Coogabon

I needed Coogabon's help today to fix a technology problem. Well, maybe it was actually to fix a problem in my thinking about my technology problem.

I've never met Coogabon, but I understand he hangs out around here a lot. Sometimes he is very, very small. I think he can be microscopically small when he wants to be. Other times he's as big as Little Dudely. I suspect he can be even bigger if he wants to be. He's a lot like Little Dudely as it turns out.

Today our DVD server wasn't working. It was a very special Christmas gift for Pookie. All of her DVDs (copies of course, and all within copyright laws) which were once scattered or stacked in the vicinity of the TV are now on a hard-drive. Instead of shuffling through them to find what she wants, she uses her special little remote to pick anything, anytime. No scratches or broken disks ever. Very cool.

Anyway, this fabulous solution isn't very robust. There are sometimes glitches that need to be solved over our network with remote screen sharing and so on. While I am generally comfortable with technology, I have very little interest in how this is all wired together. I just want it to work. Fortunately, Little Dudely and Coogabon care.

So when the network connection wasn't working well today and I needed to fix something on the server, wiring was the likely problem and Little Dudely was the prime suspect. And he wasn't talking. After a few deep breaths, and a timely and brilliant suggestion from a friend, I went to enlist Little Dudely's help.

Obviously, Coogabon had been up early and messed around on the computer or with the wires. Perhaps Little Dudely could help me by asking Coogabon what he had done, and then Little Dudely could help me fix it. It took three visits with Coogabon to check all the wires that had been plugged and unplugged, and double check all the other wires in the TV set-up. But my hero, Little Dudely worked it out (with Coogabon's help, of course) and assured me that no settings on the computer had been altered.

In the end, I just needed to restart the server twice, reset the screen settings several times, restart the software a couple of times, and poof! it all agreed to work again. I'm not even sure that the plugging and unplugging had anything to do with it. But I do know that I can count on Little Dudely and Coogabon to help me if I ever have technology troubles again.

Did I mention Little Dudely is 5 1/2?