Shark Tank: Questions and answers

Unclear on the Concept
State education department launches a "virtual school district" to support home-schooled students. "Obviously, being virtual, it's accessible from anywhere 24/7," says a pilot fish on the inside. But there's still a little, um, confusion. "The first day of school starts, and we start getting phone calls from parents wondering if there will be school today," fish says. "You see, the temperature was reaching 107 in some parts of the state, and certain physical schools were postponing their first days because of the heat. These parents wanted to know if the new online classes were going to be canceled because of the heat as well. Our response was, 'Um, no, ma'am, your school is virtual -- as long as you're comfortable, we're comfortable.'"

The Easy Part
This public library system offers wireless network access to its patrons, and it's this pilot fish's job to support it. "Today I get a call from a branch library asking a question from a patron," says fish. "The patron can see he's connected on his screen, but another icon tells him a network wire is disconnected." Fish knows that the system works fine with Windows XP but has problems with security certificates on Vista. What operating system is the patron using? fish asks branch manager. Manager, after conferring with patron: "Toshiba." After a little more digging, fish determines that it's running Vista after all. "I tell the manager this is the problem we've been having with wireless and Vista that the staff was told about," fish says. "I then tell her the patron's computer is correct: A network wire is not attached."

Strategic Thinking
Contractor pilot fish interviews at this small company to be ... well, no one is quite sure what job he's being offered. "Maybe computer operator, maybe e-mail administrator -- people can't seem to agree," says fish. But that's the least of the problems. "Nothing, I mean nothing, is documented," fish says. "The IT manager only deals with 'strategic issues.' No one knows how the IT systems work. They're using outdated software with a bunch of handcrafted scripts. No one even knows if they have an up-to-date backup, because the scripts that do it all are the baby of the 'brilliant' IT guy who is either on holiday, ill or having personal problems, which is why they need someone to fill his shoes. My big question is, if the IT manager only deals in strategic issues, which part of his strategy involves setting the company up with a single point of failure and then allowing him to go AWOL?"

Sharky's strategy is to get you to send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll score a strategic Shark shirt if I use it.

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