Family Tech Support 860
This computer, from "Zeos", I think, had a catchy name which I've forgotten, and was marketed as an all-in-one, "zippetty-doo-da" fast, productivity-increasing, feature-packed system, from a company who'll be there tomorrow. It was, like most computers you'd buy for your mom, immediately obsolete, but great for email. It was also great for playing computerized bridge and pinochle which is as far as my mother wants to go in computer gaming. For a couple years this Pentium 75 zippety-doo-dahed along quite happily, raising my mother's productivity considerably before trying to retire early, by pretending its motherboard was fried. Unable to convince it otherwise, I buried the "fried" motherboard unceremoniously at the curb and replaced it with one scavenged from a derelict PC carcass which was camped in my office.
This "new" PC was even faster than the previous, which made it about as current as writing email on parchment with an ostrich feather dipped in India Ink, but bought me another year of not buying a new system. That was a little over a year ago. A few months ago, that computer died too. So, a new computer was ordered, with a place to plug a complete modern life right into the back. USB ports, Serial ports, Modem Ports, Mouse ports, Ethernet, Fishnet, Parallel ports, Perpendicular ports, car ports, Video out, Video back in, and PDA handheld-infrared-ultraviolet-see-in-the-dark-intradimensional wireless toaster ports, pipe anything and everything into a tiny beige box. This box is great for email, and for playing computer bridge and pinochle.
For a month, my mother became really productive (mom's productivity is measured in forwarded joke emails), and then, abruptly, stopped being productive at all. Concerned about the uncharacteristically empty "Mother" folder in Outlook Express (a subfolder of "Deleted Items"), I sent several emails which went unanswered. It occurred to me that she might have been sucked into some port on the back of the computer and was deadlocked in a virtual game of computerized cribbage with either Keanu Reeves or a rogue supercomputer from IBM, but I didn't follow up on this. The next time I heard from her was on my answering machine - "You can cancel my internet access, I've packed up the computer and put it in the closet. Bye."
My mother's messages often sound like epitaphs, but this sounded particularly dire. I knew that either Keanu had beaten her in cribbage or her computer had died. Despite being totally generic, the new computer was still new and still under warranty, a warranty that the computer gnomes in her closet were unlikely to honor, but which my local computer supplier probably would. I took drastic measures and called her. A frustrated woman answered, close to tears "Well, it stopped getting email two months ago and then one day I turned it on and no picture showed up and I didn't want to bother you because 'You're so busy' and I know it's my fault and..."
She was not particularly helpful in troubleshooting the problem. Furthermore, the computer's condition of being unplugged in a dark closet made successful diagnostics so grim a prospect that I patiently explained the whole "gnome-warranty" thing to her and asked that she send it back to me. Swayed by my logic, she agreed, and several days later a package arrived from her.
Understandably excited by the prospect of fixing a computer I bought because it wouldn't need much fixing, I tore open the package to reveal one unremarkable, heavily over-insured surge suppressor. Remember the surge suppressor? Confusion descended. I felt as though I'd ordered a latte and been handed a stapler. Was it the words I'd used? Did the gnome story scare her? Did I say "Please just send me any object and I'll use it to fix your computer from a thousand miles away." Again, I took emergency measures and called her. I pretended that I hadn't opened the box in case it was an early Christmas present. "Please tell me this is an early Christmas present" I said. "No, it's that damned computer" was the reply that I both feared and got. Because this surge suppressor is about as mistakable for a computer as an old leather boot, I had two painful options; one of making my mother feel like a total boob, and the other of configuring an email client on a mid 90s surge suppressor. Boob it would be. I said, as delicately as possible "Mother, this isn't a computer, it's an old boot!"
On my desk now sits the multi-port roadster of a computer that arrived today from Florida. Sure enough, there's the bridge and pinochle CD still in the drive and, sure enough, it doesn't work. I suspect that the huge dent in the case, indicating some sort of collision, trauma, impact, stampede or other violence might have something to do with that. Maybe the tech gnomes took a whack at it. Whatever. She's my mother. I love her. I'll just fix it.
ooh! while you're here... (Score:2, Interesting)
I know I get it all the time - friends, girlfriend, ex-girlfriends, parents, ex-girlfriend's parents, people who live down the road, colleague's friends and family even. Once someone knows that you work in a helpdesk or tech support environment - that's it, bub.
Doomed to be that guy who can "Have a look" and sort it out.
