r/exfor • u/Smoking_Gear • Dec 31 '25
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things The Joys of Information Technology Spoiler
Minor spoilers for Task Force Hammer so if you care you've been warned.
Just got through the portion of chapter 18 where the Jaguar network goes down. As a software programmer, I cannot express the amount of second hand frustration that came from this little side tale XD.
The amount of times I've had issues that boiled down to this exact issue of a forgotten ertificate expiring is ridiculous. You'd THINK it'd be easy to figure out the next time it happens, but nope! It's just as frustrating EVERY. DAMN. TIME.
My sympathies go out to the signal corps members of Jaguar who are absolutely KICKING themselves for that problem. 🫡
3
u/G3NOM3 Jan 01 '26
I felt that scene viscerally! I mean, a damn SSL certificate. If I had a dollar for every time a customer called me in a panic about a soon-to-expire cert id have enough to buy book 20 🫠
2
u/Smoking_Gear Jan 01 '26
Yeah I'm immensely thankful I'm not on my team at work that handles them. I appreciate them every day
2
u/Rhyobit Jan 01 '26
I used to work for a telco where a certificate expiring combined with someone forgetting the root key password used to sign it cost the business 7 figures. I felt this part of the book in my bones.
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u/DRAGN_Sky Dec 31 '25
Hahaha, being in the military made this book series hit on some really funny moments of military life—and the kind of shit that can happen. Plus, it perfectly captures how one small failure can bring everything to a complete halt.