1812 Re-Enactment

http://www.mississinewa1812.com/

The Enviro-Arc Story

I need to write this story down. I am simply telling of things that I saw and heard, I do not claim to know what motivations there were behind any of it, even if there were motivations at all. In the end, I believe that every player was trying to do the best they could with what they knew at the time.

There was a company that was formed a while ago, probably 20 years ago or more. They built large equipment that is used to chop and shred and pulverize rocks into sort of a runny product that can be used for various purposes in the landscaping industry. The idea is very green and potentially very profitable, as what was chopped and pulverized is basically trash.

The company was divided into two parts, one would focus on building and fabricating the pieces and parts and would be called Reputable Fabrication, and the other would focus on the design and would own the intellectual property and would be called Enviro-Arc.

Years pass, and RF is a moderately successful endeavor. EA still exists, and sends a large amount of work to RF. Since RF gets paid for what they do, and knows exactly what it takes for them to make money, they do well.

EA, however, repeatedly embarks in projects which simply don’t make money. Each one is different, and EA can’t predict what it will cost to do the work, and they undercharge. They know they cut it close, but evidently don’t want to charge more in case they lose the work.

They operate, technically, in the red for years. Luckily, through creative book-keeping and a continuous stream of large, yet unprofitable projects, they stay afloat. Afloat, yet surviving by a large but hidden bilge pump in the bottom of the boat keeping it from sinking. They make just enough to (mostly) pay all the bills for the project, but no more. The down payment for the NEXT project keeps them going. So, basically, they are half a project behind at all times.

It is said, by the president of EA, that he is more interested in building people than building a business. He is an incredibly charismatic, peaceful and likeable man, is basically laid back, and, I believe, thoroughly enjoys life.

EA has a number of customers, and two of them combine into a larger company. That larger company now grows and eventually buys a few more of the other EA customers. EA continues to build plants, still in the red, and still half a project behind. And they have one big customer. Hmmm….

Then, suddenly, one day they have the chance to do two large projects at once. Can they do it? They will need more people. How can they expand?

So, let me explain a little more about the nature of EA’s product. EA’s product is pretty unmanageable, but needs to be neatly bottled in a way that it can be transported and handled. EA sometimes builds or buys machines that take this runny product and can shove it into a bottle. Very neatly. Unfortunately, those machines that bottle the product also are such that they can also squish hands, fingers, legs, and other unmentionable body parts of the people that would operate them. Not good!

So, EA and their big customer, US Stone, want to do some serious business, but need a better bottler. What do to? Well, luckily there are some people in the world that build safer, faster and more automated bottlers. EA locates a company and makes some deals. That company, located in Canada, gets squirrely, and then EA locates another company, in Europe, that is actually CHEAPER!

As it turns out, US Stone wants to buy a whole bunch of these special bottlers and put them in all their factories to replace all of the appendage squishing bottlers that are already there. EA sees dollar signs.

EA would buy the bottling machines from the manufacturer at a certain price, and sell them to the customer at a higher price. The normal markup is 20%. The president of EA cleverly negotiates both sides and, at the end, boasts that he will actually be making 21%.

EA is a small struggling company with a (admittedly) feast or famine industry. US Stone apparently realizes this, and realizes that this is a big deal for EA, so they offer to make a big down payment on the “bunches” of bottlers. EA sees more dollar signs. US Stone writes a check for 40% of the entire deal, even though the deal was stretched out over 2 years. Enviro-Arc deposits over 1.5 million dollars in the bank.

By this time, EA’s VP of sales and marketing, Tom, has left for greener pastures. He is responsible for making the two deals which EA has now, simultaneously. Tom knows that EA has a large deposit in the bank, however he does not know their intentions. After all, the majority of that money is earmarked to go to the fancy bottling machine maker.

EA, however, is still seeing dollar signs. They know the timeline of the large bottling machine project, and figure they will make enough money in the next two years to more than pay for the machines. After all, they need to expand, now, in order to finish these two large projects and also handle what will, undoubtedly, be coming down the pike in the future. It’s a good plan. Tom tells the president of EA “I hope to God you don’t spend it.”

They spend it.

They hire engineers and other people. They buy computers, top of the line. They rent a very expensive building with a very expensive down payment. They do lots of things with the money, which would all be fine. If the money was actually theirs do that with. Which it technically wasn’t. It would be fine, assuming they can greatly increase profits in the next two years.

