True tales of IT life: useless users, hapless bosses, clueless vendors and adventures in the IT trenches. Compiled over the years from the frontlines.
Just a little deceit between friends.
You have to know your audience.
The methodology that dares not speak its name.
If only all IT-user interactions could go like this.
Sorry to tell you, but the automation works better.
Why no Wi-Fi?
And yet some people see no value in practical jokes.
Remoting from a non-remote PC? It’s all too metaphysical.
In which a pilot fish learns a really efficient way to kill an SSD disk.
A patient pilot fish finally gets his due.
Some employees start in the mailroom and work their way down.
A moving story from back in the day.
It’s all so random.
Sometimes you just need to do a little percussive maintenance.
It’s not raining now, therefore it won’t rain in the future.
The exception that proves the rule?
It’s a heat wave, but just in the server room.
At her most recent performance review, this pilot fish gets a rating of 3 of a possible 5 -- "fully satisfactory." Not bad, but she wants to do better. The question: How?
A few years after Y2K, this pilot fish has overall responsibility for his company's website -- which is why the frantic CEO emails him to say the website has been hacked.
The plan is to add Wi-Fi to this factory, and to speed up the process they're trying something new this time: training an IT guy to run the scissor lift for himself
This IT pilot fish lands a one-year gig working at an Army installation, and it turns out that the IT rules are just like in the civilian world -- only more so.
This soon-to-graduate IT pilot fish is in serious job-search mode -- better still, he's offered a job that pays well and really sounds like fun. Why wouldn't he take it?
Company's wired network is being upgraded, and this user sits right next to a main conduit for the wires -- so she has a good idea of what's wrong when things go south.
Pilot fish is the volunteer on-call IT department for a church that has decided to let its congregation use the church's Wi-Fi network. What's so hard about that?
IT pilot fish is facing layoffs at the defense contractor where he works, but at least he feels better about one thing: His job didn't require a security clearance.
Just before a holiday, this IT support guy calls a remote office to have a pair of tapes changed. But it's not the usual person who does it -- and not the usual result.
Big company starts a program to help employees improve their work/life balance, and it sounds appealing -- but it turns out to be not such a great deal after all.
Pilot fish is hired to support an application that tracks orders on a manufacturing plant's shop floor. And it's terrible -- but it'll be replaced real soon now, right?
This data center has a high-end mainframe, Halon to protect it from fire and an operator who never smokes in the computer room. So which one brings the firefighters?
Pilot fish gets a job working as a field engineer for a small local tech company run by two married couples -- and they don't hesitate to share their favorite pastime.
This government office has two mainframes side by side in its computer room -- and a big problem that only shows up when a computer operator happens to reach out to them.
It's long ago, and this senior secretary is getting a top-of-the-line IBM Selectric typewriter -- and lording it over her co-workers. But why is it suddenly so balky?
This engineering office gets a new copier/printer, but to make it play well with the package-shipping software, one PC needs to be rebooted -- and that's a no-no.
IT security team at this university gets a rude awakening: Somebody is using one of their servers to launch denial-of-service attacks -- and that's not the worst of it.
This system administrator works for a non-profit organization in the western U.S., and he keeps strict office hours -- on a schedule that stretches from coast to coast.
It's the early days of big-iron computing, when IT is called Data Processing and this programmer pilot fish has a program that has compiled perfectly -- or so it appears.
This IT pilot fish is team lead for an ex-mechanic with no programming aptitude, skills or training. So how long could he possibly last as a software developer?
Medical rehab facility uses ordinary Gmail, which doesn't meet HIPAA privacy regulations. Fortunately, that can be fixed -- but another problem probably can't be.
This company gets a new ERP system in early 1999, and by Y2K crunch time everything looks like it'll be smooth sailing. But come the new year, there's a small problem.
This business owner is convinced his network is too small for anything more than POP email. But what to do when his email provider decides to shut down his POP server?
This program starts printing a form, but halfway through it just stops, user complains to a tech support pilot fish -- who begins to suspect the reason is the season.
IT operations pilot fish works on Christmas testing a critical mainframe application so it can go live by New Year's -- but without warning, test runs start crashing.
It's the late 1960s, and this pilot fish keeps track of more than 100,000 U.S. Marines using an IBM 1401 computer and lots of punch cards. But something isn't adding up.
Employees at a Southern design firm feel the urge to decorate for the holidays, but a network admin tries gently to put on the brakes -- and, sure enough, it stops.
Flashback to late 2005, when this pilot fish is part of the 24x7x365 staff for a bank's data center and Christmas is coming -- but not on the day you would expect.
This IT pilot fish's cubicle is located near a woodshop that's in serious need of an upgrade -- and the process turns out to be one he's far too familiar with.
Before replacing hardware, IT support techs at this company must get a price quote approved -- but they're often rejected, so this pilot fish decides to cut to the chase.
It's the late 1980s, and this record label's ordering and manufacturing are all controlled by up-to-date data-processing technology -- which means a lot of punch cards.
This pilot fish actually looks at some of his spam, and for once his willingness to wade through the junk mail is rewarded -- with an extremely unexpected comment.
Business analyst visits this company's corporate office for a week of meetings, and it turns out she and an IT infrastructure pilot fish have something in common.
Sponsored Links