never lose anything again. not even waldo.
August 20, 2008
THE STORY:
The two-cent boss was pulling out his hair, pacing back and forth, because he couldn’t find “the file” in his email. In spite of his best efforts, he had lost that one critical file.
He had spent many hours tweaking his custom folder sets in Outlook – a sub folder for each project, a sub-sub folder for each month in each year in each project. Just like he had done “way back when” in paper space.
Except, back in the “good old days” – the golden days – the two-cent boss had help from a document clerk, who knew her way around the paper space filing system.
You see, it was very easy in those days to find things in file systems. All you had to do was ask the document clerk, who would have some idea of “when” the document had been filed, and then go look for it in the appropriate place.
Plus, you could rapidly flip through the folders looking for your files. Or rather, the document clerk could do it while the two-cent boss was busy doing something else.
Enter the computer. The two-cent boss had a bigger boss, who had a much bigger boss who liked to count beans, and the much bigger bean counting boss decided that the two-cent boss could do things on his own now that he had a computer. “You don’t need a document clerk now, you have a computer.”
Except that the poor two-cent boss failed to change with the times. He did things in cyberspace the same way he had done them (err, the way his document clerk had done them) in paper space.
Folders, inside of folders, inside of folders. And he manually went digging for them using good old Windows Explorer. It went something like this:
Click-click. Damn. That’s not it.
Click-click. Damn. That’s not it.
Click-click. Damn. That’s not it.
Click-click. Damn. That’s not it.
Click-click. Damn. That’s not it.
Click-click. Damn. That’s not it.
ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!
(Digging for stuff inside of folders inside of folders inside of folders doesn’t make sense electronically.)
The two-cent boss failed to do one thing.
Make the computer work for him, not the other way around.
The smart employee came to the rescue. He had installed (against the company policy, I might add!) an indexing search tool called Copernic Desktop Search.
He could have installed Google Desktop Search, but good old IT Security had blocked it via the McAfee software that was on all computers at company.
(Fortunately for the smart employee, IT Security wasn’t, and still isn’t, that bright…)
He could also have installed Windows Search 4.0, except that it only came out a few weeks ago, and this story happened back in 2006.
Anyway – the smart employee asked the two-cent boss what was wrong, and the two-cent boss said he was looking for “the file”.
The smart employee said, “just a second” – typed some text from “the file”, filtered the search to include “the two-cent boss” as the sender, and…
BOOM!
There was “the file”.
The two-cent boss was impressed, and asked how the smart employee had done it. The smart employee told the two-cent boss, who was somewhat intrigued, but of course installing third-party software was “against company policy”.
(The company would rather you take 1000 times longer to find things than install some software that they don’t understand, and can’t be bothered to understand.)
The moral of the story is that if you don’t want to lose things anymore (barring a computer failure, which can be countered by a good backup strategy), you could be just like the smart employee.
THE SOLUTION:
Install one of these programs, and it will help you find what you seek – instantly.
Make the computer work for you, not the other way around.
I’ve used all of them, and as far as recommendations, I’d say it depends. If you are a dedicated Gmail user, then I’d go for Google Desktop Search as it will index your Gmail too, and it has a lot of plug-ins to add features. Copernic Desktop Search has a better interface (to my eyes, anyway), as does Windows Search 4.0 – so if you don’t like or trust Google, try one of the others – all of them can be easily uninstalled, if you want to try a different one. These all work on any modern version of Windows.
If you run Windows Vista, it also has built-in search that you can access – just press the Windows key, and start typing.
There are many other search programs out there – but the ones I’ve mentioned seem to be the biggest players.
If you run a Mac, then you can use Spotlight to do the same thing… and it’s built right in. Google Desktop Search also exists for Mac, though I’ve not used it. Spotlight works well for me, and Gmail’s built-in search does the rest.
