Shark Tank: Why we love users

This payroll guy is prone to panicking when anything goes even slightly wrong with his computer. And when he panics, he starts calling his favorite IT support pilot fish and then searches the building if he can't reach fish by phone or instant message. That's why it's just a surprise, not a complete shock, when fish hears the door to the rest­room burst open while he's inside, followed by the payroll guy's relieved voice: "Oh, there you are. I've got a problem; come fix it." Fish: "I'm a little busy right now, and how the heck did you know it was me in here?" Payroll guy: "I recognized your shoes."

Why Users Love Us
User pilot fish has problems with a photocopier and -- following procedure -- e-mails the IT administrator: "Hi, tried to call but you were on the phone. Can you please either have a look at our copier or log a service call? It has a maintenance message 'DK error.' I have turned it off and back on again, but it's still not working." And a response comes back promptly: "Why not call the vendor yourself, as opposed to calling me?"

Feeling the Love All Around
NetWare admin pilot fish receives a trouble ticket from the help desk and now can't decide whether to be more irritated at the foolish user or at the clueless help desk worker who didn't spot a phishing expedition. The problem: "User reports that she received an e-mail at home stating that she had tried to log in with an incorrect password too many times to a banking system that she wasn't even a client of, and so that banking account ID had been locked. Could this be why she had trouble logging into her NetWare account at work this morning?"

Cleanliness Is Next to ... Impossible
Departmental server suddenly begins to go down frequently. The crashes are sporadic, but they always happen on weeknights -- between 1a.m. and 2 a.m. "After a few weeks of debugging, two of us started coming in at night to sit in the small room where it was kept, to watch the server between midnight and 2:30," says a diligent pilot fish. "The second night, we surprised the cleaning woman when she opened the door. She nodded to us as she wheeled in the vacuum cleaner, and we watched as she unplugged the server from the UPS and plugged in her vacuum. I was the diplomatic one and kindly explained to her why not to do this. She looked at me and shook her head, and the room hasn't been vacuumed since."

Sharky has the perfect way to improve your love life this summer: Send your true IT life to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a snazzy Shark shirt if I use it. After that, you're on your own.

Check out Sharky's blog, browse the Sharkives and sign up for Shark Tank home delivery at computerworld.com/sharky.

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