>You now see that (wellll, lets say) 60 percent of the longer English words are derived from french. Which isn't strange at all, if you know your history.
I'm sorry, but I still think english is much more of a gestalt than you lead me to believe. And I think the phrontistery would agree with me on that.
>Surely you've heard of "theft of services"? Such as tapping into cable TV?
Yes. I have heard of that. But, AFAIK, that isn't what the plaintiff is charged with. I can't help it if newspapers use the wrong language. If I was to listen to newspapers, hackers would be people who like to crack into military bases to see how many nukes they can launch at the white house.
>Also, why *are* you so concerned with distinguishing theft from copyright infringment? >Do you think one is a crime and the other not?
Yes. And so did my country until a few months ago. Technically, 10% of all Canadians are now liable for thousands of dollars of charges and years of jail time, but the RCMP has (intelligently) decided not to raise a public uproar by filling the courts with another 3 million cases overnight.
>Even if you were right, you would have no defense in either civil or criminal court.
No. Well, no until a few months ago. Let me explain something to you, something you'll find very interesting:
Piracy, or copyright violation, or "theft of service" (*ugggh*) of American television in Canada was legal and well supported here in Canada until a few months ago. There were many brick and mortar stores in my city alone selling pirate equiment to anyone who walks in (Police, RCMP, CSIS, CRTC, it didn't matter). If copyright violation were theft these stores would have been shut down before you can say "Oh crap!". But because it ain't, they couldn't. That's the number 1 reason why I have a problem against the misnomer that is "theft of services".
I won't get into the morality of the above unless you choose to bring it up.
>FWIW I *am* a lawyer, and you'd have trouble finding even a first-year law student who'd not agree.
Excellent, a lawyer. In that case you'll enjoy reading the Radio Communications act of Canada, paragraph 9(1)(c). Let me know if you can find the word theft there. I hope our country's case helps clear the air on why copyright violation isn't theft.
Thanks.
And if you're wondering why it's now illegal for Canadians to watch American satellite signals, it's because the Supreme Court re-read the word "authorized" to mean authorized in any country in the world, not just Canada, on the strong impetus of Bell ExpressVu, LLC, who have been losing money on their service since day one not due to piracy, but due to lack of sales caused by piracy of American signals.
I suppose there's a chance you guys have a completely differeny set of copyright laws, infact a totally different set of laws on everything, God knows what they could be after the DMCA, patriot act, and homeland security act.
>Oh, and the gold-fringed flag thing is a hallucination. I worked for one of these alleged military courts, and believe me it ain't so. You'll assume I'm the part of a conspiracy, but I challenge you to find any legal authority for your claim.
Hey man, I said, I'm not American. I trust your courts aren't as the (many) webpages lead me to believe. But, the truth is, it doesn't matter much (to me), since I doubt I'll ever be tried in one (thank God, again).
My personal favourite is NLX becuase it's been around the longest, and you could have built a box thinner than these Shuttle PCs a few years ago with it (but that's what happens when you don't market, market, market!).
I guess that's why I just don't get worked up about small PCs. To me they're OLD news. And hard to work inside. I have a half-emply full-tower case for a reason...:-)
>PS why does a motherboard have to be flat? Why not L-shaped?
No reason other than (possibly) longer traces, which at today's speeds could be a bad thing. Not to mention it's usually a bit of a waste of space.
>Seriously, how many of you are going to buy a printer tomorrow that is parellel-only?
Ohh, so that's what that's there for. I always thought it was the quick-hack port for your electronic projects. It's a real bummer when I don't have one of these on my machine.
>Similarly for the serial port. These ports are only there to support older hardware for those too uncreative to go find dongles if they're stuck with crufty old hardware.
Damn. Well, if it weren't for the recent change in the laws in Canada, I'd have said these were for hacking Satellite TV. Ho hum...
>One serious advantage of, say, an iBook over a comparable PC laptop is that the designers were free to be more creative because they weren't stuck with a bunch of zillion-pin garbage sticking out the back of the computer.
Yeah, that's one of the main reasons I don't have any Apple hardware in my house. I just can't hook much of my stuff up to it! Not to mention I wouldn't be able to laugh at how Apple thinks PC machines do nothing but "beep!BOOP!beep!beep!". Having to use a USB to PS/2 dongle for my external keyboard on my PC laptop is pain enough! Using an Apple would simply complicate my life beyond belief.
