TANK SHARK TRUE TALES OF IT LIFE AS TOLD TO SHARKY
pening. The manager’s response:
“I’ve seen that happen before
occasionally, since we started skip-
ping the normal way to sub-
mit faxes and started
just dropping the
incoming fax
directly to the
fax program’s
API.” Any
plans to fix
this bug? fish
innocently
asks. “Oh, it’s
not a bug,”
manager re-
assures fish.
“It’s just some-
thing that some-
times happens.”
HAL MAYFORTH
You’re Right. Now Go Away!
At this big utility, there’s the regular IT department, says a pilot fish working there
— and then there’s IT security. “The IT security department is super secret, super
special — all-knowing and all-seeing,” says fish. “And we literally have reams of
security documentation, rules and regulations. This company ran everything o; of
PeopleSoft HR software, and we had strict rules on password changes. They were
touting all the security and how it protects them and us, blah, blah, blah....
Then one day, I demonstrated to
them how ‘secure’ PeopleSoft is
when you serve it from HT TP instead
of HT TP Secure. Yes, they had 10,000
employees accessing PeopleSoft
through HT TP — 10,000 user passwords in clear text all day long! They
decided to upgrade their PeopleSoft
servers to HT TPS. And they told me to
shut up and mind my own business.”
At Least He Didn’t
Say It’s a Feature
This software vendor makes a prod-
uct that interfaces with another com-
mercial package to send faxes out for
bids, quotes and invoices, reports a
pilot fish working there. “I get a call
in support from someone in the qual-
ity assurance department saying that
they have accidentally sent 200 test
faxes and that those faxes need to
be killed,” fish says. He logs in to the
relevant server as an administrator,
breaks out to the command prompt
and starts trying to kill the fax jobs
manually — but every time, it tells
him he can’t. Finally he goes to the
manager of the programming de-
partment and describes what’s hap-
Why We Love
Conference Calls
Pilot fish is on a long conference
call, battling a major application that
is having performance problems.
“Forgetting that these calls might be
monitored by nontechnical types,
I decided to relieve some of the
tension,” says fish. “I quipped, ‘We
should set the Run Faster parameter
to true.’ Everyone had a good laugh,
and the call went on into the night.
The next day, my manager called me
into his o;ce. It seems there was a
senior executive who was lurking on
the call without announcing his pres-
ence. He called my manager’s boss to
rip him for us not setting the special
parameter to true and solving the
performance issue. I am now more
careful of what I say on these calls.”
» Sharky is listening. Share
your true tale of IT life at sharky@
computerworld.com. You’ll score
a sharp Shark shirt if I use it.
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2011 by Computer world
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APC .................. 35
apc.com/promo
Avaya ................. 5
avaya.com/mobility
CenturyLink . . . . . . . . . . C3
ultimateproblemsolver.com
dtSearch ............. 37
dtsearch.com
Eset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
eset.com/q4promo
Hewlett-Packard . . . . . . . 17
hp.com/storage/5CI
IBM Non-Intel . . . . . . . 2, 9, C4
ibm.com/facts
IT Roadmap
Conference & Expo . . . . 25
itroadmap.net/2011dcad
Samsung .............. 7
SonicWALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
sonicwall.com/optimize
Splunk ................ 31
splunk.com/goto/listen
University of
Maryland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
umuc.edu/mychallenge
Verisign ............. C2-1
verisigninc.com/tra;c
Verizon Wireless . . . . . . 27
verizonwireless.com/
unifiedcommunications
VMware ............... 11
vmware.com/whiteboard
This index is provided as an
additional service. The publisher
does not assume any liability for
errors or omissions.
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) 290-5460, 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
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