Re: New Installment
"A real bastard would have done some additional, inconspicuous damage - like short the pairs together in some hard to find location. Imagine the blue wire from one cable being cross circuited to the orange-white of a different cable altogether? Try figuring that one out."
Close. True, a real bastard would have shorted some cables. But first they'd leave a handy metal stepladder near the rack. Then they'd cut the cables at a length necessitating use of said ladder. The BOFH would arrange so that the condensate line from the air-conditioning unit is routed to deposit condensate around the comms racks (and would spill a bottle of table salt on the floor to enhance conductivity over the normal semi-distilled state). Then they'd short some wire, but none of this blue to green stuff. No, they'd make sure to short a few random cables to mains power.
Last step on the way out: disable the lift, making the use of the metal stepladder that much more inviting when compared to lugging a company fiberglass unit down the steps.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
