Munching on his granola and yogurt, Mohammed dialed Spectra's number.

"Spectra," a male voice answered.

"Funny how, Bud?" Mo asked squishily.

"Hey, that was fast! Thought I'd catch you in bed," Bud said.

"You did. I'm still half asleep. Funny how?"

"Funny strange, dude. When I start it up, the time is all wrong. My highlight color is black instead of blue, and all my creation dates are goofy. When I try to reset the Date & Time control panel, the date says August 24, 1956," Bud replied.

"Hmmm," Mo thought and chewed. "Why can't you print?"

"Hi babe, it's Marina," came a female voice over the speakerphone. "Mo, the stupid printer won't print because, when we go into the Chooser and select the HP DeskWriter 550, it tells us that AppleTalk has to be inactive."

"You know that rinky-dink printer I have, right?" Bud interjected. "The AppleTalk isn't supposed to be on, is it? It never has been before."

"Yeah, that's a serial printer all right," Mo replied, "Has the thing crashed lately?"

"Nope," said Bud.

"Any of your infamous power surges?"

"Nossir."

"Well, hell. What gives?" Mo said.

"Mo, if we turn the AppleTalk off, we can get the printer to work. But when we come back the next day, everything is all screwed up again," said Marina.

Dawn broke in Mohammed's brain.

"Ahh. I got it. The battery's dead," he said, deadpan as if he had known it all along.

"The battery? This thing has a battery?" responded Bud.

"Sure, Bud, what do you think keeps the clock going when you turn it off? But that's not all the battery keeps going. It also supplies power to the Parameter RAM."

"Okay, you're losing me again, Mo. Speak English, son."

"It's simple, guys. You know sometimes I tell you to 'zap the PRAM'?"

"Sure," said Marina.

"Well, the PRAM is the Parameter RAM. The PRAM is a chip that remembers your startup settings: the date, the time, what kind of networking you're using and your highlight color, among other things. Right? They are stored there so that when you turn your computer on in the morning, everything will be back to the way you had it when you shut down.

"Well, when the computer is off, there is no power flowing into it, so the data would just disappear unless there were a battery to keep power on to the PRAM chip. Your computer is three or four years old and the battery has gone dead. No battery, no PRAM. So the computer goes back to the factory defaults every time you turn it off."

"Oh wow," Marina gushed.

"Jesus, good call! You are so da' Man," said Bud, genuinely impressed.

"Well guys, we aim to please. I'll order a new one from Apple. I should be able to get it in a couple of days. It shouldn't cost more than twenty bucks. It'll be fun. I don't think I've cracked an LC550 case in a couple of years."

"Oh man, here's the part where you stick it to me," Bud laughed. "You sure you can handle it?"

"No sweat, baby," Mo rejoined. "I'll call you when it gets in. Just have some cold ones to hand."

"Wilco, good buddy. Thanks again," Bud said.

"Bye, Mo. See you later, sweetheart," Marina added.

"Later, you two," Mo said and broke the connection.