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363 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+418I can fix it....But I don't want to and I'm sick of people asking me!........That felt better.
- Jams, on 10/12/2007, -3/+234I once had somone drop a load of old broken VCRs on my door step. Apparently he thought I might be able to "use the circuit boards to fix computers".
- pseudojd, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15190$ an hour. I will fix it.
- bonked, on 10/12/2007, -7/+149With friends like you... the computer is the least of their problems.
- heffer2k02, on 10/12/2007, -7/+144"but I grew tired of learning how to repair computers and gave it up, cursing myself for not being good at something I claim to be in my area of expertise, that being computers."
Have some self-respect! I laid down my "I'll never fix your computer" rule after just 1 year of getting bugged by my mum and dad and their friends and my friends. This often ended up in me shouting at my mother, her shouting at me, general hysteria and bad vibes all round. But my God did it make me happy. Heres a story to ponder:
Austin, TX - Josh Granger lost an hour of his life yesterday as he tried to explain the difference between memory and hard drive space to his mother Cynthia Granger. The discussion started when Cynthia asked, "Will I have enough memory if I install this family tree maker software?"
Hour Lost"I should've just kept my mouth shut," a regretful Josh said, "but she says that all the time. It was driving me nuts. I thought this time is going to be different. This time she is going to understand." Alas, poor Josh was wrong.
What follows is the beginning of that "Lost Hour" as it has become known to Josh.
"Mom, it's not memory on a hard drive it's space, and loading a program on your hard drive doesn't have anything to do with your memory," said Josh.
"But I only have 64 Em-Bee of R-A-M," said Cynthia," and this program says it requires 85 Em-Bee. It says it requires a modem too. Do we have a modem?"
"Yes, we have a 56K modem. And no, 64 MB RAM and 85 MB space on your hard drive is different Mom. Just because they both are measured in megabytes doesn't mean they're the same thing. Is a gallon of milk the same thing as a gallon of blood?"
"It doesn't say anything here about 56K, is that all right. What's a mega-byte and why all this talk about blood. Have you been playing those games again. How many times have I told you...."
Josh's brother Trevor witnessed the scene and said, "It was pretty sad, really. When I heard him start to explain 56K, it was like watching someone try to explain quantum physics to a goat. At that point, though, he had no choice it was like the Titanic after the iceberg, just a matter of time until the people started screaming."
The situation ended with Josh screaming "Shut up, shut up, shut up" and then installing the "damn" family tree maker, while his mother cried in the family room. - psychotron, on 10/12/2007, -13/+122I don't mind fixing friends computers. I do it to snoop around their HDs. I find out all sorts of good things but the best are naked pictures of their girlfriends, which you might be surprised how many I have found!
- pondster, on 10/12/2007, -12/+116You want to get people to stop asking you to fix their computers?
Here is a fail safe solution, works on all family members and freeloaders who expect us to fix their computers for free just because we are in the field.
Always pick up the computer and take it home, while picking up the computer state you are extremly busy but get to this as soon as you can - they wont mind cause, hey your fixing their computer for free saving them hundreds of dollars. Then hold on to the computer for a month. Pretty soon, after you fix a few computers - they will stop asking and just drop it off at a shop or god forbid call tech support. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7510 an hour.. it will require you to send it to my subcontractor in india though..
- psychotron, on 10/12/2007, -5/+69If you are dumb enough to take nudie pictures and still dumb enough to just put them in a folder named "pictures" in your HD then you deserve what's coming to you. Besides, it is not as if I'm posting them all over the place. Now imagine if they did take that computer to a shop, then that pic would get all over the internet. People are dumb that is all. I used to work for a Verizon Wireless dealer and I used to take care of the returned cell phones. You would be simply amazed at the pics I found in those camera phones day in and day out.
- r0ssta, on 10/12/2007, -9/+71Just wear this shirt :)
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b/ - masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+63@Grimdotdotdot:
There comes a time when, "can you do me a favor," turns into, "I'm going to take your knowledge for granted and imperatively ask you to fix my computer, because even though you may not know what's wrong, I'm to lazy to Google the problem so I'm going to make you Google the problem." - lababidi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+59The more interesting thing is the people that pay you tend to be people that have one small tweak or just clean some spyware. they are also extremely grateful for your help. But those that somehow sucker you in, really nail you. You then wonder "how did i get into this mess?"
- adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+59"I'll do it for $89/hr"
"90$ an hour. I will fix it."
Thats exactly what I had to do, every time I went to go visit my uncle all his high income friends would just "happen" to be over there and asked if I could fix their PC's for them. After a while I got sick of these and told all of them that I'd do it for about 110 bucks an hour. Some of them said yes, some said no. Most of it was just taking virus's off because they had been downloading infected porn or their kids had downloaded 50 copies of some Britney or Justin Timberlake song and 45 of them were infected with something. - gleem, on 10/12/2007, -2/+58There was a t-shirt awhile back that I bought and wore... it said.. "NO! I will NOT fix your computer". A lot of people found it humorous as did I.
