Veteran’s Affairs

One of our great Experts, Worldvet, has served his country at home, abroad, and now online at FixYa.com. After providing 648 solutions and achieving an impressive 90% rating, Worldvet has established himself as someone who our users can turn to for help in their time of need.

Q: Tell us about yourself:
A: I served with a H3 helicopter Search and Rescue detachment in Vietnam. We flew Angel Air Guard for the POWs that were released from Hanoi. I was unsettled by my exposure to War and later did things that made little sense, like hitchhike from one side of the US to the other six times. I use the moniker Worldvet on FixYa and elsewhere, as I feel I’m a veteran of the world now.

Q: What are your areas of expertise and how did you come to be involved with them?
A: My Dad, a radio operator and flier in the Navy, generated a fascination within me of electronics that led me to the first PCs. I learned to program and was awestruck with the sheer magnitude of what computers were going to do to and for society. I also spent 10 years restoring metal antiquities. I enjoyed not only the mystery and research required to discover how the antiquity was made, but genuinely enjoyed the gratitude of our customers when we restored their precious family heirlooms.

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Photography, specifically outdoor photography. Where I live in Nevada, that would be ghost towns and their cemeteries. There’s a special and sometimes unique feeling walking through the ruins of what was once a thriving mining camp and town. I try to envision what life was like and look for a picture, such as the one of mine above, that realizes that vision.

Q: What first brought you to FixYa? When?
A: I was searching for problems other techs had so I didn’t have to reinvent a solution to a client’s problem, when links to FixYa.com scored at the top of my Google results. I haven’t regretted it and I’ve made many new friends here whom I can reach out to when I need a bit of help in solving some computer related problem of my own.

Q: What is the FixYa answer you are most proud of?
A: This would have to be one that lasted three weeks. A woman couldn’t get any Windows Updates to install. I spent a good deal of time educating and teaching her how to download, install, cleanup after the installation and then defrag her hard drive after each update. We ended up flashing her BIOS twice and downloading update after update after update… it seemed it would never end. Eventually we got to the point XP Service Pack 3 would install and parted our ways. We both felt as if we had climbed a large mountain together. It was a real feeling of accomplishment.

Q: What advice do you have for those asking questions?
A: Be sure to provide us with the make and model of your product. Please realize we are here to help, and it’s not the money that brings us here to help you. We are motivated by a strong desire to give back to the user community as almost all of us have our own businesses. And then, please be patient; troubleshooting someone’s problem using email is troubleshooting at its highest degree of difficulty.

Q: What advice do you have for experts?
A: Be pleasant and patient, even when the customer is not. Realize that the customer is having a bad day each and every time they come to FixYa.

Q: What new features would you like to see FixYa roll out?
A: An easier way in which customers landing on the Home Page can find the Tips and Tricks we Experts have taken the time to write about the most common problems with computer assisted technology and automobiles.