So, last November I bought an Acer netbook. It is small, portable, long battery life, rugged and seemed to be what I was looking for. I intended to use it for inspections as I could take it with me where ever I went and input to my inspection programme directly without using my PDA. Netbooks come without a CD/DVD burner, but the addition of an external drive has made this a really good little machine.
Enter my friend.
He was so taken with my Acer that he decided to buy one himself. He asked for advice. " Don’t buy the one with the solid state drive as it is very small. DON’T BUY THE LINUX VERSION. ( I am his computer guru - the poor slob and I don’t do LINUX) Don’t buy a blue one as mine is blue and it will be nice to tell them apart."
He bought the blue LINUX machine.
Well after screwing it up several times he asked me if he (ME) could wipe the disk and install windows XP. “Sure!” says I.
Take note. It ain’t that easy.
It took two weeks of effort; wiping the disk several times, installing and removing XP, installing about 2300 drivers, consulting an unending list of web sites each guaranteeing an easy job of it, a lot of silly weak cursing and finally DOMINIC.
DOMINIC, through a long series of Emails diagnosed my problem, researched the web sites, selected the missing / malfunctioning drivers and rescued my friends machine from what was about to be a very nasty collision with a large hammer.
It is for reasons like this that DOMINIC is the member of the year. He selflessly gave his time, energy, experience and good nature to an inspector he doesn’t know from a hole in the ground so that this inspector could repair a machine for his buddy ( he still thinks I am an I.T. guru so Dominic even preserved my reputation!)
THANKS DOMINIC. INACHI MEMBER OF THE YEAR. AND JUSTLY SO.
