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What was your biggest project Disaster? We are asking e14 in our Join, Share & Win Competition

e14phil

Calling all makers, engineers, and tinkerers!
We are back for a second, and more SPOOKY month, asking you about your projects, spaces and adventures in engineering!
Last month we asked you about your workbench tips RE: What are your Tips for an Organized Workbench? [Ask e14 - Join, Share & Win Competition] September 2025 

This month we want to know about the biggest project disaster you have experienced. 

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Photos: Historically "accurate" engineering accidents.  

Competition
Join the element14 Community today and take part in our latest “Join, Share & Win” challenge.

It’s simple:
1. Register (or Login) for FREE
2. Answer this question by adding a reply / commenting:

What was your biggest project Disaster?

3. Be in with a chance to WIN!

Share with us your best (hopefully lighthearted) watercooler story of how that one project sank, fell over or failed to start!

The Community Judge team will select our 3 favorite answers to win one of the prizes below. 

Here’s what you could win:

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Arduino Uno R4 Minima

General Terms
What: Win 1 of 3 Arduino UNO R4 Minima
How: Sign up  or Sign in and Comment your answer to What was your biggest project Disaster?
When: Before October 31th 2025. 
Anything else: Full terms are below, but we must be able to ship to the address in your account. 

Entries close October 31st, 2025, so don’t wait!

Terms & Conditions
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  • I took a short trip down memory lane and came up with a command attribute that tested my resolved as a system administrators in the *nix world. The scenario was this. The maintenance exercise is being done remotely. Access to the corporate network and it computer systems if from the comfort of my home some distance away from the office.

    It is five hours into a six hour maintenance window that started at midnight to reduce the impact the upgrade would have on users. The software upgrade that was tested in development didn't go as planned during the production implementation. After an hours on the phone with the software vendor's tech support looking for a fix, a back-out of the upgrade is the only option. 

    That back-out has taken a few hours. A final reboot is all that is required to erase the failed nocturnal exercise. "shutdown -r now" is CLI required command but I type a "shutdown -h now". Both will result in a blank screen. One command reboots the system and the other halts the system. To restore a halted system you physically have to push the power button on the front of the equipment.

    Lets just say, I exceeded the maintenance window before the system was restored. That evening and the fallout is etched into my memory. It was my go to story when mentoring new administrators on consequence of actions.

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  • I took a short trip down memory lane and came up with a command attribute that tested my resolved as a system administrators in the *nix world. The scenario was this. The maintenance exercise is being done remotely. Access to the corporate network and it computer systems if from the comfort of my home some distance away from the office.

    It is five hours into a six hour maintenance window that started at midnight to reduce the impact the upgrade would have on users. The software upgrade that was tested in development didn't go as planned during the production implementation. After an hours on the phone with the software vendor's tech support looking for a fix, a back-out of the upgrade is the only option. 

    That back-out has taken a few hours. A final reboot is all that is required to erase the failed nocturnal exercise. "shutdown -r now" is CLI required command but I type a "shutdown -h now". Both will result in a blank screen. One command reboots the system and the other halts the system. To restore a halted system you physically have to push the power button on the front of the equipment.

    Lets just say, I exceeded the maintenance window before the system was restored. That evening and the fallout is etched into my memory. It was my go to story when mentoring new administrators on consequence of actions.

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