Back in the days of the 5.25-in. floppy disk, this pilot fish’s friend has the task of transmitting some data via satellite twice a day. She compiles the appropriate information, copies it into a floppy disk and runs a script in a specially equipped PC to read the pertinent files and send the data. Easy-peasy.

And there’s never a glitch, until one day when she receives a phone call just as she finishes preparing the disk. With the transmission deadline about 15 minutes away, she slips the disk into the drive as she talks. Phone call over and with time to spare, she tries to verify the contents of the disk, but she gets a “no disk” message. It’s not in the drive, but she’s sure she put it in the right slot. A frantic search doesn’t turn up the disk, so she asks fish and another co-worker to search some more while she makes another disk just in case.

“Perhaps the PC ate your disk,” fish jokes. In the same vein, she orders the naughty PC to spit out the disk, in a Warner Bros. cartoon parody in which she is Granny, the disk is Tweety, and the PC is Sylvester. Still no disk, but with moments to spare, she uses the newly prepared disk and sends the data.

Later that same day she stops by fish’s desk to say he was right: The PC ate the disk. “The disk was in the space between the upper and lower bays,” she explains.

Sharky awaits transmission of your true tales of IT life. Send them to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.