Linux!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
It's funny becouse I talk to my brother sometimes and tell him that he is low in HD space, 3000 miles away.
Sadly my mom said that they might have to move soon to a diffrent town. I hope my server comes back up!
Re:Tech support for your family?? (Score:1, Interesting)
So I'm doing some work for my wife's aunt. Understand, this aunt teaches business in a high school so uses computers on a daily basis. I think she may even teach the kiddies how to use Office products. Don't know for sure.
Anywho, I stop a bunch of crap from loading, this speeding up her start time and making her computer run faster. This was the only thing "wrong" with it. They were your typical things, realplayer start center, aim, yahoo chat, aol quick start, none of which she actually used. I showed her how to click on an icon on her desktop if she wanted to start a program. Then there were a whole bunch of shortcuts on her desktop to programs she had installed. She thought it was too messy, so I made 1 folder and put the shortcuts in there.
Now whenever any thing goes wrong, it must be because of something I did.
At the last family reunion, it was all I could do to keep from replyng back, "And you actually teach people how to use a computer? My god, I pity them." We ended up driving around for 10 minutes to avoid her. Luckily my mother-in-law took my side in all of this since her sister is always trying to get free help and advice from other people.
The only other work I've done for them is put a hard drive in my in-laws computer. That went ok, but man, don't have engineers try to help you do something. They like to poke at everything. And before you ask why an engineer didn't fix it himself, I'll tell you. Nuc E.'s don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about how to jumper a slave/master setup. They worry about where the atoms are.
Re:Lack of Equipent (Score:3, Interesting)
Granted, some problems can be solved per voice ("click the Start-button in the leftmost corner of your screen, choose Find, and Files and Folders. Type the name of the file you're looking for"), but the vast majority of the problems requires you to actually sit down at the computer.
(And, since this is Slashdot, the obligatory pro.-Linux/Mac disclaimer):
The (albeit few) family members (and others) that has a Linux distribution haven't got nearly as much troubles as the ones using That-Other system. People using Macs hardly ever has problems. Hm..
that is why (Score:5, Interesting)
about three years ago, i was in compUSA lookin around with some friends when i stumbled thru the floor models area and there were two, 333 mhz imacs, just sitting there. i got a price, $500 bucks, called home, and after goading them for six or so hours convinced them to get the machine.
they had been talking about getting a computer since i was in jr. high, and they really needed to get into the digital age. at that point i was long out of the house, and they kept bitching that they couldn't figure out why i thought the internet job i had was any good. so i figured, they needed the machine.
bottom line. my "mommy spam" folder has been flooded ever since. for a 50 year old woman who had never seen a computer before, it is her life, completely. she won't let anyone in the family touch the machine, me included. and it sure is a good thing that it has not had a single serious maintenance issue since they bought it. best of all, since it only has one plug, they figure out how to plug it back in after they clean around it.
Re:Lack of Equipent (Score:3, Interesting)
I think I've decided that, next similar trip, I'll just have to have finally bought a nice laptop... either that or *carefully* pack a suitcase with spare HD, NIC, modem, screwdriver, and various boot-up / install / rescue disks as I can manage. I remember a period of time about ten years ago when hardware was *SO* much easier to troubleshoot. (Granted, the tech compared to today sucked, but it was a more-or-less consistent, easy to hammer into place sort of "sucked".) *sigh*
Re:Tech support for your family?? (Score:5, Interesting)
I will install hardware for my family members.
I will install software for my family members.
I will, under no circumstances, later support any of that for the same reasons. When something goes wrong, it's *always* your fault.
Heaven help you if they actually watch you doing the install, too. My father-in-law, god bless him, is pretty handy with a Vic 20 or a Commodore 64's BASIC interperator. He can type in games straight from the 'Big Book of BASIC games' and then save them to cassette tape so he can play them again later.
When he got a Windows computer a little while back, he was fairly dissapointed that he could not program the machine. I copied over a copy of QBasic for him, thinking that all his old BASIC stuff would still work in it, even if he had to re-type all of it. Later, I even gave him an old MS Visual Basic 4 CD that came with a book I had to buy for a college course.
Unfortuneately, when he tried to install a new modem in his computer, I got called to clean up the mess. (This was the last time I ever did support for him.) At one point, he saw me fiddle with the COM ports in the PC's BIOS.
"Is this where you program the computer?" he asked me, quite seriously.
