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Wasting Time Fixing Computers

Posted by michael on from the get-a-bigger-hammer dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Interesting experiment by Marshall Brain, where he tracked every time-wasting error, repair, annoyance on his home network for one month. He logs 11 hours and 20 minutes of crap, everything from driver problems to forced upgrades, spam overflows... you name it. Anyone on /. is experiencing the same thing. Is it going to get better or worse in 2004, and how much time are we all wasting?"

6 of 613 comments (clear)

  1. Re:worse by October_30th · · Score: 5, Insightful
    And it's not just the machines that get older - we get older.

    About 10 years ago I had both the interest and skills to build a Linux installation from scratch. I built Alphas, Suns and piles of single- and multi CPU PCs just to experiment with them and then sell them off.

    Now I'm too old. I get irritated by the glitches and bugs. These days I get annoyed even with kitchen-and-sink Linux distributions like Mandrake. Sure it installs cleanly and looks smooth but I still have to fiddle with it to get Flash or Real work with Mozilla and so on.

    I just want things to work.

    My next computer will be a Mac.

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
  2. Bill for your time by chigaze · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My dad the welder taught me not to let family take advantage. If you do something for a living it means you bill for your time. You might have a 'family rate' but you still bill. He does make exceptions but in general he has a an hourly rate he charges for welding. He has also paid me for any tech work I've done for him.

    1. Re:Bill for your time by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's called "being nice". I personally have no problem helping people out with PC problems from time to time. Sure, if it started getting to be too regular a thing, they'd probably start finding that suddenly I'm busy an awful lot. I can't imagine charging friends or family for that sort of thing, though, unless it was actually business-related (eg I was setting up a server or network, or writing some code, or something, for their business).

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
  3. Re:This is why I don't fix for family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    My sisters, my brother, my mother, stepfather, father, aunt, two uncles, a few cousins and about six friends all see me as "the computer guy" and call on me to fix things.

    Maybe you should examine your priorities in life. If you are judging family and friends beneath the time spent on your job/hobbies, something is out of whack.

    My parents live on the opposite coast, but whenever I go visit I plan to spend at least 3-4 hours cleaning and fixing their computer. It is unreasonable to expect them to learn how to fix some of the things that can occur, and even though it's "a waste of time" I'm happy to do it for them, and they are grateful.

    I have a dear friend I built a computer for, and when it was not running as smoothly as planned, I took a few 3.5 hour train trips to spend part of my weekend getting it right, even though I also knew that part of the bargain was me taking her out to dinner. And No, sex wasn't involved. It's just something you do for your friends. Do I do it for all of them? Of course not - but to suggest that helping your family and friends is a waste of time reveals a completely skewed sense of what life is about.
  4. Re:This is why I don't fix for family by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suspect the reason for that is twofold:

    1) they're used to paying people to do that sort of thing, as it's been that way their whole lives
    2) those things clearly take effort, whereas most PC problems are fixed sitting down

    Given enough time, I think people will come to realise that actually, PC repair does take effort (mental, rather than physical), and that people do get paid to do it professionally.

    --
    It's official. Most of you are morons.
  5. Re:Hmm... by anon*127.0.0.1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do tech support for my extended family as well. Most of them (cousins, in-laws, friends of family, etc) offer to pay me when I spend some time fixing them up. I almost always refuse, but the fact that they recognize the value of my services is appreciated.

    As for immediate family... parents, brother... nah, they get free tech support. Part of the reason I'm So Darn Smart is that my parents brought me up that way, and bought encyclopedias when I was young, and helped me with my homework and drove me to computer club and helped pay for college and and and and and and and....

    I figure I could do 2 hours of tech support every day for the rest of my life and still not pay them back.

    --
    I am NOT a man!
    I am a free number!