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Sharky

Shark Tank

At least the dentist offers a pain killer

This pilot fish's most computer-illiterate user calls while he's in the dentist chair, and there's a bit of a communications gap when he calls her back.

"With my slurred speech, I tried to determine what her problem was," says fish. "She said her monitor had a message that there's no input signal. I asked if the computer was on. She said yes, and that she tried turning it off and on with no luck.

"Wondering how she knew she did that without a working monitor, I told her I'd be right there. Fifteen minutes later I sat down at her PC and bumped the mouse, and the monitor turned on. The PC was already logged into Windows, right where she left it.

"After explaining that the monitor turns off to save power after a preset time, and that it has always done that since the day she got the computer seven years ago, all she said was, 'So I've always just moved the mouse and never noticed. Huh.'"

Sharky wants you to notice that you still haven't sent me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll snag a snazzy 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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