(If you run Linux, I’m assuming you’re smart enough to install a search program like Beagle, or you that you know how to use slocate from the command line…)
I won’t be so bold as to suggest that you change the way you organize your files and folders on your computer – keep on doing what works for you. However, one of these programs might come in handy if you are under the gun and “click-click, damn” isn’t working for you.
You have a multi-gigahertz multi-gigabyte powerhouse at your fingertips – let it do what it does best!
Find “the file”, and get back to writing that book, starting that business, spending time with your family… or just do absolutely nothing with the time you’ve saved, but read a really long post like this one!
If you have any questions about any of these search programs, feel free to ask in the comments, or send me an email!
–
Bonus points: can anyone tell me what is really weird in the picture above?
Can I be an incredible idiot and say something like…
“Oh my god. This would save me so much time, considering how many files and emails I have to search… and Google Desktop Search DOES this?” (I swear to god, I honestly had never made the connection. Welcome to ADD.)
“And I HAVE GDS installed?” (Of course I do. I pick up applications and install them like I change underewear. I have friggin’ everything. I have no clue what most of it does and never tried it.)
“THIS is it??” (Um, yeah. That swirly that’s been in my desktop tray for about a year? The one I never knew what it did and just left it there to do its thing in the background like a good boy?)
…doh.
James,
You’re not an idiot
but Google does a great job of not telling you how it works…
(just hit the Ctrl key twice to bring up the search box – you can also make it show the results in a browser window, with previews)
If you right click on the swirly thing there should be an option to configure it, and a web browser window will open. Have a look around in there, and you can get it to index your Gmail.
You can also get it to do neat things (if you trust Google) like share the contents of some files between computers – you could then access something that was on one machine, from a completely different one. Google keeps the info in the cloud for you, probably in your Gmail somehow.
You’re like me that way… I install and try out everything.
One other thing – you can install more than one of these search programs – I usually have Google and Copernic on the same machine, as each has it’s strengths. Both will idle the search index functions when you’re actually doing something, so they won’t slow you down. By default they only index when you’re doing nothing. So no harm in having more than one.
Wait, get the fuck out. Harry and I could share files on our computer? I must have to investigate.
(And MOST applications do a fantastic job of not telling you how they work. Mmhm)
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: A Review
I’ll have a look myself, test it out tonight and let you know what I’ve found if you haven’t figured it out by then.
@James,
Have a look here – this seems a good explanation:
http://lifehacker.com/software/top/technophilia-share-files-or-not-with-google-desktop-190359.php
I’m not sure if you can add other people as viewers, but you could give each other your passwords, or maybe set up a Google account you both use as a “middleman”.
Oh bother….
Once I put something in my gmail archives…it’s like putting it in the lost and found. Lost, never to be found again.
I just put a star thingie on the really really important stuff…like anything Harry sends me…and keep it there forever right where I can see it.
How do I know if I have that Google Desktop Search and if I don’t where do I get it. ( I am already sorry I am asking this…..)
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..For the Love of Words
@Brett
Thanks for the tips for sorting through email. (I never would have found this out on my own). I’m one of those computer dilettantes, who only knows what’s necessary, as the need requires.
As for Mr. Tuppenny, it makes me wonder.
I’m far from a computer genius, but I’ve found lost emails just by using the “Find” function in the Outlook Tools.
If you have a vague recollection of what the email is about (a persons’ name, a keyword, a subject), you can enter the search word, and it will narrow down the field considerably.
It’s not the most elegant solution, but it works much better than Click Down-Damn ARGH.
Hey, if a boson like ME can figure this out…it shouldn’t be that hard.
PS. Too difficult to see what’s weird with the Waldo picture (I need more pixels).
Friar’s last blog post..Friar’s Random Olympic Thoughts
@Wendi,
Oh, believe me, I archive too – but I add labels for things on Hold, or Follow-Up (for example) so I can easily find them even if Archived. And I use the stars too.
If you have GDS, you’ll see a swirl icon in the lower right corner of your Taskbar on Windows (you run Windows, I think?)
If you don’t have it, go here:
http://desktop.google.com/index.html?ignua=1
If you get stuck, let me know!
