Please Don't Ask Me About Windows On Christmas 559
Like many Slashdot users I spend a wee bit of my otherwise leisure
time doing gratis tech support for people I may not even know. I usually don't
mind too much but last Christmas I got more than one call from distant
relatives that, along with wanting to spread holiday cheer, had me weigh in on
whatever might be wrong with their new gadget. I was pleased as punch to see this
article in the NYT (F.R.Y.Y.Y) about
where I might be able to send the less techo hip. If you do *Windows* tech
support for grandma after hours this article might also come in handy." Here are a couple of previous articles about the sorry state of conventional support options -- perhaps articles like this will spark some entrepreneurial ideas, too.
Upgraded to Linux/OpenOffice (Score:4, Interesting)
Great idea (Score:5, Interesting)
I feel ever so slightly guilty about it, but I have for years kept very quiet about knowing *anything* about computers. I used to do tech support (secondary to coding) and don't remember it fondly. If you couldn't fix the problem, you were possibly incompetent; if you could, the problem was maybe your fault, or easy. (OK, that's the mos cynical description.)
Worst of all, people would ask me to work on their PC's (shudder) where I'm pretty ignorant, having tuned out around Windows 3.1. There's an idea out there that if you "know something about computers" that you can strike up a conversation with *any* computer. (You know, like the American theory that anyone anywhere can understand English if you just speak it slowly and loudly enough.
But to help out is great, it's a shame to see $1000+ paperweights. Also, as a Mac fan and investor I have wanted people to enjoy their machine -- that evangelism thang.
Gee, I had a point here. Just some observations I suppose, sitting here with my wireless iBook.... Works great.
Only Fix bootleg copies. (Score:5, Interesting)
If they paid for the current software I ask them to have the people that got the money fix the problem.
This is a good lead in for putting Mozilla / OpenOffice etc on the windows box.
Re:Isn't the answer obvious? (Score:2, Interesting)
doesn't XP work that way?
Re:PC Support (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How about... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not sure whether it is an urban legend or not but apparently some scientists were studying primate social patterns. They took the lowest social ranking individual (who was continually being beaten up by the alpha-males) and taught him how to operate a complex machine that produced food and reintroduced him back into the pack.
Guess what?
Any resemblance and extrapolation to human society is completely unsupported
LL
Re:Full Article -Hey Thats ME! (Score:2, Interesting)
More Info [888geekhelp.com] if your curioious.
Even though I cures Bill Gates nightly before bed Microsoft is who keeps us in business. I feel like those northern California pot growers with the DEA. And yes the real geeks here at 888 Geek Help [888geekhelp.com] run Linux but none of our customers do. If you can compile a kernel you can find answers yourself. With the Wal-Mart distro's [newsforge.com] we may yet see that change Also none of our customers read Slashdot as they can't reach a URL without "www" [888geekhelp.com]
BTW We are now hiring
We get plenty of Mac calls (Score:2, Interesting)
Grow Up (Score:2, Interesting)
Geez, grow up and try to help out your family, regardless of whether they use Linux, Windows, OSX, or Joe's Bait Shop OS v.4.13.
Your family doesn't like your elitist, arrogant attitude any more than I do.
I recommend 888 Geek Help (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ah yes... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not doing unpleasant chores for your family, like Windows support - I mean, they are your family ferchrissakes.
Second, the idea that you can be a programmer/linux/mainframe person and know nothing about PC's. The parent of the this post is the most reasonable attempt at explanation of the lot. However, with an education, a developed analytical reasoning ability, lack of fear about items technological and an understanding of the principles of operation, there shouldn't be many problems most of your family could have that you could not assist with.
Yes, you SHOULD be able to find the networking configuration of any GUI OS, for example. You SHOULD be able to take in the available information, formulate a theory, test the hypothesis and observe the results. You SHOULD be able to use whatever experience you do have, even if the situation is one you have not previously encountered.
Unless of course you're a reasonably bright kid who was into computers early and skipped a proper unversity education to catch the IT boom and are now looking down the barrel of 40 years in a mature industry with no qualifications and no learning skills with which to update your specific technical knowledge.
And no family who feel the need to support you when you need help.
Re:Upgraded to Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
That feature also comes on the Mac platform.
As for BSOD, yes, I got that twice a day on Win98, but only twice in a year and a half on WinXP.
I installed Linux, once, and I didn't find much use for it other than dicking around and exploring stuff.
Re:Ah yes... (Score:1, Interesting)
I told him, fuck that, I'm not going to learn something that I don't use at home. That's why I'm a sysadmin in the first place, so I don't have to have separate "work things" and "home things". I like to get paid for what I enjoy. He understood and hired someone else to do Windows.
