Brad Feld

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Dad, I’ll Be Upgrading Your Tech Support Shortly

Sep 08, 2008
Category Foundry

Ever since I left home for college in 25 years ago, I periodically get a call from my father that goes something like "Hi Brad, it’s Dad.  I’m having trouble with my computer.  Can you help me?"  I fondly remember many long calls with my father where the exchange went as follows:

Brad: "Ok, now get to a DOS prompt."
Dad: "I’m there."
Brad: "What does it say?"
Dad: "C colon."
Brad: "Ok, type C colon backslash D O S"

sound of dad typing way more than seven letters

Brad: "Dad, what are you typing"
Dad: "I thought I figured it out, but now it’s asking me to Abort, Retry, or Ignore"
Brad: "Hit Control C"
Dad: "Ok"
Brad: "Now type C colon backslash D O S"

And this would go on and on.  About a decade ago, I told my dad I was retiring from tech support and now it was my younger brother Daniel’s turn.  Daniel didn’t necessarily agree to this handoff of responsibility, so occasionally our IT guy Ross gets the call from my dad (usually after my dad leaving me a voicemail that says "Brad, can you remind me what Ross’s number is.")

Today, we announced that we’ve made an investment in Pie Digital.  Soon, these tech support calls will be a part of history.