@Friar,
Oh, for sure, the Outlook Find works – this is just a lot faster and you can specify more filters (e.g. between certain dates, with certain key words, from so-and-so to so-and-so).
Hey, I’m only a phone call away for you and I work for beer…
Hint: look in the middle of the picture, near the milk bottle game…
Uh Brett? Do I see James as a future client once that business of yours is set up?
COOL! It is AWESOME to see you at work. You’re good at this.
Are you going to have live chat feature for your business? So say I need help and contact you, you and I can chat and you could walk me through something or explain it? And as you get busier, you could hire other smarty-pantses to manage the live chat—while you go snorkeling on the NZ coast…
steph’s last blog post..No Lamb For the Lazy Wolf
@steph,
Hey, you never know – stranger things have happened – I could even make house calls, as he’s not too far away from me (well, 3-4 hours not being that far)
Thank you for saying that! Yes, live chat is a definite – text, voice, video, and whatever platform the person needs. I will even offer remote assistance whereby with permission of the individual, I could do the work from my house on their computer while they watch (pretty much any operating system will let you do this today).
That’s a great suggestion, by the way, to hire someone else! In fact, at least one of my little Vikings is already a computer smarty-pants, so maybe he can work with Dad
Oh, I’m sure you’ll have to hire someone. This biz is just that fantabulous an idea and you do so well at it already. Who needs Future Shop? (There’s your tagline, haha!)
It would be cool to have another little Viking on the team! And not only will he be learning more techie stuff, but think of how far ahead of you he’ll be in the learning to pursue his dreams dept!
He’ll be starting young with a very great role model!
In fact, I’m sure they’re already learning that from you.
steph’s last blog post..No Lamb For the Lazy Wolf
Hey, that’s a great tagline! I figure if Future Shop or Best Buy can’t help you, that’s where I come in.
I’m more than just a three-ring binder and a CD full of tools…
You don’t know the half of it… my oldest figured out how to install Grand Theft Auto on one of the computers… he’s only 7!
(methinks GTA isn’t age-appropriate for him… so I had to lock down his account)
I’m going to get them started on my other stuff as well, very soon. I’m going to let them help make their own huaraches – I figure they’ll really like that they were able to help make their own shoes!
I suck at filing stuff. The whole folder-subfolder-subfolder thing doesn’t connect with my mode of thinking I guess.
Search rocks. It’s the only thing I use.
Google for the internet (almost everything you want is already there you know)
Search in Gmail
Search in Windows XP.
Tried GDS, didn’t like it. I guess I’ve become too search savvy to appreciate applications that go through great lengths to “help” me.
I totally recognize the two-cent boss
I kinda love the looks of amazement I get when I pull the “impossible” from the internet in minutes. I distinctly remember a sales meeting I attended, where one of the speakers said “There’s no way of knowing how big the market really is.” and the audience was nodding in recognition. Knowing that we were talking about a declining saturated replacement market, I fired up Google, refined my search six times and had them choose between three recent reports on that specific market’s size (one of them even mentioned us as a supplier!).
I made some friends and some enemies then and there
Lodewijk’s last blog post..Blog Action Day, Alltop and switching hosts
@Lode,
Exactly… folders within folders within folders wouldn’t make sense in paper space… and yet, I’ve seen electronic folder hierarchies 6 layers deep where I am now! *ouch*
If you use the regular search in XP, Windows Search 4.0 might be of interest to you – it feels like an enhanced i.e. quicker version of what you have already, with a few extra options for filtering.
But if what you already do works for you, keep on keepin’ on – if it ain’t broke for you, don’t fix it.
Yes, we tend to do that a bit when we extract information from outside the realm of the “certified experts” at work. Not invented here is not well liked…
@James –
Don’t forget you can share Google Docs as well.
Wow, Brett you are the man! What a smart employee! Did it get you a wage increase?
Thanks, installed Google just now. It took about 3 min. Will see how it goes.
