Um, no

This pilot fish works late into Thursday evening and so he tin go out of the city early on Friday to go on a long weekend camping trip.

"I took my jail cell telephone with me, but not my laptop, every bit the whole indicate of getting back to nature is to take a intermission from the civilized earth," fish says.

"The phone rings at 3:forty a.m. It's a technical support rep for the software-as-a-service application the company uses."

Fish knows what the phone call is about -- he sent in a support case Thursday night, because it usually takes iii or 4 days to get a response. But the female person tech on the other end of the line wants to walk fish through the solution right now, if he'll just log into the company online business organisation business relationship.

Kickoff fish points out that information technology'south not quite four in the morning time, and then he explains that he's on a camping holiday with no laptop. Tin can I prepare a teleconference after the weekend? he asks.

Tech replies that she can't practice that because, if the issue isn't resolved now, fish's case number volition go to the back of the line, which has been growing exponentially -- no incertitude due to the extreme fourth dimension difference between the Philippines, where she's calling from, and N America, where most of the customers are located.

Fish groggily replies that he tin can't do anything about it at the moment, and anyway, even though his phone works this far out in the forest, his laptop would have no fashion of connecting to the Cyberspace. Even if he had brought the laptop along, it would make no difference.

Tech thinks for a moment, then says, "You are in a park right now. Is information technology a big park?"

Aye, fish says, but —

"There must be someone in the park that will let y'all use their laptop for five minutes," tech exclaims. "Most people in parks are quite friendly, and there are many hot spots there. I will call you back in 15 minutes and we will fix the problem." Click!

While yous're waiting, email Sharky. Ship me your truthful tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a fashionable Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.
Now you tin can mail your own stories of IT ridiculousness at Shark Allurement. Join today and vent your Information technology frustrations to people who've been there, done that.

Copyright © 2009 IDG Communications, Inc.