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Sixty engineers have worked on this highly secret system for a year with exactly two weeks to execute an experiment using three cesium clocks to synchronize down to a microsecond between three ships at sea. What could go wrong with that?

Help desk pilot fish fields a call from a user -- one that starts out wrong and doesn't get any better.

This company has recently upgraded to a new phone system, and it's impressive -- a user's PC can exercise almost complete control over the phone. But that doesn't mean everything is obvious.

This pilot fish is attending a database vendor's technology sales pitch seminar. One of the key features the sales guy is demoing: Web-based collaboration. But something's not working.

The Facebook IPO will be official later today, we're told. The rumor-mill sets the price per share at around $45, assuming the $100 billion valuation being bandied about. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if it'll be (NYSE:FB) or (NASDAQ:FB). Not to mention: 20 Rejected Monopoly Chance Cards...

Ridiculous rumor is now web truthiness: WWN says Facebook is really shutting down on March 15, 2011 -- source is CEO Mark Zuckerberg, no less. Stop and think, people!
Is Facebook shutting down on March 15, like the Weekly World News says it will? Does Mark Zuckerberg just want his life back? In IT Blogwatch, laughing bloggers browse the reading matter at the Safeway checkout. Not to mention Google Demo Slam: Epic Docs Animation...

Can you hear IT Blogwatch? If not, ask TellMe to tell you about Microsoft's rumored buy out. Not to mention the little printer that shreds while it works ...

Om Malik knows why:

Even an $800 million price tag would make it the fourth largest acquisition in the history of Microsoft. Why would Microsoft pay such a hefty price? C/Net speculates that the Tellme technologies could find their way into enterprise applications. Microsoft is betting heavily on the convergence of data and voice.

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This help desk pilot fish has just been introduced to a newly hired support tech who's starting his first day on the job. But after chatting with the new guy for five minutes, fish gets a call from a secretary -- who says that part of her computer has been stolen.

At this county agency, one pilot fish serves as the point of contact between a trio of Web developers and the users who need to make changes to the agency's Web site.

"My job is to keep them from being overwhelmed by all the requests," says fish. "Users give me the information by e-mail, and I usually enhance the request with the Web page address and some direction on where on the page we want the information to appear."

So when one user wants a Web form to be updated, fish is the one who gets the request. In this case, it's a form that lets citizens volunteer for particular projects; after the citizen fills in the online form, it generates an e-mail to the proper person at the agency.

The user's request: The form must have one phone number.

If it's Thursday, it must be IT Blogwatch watching the Great Gates opine about all things tech to the great opiners themselves. Not to mention diy ghillie suits...

Pat Thibodeau hears his pain:

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said today that he feels "deep anxiety" over the ability of the U.S. to compete globally and added that the country is risking its technology leadership because of failures in its education system and immigration policies and inadequate research spending.

Dino Perrotti spots a bargain:

In September 2008, the London Stock Exchange collapsed because its Windows-based electronic trading platform, TradElect completely failed. Now, under new leadership, the Exchange will finally do away with its fatally flawed Windows system.

IT director pilot fish works for a not-for-profit organization where management wants to tie all performance reviews to metrics, so he sits down with his boss to discuss metrics that will make sense for the people reporting to him.

Manager pushes to get a new type of printer in this office -- one that allows sensitive documents to be sent to a printer, but not actually printed until the user enters a PIN to release the secure print job. But someone's having trouble with the new machines.

Recently, it seems that there has been a subtle increase in articles, and discussions, on the need for college degrees, certifications, or any other form of continued education. In this feature, the focus will be primarily on the college degree aspect of these discussions. In most of the discussions, the popular conclusion to these debates appears to be that many favor experience over an institutional education. The trendy consensus being that a non-degreed, experienced employee will perform at a higher level than a degreed employee in more instances that not. Is this true? Can this way of thinking prove to be detrimental in the future?

The H-1B cap opposition isn't making their case to Congress and may not be able to overcome the Gates effect.