£16.99 instead of a new computer
Mark is a Novell and LINUX network design & support, solutions and services provider. If you understood that last sentence then your business would probably benefit from NDS8, the company he works with. Personally I don’t understand a word and just lifted it from the website. All I know is that in his specialist area he is one of the top guys in the world and is frequently being dragged around the globe to where important people can call on his vast computing knowledge, insights and intelligence. When my computer died on me a few days ago, he was the only person I thought of calling.
When I used to run my web design business, people often assumed that because I worked with computers, I knew how they worked, but that’s like assuming because I know how to drive I must have an intimate knowledge of the internal combustion engine and could build one from scratch if asked to. In reality, when I took the side off the computer to take a look, I wouldn’t have been too surprised to find a portal to another dimension where demons and wizards actually caused the thing to function.
“But it’s just wires all over the place,” I whined, “how am I supposed to know what goes where?”
I took some photos of the multi-coloured spaghetti and emailed them to Mark, then over the phone he calmly explained which bits went where and made the whole thing sound very sensible and straightforward, so today I went and bought myself a power supply unit from a local computer shop and fitted it myself. To my immense surprise, the whole thing is now working again.
It’s not this first time Mark’s bailed me out (see Raising a Toast to Mark) and I do feel a little guilty that if I’d had to pay the going rate for advice from a guy with his level of expertise, it would have been cheaper to buy a new computer.
I’m sure he must get something out of our friendship, although I haven’t figured it out what it might be yet. Perhaps he likes knowing someone who can beat him in backgammon. More likely it’s Maggie’s cooking when he comes to visit.
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