They would, at some point in time, need to pay for the bottling machines.

The employees of EA take a field trip to the new building to see it. As they stand outside and ponder the enormity of the building, one engineer says to another – “I hope they don’t put this in the paper. Because, if this goes south, it will be big and will definitely be in the paper then.”

So, they continue to design and build the equipment for the two large projects. This equipment is all top notch, over built, welded wonderfully by EA’s wonderful welders, rugged, and one-of-a-kind. Even though they have this large, new building which is costing them $25,000 per month in rent, it ends up turning into a confusing mess. Pallet after pallet of parts start arriving, each going to a particular subassembly for a particular machine for a particular project. Which, there are two going on at the same time. Some parts get lost. What to do? Reorder them- rushed!

Nearly all of the fabricated steel parts come from RF, remember them? There is a special agreement between RF and EA. RF will be the single source for all of the the fabricated steel parts that EA needs, but they need to provide the parts to EA in two weeks or less. No problem! Of course, EA never checks what the price is. Ever. The parts are designed by one person, ordered by another person, and the bills are blindly paid by a third person.

Things inevitably start taking longer to do than anticipated, and panic sets in. Many more pieces and parts begin to be rushed. EA calls RF and tells them to step on it. RF complies, and starts a 2nd and third shift, doing only EA parts.

Finally, project one ships. Whew! Project two is a lot more complicated, and is costing a lot more than anticipated. That is, they know that the electrical wiring is costing a lot more than anticipated, since that guy figured out his bill and wants to get paid. And waits, and waits, and then makes some calls. It costs how much? EA management is not pleased, how could it cost that much to just do the wiring?

Meanwhile, the massive bottling machine project is not going well. Several have been shipped and installed, but there are an assortment of problems. The largest problem, it turns out, is that EA can’t say no.

The machines are complicated and quirky. They were designed and built by a European company located in a country that is more well known for making exotic sports cars. Sports cars, which, by nature are much more pleasant to look at and use for fun, not drive to work every day.

The US Stone workers would do something to break their machines, and then call to complain – loudly. EA would send technicians all around the country at the drop of a hat to fix dumb mistakes. At no charge. This quickly eats at the bottom line.

Tom, still an independent rep who is making deals, becomes the official rep of the European bottling machine line. EA breathes a short lived sigh of relief.

Tom, meanwhile, is no dummy and sees the writing on the wall. He knows, for instance, that EA has racked up some significant bills and isn’t paying them. Particularly, to the bottling machine maker. And, confusingly, to US Stone.

People employed by EA deal day to day with the bottling machine maker, and also with US Stone. These people have no idea what is going on behind closed doors, and wonder why everyone seems to treat EA so poorly.

Unfortunately, Tom says something to a potential customer regarding this issue, and EA finds out about it.

EA angrily denies that they are upside down in any way shape or form, and cuts all ties with Tom. In fact, EA has an all-hands meeting with everyone in the now-larger company, and explains that there are rumors going around that are untrue. Many of these employees didn’t know about any rumors, and did not even know exactly who Tom was, other than some slick looking well dressed man who had popped in now and then. This is due to the fact that many people had only been employed there a short time.

US Stone gets a whiff of this and asks Enviro-Arc whether it is true, are they in financial trouble? No way, they say, and they travel to the HQ of US Stone and say as much, face to face. The thing is, the president of EA might have actually believed it himself, as well as everyone who went. You see, things were happening so fast and had been floated for years, it was a bit messy.

Meanwhile, the marketing department has discovered the wonder of robotic palletizing and thinks it would be so cool to get into that. And you know what? It doesn’t cost a thing to get into robotic palletizing. There are European robotic manufacturers so eager to break into the lucrative US palletizing market they will actually LOAN YOU THE MONEY to get into palletizing. And give you a robot. And train you for free. No payments for 9 months! What a bargain it is, really.

EA said, where do we sign up? And they did. The robot arrived a few weeks later, and one of their new, keen and eager engineers got to work.

The bottling machine project is a disaster. EA is in violation of the contract, in that they are not able to install the machines according to the timeline of the contract. US Stone, weary of the whole deal, wants out. No problem, right? Calculations are made, and a dollar amount is reached. US Stone will cease buying machines, and, carry the two…. How about that?

EA owes US Stone $600,000 and the European machine builder $400,000.

