This one's for you, Anonymous (for Obvious Reasons), THX1138, Fatman, Mad Hatter, Cowgirls (both the original, and #2), Chicago, Roland, Bogey1, bear in a box (who works somewhere on the other side of the International Date Line), fluffyjacket1984 (who has had to take up posting under different monikers due to inciting the wrath of the Moderator Gods), Freeloader, kangoid, Jim but not THE Jim, Oldest Timer (who is a dear friend of mine, now enjoying his retirement), Feign, Jam, mlk, oldITgal, Army Dad, Cmdr_Michelle, scoot, Digital Willie, 0/0, and all my other ST buds. I'm sure any I missed will let me know!
I busted into this fulltime geek thing at the age of forty back in 2000. I like to think of it as the year that going to work became something to be savored instead of dreaded :-).
Anyhow, one of my new coworkers soon turned me on to Computerworld's Shark Tank. I became an instant fan.
The premise behind Shark Tank is that funny and/or frustrating in a funny sort of way things happen in the IT trenches. And we might as well laugh at them, because it's more fun than crying, and you get in big trouble for bringing weapons to work!
ST has gone through some changes over the years. While always relying on a daily email to get the stories out, and archiving a couple year's worth on their site, a while back they switched to a short email teaser. The rest of the daily account is on their site.
I was disturbed at first. I had created a rule, first in Lotus Notes, then in Outlook when my company switched, to send the daily Shark to a folder to be browsed when the day wasn't going well.
But Computerworld added another feature at the same time: comments on the daily tale.
At first, I was taken aback by the number of people whose comments consisted of how lame the story was, and how ST had gone to pot. What was with these people? If they hated the concept so much, what were they doing there?
Enter JIM THE BOSS.
JTB thoroughly outraged the whiners. Who was this buffoon who posted in all caps and made such bizarre comments? He was making it difficult to complain about these crap ST tales!
Anyhow, JIM caused a mass exodus of the joyless. One anonymous fire-breather hung around for about nine months before he too finally left for less light-hearted pastures. What is left is a cadre of folks from all over the world who have always-pertinent commentary about each day's entry. Oh, and the occasional noob who feels the need to correct JIM's grammatical errors!
And the stories themselves, more often than not, still rock. I've been fortunate enough to have five of my own published. I look forward every weekday to that little escape and the bantering with my online friends after the actual posting.
So if you're a harried geek, or just appreciate a good-natured laugh at the expense of the clueless, check out Shark Tank. And if you're into bombastic tales of self-importance, you can check out where most of the departed detractors have taken up residence: CW's other hangout, Shark Bait.
Just don't be too offended if the next ST account and/or commentary is about YOU!
Comments (5)
WHO TIHS GUY REDING SHRAK TAK AND PST BOLGS AT WROK PALCE HE NEDDS TO BE FRIERD RIGT AAWY
Posted by JIIM's LUTENTANT | July 16, 2008 4:18 PM
Posted on July 16, 2008 16:18
Thanks for the mention, man! I will admit, it took a while for JTB to grow on me, but I appreciate it now.
Personally, I'm mystified. If people don't like the comments, they can read STs without comments on http://www.computerworld.com/action/sharktank.do?command=viewDaily
Posted by Roland | July 16, 2008 4:29 PM
Posted on July 16, 2008 16:29
What many can't appreciate:
The time involved to create
This rhyming is hard
You try being a bard
So instead of love, they just hate
Posted by LuckyCharmer | July 16, 2008 4:52 PM
Posted on July 16, 2008 16:52
Thanks Jim. Nothing gets me through the day like hitting "refresh" every 30 minutes to see the latest banter on shark tank. Also makes my day to see people's reactions to my off-color commentary, as if people assume I actually think minorities and women and old people just don't have what it takes to be in IT. Nothing like a good trolling.
Love,
Fluffyjacket1984/Fatcoat2007/f1ufytr0II2008
PS I know oldest tymer isn't playing golf EVERY day! Why isn't he commenting?!?!
Posted by fluffyjacket1984 | July 16, 2008 5:30 PM
Posted on July 16, 2008 17:30
Well, Roland, when I go to the link you quote, I get this:
500 Servlet Exception
java.lang.IllegalStateException: forward() not allowed after buffer has
committed.
at com.caucho.server.webapp.RequestDispatcherImpl.forward(RequestDispatcherImpl.java:139)
at com.caucho.server.webapp.RequestDispatcherImpl.error(RequestDispatcherImpl.java:113)
at com.caucho.server.webapp.ErrorPageManager.sendServletError(ErrorPageManager.java:363)
at com.caucho.server.webapp.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:180)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletInvocation.service(ServletInvocation.java:229)
at com.caucho.server.hmux.HmuxRequest.handleRequest(HmuxRequest.java:419)
at com.caucho.server.port.TcpConnection.run(TcpConnection.java:389)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool.runTasks(ThreadPool.java:492)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool.run(ThreadPool.java:425)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
Resin Professional 3.0.18 (built Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:15:12 PST)
And, besides, the link that's in the daily e-mail from Sharky is the one that has the comments. . . :-)
Posted by Bark | July 16, 2008 8:31 PM
Posted on July 16, 2008 20:31