I should have known right then what I had inadvertantly done. A few days after I got the modem installed and working correctly, he called me again, quite upset that his computer would no longer work. It must have been the crappy modem driver software I installed.
When I arrived, not only had EVERY single BIOS setting been changed, but the defaults had been wiped out. His BIOS had a 'Save', 'Save Defaults', and a 'Revert to Defaults', but not a 'Factory Defaults' switch.
I couldn't even boot a DOS floppy to try to flash it. It took a long, long time to make that computer work right again.
My Latest Family Tech Support 'Adventure' (Score:3, Interesting)
Well eventually it was suffering from serious problems (in fact it still is having problems - but is generally working), and then stopped booting into Windows altogether.
Of course this had to happen just days after our most recent visit and likely many weeks before either his brother or I could make a "housecall". Over two hours (free long-distance on weekends is definately a mixed blessing) I carefully walked him through the process of (using only the Windows/DOS command line) of locating the most recent (2 years old!) backup of his user.dat & system.dat files (which being 'hidden' system files are not easy to find or move) and using them to overwrite his current copies. Which, following several reboots, got him into Windows.
That following weekend he went to a computer expo and bought a Win98 ugrade disk for (I think) $10. His system now generally works, but still doesn't shut down cleanly, though I think I will be able to get that fixed during the next "housecall".
Re:Tech support for your family?? (Score:2, Interesting)
I've moved my family from my custom-build creations to good old machines from Dell, Gateway, and IBM. The problem... even if I didn't build the computer they still expect me to fix it and I still get blamed for everything (as if all tech people know each other and it is some large conspiracy). Afterall, it is so much easier for my mom to call me with her computer problems then to call or email Dell tech support. You see, my mom can't give the Dell support rep a guilt-trip in the same manner she can give me one.
My story from just last week... (Score:5, Interesting)
Me: What are you doing?
Mom: Writing a letter. I tried to check the grammar and it just stopped.
Me: Did you save it first?
Mom: What?
Me: Save it. Save the file. You're in Microsoft Word, right?
Mom: Yes
Me: How long is the letter?
Mom: About 10 pages.
Me: And you didn't save it along the way?
Mom: No, I just type it, print it, and then shut off the computer when I'm done.
Me: Sigh...
The rest involved a late night dash to my folks house. Turns out that indeed MS Word had crashed when trying to grammar check (surprise), but luckily Word was smart enough to recover the document following a reboot.
It's impossible to explain the concept of a "file" to my parents. If they "save", this cryptic box comes up in front of them asking for a file name, file type, location, etc. If you don't understand the basics, understanding that box might as well be like understanding greek.
The other thing is general technology. I KNOW I'm going to be called upon for tech support on any technology item in their house (TV, DVD player, computer, programable thermostat, etc.). And usually I don't mind helping at all, but if I'm going to be doing tech support, I want to be involved in the purchase decision. It's gotten to the point where I've had to tell them that they're on their own if they make an impulse buy of some piece of technology without talking to me first...
-S
doesn't work like that (for me) (Score:3, Interesting)
For me it doesn't work like that. See, my dad knew a guy who knew a guy who could get him a deal. So they bought a PC from some local shop. (this is in a small town of 3000 people). So when the thing kept freaking out, they kept calling me. They had the tech come down and replace this part, and that part, and it still kept dropping them from the internet or crashing every 15 minutes. No, I am not kidding, BSOD about every 15 minutes. Hardware conflicts galore.
When I visited a few months before Xmas, I looked at the system - K62-500, all generic parts. I said - you want me to build you a system? I can do it for $200.
"But Jimmy Somenuts built this one for $300. So now we are going to be spending $500 on a computer? We just need it for email and looking up stock prices. That seems like a lot."
If you want it to work, let me do it. I figured at least if I built it, I would know what they were getting. They didn't want to spend the $$ for a new system from somewhere like Dell. And my brother, who is an avid eBayer, kept saying "I can get one on eBay cheaper than that!". But he has no clue about computers, and I didn't want to have to support some garbage eMachine.
