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Please Don't Ask Me About Windows On Christmas
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.
I'm starting to get "Christmas requests" at work and frankly I don't want to do any of it, but people do ask who to buy from. I just tell them to goto Dell or even CDW as that's who I use for corporate, but they aren't necessarily the best deals nor the best option for the home buyer and I'd hate to point them to Best Buy or some other retail nightmare. By retail nightmare I mean a selection of only Compaqs starting at much more than what they're worth, $40 USB and parallel cables, pushy saleskids pushing worthless 'extended warranties', etc.
So who to recommend? I'd like to point people towards a company or two who excel in price and service. It doesn't matter if they're a multi-national or some local/web only shop, but the latter would be nice. So what retailers would you recommend for technophobes in need of a windows machine that'll do the basics?
For more involved questions, they do.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Surf around a bit (if you can get signal) one of the antennae gets outta whack and can be re-seated for a general improvement in reception.
(something about rubbing the area between the battery compartment and the side of the laptop, IIRC. I dunno, I don't own one.)
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Free Registration Yada Yada Yada (or Yeah, yeah, yeah)
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I was a moderator in #linux until recently. I never tolerated insulting the beginners. I banned more than one "elitist" for arrogant behavior towards someone who was (to put it nicely) very lost.
BTW, I quit the channel a couple of weeks ago because of SOps arrogance. I was complaining that the topic was less than useful and very old. It referred to a solaris bug. My attitude was wtf does that have to do with Linux? Because they had the topic locked so that only SOps could change it, all I could do was repeat my complaint. When one of the SOps told me to stop complaining or he would kick me, my immediate response was, "works for me", and I quit. I haven't been back since.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Here's the article, no registration, no fake registration, nothing.
90% of the NYT stories that Slashdot posts can be viewed without registration through a deal that the New York Times has with Asahi.com. You can see the listing of stories here.
Lucky us we were the lead story!
More Info 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 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 we may yet see that change Also none of our customers read Slashdot as they can't reach a URL without "www"
BTW We are now hiring
-888 Geek Help (888-433-5435)
I usually don't feed obvious trolls, but 'easier to use' comes into play with the fact that you don't get a bluescreen each time you open some file or plug in some new whizbang device, don't have to worry about virii everytime you get an email, etc. There is such a thing that's called productivity and it happens best when a user isn't forced to reboot constantly.
If you're a typical Microdroid, save your speech about how stable XP is for you and how you haven't rebooted since you installed it. That's bullshit and you know it.
Back to your cave, with some enlightenment.
That's fine, however don't be supprised if others treat you the same way. IT's funny, but I provide free support ot all my friends (within reasonable limits) just because I'm a nice guy, but it comes back around. When I need help with something they can provide, they are more than happy to help me out. A direct, monitary example is I needed new shoes. A firend of mine who I had given some support to on occasion managed a shoe store, so I went there. Ended up getting around a 90% discount.
If you value your time more than your connections, I can respect that but the old "goes around comes around" thing really is true. If you are a nice guy and try to help people out with what you ahve experience in, they will try and likewise help you when they can (well most of them).
I think that's fine, but if you've been putting yourself out for people for a while and they're not doing anything for you in return, it's good to let them know rather than keep on giving. Some people give and take in equal measure, while others never really learned the joy of the "giving" part. Let them know that they've overdrawn at the karma bank.
deus does not exist but if he does
I agree; the prevailing attitudes here are rather disturbing. It's an age-old issue: doctors get leant on for medical advice, car mechanics get leant on for help with cars, teachers get leant on for advice on bringing up kids.
In general, people who are seen to be skilled in a particular area get leant on for advice/help in that area. It's a social issue, and people who aren't caring enough to give a little of their time whilst also being socially skilled enough to restrict that time and say 'no' when leant on too much, need to improve their peopleware skills ;o)
Yep, there's often no thanks at the end of it. But isn't the pleasure of something like getting Grandma on-line and up-to-speed with the internet enough? You're sharing your knowledge. Even when you're not familiar with the technology, you're sharing your analytical skills and helping someone to work it out. It's only when you're too shy to draw the line and politely saying 'no' occasionally that resentment creeps in.
It's sad that we think relatives and friends should *always* call the customer support number.