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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."
Will people now start referring to "digitician's butt"?
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
Around this time a century ago, cars (or horseless carriages) were still rather unusual devices which few understood. They were unreliable, and people were still getting used to the idea of owning them. Eventually, their sprung up an occupation around maintaining these devices, and now we have many trained mechanics. That's what computer repair people are becoming.
I don't know how many times I've done this for free. Imagine all the interesting stories you'd have, too. Certainly a lot more fun than corporate IT.
Finally, microwave and VCR clocks across the country won't be flashing 12:00!
Does this label apply to the 12 year old kids who know more about "teh intarweb" than their parents? I suppose that trend is dying down, but it was funny while it lasted =).
Esoteric reference.
The Judge family paid nearly $300 to fix an $800 computer.
Holy crap. Does that seem ridiculous to me solely because I know computers? Perhaps it's not that different from the mechanic that wanted to charge me $100 to replace a stripped wheel stud (which I later did myself for the cost of the $3 stud and an hour).
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
I've been picking up some nice spare change just doing this on weekends. Now that I actually have a name for it, that ought to add 25% or so, even though I'm closer to the 30$ an hour end of the spectrum.
Who is John Cabal?
I've always believed that Linux/FOSS distributions would be a fantastic model for this sort of thin horizontal distributed economy. You have thousands, if not millions of Linux savvy people out there who can make money on those around them who just want their computer to work for a specific purpose.
This beats the hell out of the centralized monopoly model. Who better to support your computer than someone who understands it intimately? If they cannot fix it, they can go to the author and ask them to fix it - an unlikely happenstance for the average user, but not so much for a "digitician".
Finally, a job that WON'T be outsources to India!! *crosses fingers*
I wouldn't say that it's ridiculous.
People don't understand computers. To many, either AOL works, or it doesn't. And, these people don't want to understand computers.
Just like all people are capable of changing their own oil (or in your case, a wheel stud), it doesn't mean it's something that they want to learn how to do.
However, just like with vehicles, there is always going to be price gougers (and those who do shoddy fixes to more extensive problems). In the realm of computers, with so few people understanding the depths of their operating systems, price gouging is even easier, as how man people really know what, "Kernel32.dll has performed an illegal operation (Insert long string of hex here)," means, or even how to find a solution.
With vehicles, at least most individuals have a basic understanding (IE, they know that when a mechanic tell them the timing belt needs to be replaced but he's pointing to the rear differential that something is up.)
Finally. It's about time that people started to realize that electronics are complicated things and that it takes competent people to fix them. People don't do their own wiring or own plumbing, (well, most people) and they shouldn't. I think that the reason that electronics haven't passed into the realm of "let the professionals handle it" is because with electrical wiring, you can get shocked and die and with plumbing you can get covered with sewage or scalding water. Personally, I am glad that this I-can-do-it-myself mindset is starting to fade. Although, I do think that $125/hour is a bit much.
Help I'm a rock.
Sounds to me like a digitician should be a person who does digitation, does typing qualify?
Linux will give computer repair folks as much work as ever. Maybe the viruses and security issues won't be as bad (although we don't know that! Linux is less than 5% of the consumer desktops on the market...) but all the other stuff (customization, hardware installs, even dog hair removal) will be with us as long as PCs exist in their current form. You try having your mom recompile a kernel.
In fact, it's the Linux spirit that created these jobs in the first place- the hardware can be fixed and configured by the end user, or whoever he chooses for that job. The Microsoft computer appliance of the future will do all it can to be a tamper-sealed box that has to be shipped away to bumfuck for three weeks to be repaired- it's more profitable.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Consider this: training, amount of time, and tools. Think of how ugly it is to uninstall a nasty worm virus; think of the effort it takes to salvage files from a flaky/dying hard drive, plus rebuilding the machine. Think of the cost of all the diagnostic software/tools you might have, even if its just some Norton Utilities, a MS Technet subscription, and an AV program.
If a lawyer or a plumber or an exterminator can charge $50-100/hour, a computer technician should be allowed to do the same.
Technician skills are expensive. My company now maintains images of your hard drive. If you have a problem that can't be resolved within 30 minutes of trouble shooting, they take your laptop away, re-image a new laptop, and give it to you the next morning. Its not worth the recovery effort. Bad ofr people with desktop support skills (used to be LAN admins who did that stuff). Now a force of >100 LAN admins across the Greater Toronto Area is less than 20 individuals.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
I don't know what it's like in the US, but here in the UK, the cost of new PCs is making PC "repairs" uneconomic if the repairer wants to charge rates similar to those of plumbers and the like (to put some numbers on that, a typical rate for a plumber is 60GBP per hour, and a new PC costs from 300GBP, with monitor and preloaded copy of whatever the latest flavour of Windows is; how much work do you reckon can do in under 5 hours?)
Of course, this does discount the stupid and the penny-wise-pound-foolish, whom are probably the best cash cows out there for any business.
