Shark Tank: Virus calling

This company's head of maintenance is lording his fancy new computer over the guys who work for him. "He didn't really know how to use it, and it was basically just a big box for him to read e-mail and surf the Internet on," says an IT support pilot fish on the inside. "One of his guys decided it was time he got a virus." When fish gets the first call, the maintenance head is in a panic. He tells fish the antivirus software must not be working, because he has acquired the "ding dong" virus.

Shark Tank: Virus calling

This company's head of maintenance is lording his fancy new computer over the guys who work for him. "He didn't really know how to use it, and it was basically just a big box for him to read e-mail and surf the Internet on," says an IT support pilot fish on the inside. "One of his guys decided it was time he got a virus." When fish gets the first call, the maintenance head is in a panic. He tells fish the antivirus software must not be working, because he has acquired the "ding dong" virus.

Shark Tank: Virus calling

This company's head of maintenance is lording his fancy new computer over the guys who work for him. "He didn't really know how to use it, and it was basically just a big box for him to read e-mail and surf the Internet on," says an IT support pilot fish on the inside. "One of his guys decided it was time he got a virus." When fish gets the first call, the maintenance head is in a panic. He tells fish the antivirus software must not be working, because he has acquired the "ding dong" virus.

Security and IT managers need to understand the business

When it comes to security and IT in general, does the exec need to change, or do we? That is a question that Pete Lindstrom answers here, and though I have had my differences of opinion with Mr. Lindstrom, I think he is dead on this time. Mr. Lindstrom's post is directed at Marcus Ranum's latest podcast, which I have not heard, so I cannot directly comment on his criticism. However, I can say that Pete makes a great point when he says, "We don't try hard enough to understand business problems." I can't say it surprises me when IT people gripe about management. There have been enough times when I was guilty of that. And there have been times when the griping was justified because the exec made completely bone-headed decisions that left my network wide open to attack (like the whole "security figurehead" issue I keep bringing up). But at the same time, exec's have a pool of money to spend, and they have to make decisions on where to spend that money. Unfortunately, IT is not the only place where it has to be spent. Do average spending percentages need to be increased in most companies? Probably. But ranting and raving at an executive or your buddies about it is not going to get anything done. If we are going to make any progress at all, we have to understand the business implications, and we have to work within those strictures. Better to have something done by working with the exec rather than nothing at all getting done because all we did was moan about our plight.

Security and IT managers need to understand the business

When it comes to security and IT in general, does the exec need to change, or do we? That is a question that Pete Lindstrom answers here, and though I have had my differences of opinion with Mr. Lindstrom, I think he is dead on this time.

Security and IT managers need to understand the business

When it comes to security and IT in general, does the exec need to change, or do we? That is a question that Pete Lindstrom answers here, and though I have had my differences of opinion with Mr. Lindstrom, I think he is dead on this time.

Shark Tank: It's about time

One executive at this company is always concerned about staffers being on time for work, arriving to meetings on time and not leaving early, reports an IT pilot fish there. "To alleviate this problem, he decides that we should have a clock on our intranet site that is synced to the atomic clock, so that staff members can set their watches to it whenever necessary -- probably hourly," fish says. "This task is passed to my manager, who passes it to me."

Shark Tank: It's about time

One executive at this company is always concerned about staffers being on time for work, arriving to meetings on time and not leaving early, reports an IT pilot fish there. "To alleviate this problem, he decides that we should have a clock on our intranet site that is synced to the atomic clock, so that staff members can set their watches to it whenever necessary -- probably hourly," fish says. "This task is passed to my manager, who passes it to me."

Shark Tank: Yep, that would explain it

A client/server application lets this organization's inside salespeople place customer orders at the prices quoted by the sales reps on the street. But something's not quite right, reports a pilot fish in the know."Back in November, we started having problems with a particular division," fish says. "Every morning, every order in the division's order log would delete."

Shark Tank: Yep, that would explain it

A client/server application lets this organization's inside salespeople place customer orders at the prices quoted by the sales reps on the street. But something's not quite right, reports a pilot fish in the know."Back in November, we started having problems with a particular division," fish says. "Every morning, every order in the division's order log would delete."

Shark Tank: Souvenir

It's years ago, and this pilot fish is a developer working for a small company. "Staff consisted of a few programmers, an office manager, a tech secretary and a part-time bookkeeper who's also the office manager's live-in boyfriend," says fish."Things were going as smoothly as could be expected until the boss left on an extended overseas trip."