So these days I still don't know shit about Windows, and I work as a Linux/FreeBSD consultant, and I have people I call to help when someone needs Windows experience. I see Linux in more and more places and I'm confident I can live the rest of my natural life not using Windows or putting my trust in Microsoft. Maybe someday I can swear off all closed-source software completely.
Yeah, best tool for the job, blah blah, but I really don't want to get snared into using closed-source for anything permanent, because there's just no guarantee that they won't excercise the "lock-in" power and force me to upgrade, change licenses with the upgrade, break my code, or basically screw me over.
Really, what I'm boycotting are "Use Licenses". If a closed-source company said "You can use our software, you paid for it. Just don't copy it" I wouldn't mind using them. How can anyone in a society based on ownership put their trust in another company like that? But I digress.
As for the crack, JUST SAY NO. Actually that's not a bad analogy. You can always learn how to make your own crack cocaine, and avoid vendor-lock in. Uh, yeah. Maybe not such a good analogy...
Re:Upgraded to Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
For the record (from my 2K Server):
Current System Uptime: 147 day(s), 23 hour(s), 4 minute(s), 18 second(s)
Since 25/06/2002:
System Availability: 99.9668%
Total Uptime: 151d 11h:45m:31s
Total Downtime: 0d 1h:12m:25s
Total Reboots: 8
Mean Time Between Reboots: 18.94 days
Total Bluescreens: 0
From my Linux server:
5:17am up 93 days, 20:22, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
(sorry, that's as detailed as you get with linux)
Shoe on the other foot (Score:2, Interesting)
Growing up going to Christmas parties, it would frequently come to pass that someone would walk up to my father and say "Merry Christmas, Doc! Listen, I've got this tooth that's a bit sore..." and then proceed to open his mouth and point at the tooth in question and make noises that tried to sound reasonable while still letting Dad have a view of the canapes lodged in their molars.
My father has been getting the last laugh, however. Because now (15 years later) when we're together at a Christmas party, people say "Hey, aren't you in computers or something?" and then proceed to tell me about their latest woes connecting their latest toy. Or they want to know who this "General Protection Fault" guy is and what the military is doing in their computer.
Although I have to admit: telling them I don't use Windows and can't help them does result in a marvelous blank look from them I use to run away and see about some more canapes.
I only do support for my mom... (Score:3, Interesting)
This computer's 7 years old now (it's a PowerMac 7600), and runs OS9, but it works, and it works damn well. She hasn't complained to me about speed (it's only a 255MHz G3), and recently commented on how much she'd like a laptop and printer for work (she's an RN). My girlfriend mentioned that she has an available iBook and my mom seemed quite interested.
Yes, I'm unabashed Mac supporter, but for a reason. It worked great, for my mom, and it works great for me. I knew she was really using it when she started meeting guys online. Hoo boy.
Re:Upgraded to Linux (Score:4, Interesting)
and on windows, I get just as much work done....
ut2003, battlefield 1942, neverwinter nights....hey wait a minute....
just a an fyi, not a troll.
my point is, for me, linux is both a tinkering system and a WORKstation... the windows partition is strictly for goofing off:) "
Are you implying that Windows isn't for 'work'? Sorry, I can't quite tell. Well in case you do mean that, hear my story:
I'm a 3D Artist. I do lots of 3D rendering using Lightwave. I do texture painting in Photoshop. I do compositing in After Effects. My computer is *constantly* busy. I'm running Windows 2000, and I don't have stability issues. (I wouldn't dare say that about Win 9X, at best I had 2 days uptime with any of those OS's.)
I get quite a bit of 'work' done, and Windows isn't standing in my way. I have not lost a single render due to Windows or LW instability.
Would Linux be just as stable? Sure. No doubt about it. The thing is, though, Windows is happily doing what I need it to. (And the games you mention are a big plus) If I'm to switch to Linux, it's going to have to be better than Windows, not just caught up.
It's funny really, this article is about supporting Windows. What about supporting Linux? I loathe the idea of telling my mom (who lives 3,000 miles alway) to open a 'shell window' and type in badly spelt commands in a case sensitive manner.
Anyway, rant rant rant. If Windows was such a 'toy OS', I wouldn't be able to depend on it. I know lots of people, all artists, that'll tell you the same thing.
my solution (Score:1, Interesting)
A christmas story (Score:3, Interesting)
My folks are very happy with their set up.
Think of the hours of wasted time saved by some software that does a routine task.
I did my part last christmas, but this shit should not even be necessary. The OS should automatically configure things for people.
Y
Re:Ah yes... (Score:5, Interesting)
Charge $20 a hour. Turn your hobby into a business. Make money and enjoy it. Charge much more when you have the brick and mortar (Prices up to $60 an hour should be no problem). Lather, rinse, repeat.