Currently, I am in the computer repair field as well as network, data backup etc.... What I find MOST annoying and have to agree with the author of this story is that people ASSUME you know EVERY piece of hardware and software out on the market and at a drop of a hat can answer their questions.
I consider myself at times a search engine. I have an idea what the problem is and what to search for and 9 times out of 10 I am able to answer it. Its that 1 percent of the time when I have to say "I don't know" when people walk away in a huff as in saying "your useless"
I do not mind helping people out. its what I get paid to do. But I get annoyed when people expect or treat me like their personal servant and that I have to drop everything I am doing to fix their problem. - ChewyBass, on 10/12/2007, -2/+55I use to not mind helping people, then it became a second job. And of course they wanted it all done for free. I finally bought some business cards with a fake company name and when people start asking a question I hand them a card. It has all the usual stuff and at the bottom it reads "$100 an hour, 1 hour minimum". I'm not bothered anymore and I still have cards left over. My personal time with my family and for myself are more important than their technical issues.
- SparrowsLair, on 10/12/2007, -0/+53My friend is a piping designer (designs the flow and layout of pipes for things like oil plants) and she regularly gets asked if she can help people out with plumbing problems and blocked toilets.
- gohoos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+47I do fix computers for friends, sometimes, if they ask nicely and aren't trying to take advantage or anything.
But why can't I get a friend who is a good MECHANIC who can return the favor? Or a carpenter, or someone who does landscaping? - austindkelly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+47I just had someone ask me if i could help them make thier MySpace page look cool. HELL NO was my answer.
- bonked, on 10/12/2007, -7/+51Goddamnit - I am so ***** sick of you people. BLOG != SPAM - some damn good content is found on blogs. Just because the person writing the article doesn't work at does not automatically mean that there is no value to the content.
Instead of burying the story, I blocked you. *****. - lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+42Try fixing a computer for a world-reknown professor of international affairs and finding his porn stash....interesting conversation during office hours (the porn caused the problem)...
- Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+40Soyware? Must be for lactose-intolerant computers.
- Dhalgren, on 10/12/2007, -10/+48prove it ;-)
- thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -4/+40Get me a case of beer and and $20 and I'll help you.
- sailor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39I usually will look at friends and co-workers computers for free, and if I can't fix it I tell them "take it to the shop" ,"maybe it's time for a new computer" or "the hard drive is bad" many times they just elect to buy a new computer...I have gotten alot stuff by offering to take the "junk" off their hands.
3 hard drives, 2 computers and a couple printers...all of which I was eventually able to fix :p - Indolentron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35This was in a MySpace message from some girl I went to high school with:
"That's cool...well, keep in touch! Oh yea...since you are a computer science major...maybe you can answer this...my laptop occasionally like the keys mess up...like I'm holding down the shift key only I'm not?? What's up with that??? " - MattyLite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35Give her some long winded explanation of things that need to be done, and then end it with "And turn off Caps Lock".
- MattyLite, on 10/12/2007, -4/+38Well that's a little creepy. If your friends knew how to hide them better, or encrypt them, they'd be fixing their own computers.
- CoolHandLuke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32@Tweeners "This is why none of you have friends."
You are just fooling yourself if you think all those people who ask you to fix their computers for free are your REAL friends.
Do they call you when they DON'T need their computer fixed?
Do they offer to help you with projects that you are working on?
Do they offer to help you fix things?
If they do, then yeah, they are REAL friends. If not, they are just freeloaders. Try asking some of those freeloaders to help you put a roof on your house and see how many show up. - cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+33Truthfully this ***** pisses me off. Here at work, I've had our accountants (for example) get that "why not???!!!!" attitude when I tell them I won't fix their home computer. They want to bring in their home PC, have me hook it up in my office and ":fix it", which means staying over past my usual time, taking time away from my wife and kids. So I ask if they do all their friends taxes for free. They pause, think for about 5 seconds, and say "Good Point" and walk away satisfied.
- Judgement, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32Yes, that is another thing. Not only do people expect you to just fix it, they expect you to do it for free. In an age where knowledge and information have such high value, you would expect people to be more appreciative of other people's knowledge.
Education costs money, and if I am sharing my knowledge with you, I'm sharing that money that I spent to acquire that knowledge. Now will you pay me? - Dhalgren, on 10/12/2007, -6/+36I know how to fix computers. I enjoy helping my family with their problems because when I have other issues they help me out. That's what families are for...
- westwind429, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33Done. Digg--.
....OH, you meant bury the ARTICLE? Sorry, my "mistake."
"Blog spam" means a link to a blog that contains little more than a link to the article -- or maybe it just links to another blog. In this case, the article itself happens to be a blog entry. Quit the kneejerk "It's on Blogspot, so it MUST be blog spam" reactions.
(Heh, looks like bonked had the same reaction while I was posting. Bury me "redundant" if you guys see fit.) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+36Yeah where are the links?
- pureliquidhw, on 10/12/2007, -5/+35This explains how I get ahead with the ladies:
ON a first date with a girl she needed WIFI setup. I set it up, under the condition she bought dinner. She figured I was kidding. I laughed when she expected me to pay for the meal, then she drops that she doesn't have any money. I shrugged it off and paid. We went back to her place and casually began to chill, then "checked my e-mail."