So glad I know folks like you…you make me look so smart to my IT derelect friends! BIG WINK
Harmony’s last blog post..Silver Medal – Golden Effort
@Dave,
Exactly – thanks for adding that point. And if Google Docs doesn’t support a filetype you wish to share, you could try (for example) Microsoft Live Mesh:
https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Welcome.aspx
It works pretty well and gives you 5 GB for free.
@Harmony,
Thanks! I need you to write my performance appraisal… no, even though I mentioned stuff like this, because it’s not in my job description, it doesn’t count.
Let me know how it works, and if it isn’t your cup of tea, don’t be afraid to try one of the others.
It will make you a giant amongst your IT underlings
Heh I do the folders within folders within folders thing… but it works pretty well for me on my computer. I don’t think I’ve ever had to search for a document (and never, thank goodness, had to deal with the two cent boss!)
Your oldest is seven? Why on earth did I think he was so much younger?
@James – You are adorable. Absolutely adorable.
Allison Day’s last blog post..Koo-Ki Sushi
Ah, but do you do folders within folders within folders within folders within folders within folders!
(It’s okay, I usually have a Documents folder, with maybe one more level of sub-folders. But I have become so used to search tools from working here, that I use them before I touch the mouse and start clicking…)
Don’t worry, they grow up fast – I can hardly believe he’s 7 myself! Before long, he’ll want the car…
Yes, yes I do.
At the moment, 5 levels of folders is as deep as I go.
Ah, the dreaded driver’s license… my brother turns 16 in a couple of months. The idea of him driving scares the heck out of me. Beware, anyone on SoCal roads! o_0
Allison Day’s last blog post..Koo-Ki Sushi
Ack! You can still be my friend though
because you make cool t-shirts… and sushi.
What kind of car will your brother be driving?
Oh, good. That’s a relief. It would make me very sad if I couldn’t be your friend anymore.
Um… I believe he’ll be driving a Saturn, unless he buys himself a used car. *shudders* Very scary, very scary indeed.
Allison Day’s last blog post..Koo-Ki Sushi
LOL, you’ll always have a friend in me. Saturn, that’s a good car for a new driver.
I can see myself driving up and down those roads, where you live. In a VW Magic Bus, of course… not that I know how to surf. But I’d pretend!
LOL. Is that bin Laden?? I see someone with a turban and a beard …
Rebecca Smith’s last blog post..It’s all about I
Well, this smart employee works where the IT Security is very anal…I mean dilligent…and I will be fired for installing third party software, even if I could figure out how to get it past all the blocks in the first place. Not to mention the fact that we are always at least 4 years behind the current operating system, and will be going to VISTA in 2012. Sooooo….I will be passing this info onto the very smart Urbane Lion for home consideration, but I will continue take 1000 times longer than necessary to find files at work.
Urban Panther’s last blog post..The cost of relationships
@Rebecca,
BINGO! I’ll have to figure out a prize for you.
I’ll make it good, I promise.
@Panther,
Yeah, I hear you. Officially that’s what could happen to us too. I am willing to take the chance, though.
Because I know some things
like the phone number for CTV News.
Seriously though, I could never understand how a company funded with public money (yours and mine) could justify paying out the huge contracts they do for software.
I mean, we use an operating system that is 7 years old, and an office suite that is 8 years old.
Seriously, any recent version of Linux and the latest version of OpenOffice would run rings around the software we use now… we could just train our IT guys to work with that, and be done with it.
It’s really him!?!? How funny is that! I LOVE prizes
Rebecca Smith’s last blog post..It’s all about I
Rebecca,
It totally is! I’ll figure out something for you
Hi Brett – call my a cynic, but I thought you were going to say – then the smart employee got into trouble for breaching company policy. I don’t know what gave me that impression of your wonderful colleagues.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Relationships: Are You Kissing Goodbye To Success?
Cath,
Just for you then, another story from an earlier time…
When the smart employee first started using Copernic Desktop Search, he was using it to index the entire network share for his workgroup, because they had folders nested 6 layers deep. Very poorly organized.
