Editor’s Notebook: The (Tech) Doctor is In

It’s never a question of if your computer hard drive will crash, just when, says Daniel Rude, owner of Oakdale-based tech service and support company TeqOne.

And it’ll usually crash when you need it the most, he said.

While sitting at on Tuesday with Oakdale resident Andy Emerson, Rude recalled one man who learned that the hard way.

He was 90 percent done with his thesis when it happened.

 “I thought he was going to cry,” said Emerson, who was there with Rude.

Despite the man’s unfortunate circumstances, he was lucky in one way—it happened at the coffee shop while Rude was there for one of his weekly TechShot Q&A sessions, which he’s been holding at Dunn Bros from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays for about three years.

Rude got the computer going again.

“He got all done, and he said, ‘I don’t guarantee you it’s going to last, but you can get your thesis done,’” Emerson said.

Emerson is a regular at the sessions, he said. They're designed to give people a chance to ask questions and get recommendations, such as the best ways to keep your hard drive backed up so that a crash isn't as devastating, Rude said.

Rude, who through his business provides computer and networking support for personal and business clients, said he came up with the idea after seeing a local chiropractor do chair massages at another Oakdale coffee shop. He just adapted the concept to his field, said Rude, who is president of the Oakdale Business and Professional Association.

During TechShot, he said, he typically fields questions about all sorts of electronic devices from computers to cell phones, however lately the talk has been tablets.

“We are definitely—whether people want to admit it or not—in the post-PC world,” he said.