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Sharky

Shark Tank

We'll switch it back if she visits again, OK?

IT department for a small hospital gets a call from the pharmacy with a sort of unusual request, reports a pilot fish who happens to be the CIO.

"They told us that the chief nursing officer wants them to get a wireless mouse for their PC," says fish. "When asked what was wrong with the mouse they had, they just replied that the CNO insisted they get a wireless mouse.

"When the request came to me, I immediately suspect they're dropping the CNO's name to expedite the order. After all, wireless mice are nice to have, but very few situations actually require wireless over a wired one. But since I work really well with the CNO, I asked her about it when I saw her later that day.

"Not the answer I expected: It turns out she was in the pharmacy earlier and was personally frustrated with the mouse on their computer, so she wanted it replaced. She's second-in-command of the hospital, so we swapped in a wireless mouse on the pharmacy PC.

"A few days later we got another call from the pharmacy. They wanted us to replace the new wireless mouse with the original one because they didn't like the wireless one as well."

Put Sharky on your gift list -- all I want is your true tale of IT life. Send it to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll score a sharp Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

The Best of Shark Tank includes more than 70 tales of IT woe submitted by you, our readers, since 1999. Which all goes to prove, conclusively, that hapless users and idiotic bosses are indeed worldwide phenomena. Free registration is all that's needed to download The Best of Shark Tank (PDF).

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