So they agreed. I built them a low-end system at the time - AMD Duron 800, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive (and old one I had lying around), CD-ROM, 8MB AGP card and 56k modem (I had spares of both), floppy, keybd, mouse. I told them if they got me a 19" monitor for Xmas, I would give them my 17" (they were using a 15"). I built it, put a copy of Win98 on it, and that was that. All of their problems went away, and I haven't had a single tech call since. I have their K62-500 running Linux and acting as my backup server right now. I took the piece of junk off their hands in exchange for the parts that I put into the system from my own "inventory". The damn CD drive is a piece of garbage, it failed twice during my Linux installation.
Overall, it was worth my investment to build them a system, because it cut down on the number of questions that I got from them. I was really tempted to install Linux on there, but I wanted to *decrease* the number of phone calls I got from them. :-)
Re:His mom was a boob. (Score:3, Interesting)
Popeye did it better though and Popeye did it first. Ain't that always the case.
Explaining computer terms (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is that computers are rather esoteric, abstract things that really make
"My taxes are in RAM?" On the surface, you're talking about two different things: one, your non-physical (but seemingly physical and tangible) tax forms (in the form of electronic documents); and two, the actual RAM chips (and then, what that means in abstract "here's how much available memory your applications have to work with" terms).
So I got a kitchen.
http://www.mikey-san.net/kitchen.html [mikey-san.net]
I have yet to come across anyone who hasn't been able to understand these [computer] concepts (and more) after coming up with the kitchen analogy(ies) in that write-up. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's been done before, but I think it's a pretty good jumping-off point for people who need to explain various things to various people.
-/-
Mikey-San
I don't do windows (Score:4, Interesting)
This is because, upon each subsequent "repair attempt" at fixing windows machines, i find myself *actually* unable to fix them - short of formatting and installing windows, that is.
I mean, i honestly don't know how to do it any more.. my Windows repair muscles have completely atrophied in the last 6 years....
I don't know wtf anything is, i don't understand why changing the IP forces a reboot, i don't know which DLLs to uninstall when i uninstall something....
and seriously... what the fuck is up with the start menu in XP? Is that supposed to be "easier" to use? where the fsck did all the programs go? where the fsck is the printer folder underneath the Settings folder so i can see what printers the computer thinks it knows about? and where can i go to get a fscking command line?
I'm 100% totally lost using Windows XP - i feel like my grandafther trying to stop the VCR from blinking 12:00.
so i just tell them all, honestly..i do not know how to fix windows - and i won't help you because I *CAN'T* help you.
But i'll talk your ear off to get a Mac... and if you get one, I can help you then. But i cannot fix your problems with windows.
Mac OS X problems take me 30 seconds to resolve, and most often involve someone being too fearful to just hit a button.
I don't know what to say.. it think i'm getting old.
Linux was the biggest mistake of my life (Score:2, Interesting)
I should have known that he wouldn't take the time to learn any of it, and would expect me to do even the simplest of support tasks. Myself, being a fairly busy IT professional, now finds myself spending an inordinate amount of time doing "enterprise support" for my brother's home network.
Of course, everything is an emergency because of the various online gaming services he is running, and once he has any problem that impacts his ability to access those servers, he's on the phone calling me.
Why didn't I tell him to pirate NT4 Server, and get him to set up his own firewall on there? Then I could legitamently say "Uh, can't help you. I don't touch MS products. It's against my religion."
-Lokatana
Re:Tech support for your family?? (Score:5, Interesting)
I liked Paul Graham's observation about italian teenagers in his article on nerd unpopularity [paulgraham.com]. The italians don't have as many seriously disturbed nerdy teens, in large part because their families support each other and become the most important part of their lives.
Of course there's always Philip Greenspun's guide to Java Monkeys [greenspun.com] to support those of us who are being taken advantage of.
I helped my Fiancee buy a used laptop for her mom. Yes, I've spent several hours on "tech support" over the phone from 3000 miles away. I just feel that it's more than enough to repay them for the way they treat me when I fly out for holidays, and the interesting things I learn from them.
I also think it's worth it because they obviously get a lot out of internet access. Her mom is a library fiend, constantly checking out books on myriad topics, now she also has access to a world of information that doesn't require reserving books, or driving out in 3 feet of snow.
If you're really getting steamed about tech support, perhaps it's time to take more control over how it works?
there's nothing that beats Knoppix [knoppix.org] for ease of use, easy recovery, and local and remote administration.
Standardizing the family (Score:5, Interesting)
Geographically, we are all over from central coast CA to way southern CA so I make sure every house (four of them) has broadband with a way for me to get in (VPN).
