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.

Comments

Who to recommend?

[gad_zuki!]

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?

Re:Who to recommend?

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Gateway. No question. They always advertise their system prices including the monitor, and now if you get one you get a 18 inch lcd for the price of the 17 inch lcd. The 500XL is a nice one and it even comes with a DVD-RAM Drive (Yes it can make DVD-R's). You can also get a 3 year warantee for a decent price. In fact, I am probably going to get a new system there. I am getting tired of building them and I also want one under warantee not because I don't know how to fix it, but because I don't want to pay to fix it any more.

Re:Great idea

[Matey-O]

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.)

Re:F.R.Y.Y.Y.

[sconeu]

Free Registration Yada Yada Yada (or Yeah, yeah, yeah)

Re:Joke if you may, Timothy

[rossz]

You guys all know what happens next; after a series of RTFM j00 dumb n00bie!!1 and Wow your dumb comments, 99.1% of these folks who were initially awe-inspired by Open Source turn severely sour on it and give up. They then reinstall Windows and go along their merry way.

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.

No Registration Required. Not Even A Fake One.

[DarkZero]

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.

Re:I tell people to call Microsoft

[Sycraft-fu]

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).

Re:I tell people to call Microsoft

[kubrick]

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.