Reminds me of Molly guards. I would dearly love to track down who it originated from! Internet lore stops at referencing a programmer whose young daughter Molly kept pressing the on/off button. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/molly-guard.html
The following is from https://ws.engr.illinois.edu/sitemanager/getfile.asp?id=540 , [U of I] Department of Computer Science, Alumni News, Winter 2001, Vol 2 No 7, page 14. Judy Tolliver editor. The winning google search was "illinois.edu" molly guard ibm button.
Mollyguard? - Ed Krol explains
Ed Krol explains the origins of the word Mollyguard, which dates back to 1982, like this: “I was concerned with the Cyber [mainframe], and right behind the Cyberconsole was an IBM 4341—a nondescript, singularly unimpressive, desk-sized grey machine. The only thing about it was that on one side was a big red switch—kid-sized, about 2 inches wide. The switch was like the emergency OFF switch, and if you pulled it you actually had to call an IBM engineer to come in and reset it. There was some crisis on the Cyber, and I was babysitting that day, and so I took my daughter Molly in to work with me. I said, ‘You play with your trucks on the floor while I work,’ and she saw this amazing big red thing and gave it a yank and turned it off. You weren’t supposed to do that to those big machines at the time. Our computer center director then had little plexiglas flaps installed so that you had to lift the flap up before you could pull the switch. Charley [Kline] named them Mollyguards to protect them from Molly. It was a funny play on words, too, because molybdenum is a slippery element and there used to be a grease called Molygard.”
Krol, BS 73, is now assistant director of CCSO, and Kline, BS84, MS 86, who was a student hourly at the time, is now principal research programmer at CCSO. Molly Krol is a senior at Luther College in Iowa.
It was Kline who submitted the word Mollyguard to the Jargon File, a collection of computer slang from various technical cultures begun by Raphael Finkel at Stanford in 1975. Here is how it appears on this list, mirrored on many Web sites:
molly-guard /mol’ee-gard/ n.
[University of Illinois] A shield to prevent tripping of some Big Red Switch by clumsy or ignorant hands. Originally used for the plexiglass covers improvised for the BRS on an IBM 4341 after a programmer’s toddler daughter (named Molly) frobbed it twice in one day. Later generalized to covers over stop/reset switches on disk drives and networking equipment. In hardware catalogues, you’ll see the much less interesting description “guarded button.” n
(It wasn't the launch button; it was the emergency shutdown button, which would have cost them an hour to restart everything. When they're there on a Saturday. I was exiled to the parking lot for the duration.)
Apparently large bright red button and 3 year olds don’t mix.
Much fun was not had.
I was left by myself for a bit and went across to look at the server and open the door - only after I pressed the button did I realise that it was the on/off switch rather than a door open.
I hastily switched it back on and made it back to my seat before before anyone came to the room to check what had happened to their server!
Edit: this is back when on/off really meant on or off with respect to power :)
Apparently two dimwits from another tenant were onsite tending to their rack when they saw the big red buttons on the wall spaced ten feet apart, and wondered what they would do when you held them down simultaneously.
Turns out, they did precisely what the not-so-little signs said they would.