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Sharky

Shark Tank

PC certification, 1980s style

Flashback to the early 1980s, when this pilot fish is part of a computer maintenance group that works on mainframes and high-end minicomputers at a government facility.

"When the new personal computer broke in the chief's office, we were dispatched to repair it," fish says. "Afraid to protest that we had never even seen a PC before, two of us arrived to discover no documentation at all. There was not even a user manual, let alone the schematics or diagnostic tools we were used to having.

"This left us both staring at the front of a black screen without any idea of what to do.

"Finally, my partner said, 'Let's turn it around and look at the back.'

"When we did, we accidentally picked it up by a screen brightness button, and the monitor slowly brightened to reveal a fully functioning system.

"Covered with praise for our quick turnaround, we returned to the shop as experienced PC repair technicians."

Get certified by Sharky. Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com, and you'll get a certifiable 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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