He couldn’t find anything until he started using CDS. Once he did – bliss!
Bliss for about a month. Then one day he got a call from IT Security. Though they were very friendly, they asked him what he was doing every night at 3 am.
(This was the default time when CDS re-indexed everything.)
The smart employee explained it, and then IT politely asked him to stop doing that, as he was using *ALL* of the bandwidth in the building!
Dumbfounded, the smart employee asked how this was possible! IT responded that the network equipment was very old. You see, it turned out that the smart employee (being a geek and all) had a network in his own house that was (and still is) ONE HUNDRED TIMES faster than the one at his own “world class” company.
*shudder*
IT asked the employee what software he was using, and he told them. They then asked him if there was any software from (the mighty) MICROSOFT that could do the same thing.
He responded, “not at this time, but apparently there is something coming out in beta soon…”
The smart employee resigned himself to only index his local hard drive.
And he lived happily ever after (not really, but at least IT stopped calling him… though he is still wanting to leave the company)
-Brett
@Brett – let’s run away together. Well, not together together. I am sure the Lion might have something to say about, as would your wife. But let’s run away from work together. Do you think we would be eligible for long term disability? We truly do suffer!
Urban Panther’s last blog post..The cost of relationships
@Panther,
Deal. We’ll run away from work together… I think we’ve both suffered enough! Between the two of us, with our LTD’s, we could support our families I am sure…
(I have actually sat in meetings, as recently as this past Monday, where I have given serious thought to saying, “you’re all a bunch of fracking idiots”, then standing up, and walking out of the room, never to return again. It’s a lovely role-playing exercise and helps me to pass the time…)
@Brett – too funny. On Monday, no word of a lie, I asked the Lion if he had your email address because I was so depressed heading to work I thought it might help if I got you to tell me how you were managing it. Not any better than I, it seems! LOL
Urban Panther’s last blog post..The cost of relationships
@Panther,
brett DOT legree AT gmail DOT com will find me… well, you see, I have this index card I’ve taped up to the mirror in the bathroom, where I get ready for work.
It says, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” – more often than not for a long time, the answer has been “no”. So I keep on plugging away towards what I want to do.
And of course, I look forward to seeing the folks I like at work (and to being bad and blogging / commenting while at work!) – then I’m lucky, my wife works where I work so we can lunch together, and last but not least, seeing the kids at the end of the day.
I guess the main thing is that I know in my head that this isn’t forever, and it will change…
(Daydreams involving my Viking axe help, though.)
Damn! I had spotted Bin Laden also. The bumper car gave it away! The Panther has GDS installed on her laptop (I don’t hink she knows it!) I would just need to install it on my desktop. I used to use it when it first came out but wasn’t using it much and thought it slowed down my system at the time. Must be much better now.
Urbane Lion’s last blog post..Do you suffer from Social Tourette’s ?
Brett,
I love Spotlight, works like a charm. Though I don’t lose much in my heavily nested folders I do sometimes find it quicker for the Mac to search for me. (I have a pretty good organizing system, as an old-style filer who’s never had a doc clerk.) I don’t keep enough on my PCs, thank goodness, to lose anything.
Very well written piece!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Inspiration Points: Add Greek Spirit to Your Business
What a fantabulous post! Heheh, you’re on your way Brett!
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Work Your Jaws
Coolies, you just saved my day. I was searching for this damn file the whole day and just couldn’t remember where I kept it. One click of the Windows key and there it was. I swear I so never knew this.
Steph is right, your new biz will rock the day if you provide tidbits like these. Awesome stuff and best of all, we all need stuff like this every now and then.
Thanks buddy.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Blog Communications
@Lion,
I figured you’d have seen OBL, but were just circling in for the kill
Most of these programs have been improved a lot, yes, and the hit on performance is pretty minimal in my experience (I’ve run GDS and Copernic at the same time on a laptop, as well as the built-in Vista search, and no problems).
