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Does this mean I shouldn't have labeled the switch/control for my heater and just let people guess as to what they do?  Kinda adds to the mystique of a CMC Outlaw.

Something in my engineering background says that's wrong, but then I look at that $$$$$ Bentley and wonder......  

"Ahhhh....  The Mystery Button!  If you have to ask what it does, you probably couldn't afford it."

And don't the VS cars come with some sort of an owner's manual to tell them stuff like this?  If not, why not?  I have one for my CMC and I know that the Becks come with a manual.  Just food for thought.

I’m pretty sure the mystery has been solved so I’m going to tell my “red button” story.

During the last four years I’ve been at the sheriff’s office I have been in the training unit. Just after joining the team four years ago our new Lieutenant told the landlord of our building he needed to make some repairs as the building had been neglected for some time. As a result the office got new flooring, paint, bathroom upgrades, and a few other repairs. The Lieutenant also didn’t like the layout and office assignments so he moved some people around. Specifically he didn’t like that the Office Assistant was in the back of the building instead of up front where people came in. The room we were moving the OA into used to be a break room. Now, up until that time I’d been working at the sheriff’s office, which was about 20 years at that time, there has been a red button on the wall in the break room. Not a small button, a large button, sort of like what you’d see to launch rockets during a full on attack. No one has ever known what the button was for. The office used to be occupied by a lab of some type before the sheriff’s office moved in. So on the day we were moving furniture I walked in and out of that office probably 20 times. Every time I walked by that red button I wanted to push it, just to see what it did. Finally curiosity got the better of me and I pressed it. Power in the whole building shut off. Being that remodeling had gone on several times over the years there were at least three fuse panels that we could find. I checked them all but I could not find where the red button interrupted the main power. Anyway, the county sent out an electrician and they got the power restored the next day. The OA put up a picture of me next to the button and a note that read, “Don’t be this guy. Don’t press the red button”. We all got a pretty good laugh about it. I thought the Lieutenant was going to be pretty mad at me but he laughed about it and admitted he has always wanted to push the red button too but just couldn’t do it.

Sometimes you shouldn’t press the red button.

Indeed.

We had the same Big Red Button on the wall next to each of the access doors to our computer labs and they did the exact same thing - Punch the button and a big, Honkin' relay somewhere in the bowels of the building tripped and the whole lab (or building, if so configured) went down instantly.  It was a state code because we had Halon foggers in the centers so if someone saw a fire or big-a$$ sparks, they could run and hit the button, killing the lab and turning on the emergency lighting so they could get out.

I would suspect that some time in the dark past, your room was an access point for a data center of some sort (or maybe a dispatch center with a lot of equipment).  

We thought of labeling ours with "Don't push this button" in a bunch of different languages, but finally arrived at an illustration, instead.

We had over a hundred big systems running 24/7 tests in many of our labs so hitting that button interrupted all that and it could take days to recover and cost $$$$$ in lost testing.  We were all highly encouraged to never touch them.

Don't press Button

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Last edited by Gordon Nichols

There was a Bar in Pasadena Ca. that had a big red button in both restrooms with a sign "DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON" !  Of course there is always someone who just Has To push it !  When they did, the whole ceiling would flash colored lights and speakers instantly started playing the theme song to 2001 Space Odyssey really loud both in the restroom and out in the bar. Needless to say what kind of reactions happened but everyone always clapped and yelled comments at the person when they came out, usually red-faced !...................Bruce

@Robert M posted:

I’m pretty sure the mystery has been solved so I’m going to tell my “red button” story.

Sometimes you shouldn’t press the red button.

Hilarious story, Robert. I've always wanted to push the red button and must have mentioned it a few times. When a data center renovation was completed, the director gave me the big red button they replaced. I swear I looked at it 10 times while building the speedster and tried to think about where I could put it.PXL_20210603_155123850

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Indeed.

We had the same Big Red Button on the wall next to each of the access doors to our computer labs and they did the exact same thing - Punch the button and a big, Honkin' relay somewhere in the bowels of the building tripped and the whole lab (or building, if so configured) went down instantly.  It was a state code because we had Halon foggers in the centers so if someone saw a fire or big-a$$ sparks, they could run and hit the button, killing the lab and turning on the emergency lighting so they could get out.

I would suspect that some time in the dark past, your room was an access point for a data center of some sort (or maybe a dispatch center with a lot of equipment).  

We thought of labeling ours with "Don't push this button" in a bunch of different languages, but finally arrived at an illustration, instead.

We had over a hundred big systems running 24/7 tests in many of our labs so hitting that button interrupted all that and it could take days to recover and cost $$$$$ in lost testing.  We were all highly encouraged to never touch them.

Don't press Button

We had the same button in our hospital server room and a contractor pushed it one day.  Crashed all the servers and set off the halon fire suppressor system.  Created havoc in the  entire hospital.

Had a friend in H.S. who was anal about buttons. He just HAD to see what they did!

So , I was working, installing 8 track car stereo's and built a little box just for him; push button, red light and fuse complete with a sign "Don't press the button". Guaranteed he couldn't help it. Pressed the button. Fuse blew, light went out...he was P.O's for a week.

His name was Tommy Gunn..no kiddin'. Characters in his family included Pop Gunn, Ray Gunn, Squirt Gunn and Susan. Really!

Myself, I'd just have pushed the red button and avoided all this....Just sayin'

@IaM-Ray posted:

A teenager in high school says to himself... I wonder what would happen if I pull this....

My long widowed Aunt Lois Baer was about 112 when I was a kid (or seemed so, anyway). She looked very much like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but she was a kindly woman and she loved me.

When I married Jeanie, she was loved by Aunt Lois as well. Jeanie would clean her house and visit with her initially, and eventually she would help her with personal care. When Aunt Lois moved to the nursing home, Jeanie visited her once a week.

She'd take my son with her (he was about 6 at the time), and he'd kind of roam the halls (to some extent), just exploring as kids did before we neutered their childhoods. Anyway, one day he was out in the hall, and looked up at a switch just like that one. He could read at the time, and the switch said, "Pull Down", so he did.

The poor kid had no idea. He was just doing what the sign said to do when all pandemonium broke loose. Imagine a couple hundred old people in walkers and wheelchairs being shuffled out of their room, out the door to stand on the sidewalk, and you've got the idea.

I had no heart or desire to punish him. He had no idea, and he'd already died a thousand deaths watching the whole thing unfold.

I love me a big red button/switch.

@Stan Galat posted:

My long widowed Aunt Lois Baer was about 112 when I was a kid (or seemed so, anyway). She looked very much like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but she was a kindly woman and she loved me.

When I married Jeanie, she was loved by Aunt Lois as well. Jeanie would clean her house and visit with her initially, and eventually she would help her with personal care. When Aunt Lois moved to the nursing home, Jeanie visited her once a week.

She'd take my son with her (he was about 6 at the time), and he'd kind of roam the halls (to some extent), just exploring as kids did before we neutered their childhoods. Anyway, one day he was out in the hall, and looked up at a switch just like that one. He could read at the time, and the switch said, "Pull Down", so he did.

The poor kid had no idea. He was just doing what the sign said to do when all pandemonium broke loose. Imagine a couple hundred old people in walkers and wheelchairs being shuffled out of their room, out the door to stand on the sidewalk, and you've got the idea.

I had no heart or desire to punish him. He had no idea, and he'd already died a thousand deaths watching the whole thing unfold.

I love me a big red button/switch.

A man child after my own heart, and in early teenage hood at 6

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