Click. Probably available at Best Buy (for sure available at Future Shop, maybe even RadioShack/Tandy).
You will want to check what type of connector these have, and wether or not it will accept a simple composite signal. This person may have some info for you.
>So, when I was at school, I got on my ftp then realized I had saved it as a native OpenOffice document, so I was unable to add my name - and I lost points.
Using Open Office -- Free. Asking the nice ladies in the Library if you can use their Typewriter -- Priceless.
Just a friendly suggestion as to what you can try next time this happens.
Suggestion: You can find out more by asking the "You've got questions, we've got blank stares" salesclerks. They are actually overqualified for this question, but I'm sure they can take a moment out of this busy stereo and computer selling season to help you for a moment. Or you could simply Ask Google next time.
Either of these should get your answer much faster than Ask Slashdot.:-)
While as a non-American I'm certainly not qualified to disagree, why put the fringe there and annoy so many conspiracy theorists? It doesn't make a lot of sense to leave it there if it is to serve no other purpose than to waste government money.
Again, the non-physical definition refers to the actual right to call the item yours. ie: The right to put your name on a project. It is theft if I download an MP3 by the Beatles and rename it to say "By: shepd". However, I didn't see anything in there that says it's theft if I'm simply in posession of the unmodified MP3.
>Copyright myths dispelled [templetons.com]
Contains no references to "theft".
>The actual law [cornell.edu]
For the US. Outside, this is much more likely to be it. The original Berne convention mentions no references to theft. I don't know about this revision.
Anyways, the last few aren't exactly legal help sites, so I'll say this:
I think it still stands that downloading music from KaZaa is infact copyright violation, and not theft. But IANAL, so YMMV.
>You know what they say about people who represents themselves in a court of law?
An intelligent person? Too bad that technically most all courts in the US are now military courts (look for the gold-fringed flags), and in a military court you really do need help.
>Environmental science is hardcore - it requires chemistry, biology, earth science AND a specialised series of courses. I picked the university of sydney at random (high google page rank,) but the requirements are similar here at Columbia.
Ahh, thanks. The lack of business studies would explain why it is that I tend to ignore most environmental scientists. Thanks for the tip! I will now admit that Environmental Scientists know more than I think they do...
Maybe they should add some business courses in, though, then ES students would actually be able to convince people they are right, rather than being regarded as environmental nuts by people like me! Of course, being that they've taken these business courses I would expect their solutions to be far more realistic than the ones normally presented (The Kyoto protocol being a prime example of what happens when people with no business knowledge at all come together to create a solution) Oh well... Maybe in the future, one can only hope.
>Do you think they would take that mecury I snuck out of the "1 mole sample" bottle (now about.8 moles) in high school??
Why go to that kind of trouble when you only need to open up some old (and even new) manual heating adjusters?
There's piles of mercury level switches sitting around, and I'm sure many of them get thrown in the trash without anyone knowing the implications of it. (The last one I checked didn't even mention it contained mercury, although it clearly did).
>That may be a good paying job in that region of the world but that doens't mean he's gonna have a nice apartment and big SUV and a playstation 2.
If we're comparing the IA worker to the CA worker:
CA Worker: Small Apartment near a busy street with cars honking all day and driving him nuts. Has to use a atupid underground parking lot with a "Maximum Headroom" sign that has scraped the roof of his SUV raw. Has to deal with pollution and crime. Had his PS2 stolen 2 months ago because he forgot to double-lock his apartment.
IA Worker: Lives in a 3,000 sq. ft. bungalow in the 'burbs on a 1 acre lot, with about 1 car an hour passing his house. Can turn up the stereo to full volume without getting police knocking. Enjoys driving his monster BigFoot truck to Monster Truck rallies, and never has to park underground. Doesn't have to worry about environmentalists telling him he can't build and drive his truck in his state. Breathes clean air and doesn't risk getting mugged when he steps into the "bad side" of town (named so because someone died under suspicious circumstances there 5 years ago, but the case is still unsolved).
So, who's better off?