--
"Yeah, the whole computer needs an overhaul. Your modem is shot, and really, you might be able to get another 1,000 megs out of it, it's not too safe to be ridin' around on the internet like that. And while I was in there I noticed your processor is kind of old, we might want to go ahead and update that for ya. And with that comes driver updates and refits. Should have it by Tuesday. Wednesday at the latest. Here's the estimate."
"500 dollars!?"
"Yes. Legally, I can't even let you take it home because of the modem."
"What's this at the bottom? Rust proofing? Collision insurance?"
"when life gets complicated, I like to take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner" - Hobbes.
If they had chosen to replace rather than repair, they would be out more then just $800 dollars for the new computer. Since the Judge family needs outside assistance to fix a computer, they would most likely needs outside help to reinstall all their original applications, transfer all their important files to the new machine (without also copying the viruses), etc. $300 to repair -vs- ($800 + $300) to replace? I think they made the right choice.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
the trick is to keep the cost under half the cost of a new machine. In most cases, this will be a couple of hours of work, depending on your rates.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Only a sissy technophobe would call these people "digiticians". They're already well known as "morlocks".Don't forget to floss!
--
make install -not war
I did this at school in the dorm while I lived on campus. The school paid student techs didn't have much of a clue and their answer was normally to reformat. So I started fixing things for friends, cleaning viruses, solving network problems and cleaning the crap out of mice. They were normally most impressed that they had a "new mouse again." Most of the time payment was a couple of beers or a hot pocket.
The digitician industry is not nearly as glamorous as the porn industry depicts it to be.
"Old man yells at systemd"
When I used to work as a Computer Support at an office, I used run around all day doing this. Sure, I didn't make house calls, but that in itself doesn't make this a new profession. I was just called the "IT Support Guy", not a "Digiticain".
I really hated my job when I was doing IT support. I met these lusers who wanted do weird things with their computers, and then exepected me to support them. Often, I had to stay in the office till 8:00pm.
Thank god now I have a job as a full time developer. I would never want go back to the days of being a "digitician", even if I got paid US$100/her.
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
It's encouraging to see unemployeed techs finally taking advantage of all that time they spent fixing friends computers for free. I know I'm usually the first one several of my friends and family call when their computer starts acting weird, and all they want to do is send email.
Now if somebody was really smart, they'd find a way to get partnered with the local Best Buy and could probably turn it into a full time job. You'd be amazed at how much people are willing to pay if you can bring some sanity to their assorted home electronics. My mom loves the 3 page FAQ I made for her that goes step by step how to do everything with the home theatre system my Dad has. She used to not watch any DVDs just because she was scared to touch anything.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
I have a friend who went around charging 50 dollars to take the MS.Blaster worm off people's computers. This amateur computer repair field has great potential, as computers penetrate further and further into most bussinesses. Time is money, and paying some kid 50 bucks to fix a computer is often cheaper in the long run then spending 2 days doing it yourself. I plan to do the very same thing with a local company over the summer break from school.
I want to be a Digitician when I grow up.
SAILING MISHAP
Just like *most* plumbers or electricians, shouldn't there be license granted by the state or other civic government for in-home techs? I say ABSOLUTELY!
Consider the case where a so-called digitician shows up at grandma's house, does essentially nothing, and gets paid, then grandma, or her linux-loading, do-gooder grandson, should be able to file a grievence to have their license revoked.
Overall, there should be some type of code enforcement.(pun!=intended).
No, Vern. They just let him in.
It also depends on what "repair" is.
"Repair" might mean that the computer won't boot up at all, and this person has their doctoral dissertation nearly complete on it. Of course, they haven't made any backups... It would easily be worth $800 to recover that data and get the computer up and running again.
For me, when it comes to working on people's computers, I basically tell them it will cost them $50/hour. But also that I have an "hourly" cost for certain jobs. From start to finish, installing windows and all their software may take more than 5 or 6 hours. But a lot of that is just waiting. So, for that job, I'll tell them it will be about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of billed time.
Exactly. :)
I am not a Nerd. I am a "digitician"
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
-They don't apply Windows patches, and their machine gets owned.
-They don't install anti-virus/security software, and if their computer comes with it, they let it expire when the "free trial" period is up, and their machine gets owned.
-They blindly double-click on everything that finds its way into their e-mail inbox, and their machine gets owned.
The general public's level of computer literacy has remained constant despite all attempts to educate them, even in the aftermath of all the highly-publicized worms and viruses in the last few years. It's a losing battle trying to change that. The only thing that can be done is to make software as secure as possible and have it update itself. When you rely on the intelligence of the users to keep their machines secure, you're setting yourself up for failure.
I wonder if there are any tools that could make tasks like this easier, such as a LiveCD Linux distro that included antivirus and spyware tools for cleaning up windows partitions? That would solve problems such as unidentified worms that disable antivirus software.
