I've been a part of forums before, and I know how connected people can get to the topics and or other persons online, even though it is typing at a keyboard perhaps thousand(s) of miles away from each other. Whether it be friend or adversary.
And it is no word of lie that this was a very big part of his life. He was a very private and solitary person. We know because we lived next door to him in our apartment building and my missus being the resident manager here wouldn't see him come and go a lot, even at Christmas. We would make sure he got a gift, even if it wasn't much, because there didn't seem to be a lot of family around for him. We never saw visitors come and go.
He had mentioned when she took over this building about 3 years ago (and myself by default helping out after my regular job) that he worked in IT, worked out of his apartment and in programming and that he would be willing to help us out with any computer problems if we had them.
Well that happened one evening when for some reason we couldn't access the net for office work despite the bill being paid up. I knocked on his door, probably with that "we're screwed here wide eyed I'm staring into the cyber abyss and you may as well ask me to explain quantum physics to somebody, can you help us please?" look. Our office most certainly won't.
He helped without any reservation at all. Making sure everything was up and running,even bringing some of his own gear over, to make sure that wasn't the problem, eventually tracking it down to an IP/ISP/Gateway that somehow had been shut down,changed or whatever. I'm a technoretard at this stuff just trying to explain that he did a great job of diagnosing and getting us up and running again. That's after had talked to our ISP "tech" earlier on the phone and getting nowhere other than "you must have a problem on your end with your computer"
Ok.....we kinda figured that out, thanks for the help...
Afterwards sat and talked with him in our office and got into world events a bit, Syria, East Ukraine, and past geopolitical events and blowback in today's world. It's when I knew that I was dealing with a person who was far more savvy than just getting someone back online. It was an enjoyable bit of time spent with him. He soon said he had to head home, (this was later in the evening, our computer crisis and our subsequent small chat about the world). He never ever expected anything even though we tried but Deb would send over the odd plate of food from time to time.
Just an example of what kind of guy Roger was, there were many more instances but won't go into them. He was just a genuine good guy.
Knowing what I know now, I have no doubt he was heading home to peruse this site. People here are correct, forums can be that "odd community" where everybody gets together, whether it be to intellectually joust just for the sake of it, or for a type of companionship in online give and take. Simple fact of the matter is people's possessions will be scattered and will eventually disappear, their words (legacy) for good or bad preserved on a forum like this never will. Just like Roger's and all that post here.
I know he appreciates this, have no doubt about it.
The best to all of you and thank you Mike.
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(untitled comment)
Thanks Mike for posting this here.
I've been a part of forums before, and I know how connected people can get to the topics and or other persons online, even though it is typing at a keyboard perhaps thousand(s) of miles away from each other. Whether it be friend or adversary.
And it is no word of lie that this was a very big part of his life. He was a very private and solitary person. We know because we lived next door to him in our apartment building and my missus being the resident manager here wouldn't see him come and go a lot, even at Christmas. We would make sure he got a gift, even if it wasn't much, because there didn't seem to be a lot of family around for him. We never saw visitors come and go.
He had mentioned when she took over this building about 3 years ago (and myself by default helping out after my regular job) that he worked in IT, worked out of his apartment and in programming and that he would be willing to help us out with any computer problems if we had them.
Well that happened one evening when for some reason we couldn't access the net for office work despite the bill being paid up. I knocked on his door, probably with that "we're screwed here wide eyed I'm staring into the cyber abyss and you may as well ask me to explain quantum physics to somebody, can you help us please?" look. Our office most certainly won't.
He helped without any reservation at all. Making sure everything was up and running,even bringing some of his own gear over, to make sure that wasn't the problem, eventually tracking it down to an IP/ISP/Gateway that somehow had been shut down,changed or whatever. I'm a technoretard at this stuff just trying to explain that he did a great job of diagnosing and getting us up and running again. That's after had talked to our ISP "tech" earlier on the phone and getting nowhere other than "you must have a problem on your end with your computer"
Ok.....we kinda figured that out, thanks for the help...
Afterwards sat and talked with him in our office and got into world events a bit, Syria, East Ukraine, and past geopolitical events and blowback in today's world. It's when I knew that I was dealing with a person who was far more savvy than just getting someone back online. It was an enjoyable bit of time spent with him. He soon said he had to head home, (this was later in the evening, our computer crisis and our subsequent small chat about the world). He never ever expected anything even though we tried but Deb would send over the odd plate of food from time to time.
Just an example of what kind of guy Roger was, there were many more instances but won't go into them. He was just a genuine good guy.
Knowing what I know now, I have no doubt he was heading home to peruse this site. People here are correct, forums can be that "odd community" where everybody gets together, whether it be to intellectually joust just for the sake of it, or for a type of companionship in online give and take. Simple fact of the matter is people's possessions will be scattered and will eventually disappear, their words (legacy) for good or bad preserved on a forum like this never will. Just like Roger's and all that post here.
I know he appreciates this, have no doubt about it.
The best to all of you and thank you Mike.
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