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Sharky

Shark Tank

Yet another TLA

Programmer pilot fish is hired by a city government and quickly gains a pair of nicknames. "I was called 'the Gateway guy' because my employer started swapping out the Macs for PCs right as I got hired, and I helped our tech accomplish this feat," says fish.

"I would occasionally help the tech, so one day, I went up to the main floor to help a lady who just loved calling me the FNG."

Fish knows what the acronym FNG stands for. (Hint: The last two words are "new guy.") But he calmly asks the user what the problem is, and she tells him: Her Mac's screen is dark after it suddenly quit working.

I'll look at it, fish tells her, and she goes off to get a cup of coffee.

Fish is no Mac expert, but he starts with the basics, checking to see if all the cables are tightly secured. Then he looks under the desk to make sure it's plugged in.

The power outlet box comes out of the floor right where the user's feet would be -- and right next to it is the power cord.

"I plugged the cord back in and powered the machine back up," fish says.

"This lady walked back in a minute later and was amazed to see her computer up and running again. She said, 'So just how did the Gateway guy fix my Mac?'

"I told her, quietly, that she had kicked her power cord loose and I simply plugged it back in.

"She thanked me for not announcing that out loud. We have been friends ever since."

Become Sharky's BFF. Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll score a sharp 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

"TLA"

FNG is NOT a TLA. Acronyms are abbreviations that are pronounced like words. PIN, VIN, and SCUBA are acronyms. TLA and FNG are not. The fact that other people are ignorant enough to call every multi-letter abbreviation an acronym does not change the definition or make it any more correct.

You're correct

Technically, TLA is an initialism for "Three-Letter Acronym". So the title should be "Yet another TLI". However, few people make the distinction or care to. Just as people use "sarcastic" when they should use "sardonic".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-letter_initialism

Seems to be a Three Letter

Seems to be a Three Letter Abbreviation to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-letter_acronym

Tra-La-La

I can pronounce tla. The definition indicates that it doesn't need to be an existing word.

Do you have trouble with consonant clusters? Can you pronounce Christmas?

I always enjoyed, Alphabetic Code for Remembering Odd Names You Make.

Dude...

...technically, you're correct...but maybe you should switch to Sanka. You mean the dejurie use of TLA. In real life, defacto, TLA is an acronym. For example, see the explanation on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-letter_acronym.

Besides, it could also mean three letter abbreviation...

How to make friends and influence people

This is and example of how to endear yourself to someone. Let them do something dumb and then quietly tell them how you fixed it. The person is usually red faced but glad you didn't make it public.

Thumbs Down

Now I know we've a Shark Bait escapee. Look at all of the negative scores for the regulars, and the extreme high score for the dude picking on JIM? It's as if someone thinks that we actually care about the thumbs thing, or better, that a negative score will stop us from posting "off-topic" comments!

I can just see the humorless CHUM sitting at his/her desk angrily clicking away at the thumbs down buttons, thinking to himself "I'll show them!"

It's a waste of your pent-up angst, my deluded friend. Might I suggest a gym membership instead? Or a hobby? Or a girlfriend?

Big Movie Scene

...like when the army of mummies meets the army of good on the desert

...like when the droid army meets the good aliens on the field in Star Wars

...like when the tanks invade the baits. oh wait, cut. do we have to stoop down that low?

the score as of the end of my working day

..is 50-50.

to the voting republic of democratic tanks or voting democracy of tank republic, be careful with the thumbs of above post:

its the difference between a cross-border war :)

...and flu44y would be the 1st cannonball to shoot at baitland :D

Replacing Foreigners

Shame on this government agency. I mean, sure, we should replace foreign workers with Politically Correct Americans, but I can't really agree with this agency's treatment of their Scotsmen. I mean, cabling them to their desks. The manager blames her Scotsman when her computer quits working. And just WHAT are they plugging in to them?