posted
Yea, my Windows experience has been great. XP has been crash-free for me.
-------------------- "One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings." -- Diogenes
"Vote Republican! We won't burn you at the stake for your religious beliefs or slaughter your family and steal your land." -- Ramblin' Dave Posts: 3555 | From: Florida | Registered: Feb 2002
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ComicBookGeek
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
posted
quote:Originally posted by abbubmah: I have developed a reputation for being able to work on (and sometimes fix!) just about anything. So, I get calls all the time for this kind of stuff, and yes, they are "do you know why I can't print/connect to the internet/click on this icon over here?" type stuff.
And it doesn't stop with computers... (note - the following HAVE HAPPENED):
"we can't get any pressure here" - open the valves. "can you run us some new phone lines?" - ip phones, I MUST know how to work on them "we have an EMERGENCY, come NOW" - TV not working "it goes nuts when I do this" - don't do that "can you tell us why this temperature is too high?" - yeah, your equipment is ON FIRE "I can't get anything to run" - press the START button
But the computer stuff - I don't work in IT, everything is limited accounts, but I get "you are a hacker, you have to know a way to do it!" then they get mad when I tell them to call somebody else.
You reminded me of something I didn't mention...
Years ago (early-to-mid 90s), my brother-in-law actually called me to help him install something (over the phone. I was only 14 and I lived on the other side of the city) and pretty much had me walk him step-by-step.
The kicker? At this point in time, I had never OWNED a computer and meerly played Doom on my nephew's computer, after recognizing it as a game I had played in the computer lab at school.
posted
I've used Microsoft OS's ever since I started several years ago and I've had very little problems. Every problem I have had, I've been able to fix myself with not a lot of trouble.
I actually started on DOS so that sometimes comes in handy during OMFG problems like Windows no worky anymore.
More importantly, when I encounter a problem I haven't seen before, I know where to start looking to find a solution for it and am able to make a rough diagnosis as to what is causing the problem.
Now my own story: I sold a computer on ebay about 2 years ago. In the listing I made it very very clear that this computer had a wiped hard drive, no OS and I would not provide tech support in any way shape or form.
I still had a guy call me(interrupting my Sunday breakfast no less) wanting me to walk him through installing XP on his machine.
After 2 hours of trying to walk him through it I finally told him to send me the PC and the disk and I would install it and send it back to him. He said, "Oh I'll just pay someone to do it"
quote:Originally posted by Lainie: I wish I knew what's made your Windows experience different from mine, Signora. I've had Windows PCs at home for about 10 years, and I've had problem after problem that was Windows-based. Maybe I would have had the same problem wih Macs, but at this point I'm willing to give them a try. And I was a diehard PC user for years.
I should probably knock on wood while I "say" this, but I've had no major problem with any version of Windows I've ever used (from 3.1 up through XP), although, like glisp, I know how to use DOS to fix it when things do go wrong (caused by me dinking around with things, usually). Last year about this time, a friend of mine spent about four months trying to get his Mac back up after some kind of crash. It amused me quite a bit to ask him "How reliable are Macs again?" Although, really, I could not care less what OS a person wants to use - they all have their advantages and disadvantages, IMHO.
posted
The latest "dinking around" that caused a problem with my Windows was my plugging in an older monitor when mine died.
-------------------- How homophobic do you have to be to have penguin gaydar? - Lewis Black Posts: 8322 | From: Columbus, OH | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by htonl: Would they go to a mechanic without bringing their car and ask "Why isn't my carburettor working?"
Yeah, they do : : (husband is a mechanic) My mom tried to get me to tell her, over the phone, how to make a business card and how to get it to print several cards to a page, when she couldn't tell me what program she was using. I told her to try highlighting what she'd already typed and copy/paste it she said "how do I copy paste?"
oy
on the hijack: I hadn't had problems with any Windows until my daughter threw my Programs File folder into the trashbin (she said she was bored). Luckily all I had to do was fish it out again, but after that it had weird program association problems.
ETA: I had monitor problems too for awhile, flickring screen. thought it was a faulty monitor. Turns out all I needed was an updated driver. Monitor works great now!
-------------------- "Long ago, when we all lived in the forest..." Who are you? Who? Who? Posts: 1587 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I visited my father for Christmas (with him an atheist and me a pagan but hey) and as usual there were computer problems to fix but he excelled himself this time. He wants me to recover data from a failed hard drive that belongs to a charity who have no backups and the local PC world store has already tried and failed.
I am expert in the run time systems of certain programming languages, debugging in assembler and reverse engineering malware. This is the first time that I have ever held a SATA drive in my hands. This should be fun.
