:

maximus otter
 
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