Now, as far as the Chinese worker goes, that's a little different. For one thing they live under an oppressive government (more-so than the US, no matter what Americans think about their country). It would take more money than the CA worker makes to get the Chinese person's head above the guillotine.
Please don't do this unless the machine is good enough to use (and, if it is, why would you give it away?)
At my college we actually pay $6 per garbage monitor thrown at us to get rid of the trash. If these had come with machines, I bet the bill would be $12 each.
Thank God we haven't received any mainframes yet...
I think the big point is that the cheapest PDAs get used the most. Why? Because when you buy one for $50, it ain't cool enough to be a status symbol, so you must have bought it to use it.
Now, people who buy those $500 macro-computer type PDAs, they're usually just big penis extensions.
>What to do? Write them off and blacklist them? Refuse to return their computer? Refuse to give the BIOS boot password until payment clears? I don't know. Customer service sucks in any sector.
My solution is to tell them that's the bill. If they refuse to pay it, put them down as a bad debt (good for your taxes), call collections, get your 10%, and if they ever ask for work again, tell them it's cash first.
Fortunately, I haven't come across that yet, but that's my solution. I expect it will happen, though, as when I open my shop I'll be getting people from all walks of life. But hey, that's just the way it goes. Gotta roll with the punches, you know.
>Ghost would have helped, but let's be honest here -- do you ghost every system before you try to work on it, just in case? Especially when reading through all the warnings and seeing nothing?
No, I don't ghost them all. But I'm usually pretty careful with the NT based OSe and drivers... they can be pretty fragile when things go wrong. (ie: Unrecoverable). Sorry to hear about your tough luck. Could have happened to me. Oh well...:-(
>I think that is why I steer clear of Win32 service work in general: Under Linux, I can get to the bottom of it and fix it; There is nothing stopping me or blocking me. With Windows, there's always a layer or three of secrecy and hidden gotchas, no matter how long you've been in the business. I
'Tis true. But depending on the line of work you want to do, not working with windows can seriously limit your business opportunities (I prefer to work with individuals with home computers).
Oh hey, I have no problems with a WAP-based solution, it's just that it's probably cheaper just to setup the computer to do the dialing itself, although it can be more of a hassle.
What I said there should work for any windows computer running IE 6 (IE 5.x is similar, but the menus are different). So, basically, if you update the computer, and they are using 98/ME/2k/XP you can set it up like this.
But the airport solution is nice in that you get "free" internet sharing and one-time plug and play style set-up (assuming it is similar to most other WAP/router combos) that doesn't need to be repaired each time the OS is updated, or the computer "fixed". Although I always like the occasional time I get to convince someone to let me set them up a linux-based router box instead.:-)
>I'm all for companies clamping down HARD on people that make and sell illegal products which have the sole purpose of leeching off the success of those who actually do the legitimate, hard, creative work.
After reading what you've said, I still fail to see where these products should be illegal.
Suggesting modchips should be illegal because they may be used to pirate is silly. Turning it around you're saying that someone with the skill to reverse-engineer a system and make money doing it doesn't deserve to do it because a coder might get discouraged in making software. Funny thing is, this might be a good thing. Pressure needs to be put on what is clearly a broken system (the current model of software sales) to change it into a system that can generate money without limiting the rights of others to make money (hey, I'm not an economist, just a realist, I don't know how to fix the problem).
You know what, this happens in a lot of other industries. Example: 3rd party car parts. Guess what, when you buy one of these, your car company "loses" a sale, even though they originally put the effort in to develop the product. But you don't see anyone whining about that, however the effects of these third party parts is identical to the effects of a 3rd party modchip being used to pirate software: The original developer of a product (may) make less money.
Fortunately, we don't have laws that give people a right to make money in any capitalist country (beats me about China, though).
I'm all for companies making it easier for smart people to make a living by designing products that benefit the consumer.
Oh, here's an interesting fact: Chips that break console security actually _increase_ the diversity in software. Look up info about Tengen and their clone lockout chip. And, of course, the break Tengen had allowed all sorts of cool things. Camerica's Game Genie being one of them, IIRC, and another being cool things like clone Nintendos (pushing the price of the "real thing" back down to earth, and adding cool addons, like keyboards), and "1e6 in 1" game cartridges with 16 of each game using different colour palettes (all stupid, crappy games that totally sucked, for which the developers were the ones originally ripping off the consumers).