Meanwhile, US Stone owes a lot of money to EA for projects that are unrelated to the bottling project. EA is relying on those payments, of course, to stay afloat. They have a big rent bill due, not to mention the ballooning payroll which happens every single week.

US Stone, fed up with EA, stops all payments. Frozen solid.

US Stone couldn’t have picked a worse time to freeze all payments, as EA was completely broke. In fact, the cash elevator operator had hit the basement and was still pushing the down button.

The first round of layoffs happened very suddenly, but no-one was too surprised as paychecks were becoming an irregular affair. The keen and eager engineer who worked on the robotic palletizer (and got it doing stuff that was “impossible” according to Tiff’s brother, Ted) goes to work for Tom, who has a company that is named Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards. It’s a mouthful, but definitely memorable. It seems that Tom is a little over his head with dealing with this European bottle machine builder.

EA owes US Stone $600,000 and the European machine builder $400,000. Somehow, EA also owes the local electrical house $250,000, they owe Tom $75,000, the local mechanical house $200,000, and they even owe RF $100,000. The president of which, by the way, is the brother of the president of EA (let’s call him Tiff). EA had not paid a dime for the robot. EA even owes Tiff’s mother-in-law $100,000. How did that happen? EA owes the federal government on payroll taxes, and UPS has stopped coming by. You know it’s bad when UPS is mad at you. All told, the amount EA owed swelled to over $3,500,000.

It was in the paper. Both times.

One vendor, who is owed a (relatively) small amount is particularly upset with Tiff. This vendor, let’s call him Peanuts, meets with Tiff and wants to work things out. Peanuts thinks he did Tiff a favor and really did a lot of work for Tiff, and wants paid. Peanuts is a small company, and the amount that Tiff owes him is a really big deal. Tiff assures Peanuts that he wants to work it out, and that he won’t declare bankruptcy.

Charles, the number 2 guy at EA and the head brainiac, takes over being president of EA because it’s too hot for Tiff. Charles knows it’s bad, but doesn’t know how bad. Eventually he dusts off the books and takes a look, and promptly quits as president and tells Tiff that it’s over.

A short time later, EA declares bankruptcy. Now Peanuts is really riled up, Tiff gave him his word, and Peanuts would have done some things differently had he known there was a bankruptcy in the works.

EA is a ghost of what it was. They move back to the farm where they came from, wipe off all the rat poop from the tables, and get to work trying to put the pieces back together.

Tom, and his company, Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards, is a creditor as well as represents the European bottling machine builder. As such, Tom is decreed by the bankruptcy judge to be the head of the bankruptcy committee. He is, effectively, the 2nd largest creditor since he represents the bottler maker. And, he lives locally. This matters, because the largest creditor, US Stone, was located far away and couldn’t be bothered to head it up.

Time passes. Tom watches Tiff and EA get off basically scott-free. Sure, they have to pay something like 10% of it back, over several years, but they stay in business. The sad thing is, though, that Tiff has problems at home and eventually has to declare personal bankruptcy. This is due to the fact that he somehow was personally legally liable for a business credit card that had a serious balance that wasn’t paid. Whoops! At least he keeps the house, has a nice salary, and has raises written into the bankruptcy settlement. Nice!

Really, it is nice that it is possible to make a mistake and come out of it ok, in the end.

Eventually Tom and Tiff make “amends” and have a arms-length business relationship.

Tom gets sick of dealing with the European bottling machine maker, and starts building his own. He hires the head brainiac who used to work for EA, Charles.

Charles ends up making a whip-snapping bottling machine that, essentially, works the same way as the fancy-schmancy European bottling machine, but was “designed from scratch.” That is, if “designed from scratch” means “open up a CAD drawing of the European part on the left side of the screen and make a new CAD drawing on the right side of the screen that looks a lot like the part on the left.”

Admittedly, the Europeans had made a very mouse-trap kind of machine. That means, after 20 years of making bottling machines, they’d pretty much came up with a really good way of doing it that couldn’t be made any simpler. A mousetrap has 5 parts, and if it had one part less it would no longer trap mice. Likewise, the major parts of the bottling machine can’t really be done any other way or they wouldn’t work the same. And, admittedly, when the European variety is running, it runs VERY well. Just like their sports cars.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that someone had parted ways with the European bottling machine maker and started making their own. The first time, though, it was their head engineer and it made the owner of the European bottling machine maker cry. Which is unfortunate, because this country that makes fancy red sports cars also has a reputation for making offers one can’t refuse. Regardless, Tom never woke up with a horse’s head in his bed. Yet.

