IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith
Jack Smith
Show overview
IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith launched in 2025 and has put out 32 episodes, alongside 3 trailers or bonus episodes in the time since. That works out to roughly 15 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 13 min and 35 min — with run-times ranging widely across the catalogue. Roughly 28% of episodes carry an explicit flag from the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Technology show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 6 days ago, with 24 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2026, with 24 episodes published. Published by Jack Smith.
From the publisher
We delve into the bizarre and often cringe-worthy world of IT mishaps, glitches, and the horror stories that come with it. With a sarcastic twist we recount the tales of those who somehow manage to create chaos out of the simplest tasks. We strike a balance between relatable frustration and dark humor that gets even the most cringe-inducing stories entertaining and you will find yourself laughing, cringing, and shaking their heads in disbelief as we take a wild ride through the chaotic world of IT, where every glitch is a ghost story waiting to be told.
Latest Episodes
View all 32 episodesPinball as IoT : When Arcade Machines Go Online
The Three Envelopes: Blame, Reorganize, Repeat
Jack's Rants - Why You Need to Reboot : Why Rebooting Your Computer Actually Fixes Problems
Testing Software Properly : Software Testing Done Right – Where, When and What Should You Test?
Microcode Mayhem : How a Mainframe Timer Bug Slowed an Entire Development Team
Jack's Rants - AI Is The New Shadow IT : Why Employees Are Quietly Building the Next IT Risk
Melbourne Cup Meltdown : How a Betting System Crashed at the Worst Possible Moment
Jack's Rants - The Missing Five Minutes : Why scambaiting videos leave security professionals with more questions than answers
One Network to Rule Them All : How a Missing VLAN Strategy Turned Smart City Infrastructure into a Cybersecurity Nightmare
Jack's Rants - Can I Keep Your ID? : Privacy, Identity Theft, Data Minimization, and Why Your Driver's License Is Not a Bar Tab Deposit
Cardboard Confidential : A Cybersecurity Incident, a Golf Course Conversation, and Why No Industry Is Too Boring to Be Targeted
Jack's Rants - The New Change Management - ITIL Change Control, Organizational Change, and Why Project Managers Suddenly Need Psychology Degrees
GDPR Enters the Chat - The Day a Hiring Exercise Became an Information Security Incident
Spooling Out of Control - Enterprise Printing Explained and Why Printing Still Breaks IT
Sleep Mode in Production - How a Laptop Took Down a Warehouse
Ransomware Lockdown - What a Real-World Ransomware Attack Looks Like: Incident Response and Recovery
Jack's Rants - Floppy Disks at 35000 Feet - Why Boeing 747s Still Use Floppy Disks for Flight Management Systems
S1 Ep 12The Failover That Failed Successfully - Lessons from a Successfully Failed Disaster Recovery and Failover Test
EConducted during a busy release weekend, the failover test exposed gaps not in the technology itself, but in coordination and communication. While production ultimately stayed unaffected, the situation quickly escalated as subcontractors weren't aligned, assumptions didn't match reality, and information didn't flow when it mattered most. We unpack how a well-intentioned test turned into a coordination challenge, where timing, dependencies, and unclear responsibilities created confusion across teams. It's a story about how resilience isn't just about systems and infrastructure, but also about people, processes, and making sure everyone is on the same page — especially when things are supposed to "just be a test." 00:00 Welcome & Setup 01:34 Corporate Environments 03:30 Failover Planning 07:19 Double Disaster 09:08 Critical Failure 13:20 Realization Moment 15:28 Split Brain 17:34 The Recovery 21:13 Lessons Learned 31:32 Conclusion
Jack's Rants - IT Hiring Chaos – The Strange State of the Tech Job Market
bonusEIn this short episode, Jack takes a look at the current state of the IT hiring market — where job postings seem plentiful, but actual opportunities often feel strangely elusive. From "entry-level" roles asking for a decade of experience to companies searching for the mythical full-stack, cloud, DevOps, security expert all in one person, we discuss the growing gap between job descriptions and reality. With a bit of sarcasm and a lot of firsthand observation, we unpack what's going on in tech hiring right now and why so many professionals feel like the market has become a puzzle nobody quite understands. 00:00 Introduction 00:39 Market Struggles 02:22 Hardware Shortages 02:56 Merged Roles 05:12 Interview Issues 08:31 AI's Impact 10:18 Conclusion
S1 Ep 11Raspberry Mistery - 200 Techs Using A Single Raspberry Pi: The Temporary Server That Failed
EA few hundred field engineers. Real humans. With vans. And jobs. All coordinated by a device roughly the size of a coaster and powered by something suspiciously similar to a phone charger. For months, it runs slow but flawlessly. Tickets dispatched. Routes optimized. Managers happy. The tiny silicon hero hums along in its noble plastic case, bravely pretending it's not one 'apt upgrade' away from a crisis. Join us as we unravel the mystery, debate the true definition of "production-ready," and ask the question no one wanted to say out loud. 00:00 Welcome Back 01:23 Shadow IT Chaos 05:18 Major Outage 12:04 Data Center Discovery 17:59 Where's the Server? 19:58 Raspberry Pi Reveal 25:13 Migration Success 30:36 Closing Thoughts