Page 16 - 1808

(Continued from page 15) bles and get it running again. Had I been in a
rush get her back on line again, I might have
home automation might be worth the effort right resorted to simply buying her a new PC, an un-
now, as these are currently hot topics. Hot topics necessary additional expense.
can change as technology changes, however.
Over the years I have gained some expertise in I have bought several relatively low-cost, on-
carburetors, floppy disks and parallel port sale items over the years as alternates or back-
(printer) interfaces, but now that knowledge and ups to things I already have. These include rout-
experience is less useful to me. Spending at ers, Ethernet switches, cables (Ethernet, USB,
least some time becoming a generalist might power, etc.), battery chargers and USB drives.
bring longer lasting rewards. One field I’d recom- These can help you quickly isolate the cause of
mend learning more about is physics, which re- problems and perhaps get you running again, at
lates to almost everything we call high tech, from least temporarily. It is always good to have more
the orbits of GPS satellites to the operation of than one way of doing things, in case your pri-
semiconductor devices. mary means suddenly fails. It costs nothing to
have multiple browsers available on your com-
That does not mean that learning new skills and puter, in case accessing a web site becomes a
emphasizing particular topics is not important. I problem. If you can’t get your email to download
fear we, as a society, may be abandoning some on your PC, can you access it on your smart
hands-on skills in favor of more on-line and virtu- phone? If your Wi-Fi does not work, can your
al pursuits. While I don’t follow them much my- wired PC still access the Internet? These kinds
self, the increase in popularity of TV shows deal- of substitutions can help isolate the cause of
ing with home remodeling (HGTV) and cooking problems with little cost or risk.
(Food Network) means people still have an inter-
est in creating things themselves, which is good. Even with a little extra cost, some redundancy in
Knowing how to play music on Pandora or the things that are important to you can be justi-
through your Amazon Echo is not the same as fied. Having a second TV might keep you from
knowing how to play a musical instrument. missing that big game. A cheap second car (or
Knowing how to get food delivered through a bicycle) can be an alternative to missing work
GrubHub is not the same as knowing how to when your car won’t start. Keeping a spare
cook. phone charger or USB battery pack at work or in
the car can be a lifesaver when your smart
Having a Backup Plan is Helpful. For activities phone battery is low or fails to hold a charge.
you feel are important, having a backup ap-
proach is crucial. This applies not only to the A Logical Outlook and the Application of the
backup of data on a computer hard drive to Scientific Method Can Help Solve Problems.
avoid loss due to hardware failure or an attack In helping you solve a problem with their prod-
by ransomware, but also to a “backup” of the uct, a company’s tech support department may
computing function itself. One of the best invest- have a script to follow in directing you on what
ments I’ve made in my wife’s computing re- to check and in what order. You won’t have this
sources is in her own laptop. Though she sel- advantage if you perform your own trouble-
dom uses it, preferring her desktop PC, it really shooting, but a little logic and thoughtful consid-
took the pressure off me when her primary com- eration can help. Following the scientific method
puter suddenly failed to boot up recently. She will always keep you on the right track. First, ask
was able to reluctantly switch to her laptop for a question (typically, why does this thing not
work and home computing needs, giving me the work?), then research (what may be the
(Continued on page 17)
time to investigate her desktop machine’s trou-

16