In spite of the skills I honed and the complete dead-end nature unlimited growth potential, I was thrilled to leave it behind after four years. Unfortunately, it has not left me behind.

My family, especially my mother, views the fact that I once provided tech support (almost ten years ago) as an open invitation to call me whenever they have a computer problem. (I've actually been called to someone's house because their fax was "broken" ...it was out of paper. I kid you not.) While I don't mind helping when I know the product in question, much of the time it is some obscure error in some piece of software I've never encountered.

Like any good teacher, I want someone who asks me for help to understand the solution I give them, and be able to apply it to similar problems. And the answer is usually not picking up the phone and calling me again... You just need to know where to look and how to ask for help.

And the web has made that so much easier. Before you call tech support or your neighbor's nerdy kid for help, simply copy the error message and run a Google search. (Putting the exact error message in quotes generally nets the best return.) With the proliferation of online help sites and forums, chances are SOMEONE out there has also received the same strange error message and appealed for help at an earlier time.

If you don't have a specific message, describe the symptoms in your Google search field and see what comes up. A recent search I ran was for "Photoshop CS freeze Mac OS X". The search returned a number of results, and I was able to correct a problem that had been bugging me for several weeks.

I use this approach on a regular basis, and as a result I have not had to contact technical support for any product for over a year. And the longer you can avoid those bozos, the better off you are. Take it from someone who has been on the other side of the phone.