Yes, you and the Panther could then share your files back and forth that way – or the Microsoft Live Mesh is another way.
@Kelly,
Thank you! I’m usually the same way, I do a bit of organizing in my filesystem (except on my media server, more in a minute on that), but the search is still a bit faster – for me – because I’m a keyboard junkie most times.
You know, if you have stuff on a PC in a shared folder, Spotlight can also index that
so that’s what it does with my media server. The media server has one big folder called “shared” and a million little folders inside of it, because I amalgamated things from many different machines.
I have better things to do than reorganize all of them into proper categories. So, search tools do it for me! Hey, it’s just videos and music anyway…
@Melissa,
Thank you very much my friend! Yes, I’m on my way – the first piece of the puzzle is in place. I’ll try and do a few of these posts to inject in between Viking posts, until I have enough to spin it off.
@Monika,
Happy to be of service!!! A lot of the time it has just been an emergency tool for me, if I know where things are, but then again… it saves the old mouse buttons from an early death.
And thank you, my friend. I’ll be including you on the list of “smart people who’ve done it already” when I need to ask questions about things I don’t understand about running my own business – so stay tuned…
(You knew that Skype call was coming soon!)
My computer being from 2005 doesn’t like GDS – it slows everything down. That’s okay though, being trained as a Records Manager means that I can file and find things without a problem (and yes, I go for the deep trees – as many as 6!) but it all makes perfect sense to me and I’m the only one who uses my computer.
As for email, I was hesitant about the good label instead of folder system, but once I started using it, I love it!
I’m also pretty good about clearing out my files periodically so that I don’t have computer clutter.
Here’s an article I wrote a while back on digital clutter: http://www.infoadvisors.com/ArticlesVideos/DealingwithDigitalClutter.aspx
Nowadays people are also beginning to think about the environmental (ie power) costs of storing lots of data without purging it. Maybe instead of buying that new harddrive or purchasing more online storage space we could delete more stuff. When I switched from Outlook to Gmail, I didn’t import a single email and in the past year, I’ve looked for email addresses in Outlook, but only once or twice for the content.
Cheers,
Alex
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post..Patience is a Virtue – Full Text Answers
Brett, I have never had so much fun reading a post about IT! I love Google Desktop, and oh boy do I remember click, click Darn! For those same reasons I also switched from Outlook to Gmail. Great tips in the best language I have ever read. The comments were a riot too! This is truly your calling my kilted wonder friend! CAN,WILL, BELIEVE! –Wonder Woman
@Alex,
LOL now I’ve put my foot in it, by telling everyone deep trees are insane, and many folks do it just that way
but as I’ve said, “use what works for you” is the best way to do it.
If you’re well organized (and you are), you won’t have any problems. That style of organizing can work really well for the organizer, of course (but the poor old smart employee didn’t have a hope in Hades of finding what he needed on the network share at work!)
That’s a good point about digital clutter, and the environmental aspect is also one worth considering. I could probably write a blog post about it, to be honest!
My own setup, I have my core personal files on my laptop, with external local and remote backups. My media files – which let’s face it, are not that important to me if I lose them – are on an external server. As it is my old game machine, it’s a bit too powerful. So I’m likely to sell it soon, and buy a low powered server appliance.
The more modern, larger hard disks actually consume less power than the older ones from even a couple of years back, and if you set the machine to depower the drives when not in use, you can really save a lot of energy.
As it is, my media box is set to sleep if nothing accesses it for 5 minutes, and it is set to wake on network activity should I want to access a file from my laptop.
So I guess I’m pretty green already
I’m with you too on the older mail. I’ve not imported anything from the time before I made the switch to Gmail. I still have it, if I need it, but I have a feeling it will just languish…
@Karen,
Thank you very much for saying that, Wonder Woman – that lets me know I’m on the right track.
My belief has always been that this isn’t that hard, but the computer industry (often) wants us to *think* that it is, to justify their existence!