I set the password to the router to some ridiculous hex password and unplugged the cable from the modem. I get 13 text messages from her all but 2 asking for help. The third one asked me what went wrong. The last was "you are an *****." Oh well. - DonSchenck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30What a crappy thing to ask.
Sorry ... couldn't resist. - Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -9/+37You're a bad, bad man. I like your style :D
- FyreGoddess, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28I won't take money for fixing the computers of friends and family, but they always give me something. Sometimes they feed me dinner, once I got a pie... I have one friend who knits, she now makes me things in exchange for computer work.
There has to be some kind of give-and-take. I think most people get that. Those who don't, frankly, aren't worth calling "friend". - blueskydiver76, on 10/12/2007, -5/+32@ Gleem "I have an idea what the problem is and what to search for and 9 times out of 10 I am able to answer it. Its that 1 percent of the time when I have to say "I don't know" "
If you think that getting the answer 9 times out of 10 = to 99% i wouldnt want you working on my computer. - dronebee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27Someone should tell this to clueless HR people who post jobs like this:
Desktop Support/PC Repair
Must have:
Computer Science degree
C++
Java
CCNA
People don't seem to realize that programming and sys admin work are way different things. - aphexcoil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Just be honest with whomever is asking for your help. Tell them, "I would really like to help you, but my time is valuable to me and I'd like a little compensation for helping you out. Tell you what, I'll give you half off my normal hourly rate of $150 and give you much better service than Best Buy would."
If you're smart and ambitious and know how to treat people, you can make A LOT of money on the side. Word travels quickly when you are polite and considerate to other people's problems. I've made $1,500 in a week before just for doing around 15 hours of work -- tax free.
So, if you want to bitch and moan and not help them out, that's your perogative. I, on the other hand, took the time out to expand my knowledge to some basic troubleshooting procedures and I am now making an additional 15-20k a year on top of my full-time job. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26The ***** FAQ in digg tells you to submit your blogs and stories, wtf are you crying about. I'm blocking you too, *****.
>=x - TGKnIght, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22There's a difference between people who actually understand computers, and people who merely went to college for the piece of paper.
- gleem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I should start doing that... I tell ya, if I calculated all the lost time after my 9 to 5 job of having to go to co-workers, friend's, friend of a friends houses to fix their mistakes only for them to make me dinner and a handshake... Looking back on it... my car doesn't run on t.v. dinners.
- Murdats, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22did you poke them in the eye with a stick for it?
tell them thats 10x less painful then even having myspace.com in your address bar
then slap them for even talking about myspace in your presence. - CoolHandLuke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20If they don't offer to give you ANYTHING... you'd better get new "friends".
I always MAKE them drop their PC off at my house. At least if they go to the trouble to bring it to me then I know they are not just wasting my time with wallpaper issues. When they bring it to my house, I have all the cables, connectors, HSIA that I need in order to fix it without trying to download new drivers via a rusty modem and 28.8 connection.
I stopped doing "free" work for freeloaders. I spend my time honing my craft and the last thing I want to do is give away the information to someone who;
1: couldn't care less because if they did they would find the solution themselves.
2: Give away my knowledge to someone who's only interest is in how fast they can get to the bottom of a bag of Cheetos.
But yeah... REAL friends, REAL family... I do their stuff for free because I know that the relationship is not just a one way street. - bugninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18+ it doesn't matter how much they want to pay sometimes, I simply don't want to spend my time watching percentage bars slowly reach 100%, and I definitely don't want to sit by your computer while it scans for spyware
- scorpy01, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22I've fixed about a dozen computers for friends and family over the past year or so. Everyone has offered to pay me but I always refuse. If they didn't offer, though, I'd probably resent it, too.
- MikeyJW, on 10/12/2007, -9/+28"If you are dumb enough to take nudie pictures and still dumb enough to just put them in a folder named "pictures" in your HD then you deserve what's coming to you."
Yeah, and if you are dumb enough to leave your bike unlocked outside the 7-11, or leave your wallet in an unlocked locker at the gym, or leave your car running in the driveway while you go back inside because you forgot your coffee, then you deserve to get those items stolen.
Nice rationalization. I'm glad I don't have friends like you. - Simplogic, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23Did you try turning it off and then back on again?
- Rikkochet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18@ChewyBass - I hear that all too often. "I don't do that anymore" - all my dev friends/associates have just given up helping people out because it's not worth it. I still do, for old neighbours and friends who can't afford to have a shop do it and are willing to listen and follow my advice.
My favourites are figuring out why Windows 95 takes 15 minutes to boot (because I'd sooner hack a fix than spend all night installing 98 or MAYBE 2k on a Pentium 90).
Or giving up trying to install a DVD-R into a PC where the motherboard was made when IDE was referred to affectionately as 'this new fandangled "IDE"'.
Or explaining why they can't have Norton Internet Security because it's so secure it breaks your LAN.
Or explaining that they can't upgrade the RAM in that PC because that type of memory hasn't been around for 10 years. -
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