The computer is nothing special -- just another thing. You have plumbers and electicians, etc. Computer service is really just another semi-skilled trade that anyone could do if they wanted to invest a little time to learn, but they prefer to use their time in other pursuits.
I often pick up painting jobs for a few extra bucks (and because I like doing some manual labor from time to time). I don't think it's any different than doing basic computer service.
Isn't a goal of the computer field to have pooters so easy to use that anyone can do it? If I was feeling grumpy I would happily argue that most trades which the typical geek might describe as "lowly" or "pathetic" are actually more challenging than 90% of computer related tasks performed by conceited pricks in the IT field. And the most conceited of the bunch never touch the 10% of work which required any degree of intelligence, but they are simply insecure fems who think that somehow working on a computer makes them better than others.
Except unlike the other *ticians people find it acceptable to pay digiticians in cookies and soda.
If someone could guarantee me to have my PIII laptop working with the USB-Quattro I bought specifically for it. With Jack/Alsa/FluidSynth/Muse I'd give em 80 (Bear in mind, there's nearly 2$ to the pound now).
Similarly if someone could get my 1394 port working in Mandrake instead of just dyne:bolix I'd pay em. It's a time over money thing. I don't have the time to learn how everything works anymore. Working sucks.
The author of the article brings up a good point, that many home/home-office computers have important personal and financial data on it. Although I'm sure that all of these digiticians (horrible word) have pretty good troubleshooting skills, what happens when they forget to make a backup? They can't replace the data, that was the sole copy. They can try and sell the owner a backup system, but that makes it look like the data was lost to sell another unit. Do these companies carry any sort of malpractice insurance, or do they just operate on a "we break it, you buy it" principle?
... the term is "hacker". A guy who makes computers do what they ought to do, whatever the circumstances.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Being a computer consultant now, and a mechanic for several years while I was in high school, I certainly can appreciate some similarities between the two professions. While $100 for a stud may be unreasonable in some cases, in others it's well justified. When the gave you an estimate they did so with knowldge of how other whel studs have went. Many times it will involve using an oxygen/acetylene torch. So now you have a great deal of time involved, pulling the car in, hoisting the car, getting the torches, etc. Plus, shops have a great deal of overhead to cover (insurance for starters). Also, what is generally ignored is the amount of responsibility placed on auto technicians, the are held responsible for the saftey of not only those occupying the vehicles the work on, but every thing they may wreck into if something fails on the car (that's why strict records are kept, especially those relating to state saftey inspections).
What they don't tell you is that it was $50 to fix the computer, and $250 not to tell Ms. Judge about all the porno.
That is already occurring in some areas that are overpopulated with 'techies'... everyone fighting over a smaller piece of the pie.
When we do our job well, the users hardly ever see us anyway.. ' what do those guys do other then hide in the computer room '. Only us project managers get any real 'face time' with the users...
Another problem is that as prices drop ( unlike the automotive industry ) hardware becomes disposable, thus reducing the amount of 'support' the world will need.. Decreasing the respect: ' we can just get a new one, anyone can do that '
And don't forget those late night mail order course commercials, THAT doesn't help our respect level either...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
There's this tale (many adapations exist I'm sure):
* There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.
Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine fixed, but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took the challenge.
He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, "This is where your problem is".
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
The engineer responded briefly:
One chalk mark: $1
Knowing where to put it: $49,999
It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.
$cat
I work at Student ITS for our school, and we do free tech support for students. We don't get paid nearly enough for the heroic resurrections of 10 year old computers we perform daily. :)
But people are always amazed when they have a hardware problem, and we tell them that they might as well get some $300 Dell that's light years ahead of their circa 1997 "Valueware" PC than try and swap out Mobo, HD, and power supply.
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
Not complaining, it's just a weird trend. This happening to anyone else?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I posted a week or two back but got rejected.
But the gist was that a boy scout leader took his PC into a local computer repair shop. The shop somehow found kiddie porn on the machine and reported it to police.
I'm not into child porn but I'm also uncomfortable with what the notion that the repair shop had to go snooping to find the child porn.
If a gangster left a dead body in the back seat of a car when they left it at the dealership for an oil change and the mechanic found it and reported it to the police, fine. If the customer leaves stuff on the computer desktop, that's open game too.
But customers should have the security of knowing that the repair guy isn't going to snoop through their data.
I'd always figured that by now, pretty much everyone has a friend or a friend of a friend that can fix a computer. But, even for people who don't, there are way too many people that can fix computers to make a living doing this sort of thing. The most i've seen anyone be able to do is get a little extra money on the side.
It's not like plumbing/electrical where you need a licence to do it. Anyone willing to claim that they know what they're doing can go ahead and do it, whether or not they actually do know what they're doing.
"Holy crap. Does that seem ridiculous to me solely because I know computers?"