@Brett
No, you didn’t stick your foot in it – I’ve always been the sort to hyper organize things. When working with my clients I would strong NOT doing it the same way I did as it would be far too complex for most people.
I had one co-worker who did publications and graphics work for the association I worked for and he had deep trees of 10 or more folders, and wow! could he find things quickly.
Cheers,
Alex
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post..Patience is a Virtue – Full Text Answers
@Alex,
(*phew*) oh, I didn’t think I had… you know, it is possible to do this as you say, if you’re well organized, and even without a search program it could just be a matter of having a better file manager.
I use Directory Opus when I’m on Windows, and it makes the built in Windows Explorer look like a toy… just so much better. It isn’t free, mind you, but worth every penny.
@ Brett: I’m normally not that unorganized either. But lately I have been a bit lenient and now I’m paying the price. I really hate clutter in the best of times but it seems to sneak up on us when we least expect it.
What I love about your geekiness is that I learn all these things about cool apps. I’m clipping away like mad here. Probably need a new Evernote account soon. hahahaha….
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Blog Communications
@Monika,
I hear you! I made a fresh start with my Mac, and pretty much anything that is more than a year old, I just find using search tools – but I made the effort to be a bit more organized with the new stuff!
Evernote is a great app! And I’m glad you appreciate my geekiness (I’ll have to tell my wife that someone does!)
It doesn’t get much better than spotlight. Spotlight and me are best friends.
Writer Dad’s last blog post..But Daddy
A VERY cool blog and a VERY short story,
A hundred years ago, I worked for a large co. My 2 best buddies were my boss (then in his 50’s) and the Director of IT. Whenever something needed to get done, my boss would go nuts: He’d call my buddy in IT, and yell about how long things took him. Cursed. Screamed.
One day boss calls IT: How come every time I need to do something, Rita gets it done faster?
IT: Did you try increasing your computer speed? (We were on a mainframe)
Boss: I can DO THAT? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?
IT: You never asked.
Boss: OK. What do I do?
IT: Before you start a run, type “GO FASTER.”
Boss: NO SH*T?
IT: No sh*t.
One week later, after I stopped doing my boss’ work, he came into me, and asked if I knew the trick. “Of course, everybody knows it.”
Boss: “Why didn’t you tell me.”
Me: “I just assumed you knew it.”
Boss NEVER bothered IT again. He was happy as a clam. I was finally able to get MY work done. IT and I laughed our asses off – still do to this day, over 20 years later!
Rita
Rita’s last blog post..My Father, the Anchor
@Writer Dad,
Especially in Leopard… the saved search folders are cool (you can do that in Vista, too)… and I wonder what they’ll do in 10.6?
@Rita,
Thank you for saying that – and thank you for your story, I loved it!
And I like your post about “the Anchor” too – that is so cool. You have a great variety at your place – I really like it (and you now have one more subscriber!)
Brett,
Thanks – we’re subscribuddies!
Rita
Rita’s last blog post..My Father, the Anchor
@ Brett: You probably love to hear that I will buy a Mac before the end of the year now. Woohoo, I’ll be knocking on your virtual door when that happens. Can’t wait.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Blog Communications
@Rita,
We are RSS BFF
@Monika,
Hey, that’s great news for you! Any time you need a hand, my friend – I’ll be there.
[...] For example, making the computer work for you. [...]
Same here. Switching to Mac before the end of the year. I’m pretty tech savvy, but I don’t mind the shortcuts
Lodewijk’s last blog post..A New Home
@Lode,
Exactly – I learn more and more, each day – and I think the more I learn, the more I realize how much there is to learn… so any tips I get are appreciated!
Good luck with the switch, and just a heads up, Vmware Fusion 2 is in late beta, and looking really good, if you’ve got a few of those Windows programs you can’t live without…
Brett,
A day late, and a dollar short, but yes we are…and it’s both a pleasure and an honor!
r
Rita’s last blog post..Rest In Peace, Dear Joey G. – Your Damn Dad Molested Me