Changes

January 29, 2008 on 4:45 pm | In Uncategorized |

I got stalled in getting this thing seriously off the ground, even as a side stream of income. Life happens. My last post here remains a half done draft, interrupted by toddlers or who knows what, perhaps as long as two months ago. That post was a launching point for talking myself through how the site needed to be revised and completed. Life happens.

However, for life to happen, money must happen, and computer work, even a bit of it on the side, is among my most expedient, sustainable sources.

I was recently inspired by a coherent description of one of my favorite types of computer-related work as “digital coaching.” I usually love running down a mysterious problem, or even slaying stubborn malware.

However, there is nothing quite like seeing the joy someone experiences upon learning how they can do something more effectively, or at all. That’s the digital coach aspect. That’s the aspect I tend to slip in small ways among the routine, as a value-added extra. Tech support lagniappe.

I’d never seen it described so well, or emphasized as something too few people are available to do. Instead, I took it to be something people didn’t want or appreciate. Certainly not anything they’d pay for.

So I am going to emphasize that. Yes, I diagnose and fix computer hardware. Yes, I support software in the broader sense. Yes, I can build you a web site or blog. Yes, I can tune and speed up your computer, to the degree possible. Yes, I can search and destroy malware. Yes, all the expected things; install software, setup new systems, get you online, network your computers, and so forth.

But I can also be a digital coach. Intentionally, not just as an aside in small, micro-training, micro-organizing ways.

That includes listening and learning your current what and how, if there is one; not far removed from business consulting, or determining custom software or database needs. That includes figuring out how to improve all that. That includes helping you organize data, use or locate appropriate tools, and so forth.

Which goes back to the point I always like to make about the work and the cost involved in computer support. It’s not about the hardware, but about the data and established comfort level. Computers are inexpensive. What’s stored on them and how it’s arranged can be priceless.

Back to the other points of this post, I’m going to simplify the site, at least for now. It is, after all, just me, possibly helped by a couple of other skilled people on the side, if and as needed. As I type this, their are pages for home, who we are, what we offer, where we are, why hire us, how to buy, policies, and, of course, this blog. Obviously this won’t be going away, or the too long I just spent collecting and laying out my thoughts will have been pointless. I love the idea of a blog in this type of business, as a way to be more personal, announce plans and information, and even be broadly educational. A case could be made for a blog as part of the front page, but it’ll stay back here for now. I may start with just that and the home page. Haven’t finished deciding.

Since I am changing things around, it seemed like a good time to update the software. Did that before starting this post, along with making before and after backups, and making sure the existing text of the pages is in a form I can look at as needed.

That about covers it. Here we go with the changes…