This was the situation last night, my brother Karl called and explained, “the plumber came over to the house before Elaine was home and left the door and the gate open.  When she got home, Rody (the rhodesian ridgeback), had been gone for hours.”  Worse, Rody's collar was left behind in the house.  The situation was getting bad.  You see, Karl was in Boise, ID while Elaine and Rody were at home in Houston, TX (well, Elaine was at home, Rody weren't, but that's the point of the story) and I was in Atlanta.  Karl was desperate to help from 2000 miles away.

To further complicate things, Elaine was having no luck putting together a flyer so Karl whipped one up in Corel Word Perfect.  He tried to email it but his email balked at the 10 mb file.  Elaine didn't have Word Perfect, she has Microsoft Word.  Even if he'd been able to send it, the optional and unreliable .wps converting Word installation would have shut the whole thing down yet again. 

Karl called me, frustrated and inconceivably worried about his dog and wife (not necessarily in that order).  I asked him to upload his file to my photo website where I'd convert it to Word and make it available to Elaine for download.  The website was not allowing non-image file uploads (appropriately).  So I told him I'd call him in ten minutes.

Starting from scratch with nothing but Visual Studio.Net and an internet connection, I was able to create a simple File upload page in c# that was both able to receive any type of file but also secured within the authentication framework employed on the website. 

Within ten minutes I called him back, gave him a log-in and he tried again. This time the file uploaded.  I installed the optional Word .wps import utility (why is this optional, you fools?).  MS Word wouldn't open it, stating it was corrupt.  With my brother still on the phone, I told him to delete the images and save as text, upload that file, then upload a picture of “the Roadster”.  He did, saving the file as .wps but this time, it opened.  I then opened the pic in Photoshop, corrected the levels (the pic was too dark) and put them together in Word.  He sent a second pic, I corrected and inserted that image, made the text red and pop, and placed the file on the front page of the website. 

We hung up, I looked up phone numbers for the Houston animal control shelters and Karl called Elaine to tell her how to find the flyer.  She downloaded it, printed 30 flyers, and posted them in her neighborhood. 

This all transpired in about an hour.  Two people, separated by thousands of miles, needing each other, found that distance lessened by cold, unfeeeling technology.  In an emergency, response is of the greatest essence.  Sometimes, you cannot be prepared and sometimes you never even consider it until it arrives, but you need to be able to respond quickly and efficiently.  Because of three DSL subscriptions and three distinct, necessary capabilities, each in distant cities spread across the country, this was possible. 

Where was Rody?  Apparently, he spent the early evening hanging out with some construction workers at a nearby site.  An older couple who lived nearby saw him and when the police arrived asking them, “is that your dog?” they replied, “yeah, that's our dog!”  They didn't want this beautiful dog to go to the pound.  They brought him in and rushed out to buy him chew toys and a bone.  they learned that he could sit, shake, play catch...  They named him “Sam”.

They were about to call the Humane Society when they saw one of Elaine's posters.  They called and the family was reunited. 

In a desperate situation, it is difficult to think, much less do complicated tasks that are unfamiliar to you.  I was able to bridge the gap between each of them and their technical resources which then, in turn, bridged the gap between the two of them.

Soon, this will not be a technical obstacle.  I had a tool in .Net that enabled me to accomplish this with unbelievable ease.  I had all the things necessary to enable this resolution.  It won't be long before this is all just common place for all of us. 

Moral of the story... 

• don't undervalue your internet access - if knowledge is power then access is opportunity. 
• Get your pets chipped. 
• Dogs who know how to sit, shake and play fetch probably belong with someone