-- Junior-level IT pilot fish has been repeatedly told not to comment on senior staffers' actions or performance. So he just watches as another staffer and a vendor guy set up a new UPS for a mission-critical server. Staffer says, "OK, it's time to test it" -- and unplugs the server from the UPS. "I bit my tongue but said to myself, 'I don't think that's the appropriate way to test a UPS,'" says fish. "At the outbrief, I was asked why I didn't speak up. I guess everything really does roll downhill."
-- Office manager for this small rail-car company calls pilot fish to complain that she hears voices over the newly installed wireless network. Fish knows that's impossible, so he just power-cycles the access point and tells her to call if it happens again. "Two hours later, she called," says fish. "Sure enough, in her office I heard a voice say, 'Switching is complete, we can roll." I looked out and saw a train stopped next to the building. The rail crew's radio was being picked up by the cheap speakers on her PC."
-- User's keyboard generates random characters, and when support pilot fish examines it, he gets a lapful of water. "The user had as surprised a look as I had," says fish. "I was about to ask her what she spilled but then noticed a wet spot on the ceiling. Apparently, rain from the weekend had leaked onto the keyboard. I replaced the keyboard, moved the user to a drier area and called maintenance to repair the roof."
-- Pilot fish notices two programmers staring at a screen. Fred: "Yeah, I don't know what causes the bug, but if I run the debugger enough times, it goes away." Barney: "Well then, we just need to make sure to run the debugger a lot." Fred: "I wonder what causes it." Barney: "At least we have a solution now."
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