Computer Repair Flowchart

Via Boing-boing

It is nice to view the Flowchart, but there is more in it. Like the reference to the original website on computer repair diagnostics by Morris Rosenthal. And from there you’ll find the abridged version of his book, where Rosenthal explains about how to read flowcharts and elaborates on the art of diagnosis:

Diagnosis is an art. There’s no point in having the world’s leading brain surgeon poking around in your skull if the problem is with your liver.
(…) The most experienced techs are sometimes some of the
worst diagnosticians, because they’re overconfident in their
troubleshooting abilities. (…) You should always approach
each new problem with an open mind and look at the most basic
possibilities before jumping to conclusions.

The flowchart on his website is also interactive, so you can switch from the chart to the text and back.

And, from a comment by Therevengor: there is also a computer-repairflowchart for dummies.

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  • The Aesthetics and Beauty of Knowledge

    Shih was the opposite of facts and raw information; shih was the elegance of knowledge, the insight and skill to organize knowledge into meaningful patterns. As an artist chooses colours or light to make her pictures, a master of shih chooses textures of knowledge – various ideas, myths, abstractions, and theories – to create a way of seeing the world. The aesthetics and beauty of knowledge – this was shih.

    – David Zindell, The Broken God, 1993

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    The attitude thing is about flexibility, portability, creativity, sociability and jamming (ran out of suitable “ity” words!). It’s about improvising – in the practical and musical senses of the word; not getting tangled in boundaries and the “right” way to do things.
    Definitely the only way to travel.
    Martin Delaney – “Laptop Music”.