I think it seems ridiculous to you because it's assumed that one scenario would mean it'd be cheaper to buy a new pc than to fix this one. To be honest, I'm not sure why that benchmark came into being. The truth of the matter is that you need somebody's time, and that's going to cost. On the flip side, you lose $800 if the machine doesn't work. Well gee.
" (which I later did myself for the cost of the $3 stud and an hour). "
Well now we're wandering into a different topic now. You can always find cheaper elsewhere. You don't have a shop to maintain nor a line of customers ready to hand you money to fix their problems. So yeah, an hour of your time is going to be under $100 I imagine. On the flip side, though, it's fortunate you already had the tools you needed to get it done. Now I really don't know anything about a 'stripped wheel stud', but if it was the type of thing where you had to buy a new tool, then your rate wouldn't have been so cheap.
I understand what you mean, but I don't find it all that ridiculous. If you can't do something yourself then you're going to have to pay for one's expertise.
"Derp de derp."
I find that there is a great demmand for this sort of thing. I have been "dabbling" in this by fixing some of my dads co-workers friends computers for them.
/uninstalling useless applications, etc...
They pay me $20 / hour for doing basic maintenance on their pc downloading and running spybot, adaware, norton, defrag, learing their startup programs from crap,
It almost feels bad taking their money, but when you think about it, it would cost them alot more if they were to take the computer in for servicing and then they would be out of action for at least a week.
A friend of mine decided to put out a bunch of flyers around spring break (which happens to be in Feb. for me), and he was just raking in the dough from people getting him to fix their computers. He even got the odd senior who wanted him to teach them how to use their new computers.
I think that this is a great way for teens to make some quick dough. As long as your a few bucks cheaper and faster than the next best alternative, you will make a killing.
Before you reply that everyone is uber-stupid, you are wrong.
Maybe everyone isn't stupid about computers, but having worked at two company help desks, I see that there is a growing trend to admit, "I don't know anything about computers" before I even find out what their problem is. In my experience I estimate that about 65% of the people that call me will say something to that effect without being prompted or just when asked a simple informative question (like how much space is left on your hard drive).
I think that many adults now have just given up on attempting to become computer literate. They seem to find it easier just to admit their inadequacy right up front and save themselves a lot of embarrassment. I find it very sad to see the number of people who have no faith in their ability and no determination to learn. Rather than having me explain some potential ways to prevent this or indicators to look for, it saves them time by keeping their level of abstraction high. I do think that this behavior will decline a little with the "kids" growing up with PCs. However, like someone else said, they will still keep a distance much like most people do with cars.
Some common PC-phobe give-away statements: "me and computers don't get along well," "computers hate me," "I dunno anything 'bout these things," "I replaced my brain with Cream of Wheat(R), here's a big pile of money to fix my computer with."
"Paying $300 to fix an $800 PC" would be a bad investment. However:
* spending $300 to recover $1000 of drop-dead important data has no relation to the value of the PC its on.
* spending $300 to get a group of digital animators back online and working is worth it when you are otherwise paying them to sit around.
People don't pay me what I'm worth, they pay me what THEY are worth. Paying me $150/hr for expert help often makes far more sense than stopping what they are doing (and proficient at) to stall with problems that they might even make worse with trial and error.
For the same reason, I take my motorcycle to a mechanic to fix rather than do it myself, because my time is worth more than paying him to do it for me. Same with growing the wheat I eat, the cotton for the clothes I wear and the trees that my bed was made from. It's called an economy.
Broad brush simpleton columnists like to coin words, but not only is ditita..whatever a STUPID word that conveys no meaning, but it is not useful or necessary. We already have words: technician, assistant, specialist.
The problem with equating a 'trade' such as plumbing and electrical work with tech management is that it's far easier to teach anyone how to wire or plumb than to teach troubleshooting. It's much closer to being a mechanic. Plumbers often do things according to a plan. Only when the shit is two feet deep and rising is plumbing similar to crisis management in IT.
A knock on my office door. Opening it reveals a user holding their personal laptop as if it were a dead pigeon. In an embarrassed voice they say, "Would you mind? I think it has a virus?" I smile broadly, hand them my rate sheet and say, "I now make house calls." Sweet.
How does one protect themselves as a digitician?
/. that "techsupport for friends and family" can get ugly especially when a friend/family member blames you for everything that goes wrong with their computer when alls you did for them was change their monitor resolution.
We all know from previous posts on
If you are doing this on a house-call basis, how do you let your customers know what you will and what you won't fix/be responsible for, etc?
LLC? Have your customer(s) sign a waiver?
I think that if I was to do this type of work on a full-time basis I would incorporate myself or obtain a LLC (limited license corporation) so that a litigious customer would not be able to come after all I own.
Just a thought...
In order for a electrician/plumber/carpenter to work on your house they must be licensed and bonded. But a guy to fix your computer? Nothing... he could very easily sell you 64MBram for $200... install mcafee for $150... and run WindowsUpdate...