But, alas, people usually only think in the small, short term, which is developers getting the squeeze, and not the long term, which is competition and overall coolness.
(Start IE) --> Tools --> Internet Options --> Connection --> (Select a VPN/Dial Up connection) --> Always Dial my Default Connection --> OK.
Should take under 2 minutes over the phone if they know how to use a GUI, and happen to be using windows. Which they probably won't (know how to use a GUI, that is), unfortunately. ["I clicked the menu and now it says "Programs, Help, Shut Down, and stuff"].
>You run in to the "$foo worked before you fixed $bar, so you should now fix $foo for free since it was your fault." You run in to the "You said it'd work if I did this, but that busted this that and the other" and you're now in for free work. You run in to the "I just need to update driver $foo. So you do and Win2k now bluescreens and you can't get it booted again, and realize that the guy's SCSI drives don't work no more, and you now have 8 hours in to a fix that you can only bill for 2" scenario. These are all real-world examples from working at a computer store.
Secrets from the "been there, done that" file:
- Warn the customer ahead of time that you may need to take the machine away for the night (it's never been a problem for me). Fix it while watching TV and enjoying Pizza + Pepsi.
- Calmly explain that $foo works better than $bar, and that they don't need it anymore [Case in point: A customer that had an old copy of Sympatico and wanted it installed -- ie: install Netscape 4.x. I simply explained to them that IE 6 would do everything they wanted, they were happy, I was happy, and no angry calls).
- If you have _any_ bad feelings that what you're doing could be dangerous (ie: Driver/BIOS updates of any kind) tell the customer that the bill might be big.
- Tell the customer to buy some less-than-shitty hardware rather than go through the ordeal of making their old crap work. This always works well because if they don't buy it, they know they can't blame you. [Another real-life example: Customer wants their PC upgraded to WinXP. Customer owns Artec scaner. I simply explained to them that Artec no longer supports their scanners, and that they would have to run it under compatibility mode, which is dangerous. They've decided to shop for another scanner.]
- If the machine is ancient, explain there's just not much you can do for it, and see above advice.
- When in doubt, USE GHOST!
In the end, just remember to warn them about anything. That's all customers want, is the comfort of being able to guess the maximum amount of their bill, and to end up with a working system.
These tips have always worked for me.
That's it -- enough free advice for one night.
>Working for the general public is a whore's job, no matter what delusions of wealth you assign it. The people who work that sector make every penny.
Well, thank you very much.:-) Nice to be appreciated.
Charge $20 a hour. Turn your hobby into a business. Make money and enjoy it. Charge much more when you have the brick and mortar (Prices up to $60 an hour should be no problem). Lather, rinse, repeat.
The best part is, if you're careful about it, you never have to advertise (all I do is pass my business cards to the right people). My "on the side" (but still reported to the tax-man) earnings have surpassed my part-time job, to the point where I have to be careful with my time so that I can squeeze that last few months of college in before I go full-time (I may need to quit my "real" job shortly). All you need to do is find something you can do that most others (including your fellow techs) can't do. One of my specialties is modchip installations. Once your specialty is known, you'll get jobs for it, and all the usual stuff will fall into place too (fixing DUN, virus/ad-software removal, building computers, building home networks, cabling, satellite installs, etc. for me).
Nothing beats a self started business. And yes, I will work Christmas evening - that's when people want to pay me the most (I can already see the multi-digit tips -- thanks for that goodwill cheer!). I just can't "open" the store that day (stupid laws).:-)
You know, for all the complaining I do about windows, it _does_ ensure I've got a steady job.
Maybe I shouldn't be giving away the keys to growing your own home business to everyone on slashdot. I really don't need any more competition.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
>You now see that (wellll, lets say) 60 percent of the longer English words are derived from french. Which isn't strange at all, if you know your history.
I'm sorry, but I still think english is much more of a gestalt than you lead me to believe. And I think the phrontistery would agree with me on that.
Try this search.
You'd be surprised at how many letter a's in a row there are in some pages...
And no Logan's Run jokes?
Maybe carousel came early this year.
>Surely you've heard of "theft of services"? Such as tapping into cable TV?