After a time, Tom and Charles had created a successful business. They learned a lot from what they went through with Tiff and EA, and Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards is on the map. In fact, they quickly exceeded the maximum capacity of work that could be ramrodded through their single engineer, the keen and eager engineer who figured out the impossible robot project at EA.

Charles enjoyed making the 3D models of the machines, but after that the work was very tedious and boring. There is a very large divide between the point at which a concept is created in 3D Model Space, to the point where it arrives in large physical chunks at your door ready to be bolted together.

The keen and eager engineer somehow connected those two points, miraculously, and the Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards Bottling Machine ran beautifully.

Beautifully, if you mean beautiful as a Chevy Camaro running with open headers at a drag strip. Compared to beautiful as a Red European Sports car running at full tilt around a race track with other European Sports Cars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and truth be told, both machines are truly inspiring to see if you are into that sort of thing. In the end, they both do the same job very well. And, the Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards machine is faster and simpler, more overbuilt and definitely American.

The keen and eager engineer is buried, so they hire a bunch more people to do all the same things he used to do.

At the end of this story, Tom and Charles end up hiring some familiar faces. They end up replacing the keen and eager engineer with someone who is also keen and eager, yet is one of the original circle of people at EA. In fact, everyone who used to be at EA ends up at Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards. Everyone, except Tiff and Ted, and their wonderful welders. But that’s ok, because, who do you think welds up all the big chunks of bottling machines, and ships them to Tom’s Name Spelled Backwards?

That’s right, Enviro-Arc.

It is a small world after all, isn’t it?

Video Clip Post, from Japan

This is one of the bullet trains going by at definitely less than full speed.

Another Shinkansen going the other way.  The video doesn’t do it justice.  You gotta get the camera ready once you see the light.  Otherwise it’s too late.

Aboard the Japanese bullet train.  We really need these in the USA.  It is much much much better than flying.  For anything that is a 2 hour duration flight or less, this would be just as fast and much nicer once you take into account all the hassles at the airport.

Video of us walking through Kyoto

Another batch of pix – click for larger view

President, Chairman and CEO of Fuji Yusoki

He is the guy to the left in the shot.

Vicrum, an India native living in Japan and working for Fuji

At the Sushi Conveyor

At the Sushi Conveyor

At the Really Fancy Traditional Japanese Restaurant

The Elementary age kids in Japan walk to school this way

Japanese Fast Food

wrapping up training

Kyoto Station - Simply Awesome

The group at Mama Sans, one of the tiniest restaurants ever

What you see in the picture is pretty much the entire restaurant.  You are not missing anything.  The group of 8 took up all but 2 seats.   To the left is about 3 feet max behind the counter.  Behind the wall in the back of the picture is a tiny kitchen.  This is where everyone goes the evening after Fuji training is finished, there are pictures of other Fuji training classes on the wall.  Mama-San’s is within walking distance of the hotel where all Fuji trainees stay, she knows Michael and Hiroshi by name.

Group at Mama-San

Fried Whale at Mama-San

Neat little canal at Fuji

The gang in Kyoto

Neat Stairway

Shrine

Hiroshi explains that this shrine is very highly regarded because the stairway has 5 stripes, the highest number of stripes

View of Kyoto from the shrine

Wow

View of Kyoto from the shrine

A dead god

ok

This is the 351 year old pepper store in Kyoto

Big intersection in Kyoto

Ticket Counter at Kyoto Station

This is a HAPPY terrace, because the sign says so

Another shot of the happy terrace

More of the Kyoto station, a view from the happy terrace

More proof that I was there

Kyoto Station

A joyous morning! A breakfast buffet with western style food.

Pocky! A wonderful creation.

A very nice pic of a river in Kyoto at dusk

The red lantern district in Kyoto. Its fancy restaurants

One of the many Starbucks I saw in Japan

Tokyo!

The awe inspiring hotel in Tokyo where we stayed

The Prime Minister of Japan stopped by this hotel the night we stayed there, and went to a party on the top floor.  I saw him come in, but I almost missed it because I blinked. He was surrounded by several guys and went real fast.  All the guys had the earpieces and stuff and did not smile or say anything, but looked at you real close.

A Maybach parked in front of the hotel

The Maybach

An intersection in Tokyo

McDonalds in Tokyo

Notice how they put fried egg on the burger.  It’s a Japanese thing.