If they have a decent connection just point them to a vnc server - its easy to install over the phone on windows and then you can fix all their problems from home - best thing about it is, they'll have to stay on the phone so you can tell them "plug the camera in, restart" 50 times, and because they have to actually do something they'll eventually get irritated enough to stop asking you. :P
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
.... would be a better term. The number of people who think they are a 'technician' because they've successfully built a PC clone using only their bare hands and a phillips screwdriver is huge.
Granted, it is an 'empowering' experience, but in the old-school a Technician knows how to solder, hand code little diagnostic tests in Assembly language, troubleshoot the problem down to a component on the circuit board, and more.
If you've never handled a wirewrap gun, and you have no idea of the relative advantages of a totem-pole versus an open-collector output, you're not a technician, you're a dilentante from the coffeehouse who ordered a 'PC Tool Set' off ThinkGeek and copped an attitude.
---
I seem to recall a debate about 20 years ago where a group of renegade electronics 'engineers' wanted a new title because they felt 'engineer' was too 'mechanical' and, well, electricians had their own title after all.
Following an exciting month or two of correspondence in the trade press, the best they came up with was 'Electroneer'!
OK - hands up all those with 'Electroneer' on their job description or business card!? Hmm, thought not. L3K
Engineer, Electroneer, Digitician
AT&ROFLMAO
I might consider it excessive because I know how to fix my own shit. However, what if I didn't know hot to fix my shit, didn't have time (or inclination) to learn, but did have a lot of disposable income?
$300 sounds pretty damn cheap.
To use the oft-stated car analogy:
I know how to change the oil in my car. Doing so would cost about $10-12 in materials (filter, oil), but it would also require going to Autozone/Walmart/wherever and picking out the oil, the filter, standing in a line, waiting to get checked out, coming home, finding time to actually do the oil change, then changing the oil, and then *responsibly* disposing of the waste oil (it's against the law to just dump it in the sewers). So, in the end, I may have saved $10 on the raw material cost, but I had to spend about 2-3 hours in related time to get it done. My time bills for $20/hour according to my last paycheck stub. The cost of an oil change is about $20. You do the math there. And lets not forget the cost of the TOOLS involved (special filter wrench, socket set), stuff I do not have handy.
I don't charge an exhorbitant amount for my services to fix some friends PC's (if I charge at all, but then again, I don't fix all my friend's PC's as a matter of principle). One of my friends, however, insists on buying me "all-you-can-eat" sushi buffet (about $30 all said and done), so I don't mind it at all.
YMMV.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Several years ago (1995), my best friend and I started up a "computer consulting" company. Basically we did the so-called "digitician" thing, as well as doing full IT support for a number of smaller businesses as well. We were very successful with it, and had a number of good clients. We charged $35 per hour, for on-site work. We almost never would bring a machine back to our shop for fixing, it was almost always done on-site. Our customers really loved it, as we were both the cheapest in town, and the only ones who would not require that they bring their computers to us.
We were very much the pioneers of this type of service in my home town (300,000 people), and now everyone is doing it, albeit at twice or three times the cost.
I'm currently thinking about doing it again (I quit about 5 years ago - too much stress), on a smaller scale. I enjoy fixing stuff, but not on a full-time basis.
I've done a few small jobs so far - still at $35 per hour - but am not sure how much time I really want to spend on it. The money's ok, but I just mostly do it because I enjoy it.
Seems almost a crime to charge money for something I love to do (and I already do this 8 hours a day at my day job!)
Just my thoughts on this, having gone through it all when it wasn't common.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
Yes, but there comes a point when you get such a large volume of calls from your less technical friends and family that it is no longer "doing someone a favor" and moves into the realm of "fulltime tech support". Then yes, you need to start charging ...in the case of friends and family, this usually isn't in the form of money. More along the lines of free food & beer or some other form of bartering.
Yes, it would be downright wrong to hand your mother a printed bill, but if you're going to be spending the better part of your weekend helping a friend set up a home network, it starts to factor into the realm of opportunity cost.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
I've been into computers since I was 8. I bought my first car when I was 18. I used to be one of those people that took it somewhere anytime something went wrong. Then when I was 19, I met someone who worked on vehicles for a living. He showed me that I was being taken to the cleaners when I pay Midas $400 for new brakes. When I was 24, I bought my second vehicle. Maybe 6 months later, the front passenger side rotor was shot. I went to Monroe for an estimate, $692 for two new rotors, braks pads, shoes, calipers, pistons, and lines. I talked to my friend, he showed me that my calipers, lines, and the pistons for the rear brakes were fine. So I bought new rotors and pads, did the repair myself for ~$60.
4 years later, I've gone through a fair number of pads and shoes since, but the calipers are still fine and the lines are good.
I've known "computer professionals" who operate on the same kind of principle. They feel like they should make as much money as possible whenever someone comes into the shop by misrepresenting what needs to be done, or even outright lying. Some of them are quite successful because of this, but others fail miserably.
