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A Letter On Behalf of the World's PC Fixers
Barence writes "PC Pro's Steve Cassidy has written a letter on behalf of all the put-upon techies who've ever been called by a friend to fix their PC. His bile is directed at a friend who put a DVD bought on holiday into their laptop, and then wondered what went wrong. 'Once you stuck that DVD in there and started saying "yes, OK" to every resulting dialog box, you sank the whole thing,' Cassidy writes. 'It doesn't take 10 minutes to sort that out; it requires a complete machine reload to properly guarantee the infection is history. No, there is no neat and handy way I've been keeping secret that allows you to retain your extensive collection of stolen software licenses loaded on that laptop. I do disaster recovery, not disaster participation.'"
Newsflash: there are douchehats in every profession.
Computer fixers deal with people who click 'ok' on all the addons their favourite 'free' download site suggests.
Computer programmers deal with specs and users that want features they don't understand, and will never use.
Mechanics who deal with people who figured the 'little oil can light' wasn't anything serious and kept driving.
Accountants whose clients figure they didn't need to file their taxes for the last 3 years, or that it was acceptable to write off that hooker as a 'business expense'.
Teachers whose students are dumber than bricks, and have parents who insist its your fault.
If you don't like it, get a factory job.
"Buy a Mac"
Oh snap!
Apparently word hasn't gotten out that you "know horses"... Those fuckers are about as fun to fix as eMachines, and substantially more likely to attack you.
You've never tried this, have you? The sort of person who is easily frustrated by technology but has been barely getting by on windows gets utterly enraged when presented with different UI paradigms. I know because I tried this "fix" a couple of times for people. The problem isn't that either UI is too difficult-- the problem is that you're dealing with somebody who is utterly refusing to learn anything, and handing them a new OS is asking them to learn quite a few things all at once.
It's a perfectly reasonable response. All the computers on TV have a nigh-magical, unerringly task-specific UI (magically only available to the team's 'geeky tech genius') that can do anything the plot requires. In this case, the plot of their personal psychodrama requires magically fixing their machine. And you, the team's geeky tech genius, have just failed....
I've converted more than a dozen individuals and families to the Mac. All have lived happily ever after.
A before you all geek rage on me, I have steered a few of the young-uns with a clear interest in computers as more than tools toward Linux.
You mean you quit using Windows on a PC platform. "PC" does not equate to "Windows Machine".
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
How about a screed against his fellow technical people?
You know, the one who *create* the malware and junkware and root kits and junk operating systems and whatnot.
Ya well, it comes with a rainbow and happy ending. What else did you want from me?
Life is not for the lazy.
If you have a neighbor who is a plumber, electrician, contractor, or handyman, you'll find that they demand to be paid for their time and their work.
However, those same people will come to you for help with their computers and expect it for free. I'll help out my immediate family and a few friends, but I just only have so much time and patience and energy. It's not even the money. I just don't want to deal with it.
And that's good advice. But you have to make a clear distinction between altruism and enabling co-dependence.
There's the nice, sane, reasonably intelligent people (like your family) for whom providing a little technical support is non-onerous. Then there're the pinheaded droolers who rush from trojan to trojan, steal every bit of software they run, and plug USB cables into network ports...and make them fit
The latter class far exceeds the bounds of kindness, unless your definition of kindness also extends to running down to the local crackhouse to pick up your brother's latest order.
Some people shouldn't have computers any more than they should have children or any kind of metabolic protection against intoxicants.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Ah, well, it sounds as though you have a good reciprocal relationship with your family and friends, where you help each other with things in your area of expertise. If that is the case, by all means pitch in. Cooperation is wonderful. The problem comes if you don't have reciprocal relationships, i.e. they ask for free computer help, but come moving day, they and their truck are nowhere to be found. I believe THAT is what the article is complaining about.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It works for me:
:)
1) Friend: How should I fix ${generic_problem} with my computer?
2) Me: Install Linux
3) ???
4) Repeat as required
5) Profit!!! Well, maybe not "profit", but they stopped asking me for help, anyway
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
7. Oh, and YOU buy the beer.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
UAC works fairly well for this in Win7 /if/ you can get away with not giving them an admin account. Just like not giving root on the linux box. I've done this for two sane people, set up autoinstall of updates (including Windows defender), and so far no problems.
Of course you usually can't get away with that because users really really want to install that cool malware. And by users I mean family members.
I switched to using Macs in 2001. Which was great because I could just tell everyone I knew who used Windows "oh sorry, I use Macs.. I really have no idea". This worked pretty well until about 2007 when my parents finally got a Mac. On the plus side, stuff usually just works for them now, so it's not really a big deal.
That most geeks are the problem in that situation. Geeks in general seem to have less social skills and social graces than most people. They also seem to get a bit big-headed about their abilities and computers in general. Their attitude is "You should know that," and "RTFM noob." They feel put upon and act like martyrs when someone has the audacity to ask them for help.
Well guess what? Act like that and it shouldn't be a surprise people aren't so nice. Even if you do help them, if you are abusive about it they don't feel like you really did them much of a favour.
I'm not saying that geeks are always the ones at fault here, but I think it is more often than not. When you are nice and polite, help when you can, say no nicely and explain why when you can't, people are nice back. I've had good luck with that in general, and not just with family.
Some time ago I had a roommate who was a plumber. I helped him with his laptop. Old piece of shit, ran really poorly. While I couldn't make it great, I made it better. Took a fair bit of work, probably 4-6 hours of my time and really isn't worth it for something that old when you get down to it, at least had I billed him. However I did it to be nice. In turn, I got a lot of minor plumbing problems fixed. Heck he redid my kitchen drain without asking or charging for the parts (which were only like $10), he noticed it was rusting out and would be a problem in the future, and since it was cheap and simple he just did it.
Really it is on you to be the nice open one with people. If they are jerks, then you cut them off and stop helping. But you can't expect people to come and lavish help on you and only then do you open up to them. Be nice and friendly, you'll find many people are back.
My son's orthodontist office called me in a panic one afternoon: "Can you fix our network, like, today?" Long story short, I now handle whatever computer or networking problems they have in barter for my boy's braces. I'm thrilled to death to get a price break on their services and they feel the same way. It's a great arrangement that I hope to continue for a long time.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?