I will be setting up an answering service for my small computer business. I figure I should share in my research. So far I have found the following companies.

Answer connect
Customer Contact Services
Ruby Receptionists
Answering Service Care
CS Hotline – seams pretty cool because they specialize in repair businesses.

I know this may make most of you sick. Keep in mind. We should all educate ourselves on our biggest competitor. Jamming our heads in the sand will not keep us relevant. Thank you to my friend Walter for bring it to my attention

I enjoy biographies and life stories. Mainly because I am also a huge fan of a true stories and non-fiction. I believe If your going to take the time to read a story and step into a world. It is more exciting to know it happened here, in world your living in. However I have made at least one exception.

One of my favorite authors is the late Edward Bunker. Edward Bunker was a fiction writer.  Edward Bunker wrote fictional stories based on true events in his life and the lives of people around him. Therefore even though the story is a fictional tale. It contains amazing gritty realism that is genuine and honest. Edward was “state raised” . He started his criminal career very early and was in and out of foster care and homes for troubled kids.   He eventually graduated from Juvenile halls  to prisons. Edward was the youngest person to be sentenced to San Quentin at seventeen years old.

Some of his best work is his memoir. It is titled: Education of a Felon. It is the criminal life story of the writer before he sold his first novel. He wrote his first published novel on a toilet in San Quentin. He sold his blood for postage and smuggled the manuscript for the novel “No Beast So Fierce” out of San Quentin

That novel was also re-written into a screenplay for the movie “Straight Time” staring Dustin Hauffman. The novel was so well received that Edward Bunker was released from prison and had a brief cameo in the movie with Dustin Hauffman. Edward Bunker also helped Dustin Haufman prepare for his role.

Edward Bunker has played parts in several movies with big names a few happen to be Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and the popular at the time “Tango and Cash”. Edward also worked on Heat as prison technical adviser with Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Kevin Gage and Dennis Haysbert. He taught them how to think, react and walk like ex-prison convicts.

Edward is the author of many popular books “Animal Factory”,  “Little Boy Blue”, “Dog Eat Dog”, Stark and No Beast So Fierce. Edward died in 2005 due to complications during surgery. He left behind a wife and young boy.

Ive never heard this confirmed but I believe the movie 16 blocks has a major tribute to Edward Bunker in it. In the movie the main character  is a criminal testifying against many high profile  police officers. The officers are trying to kill him during his escort from jail to court.  One officer refused to allow this convict be killed by his fellow officers. The escort struggled between giving up the convict or believing that the convict can truly change. The convict did change his life, proving people can change. Edward bunker changed  just like the character who shared his name. coincidence? I believe it was a tribute.

This post is inspired by technibble‘s latest posting, A Peek At Other Computer Technicians Workbenches #2 which is a followup from the original Computer Technicians workbenches posting from earlier in this year. Its great to see other professionals work spaces. I love to get inspired with new ideas. Some of the benches are small and simple. Some are busy shops with long benches. Every shop is unique and I think everyone will agree my shop is no different in that way. The common price for a retail location is 1000 a month. It is rare to find a place for any less. My shop is unusually small and is nearly 1 third that common price. Im on a busy road and my sign is 6 feet wide and and the window is 5 x 5 feet. I wanted to have plants but I also wanted interesting plants. So i purchased dwarf hybrid citrus fruit trees. On the left is a honey Tangerine tree and on the right is a limequat tree. The honey Tangerine hasnt produced mature fruit for me yet. However the Limequat has 4 large limes almost ready. When the trees get allot of sun in the summer and are happiest they bloom many flowers and the shop smells great. To the left is my attempt at a customer station. The theory is that when i finish a system they can test it and play with it before leaving. Im not sure if its a good idea. So far none of my customers have cared to try it out.  I may use the space for something else. I have a keyboard mouse and 17inch monitor. To the right is my Ebay shipments for the day. I use the USPS and priority mail. Half of my sales go international. I will ship anywhere and few ebay sellers will do that. I havent had any problems selling internationally. This mess is actually  well organized. Its where i keep my packing material for my ebay shipments . I rarely purchase any kind of packing  material. I keep what i get when i order parts. My shop is not being invaded by vermin . Those rodents are actually my pets. They are my shop mice. They live in a 10 Gallon  fish tank and are a gift from a reptile shop that closed down. The owner kept these mice  to feed snakes. Now the mice keep me company when im working. To be continued…