On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 11:39:02 -0500, Timothy Weber wrote:

> Mark Scoville wrote:
> 
> > So I guess the moral is "Don't overlook the easy stuff".
> 
> Hear hear!
> 
> I was Main Geek at a startup around fifteen years ago.  I was supposed 
> to be programming but of course helped troubleshoot everything from 
> Solaris workstations to the fax machine.  During that period I developed:
> 
> ----------------------------------
> The First Rules of Troubleshooting
> 
> 1. Is it plugged in?
> 
> 2. Is it turned on?
> ----------------------------------
>
> I never found a third rule that applied so often as these.  What was 
> most interesting was the variety of *ways* they can apply, especially 
> with a creative enough definition of "plugged in" and "turned on," where 
> you inspect each piece of the system (hardware or software) that can 
> connect to others and/or be enabled or disabled.

Indeed!  Many years ago I had a call from a user of a Datapoint computer (where the screen and keyboard were 
in one lump with all the electronics inside) that their screen had gone dead.  After a minute or so I found 
that they had the desk pushed hard against the wall, trapping the mains cable for their machine.  As they 
pulled the machine towards themselves to get the keyboard in a comfortable position, the plug at the back 
disconnected!
 
> Mark's story sounds very familiar, though - I guess the third rule might be:
> 
> 3. Describe the problem to someone unfamiliar with it.
> 
> A lot of the time, the third party doesn't even have to say anything - 
> just the act of describing the situation reveals some high-level error.

This is a very powerful technique which I use a lot - I call it "cardboard cutout debugging", because as you 
say, they can just sit there and say nothing, it's the act of rephrasing the problem so someone else can 
understand it that "explains" it to yourself and makes you think of it from another angle.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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