Here’s a chance for you to see our new Burdick Street facility and what it’s actually like working here. We’ll also take a minute to introduce you to some of our awesome staff members who make AI the greatest computer shop in the world.
This is Chris Boden. He gets his picture up first because he’s the weirdo who founded the company. That means that we all get to blame him for this. Chris founded AI in 2003. He also works here from time to time doing tech work, sales work, and other stuff. Most of Chris’s time is spent working on Geek Group things but if you ask he’s always interested in taking a minute to answer questions, shake your hand, and meet a customer. Ask him nice and he may even show you a magic trick. Chris is an intense and dynamic person with a fierce passion for the Group and helping people. Talking with him for more than five minutes will most likely result in your having to try and keep up with him while he’s moving through the lab, he never stands still for long. He is the epitome of a Type-A personality and he works by his own set of social rules. Be aware of this before you meet him, he doesn’t do “politically correct”. 
Despite his lack of social skills Chris is a brilliant individual and can fix pretty much anything you can possibly break in a computer. On rare occasions Chris has been known to pull a service call from the duty roster and head out into the field to relax. He loves doing service calls and helping customers, if you’re lucky you may even get a chance to have him show up at your house. Just make sure to hide the liquor and women and you should be fine. We’re heavily insured.
“There he goes, one of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, to rare to die.” – H.S. Thompson. (this is on the back of Chris’s business cards and explains him pretty well).
Silvano Vanegas is a genius computer tech who also does a lot of work in our sales department.
Silvano has a special knack for understanding computers that no amount of book learning can make up for. He’s a impressive dedicated staff member who drives here every morning all the way from South Haven just to work in this circus. Silvano is the first person you look to when you are stumped with a problem. He maintains an unusual ability to see a technical problem from a different angle and find a solution from a totally different track then you were thinking. For this, we give him cookies.
Nathan Welling
Nate is a tech apprentice and a rocking good sales guy. Despite the fact that he’s a giant and look as if he may eat your children, he’s one of the sweetest and kindest people you’ll ever meet. He takes a sincere desire to help people and brings that to the world of computer sales and loves to hang out with clients and work through their individual needs. Nate is everybody’s friend and it’s pretty much universally accepted that you just can’t be mad at him. He’s like a puppy.
And speaking of puppies.
This is Omni, the Geek Group Mascot and she’s also in charge of Human Resources for AI. If the dog doesn’t like you, it’s a pretty good bet that we won’t either. If you’re looking for a job, please note that her affections can be bought with Milkbones and a scratch behind the ear.
Here’s the gang working in the new tech area. This is a typical day at the shop.
The AI Tech Area
Designed and built by Chris, our new tech area is a showcase of what a computer shop should be. Our massive fifteen foot long bench is custom made and has four main workstations for techs. Each workstation has a flat panel LCD monitor with both VGA and DVI connections, 2 open power plugs, 2 high-speed ethernet connections (with 10MB internet available on them), plenty of space to work, and wifi as well. Chris spent a week building the bench with help from various staff members.
This is a typical tech station at AI.
Here’s a long shot of just over half of the bench.
The tech area features several other things to help our staff to do their best. Many of these are things not found in other computer shops. Some of the amenities in our new tech area are,
A Geek Feeding area stocked with drinks and munchies, this includes a dedicated tech fridge and microwave. Our techs are known to work strange hours and they need to eat.
The only computer Fume Hood in the world. We have a special, custom-built fume hood that is designed so that we can work on neglected computers from clients who own 50 cats and smoke 5 packs a day without gassing the techs out of the lab. This way we can blow all of the dust, pet dander, and smoke out of a computer before we work on it. The computer lives a lot longer, and our staff don’t die from allergies.