Shot of Tokyo

Lots of tall buildings in Japan

Tokyo Tower

Its pretty tall

View of Tokyo bay from the Tokyo tower

Another view from the Tokyo Tower

A neat green building

Aha!

one last view of the Tokyo tower

A window in the floor of the Tokyo tower

Up close at the green building - the Izumi Garden Tower

Inside the Izumi Tower

I will own a condo in this building some day.

Izumi Garden

Izumi Garden

Izumi Garden

Subway Ticket Machine

At the subway platform

On the subway - That's Victor and Hiroshi

Tokyo at night

Tokyo at night

Tokyo at night

Tokyo at night

Tokyo at night

When someone would say Tokyo this is what I always imagined it to be.  Very bright and colorful with lots of lights and displays everywhere.  It was really like that.

View of the Izumi building from my hotel room

On the 747-400 going home

I have about 1100 pictures, you can see them all here if you really want to.

Lots more pics from Japan

Korean Grill

The USA needs more restaurants with fire!

Aaaahhh, it’s gonna get me!  Oh, it’s a robot gripper.

A traditional Japanese breakfast. Rice in the left, Soup on the right

View from my hotel room.

Class Time

Calpis! It is like sprit with Vanilla. I think it has some other stuff too...

This is a Honda Odyssey.... A lot different than mine!

Pasta at an Italian restaurant in Japan with chopsticks

Class Time

Hiroshi

Kids Menu at the Joyfull restaurant

Robots lined up, ready to get shipped out.

What we did on Friday - stacked some boxes!

Going for a walk in Onoda after class

A vending machine with french fries and hot dogs??!?

Japan seems to have taken the vending machine to another level

Mmmmmm.... A bag of fish, lightly killed. Just for you!

Individually packaged ice cream cones. Thats what I'm talking about!

In the Fuji bus on the way to Hiroshima

Say Cheese!

The rare Japanese paper eating deer

Watch out!

Me at the Mayajima shrine

Japanese people praying at the shrine

Some sort of significant white house that is lined up with the orange gate

Mean lookin dude

Hiroshi with Katana

Fish Kabob

Shopping Street

The Okonomimura!

The group at the noodle pizza place

Me at the Japanese noodle pizza place

A Starbucks! In Japan!

A seriously huge shopping street in Hiroshima

McDonalds! Big Mac, 200 Yen

Crossing the street in Hiroshima

Its the space invaders dude!

Lots and lots and lots of Anime

The building that was directly under the A-bomb.

The lined up view through the memorial shrine

What Hiroshima looked like after the bomb, plus where the bomb was when it exploded

I had my laundry done, they took good care of my clothes.

More pics from Japan

Yens - $1.00 = 106 Yen

Honoda Airport

Fuji Bus and Driver

Many Tunnels in Japan

The Sign for Onoda

Fuji Integrators from Chile

Fuji Robot Station

Robot Parts

One of the many Fuji Buildings

Joyfull Lunch Restaurant

Moving the Robot Manually

Local Neighborhood Japanese Grocery Store

Smile Oven

Its something, with liquor

First Evening in Japan

Route from Detroit to Japan

Shot of the Plane

The Bus from the Narita Airport to the Tokyo Airport

A Random Shot of Tokyo

Lobby of Hotel

High Tech Toilet

Tiny Little Beds

View from Hotel Room

Heading to Japan

Watch this space for many pics and maybe even videos from my trip to Japan.  I’m heading out at 6:35AM from Fort Wayne “International” Airport on 8-25-2008.  I know of a few people who will be checking in.

I have my Work Cameras, a “cheap” 7.1 megapixel Nikon Coolpix and a 3Chip Standard Definition Panasonic PV-GS300 MiniDV Camcorder.

I will be back in the state on September 5th.  I am expecting ubiquitous internet access there, so it should be easy to keep in touch.

Who is the slacker?

I work for an OEM machine builder.  We are a small company and build big machines.

It is not an easy job.

We assemble the machines in our shop and have other companies cut and weld and paint the steel.

We purchase a lot of components and pieces and parts from various vendors, and if there is a lot of stuff at once, we spread it around so as to not completely bury just one vendor.

Sometimes we have problems with vendors.  Actually, there are some who really do a good job and others that really seem to be chronic offendors.  Some occasionally produce junk parts if they are fabricating something.  Others are perpetually late.

