It’s many years ago, and this pilot fish regularly travels to company offices around the country, dealing with IT-related problems and running user training sessions.

The big current project is implementing internet filtering after complaints that some workers are viewing inappropriate websites. So fish has to head to a meeting with many directors and managers to demonstrate.

Upon arriving at the meeting site, fish sets up a laptop and projector and connects it to the internal network. Then he tests to make sure the filtering is working, calling up a blocked site that, if it does display, only shows a silhouette of a bunny with a bow tie.

But not to worry: The site is blocked, so everything is ready.

At the meeting, fish explains the internet policy and what will happen if anyone tries to surf to a blocked site.

Then he clicks on the link for the test site. And there’s that bunny.

Fish is relieved that all of the big shots seem to have a good sense of humor, but he really wants to know what happened between his test and the meeting.

“I called the home office and talked with the staff responsible for the internet filtering. Their response: ‘Oh, we had to take that offline to do maintenance. Was that big meeting today?’”

Now would be a good time to tell Sharky your true tale of IT life. Send it to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.