Blues
Posts: 207 | From: Woolhampton, Berks, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I fix my parents', ex-wife's, and friends' computers all the time. It doesn't really bother me, since no one is ever pushy about when it gets done. I enjoy doing that kind of work, so rarely will I say no to someone asking me.
If I had someone telling me when to be there and what-not, then I'd probably be ticked, and tell them my fee as suggested earlier in the thread.
posted
I worked as an EMT for two years and I still get medical questions. I do NOT want to see your boil, and how the hell am I supposed to know if your mole looks cancerous?!?!
My new statement is "I'm a former EMT, I know how to dial 911."
-------------------- Never eat anything given to you by a toddler. Posts: 258 | From: Rochester, NY | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Dude, I think this thread jinxed me. Windows locked up twice in the last day. On the other hand, I've already traced it to a hardware error, so it's still not Windows fault.
-------------------- "One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings." -- Diogenes
"Vote Republican! We won't burn you at the stake for your religious beliefs or slaughter your family and steal your land." -- Ramblin' Dave Posts: 3555 | From: Florida | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
A quote I like that refers back to the OP is:
"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - Edsger Dijkstra
If that doesn't work, then I hit them with my consulting rates.
-------------------- "Tis too much proved that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself." - Hamlet Posts: 344 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
I had a lot of problems with my HP laptop, but it had Windows ME, which apparently sucked more than any other windows, and it was an HP, so the battery overheated a great deal and caused some other problems. Plus I was kind of dumb and didn't protect myself from viruses.
On the whole I prefer my Mac because I know very little about computers, and Macs seem to be designed to be reliable and simple enough for those of us who are computer illiterate.
-------------------- Officially Heartless Posts: 3065 | From: The Montgomery County of the West Coast- Berkeley, CA | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
To get back to the OP, print business cards with your home phone number and "$150/hr" on them. Then, when someone asks about a problem, say "Sure, call me about it" and give them a card. Bet you don't hear from too many of them after that.
Windows XP has been ok for me, more or less, except that it currently doesn't recognize me as the administrator and that really has messed up some of my photos. *sigh*
-------------------- "No Biblical hell could ever be worse than the state of perpetual inconsequence." Beatrice in Dangerous Beauty Posts: 1816 | From: Cayuga County, NY | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by abbubmah: I have developed a reputation for being able to work on (and sometimes fix!) just about anything. So, I get calls all the time for this kind of stuff, and yes, they are "do you know why I can't print/connect to the internet/click on this icon over here?" type stuff.
And it doesn't stop with computers... (note - the following HAVE HAPPENED):
"we can't get any pressure here" - open the valves. "can you run us some new phone lines?" - ip phones, I MUST know how to work on them "we have an EMERGENCY, come NOW" - TV not working "it goes nuts when I do this" - don't do that "can you tell us why this temperature is too high?" - yeah, your equipment is ON FIRE "I can't get anything to run" - press the START button
But the computer stuff - I don't work in IT, everything is limited accounts, but I get "you are a hacker, you have to know a way to do it!" then they get mad when I tell them to call somebody else.
Wow, I was just skimming through this post and when I came across this one, I thought I might have written it and forgotten. It's pretty much exactly what I go through at work. You can also add electrical repair and heavy lifting. Being so helpful though can cause problems. At times when I'm either too busy or just not up to spending an hour at someone's desk because they think they have a virus which turns out to be the office assistant paper clip tapping on the glass (yes that did happen and it wasn't that I couldn't pinpoint the problem, I heard and identified the tapping as soon as I sat down. I just foolishly assumed they didn't think that was a virus) I look like an asshole. All those extras I've done in the past are now expected of me.
And I can't even tell you how many iPods I've set up this year.
Posts: 835 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I'm always the tech support guy with people I know, because I've been geeking with computers since my old Atari back in '84. For the most part, I don't mind it, but I do have a friend that always comes up with old computers that he wants to wipe & install Win '98. There always seems to be driver problems whenever I do that. Either the computer is too old, or we have to figure out exactly what equipment is in the computer so I can find the right drivers. It's just a pain, when I have other stuff I want to do. I'm glad he hasn't done it in a while.
I too have been running the same installation of XP for around 4 years, with not many problems. I went over to a friends house for Superbowl Sunday a few years ago. Another friend of his talked him into a Mac, because they were so much easier to use. Well, this guy spent an hour installing a card into my friends Mac, just so he could install a printer. When he was done, I couldn't help but say "So much for Macs being easier, huh?"
-------------------- I've got a pen in my pocket does that make me a writer? Standing on the mountain doesn't make me no higher. Putting on gloves don't make you a fighter. And all the study in the world doesn't make it science. -Paul Weller Posts: 199 | From: Kalamazoo, MI | Registered: Oct 2005
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