A for instance: Someone had a laser printer that worked in OS X, but wouldn't work in Classic Mode. It took me about 12 minutes to change that, but after years of not being able to print in OS 9 applications and having a "certified mac guy" tell her it wouldn't work, she gets the impression that I'm a computer guru. It's been five days and she's still a little excited about how the printer now works in Classic Mode. Of course, it involved a highly elaborate scheme and tremendous technical knowledge,
I downloaded the install software, attempted to run it only to have it fail, decided to go for the "custom install" and select only the OS 9 bits since that's where things weren't working, and then after that install worked I just had to do that Chooser and Printer Utility bit under OS 9 to make it work. Then there was the projector. I didn't know it, but there's something funny about the little mini-DVI cable, specifically that the new MacBooks supposedly can't use the mini-DVI cables that the old iBooks and PowerBooks used. Of course, I didn't know that, so I just kept plugging away at it until I forced it to work. That was a pain in the ass, though. I'm an idiot, so it took me a while to figure out that I had to disable plug-and-play on the projector and manually set up the projector as the second monitor with proper resolution and refresh rates to get things to work. After I had shown my boss what I had done, he went to the place where the Mac specialists work and heard from them that the mini-DVI cable that I was using wouldn't work. They were quite incredulous when he told them that I had managed to make it work, too.
It's nice when you have people basically advertising to your boss that you are able to do the impossible, of course, it doesn't take much effort to convince people of that sort of thing when you're talking about computers. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm trying to brag. I'm a no-talent-ass-clown, to be honest, and would rank myself in the lower quarter of the group here on computer knowledge. Just hope someone else gets a kick out of some the impressions people get from this sort of situation, seeing an untrained linux enthusiast succeeding where an Apple certified tech has failed on what should be his home turf.
