From the "Shark Tank", Computerworld
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2001
BY SHARKY
Talk to the Hand
Called into the boss's office "for yet another brainstorming session." IT pilot fish is then kept cooling his heels while the boss continues working.
"I'm sitting there for at least five or 10 minutes while he finishes dictating a memo into a recorder or something," fish grouses.
"Finally, he finishes and gives me his attention. That's when I notice that the recorder is no recorder at all -- it's a PalmPilot.
"High-tech guru as I am, I become curious, so I ask my boss about his new toy."
"After listening to him bolster his ego for a few minutes (something about him being on the bleeding edge of technology and such)," says fish, "I ask him point blank, 'So, you can dictate into the Palm now, huh?' "
Boss pauses while the seeds of doubt grow, and a puzzled look creeps over his face. "Well, I sure hope so ...," he says, trailing off.
"Made my day," says fish.
Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Sunday, April 08, 2001
This is an old story,
One day, this frantic call comes in. I need help. But whoever comes can't tell anyone what they see. It's classified! What's the problem? Can't tell you. Where are you? Whispered discussion follows in background. I'm in XYZ, the second floor. Ok. So I head over there, wondering about the dire consequences of having to examine the system to see what was wrong without looking at the system, and ready to get yelled at for having to look at the system.
I arrive and find four senior members of the company staff huddled around this system. Panic is on their faces. They ask, "Can you fix it?". "What happened?" is my reply. Another whispered conference. "There is something wrong with the software, the system won't start". I flip the power switch on. The OS messages start appearing, then the screen goes blank. Ok. "Has anyone installed anything recently on the system". Another hushed conference. "Well, yes". Ok, I could see this was going places fast. So I booted the system again, this time as a minimal setup. Looked at the configuation. Not the latest, but not ancient. Looked at the startup script. What the he??! I remove the offending line and reboot the system. It boots up. Cheers erupt from the conspirators.
The problem? They had wanted to suprise their boss on April 1. So they wanted to put in a "special graphic". Since one of them was "always working on computers" they let that person enter the name of the graphic into the startup script. That's right. Not a program, just the name of the graphic. Then rebooted the system to see their handiwork. Oops, no screen. They thought VIRUS. I thought STUPID.
I asked if they wanted to insert a program to display the graphic. They said no.
I sent a bill for double my regular fee for that one.
One day, this frantic call comes in. I need help. But whoever comes can't tell anyone what they see. It's classified! What's the problem? Can't tell you. Where are you? Whispered discussion follows in background. I'm in XYZ, the second floor. Ok. So I head over there, wondering about the dire consequences of having to examine the system to see what was wrong without looking at the system, and ready to get yelled at for having to look at the system.
I arrive and find four senior members of the company staff huddled around this system. Panic is on their faces. They ask, "Can you fix it?". "What happened?" is my reply. Another whispered conference. "There is something wrong with the software, the system won't start". I flip the power switch on. The OS messages start appearing, then the screen goes blank. Ok. "Has anyone installed anything recently on the system". Another hushed conference. "Well, yes". Ok, I could see this was going places fast. So I booted the system again, this time as a minimal setup. Looked at the configuation. Not the latest, but not ancient. Looked at the startup script. What the he??! I remove the offending line and reboot the system. It boots up. Cheers erupt from the conspirators.
The problem? They had wanted to suprise their boss on April 1. So they wanted to put in a "special graphic". Since one of them was "always working on computers" they let that person enter the name of the graphic into the startup script. That's right. Not a program, just the name of the graphic. Then rebooted the system to see their handiwork. Oops, no screen. They thought VIRUS. I thought STUPID.
I asked if they wanted to insert a program to display the graphic. They said no.
I sent a bill for double my regular fee for that one.
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