Write it down, tech support

A few weeks ago, i received a call that appeared too important to avoid answering. My usual phone was switched off for about a month and i was using another number known to a select few. (I do that to take a break from the constant haunting of the connected world). That usual phone had rang just a couple of minutes after turning it on! When i answered, it was a call from a high office - a really high office in my tribe - Office of the Nnabagereka. Nnabagereka is the official title of the wife of the king, Kabaka, of Buganda.

After the usual pleasantries, a lady who works in that office informed me that they could not connect to the Internet, and asked me to go over and fix it for them. I established that the router was up and running and then guided her through a few check mouse clicks. Her report indicated that her machine just needed credentials to connect!

So, i cleared the phlegm in my coarse throat, and popped the big question in a robotic voice: "Do yo have the small book that came with the Internet thing?".
Positive.
Then i switched back to my normal voice and said: "Okaaay. Check and see what i wrote in there, use it to connect". And she reconnected herself to the cloud in just a couple of minutes.

Being a Christian, i thought the lady must have prayed before calling me, causing me to turn on the phone.

Techs: always write down the basics your clients need to get going. Keep a copy and leave a copy with them. It is not always necessary to drive to your installed base - and it is not always necessary to invoice them for minor support.

~/`~/`.

"Jam" that cellphone

Technology frees us. Then it binds us again.

For a couple of months now, i have been considering the idea of buying a mobile phone jammer - a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent. I am not a mobile phone vigilante, so to speak, but i have been subjected to idiotic chatter by way of sitting near a person who has no etiquette in public places. More often, the blabbering twats are usually ostentatious villagers who have just come to town, or yet to-be-civilized recent immigrants from some neighboring states, or cell phone users who came out of the slum but still have the slum in them.

Overseas, the cellphone jammer is on rising demand, major suppliers being Indian traders. Buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers as well as commuters on public transportation. Wanna buy one? It is a blunt countermeasure but it frees you from the bondage of insensitive talkers. By the way, the late Col. Muammar Gadhafi loved cellphone jammers a great deal.

I remember seeing notices in buses in the U.S.A.: "keep your phone conversation very brief and talk quietly, or turn it off". Vehicle manufactures should take my word and integrate in-car cellphone jammers that kick in once the engine is started. If you want to use your mobile, stop the car and turn off the engine, then talk. That could save lots of lives lost due to road accidents caused by mobile phone use while driving.

In San Francisco, some geek said that using his jammer was initially fun, and then became a practical way to get some quiet on the train. Now he uses it more judiciously.

All that happens in the wireless realm - frequency.  And talking of which freedom comes again from frequency technology unveiled via the self-driving cars from Google. Test drives have been successful and such cars should be on the roads soon. Volvo also did succesful test drives where are lead car driven by a human was trailed by three self-driving cars mimicking the lead car through a couple of hundred kilometers in Spain. Control technology is not new: space craft are usually unmanned (e.g. the Mars polar lander), drones used in modern military warfare are unmanned but very accurate.

Way to go.

./
(With extracts from an article by Matt Richtel, NYTimes.com)