Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Cassicotca]

Meh, I don't understand your stance guys. when someone need My help I'm all

"I'm the computer WIZARD and I saved your computer from the virus OF DOOM.
Now your first-born son is mine and you're my slave for all eternity."

Sadly, no one ask me for tech support anymore  .

Seriously, even if I don't ask to get paid, I will ask for a favour in return.

It's funny the first couple hundred times but it just grinds you when you have to stop everything you're doing to help them click ok on the screen

[devek]

Being the 'nerd' of the family, I'm constantly getting bugged for everything from hardware upgrades, to requests for pirating movies. I'm a computer/game/Internet geek, so naturally I'm expected to have intimate knowledge of the workings of all facets of technology.

I've been programming since I was 5, and the way I keep people from bugging me is with my amazing anti-social skills.

If having to talk to you is worse than paying someone money to do it, no one will ask you to do anything If they still insist, you gotta step up your game.

Bring lots of porn on a usb memory stick, sit down to work on computer, "discover" porn on computer, report to family, never get asked again. The possibilities are so endless, I can't believe you haven't found the joy in it yet.

[RedKing]

Good, relevant advice from The Oatmeal.

Obligatory link

I haz shame. And bad eyesight.

Then I gave her the XKCD Tech Support Cheat Sheet. That helped a bit.
http://xkcd.com/627/

Hahaha I searched all over for this thing ! This is exactly the way I became the local tech wizard even if I barely know a thing about computers.

That's pretty much how I got into the field. And sadly, this approach is far more effective than using people who have degrees in computer science. I don't know what they teach in those classes, but practical reasoning and problem-solving skills is apparently not on the syllabus.

[Virex]

That's pretty much how I got into the field. And sadly, this approach is far more effective than using people who have degrees in computer science. I don't know what they teach in those classes, but practical reasoning and problem-solving skills is apparently not on the syllabus.

Well duh, computer science is about having a fundamental understanding of algorithms, as in how to set them up, analyze them and extend them. It has as much to do with figuring out how to set up a printer as electrical engineering.


For comparison, I'm a student Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, so I know quite a bit about those topics. Still, I won't be able to tell you if a sheet of plastic could hold your weight, because I may be able to figure out how to make such a sheet, but I've got absolutely no feeling for how strong it is.

[Nadaka]

Yes. I have a degree in computer science and write software for a living.

That is absolutely not the same thing as "So you fix computers?".

Can I fix your computer? Possibly, but only because I am not an idiot and I'll probably have to either try random stuff or type your symptoms into google and find a solution there.

[de5me7]

a good politically acceptable way of getting out of doing - your good at this you do it tasks is to do it (so they cant call you lazy) but do it in a way that is totally useless for the person asking so..

you can try things like the following: installing software, but deleting all the short cuts or hiding them, creating a website, that looks horrible, and when they complain, play the computer says no/ignorance card etc. In the short term you get alot of hassle as people pester you to fix problems that (unknown to them) you've created. but if you keep at it after a while they decide your useless. Another effective tactic is just to say yes but take loads of time to get round to doing anything.

What i wouldnt advise is demanding payment for tasks, this just means people expect you to do an even better job, and doesnt often put people off asking.

[Fayrik]

de5me7, while your tactics probably would mean no one would ask you to fix their computer again, it would also leave them in a worse place than they started.
I may play Dwarf Fortress, but I'm not evil.

[Muz]

Then I gave her the XKCD Tech Support Cheat Sheet. That helped a bit.
http://xkcd.com/627/

Hahaha I searched all over for this thing ! This is exactly the way I became the local tech wizard even if I barely know a thing about computers.

Heh, I forgot all about that. I'm going to print a few copies before I go back home. But the usual response is "I'm afraid to press that button, the computer might blow up!" See... that's why kids are so good with computers, they're not afraid of things blowing up.

[Blargityblarg]

In fact, such a result is desired.

[Thief^]

I managed to get it through to people that I can do the technical side of a website, but I can't draw. That helped.

[NewsMuffin]

Heh heh.
My cousin started up a boat repair service, even though he knows next to nothing about vehicle repair.
He puts his phone number on the side of his truck, and people call him, and give him the details of their problem.
He then Google's how to fix it, and charges them $60 an hour.
He is my personal hero for this, and this alone.

But yeah, I recently uploaded a video to youtube telling my friend how dumb he is. He can't transfer files from one folder to another without coming crying to me for help.
Also, my father is retarded, and is worse than he is. I can't even watch him use to computer for fear that I'd throw up, or die of jamming my forehead into my brain.

And my sister and mother. They've both taken more computer classes than I have, and they both ask for my help on fixing their computer.
Seriously, I need to start charging them.

[fallofthechosen]

A couple years ago I had a friend who wanted me to fix their family computer because it was running slow.

Check it out, run a basic scan, tons of viruses, and tons of programs they installed, didn't want anymore, and rather then running the un-installer, just deleted the folder from their computer. Not wanting to do massive clean up, I back up their photos and important files, and reformat. Get it up and running, drivers installed, and download and install a decent anti-virus (They were running Mcafee which hadn't been updated or renewed in 3 or 4 years). Tell them they are good on their computer, have a good anti-virus, and it was running much better.

A week later I get a call from my friend saying his dad was p***ed because I broke their computer. Hoping I didn't miss a file in the back up, I go over and
ask what is wrong. His dad says his computer is running slower than before. Sit down, and it only takes moments before I see Mcafee on the computer again (Likely out of date still) as well the the anti-virus I installed.

After some arguing, I end up removing my anti-virus because his dad doesn't know what it is. A month later another virus, another phone call. Will I fix it? Heck NO!

[devek]

That is one thing I never understood, people always know about crappy AV like norton and such.

If you do sink to the level of helping someone with virus problems, at least force them to sit down and purchase a 2 year subscription to eset nod32. Not once have I made someone do that where they ended up having virus problems later on.

[belarm]

Not to detract from the general advice, much of which is very good, but if your sister's friend wants a website, squarespace is really easy to set up & administer. I'd consider pointing her in that direction.

I personally have gotten most of my family to stop bothering me by taking a reaaaaaally long time to fix their problems in the past. Now, they only come to me with serious problems (dying hard drives full of family pictures), or projects they know I'd find fun (building a fileserver/media portal), and I generally only help the family members I actually like.

If someone you don't want to say no to asks for help (like, you know, a real friend), I suggest googling the answer, then making them implement the solution. I've managed to train most of my friends in basic computer repair this way.

[Zrk2]

[derail]Welcome to Bay 12, the crazy is just right today. Beware the sociopathy.[/derail]