But I do have a rule: don't buy anything you don't ALREADY know how to use. My grandpa is a gadget freak and will often buy equipment he has no clue what to do with:
Case in point: his webcam. He bought it, set it up and returned it immedietly. Why? "I do not want to see naked people on my computer screen whom I would run screaming from in the real world." He discovered the "joy" of Netmeeting.
Not good.
My dad is computer illiterate and doesn't understand the difference between "minimize" and "close." My mom is computer literate, but doesn't delete anything. My sister has a new Imac, but doesn't close any programs. My fiance hates her TiBook, and loves it at the same time. My uncle works for EMC, so thats fine. His wife runs her store on a WinXP dell, which is not a good computer to have break.
So here's my advice to family tech support people:
Re:His mom was a boob. (Score:5, Interesting)
Aren't you the "Good Son"?
Geez, I do tech support for my family and my wife's family. Do I always enjoy the frantic phone calls from them because they opened "that email attachment"? No, but I'm thankful that I can help them in my own way. Trust me, it's a *big* deal to them when you can magically fix their computer problems.
I also remember that the ones I help are the same ones that generously put in a new hot-water heater in my house and new brake pads for my car. I know, because *I* called them once in a panic too (because I'm not that smart).
Good deeds are eventually rewarded.
Chris
Transcript Of My Last Tech Session With Mom (Score:2, Interesting)
Me: There's a surprise. What's wrong now?
Mom: This thing is running slow. Can you fix it?
Me: Yes, mom, but you're going to have to let me get rid of WindowsXP. This processor isn't designed to handle it, and XP is sucking the life out of it.
Mom: But I don't want to get rid of XP. I'll lose all my programs I have installed.
Me: Wow, the whole two programs you use. It'll be a cinch to resinstall them.
Mom: I don't know. Is this the only way to fix the problem?
Me: Yep, the only way.
Mom: You'ld better not screw this machine up.
Me: If you're so afraid of that, Mom, why the hell did you ask for my help in the first place?
Mom: Um...
Me: Look. Either we axe XP and install 98SE, or you can just sit here and deal with waiting 5 minutes for your programs to load. Your choice. (walks away)
Mom: That's what I get for adopting a smart guy. Alright, do what you have to.
One Hour Later...
Me: Mom, it's fixed.
Mom: Where's the green Start Button?
Me: Mom, it's not in Windows 98. All Windows' are most certainly not created equal. Each new one sucks more than the last one. And that Green button is just plain nasty looking. Now everything is at least halfway tolerable.
Mom: Bring back the green button, Eric.
Me: No can do, mom. Only comes with Windows XP. Noticing the pattern yet? (walks away again) Have fun. I reinstalled everything for you, and even reset your accounts for Trillian. You owe me $150 now. (leaves the house)
This is the kind of crap I deal with almost daily. I hate doing tech support for my parents. Hell, my 7 year old niece could solve these problems for them. Sad, isn't it.
Re:Shouldn't need to be like this (Score:3, Interesting)
Personal computers, no. The PC architecture proper, yes. A long time ago. We're finally seeing things like serial ATA, USB, etc, and now some new tech from Intel and AMD on a universal bus that can be used for both graphics and other I/O. There is no reason computers need to be as complicated as they are (besides the awful reason of backwards compatibility). You should plug it in and it should just work. Got a new/upgraded component? Pop out the old one and pop in the new one. No f*cking with jumpers, no f*cking with IRQs, no f*cking with drivers (there is now a movement to "embed" drivers in the devices themselves). Apple at least is making good strides at this.
Just as frustrating as familial tech support... (Score:2, Interesting)
I can deal with my parents, because they relied on me to set up the hardware and have the sense to listen to what I tell them. I also built their machine myself (it's an old gaming box of mine) and set it up with NT 4 locked down so they couldn't screw things up too badly. NT 4, for all its many faults, is pretty stable for generic office desktop use and doesn't usually eat itself spontaneously the way Win95 and '98 do.
My pastor, OTOH, doesn't quite seem to comprehend (despite being told on at least a dozen occasions) that I haven't used any breed of Windows for much other than making Powerpoint presentations and playing games in about 5 years. I work at a supercomputer center, fer cryin' out loud; I deal with Linux and various proprietary Unices all day, not this Winders crap. Yet somehow I get called on to do the "hard stuff" on the church's computers (running mostly '95 and '98), despite the fact that other folks in the church community know much more about Windows than I do...
