Welcome to Shark Bait

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the Shark Bait community since its launch in 2007. We have had great fun sharing tales of IT woe and angst with fellow fish who know what it's like.

In the time since Shark Bait launched, social media have changed the landscape of online communities. With so many more social networking services competing for your time, we will be streamlining Computerworld's options to better offer a consolidated destination for all your IT news and tales.

Shark Bait will no longer accept submissions of new content but will be set to a read-only state, offering access to its four years of archives. New stories will continue to be welcome at Shark Tank, the daily blog that started it all.

Thank you again for helping make Shark Bait a successful experience. We look forward to seeing you elsewhere on our site!

Is there software available that will recognize when the data on a hard drive has reached the ststute of limitations? Don B

I just had a call from a user who had "accidentally" emptied his deleted items on email. He called to complain that his emails were now missing from the server. I couldn't help thinking, "Are you really calling me to complain that the server is working properly?" o_O

I work on a helpdesk and today I get a call from a user who got an email that says she has got a virus she wanted to know what to do so I had the Lady read it to me:

"Dear Receiver,

When going to computer school a co-worker asked me about her internet service. I asked what kind of modem she had and she said, 'I think it is a 256 megabyte.'

This is well over due. Shareholders have been getting stiffed from Day One.

One of my clients provides reports to hospitals based on patient data furnished by the hospitals. Users at the facilities upload the data files via a secure website, and a script runs on the server to send my client an e-mail notification when a file has been uploaded.

Hi. Just looking at a Xerox DC250. I have a copy of the service Log Book. Two entrys refer to STS Visits. It continues to say that the machine has a serious curl problem and was escalated to STS Visits in 2006. What is a STS Visit ans can I assume this is specialist engineer for Xerox. The engineer number is STS 4298. Can anyone advise me what the log book is implying.

I recieved this email from a user this morning:

I work at a fast food joint and if you watch the commercials of the funny big headed CEO it looks like a cool place to work. But actually it is one of the most closed minded companies I have ever worked at. Nothing gets done unless a VP or higher says it is so. Good ideas at the bottom remain just where they are, at the bottom. "The Office" is a good example of the people in charge here.