On-call pilot fish is awakened at 2 a.m. one Sunday by a call from the network operations center — and he figures it’s urgent. Why else would the NOC call in the middle of the night on a weekend?

“The NOC wanted me to call an analyst regarding a server, but didn’t specify a reason,” says fish. “Are you insane? I thought. Then I suddenly remembered that I placed a call to this big vendor’s support group that Friday, but they usually didn’t work that quickly.”

So fish calls the analyst. Why are you calling me at 2 a.m. on a Sunday? he asks.

Analyst: “You’re up? I’m up, too!”

Fish: Is this server down?

Analyst: “No, I just wondered if the vendor has any update.”

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