Yes. I have heard of that. But, AFAIK, that isn't what the plaintiff is charged with. I can't help it if newspapers use the wrong language. If I was to listen to newspapers, hackers would be people who like to crack into military bases to see how many nukes they can launch at the white house.
>Also, why *are* you so concerned with distinguishing theft from copyright infringment?
>Do you think one is a crime and the other not?
Yes. And so did my country until a few months ago. Technically, 10% of all Canadians are now liable for thousands of dollars of charges and years of jail time, but the RCMP has (intelligently) decided not to raise a public uproar by filling the courts with another 3 million cases overnight.
>Even if you were right, you would have no defense in either civil or criminal court.
No. Well, no until a few months ago. Let me explain something to you, something you'll find very interesting:
Piracy, or copyright violation, or "theft of service" (*ugggh*) of American television in Canada was legal and well supported here in Canada until a few months ago. There were many brick and mortar stores in my city alone selling pirate equiment to anyone who walks in (Police, RCMP, CSIS, CRTC, it didn't matter). If copyright violation were theft these stores would have been shut down before you can say "Oh crap!". But because it ain't, they couldn't. That's the number 1 reason why I have a problem against the misnomer that is "theft of services".
I won't get into the morality of the above unless you choose to bring it up.
>FWIW I *am* a lawyer, and you'd have trouble finding even a first-year law student who'd not agree.
Excellent, a lawyer. In that case you'll enjoy reading the Radio Communications act of Canada, paragraph 9(1)(c). Let me know if you can find the word theft there. I hope our country's case helps clear the air on why copyright violation isn't theft.
Thanks.
And if you're wondering why it's now illegal for Canadians to watch American satellite signals, it's because the Supreme Court re-read the word "authorized" to mean authorized in any country in the world, not just Canada, on the strong impetus of Bell ExpressVu, LLC, who have been losing money on their service since day one not due to piracy, but due to lack of sales caused by piracy of American signals.
I suppose there's a chance you guys have a completely differeny set of copyright laws, infact a totally different set of laws on everything, God knows what they could be after the DMCA, patriot act, and homeland security act.
>Oh, and the gold-fringed flag thing is a hallucination. I worked for one of these alleged military courts, and believe me it ain't so. You'll assume I'm the part of a conspiracy, but I challenge you to find any legal authority for your claim.
Hey man, I said, I'm not American. I trust your courts aren't as the (many) webpages lead me to believe. But, the truth is, it doesn't matter much (to me), since I doubt I'll ever be tried in one (thank God, again).
Here you go. (warning: pop-up hell alert!)
:-)
My personal favourite is NLX becuase it's been around the longest, and you could have built a box thinner than these Shuttle PCs a few years ago with it (but that's what happens when you don't market, market, market!).
I guess that's why I just don't get worked up about small PCs. To me they're OLD news. And hard to work inside. I have a half-emply full-tower case for a reason...
>PS why does a motherboard have to be flat? Why not L-shaped?
No reason other than (possibly) longer traces, which at today's speeds could be a bad thing. Not to mention it's usually a bit of a waste of space.
>Seriously, how many of you are going to buy a printer tomorrow that is parellel-only?
Ohh, so that's what that's there for. I always thought it was the quick-hack port for your electronic projects. It's a real bummer when I don't have one of these on my machine.
>Similarly for the serial port. These ports are only there to support older hardware for those too uncreative to go find dongles if they're stuck with crufty old hardware.
Damn. Well, if it weren't for the recent change in the laws in Canada, I'd have said these were for hacking Satellite TV. Ho hum...
>One serious advantage of, say, an iBook over a comparable PC laptop is that the designers were free to be more creative because they weren't stuck with a bunch of zillion-pin garbage sticking out the back of the computer.
Yeah, that's one of the main reasons I don't have any Apple hardware in my house. I just can't hook much of my stuff up to it! Not to mention I wouldn't be able to laugh at how Apple thinks PC machines do nothing but "beep!BOOP!beep!beep!". Having to use a USB to PS/2 dongle for my external keyboard on my PC laptop is pain enough! Using an Apple would simply complicate my life beyond belief.
Click. Probably available at Best Buy (for sure available at Future Shop, maybe even RadioShack/Tandy).
You will want to check what type of connector these have, and wether or not it will accept a simple composite signal. This person may have some info for you.