You can't hold those people that you depend upon to make your living in contempt. You can't treat people like their morons. (even if some of them really are)
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Pro sports are really just forms of entertainment, so the same processes are at work there as in cinema, rock music, opera, whatever. People only want to pay to see the very best. In a given performance category, there will be a few highly-paid superstars that everyone lines up to see (star athletes, big movie stars, world-class opera singers), a larger pool of well-paid highly-competent support personnel (ordinary players on major-league teams, actors who play minor characters or star in no-name films, regular singers in big opera companies), many lower-caliber people struggling to get by and hoping for their big break, and those who get cut out (such as college football players who don't attract the interest of a pro team).
What makes the economics of this possible is the huge "multiplication factor" possible with entertainment. A top opera diva can make $10K for a single performance, but if 2,000 people pay to see it, that's $5 per person. Many people would consider it worth the extra $5 for the added pleasure of seeing a top-notch performance rather than merely a better-than-average one. So that diva represents a huge boost in "productivity" (ability to sell tickets) for the opera company.
This kind of economics is not so apparent in most engineering fields, except in a few cases where the knowledge is highly specialized and known by only a few people.
The Judge family paid nearly $300 to fix an $800 computer.
I just paid $430 to have a plumber replace two toilets. $180 for the two new toilets, $200 labor cost(!) and $50 to dispose of the old toilets.
Somehow I wasn't shocked.
Often, clients KNOW this, and still are willing to pay. My dad is a car guy. Been screwing with engines since he was like 8, did lots of customizing of cars in high school, even works as a sales guy for car repair books. However, he pays someone to change his oil. Not like he doesn't know how to do it, he taught me how to change mine. He just doesn't care to spend the time, it's worth the money to him to have someone else do it.
There is also something to be said for having a professional that will do something right do it. I got a new thermostat and, like a retard, forgot to mark and label the wires. Well, from reading the documentation I was fairly certian I knew which one went where, but not 100%. I decided to just call a guy, and get it wired right. It was worth it, too, since it turned out they'd used non-standard colours in my place and I would have wired it wrong.
Restraunts are probably the most general form of paying someone else to do something you could do yourself. It's not hard to learn how to cook, and with a deceant cookbook and time you can make even exotic dishes. It's a pain though. I mean let's say I want to make a date some nice Italian food. To properly make a good pasta, with fresh cooked noodles and sauce and all plus side dishes like you'd get in a deceant restaruant is like a 4-5 hour job. Forget it, I'll just drop $50 and take her to a restraunt. Nothing I couldn't do myself, just something that I don't feel is worth my time.
So long as Windows doesn't have the security to prevent it[1], that $300 is a recurring expense. Sure a new computer would solve the virus/spyware issues, but either way you will have the same problem back again in 3 months. So your choice: pay the tech $300 every 3 months to fix the problem, or buy a new machine for $800, plus figure out how to migrate your data to the new machine (perhaps hire the tech to do it, perhaps $100?).
[1]Linux and Macs would suffer the same problem if they had the market share of windows. It is now known how much though, either appears more secure on the surface. It might be less because of that, but we can't know.
I do my own wiring, and my own plumbing.
:)
Why shouldn't I ? few electricians or plumbers have more than a highschool education. I can read the National Electric Code just as well as anyone else with basic literary skills, and unlike most electricians, my engineering time in college has given me some background in physics, EE, and power engineering so that i even have a little context to figure out where the rules come from.
The "electrical" part of electrician work for around the house type jobs is totally trivial. I mean, its all color coded. The "work" is figuring out how to route wires, pulling them, wiiring terminals, patching holes, etc etc etc. The actual "electrician" work of enabling a new wire run with a breaker back at the service entrance now takes me less than 2 minutes of total time. Can you do basic multiplication ? You can plan new circuits!
I've also upgraded and expanded the gas piping network in both of my houses. You cant begin to imagine how much that costs for what is essentially measuring pipes and screwing them together with pipe wrenches (you can buy an awful lot of pipewrenches for 1hr of pipe labour)
I also happen to have more upper body strength than most plumbers i've met, so its not like they're tightening pipes with more torque than i am
It's always nice though when the pro's come and look over your house, and compliment your work. And I smile all the way to the bank.
Specialization is for insects.
