Computer problem #1

Got a call (what is the first of many to come I am sure) from one of the friends who was recently the recipient of one of those computers I mentioned in an earlier post. He asked me what to do now that he had reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows.

WHAT??!!?? You did what?

He explained that when he got back to his school and tried starting the computer it was not working for some reason and so the first step tried by a helpful, well meaning, but severely misdirected local computer guy was ‘Reformat the hard drive and reinstall the Operating System.’ Turns out the RAM was likely a little loose (probably from the 36 hour train ride home for this guy) and there was actually nothing wrong with the hard drive after all.

We had gone to great lengths to install and configure all the software and settings so that they will serve our friends well (read as keep them safe from themselves at times). That was all for naught on this particular machine.

I explained that we would send him another hard drive with the right software and settings on it in a few days. Thankfully we had taken a ‘ghost’ copy of the master system configuration and from that only needed to add a few things and tweak some settings and download a few updates. Took about 2.5 hours to have a hard drive ready to send him. Now he can have that helpful local computer guy install the replacement hard drive and send us the other one back.

Wonder what the next call will be. “Uh, yeah, remember how you told us not to plug the computer into anything but the surge protector? We think we know why now.” Oh boy. Here we go.

Phone number learned? - Check!

My son came to me the other night and told me he needed to learn his phone number so he could tell his teacher at school. It was just he and I at home at that point (mommy was at the doctor with little sister who had a toe infection of some kind) so we decided to get going on learning our phone number. I would say a few numbers at a time and he would repeat them.

After only about 10-12 tries he was able to say it back to me with surprising confidence. We kept trying and practicing. By the time mommy and little sister got home he got a hold of mommy and exclaimed “Mommy, my phone number is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.” She looked at me and then at him and asked “When did you learn that?” “Just now” came his proud reply. I nodded my agreement and explained what had happened.

I am amazed at how quickly they can pick things up when they decide they are ready to or when they decide they need to for whatever reason.

What a deal?!? – software prices

We are working on a software project here for our partner organization. One of the things that is funny to me is that to develop software you need other kinds of software. And that software can sometimes be very expensive.

We put together a list of the various software that we either need right now or will need in the next 3-4 months for this project. The retail total came to over $22,000. I about fell off my chair, and those of you who know me know that would not be a pretty sight.

We began poking around and found out we can buy most of the software we need through our non-profit status in the US, and the total we would have to pay. . . . . a whopping $4000. That is a lot better than $22,000, but when you don’t have the $4000 either, it still leaves you short. Hard to believe how expensive a single disk is that has a bunch of 1s and 0s on it.

On a cool note though, I decided to try to see if I could get some of these companies to donate their products to us. I sent a few emails and so far got one reply with some questions about what we do, etc. After an email or two back and forth I was told they were going to donate a copy of the Professional version (about $300 worth) of their product to us for free. They not only did that, but sent us an international express box with some cool t-shirts and a reference book (worth another couple hundred probably) for use with their product. Thanks Yohai and Shiry. You guys are great.

Where should you park a bicycle?

One of our friends is here for a few months and bought himself a bicycle to ride around. Brave guy, but that is another topic.

When he comes home on his bike (he lives in our apartment building with us) he has been making quite a stir lately. It seems no matter where he parks and locks his bike someone is not happy about it. “No, you can’t park here. Park it over there.” Only to be told when parking over there “You can’t park it here, you have to park it over on that side of the parking area.” And so on. He has been told at least a dozen different places in which to park and lock his bike. My take on the whole thing is that it is somewhat cultural and somewhat a test of him and his patience.

In some ways I think the people are just trying to see if he will actually listen to them and move the bike. A power trip of sorts. In other ways it could be a matter of him being ‘the stupid foreigner who can’t even figure out where to park his bicycle’ so they have to tell him. We are all perceived as being a bit stupid at times simply due to our nationality. That and rich.

So our friend has decided to park wherever he good and well feels like it and let the others fight over it amongst themselves. Good solution me thinks.

Fantasy Football

So I am trying my hand at fantasy football for the first time this year. Having lived overseas for the last nearly 8 years I have become woefully out of touch with the NFL and who is hot and who is not. I also only have a loose understanding of how the systems work and so on. I actually only signed up for this league as a kind gesture to my friend and his son who started it.

However, week 3 are in the books and I am beginning to feel like I could get into this. Way into this. Which is part of the reason I stayed away. I know the ease with which something like this could quickly eat up a LOT of time. Like everyone these days, I have a lot to get done, and a family to try to be with some times too.

Part of the reason I am getting into it is because I am winning our league right now. I know that will likely not last for long, but it is fun for now. I actually had every intention of just doing the signups and then leaving my team roster as is for the whole season and see what happened. However, I have now found myself doing a little research on my players and who they are matched up against this week to see if they need to be benched or what.

And time is ticking away. Got to make sure this does not become an addiction of sorts.

movie sound track off

Went to the local IMAX today with the fam to see a movie about dolphins. It was creatively titled “Dolphins”. Wonder who made a mint by suggesting that title.

The kids are young enough that they can only make it through about an hour or so, so these nature ones on Imax are perfect. We decided to make a day of it and went early to have fun western food like fries and chicken burgers, onion rings and Diet Cokes, etc.

We splurged and got popcorn (at only 50 cents who can say no to that?) and settled in to our assigned seats. The movie began and about 15 seconds into it I could tell that the sound was somehow off. Later on we would figure it out to be about a minute and a half off at times. We would be watching someone talking on the screen and hearing a dolphin clicking and chirping away and then a few minutes later see a boat zooming across the water and hear the voice of the person whom we saw talking a minute ago. It was weird to try to split your mind to hear what you saw earlier. We figured since it was for the kids and they really could care less, we were not going to make a fuss about it.

