The short answer is: Ronnie Reboot is the spokesman for Earth Oasis Computers.
The longer answer is:
The computer lab teacher asked, “OK class, who can tell me the first thing you should do when your computer or internet connection is not working correctly?”
William answered, “Call Earth Oasis Computers?”
The teacher replied, “No, I’m sorry William, that’s not the correct answer, although I’m sure the nice folks at Earth Oasis are happy you’re thinking about them.”
Robert spoke up, “Pull your hair out?”
The teacher replied very sadly, “I’m afraid many people try that Robert, but it doesn’t work at all.”
Sarah confidently suggested, “Well, what if you reboot your computer or modem?”
“Very good Sarah, that’s the correct answer,” the teacher said with a big smile.
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So what does it mean to “reboot” a device? Wikipedia explains, “Rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally.” You will often hear it called by other names such as “power cycling” or “restarting.”
There are two types of reboots, warm and cold. When you click <restart> in your computers’ shutdown menu, the computer doesn’t shut off, but just restarts, which is a warm reboot. A cold reboot is where you shut if off completely, wait a bit and then turn it back on.
This doesn’t apply to just computers though, it applies to almost all computerized devices.
1. When your cell phone is misbehaving, turn if off and then back on. If that doesn’t help and the battery is removable, turn it off, take the battery out for a minute, put the battery back in, then power it back on.
2. If your internet at home is not working and rebooting your computer doesn’t help, find your modem and router and unplug them from the electricity for a minute, then plug them back in. Wait a few minutes for them to restart and then see if that restores your internet. If you don’t know what a modem or router is, you need to learn. We can help.
3. If your computer is acting strange, reboot! We usually suggest a cold reboot, because just clicking <restart> sometimes doesn’t help (sometimes it does.) Let me again explain a cold reboot, “turn the thing off, all the way off, wait one minute, then hit the power button to turn it back on.”
4. With laptop computers, sometimes you need to take the battery out for a minute, just like a cell phone. That’s because laptops are not completely off unless the battery is dead or removed. I can’t tell you how many laptops we have “fixed” by just taking the battery out for a minute.
This can also work with other electronic devices, like your washing machine for instance (I have done it and fixed the problem.) The reason why is because most modern washing machines and other kinds of devices we use every day are controlled by embedded computers (which just means they are built in.) And one of the things about all computers is that sometimes they get confused and need a nap. We know the human brain is a computer, an electrochemical one. When Albert Einstein got confused, he would take a power nap and “reboot.”
So back to Ronnie Reboot. Please notice his left index finger which is pointing at something. He is pointing at your computer telling you to reboot the thing once in a while. You don’t have to wait until it starts acting up. Rebooting your computer & cell phone are good and important things to do, especially if you leave them on all the time. It helps to keep them from becoming too confused – before – they start acting up. There is a technical reason for this. If you’re slightly curious, just Google “why reboot.” You will find many geeky people happy to explain it.
So Ronnie Reboot is here to remind you of the first step to take when your computerized devices start misbehaving. Do what Albert Einstein would with his own God given computer….. Reboot!
June 20th, 2013