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Virtually all tech journalism revolves around what expensive piece of crap you should buy next. Jim Coates’s column was about what to do when the thing you bought goes kerflooey and you actually want to fix it yourself instead of taking it to the Genius Bar or the Geek Squad. That’s the main reason I’m sad to see him go–there’s a proud tradition of DIY computer repair on the Internet (phrasing your dilemma correctly on Google will almost always lead to a solution), but Coates was the rare voice in the mainstream media willing to address defiantly unsexy topics like installing drivers and cleaning up file folders. Coates has been a voice for self-reliance, a forerunner to layman DIY blogs like Lifehacker.
Update: the guy who does what I do over at Time Out Chicago, Scott Smith, has a nice tribute to Coates. Also worth reading: Coates’s autobiographical farewell column. I had no idea he’d been a fixture at the Trib for four decades.
