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Sharky

Shark Tank

Because really, who wants to remind IT people about how much the big boys get?

This company's pension distribution system is a heavily customized version of a well-known package. And it has worked fine for years, says a programmer pilot fish responsible for maintaining it.

But that can't last. “When the chief operating officer retired, he was the first highly compensated employee to get over $1 million in his distribution,” fish says.

“There was one problem: At that time, the file that was used to send the transaction to the bank could only handle $999,999.99. All of the reports were correct, but the one file that needed to be correct was not.

“So instead of having $1.8 million deposited in his account, only $800,000 was.

“I had to manually correct the file and resend it to the bank.

“We never did change the code to fix the issue. The company decided to have a third-party vendor take over that system.”

Send Sharky your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You won't get a million dollars, but you'll snag a snazzy Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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What People Are Saying

Similar thing w/Y2K

When I worked on a Y2K project back in the late '90s, instead of changing to a four digit year, I change to a five digit year. Just in case...

See JTB, I'm planning ahead. Aren't you proud of me?

Ah yes...preparing for the

Ah yes...preparing for the Y10K problem.

Leap Years

Did you remember that leap years are every divisble by 4 EXCEPT those that are divisble by 100 EXCEPT those divible by 400? (Which is why there was a Feb 29th, 2000 AD, but there will NOT be one in 2100.)

weepy 1-12-13-12 - new date formats make the Dupester cry. dd-mm-yy-cc?? So this is the first day of December in the 13th year of the 12th century?? GO MONGOLS!?!

HOLY CARP

1.8 MLILLOIN IT TAKE ME TWO HOLE YAERS TO MAKE TAHT MUCH MONNEY

JIM ONBLY PAY ME $1.80 PER

JIM ONBLY PAY ME $1.80 PER HOUR.

Thats why we love you as

Thats why we love you as BOSS. You let us keep 10% of our salary.

A minion of JIM THE BOSS.

That reminds me of the time

That reminds me of the time our CSO retired. He was the first android to retire from the company. Our pension distribution system was a heavily customized version of World of Warcraft and has worked fine for years. The problem is that for androids, the life and health insurance premiums were supposed to be replaced by an annual maintenance agreement. Well, sure enough, within the first month, the CSO's leg was broken off during a game of Rollerball. He got it fixed, but the company wouldn't cover it because the maintenance agreement had lapsed. He sued us, but legally he didn't have a leg to stand on.

I Heard of that Case

I heard of that case. It was thrown out of court because the judge stated it was the android's fault. He wasn't standing in the right place. He was off by a whole foot.

Insurance in any time period...

...behaves exactly the same. Say, Mad Hatter, does that make insurance company behavious a universal constant?

CAPTCHA: 58 suavest - The Arch Demon and 57 friends out on the town.

Universal Constant

Yes, along with death and taxes...