The Tech Support Generation

prostoalex writes "Newsweek technology columnist Brad Stone is looking forward to the Thanksgiving dinner with his family next week, spending time in candle-lit rooms, preparing holiday shopping lists and... let's admit it - fixing the folks' computer. 'We are the Tech-Support Generation. Our job is to troubleshoot the complex but imperfect technology that befuddle mom and dad, veterans of the rotary phone, the record player and the black-and-white cabinet television set. Next week, on our annual pilgrimage home, we'll turn our Web-trained minds and joystick-conditioned fingers to the task of rescuing our parents from bleeding-edge technology on the blink', Brad Stone writes. In related news, what other products besides Google Desktop Search, Spybot Search & Destroy, Google Toolbar and Service Pack 2 are Slashdotters installing on their parents' Windows machines?"

Comments

Firefox & Thunderbird

[Anonymous Coward]

Firefox & Thunderbird. Saves you lots of trouble.

Re:Firefox & Thunderbird

[Zorilla]

I think I just stumbled upon how to get all of Oklahoma using Firefox now.

Re:Firefox & Thunderbird

[ShavenYak]

Canadians, we're obsessed with the weather.

Why do you need an app on your computer to tell you the weather? Wouldn't a static text box saying "It's cold!" be sufficient?

Re:Firefox & Thunderbird

[wo1verin3]

>>Take a look at how IE is being exploited, then
>>talk to me about how your mom needs to use IE
>>for some stupid secondary app

You want to talk back to my mom? Be my guest.

Re:Firefox & Thunderbird

[aichpvee]

Yeah, I just removed IE and Outlook Express completely by giving my parents Slackware. Done.

Re:Firefox & Thunderbird

[YetAnotherDave]

it's the distiction between "it's snowing" and "it'll snow soon" that we need

Surely?

[Sexy Bern]

what other products besides Google Desktop Search, Spybot Search & Destroy, Google Toolbar and Service Pack 2 are Slashdotters installing on their parents' Windows machines

Debian

What other products...

[jalet]

> In related news, what other products besides
> Google Desktop Search, Spybot Search & Destroy,
> Google Toolbar and Service Pack 2 are Slashdotters
> installing on their parents' Windows machines?"

GNU/Linux

None of the above

[Insurgent2]

My parents are smarter than I am.

They have Macs!

Ack, don't remind me.

[colonslashslash]

My father still tries to control his PC with the stereo remote.

I won't let them use Windows purely because it would get trashed with spyware, adware and trojans, instead, they get a Slack 10 / KDE install and a nice low UID user with SSHd setup so I can log in as root remotely and fix anything if needed, and easily upgrade and install applications and the kernel.

Work for an ISP

[ender81b]

And here is our General Fix-all-our-customers-problems cd we send out

IE6sp1 full
IE55 full
IE517 full
IE_Reinstall_bat (batch file that reinstalls ie using run dll)
IE secure site fix

Winxpsp2
winxp winsock fix (rebuilds winsock using registry)
winxp individual critical fixes

Ad-aware
Ad-aware/spybot definitions
Spybot
Coolweb killer? removal? Shredder? Can't remember offhand

AVG anti-virus (highly recommended)
McAfee AVERT stinger (even more highly recommended)
norton's varius virus removal tools (fix sobig, fix blaster, etc)

Win2k Sp4

Firefox
Thunderbird

3 things

[ArmenTanzarian]

AdAware
Firefox
That Gator thing I love so much

I usually get flamed for this

[baryon351]

I usually get flamed for this, but I just do NOT do family tech support any more. The appreciation doesn't always exist for the work put in, the expectations are as high as any job I've had, and it just...never...stops... I've been through the worst of it, not having a free weekend with my friends for weeks at a time, having weeknights with my partner disturbed constantly, and feeling like I'm moving from 9 to 5 work just to come 'home' and face more of the same.

Maybe it comes from having a really large extended family of people who just don't want to know how computers should/shouldn't work, but it's just too much sometimes. Strictly my mother and sister now, nobody else.

Re:I usually get flamed for this

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

I'm with you....just as soon as I move out of my parent's house...

Re:I usually get flamed for this

[lachlan76]

I feel for you. I'm 15, and I've gotten phone calls at school.

Be grateful ;)

Re:I usually get flamed for this

[scupper]

Hey, I sympathize with your ordeal. I don't have a large family, but the clan I do have are the same way. I had to go cold turkey on them, and they learned the hard way why I was so draconian about how I set up their systems. The bitched and moaned about using zone alarm, and strict IE "Internet Zone" settings, as they flat refused to switch to FF in June '04.

Since then, the beautiful internet has taught them lessons I could never have taught. My sis got a ton of browser hijacks and adware on her system, so bad that she contemplated getting a new system, until I finally gave in and cleaned it up for her, along with installing Firefox.

My Mom refused to use webmail for "problem" email recipients who spam her with dumb jokes, and finally got stung with 4 days of unreleating virus alerts generated by emails coming in on her POP account from a distant family member who is both a prolific joke spammer, and a really careless web user.

