Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!inebriae!ssbn!looking!funny-request From: jeffrey@sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Jeffrey L Bromberger) Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny Subject: Being a computer center director Keywords: computers, chuckle Message-ID: <53499@looking.on.ca> Date: 28 Nov 89 11:30:08 GMT Sender: funny@looking.on.ca Organization: City College of New York--Science Computing Facility Lines: 38 Approved: funny@looking.on.ca Reply-Path: sci.ccny.cuny.edu!jeffrey Excerpted from "The Chronicle of Higher Education", October 18, 1989 "Being a computer-center director is like being a race-car driver on dirt tracks." So begins a metaphor from a beleaguered computer-center director. "You have to make critical decisions in short time frames with very little data, and by the time you find out if you've made the right decision, it's too late to do anything about it." The description was submitted in response to an impromptu contest at the Annual Seminar on Academic Computing, in Snowmass, Colo. Some 500 higher-education computing professionals met to discuss problems and solutions and trade experiences. "My job is like an airplane pilot's," another director confessed. "It works best if I'm in front; my users are bored, terrified, or intoxicated; no one notices me until things go wrong, but my accidents are usually spectacular; and it's a long way down without a parachute." Other role models for computing directors included: + Goalie on the university's dart team + St. Francis (it's for the birds) + A television evangelist, because you have to plead for money in ways that would embarrass other mortals. Added another computer-center director: "When I was a little boy I wanted to be a fireman. Now I am." --Judith Axler Turner -- Edited by Brad Templeton. MAIL, yes MAIL your jokes to funny@looking.ON.CA Attribute the joke's source if at all possible. I will reply, mailers willing. If you MUST reply to a rejection, include a description of your joke because there is 0 chance I will remember which one it was. Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com