Examples of the resulting fun include the following:
These aren't particularly egregious when you've got a couple hours to spend on them. However, when you're got 30-40 minutes tops and you often have to squeeze in some rehearsal time too (I also play in my church's praise band), it tends to make one feel a bit harried...
My favorite (Score:2, Interesting)
Family member: "Why isn't my friend getting this email"
Me: "Oh, well it looks like you typed a '1' instead of an 'l' in her email address"
Family member: "Oh. Well, how does the internet know the difference?"
It took me 15 seconds or so to even think of how to respond, I was so suprised by the question.
Here [msu.edu] in the dorms, I get quite a few questions, but I don't mind. I like working with computers enough that taking a few minutes to solve a problem is a nice study break. For bigger problems I just say that I'd be happy to do it when I have some free time.
Strangest computer problem at school? That would have to be when my floor's janitor brought his computer into my room unannounced and asked me why the RAM he installed wasn't working. To this day I wonder how he knew that I'd be able to help him out. [It was the wrong kind of RAM for his mobo btw]
Re:Lack of Equipent (Score:3, Interesting)
#2 Make a COLOR coded sticker system for ALL needed cables, drives, and ports.
#3 Make a 10 step well written recovery procedure, somewhat like insert cd in the drive with the orange sticker(see step 2) on it and reboot your computer.
#4 The most often needed intervention is when the DARN'd ISP changes access numbers, but if you are careful about choosing an ISP you can find some local 'elderly' friendly places.
I just ssh in to support them (Score:3, Interesting)
Bash shell and remote access script (Score:2, Interesting)
I installed Cygwin on my father's computer, so that I could use sshd. I put an icon on his desktop that starts a bash shell. The shell prints out:
enter "./help" to initiate a help request.
Yes, it's redundant. But, it saves me from getting email when he just clicks the icon. He has still clicked the icon and carefully entered "./help", and swore up and down that he never did so until I showed him the email with the date and time.
The shell scripts starts sshd. VNC is already running and incoming port 22 is open on the firewall. I login to sshd with an ssh client that is set up to open a secure tunnel to port 5901. Then, I just launch VNC viewer on localhost:1 and I can do whatever I need. Since I already have a bash shell, I can do a lot of things through the command line (without much bandwidth needed). Since the desktop is shared, I can also walk him through any problem that he is having.
When I'm done, I use the bash shell (via the ssh client) to kill the sshd servers, closing the connection and any access to his system. There are two password layers, but I'd prefer to leave it closed.
Now, if I could just get him to quit opening viruses. He got hit by Klez, while he was dithering around, trying to find his old version of Norton anti-virus so he could get the upgrade rebate.
The right way. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
1) They tell me what kind of computer they want and and send me the money.
2) I pick a computer and peripherals that are PC99 color coded compliant. I set up the computer and everything on it along with pcAnywhere, then FedEx it too them.
3) They are told to call me when the package so that I can make sure they don't try to jam a fushia connector into a lime port.
4) They then call the cable company and get a cable modem.
5) During the workday, while monitoring various routers, firewalls, servers, call recorders, etc.. . It goes kinda like
Run report on Company A web server. . . Check.
Patch Company B Exchange server. . . Check.
Troubleshoot Company C call recorder. . . Check.
Install Deluxe Mah Jong tiles for mom. . . Check.
Works great. I can do preemptive maintenance, log in and watch them recreate problems they are having, or simply call them up, take there mouse and go "see you just click here and. .
It has added years to my life. Cause let me tell you, there is nothing more stressful than trying to be really cheerful and loving to your grandmother after she "deleted all those documents on the hard drive that she diddnt create."
It can be done. (Score:2, Interesting)
When another neighbour insisted on helping our networked neighbour to install program and was very upset he couldn't, and demanded the admin password, I offered to unlock the computer after I disconnected her from the network and shared internet feed. That was the end of that.
I don't do support for computers I can't lock down.
Re:Lack of Equipent (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd freak out if I saw my brother doing the laundry or something like that--because my experience with him doing the laundry is that he shrinks things, colors run, and whites end up tie-dyed gray and pink. It's been six months since I saw him last, so who knows--maybe he can do it now, but my knowledge of him is dated and would need to be refreshed before my mental image of his capabilities would change.
Not everything that looks and smells like sexism is sexism. Although your comment on my lack of equipment might be construed as such.
-Sara