It's many years ago, and this pilot fish is a regional system administrator for a site where the computer room sports IBM minicomputers, high-speed printers, a teletype and several modems connecting the office to the corporate WAN.
"The marketing department informed me one day that they would be hosting a large customer party at the site," fish says. "They suggested that we might want to close and lock the door to the computer room that day.
"The day rolled around -- and at about 3 p.m., the computer room went dark and everything crashed. People started calling and flooding into the room, wondering what was wrong with their connectivity.
"While we were working on the problem, a guy with a tool belt walked by, peeked in and said, 'Oops!'
"What do you mean, 'Oops,' I asked.
"He said he needed to grab power for the band that was performing that evening and maybe he should have asked before he just took a circuit.
"I flew out of my chair and went for his throat. Luckily two of my staff were standing next to me and grabbed me before I reached my objective. The electrician ran from the room and a few minutes later the power came back on and we restarted everything.
"I looked around for the electrician to apologize for my attempted-mayhem behavior, but was told he fled the building.
"At that point I figured I needed a vacation to rethink my priorities."
Before you leave for vacation, send Sharky your story. Email your true tale of IT life to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a stylish Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.
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