What happens when I get some work (an oddyssey)

[Guest guest]

Mike, , Ray,

You may appreciate this & perhaps can help me. Long suffering the

frustration of not being able to define myself occupationally, I settled on

doing business development on the web. In addition to some other things,

work on getting some basic web design skills, & ran a cheap ad in the

Sunday paper. Got some calls on it, and a nice job designing a commercial

website for a biz that does sports handicapping & wants to go on the web.

These are 2 guys who are , among other things, construction contractors

with no contracts ( this is a bottom dollar town, & they would have work

anywhere else). Both are bright, but regard computer stuff like they

probably do construction work: " even if the tool is broken, there will be

some way around it. "

The one that does the handicapping was a Sports Book Director for 16

years, & is good. But he has a Packard Bell (vintage 19994, insane bios)

that he keeps on all the time (with the minimal surge-protector). The

computer is erratic, and one of the things I advised him to do was get it

working right before the biz goes on line. He wanted to reprogram it, so I

worked with him for 12 hours a few nights ago trying everything in my bag

of tricks. He was running Quatro Pro (old DOS Version) in Win95 DOS (7.0),

which did lord knows what to his data-files & back-ups. A kind term for the

whole mess would be " a hybrid operating system " . He was also using some DOS

6.22 from disk.

Had so many conflicting operating systems on the computer that once we got

rid of all the files, except for a special directory I made from Win95 to

re-install, system would only boot from floppy. Did not disturb system

files, but got error messages " wrong operating system " like crazy.

I have a laptop with a special file I made to re-install Win95 for my own

use, & such situations. So I laplinked (networked the 2 pouters) & with

great difficulty over many hours got the new Win95 on his computer, &

installed a complete 95 OS, that cleaned up all his conflicts. It allowed

re-install of AOL, seemed to work fine, & I left him to get some sleep.

Later that day I get a distressed call from him (something like " now the

computer worked, but the Quattro files all came out garbage (20 years of

sports data & analysis) "

I certainly felt bad, but he was giving me " I didn't really have a problem

until you messed with it. " To some extent true, but he had a time bomb.

After we removed all files from a 1 gig drive, there was still half a gig

missing! My guess was the many power outages where he lives (suburbs) had

fried his drive, but not in the usual way. from the operating noises, it

sounded like a Western Digital, which can be sturdier than most. Didn't

seem like the surface was bad, But I think one of the heads was in process

of dying, or had died invisibly to the system.

At any rate, I had suggested he have a back-up computer eventually, but

that he just go to CompUSA & purchase a desktop on a credit card, use it

for a few weeks while his got repaired by a good & inexpensive technician,

then return it. He didn't like that idea. Also, he is frantic because the

big football stuff kicks off this weekend!

Tried calling him yesterday to say I was sorry for the difficulties & try

to soothe him, but he was out. Spoke to his partner, who wasn't surprised

at all about what happened, & guessed he was out getting a new computer.

There is no problem working with the partner, I am revising the first

version of a complex web site. But I really feel bad about what happened.

He may never get his data back because it may have been encoded in some

bastard form that only worked on his fractured operating system. But I've

certainly had my share of similar disasters, & realized I had to go to

automatic tape backup for both work & personal stuff (Win95 has 15,000

admitted bugs, & all Windows operating systems tend to fall apart every

several years anyway)

So the situation has become strained to say the least. My ex-wife, who

unfortunately became a serious pessimist, has a saying: " No good deed goes

unpunished. "

Anyway, I learned a lot from doing the site, & am working on finishing it

& getting it up. Will certainly have to be paid when it goes on line. They

already have money tied up in it, so I am pretty sure it will work out. But

I'm certainly going to think twice about helping the next person! Any & all

suggestions are welcome.

Ken