DataPlunger
If your computer machine-room is still equipped with a floor-plate puller which is actually a tool for handling plate glass, you need DATAPLUNGER! It's an ordinary plumber's friend, used to lift false-floor plates. To disengage, just kick it sideways. (The DATAPLUNGER seems to be a very old tradition in some places, unknown in others. I first saw it in an IBM shop about 15 years ago.) People here considered it a joke until our computing center was moved to a new building and demand for the single floor-puller became a problem during the new installation. We bought a dozen plungers from the local hardware store. The prototype has lasted for 5 years but the new batch were of low quality, and the pulling forces caused the internal threads of their rubber cups to strip out; the DATAPLUNGER should be reinforced with a hose clamp around the junction of cup and handle. A deluxe model, the FLOOR HARPOON, uses a mop handle and can be used from a standing position. (One guy here likes to draw pictures of baby seals on the floor plates; another drew a target on the wall.) It was difficult to find a mop handle with the right threads to fit the rubber cup. We had to mark our plungers "DATA ONLY," with a circle-and-slash over a picture of a toilet. When the management gives a VIP tour of our spiffy new facility, it seems to embarrass them if someone walks by with a plunger over his shoulder. This means that some enterprising yuppie/yuppette could make big bucks by redesigning the device with a hi-tech look (black- anodized aluminum handle with holes and racing stripes... :^]