Plumber, Electrician... Digitician?

Alien54 writes "This article from the Sunday Boston Globe describes the rise of a new type of tradesman called, for lack of a better term, a digitician, a label describing the burgeoning army of overqualified, unemployed, or free-spirited computer technicians being deployed to front porches around the country."

Comments

Re:Mechanics for the 21st century

[Mad Marlin]

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

-- Mark Twain

Re:Mechanics for the 21st century

[NuttyBee]

We don't respect mechanics because we, and our friends, have been lied to by mechanics so many times. Either about what needs to be repaired, what they broke while they were repairing something else, etc. If computer techs started pulling the same shit that mechanics have been pulling, taking severe advantage of their greater knowledge of the subject, computer techs are going to be just as disrespected.

I'm both a mechanic and an engineer. (Guess which field I haven't been successful in obtaining gainful employment in.)

A Couple Of Things About Mechanics:

1. Not all mechanics are dishonest.
2. Not all mechanics are competent.
3. Dealerships make most of their money off of parts.
4. You usually get what you pay for.

If you really want a good mechanic in CA, find someone who passed ASE L1 (Advanced Diagnostics) and has a CA EA Smog License. ASE L1 is both a difficult test and has an experience requirement. The CA EA Smog License is a state exam that requires completion of ASE A6, A8, L1, a Clean Air Course, and an OBD-II Course -- most mechanics do not bother. These guys don't screw around, know their stuff and don't fudge anything. The CA Bureau of Automotive Repair does pull smog licenses and they aren't trivial to maintain. Most shops have very few smog techs.

That being said:

1. Not all computer techs are honest.
2. Not all computer tech are competent.
3. Computer stores with techs make most of their money off of parts. (Benefits and overhead are pricy.)
4. There are a lot of dishonest people out there who'll gladly take advantage of people.

Bad computer techs do the same crap as bad mechanics. They overcharge, the replace things that don't need to be fixed. They outright lie.

I was recently brought a family friends computer. Some "tech" said he wanted $250 to try to recover the data on her hard drive because the computer "stopped working." What had happened was the PS/2 keyboard connector had a bad connection and it failing the boot process. In 30 minutes, I copied the hard drive data to a CD, verified it was the keyboard connector, and returned the items to the owner for FREE. I was rewarded with a $50 gift card to Best Buy.

The computer owner had gone out and bought a new computer as she was unwilling to spend $250 for someone to TRY to recover her data. And she was incredibly grateful to have someone tell her what was really wrong with her computer and fix it for a reasonable (FREE) charge.