Tuesday 16 November 2010

WORKING WITH EXPERTS

It is always interesting watching experts at work, even if you are not particularly interested in trying to emulate what it is that they do. Recent examples have included the thatching of my neighbours' house, and a snooker player on television clearing the table in one go.

This morning I sat next to an IT expert while he upgraded my computer. As readers of this blog will know, I am pretty much an idiot when it comes to computers, so it was fascinating to watch someone with real knowledge ply his trade. In the space of about an hour, he upgraded my Office pack from 2000 (Stone Age, I know) to 2007, sorted out my security (Microsoft have for the past 18 months been sending me dire warnings about virus updates, even though - he tells me - they were in fact being updated every day), and got rid of a whole load of stuff that was clogging up the works. While at the same time cheerfully discussing the pros and cons of I-Pads, smartphones and Blackberries in words which I could understand.

He also installed a VPN for me, so I can do work for a company from a remote location while accessing their server via the internet. Even my computer-literate son didn't know what a VPN was. For the ill-informed (i.e. like me half an hour ago) it means Virtual Private Network.

Walter Blotscher
Posted by Walter Blotscher at 13:11

3 comments:

  1. Michael17 November 2010 at 18:49

    You are an expert on quite a lot of things as witnessed by this blog.

    These VPN things are quite a thing. I know a lady, Swedish, who works as a Microsoft trained systems engineer. The job involves maintaining company data bases. The contractor she works for is based in New York and the clients all in the USA. She does all of this from her computer in her house in Zanzibar where she lives.

    I have recently got a Blackberry and learning how to use it is providing hours of fun. I have however for the time being kept my Nokia in case I need to make or receive a phone call.

    But it can be a very remote world. Most of the people I know these days I have never met.

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  2. Joachim Satchwell17 November 2010 at 19:44

    How on earth could an IT expert have found any pros on the iPad (that is how you spell it).. It is basically an iPhone which is too large to fit in your pocket. Oh yeah, and it cannot send or receive calls or text-messages..:) It is of course great if you want to read an ebook, but the cost-benefit of spending over 4000 kr on that is only relevant if your eye-sight is abysmal or you have a library of ebooks and spend your time doing nothing else but read.

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  3. Walter Blotscher18 November 2010 at 14:06

    Hi Joachim,

    The other thing about working with experts is that they can be controversial (as your comment shows).

    Said expert's view on the iPad (thanks for the spelling help) was:

    1. Very, very easy to use, and so good. But ..

    2. Not to be used if you want to do some serious computing (when he would use something else).

    Whether it is worth kr.4.000, he didn't say. But that is because he got it for free from Apple, since he is one of the guys they use in Denmark to test market their products. One of the perks of being an expert, I suppose.

    Regards,

    Walter

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