A Letter On Behalf of the World's PC Fixers 638
Barence writes "PC Pro's Steve Cassidy has written a letter on behalf of all the put-upon techies who've ever been called by a friend to fix their PC. His bile is directed at a friend who put a DVD bought on holiday into their laptop, and then wondered what went wrong. 'Once you stuck that DVD in there and started saying "yes, OK" to every resulting dialog box, you sank the whole thing,' Cassidy writes. 'It doesn't take 10 minutes to sort that out; it requires a complete machine reload to properly guarantee the infection is history. No, there is no neat and handy way I've been keeping secret that allows you to retain your extensive collection of stolen software licenses loaded on that laptop. I do disaster recovery, not disaster participation.'"
Re:whine (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, Some of us play Magic: The Gathering. Don't lump us in with those pokemon losers!
Re:Dirty little secret among PC Techs (Score:4, Funny)
You are part of the problem. Instead of educating, you had them buy a unicorn. Way to go.
We need a union (Score:4, Funny)
As a person who has fixed more relative's and friend's computers than I care to mention I have to say I think we need a union.
On a related note, I remember one time, about 10 years ago when I was working at a small PC shop. A customer came in and their windows install was hosed. The owner's daughter was the one who used the computer most. This 16 year old did her best to use her 'wiles' to convince me to somehow transfer all of her warez to the new install I was going to do for them. It was so easy to say no. I hope I held back my smirk well enough. Pay for your software.
Saying no (Score:5, Funny)
You just need to learn to say no. This works 100%:
Did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said "Free PC repair"?
You know WHY you didn't see that sign?
'Cause it ain't there, 'cause repairing dead PCs ain't my fucking business, that's why!
XKCD (Score:3, Funny)
Re:security though obscurity (Score:5, Funny)
So essentially you have 4 angles of attack instead of 1, each with security settings deliberately set to something different instead of something, say, secure? Tell me again how this in any way would limit possible attack vectors. Actually, tell me if you even know what that word means.
Be Deliberately Worthless (Score:5, Funny)
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
If that does not work, get a copy of the tech support script from... well, pretty much any tech company in existence. Then read it with a sloooooow ruuuural draaaaawwwl. If they interrupt you, then look confused and start over at the beginning.
Re:I love my brother's method of guilt (Score:5, Funny)
"If I knew how to do computer, I would help You so you should help me." Well my brother did help me move from my parents' house to my apartment --- ten years ago.
I wouldn't mind if he actually LEARNED something, but he's still stuck at the "how do I make firefox fill the whole screen" or "I have firefox open - how do I get back to desktop?" stage (try minimize and maximize like I taught you back in 1999). He never learns.
Just shut the hell up. I'd mod you down even lower but I see you're already at (-1) you fucking cockstucker. You really should be BANNED from posting
Are you the brother?
Re:Both of you, behave yourselves! (Score:3, Funny)
I still use BetaMax.
You see that lawn? Stay off it.
Re:whine (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Working for free (Score:4, Funny)
People with social skills know enough to expect a favor in return when asked to do a favor.
Frankly, if your brother is a trucker and you haven't already built up a stack of favors you owe him for hauling your shit around, you've been wasting the privilege.
Re:Worthless? (Score:3, Funny)
>> unemployed for six months, living in my guest room, eating from my fridge
Are you still taking applications for this position?
Re:"Sure I'll fix your computer. If I get to fcku (Score:2, Funny)
"Sure I'll fix your computer. If I get to fcku you."
So, Michael, how long have you been "into" your cousin? I think that's a bit creepy, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.
Re:Both of you, behave yourselves! (Score:5, Funny)
U-Matic SP and J-format tape.
your lawn seems to be on my lawn.