Computerworld - June 20, 2011

bring a lot of high-profile customers
down. So the vendor is making very
careful plans on this one, which of
course takes a bit longer than
normal. I get a call from
my boss. ‘ Where is
the schedule?’ he
asks. The vendor
is working on it, I
reply. Boss replies,
‘No good. Manage-
ment wants to see
the schedule. Call
the vendor and get
it.’ Let’s see — when
the vendor takes
the time to create a
good plan, things go
well. Anyone want to
predict how this risky
deployment will turn out?”

1& 1 Internet . . . . . 18-19, 21 ADP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 APC ................... 13 Bank of America . . . . . . 39 BiscayTIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 BNSFRailway . . . . . . . . . 54 Booz Allen Hamilton . . . 14 CA Technologies . . . . . . . 25 CDW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 Cedars-Sinai . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chesapeake Energy . . . . 29 Cray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 dtSearch ............. 57 HCA Healthcare . . . . . . . 45 Hewlett-Packard . . . . 11, 27 IBM Intel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 IBM Non-Intel . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Indiana University . . . . 23 Maritz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Prudential . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Quest Diagnostics . . . . . 22 Raytheon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Ricoh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Spotlight on Security . . C3 StateFarm. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 University of Maryland . . 51 USAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Verizon Wireless . . . . . . 41 Wheels, Inc............ 55 ADVERTISERS’ INDEX This index is provided as an additional service. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.

HAL MAYFORTH
it’s the 21st century! I’m sure they
know how to turn on a UPS.’ A small
wager was made. About an hour
later, power was restored, the serv-
ers were plugged back in — and the
tech’s phone started ringing o; the
hook. The customer service folks,
one after another, told the tech that
their PCs were dead. He explained
that they needed to turn their UPSs
back on and, one after another, the
customer service folks asked, ‘Is that
the little round button on my PC?’
He spent the next half-hour showing
each customer service rep where to
turn on the UPS.”

Faster, Not Better This pilot fish supervises the work of a contracting company that’s deploying software, and he’s very happy with the work. “They are very good at it,” he says. “They make careful plans for each program to minimize the impact to my network. Up comes a program that is, shall we say, high risk. There’s a good chance that if they do this one wrong, they can

Outta Here It’s the early 1990s, and this pilot fish works for a medical software company whose product backs up data onto floppy disks. One day he gets a call from a doctor’s o;ce manager. Manager: “I tried to back up my data, but on the third disk, it said ‘ Write error.’ ” Fish: You probably had a bad disk. Just insert another and continue on. Manager: “I can’t. After the error occurred, I restored the data and now I can’t run the program.” Fish: You restored from the bad backup? Well, you’ve got some problems now. You’ll have to . . . Manager, interrupting: “Not me, honey. I’m outta here.” Reports fish, “About an hour later, the doctor called and told me the program wasn’t working — and he couldn’t find his o;ce manager.”

» Sharky’s always looking for true tales of IT life. Send me yours at sharky@computerworld.com. You’ll score a sharp Shark shirt if I use it.

Periodical postage paid at

Framingham, Mass., and other mailing offices. Posted under Canadian International Publication agreement PM40063731. CANADIAN POSTMASTER: Please return undeliverable copy to PO Box 1632, Windsor, Ontario N9A 7C9. Computerworld (ISSN 0010-4841) is published t wice monthly except for the month of July by Computer world Inc., 492 Old Connecticut Path, Box 9171, Framingham, Mass. 01701-9171. Copyright 2011 by Computer world Inc. All rights reserved. Computer world can be purchased on microfilm and microfiche through University Microfilms Inc., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. Computer world is indexed. Back issues, if available, may be purchased from the circulation department. Photocopy rights: permission to photocopy for internal or personal use is granted by Computer world Inc. for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), provided that the base fee of $3 per copy of the article, plus 50 cents per page, is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 27 Congress St., Salem, Mass. 01970. Reprints (minimum 500 copies) and permission to reprint may be purchased from The YGS Group, (800) 501-9571, Ext. 100. Email: computer world@ theygsgroup.com. Requests for missing issues will be honored only if received within 60 days of issue date. Subscription rates: $5 per copy: Annual subscription rates: — $129; Canada — $129; Central & So. America — $250; Europe — $295; all other countries — $295; digital subscription — $29. Subscriptions call toll-free (888) 559-7327. POSTMASTER: Send Form 3579 (Change of Address) to Computerworld, PO Box 3500, Northbrook, Ill. 60065-3500.