More on Power

September 1, 2006

We had a little storm blow by, Ernesto, a tropical depression/storm/hurricane wannabe, on Thursday. I have a love/hate relationship with storms like this. On the one hand, they are a nuisance / menace, on the other hand, they can be good for business. Many people go around in a panic right before such a storm, doing things they otherwise wouldn't do. This can be totally avoided with a simple, well thought-out contingency plan. More on that later.

Anyway, on Friday I got a call from a user who had unplugged her iMac on Wednesday in preparation for the storm. She came in to find it wouldn't start up. I see enough computers that spend their lives always plugged in, and left on, to know that many of them are temperamental if they have been left unplugged for a day or so. I told her to be sure that it wasn't the outlet, and to have a bit of patience. In other words, keep trying what she was doing-- in this case, unplugging it, giving it a rest, plugging it back in, holding down the power for a few second, etc., etc.

A couple of hours later, she called back, and had given up. So I swung by. 30 seconds later her computer was merrily booting up. I wish I could have told her the "trick" I used. But, really, it was just a tiny bit of patience. All I did was what I told her to do, which was try a different outlet, and hold down the power button for just a couple of seconds. She was flabbergasted.

Most of the time, when I perform a bit of "magic" for a client, it has nothing to do with expertise or knowledge. It's just a bit of patience and clear-headedness. I'm constantly telling people to plug and unplug, wait a bit, look at their watch to make sure they have waited 60 seconds (or 5 minutes, whatever). And I am astonished at the number of people who just won't do this. I guess I should be happy-- after all, I make a ton of money from people like this. Still, I hate to make money this way, and I the more I help people like this, the more dependent they are upon me. I have a family-- I don't need any more dependents.

See my next entry for more on backup.