A Special Ed student used an RJ45 cable to swing a phone like a flail, destroying a wall box. Unbelievably, the phone survived. Sysadmins share their trauma.
Was just casually debugging some cursed spaghetti code when I stumbled upon this pure physical destruction on Reddit. A Special Ed student just channeled his inner Thor, using a desk phone as Mjolnir and an Ethernet cable as the strap.
Over on r/techsupportgore (the holy land for sysadmins to cry together), a techie posted the aftermath of a meltdown. A Special Ed student grabbed an RJ45 Ethernet cable connected to a hefty VoIP phone and just went full centrifugal force on it.
The collateral damage? The wall box was completely ripped out. The infrastructure was basically yeeted out of existence. But here is the black magic part: Somehow, some way, that damn phone CAN STILL MAKE AND RECEIVE CALLS. Tell me that isn't straight-up witchcraft.
The comment section was a beautiful mix of hardware worship and PTSD sharing.
As devs, we spend hours writing unit tests and trying to predict user edge cases in our software. But nothing prepares you for a user executing a physical DDoS attack on your hardware. If you ever wonder why enterprise gear is so bulky and over-engineered, this is why. Even when it’s built like a tank, users will find a way to break it.
Next time you're gathering funds for a new hardware project, maybe consider testing it against a teenager swinging it by the cord. Huge respect to the tech support guys working in Special Ed environments—you guys have the patience of saints and deserve a massive raise!
Sauce: Reddit
