Read what I type.

[Midorikawa]

I just had this discussion between head office in Japan, and the data center somewhere in China:

DC: Data center.
HQ: Headquarters
Me: In need a PFY to my BOFH.

(note: all parties can see all parts of the conversation)
Me: Datacenter, server 2 is down. Can you power cycle it?
DC: Do you mean server 82?
Me: Server 2 is down. Please power cycle.
DC: K. All better.
HQ: Did you mean server 82?
Me: *facepalm* No. Server 2 was down, but is better now.
HQ: Oh. Ok.

I know there's a language barrier, but numbers don't change really between languages. The way they're spoken, but written they're the same. In addition, all parties speak English rather well.

[MoonCat]

Maybe there was something wrong with 82 earlier in the day and they thought you were referring to that...? Is there even a server 82?

[Midorikawa]

Maybe there was something wrong with 82 earlier in the day and they thought you were referring to that...? Is there even a server 82?

Nope. that server had no reports of outages over the last 3 weeks. the server exists, but apparently everyone thinks I typo a lot or something, even though my emails are grammatically and syntactically correct, and triple check everything before I do it (not doing so results in downed servers, lost job, and probably shortly followed by foreclosure.)

[roothorick]

Chinese datacenter? That's gotta be asking for trouble. Stay in the first world when it comes to hosting folks.

I wonder why they keep blaming server 82... maybe there's a story you don't know about.

Me: In need a PFY to my BOFH.

Where do I apply?

[Midorikawa]

Chinese datacenter? That's gotta be asking for trouble. Stay in the first world when it comes to hosting folks.

Well, I do work for a Japanese owned company, working in their Managed Services department for a client in Japan, so it's not too bad. Technically, I'm the outsourced one. :-)

Where do I apply?

Right here. *hands over a foil coated book with a cord attached*

Nevermind the cord. it's for grounding...so you don't fry anything... >_> <_<

[Pairou]

China is pretty technologically advanced, so Japanese companies tend to do a lot of business with Chinese companies, from what I could tell when I lived there (Japan).