>So, when I was at school, I got on my ftp then realized I had saved it as a native OpenOffice document, so I was unable to add my name - and I lost points.
Using Open Office -- Free.
Asking the nice ladies in the Library if you can use their Typewriter -- Priceless.
Just a friendly suggestion as to what you can try next time this happens.
Best.
:-)
Cheapest
This + Call Forwarding = Easiest.
Suggestion: You can find out more by asking the "You've got questions, we've got blank stares" salesclerks. They are actually overqualified for this question, but I'm sure they can take a moment out of this busy stereo and computer selling season to help you for a moment. Or you could simply Ask Google next time.
Either of these should get your answer much faster than Ask Slashdot.
HTH.
While as a non-American I'm certainly not qualified to disagree, why put the fringe there and annoy so many conspiracy theorists? It doesn't make a lot of sense to leave it there if it is to serve no other purpose than to waste government money.
>Now we should figure some way to link Ralsky with Al-Quaeda and the War on Terror will take care of the rest.
When you spam so many people with offers to sell them a university education, what's to say he hasn't already violated the trading with the enemy act?
>Legal definition of property [lectlaw.com]
Again, the non-physical definition refers to the actual right to call the item yours. ie: The right to put your name on a project. It is theft if I download an MP3 by the Beatles and rename it to say "By: shepd". However, I didn't see anything in there that says it's theft if I'm simply in posession of the unmodified MP3.
>Copyright myths dispelled [templetons.com]
Contains no references to "theft".
>The actual law [cornell.edu]
For the US. Outside, this is much more likely to be it. The original Berne convention mentions no references to theft. I don't know about this revision.
Anyways, the last few aren't exactly legal help sites, so I'll say this:
I think it still stands that downloading music from KaZaa is infact copyright violation, and not theft. But IANAL, so YMMV.
>You know what they say about people who represents themselves in a court of law?
An intelligent person? Too bad that technically most all courts in the US are now military courts (look for the gold-fringed flags), and in a military court you really do need help.
>Environmental science is hardcore - it requires chemistry, biology, earth science AND a specialised series of courses. I picked the university of sydney at random (high google page rank,) but the requirements are similar here at Columbia.
Ahh, thanks. The lack of business studies would explain why it is that I tend to ignore most environmental scientists. Thanks for the tip! I will now admit that Environmental Scientists know more than I think they do...
Maybe they should add some business courses in, though, then ES students would actually be able to convince people they are right, rather than being regarded as environmental nuts by people like me! Of course, being that they've taken these business courses I would expect their solutions to be far more realistic than the ones normally presented (The Kyoto protocol being a prime example of what happens when people with no business knowledge at all come together to create a solution) Oh well... Maybe in the future, one can only hope.
>Do you think they would take that mecury I snuck out of the "1 mole sample" bottle (now about .8 moles) in high school??
Why go to that kind of trouble when you only need to open up some old (and even new) manual heating adjusters?
There's piles of mercury level switches sitting around, and I'm sure many of them get thrown in the trash without anyone knowing the implications of it. (The last one I checked didn't even mention it contained mercury, although it clearly did).
>That may be a good paying job in that region of the world but that doens't mean he's gonna have a nice apartment and big SUV and a playstation 2.
If we're comparing the IA worker to the CA worker:
CA Worker: Small Apartment near a busy street with cars honking all day and driving him nuts. Has to use a atupid underground parking lot with a "Maximum Headroom" sign that has scraped the roof of his SUV raw. Has to deal with pollution and crime. Had his PS2 stolen 2 months ago because he forgot to double-lock his apartment.
IA Worker: Lives in a 3,000 sq. ft. bungalow in the 'burbs on a 1 acre lot, with about 1 car an hour passing his house. Can turn up the stereo to full volume without getting police knocking. Enjoys driving his monster BigFoot truck to Monster Truck rallies, and never has to park underground. Doesn't have to worry about environmentalists telling him he can't build and drive his truck in his state. Breathes clean air and doesn't risk getting mugged when he steps into the "bad side" of town (named so because someone died under suspicious circumstances there 5 years ago, but the case is still unsolved).
So, who's better off?
