Therapeutic reboot

October 8 2006

If there's one thing my competition and I can agree upon, it's the need for an occasional "therapeutic reboot" to prevent system crashes.  A simple ten or fifteen minute process will make everything run so much smoother after it's done.  But the hard part is predicting when it will have the most useful impact...sometimes it can be too late and everything is thrown off.

The machine where I've found such success with the therapeutic reboot is myself.  Also known as the "ten minute naptm", this system procedure is best used when the "head bob" or "constant yawn" processes occur.  It typically needs to be executed only once a day, but there are times when two or three reboots are required for optimum performance.  Ideal locations for the therapeutic reboot include living room sofas (including the in-lieu-of-lunch break work-at-home scenario), airplanes upon takeoff, and taxi rides to customer meetings.  Known risks include extended reboots, which can result in missing important processes such as scheduled replication.  Side effects are minimal but can include system irritation upon the conclusion of the reboot cycle.

Oh look, it's getting to be time for a therapeutic reboot......right.................about..........................................now.............................................

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category: Add/View Comments [8]

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  1. 1  David Bell  | 10/8/2006 1:55:15 PM

    Do you find you need less of these personal reboots now that you use a Mac (at least part time) ?

  1. 2  Samuel deHuszar Allen  | 10/8/2006 2:50:35 PM

    Along the lines of 1)...

    I'm a bigger fan of the therapeutic operating system replacement. Sure it takes fifteen minutes longer than the therapeutic reboot, but you only have to do it once and then rarely ever again. :D

  1. 3  Samuel deHuszar Allen  | 10/8/2006 2:51:11 PM

    Ubuntu or OSX being the best-case replacement contenders...

  1. 4  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 10/8/2006 9:41:23 PM

    Maybe you need more vacation time without your phone/laptop/pda/pager...:-)

  1. 5  Bill Geimer  | 10/8/2006 11:35:58 PM

    Hardly proof, but there a few companies out there agree with you and accept employee naps as ways to improve employee morale and business operations.

  1. 6  Stein Sebak  | 10/9/2006 5:18:04 AM

    I don't see the problem. My laptop (an IBM by the way) running XP is rebooted max once every second week or less. I put it in standby when leaving office, and when opening it at home or next day in office it's back to where I left it. Only reboot is basically after ms put out an upgrade that'll harassed me for the entire day about the reboot or if I get the "red box of death" in notes - which luckily is quite seldom nowadays.

  1. 7  Steve Jones  | 10/9/2006 6:40:49 AM

    Another side effect to watch for it the occasional I/O port leakage, which can result in embarrasing stains on your coller and a visual drop in apparant IQ.

  1. 8  David Melroy  | 10/9/2006 1:11:22 PM

    Great comments Ed.. one of the joys of working from home..:)