My Friend Bruce

For a couple of days, one of my email accounts was showing up as offline but I had done nothing with my accounts. It was an account I don't use much, so I wasn't worried, but it was creating havoc with the synching function of my iPhone so I called my service provider.

They told me someone had hacked my account. So we cleared the hackers emails (I'd had my suspicions) and set a new password and all was well—except zillions of my sent emails were missing including all my students assignments, their grades and my comments. I searched online and finally booked a service call with Apple that I will pay for.

But early this morning, my friend Bruce called and told me about the "rebuild" function and he told me how to apply it to my sent mailbox and voilà… all mails back.

I have been using Macs since the mid-1980s and never lost mail or used the rebuild function. But as a pioneer of personal computers, I was the resource for many. People would often ask me: Mac or Dos (Windows)? And my answer was always the same: Get the hardware and software that is used by a friend who it is easy and comfortable to call with questions.

I am living that same advice, thanks to Bruce.