Remember - you CAN do it yourself. I'm a software person by employment, but consider the following things i've done in the last year:
- replaced clutch on car
- replaced brake pads/rotors
- replaced radiator
- replaced/repaired exhaust manifold
- replaced idle control valve
- replaced height-adjusting suspension components
- repaired $1300 ECU (cold solder joints)
- added new gas pipes for 2 dryers (2 different houses)
- added new pipes to support tankless water heater (which i also installed)
- tiled 2 bathrooms and a kitchen
- stud-wall kitchen remodel (all electrical, flooring, walls, cabinet installs, plumbing, lighting, appliances, moving an hvac register)
- jetted bathtub install
My wife and I did every remodelling job in our last house ourselves. We called a structural engineer to help analyze one situation with a crooked house jack, and hired one general contractor to do the bathtub drain (i was still afraid of the crawlspace at that point)
We made a killing selling that house because we did the work in our spare time, price shopping the cost of materials. While we lived there we had a beautiful house to live in and use, and when we sold it our improvements paid off handsomely. Not to mention the incredible sense of accomplishment you get from doing things yourself. You what quality of work was done, you learn more about what to do next time, and you dont have that sucking feeling of getting ripped off that you get every time you write a check for a "pro" to do a shitty job.
In my basement right now is my first peice of wooden furniture. We couldnt' find a nice set of wood shelves of the appropriate height, so i figured i'd build some. We'll see how my finish carpentry skills progress.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
One place I worked required a department to budget to buy their own computers. But, they were also required to put in their budget 2 1/2 times the purchase price. This was to cover the costs of maintenance for the life of the system. That money is what paid part of the tech support budget.
It helped keep departments aware of the true cost of the machines they wanted to buy.
I started my own "digitician" business (in the boston area no less), and I went through your original thought too. After a lot of thinking "Im charging too much" or "This is something I would do for free" I realized that my 13~ years (from age of 5) of making computers work, is worth twice what I charge, easily.
I make people not have to deal with the same issues that plague other "normal" people. No more email viruses, no more crashing, no more spyware, porn pop ups, etc. I don't often get repeat customers, I get referrals. People who have been using computers for years (mostly Doctors, Lawyers, other professional high income people) tell me after I've been to their house and "fixed" their computers how nice it is to not have to deal with all the shit they did before.
I have come to understand that these people who are not at all stupid, in fact are mostly exceptionally bright, do not want to deal with the crap aol/ms/etc let happen. No one is there to tell them what software to use that lets them do what they want easily. No one is there to explain to them how to deal with spam, or that they can have easily setup encrypted emails. No one is there to make their computer work, or know how to deal with dell tech support so that they can get an RMA.
That $300 is worth a lot more than an $800 computer. That $300 can be freedom to use a expensive tool to do what you want, not what bonzi buddy wants. That $300 dollars lets someone who makes 50-500 dollars a day be able to get more work done on their computer more easily without distractions or thinking they screwed up.
I've gotten a few jobs that pay anywhere from 100-700 dollars. And each of those jobs netted me another job by word of mouth. Imagine paying 1500 dollars to dell and because of massive software flaws and expected understanding of years of how computers work and are used ends up being nigh useless because of hackers who install irc file servers to abuse your bandwidth, or make your computer reset every 3 minutes.
At first I thought It was my duty to help anyone with their computers that I knew. Then I found out what paying my own bills was like, and how this is how the real world works. Knowledge based jobs beat the hell out of labour based.
I don't just fix computers, I retrain people into not being afraid of them. I teach them that anything they want to do should be easy, and show them how. I make their lives easier in a small way, it gives them more free time rather than spending hours not getting what they want to do done. And between highschool, rent, food, college applications, and my own life. I tend to think I am well worth what I charge.
Sleep is for the weak.
No, it doesn;t seem ridiculous to me. Whenever I get a tradesman around to fix the washing machine, put some power points in, etc etc, I always ask them how they make money doing what they do. $55 an hour is not much money when you have to maintain a van, pay for transit (time and wear and tear on van and fuel etc), maintain a toolset, stay current with industry trends etc etc etc. All these costs have to be amortised over all the clients; that's why the stripped wheel stud cost $100 to fix at the mechanic. Labour costs money. Workshops cost money.
There is a guy (in Halifax I think) who calls himself "The Sound Doctor" who makes a living from going around and setting up home theaters etc. A previous poster joked that with new ranks of Digiticians, VCR clocks around the world found finally not be flashing 12:00. But this Sound Doctor guy REALLY does that kind of thing. His business is getting TVs, VCRs, DVDs and home audio working right (for $60/hour or flat fees for some services I think). Another poster commented that if a digitician got a contract with Best Buy they would be set. Well, according to this Sound Doctor guy, he used to work for a big box store before branching out on his own. He gets some business from those stores, but increasingly the retailers are seeing customer service as another stream of revenue and doing it in house.
Some stores will offer to set up your new surround sound system for you .. for a small extra fee. (or included in the price if they are trying to be competative).
I'm not sure that this IS a growth business. I wonder if it isn't just a little niche market run by word of mouth. In the same way that high end audio stores will set up your equipment for you, and come back to tweak it (for a price) I can't imagine why Best Buy, Future shop et. al. wouldn't expand into this area. My dad always takes his Volvo into the dealer where he bought it for servicing. When my brother had a problem with his laptop he took it into Future Shop to see if they could do anything for him. I think a lot of people are like that and more inclined to call, and trust (even if that trust is unwarranted) the kinds of places where they bought the original equipment than a one-man operation like "Dr. Dave".
