Five years after quitting a job, developer’s former boss asked for rapid tech support

In the mid-1980s, Wade earned his living by programming in Pick, a minicomputer OS integrated with a database. He crafted software that ran a mail order business. In early 1990, Wade's boss, having fired the clerk responsible for maintaining the application he'd written, unexpectedly called Wade at home that evening. The clerk had packed up their belongings and left, leaving the system down and causing panic.

Wade, unimpressed with the abrupt firing, arrived at the mail order business and spent a couple of hours restoring the system, which included connecting the Pick machine to a power source and restarting the print run. The boss appreciated Wade's efforts, compensating him for the loss of a night's sleep. Wade encourages readers to share their own tech support stories with On Call, promising to handle any technical mishaps with care.