Solve for all unknown variables
After a quick find and fix, this afternoon, I realize that my work skills are still relevant. How else (and who else) will my family call when they can’t get their email?
To be fair, today’s little foray wasn’t exactly a family matter; a friend had just returned from a winter in the south. Email wasn’t coming in, despite back story knowledge that there were messages piling up. And so, I got “the call”. Could I hook up a smartphone to gmail?
Without any real experience (no smartphone, even less gmail), I replied that anything was possible. And so, at a distance, I configured. Here’s the rub. Despite credentials, the phone wasn’t connecting. Happily, I asked the real question: Has this ever worked?
Turns out, it did until two days ago when the phone crossed into Canada. Same phone, same account, same cellular system… in fact, things worked on cellular. The block was with the home wifi system. Didn’t seem likely that there was any serious firewalling against Google going on, so I suggested what every tech eventually suggests. “Could you restart the wifi router, and your phone?” Two minutes later, peace and good order returned to the world.
Technicians know that there’s never a single reason why something complex stops. Why, I even went through a stretch in one school where the power cord would fail, and the only fix was to use a different power cord (while using the “faulty” one on another computer, and so on. I now believe that the world is a series of multivariable equations (just like the ones I hated in math class). Solve for x , and y, and z, and any other letter you don’t recognize. Eventually, you’ll fix things.