The funniest part for me was about 75% of the way through one of our friends who was with us leaned over and said “I think the sound is off a little.” It took all my self-restraint to not look at him and say “And you are just now figuring that out? For the love of man, it is off by more than a minute!”

The kids left blissfully unaware of the technical glitch that could have marred their experience.

Computers handed out

Today was a big day for 40 of my friends. They all got brand new computer systems for their schools including ups battery backups, printer/scanner/copiers and tons of other goodies. What a great treat to see the smiles on the faces of some, and the look of shear terror on the face of others.

The excited ones could not wait to get back to their schools and set the machines up and start doing all kinds of things (like wasting innumerable hours surfing useless websites, sending emails and downloading virus after virus in the ignorance of how it all works, and playing thousands of games of solitaire or any of the other games that come pre-installed on Windows XP Pro these days.

The terrified ones were trying to figure out how to get me to teach them how to turn the silly thing on, let alone how to use it and get anything productive from it. Many of them were eager to learn, but scared of the new responsibility and expectation put on them as a result of having this computer.

We did our best to show them the very basics and send them on their way with the threat of physical harm to them if they go to websites they should not go to or if they illegally copy the software or install it on other machines illegally or if they destroy their machine with viruses, etc. We also told them that no matter what they do, we will know about it from the monitoring programs we have installed on the machines (the capabilities of which were only slightly exaggerated).

The big question now is how long will it be before one of them contacts us asking to help them fix whatever problem they have created for themselves.

Interviews

Spent part of the day today doing interviews for some people we need to hire for our company here. Had 10 people that I had scheduled times for, 5 of which actually told me they would be coming, 3 of which actually showed up, 2 of which were late by more than 15 minutes. Not a good rate of success. Met a few interesting guys though.

One of them, when asked to tell us a little about himself launched into a 5 minutes long, obviously well rehearsed speech about himself, telling us all the same things that were written in his resume. He spoke really fast, at times making it hard to tell if he was still speaking English or not. Kind of like the guy who reads the “Taxes and title extra, some conditions apply, See dealer for details.” message at the end of a tv commercial. He would certainly add some excitement and challenge to our team.

Another guy told us he just started a job 10 days ago. When asked why he is looking for a new job so soon after starting another one, he explained that he is working for free at this place. They give him a stipend of about $50/month, but no salary. I asked him if he wanted to come and work for us for free too. He did not think that was funny.

A third guy was not a great communicator in terms of volume and enunciation. Kind of like trying to listen to someone speaking sign language. There was some sound coming out, but often not enough to really get what was being said.

One of the guys who did not show up wrote me an email later that day explaining that he had come to the location and was told by the security guard that no interviews were being conducted for LAMP that day. LAMP is a technology training program that we had mentioned would give someone an advantage in our consideration process, which this individual claims to have been through. LAMP is not the name of our company. Not the brightest bulb on the tree.

There were lots of others who gave me some good laughs through their resumes. Like the one whose technical qualifications for considering themselves a programmer was “I know how to use MS Office, including PowerPoint.” I hope our expectations are a bit more than that.

Another guy mentioned that he knows how to install printers on Windows based systems. Very proud of you, but not what we are looking for.

All in all, a very interesting exercise in the hiring process.

An afternoon at the park

Today being Labor Day in America we decided to go for a picnic in the park with another American family who lives in the same city as we do, along with a few others various friends who are here for a few months.

We had yummy potato salad, baked beans, potato chips, chicken burgers (no beef burgers here, but don’t get me going on that part), brownies and watermelon. The kids had a great time playing on the playground and also playing ‘tennis’ (the rest of us call what they were doing badminton, but the kids know it as tennis, so why not indulge them) for a few minutes. A great time was had by all.

The highlight (or maybe the better term would be the lowlight) for me was getting to play a bit of Frisbee. I have not thrown a Frisbee in a looooooooong time. I have not done much of anything remotely athletic in a looooooooooong time. I was quickly reminded of just how overweight and out of shape I am, and was quite conscious of how entertaining it must have been for others in the park to watch the gargantuan fat man run around (taking more than about 3 steps is now considered running for me) throwing a Frisbee. Oh well. Kind of reminded me of the “Friends” episode where Phoebe runs like a total nerd and Rachel gets embarrassed by it, but Phoebe explains how much fun it is when you don’t care what others think of you. I was keenly aware of how stupid I must have looked, but did not care . . . . . . for the moment.

The sweetest joy

Over the last week or two there have been a few sweet moments of joy for me. Most of them involve a moment of love shown to me by one of my kids. The best ones are the unexpected ones. Coming in the front door after a long day of work to hear the most enthusiastic “DADDDYYY!!!!!!” That has to be to best. Or maybe an unsolicited “I love you”, said with the utmost sincerity that only a 2 or 4 year old can pull off. I have a hard time imagining that very many things could be better than a sweet moment of joy between parent and child like these. Makes a guy try to work harder at keeping the rest of the ‘stuff’ in perspective.

Computer crazy

My world lately has consisted of way too many computers. Fixing (or trying to, anyways) someone’s old laptop, keeping my own ageing laptop going (the keyboard has started freaking out recently, and only seems to respond to ‘significant force’ to it in a rapid motion, a.k.a. known as beating on it), setting up the systems in our new office as well as building and setting up 40+ brand new machines with operating systems, productivity software, anti-virus, etc. I have seen more of various computers in the last week than I have of my own wife and kids. The worst part of it all is that I am not a trained computer guy at all. I am totally self-taught (admittedly that includes a number of people who have been very generous in their time and patience to help me learn new things along the way). Funny how things turn out like this some times. Who would have ever thought I would end up being a computer guy? Not me.