Shark Tank: Souvenir

It's years ago, and this pilot fish is a developer working for a small company. "Staff consisted of a few programmers, an office manager, a tech secretary and a part-time bookkeeper who's also the office manager's live-in boyfriend," says fish."Things were going as smoothly as could be expected until the boss left on an extended overseas trip."

Shark Tank: Souvenir

It's years ago, and this pilot fish is a developer working for a small company. "Staff consisted of a few programmers, an office manager, a tech secretary and a part-time bookkeeper who's also the office manager's live-in boyfriend," says fish."Things were going as smoothly as could be expected until the boss left on an extended overseas trip."

Nortel/BNT VoIP PR SNAFU (and RTFM on BCC)

Jingle-jangle, Thursday's IT Blogwatch: in which Nortel digs itself a classic PR disaster. Not to mention the neuroscience professor who liked his email app's BCC feature a little too much...L'inq's Nick Farrell reports:Nortel threw its toys out of the pram after a former subsidiary, Blade Network Technologies, bought an Open Source Voice-over-IP from Fonality instead of using the telco's own PBX. Nortel probably would not have noticed the change but Fonality had a word with a blogger about why it made the move.Then, according to the VoIP & Gadgets blog, a Nortel [executive] saw the article and 'flipped out'. He rang Blade, told it to return the Fonality system and demand that Fonality print a retraction to the blog article.

Nortel/BNT VoIP PR SNAFU (and RTFM on BCC)

Jingle-jangle, Thursday's IT Blogwatch: in which Nortel digs itself a classic PR disaster. Not to mention the neuroscience professor who liked his email app's BCC feature a little too much...L'inq's Nick Farrell reports:Nortel threw its toys out of the pram after a former subsidiary, Blade Network Technologies, bought an Open Source Voice-over-IP from Fonality instead of using the telco's own PBX. Nortel probably would not have noticed the change but Fonality had a word with a blogger about why it made the move.Then, according to the VoIP & Gadgets blog, a Nortel [executive] saw the article and 'flipped out'. He rang Blade, told it to return the Fonality system and demand that Fonality print a retraction to the blog article.

Nortel/BNT VoIP PR SNAFU (and RTFM on BCC)

Jingle-jangle, Thursday's IT Blogwatch: in which Nortel digs itself a classic PR disaster. Not to mention the neuroscience professor who liked his email app's BCC feature a little too much...L'inq's Nick Farrell reports:Nortel threw its toys out of the pram after a former subsidiary, Blade Network Technologies, bought an Open Source Voice-over-IP from Fonality instead of using the telco's own PBX. Nortel probably would not have noticed the change but Fonality had a word with a blogger about why it made the move.Then, according to the VoIP & Gadgets blog, a Nortel [executive] saw the article and 'flipped out'. He rang Blade, told it to return the Fonality system and demand that Fonality print a retraction to the blog article.

Shark Tank: Sometimes the rumor mill just isn't fast enough

Pilot fish arrives back at the office after lunch, and a co-worker pulls him aside to ask if he's heard about the latest lost soul. "I hadn't," says fish, "and he was happy to fill me in: Help Desk Harry was history."Fish has never had much contact with Harry, but his co-worker appears to know all about him. Seems Harry had a secret desire to walk out on his job without notice -- not to mention having great contempt for the company and holding grudges against several co-workers and managers.

Shark Tank: Sometimes the rumor mill just isn't fast enough

Pilot fish arrives back at the office after lunch, and a co-worker pulls him aside to ask if he's heard about the latest lost soul. "I hadn't," says fish, "and he was happy to fill me in: Help Desk Harry was history."Fish has never had much contact with Harry, but his co-worker appears to know all about him. Seems Harry had a secret desire to walk out on his job without notice -- not to mention having great contempt for the company and holding grudges against several co-workers and managers.

Shark Tank: Sometimes the rumor mill just isn't fast enough

Pilot fish arrives back at the office after lunch, and a co-worker pulls him aside to ask if he's heard about the latest lost soul. "I hadn't," says fish, "and he was happy to fill me in: Help Desk Harry was history."Fish has never had much contact with Harry, but his co-worker appears to know all about him. Seems Harry had a secret desire to walk out on his job without notice -- not to mention having great contempt for the company and holding grudges against several co-workers and managers.

Know your strengths and weaknesses when planning your career

Knowing (and admitting) your strengths and weaknesses is a very important step in determining the direction of your career. I have tried for quite a few years now to make sure I am honest with myself whenever I look at possibly changing jobs. I want to make sure the job is more weighted on the side of my strengths so I can be a better employee and so I can help my career. Well, I was at a customer site last week, and this lesson was displayed very clearly to me by the client in how he had chosen his career path and why.