Not exactly the suggestion he had in mind
- TAGS:backups, Cobol, college
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Careers, Development, Management
Flashback to 1979, when this pilot fish is a college student taking programming courses. "As part of the courses, there were several applications for the school written and maintained by the computer students," he says.
"One was the student registration system. It was written in Cobol and ran on a DEC system. I thought it was in serious need of a rewrite.
"While removing some old files, I accidentally deleted much of the source code and some executables. I went to the instructor in charge of these projects and told him what happened, hoping there was a way to retrieve the lost files.
"He placed a kindly hand on my shoulder and said, 'Welcome to the wonderful world of data processing. You always said it needed to be rewritten, so here's your chance' -- and then walked away."
Sharky will rewrite your true tale of IT life to file off the identifying marks. So send it to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a stylish 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).
Free Insider Guide