Now, as far as the Chinese worker goes, that's a little different. For one thing they live under an oppressive government (more-so than the US, no matter what Americans think about their country). It would take more money than the CA worker makes to get the Chinese person's head above the guillotine.
>Your argument is basically that 99.9% of environmental scientists are totally off in thinking that chemicals getting dumped is a bad thing.
My argument is that 99.9% of environmental scientists are neither chemical nor physical engineers.
>Give it to a school. Get the tax rebate.
Please don't do this unless the machine is good enough to use (and, if it is, why would you give it away?)
At my college we actually pay $6 per garbage monitor thrown at us to get rid of the trash. If these had come with machines, I bet the bill would be $12 each.
Thank God we haven't received any mainframes yet...
What a broken site! I don't even use a popup blocker on this machine and it is saying I do.
I accuse them of being liars.
I think the big point is that the cheapest PDAs get used the most. Why? Because when you buy one for $50, it ain't cool enough to be a status symbol, so you must have bought it to use it.
Now, people who buy those $500 macro-computer type PDAs, they're usually just big penis extensions.
>What to do? Write them off and blacklist them? Refuse to return their computer? Refuse to give the BIOS boot password until payment clears? I don't know. Customer service sucks in any sector.
:-(
My solution is to tell them that's the bill. If they refuse to pay it, put them down as a bad debt (good for your taxes), call collections, get your 10%, and if they ever ask for work again, tell them it's cash first.
Fortunately, I haven't come across that yet, but that's my solution. I expect it will happen, though, as when I open my shop I'll be getting people from all walks of life. But hey, that's just the way it goes. Gotta roll with the punches, you know.
>Ghost would have helped, but let's be honest here -- do you ghost every system before you try to work on it, just in case? Especially when reading through all the warnings and seeing nothing?
No, I don't ghost them all. But I'm usually pretty careful with the NT based OSe and drivers... they can be pretty fragile when things go wrong. (ie: Unrecoverable). Sorry to hear about your tough luck. Could have happened to me. Oh well...
>I think that is why I steer clear of Win32 service work in general: Under Linux, I can get to the bottom of it and fix it; There is nothing stopping me or blocking me. With Windows, there's always a layer or three of secrecy and hidden gotchas, no matter how long you've been in the business. I
'Tis true. But depending on the line of work you want to do, not working with windows can seriously limit your business opportunities (I prefer to work with individuals with home computers).
Oh hey, I have no problems with a WAP-based solution, it's just that it's probably cheaper just to setup the computer to do the dialing itself, although it can be more of a hassle.
:-)
...Not?
What I said there should work for any windows computer running IE 6 (IE 5.x is similar, but the menus are different). So, basically, if you update the computer, and they are using 98/ME/2k/XP you can set it up like this.
But the airport solution is nice in that you get "free" internet sharing and one-time plug and play style set-up (assuming it is similar to most other WAP/router combos) that doesn't need to be repaired each time the OS is updated, or the computer "fixed". Although I always like the occasional time I get to convince someone to let me set them up a linux-based router box instead.
>Y
>I'm all for companies clamping down HARD on people that make and sell illegal products which have the sole purpose of leeching off the success of those who actually do the legitimate, hard, creative work.
After reading what you've said, I still fail to see where these products should be illegal.
Suggesting modchips should be illegal because they may be used to pirate is silly. Turning it around you're saying that someone with the skill to reverse-engineer a system and make money doing it doesn't deserve to do it because a coder might get discouraged in making software. Funny thing is, this might be a good thing. Pressure needs to be put on what is clearly a broken system (the current model of software sales) to change it into a system that can generate money without limiting the rights of others to make money (hey, I'm not an economist, just a realist, I don't know how to fix the problem).
You know what, this happens in a lot of other industries. Example: 3rd party car parts. Guess what, when you buy one of these, your car company "loses" a sale, even though they originally put the effort in to develop the product. But you don't see anyone whining about that, however the effects of these third party parts is identical to the effects of a 3rd party modchip being used to pirate software: The original developer of a product (may) make less money.
Fortunately, we don't have laws that give people a right to make money in any capitalist country (beats me about China, though).
I'm all for companies making it easier for smart people to make a living by designing products that benefit the consumer.
