When did we become charity?
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz
I think the problem is not with us, but with extremely bad service when it comes to PCs. If I need to fix brakes in my car, I know whom I can contact, I know approximate price, and I know how long time it will take. With computers people never know. The problem with PCs is that you can hardly find two equally configured machines. You buy a machine, install more RAM, replace cheap soundcard with a better one - and this is just a beginning. Software turns you machine into a real maze! So when suddenly somebody is not able to connect to Internet, they don't really know who to blame. Hardware and software manufacturers always blame each other. "We are not able to reproduce the problem". Now think about service companies. Honestly, I am not aware of any service company in Norway that could come to private PC owners and fix their machines at affordable price. And I can't blame them for it - sovling configuration puzzle can take hours, so it can be cheaper just to replace a motherboard or even a PC without even taking time to analyze the problem. Imagine that you buy a TV, open it, replace some components, then call a service and ask to fix it ;) I think the main reason people try to ask friends about their computer problems is lack (or even absense) of affordable service. From time to time I get questions from my friends like "It does not send e-mail", "I lost my cylillic fonts", "This program always starts and I don't want it to". Very often I can give the answer on the phone, and most of commercial service companies wouldn't even bother to research the problem. It depends also on what we put into our definition of "friendship", but that's another discussion :rose: Win32/ATL/MFC Developer Oslo, Norway
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz
That has been the case for a LONG LONG LONG time. The biggest problem I run into is that people think that just because I write software for a living (which to them means that I work with computers for a living), thus, I know everything about computers and every software progrm ever written. I just act really dumb. Which for me isn't hard. :) Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.
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That has been the case for a LONG LONG LONG time. The biggest problem I run into is that people think that just because I write software for a living (which to them means that I work with computers for a living), thus, I know everything about computers and every software progrm ever written. I just act really dumb. Which for me isn't hard. :) Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.
I agree. I hate it when friends find out that I program and then assume that since I am a programmer, I must be able to build pcs and fix any hardware or software installation program. When I try to explain that I write software and have no clue about hardware, they just look at me as though I don't want to help. Cheers, Tom "Ya got lucky, ya lucky prick" - Keith McCready
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz
Perhaps people think we're like doctors. A doctor who is of one specialty still has had training in all the other specialties. For example, an orthopedist can, if necessary, deliver a baby. "What would this country be without this great land of our?" -Ronald Reagan
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Perhaps people think we're like doctors. A doctor who is of one specialty still has had training in all the other specialties. For example, an orthopedist can, if necessary, deliver a baby. "What would this country be without this great land of our?" -Ronald Reagan
I prefer to help make the baby. :-D Michael Martin Pegasystems Pty Ltd Australia martm@pegasystems.com +61 413-004-018
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz
Do what I do - charge them a nice, frosty six-pack of your favorite beer for your time. :-D Jon Sagara "Left-handed nunchakus!"
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz
Many of my non-techy friends assume a computer is as reliable as a lightbulb or the phone, and "fixing" it should be a straightforward and simple process like setting the clock on a VCR. I pary for the day when this is actually true. Of course, then they wouldn't need our help, would they? :-) /ravi "There is always one more bug" http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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I think the problem is not with us, but with extremely bad service when it comes to PCs. If I need to fix brakes in my car, I know whom I can contact, I know approximate price, and I know how long time it will take. With computers people never know. The problem with PCs is that you can hardly find two equally configured machines. You buy a machine, install more RAM, replace cheap soundcard with a better one - and this is just a beginning. Software turns you machine into a real maze! So when suddenly somebody is not able to connect to Internet, they don't really know who to blame. Hardware and software manufacturers always blame each other. "We are not able to reproduce the problem". Now think about service companies. Honestly, I am not aware of any service company in Norway that could come to private PC owners and fix their machines at affordable price. And I can't blame them for it - sovling configuration puzzle can take hours, so it can be cheaper just to replace a motherboard or even a PC without even taking time to analyze the problem. Imagine that you buy a TV, open it, replace some components, then call a service and ask to fix it ;) I think the main reason people try to ask friends about their computer problems is lack (or even absense) of affordable service. From time to time I get questions from my friends like "It does not send e-mail", "I lost my cylillic fonts", "This program always starts and I don't want it to". Very often I can give the answer on the phone, and most of commercial service companies wouldn't even bother to research the problem. It depends also on what we put into our definition of "friendship", but that's another discussion :rose: Win32/ATL/MFC Developer Oslo, Norway
Wouldn't it be great if one could have an external backup device, connected to USB. It would be OS independent, software could be run from a floppy disk and would do disk image to this external device. Then the dumb user could do backup once per week with the "ORANGE DISK" and when things go wrong use the "VIOLET DISK" to recall last known disk image. This would solve the: 'I didn't do anything, except my son installing this Windows 95 game with DirectX drivers on Windows 2000, but this could NOT be the problem, could it? And now it doesn't work anymore.' problem. [ Will anyone give me a quarter for this excellent business idea? Like, all 60.000 of you? ] Regards, Tomaz
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Do what I do - charge them a nice, frosty six-pack of your favorite beer for your time. :-D Jon Sagara "Left-handed nunchakus!"
Not only would you go broke soon, but you would become alchoholic, too. Tomaz
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Wouldn't it be great if one could have an external backup device, connected to USB. It would be OS independent, software could be run from a floppy disk and would do disk image to this external device. Then the dumb user could do backup once per week with the "ORANGE DISK" and when things go wrong use the "VIOLET DISK" to recall last known disk image. This would solve the: 'I didn't do anything, except my son installing this Windows 95 game with DirectX drivers on Windows 2000, but this could NOT be the problem, could it? And now it doesn't work anymore.' problem. [ Will anyone give me a quarter for this excellent business idea? Like, all 60.000 of you? ] Regards, Tomaz
Dumb users never do backup :-D (Actually even smart ones don't do it very often) Vagif Abilov COM+/ATL/MFC Developer Oslo, Norway
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I wonder when did we turn inot charity and how did this transformation happened? Ever had a friend, neighbourhood lady or a person who knows a person who used to know you call you, before calling the professional service, to fix computer? Do these people call their friends, neighbours or complete strangers who are lawyers or dentists, to help them work on a contract or fix teeth, cause "its just a small thing"? When did we become so cheap?! :suss: :confused: X| Tomaz