Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
The following is an excerpt from a fictitious interview in Q&A style with CATALYST's owner, Daniel Davis. The questions, though never really asked, were answered truthfully.
Q: What prompted you to start this company?
A: The economy, coupled with the poor management of the company I last worked for, left me and about 800 other people out of jobs. With the downturn in the US economy, and the sorry state of employment in Michigan, Information Tech pros in our area were scratching and scrounging for any job they could get their hands on, and this drove down the pay rates drastically. I couldn't wait for those jobs to multiply magically in some distant future, so I took matters into my own hands. My family had owned small businesses for years, and I had actually co-owned a sign and design company a few years ago, so I had an idea of what small businesses were looking for with respect to computers and networking. I realized I had something to contribute to small business owners: experience, knowledge and patience. Many companies that aren't large enough to pay an IT support team are floundering in a sea of viruses, popups, failing components on PCs they've kept in use longer than expected… These are the people, the companies, who need real help; not just another computer shop to slap a new stick of RAM in an old PC, but a consulting agency that can hold hands and guide businesses through the technology maze.
Q: How long have you been helping people fix computers?
A: Since I was a young chap working in my parents' Radio Shack. We sold Tandy 1000 PCs and Color Computers when we first opened; what monsters those first Tandy PCs were! Flipping the power switch made a noise like a jet engine revving up in a Lear. I remember the first big upgrade I installed in a PC, a giant daughterboard kit to upgrade a 1000 with it's original 4.77MHz 8086 to an 80286 running at 12MHz!!! WOOOOOO!
Q: So, what was your first computer?
A: Boy, will that question age me! Um, a Commodore VIC-20. William Shatner was Commodore's spokesman at the time. $295, if I remember correctly. It had a whopping 3.5KB of useable program RAM, and a cassette tape drive; it hooked up to a TV (a 13" my dad bought for me). No printer. I was programming games and drawing apps on it, and within two weeks I had run out of RAM. I had to buy an 8KB hardware cartridge to boost it! Ran that into the ground within six months, which prompted the upgrade to a Commodore 64, and started me on the long road to endless upgrades in search of computing nirvana. I'm still wandering down that road, though I use a Model T now instead of a tricycle. I'm looking to upgrade… 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra
Q: Were you always a computer geek?
A: Nope.
Q: Come on now, really?
A: Well, it depends on how you define "geek". If you call someone who would rather sit in front of a computer as a child and program games in hellish Commodore BASIC (PEEK and POKE and SYS, oh my!) instead of going outside to play or swim in the pool a geek, then yeah, by that thin definition, I guess I was a bit of one. :)
Q: How many platforms have you used or maintained over the years?
A: That's a fun one… Commodore PET/CBM (8032), VIC-20/C64/C128 (including CP/M on the C128), Tandy Model III, MS-DOS 3+, Geos, Commodore Amiga OS 1.2+, Apple ][+ with ProDOS, Windows 2.0+, BeOS, Mac OS System 7+, Mac OS X 10.0 Public Beta+, Linux 2.0+ (kernel version) running on x86 and PowerPC, FreeBSD 4.7+, Solaris 8+, HP Unix 10+… Like I said, these questions are aging me! Looking back, there are very few of the old platforms/OSs that I could use with any respect, though I still boot up some emulators for kicks, like my C64 and Amiga emulators.
Q: Do you have a personal affinity for any of your computers?
A: I still have an Amiga 1000 in my closet, purchased in 1986 with some of the money I had saved for college! It was one of the first-runs with the silkscreened signatures of the Amiga/Lorraine designers on the inside of the cover. Some day I may find a boot disc online which would still work! I have the original color monitor for it, too, and an addon external RAM/SCSI module, but I doubt I'd be able to find a 40MB SCSI hard drive which would work with it… Yes, 40 MEGABYTES, not gigabytes! :D
Q: Is there anything you've learned from your parents which you have brought to your business?
A: Yes, early in my teens I worked with my parents at our hardware store and Radio Shack, and I learned to always listen to the customer. Be patient. Be friendly (moreover, BE their friend). Be honest, though not at the cost of hurting relations. Use your head; logic is your pal, but it can bite you if you use it too much. Creative thinking is complimentary to logic. Wash your hands after using the restroom.
Q: How old are you (in 2004)?
A: 35, but still happy!
Q: How did you build this site?
A: Sticks and mud.
Q: Let me rephrase: what software did you use?
A: I started with Dreamweaver MX, but I had issues with learning such an oddly-structured and buggy program. I went back to basics and promised myself that this site would be FAST on a dialup connection, and 100% standards-compliant for multiple browser/device viewing. That required using techniques to strip the code down to almost nothing, and learning XHTML and CSS in the process. So I used Notepad at first, which is about as far back to basics as you can get in Windows, then switched to a program called HTML Beauty 2004++, which is Notepad on coding steroids, as well as TopStyle Pro, my new favorite. Between that, and the graphics done in Macromedia Freehand MX, Fireworks MX 2004 and Adobe Photoshop 7, the entire site weighs in at 135KB with the current (Jan. 22, 2004) articles. I've seen single banners on other sites larger than that! Nice, eh?
