Comments on: Anti-computer force field effect

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:16:06 +0000

I too enjoy learning how things work by the process of breaking them (and putting it all together, if the learning was successful).

As awkward as it might be to charge people close to you for your services, I’m beginning to incline towards that idea. If anything, simply to encourage them to learn on their own. Or, at the very least, pay attention to what I’m asking, and have me do things right the first time.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:05:08 +0000

The majority of my knowledge was learned from breaking things and learning to fix them (ive been breaking mostly everything from the age of 8). imo this is the best way to learn things because when your busting to play your favorite games or finish a university end of year project, you learn very fast and tend not to forget hehe

I have always charged people for fixing their computer or doing somthing for them e.g. website design, including my best friend and family.

By: sadiel

sadiel — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:30:07 +0000

Whoever I would say to me that doing a favour to someone who had crashed the computer, would entail many years of falsehood and work for free. The mistake is to say the first “No problem, step by your house”

By: wtd

wtd — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:42:44 +0000

Maybe people should just buy Macs and use Time Machine with that second hard drive.

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:59:10 +0000

Maybe it’s in the perception? I’ve learned by playing with computers, installing things, and breaking things in the process. Breaking things is a learning experience. Others might disagree.

By: Mobius

Mobius — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:50:00 +0000

Its funny and strange at the same time that non techy people often have problems with their computers out of no where. Whereas us techy people playing with the computer and installing this and that have no problem at all.

I graduated from UofT computer science in 2005 by the way

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:20:44 +0000

Personally, I'm more of a fan of VMware for visualization (and disk snapshots); Though I think the type of users who would have the above maintenance problems are also the same type who would have trouble with extra clicks introduced into their routine. More so with trying to understand the technology and why they have to do it this new way, if they've previously done it "that other way". Because really, some people should not be allowed outside of a VM sandbox.

By: Beecher Bowers

Beecher Bowers — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:02:22 +0000

One of the easier ways to handle it is to install two hard disks. Set everything up(drivers,apps, etc), and point the My Documents and email folders locations to a location on the second drive. Snap an image of the first disk to a file on the second disk. (http://drivesnapshot.de) Instead of reinstalling everything, just restore the image back to the first disk and install any new apps. Done in under an hour.

By: John Blackwood

John Blackwood — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:07:44 +0000

Charging money works great! If you get too many requests raise your rates. If you’ve got some free time and your family’s computers are all fubar’d maybe lower them.

I’ve found the best method is to not do tech support for Windows though. My windows support rate (for people who I contract for…) is >$20 an hour. Linux support I’ll usually do for free.

By: steven yap

steven yap — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:58:08 +0000

That the work for a technician.

Better send all the computers to the computer shop. Keep the girlfriend for youself.