I make mistakes. Some days I make more than others. I feel bad each time. It’s when I’m feeling bad about the mistake that I remind myself, “It’s ok to make mistakes. I’m going to learn something from them! I’m going to find a way to reverse them!”
Last week, I deleted 2,943 emails from a shared account. I was attempting to execute admin level Powershell commands which I found on the web. It was a simple set of commands that opens the mailbox on the Exchange Server, identifies a filtered set of emails, and then moves them to a designated location. In this case, I wanted to move the emails to another mailbox.
It’s important to know that I had several browser tabs open to various pages of Powershell actions and commands. One allowed me to login, another to gain access to Exchange, another to impersonate a mailbox user, another to copy emails, you get the idea.
I jumped back and forth between the tabs to find the commands I needed for the sequence of actions necessary to execute this simple process.
That’s probably when I copied the emails from the shared -MailboxIdentity and made a -MoveTo and dropped them in the -HardDelete of the other mailbox.
Hard Delete?! HARD DELETE?!
Big Mistake!
If only I had instant replay and could overturn the previous decision…
1978: NFL Instant Replay is Born…. and Dies.
The 1978 Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio between the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins was an exhibition of skill, class, and technologic futility. This game was the official introduction of Instant Replay to the NFL sporting world. Replay unofficially appeared as a concept two years prior but the ’78 season was its first. Six regular season games featured the use of replay. Yet the lack of quality cameras, a high cost for the technology, and an excruciatingly lengthy replay review forced its immediate cessation.
A little less than ten years later, the NFL reintroduced Instant Replay. The 1985 season featured a number of games with the replay technology. One needs little reminder that cameras and live televised events were eons behind today’s standards. Take a look at the 1985 Week 5 matchup between the Bears and Bucs. Enjoy the low-def 4:3 aspect ratio in all its historic glory! How could anyone overturn a call from these cameras?
Stats Prove Human Fallibility, but Replay Dies Again
In the six seasons between 1985 and 1991, Instant Replay was utilized 2,967 times in 1,330 games. The overall average replay reversal was 12.6% from an average of 2.2 reviews per game. What is fascinating about the use of replay comes from the yearly increase in reversals. Between 1985 and 1991, reversals increased just about every year – clearly proving that humans could not make the correct call on the field and required advancing technology to assist in judgment. The last three years of Instant Replay in this era demonstrated greater and greater technologic disruption to the human adjudication of NFL games. Given the improving quality but the lingering animosity, the NFL killed off replay – again – after the 1991 season.
The 90’s, Replay Lies Dormant
Not until the late 1990’s did the NFL revive Instant Replay. In the new format established for 1999, replay rewarded coaches for challenging plays which were overturned and punished them for plays that stood. Not unsurprisingly the number of reversals increased dramatically compared to the replay use in the 80’s. To this day, there remains an increasingly small gain in overall reversals made from replay almost each year. The average overall percent of reversals made in 1999 was 29% vs. 43% in 2016, while the average number of reviews per game barely moved a yard.
When replay was reintroduced in 1999, the equipment was vastly better than 1985 or even 1991. Technology finally provided the clear eye in the sky that replay required to be an integral component of the game’s refereeing of plays. Instant Replay is in widespread use of American sports to this day.
The Replay around the World
The greatest game in the world, football – or soccer to Americans, introduced replay in the early 2010’s. Born out of the Dutch Eredivisie, Video Assisted Referee (VAR) emerged just a mere 30 years after its introduction to football – or throwball to everyone else. Instant replay globalized. Unlike replay in the NFL, where almost every damn play can be reviewed (except in the last 2:00 or in Overtime), VAR can ONLY be used for 4 distinct categories – 1) Goal or No Goal, 2) Penalty Kick or Not, 3) Red Card or Not, 4) Mistaken Identity or Not (players wearing another player’s jersey).
The most popular league in the Western World is the Premier League. Introduced this year, VAR was implemented by all eligible clubs. VAR has undoubtedly changed the outcome of the leagues matches. Unfortunately for Everton fans, Liverpool’s desperation to win the league, something the team has not done since the 1989-1990 season, is well underway with definite support from VAR results in their favour. Could the first season of VAR supplant actual human football in rewarding a champion? The fact is, Liverpool would only be a few points ahead of Man City were it not for replay reversals. Did the clubs make an egregious human mistake when implementing VAR?
The beauty of replay in the two biggest sports leagues on the planet is that humans invented it. And like all humans making mistakes, sometimes the inventions are a mistake. Sometimes the technology of instant replay caused mistakes. Sometimes the implementation of the technology caused mistakes. But the results from plays being upheld or overturned by instant replay consequently affects the outcomes of very important, albeit expensive, sporting events.
We all make mistakes. Instant Replay is to ensure that our mistakes are not too costly. The technology utilized in VAR and Instant Replay is lightyears beyond 5, 10, or 15 years ago, making it absolutely sufficient for overturning a human error in judgment.
Recycle Bins are Technologists Instant Replay
The cold sweat oozed from my forehead, my pulse quickened, and I lost my hearing for about 5 minutes as my basic instincts took over. I knew that losing 2,943 emails was bad enough, but what would the future hold when I told my executives about the data loss? That’s when I trusted the technology, that’s when I knew the tech was better now than ever before, that’s when I knew a deep recycle bin was there to overturn my mistake.
I calmly entered the Powershell commands to recover the deleted emails, and then took a long walk around the buildings.
Humans make mistakes, but modern and disruptive technologies are helping us reverse the plays!
Bird's Bytes 