Chapter 10

Tuesday morning when Shannon and I walked into the office everything looked like it was back together. I walked into my office and you couldn't even tell that anyone had done anything in here. I walked out of my office and went into Shannon's office and it looked good as well.

"Not like we left eh," I said.

"No, it looks really good," Shannon replied.

I turned around and walked from office to office, I couldn't see anything out of place at all. I headed downstairs to talk to the network guys and see if they were all done. I walked in and the main foyer was filled with computers. They had them on every desk. They had brought in tables and stacked computers on the tables. There were about 30 people in there all typing away, no one even looked up to see who I was. I walked around until I saw James standing behind some kid watching what he was doing. He seemed really excited about something so I walked over and stood beside him and stared at the screen. I didn't recognize anything on the screen, it was as if it was just random characters they were staring at.

"So you guys have been busy while we were gone."

James turned and saw me he jumped.

"Yes we have got everything back together; every one seems to be operational so far today anyway."

"So far?"

"Yes wel, l we need people now to try everything and make sure they all have e-mail and stuff," James explained.

"Oh ok, what do they have to do?" I asked.

"We left a detailed list on everyone's desk of what to try and what their new e-mail address is," James said.

"What about security, can any one umm break in?"

James seemed impressed that I would even think of this so he went into an in-depth explanation about security and a fire something or other.

I asked him what he was watching the kid do on the computer and he told me the kid was a genius and he was working with a new operating system called Linux. "it is going to revolutionize the computer industry," he said. I asked him to tell me a little more but to keep it simple. He explained that when it came to computer security you needed to have at least one machine that was exposed to the rest of the world, that machine had to have some specialized software in order to keep everyone out but most importantly to track any attempts to get in so you can defend against it right away. Now if say someone was able to get into the network then you want to track what they are doing and maybe keep them in the system for a little while so they can expose all the different holes for you. Then you shut them down, track them down, and hire them to work on your side of things in protecting the system.

"Wow and these guys will come and work for us?" I asked.

James smiled and pointed at the kid. "That's where he came from, he broke into the system on Saturday. We watched him for two days and then we finally found out who he was. We couldn't stop this guy so we went over to his place. He was shocked that we found out where he lived. I told him that, "anyone can break into a system but how many can stop someone else from getting in." He told us he could and we said, "prove it," now he works for us."

I turned and watched the kid for awhile. He never looked down at his fingers and he just kept typing, "What is he typing?"

"He is designing a couple of changes to the Kernel," James said.

"OK, I think maybe it's time for me to take a couple of computer classes so I can actually talk to you guys," I said.

"Well, why don't you come in on Thursday with the accounting group? We will be having a network security class then," James asked.

"I don't know anything about computers, I have one on my desk and if it isn't on when I go into my office it doesn't get turned on. The only reason I have it is everyone figured I am the boss so I should have the best of everything.They have changed it a couple of times and when I asked why they told me that the new one was faster. Well I'll tell you, I haven't seen any of them move yet," I explained.

"Ok, I hear what you are saying, maybe we should put on a beginners class and work our way up from there."

"Exactly."

James said, "I will let you know when the first class will be."

I replied, "make sure you have lots of room in the class. I would like to open it up to everyone in this office at first, then have another course for all the employees in our different branches."

"OK," he said.

"OK, now about this security thing. I am a little concerned about this as we have quite a few dollars kicking around and I don't want any to go missing," I said.

James looked thoughtful for a minute, "well one of the problems with security is that you can't do it part time. We would need to have a group of people doing it all the time."

"How many people are you talking about?"

"Would we be offering this to clients when we start the networking company?"

"Yes, it would be part of the deal."

"Then we would need to have a software development team of probably no more than say 100 people," James said.

"OK, then lets get them hired. Ttell Julie what you need for people and tell her we need them right away, or are you going to find them yourself?"

"I think we have to find them ourselves, don't worry we will set up a trap and they will find it like bees going to honey," James said.

"Ok, but make sure you have someone from personnel do the actual hiring. You should probably talk to Julie about having someone assigned to you that can learn about computers and go with you to interview these people as well. Most of the personnel staff has some kind of intuition about people when they meet them," I said.

"I will talk to Julie today and see what she would like to do," James said nodding.

I wandered through some of the different departments looking to see just how much use these computers were getting. I noticed that in the accounting and realty departments everyone was using the computers on their desks. In all other areas it seemed the computers were pushed aside on the desks and people were still doing everything with pen and paper.

I went to my office and sat down in front of the computer trying to decide what to do first. I read the note they had left for me and followed the directions as they were written. I got the computer started and then looked for the email program they said to start with. I couldn't find it. All the directions said was, "open your email program." I picked up the phone and called James.

"James I am going through the directions you left for me and I am stuck already. I have gotten to the second line in your instructions and I am lost." I said.

"Ok, I will send someone up to help you out." James said.

I wandered down the hall to Rick's office to see if he had faired any better. He was staring at the screen and rereading the directions when I went in. I could see he was in the same boat as I was.

"How's it going?" I asked him.

"Not well. Julie told me she emailed some information to me and I told her I would look at it but I can't figure out how to do anything but start the computer," Rick explained.

"Didn't you follow the directions? James told me they left a set of instructions for everybody on how to work this stuff," I asked.

"That's just it. I can follow a blueprint and put almost anything together but I have no idea how to work this thing," Rick said frustrated.

"Yeah, I tried to follow the directions too. James is sending someone up to show me how to work my computer. You should come and sit in on this," I said.

"Ok, let's go see if we are smart enough to be part of the computer generation," Rick said, getting up and following me to my office.

There was a kid maybe 18 years old sitting there waiting for me.

"Hi, I am Adam. James asked me to come up and show you how to get your email," he said.

"Good. I hope you can show both of us how to work this thing as the directions you guys left for us don't seem to be doing it for us," I said.

He started by having me sit behind the desk and explained exactly how to start the programs he wanted me to use. He then had me check my email and send a test email to James. James must have been expecting this as he gave me an immediate reply. I had him show me how to get some of the spreadsheets that Jim was always talking about. Both Rick and I listened carefully as he went through how all of the documents we would need were kept on the server and we just had to search for them. He went on to explain how different documents could be attached to emails and sent to us. I found it very confusing having to shut down one program then start another in order to read the document. The biggest problem I had was finding the document on the computer after I had saved it. I didn't say anything but it seemed to me that it would be easier to just have whomever print out what I needed and hand it to me.

After Adam had gone through his spiel I told him, Adam, you should go around and see if anyone else is having problems and help them."

Rick and I sat there for a few minutes watching the cursor flash on the screen.

"I don't think this is going to catch on in a big way," Rick said.

"Yeah it seems like it would take a long time to get any information out of this thing. I was thinking that we could just have Jim print up the reports and have someone bring them to us," I replied.