Bad medicine
From a Cauck pilot fish: “I was called by one of our pre-med students at the pharmaceutical company where I work. He complained that he couldn’t turn on his computer. The lights came on and the fans made noise, but there was no image on the monitor. He said he rebooted three times and the same thing happened each time. Then I noticed that the monitor was unplugged. The cleaning lady must have pulled it the night before. He was very embarrassed. I guess at med-school, ‘pulling the plug’ is not in his curriculum.”
Expectations
It’s a stormy day, and this support pilot fish knows that means trouble. “Our bank’s branches have a network application that the tellers use,” explains fish. “If the power even flickers, the tellers lose their connection, which needs to be reset to get back online. This day, power was going out constantly for short periods, and every time it happened, all the tellers connections needed to be reset. I got a call from an angry branch manager saying that this was ridiculous and had to be fixed ASAP. I calmly told him it was due to high winds from the storm. Manager replied, ‘So when should I expect a tech?’“
On or off?
Another Canadian pilot fish tells Shark Tank: “I get a call on the help desk from a user at a remote office location stating that they cannot communicate with our AS/400. I ask them to check the lights on the controller (IBM 5294). They reply that the lights are all off. I ask if the controller is powered on, and they assure me that it is. I ask them to turn the power off on the controller. ‘Oh, when I turn the power off, the lights come on.’ Long pause. ‘Oh, never mind.’”
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