The best part is, if you're careful about it, you never have to advertise (all I do is pass my business cards to the right people). My "on the side" (but still reported to the tax-man) earnings have surpassed my part-time job, to the point where I have to be careful with my time so that I can squeeze that last few months of college in before I go full-time (I may need to quit my "real" job shortly). All you need to do is find something you can do that most others (including your fellow techs) can't do. One of my specialties is modchip installations. Once your specialty is known, you'll get jobs for it, and all the usual stuff will fall into place too (fixing DUN, virus/ad-software removal, building computers, building home networks, cabling, satellite installs, etc. for me).
Nothing beats a self started business. And yes, I will work Christmas evening - that's when people want to pay me the most (I can already see the multi-digit tips -- thanks for that goodwill cheer!). I just can't "open" the store that day (stupid laws).
You know, for all the complaining I do about windows, it _does_ ensure I've got a steady job.
Maybe I shouldn't be giving away the keys to growing your own home business to everyone on slashdot. I really don't need any more competition.
"the best tool" (Score:3, Interesting)
I am not in IT, but I always find it amusing how efficient IT "professionals" are. Too efficient, I might add.
I have been studying to become a CPA, and I can state from direct experience that the current set of accounting standards are by no means the "best way to do things." In this respect, accounting standards for CPAs are comparable to Laws for Lawyers. So if they are so inefficient, why do CPAs and Lawyers make much, much more $ than "IT Professionals?" Because CPAs and Lawyers are REAL Professionals (please hear me out on this).
You see, REAL professionals need organisations, that are acting in the best interest of the profession, to have control over the standards of the profession. CPAs have the AICPA (and FASB). Lawyers have the BAR association. And IT workers have . . . Microsoft, who, like you said, control most of the industry, so they control the standards of the profession.
However, MS doesn't care about the IT profession. They care about selling their software. Cheap IT workers = more software sales. So, Microsoft prints out MSCE certificates like its printing out money, turning IT workers into somewhere just above your average McDonald's employee.
I know, in your effort to do your job "better," you pick the "best tool." However, while you are doing a great service to your company, you are doing a great disservice to your profession when that "tool" reinforces a closed standard.
The lack of wider use of Open Standards and Open Source software (at least for Operating Systems, which set the standards for all applications, commercial and non-commerical) are the only things keeping IT workers from enjoying the security that other professions enjoy.
The Real Problem (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Install what you need, then never install anything else. Especially not games!
2. Always shut down correctly before turning the power off.
I help the people that follow the rules. They have very stable windows machines that work well for *years* and stay fast with no registry bloat.
People who don't follow the rule quickly get crashy, unreliable systems - and frequently try to make me feel responsible for their problems, because I'm the last person who mucked with the settings.
My uncle is a bit older and taught me this lesson early. See he's an electrical engineer and learned how to fix TV's in the sixties. When word got out that he could fix TV's, he spent all his time fixing TV's for friends, and then got blamed when they eventually died anyway.
disturbing (Score:3, Interesting)
this is your family. help them out. grow up. this is what people do for one another.
you can't help your dad with his ridiculously old machine? how long has he put up with you and perhaps even encouraged whatever led you to being this computer savvy, to then have you turn around and claim your too busy or can't be bothered? give me a break.
be thankful that all that crap in your head that you learned while pissing away hours to get something to work can be used to help someone else. how about some return on your own investment of all that time--now you can do something useful with it, where "useful" doesn't necessarily mean self-serving.
say you have an uncle who's a mechanic. chances are, you're going to ask him if you want to know about something wrong with your car (you'd be stupid not to, unless you know more than he does already). the joke about "50 mhz processor, 4 mb ram, etc." and trying to install the sims? sure it's modded as funny, but it's just like you trying to get that uncle to repair your piece of crap that you drive. get over it. help them understand what's wrong with what they're trying to do. teach them something.
and even if you'd never go to this hypothetical uncle, it works in all occasions, whether its their background or just about anything you might ask of anyone else (i need help moving! could someone drop me of at
my brother is a builder, and does construction. if i want to get something built, or need to have it done, am i going to consult him? of course. if he can't get his 14.4 modem to work with his crappy old mac, is he going to call me? of course.
welcome to the world, folks. you don't live in a vacuum. drop the self-importance and start interacting with people. be useful for a change. and i say for a change *only* because from the sounds of the majority of what's been modded up, there are a few too many people who live in this vacuum.
think about the hell you've gone through with your machine, even when *you* supposedly know what you're doing. now imagine how much worse it is for the people asking for help, when they don't even know the first thing about what's going on with their $2500 desk ornament.