Is the darn thing on?

Jason Zack, Wikimedia Commons

I was having dinner recently at the home of a friend, a doctor with extremely impressive diagnostic skills. Since I spent many years in the high-tech business, as an engineer and as a manager, he said to me, “Steve, my computer backups aren’t running. Would you mind taking a quick look?”

As I did so, he explained all the things he’d tried to do to fix his problem: reinstalling the software, trying to do backups at different times, verifying that the cables were all attached, sacrificing a latte, and so on. As he finished, I reached over and turned on the external hard drive.

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