The person got a couple of email viruses and all hell broke loose with family across the country. I had to set up a new pop account for her, and set forwarding of her old pop to her Yahoo account. Second email addy she's had to bail on because of spam and knuckle head family members.

Re:I usually get flamed for this

[Anonymous Coward]

From a newsgroup I read:-

I stopped doing that stuff years ago. It just ain't worth the hassle.

Typical genuine scenarios that have contributed to my attitude...

- As you've mentioned, folks whining for help before even attempting to solve their own problem

- When they stop offering any kind of token reward or payment (some never offer anything in the first place), regardless of whether you normally accept such gifts. It's not so bad if it's a two minute job, but some of these morons are so convinced of your passion for IT
problem-solving that they think it's perfectly reasonable for you to spend half a day in their spare room without so much as a cup of tea and
a biscuit

- When they start recommending you to their friends and handing out your number

- When they start with "my neighbour's brother is having trouble..."

- When the "problem" is clearly a veiled request for you to obtain a pirated copy of AutoCAD for them

- "My graphics card has gone faulty. You must have done something to it when you upgraded my hard drive in March" (i.e. they want you to buy and fit them a new card, cos it's your fault that it's busted)

- Asking for advice and then ignoring it ("don't buy it at Dixons", "You'll need more memory than that", "D-Link sucks", "Ethernet is better
than USB for networking", "You should really have some Antivirus", etc.)

- "Selective memory" when, after ignoring your advice, they experience an expensive problem

- When they call you at 21:30 on Christmas Eve with a computer problem

- They decide to save money by building their own system, except that they want you to spec it up, price it up, order the bits (they'll pay you back once it's working), take delivery of the bits and, of course, build it

- You get into the office and find that some ancient filthy hulk of a home PC has been deposited on your desk chair - with a note vaguely
describing a problem, specifying the day that it needs to be fixed by, and warning you against losing any of their (unspecified) data. Lots of
exclamation marks, and a smiley face at the bottom

- When they happen to be a millionaire but they won't upgrade their Amstrad 1640 and dot matrix printer

- They start forwarding every hoax virus warning to you, merely adding a "?" to the top

- They want you to arrange for them to no longer receive any spam

- They show up unannounced at the front door brandishing a laptop that they found at some car boot sale or something. They invite themselves in
and won't leave until you take a look at it. It almost seems to be your fault when it turns out to be missing some vital part - you know, like
the charger or the battery. They get mad at *you* when you tell them how much the replacement part is likely to cost for their lovely "new" £10
laptop

- They haven't got a CD burner, but they know that you have

- They *have* got a burner, but can't be arsed to learn how to work Nero

- They have access to at least a dozen spotty little geeks who are capable of hooking their new Deskjet up, but they still come to you

- They have a novel requirement - say ripping-off audio tapes to CD and scanning, resizing and printing the case inserts. You know that if you
listen to them, it'll suddenly be up to you to do all the research on the hardware required, pirate the software, make it all work, write step-by-step instructions, and be available on the phone the first ten times they try to do it

- Describing an apparently easy-to-fix problem in order to get you to visit, then revealing the true, massive, extent of the task once you're
onsite

Yep. That's why I don't do that sh*t any longer

Ignorance of Windows is the Best Defense :)

[hagbard5235]

I've found that near complete ignorance of Windows is my best defense. I've not been a serious Windows user since 1994. So when someone asks me for assistance with their Windows problem I can quite truthfully say:

"I'm sorry, I don't know how that works."

Don't get me wrong, I make my living in tech. I code in between 8 and 12 languages (depending on how good my memory is that day), can play a medium grade Linux/Solaris guru when necessary, write web apps, architect large distributed systems, operate a wide variety of service provider and enterprise networking equipment, etc. I also like helping people who are having technical problems. But there's a big difference between being the IM of last resort for various Linux/Python,etc problems and having to deal with Windows users.

Security vrs Familiarity

[Jumbo Jimbo]

My parents have a very old PC which chugs along with a lack of RAM / pocessor / everything. I'm going to be giving them a reconditioned Pentium 3 which should meet their (limited) computing needs, even if they make more use of it than they do now.

However, whereas I'd like to give them a Linux box, they are used to using PCs with a WIndows 95 / XP interface from their PC and the local library. As they, especially my dad, have trouble getting to grips with new tools, I think I will have to compromise and install Windows for them.

I know that even after making it as secure as I can and giving them a quick list of don'ts (open attachements, etc) that it won't be as secure, but as they're both retired there is no business critical data there. I think that their ease of use will be more important than trying to move them away from Windows.

Change the OS

[Ed Almos]

My girlfriend runs a Mac, my parents run an old P2 machine with Fedora installed and locked down and when asked to support friends computers I tell them "sorry, but I don't work on MS Windows machines".

I will (for free) wipe MS Windows and install Linux on any friends machine but my days of providing free support for Bill G are over.

I find this cuts down on the support calls and I can then enjoy Thanksgiving.

Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary

Re:Change the OS

[TheRaven64]

Getting a Mac is a huge advantage for two reasons:

1. Other Mac users never bug you with questions, since they'd have to admit that their OS was less than 100% intuitive if they did) and,
2. You can happily claim ignorance of every other platform. Saying `Hey, I use a Mac! I don't understand Windows/Linux. See how shiny my Mac is! Shiny!' gets me out of a lot of things (as long as people don't notice the headless FreeBSD box hidden behind my desk).

Same thing here...

[Anonymous Coward]

My mother's computer is a constant source of disputes. As soon as I've started helping her, she decided she could entirely rely on me and I started to waste my week-ends fixing her computer.

Usually, people think a computer is like a wash machine. They refuse to learn, they just want to push the button and it should work; if it breaks, call the mech. My mother lost several times files because she didn't take the pain to save them on a floppy disk or on a CD-ROM.

Well, after a few weeks like that, I finally told her that in order to drive a car, you need a licence, you don't ask others to come over and drive your car each time you want to go to the supermarket.

On the bright side, my 90 year-old grandfather has bought a computer last summer, and I spent a week during holidays teaching him how to use the basics of mail, wordprocessing, saving, printing and net surfing. We wrote together a complete 12 pages course together (with screen prints), and I'm proud to say that he can use these tools alone now.

I don't know enough about windows to support it!

[Xtifr]

I let my family members run Windows if they want, but I tell 'em that if they do, I can't help them with it. I haven't used Windows since '96 or '97, and even then, I only used it for games, and wouldn't allow it to install the modem drivers, much less connect to the internet. I have no idea how to make a Windows system safe and secure, nor do I have any interest in learning.

So, instead, I have a standing offer. Anyone in my family who's sick of viruses and spyware and the other ills of Windows can get my help setting up and maintaining a Linux box. So far, only my completely-computer-illiterate aunt has taken me up on it (after a major fight with viruses), but she's been so happy with the results that I think some others may come around soon.

A Useful Analogy

[HeghmoH]

My family has interesting misconceptions about my capabilities, and I assume this is true of a lot of people here. I have a degree in CS, I make my living programming computers, but I don't know jack about troubleshooting Windows. I run a Mac at home because it's simple to fix when it breaks. The skillsets of a good programmer and a good technician don't overlap nearly as much as people think. Yet, everybody thinks I should know how to fix all of their Windows problems.

So, I tell them that I'm like an engineer. I do the computer equivalent of building bridges, designing cars, etc. What they're asking me to do is the computer equivalent of repairing their car after the engine compartment started smoking. They wouldn't expect a bridge designer to be able to fix their car engine, and so they shouldn't expect a programmer to be able to fix their computer. Once they get the idea that I might be able to do something, but it's really not the kind of thing I'm good at, everybody is a lot happier.

Re:they are slooow

[johannesg]

Is that all? How about this:

"So, now you are all set. Just click ok and you're off!"

...excruciating pause while hapless parent/legal guardian/alien adoption mother/other supported entity stares at the screen without any external confirmation of possible ongoing thought processes...

"Just... Click... Ok."

...another interminable pause...

"Yes, but WHY do I have to click ok? Can't it just work? I don't understand why this is so complicated."

Aarg! Or how about that situation where you are working with someone (doesn't have to be a parent, colleagues are great for this), and they keep repeating the same improbable method for doing something. For example, they are copying data from one Excel sheet to another, ONE BLOODY CELL AT A TIME, using the MOUSE AND MENU to select the copy and paste operations. But the worst of all is: for some reason between each copy and paste they let go of the mouse and reach over to the keyboard to switch between sheets. And all the cells they are copying are in the same column. And there are over 400 of them...

Charge them a symbolic fee,

[Anonymous Coward]

and then they will not take your expertise for granted:). After hooking up my entire close and extended family with computers for free (I usually pass my old computers (+$100 for reasonale upgrades) to them when I buy new stuff) this is what I found out:

0. Don't waste your time explainig to them what the problem is because they don't have the patience to listen to the entire explanation you are more than willing to give to them.

1. After fixing a problem you are blamed for ALL the other problems that will happen following the origial problem.

2. Unless a speed improvement is more than twice on a benchmark, people over 50 will not notice it, so don't waste time and money switching them from ATA66 to ATA133.

3. Any CPU over 1.5Ghz + 512M is an overkill.

Re:they are slooow

[Zapman]

One thing that I always have a problem with, when teaching my mom anything about the computer is to only show her one thing (or change) at a time. In your example, the FIRST thing to show them is that they can copy and paste more than one cell at a time. Tell them how to highlight all the cells, and let them copy with the menu option. Then have them paste them into the same sheet to prove to them it works. Give them several practice runs on this procedure, only letting them highlight multiple cells one way (either by click/drag, or control or shift which ever they're used to... don't show them the others)

After this, show them that they can do multiple cells between sheets, still using menu copy/paste, and still highlighting the same way, and flipping sheets the same way. Let them practice this one change a few times.

Then show them ctrl-c and ctrl-v, and let them practice several times.

Then show them other ways to highlight, and let them practice.

My problem is that I must resist taking the mouse from her. I must let her practice each thing several times so that SHE understands, and so that I don't have to do it for her every time.

We all have learning curves, and if we have good teachers, they are easier. A good example is worth infinatly more than an RTFM.