I was doing a service call at a customer's house one day recently
when a tragedy occurred. My "GuruPhile" (name for my binder of service
CDs - operating systems, Internet installers, and Mac utilities) was
not to be found. In the rush to get to a client's house (75 miles away)
I left the "GuruPhile" on the roof of my car - it ended up in the
parking lot.
So here I was miles from home, and my safety net was gone. The
customer (a 75 year old widowed shutin who's time was spent reading CNN
and writing to his many grandkids) had an LC 575 in which the hard drive had died.
Lucky for me he still had his OS install CD (7.6.1) and 
System CD (7.5), so after replacing the drive (and
watching the horror on his face as he saw the insides of his computer -
"That's what's in there," he exclaimed), I started to install his OS
and programs.
That's when the clinch hit. I saw in his pile of boxes Internet
Connection Kit. I thought, "Great, I can get his Internet online, and
he can talk to all his grandkids." Only there was no CD, and I had a 75
year old gentleman who I didn't want to disappoint. My CD's were
who-knows-where.
I looked up and saw a superhero, a little dog from nowhere who saved
the day. There on that OS 7.6 disk was CyberDog, Apple's attempt at a
browser linked with the failed OpenDoc initiative. CyberDog saved the
day, saved sadness in an elderly man, and saved me from a big
embarrassment.
Using CyberDog, I was able to go onto Browsers.com and
download Netscape (customer request) and his freeware games, and get
his system up and running. A couple hours later, a $20 tip (in Canadian
Funds, so about US$9.94) and a huge smile from a happy elderly man, I
was off.
When I had returned home, I had found that my two-year-old daughter
Tiffany had found my "GuruPhile" in the parking lot. So I earned my
wings by flying without a net, and a little Dog, abandoned by most,
earned a place in my world.
Thank you CyberDog!
Phillip Blancher is a 25 year old Web designer and Macintosh technician
in Brockville, Ontario, the online editor of a daily newspaper, and
father of one daughter who is already playing with her first Mac
Classic at two years old.
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