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Success!

Entry 451, on 2006-12-30 at 21:23:30 (Rating 1, Computers)

I love it when I achieve impressive successes (whether its deserved or not). Its particularly cool when I can do something in a really short time that someone else has spent ages on, then pretend that its no big deal, while thinking "Wow, that was lucky, I thought that was going to be a hard one".

Two incidents of this sort have occurred recently. The first was when I was asked to sort out a broadband Internet connection for one of my private clients. She had had our local phone and Internet company, Telecom, looking at the problem and they hadn't solved it after 3 and a half hours. She showed me the room where the computer was and went to make a coffee. Five minutes later she came back and asked if I could fix it. I said it was already fixed. She said "did it only take you five minutes?" and I answered "Of course not, it only took 30 seconds. I've been testing it for the last 4 and a half minutes." I love it when I can use a smart answer like that!

The second incident occurred when I was asked to find an old movie. The person who wanted it had been looking for about ten years without success. I spent 30 seconds on the IMDB to find the details, then another minute at Amazon to find it for sale. In fact, it wasn't actually available yet, but I will receive an email when it is. There was a slight complication involving the title (which was different in the US from the title we were searching for) but the whole process was actually quite easy.

Of course, there are many incidents where I don't achieve this sort of success, but when I do its very satisfying, and renews my confidence in my problem solving skills and in the power of the tools I use, especially the Internet!

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