Breakfast of champions

This IT pilot fish works for a small, privately owned retail chain -- and that means a tight ship, budgetwise. "All six of our servers were on one UPS capable of running the entire computer room for 20 minutes," says fish.

"One summer afternoon we heard a zap and sizzle outside the building, and half of our electrical supply went out. Some lights and outlets worked, some didn't. And, of course, the entire computer room was dark."

The four-member IT department races to the server room and quickly comes up with a plan. First step: They'll run a 100-foot heavy-duty orange extension cord to the one working outlet within reach.

Next step is attaching a UPS that, in turn, will have two power strips plugged into it. Into the power strips are plugged six more UPSes, one for each server and its attached peripherals.

One by one, the servers are shut down, connected to the new jerry-rigged electrical source and powered back up.

"About half way through this adventure, an end user poked her head through the door and asked if it was OK to continue to use the server applications during the blackout," fish says. "We all glanced at each other, and the VP of the department answered, 'Of course! We're up on the B.O.C.!'

"The end user then proceeded to walk down the hallway, announcing in a loud voice to the other users that they could continue to work, as the B.O.C. network was up and running.

"We had to close the door tightly and stifle our laughter at this announcement, as we couldn't let her know that B.O.C. was an acronym for 'big orange cord.'"

Sharky's favorite acronym is TTOITL. So send me your True Tale Of IT Life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get an SSS (stylish Shark shirt) if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

Now you can post your own stories of IT ridiculousness at Shark Bait. Join today and vent your IT frustrations to people who've been there, done that.