011 Odds and Ends

Character: Matthew

Matthew gathered up different pieces, gathering them all on his desk. He was still new to the job so he was trying to get the hang of knowing what was what. Matthew had always put all his effort into whatever he did. This was why he was working hard to learn this new skill. Not that's this was exactly new to him. Matthew had picked the lock to his house a couple time when the control had malfunctioned, but he'd never used tools like this.

Before him lay a tool to pry open the control panel. Matthew had only ever used a hammer and a piece of metal to get it open. With this tool he'd be able to get a panel open without damaging the case. He examined it, trying to figure out how it worked. He was fairly sure he understood it, though he should probably watch a professional use it before he took a crack at it.

Matthew turned his attention to another item. It seemed like such a simple item, but it was so important. It was what hooked up the control pad to the electronics that controlled the locks on any door. Matthew wasn't all that great with electronics, but he could basically understand the circuit. Just following the lines he could see where connections were that sent signals to the controls of the door. He'd replaced one of these before, though the one he'd put in was second hand. This piece was fresh and new.

Matthew moved on to studying the actual control case. It was a model he'd never seen before, or at least not in his neighborhood. His boss had told him it was part of their deluxe lock system. That would explain why he'd never seen it. His family did fine for themselves but they could never afford anything like this system. He powered up the panel and looked over the interface. It was much more detailed than his home system and it flowed better as he moved his hand over the screen. It was diffidently the best that money could buy.

Matthew pulled out a datapad and hooked up to the control pad. Matthew ran the diagnostic software on the datapad and a list of thing came up. He read through them, grabbing a second datapad and opened up a directory of all the different problems behind each code. From the looks of it he was getting the errors he would expect. All the pins were reading as not completed circuits and it was indicating that the software hadn't been installed yet.

Matthew fully turned his attention to the list of errors and started to try to memories them, see any pattern that would make them easier to identify. They were all numbered, which made looking them up easier, but there didn't seem to really be any shorthand used. At least none that Matthew could understand.

"Matthew, I didn't know you were still here." Matthew looked over his shoulder to where his boss stood a bit behind him. "You know the store is closing up. You should really head home."

"Sorry, sir. I was just trying to familiarize myself with all the parts of the job. I can clear out if you want me to. I just need to put these parts away." Matthew clicked off the datapads and went to put away the prying tool.

"That's a good idea, getting to know the merchandise. It doesn't seem like it but a big part of the job is fitting the customer with the proper lock for them. People come here because I don't try to fit them with the most expensive lock I can. I look at what they have to protect, how much they had to spend, and what neighborhood they live in. Let's take you for example." Matthew stopped, turning his full attention to his boss. This was information from an experienced man and he didn't want to miss any of it. "Where do you live?"

"Well I live on Locklear road, just down the way from the park." Matthew walked back over toward his desk and sat down.

"Well that's a fairly nice neighborhood, not a lot of crime. If you were running on your salary here I would say one of our medium range locks, in the lower price range. Because of the lack of crime a heavy lock wouldn't be necessary and due to your position you wouldn't have a lot of walking around money. Any valuables in your home?" Matthew shook his head. "Then my suggestion would still stand. If you were say a parent I might say a bit higher of protection as your child's safety would be important. It's why when a family is very poor, living in one of the more dangerous parts of the city if they come in and have a child they want to protect I'll usually authorize a discount on the lock. This company is successful because we care about the people."

"That seems like a logical thing to do. A customer that can't afford the more expensive model would be insulted by you trying to push the wrong thing on them." Matthew was fairly sure that he understood the concept.

"Exactly. We want happy customers that we have been helpful for." His boss smiled and moved to the door where he grabbed his hat. "Well, goodnight , Matthew."

"Goodnight, sir." Matthew watched as his boss left and he turned his attention back to his work.