November, 2008 Archives

While many of our Experts attended technical schools or received on-the-job training to learn their trade, others are self-taught. J_del is one of those Experts who took it upon themselves to learn their craft. He was inspired to start learning how to work on cars after a service job done by his Nissan dealership resulted in a massive failure. He decided that the money he was spending to have someone else fix his cars would be better spent on tools. From that point on, he read everything he could get his hands on regarding cars and their workings. When something went wrong with one of his vehicles, he just rolled up his sleeve and dug right in. Over the years he gained in knowledge and experience, to the point that he now feels comfortable handling most areas of auto repair and modification. He became such a success that FixYa actually recruited him when an employee saw his exemplary work on another site!

Time and time again, FixYa is reminded of what a talented, accomplished group of Experts we have on our site. One such example is Loringh. He only joined us this October, but his solutions have already caught the attention of staff with their high quality and interesting content. He solves car problems, home appliance problems, and even math problems! But that’s no surprise coming from someone with such an impressive background.

Loringh started out his adult life in the Navy, as an electronics technician. This gave him the opportunity to spend 3 years in Naples, Italy as a technician at the American Embassy. During this time he learned Italian, which became his primary language for a couple of years. After that he worked on the Apollo spacecraft for Honeywell, spy satellites for Eastman Kodak, and radar and night vision for Texas Instruments. Impressed yet? If not, consider this- after doing all that, he went back to grad school and got certified to teach high school math. Then, in his spare time, he built his own home.

A rising star in the field of car repair on FixYa, Toyota Ed, has already received tons of real-world recognition for his work in the auto industry. His 702 solutions and 91% rating means that he is extremely well-respected here on FixYa as well.

Q: Tell us about yourself:
A:I am 54 years old, single, and have a 7 year old daughter, Sophia, that I adopted from Moscow. I have been in the automotive business since 1975. My dealerships have won the Number One Customer Satisfaction Award 3 times with me as Service & Customer Relations Manager- in 1994 with Nissan, and in 2000 and 2001 with Toyota. I have the qualifications to join Mensa, but never got around to it. I also speak seven different languages.

Q: What are your areas of expertise and how did you come to be involved with them?
A: I managed several different service departments, starting with strictly European cars (Lotus, Porsche, Alfa, Ferrari, TVR, Jaguar, and the like). I then traded down to manage an AMC/Jeep/Renault/Nissan dealership, and then traded up to manage my current service department with Toyota.

Recycling ads have always stressed the point, “garbage doesn’t just go away.” What they don’t say is that most garbage turns into a mountain of unsightly obsoletion. We live in a city where there isn’t enough housing, and yet everyday on my commute I pass by almost an acre of garbage at the SF dump.

FixYa’s community of 9M is dedicated to keeping broken gadgets, appliances and electronics from piling up at these dumps and landfills. We aren’t just a How-To site. We’re learning, growing AND green. We’ve got a great shot at winning Mashable’s Open Web Awards.

After 30 years in the computer industry, Abrsvcs has seen it all. From punch card computing to top of the line AV equipment, this Expert is ready to put his vast experience to work for you. And after contributing 1753 solutions, he’s even become something of a mind reader.

Q: Tell us about yourself:
A: I have a background working with computers in a support role. I am primarily a diagnostician. I cannot create anything worth a darn, but give me something that doesn’t work and I’ll “fixit”. A college of mine and I adopted the saying seen occasionally on T-shirts: “By definition, if I can’t fix it, it ain’t broke!!”

In detail, I have 30 years of computer work behind me from punch cards and paper tape to modern PCs. I have taught college courses in programming and supported academic computer centers. Most of my work has been at the architecture and assembler level. In other words, at the machine code level. I have taught computer performance and have done performance modeling too. While pursuing this as a full time job, I had my own electronics repair business on the side providing repair services for 10 dealers. Currently I work for an AV rental company testing and repairing broadcast level equipment. While interesting and always fun, sometimes working on gear worth 100K or more gets a bit nerve-wracking.