When nothing works

I use to sit at things sometimes for days trying to make them work again. Often times I'd still end up with something that's still broken, with the added bonus of a beard and hunger.

When I worked in IT our boss would tell us if something isn't working, go for a walk. Come back in 30 minutes and try again. Most of the time this worked, and worked quite well. You'd come back with a clear mind and the answer would be staring at you in the face.

I found myself hanging over a problem today. A client's computer, which refuses to upgrade to Windows 7 due to the fact that his Vista installation isn't up to date. It isn't up to date because Windows Update won't work. And Windows Update won't work because.... well, my educated opinion is that it's because Vista is a shambles and as shiny as Windows 7 is, I would imagine these sorts of issues will be evident as time goes on.

I woke up this morning to a dead modem. Always a nice thing to wake up to. Then you realise "crap, how long has it been offline?" A question I ask myself because I run my own mail server at home. A spare modem is now in place, and the faulty one has been sent off for warranty.

I was able to act quickly, keep cool and get back on track as soon as possible.

However, there are times when things don't go according to plan, and they also don't go well while you're side tracked, fixing the unplanned breakages. At times, I have to admit, I try and keep my cool as much as possible, but I guess I'm only human (if that's an excuse) and sometimes problems get the best of me.

I'll feel angry, not at what's gone wrong but at myself because I can't fix it. Although there are other times when I can get angry at something because it sits there not working, but I just can't see why not.

In the end, calm and collected is a better way to be, because I've found that you'll usually solve the problem either in the same amount of time or quicker if you're calm about the situation. The same boss that told me to take a walk also told me something else when a computer isn't working "It's a computer, no one's life is at risk".