I'm increasingly finding that using everyday metaphors is the best way to explain technical concepts to the technically challenged. Only this morning the VPS p

I'm increasingly finding that using everyday metaphors is the best way to explain technical concepts to the technically challenged. Only this morning the VPS platform at our host suffered problems, and the best way that i could find to describe the cause of the downtime was to explain to my client that it was like having a washing machine that was malfunctioning due to problems with the power grid i.e. an engineer had no hope of fixing it even though its the machine in itself that is malfunctioning. His response was as follows (Edited for confidentiality)... "...Ok thanks. So I guess we wait for them to diagnose and fix…? Just out of interest, in the meantime (given your analogy), does the Host expect us to continue wearing our dirty panties (etc) because we couldn’t wash them or do they pay for us to get them washed elsewhere ie do they compensate us (financially or otherwise) for this disruption / additional time being spent? ..."