Everyone uses computers, but the number of people that actually KNOW computers are still quite few, and the ratio between USERS and KNOWERS continues to widen.

My parents bought me my first computer in 1988, and the first time I tinkered on my own was probably 1993 or 1994 when I upgraded a motherboard on a 486. So I'm used to the old days of maximizing DOS free user memory (and the fact that there were two different kinds of extended memory), dealing manually with IRQ conflicts and knowing, for example, that if you weren't using the PS/2 mouse port you could reclaim IRQ 12... or how about if you added SET DIRCMD=/o:gne to your autoexec.bat file your file lists would be nice and sorted.

All of that doesn't do me any good today, but I still build my own PCs and do my own troubleshooting. I used to build computers for friends, but I refuse to build low-end, cheap systems, and no one wants to pay for quality any more. So it's a lot easier to send them to CostCo or Dell or whatever, and for the next couple of years let *their* technical support help them through issues.

Still, when someone I know has a problem, I always get a phone call. Just this weekend a friend's laser printer dropped off their network and, by phone, I had to figure out what was wrong and solve it. Thank goodness for Skype!