You may be happy to know that I shut down a computer system. I can do this while not even working. I guess it is a rare talent.
My wife, Jean, and I drove to the DOT DMV facility on the west side of Madison for driver’s license renewals on January 22, 2020. I need to get a renewed license by May 2020. She had a renewed license from last year, but it did not have a sticker showing she was not a security risk for airport security. She decided she wanted the sticker and so she needed a new, amended driver’s license.
Everything went well, up to a point. We stopped at the DOT informational booth, received a tracking number, had our picture taken, and waited for our tracking number to be called before we could obtain the new driver’s licenses. We were both called up at about the same time. She went to Window 5 and I went to Window 12. The clerks at each window entered our driver’s license information and then our passport information. (You needed the passport information to acquire the driver license’s security sticker. ) The computer system stopped for both clerks. We managed to crash our little portion of the world. Both clerks did everything they possibly could to bring the system back on-line. It would not comply. Both clerks requested we sit down in the waiting area, and they would attempt to clear up the problem.
We sat down and waited and waited. Twenty minutes later Jean walked back to Window 5 and somehow the supervisor made the computer at Window 5 work and so Jean was supplied a temporary driver’s license with the real one coming in the mail in the next two weeks. I waited another 10 minutes and I walked up to Window 12. The woman clerk smiled at me and said it still was not working. I told her the woman clerk at Window 5 was successful in getting Jean’s driver’s license record to work in the computer system by having the supervisor do it. The supervisor happened be taking information from people at Window 11. She tried to make it work for my record. No success. The computer file was still locked up. The woman supervisor said, “They have been updating the computer system and I guess this does not work. They know about it. They are working on it.” She had no idea if or when it would be fixed. I was told to come back the next day. They supplied me a priority number so I would be the first in line when I came back.
I arrived the next day, obtained my priority number, and was promptly called to Window 5. The clerk again tried to enter the information into the system. It did not work. She kept on clicking and clicking. The computer still would not accept the information. She continued clicking. No sale. She then went to another computer and scanned my passport information into that computer. She then returned. She began clicking keys on her computer again. She looked at me, “It’s not working!”. She looked down at the computer screen again. “It worked!”, she exclaimed. She was extremely happy and let out a big sigh.
I received my new driver’s license with the security sticker a week later.
So you see I can crash a computer system without even trying.
I think people should offer me a job of crashing computer systems. I accomplish that feat just by walking through the door.