But, if I am wrong and this is a viable business, i think it would make sense to offer a comprehensive service - servicing computers, home networks and home audio / media equipment.
-Craig
People don't pay me what I'm worth, they pay me what THEY are worth. Paying me $150/hr for expert help often makes far more sense than stopping what they are doing (and proficient at) to stall with problems that they might even make worse with trial and error.
Let's look at that again:
People don't pay me what I'm worth, they pay me what THEY are worth. Paying me $150/hr for expert help often makes far more sense than stopping what they are doing (and proficient at) to stall with problems that they might even make worse with trial and error.
And that's where the insight is. This is probably the most important point of the whole discussion so far. Sure, the client may be able to fix their own problem, but that would require figuring out how to do it, which may result in many many hours of downtime. Downtime is lost dollars. Get the $150/hr tech in to solve the problem before too much money is lost.
The barter system is often a good choice for remuneration for services, especially involving technical skills. Anyone read Bruce Sterling? In his short story "Bicycle Repairman", Lyle offers to fix a woman's bike, not for a dollar amount, but in exchange for buying him some tools he would like to have. Or maybe the person you're helping has some other technical skills that you lack, and can do something for you.
Prestidigitician: A person who turns an inert box into a working computer.
The real bottom line is that if you are competant, not a dickhead, and serve the customers you can make some money.
The other thing to remember is a saying a got from a consultant/coworker a few years back.
"The difference between working for a company and working for yourself is that you are trading the illusion of freedom for for the illusion of security"
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
I'd say that there isn't a lot of difference in difficulties between teahing computer tech and trademan's tech to someone. Both skills require fairly similar aptitudes, and it's really quite remarkable how quickly my "tradesman" friends seem able to pick up on the inner workings of a computer, especially when I compare them to some friends in the legal and medical professions. Computers and the trades are both logical systems: for a given architecture there is a set of possible solutions that will function within the constraints of the architecture. A tech in any of those fields approaches a problem in much the same way: ascertain the architecture used (what type of computer, what type of building construction), collect data to discern the solution set originally used to perform the faulty function (how is the computer SUPPOSED to be networked or how was the house supposed to be plumbed to remove waste from the bathroom), and then using logic and reasonable expectations of performance, zero in on the failure. The main difference between a plumber and a computer tech is the language and the tools used. I've found it remakrably easy to teach a lot of my friends in the building trades how to perform most of the routine maintenance of their computers, and they seem to readily grasp the importance of maintenance on their computer's operating systems.
Forgetting all of that, a friend recently paid $100 dollars for someone to tune his piano... (that was for one hour of work) .NET security hole"?
There are three things to consider in price:
1. How much "yuckiness" is in the job? i.e. you will gladly pay a plumber to crawl under your house with the spiders and and mud to fix a pipe that you could have fixed yourself. Many people don't want to hunt through the whole hard drive to remove that virus
2. The amount and severity of errors people have had in that area doing things themselves - like when you have replaced a sink and the adapter to the water pipe wasn't tight enough so it failed as the pressure in the pipes increased and you had to replace seven pieces of drywall in your basement and the computer the water leaked into -- the equivalent is installing a new browser and loosing your income tax information.
3. How scary it is to deal with the professional - and this is where we lose. The stereotyped (and sometimes real) response that a person is a looser for not knowing how to do computer maintenence, or run a program, etc... No one is going to pay for computer help if they are afraid that the person coming to their house will say that they are stupid idiots. When the plumber came to my house after I forgot to raise the flange when replacing the toilet after installing wood flooring he didn't say "you idiot - always raise the flange!". He just said "remember - always raise the flange if the flooring type is changed". And if you don't know what a flange is - then you have a small clue what the average person out there thinks when you say "have you applied the latest Microsoft security vulnerability patches for the
Here's a better link.
What's strange about this particular story, is the snopes.com article on it.
A number of reputable sources, who have obviously researched Steinmetz, seem to confirm this story as true, yet snopes does not. Perhaps snopes is wrong for once?
Life is too short to proofread.
It seems that your big problem here is NOT with the computer mechanics but with the printer manufactures. The companies building and selling printers these days are NOT selling printers they are selling INK. HP sells printers below cost because they will make the money up on ink. They build the printers to wear out quick not because they want you to buy a new printer but because they want to make sure that they can combat the 3rd party vendors that sell replacement cartridges and / or refill kits.
This is not only limited to ink jets anymore either. If you look around you can find you a HP color laser printer for under $500 bucks. I saw one in Office Depot and wasn't surprised to see the tiny tiny color toner cartridges.
Until people start refusing to purchase these devices the problem will remain. But, most people don't understand the cost of print concept and think wow, I can get a new printer for $25!
Nick Powers
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...