Here is an example that is the reason for this post.  Who is the slacker?

We sell our machine to a customer.  Our customer is “A”.  We promise them a date.  We are “B”

We have a critical part of the machine that is a complicated part, it is really a machine in itself that works in conjunction with our machine.  So, we are a customer to another machine builder, and they promise us a date.  They are “C”

So, they have a machine that they also buy parts for, and so they are a customer of a parts supplier.  They buy parts from a parts supplier, who promises them a date.  This supplier is “D”.

Supplier “D” builds a part that also is made up of parts.  They, in fact, do build a lot of their parts and purchase a lot of parts for the parts.  They buy lots of one part from a single supplier on a regular basis, and this supplier is called “E”.

SO, what happens if “E” has a real big problem and starts putting our their “E” parts at a much slower rate?  All of the people who are like “D” who buy lots and lots of stuff from “E” have a hard time producing their “D” parts.  All of the people out there who build “C” parts are having trouble getting the “D” parts now.

So, “C” calls us up, “B”, and tells us “Whoops, sorry, the date we told you is no good, now we’re going to be another 2 weeks later on our ship date.  Too bad!  See, it’s our supplier’s fault, not ours, we did the best we could.  If you like, I can sell you a “C” with a “Q” part that is almost as good as the “D” part I promised, but in fact is more expensive.  So, in fact, if you want to even have a shot at meeting your date, which is coming up in about a week, you need to pay us lots more money, and, the “Q” part will only be one week later, not two weeks later for the “C” part.  Did I say two weeks?  I meant two to three weeks.  Which we both know is three weeks.  Three weeks until they ship, which takes 3 days.  So it’s practically four weeks.

Who’s the slacker?

What happens if we tell our customer that we’re now late?  Can we say “sorry, one of our suppliers is late.  We can’t meet our date.”  That doesn’t go over well.

My theory is, the guy that gets the biggest check is the one who has to deal with it.  It’s real easy to pound on vendors and make them bend over the barrel and fight for the order up front, but half way through their lead time, they are golden.  They have your PO, they know you don’t have time to go anywhere else. It’s amazing how a vendor will say such nice things up front, but then all the problems seem to appear at about the time when they know you don’t have time to go anywhere else.

And it really isn’t their fault.  They’re right, it is a supplier of a supplier who is to blame.  But, for us, it isn’t our fault either….

So who’s the slacker?  It isn’t us.  It isn’t “C”.  It isn’t “D”.  “E” is the root cause, but their problem is caused by either an earthquake, a fire, or some raw material supplier “F” who went out of business or their country had a coup and outlawed their industry or because of some such perfectly justifiable reason.  Things happen.

So who IS the slacker?

“A” is the slacker.

See, they knew they wanted to start up their new line with our product six months ago.  The should have made the order with us six months before the line starts up, not three.  They shouldn’t have hemmed and hawwed around for three months looking for a better deal when they obviously knew they wouldn’t find a better deal, we ARE the best.

Just kidding.  Or am I?

No, really, there is no particular “A” company I have in mind, and the scenario above reflects no particular situation.  Remember, this site originated because I’ve created a work of fiction…

I can’t fix computers for free any more

I must now charge for it.

I have spent countless hours fixing computers for friends, neighbors, co-workers and family. I don’t have time for that anymore, I just really don’t – no matter how much I would like to. For instance, re-installing XP on an older computer can take many hours before all the updates, patches and drivers are installed, as well as the essential programs from my software list. My time must be protected for what I do here.

Just recently I tried to install a new CAD program on my computer at work and ended up having to reformat/reinstall XP on my work laptop which is no slouch.  That’s because the program needed Pro and what was on there was Home.  After the attempts to get Home to work, by following the bad advice from Autodesk, the Home install was fragged.  It took me a day and a half from start to finish.  If a big rework project on the side takes an entire Saturday that can be a disaster for me, although really good for the owner of the computer.

But, if the situation is so grave, or you need the services of someone you can trust who actually has been working on computers for over 25 years, I will exchange my time for cash, and put it into things I need for here.

I have been professionally employed to support business computers and systems, I have recovered valuable data from a hard drive that was “dead”, fixed virus and spyware infested computers, prepped newly purchased machines for safe surfing, fixed mechanically damaged computers, replaced failed components, and done countless reinstalls of windows, networking, and so much else I can’t even begin to mention here.

Here’s what the Geek Squad charges, but you may get more than you bargain for…