Oh, here's an interesting fact: Chips that break console security actually _increase_ the diversity in software. Look up info about Tengen and their clone lockout chip. And, of course, the break Tengen had allowed all sorts of cool things. Camerica's Game Genie being one of them, IIRC, and another being cool things like clone Nintendos (pushing the price of the "real thing" back down to earth, and adding cool addons, like keyboards), and "1e6 in 1" game cartridges with 16 of each game using different colour palettes (all stupid, crappy games that totally sucked, for which the developers were the ones originally ripping off the consumers).
But, alas, people usually only think in the small, short term, which is developers getting the squeeze, and not the long term, which is competition and overall coolness.
Just my 2 cents.
Solution:
(Start IE) --> Tools --> Internet Options --> Connection --> (Select a VPN/Dial Up connection) --> Always Dial my Default Connection --> OK.
Should take under 2 minutes over the phone if they know how to use a GUI, and happen to be using windows. Which they probably won't (know how to use a GUI, that is), unfortunately. ["I clicked the menu and now it says "Programs, Help, Shut Down, and stuff"].
Or did I read your problem incorrectly?
>You run in to the "$foo worked before you fixed $bar, so you should now fix $foo for free since it was your fault." You run in to the "You said it'd work if I did this, but that busted this that and the other" and you're now in for free work. You run in to the "I just need to update driver $foo. So you do and Win2k now bluescreens and you can't get it booted again, and realize that the guy's SCSI drives don't work no more, and you now have 8 hours in to a fix that you can only bill for 2" scenario. These are all real-world examples from working at a computer store.
:-) Nice to be appreciated.
Secrets from the "been there, done that" file:
- Warn the customer ahead of time that you may need to take the machine away for the night (it's never been a problem for me). Fix it while watching TV and enjoying Pizza + Pepsi.
- Calmly explain that $foo works better than $bar, and that they don't need it anymore [Case in point: A customer that had an old copy of Sympatico and wanted it installed -- ie: install Netscape 4.x. I simply explained to them that IE 6 would do everything they wanted, they were happy, I was happy, and no angry calls).
- If you have _any_ bad feelings that what you're doing could be dangerous (ie: Driver/BIOS updates of any kind) tell the customer that the bill might be big.
- Tell the customer to buy some less-than-shitty hardware rather than go through the ordeal of making their old crap work. This always works well because if they don't buy it, they know they can't blame you. [Another real-life example: Customer wants their PC upgraded to WinXP. Customer owns Artec scaner. I simply explained to them that Artec no longer supports their scanners, and that they would have to run it under compatibility mode, which is dangerous. They've decided to shop for another scanner.]
- If the machine is ancient, explain there's just not much you can do for it, and see above advice.
- When in doubt, USE GHOST!
In the end, just remember to warn them about anything. That's all customers want, is the comfort of being able to guess the maximum amount of their bill, and to end up with a working system.
These tips have always worked for me.
That's it -- enough free advice for one night.
>Working for the general public is a whore's job, no matter what delusions of wealth you assign it. The people who work that sector make every penny.
Well, thank you very much.
I like my solution:
:-)
;-)
Charge $20 a hour. Turn your hobby into a business. Make money and enjoy it. Charge much more when you have the brick and mortar (Prices up to $60 an hour should be no problem). Lather, rinse, repeat.
The best part is, if you're careful about it, you never have to advertise (all I do is pass my business cards to the right people). My "on the side" (but still reported to the tax-man) earnings have surpassed my part-time job, to the point where I have to be careful with my time so that I can squeeze that last few months of college in before I go full-time (I may need to quit my "real" job shortly). All you need to do is find something you can do that most others (including your fellow techs) can't do. One of my specialties is modchip installations. Once your specialty is known, you'll get jobs for it, and all the usual stuff will fall into place too (fixing DUN, virus/ad-software removal, building computers, building home networks, cabling, satellite installs, etc. for me).
Nothing beats a self started business. And yes, I will work Christmas evening - that's when people want to pay me the most (I can already see the multi-digit tips -- thanks for that goodwill cheer!). I just can't "open" the store that day (stupid laws).
You know, for all the complaining I do about windows, it _does_ ensure I've got a steady job.
Maybe I shouldn't be giving away the keys to growing your own home business to everyone on slashdot. I really don't need any more competition.