Two Cars in Every Garage

In every home in America, where there are two or more computers in the residence, it typically falls on one individual in that house to repair, maintain, or upgrade those PCs. An IT-dept.-of-one, as some might put it. In my parents' home, whether I lived at home or away, that one-man-maintenance crew was me. Too slow?, need a better processor. Chokes on media files?, might be it needs a better graphics card. The home computer eventually becomes your creation.

Mine started out a Frankensteinian amalgamation of old parts from used computers, but in a few short years...ahck, it became a respectable custom unit. Finally, this year, they allowed the operating system to be upgraded by a friend, and now the software more closely fits the hardware. It is a fairly smooth-running machine, which hums to life quickly and efficiently, without too many worries. Still not absolutely perfect, (I still think it could use a better soundcard), but damn close.

Now my brother's on the other hand, started out a monster, and we are both trying to master its enormous potential. It is and editing station (he designed the requirements, and our very capable friend provided the know-how) with its newest card (a forward-port coaxial-station) which allows the digital camera (professional looking Canon XL1s) to be plugged in to the front.

It is a beast, all said, it allows at least three video outputs, and three in, without including an analog cable-tv port, and at least two seperate audio-ports. A fantastic monolith to technology.

Unfortunately it is not currently without the 'occassional digital hiccup' it is now being worked on over my brother's friend Tony's house. (He runs a nice little side-business of making said custom computers.) But before that my brother asked me to work on it. With no boot disk set, and no O/S disc, and a Stop-Disk error or something at the startup. I'd like to think I'm geek enough to tackle most minor problems, but not without the tools of the trade. That said, I wondered why my older brother blew up at me, when he got home from work. When I explained I couldn't do anything without the proper software, he gave the typical jackass response, 'I knew that."

Well, if he knew that, why the insane reaction to something he was already made aware? More importantly, I don't know either;

• a.) why I bothered. He is usually an ass about his high-tech.-toys.
  
• b.) why I was surprised, I acted out his reaction prior to his arrival home.
  
• c.) why, eventually, I'll help him out again, even with his computer.
  

I've got to be a special kind of idiot.

[incidentally, I almost left the typo- a special king of idiot(s).]

WE TODD DID
I AM SOFA KING
WE TODD DID