Everywhere I’ve worked since the advent of the personal computer, the IS or IT guy or gal has always had a one-word answer to any initial call to them about computer malfunctions. Your computer freezes up and you call them on the phone and they say:
“Reboot.”
You reboot your computer and everything is all right. Then a week later, you can’t get Excel to work right, or everything in Word is bold and you can’t change it back. You call IS and they give you a one word answer.
“Reboot.”
And, it works. From then on, anytime the computer freezes up, you know to reboot and you don’t even have to call them. That is, until a few weeks later when you realize something spiritual is going on with your computer, and you quickly figure out what is wrong and you call the IS guy.
“My computer is possessed by the devil.”
“Reboot.”
Again, it works. The next month, you are working along when blood begins to gush from your computer. You call IS and, this time, the guy comes over in person. He takes one look, gets on the phone, and the next thing you know all his staff is there.
“This reminds me of that one in Marketing last year,” says some Poindexter junior IS guy.
“Dammit, that was pus,” says the IS manager.
“Yeah, but it was liquid,” says Poindexter, pushing his horned rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“Have you tried rebooting?” asks the IS Manager.
All of this brings me to what I was telling you yesterday about our TiVo going on the blink. When Jimbo is making supper, he likes to turn on the television and listen to the news and sort of watch it out of the corner of his eye, but last night the television was frozen and I couldn’t watch anything. When Jimbo’s girlfriend got home from work, late, after a long day, Jimbo had used up all of his ideas, like turning it on and off and changing channels. Nothing seemed to work. When Jimbo’s girlfriend got home, Jimbo was kind of in that same state of mind that the marine played by Bill Paxton in the movie Aliens was in after he realized the aliens were more formidable than he thought.
“Aw, Jesus, man, we’re screwed now!”
Jimbo’s girlfriend had a suggestion that we click our way to the “troubleshoot” menu and reset the TiVo, which we did. After about five minutes of the messages on the screen telling us the TiVo was doing things and searching for the satellite signal, the picture came back, along with the sound and the ability to record.
All we had to do was reboot.
Hallelujah! Life is beautiful again. I just hope it stays fixed. We are right with the world and “God’s machine.” Coincidentally, this morning the sun is shining and the weather is supposed to be unseasonably warm. As for me, I have a hallway and a bathroom to paint and an entire house of carpeting I need to shampoo. There’s no way I’ll get it all done today, but I will see how far I can get. With the weight of the TiVo problem off my shoulders, I’m optimistic it’ll be a good day. I hope it’s a good day for you, too.
Because in Jimbo’s world, and I’m sure your world, too, you can’t have too many good days.
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