securitybreach Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 You guys do realise that you are commenting on a post made in 2013 As to $90 an hour that was referring to Eric's rate then, he probably is charging $120 by now given inflation etc. I did 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 H3LL! I can charge whatever I want. Sadly, no one has been paying me anything for quite some time now. I'd give a testicle (maybe both) for $20/hr that Josh is making right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I did check with my webhost (Webserve Canada) and it's possible to use Softaculous on the site to install Ghost. I'm using Wordpress right now and with the Bayse theme it's pretty simple. There are only about 200 bloggers using Bayse worldwide so it isn't as generic as say TwentyTwelve (default Wordpress theme.) Neat. I have never even heard of Softaculous before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 H3LL! I can charge whatever I want. Sadly, no one has been paying me anything for quite some time now. I'd give a testicle (maybe both) for $20/hr that Josh is making right now. The last thing I did was four months ago . About four hours work on an office heating set-up. When the guy asked me how much I said" just the going rate " . I nearly fell through the floor when he handed me two hundred euros. And asked me was that enough . I said" well thats ok" . I still do not know how I kept a straight face . The first time I have been treated fairly in heaven knows how long ... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I doubt I could charge anybody I know a "fair" rate since some of the messes they get themselves in take hours to sort out. When my friend got a Ransomware infection last month we spent most of the day restoring his data and even then couldn't get it all. I got a nice bottle of Chianti and we were fair and square. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Most of my "IT Support" customers these days are family and friends. That pretty much rules out $90/hr. It's usually more like, "Hey, why don't you stay for dinner?" or "You need a few bucks for gas, man?" 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I doubt I could charge anybody I know a "fair" rate since some of the messes they get themselves in take hours to sort out. When my friend got a Ransomware infection last month we spent most of the day restoring his data and even then couldn't get it all. I got a nice bottle of Chianti and we were fair and square. Well there lies the problem.. The going rate for computer repair is really between 50-70 an hour but reinstalling windows with updates could take hours. So then you got to figure out what a price would be for waiting on updates to finish and then if its a friend, you can't really charge them 150 bucks to install windows.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 It's the software that kills. I have often advised folks in the neighborhood to trash their old machine (especially laptops) if they start giving trouble. But even if they do that, they still have tons of data that has to be ported over and then they want their new machine tweaked and set up so it looks like their old one. All this takes time. And as we know, time is money. My old nemesis Lillian is the worst for this. She could buy a supercomputer and she'd still want it to act like it was running Windows XP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 My IT/tech support tends to be for "humanware" issues...more than software & hardware combined! My father-in-law is the worst! I love that man like he is my own father, but he is a testament that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. He says he wants to know how to "do things" on the 'puter, so I sit down with him and show him what he wants to know; then I have him do it by himself; and I have long since learned to write down a brief tutorial, step by step, that he can follow along with when I leave. I almost always get a call within the week that he has a "computer problem". The problem is that he probably shouldn't be using a computer?! LOL! He's 75+ years old and has ADD as bad as my teenage sons, when they were teens. No it's not senility, nor alzheimers, as I see it in every facet of his life. The man is a bit of a savant, with engineering/inventive aptitude, and he is EASILY distracted from whatever he's doing, with deeper thoughts of whatever is marinating in the back of his brain. I've seen him get up from a 1/2 eaten meal at the dinner table (as if going to the restroom), and disappearing for a LONG time (perhaps he had to #2?), only to be found in his garage tinkering with something. He hacked the power/charge cord of an early 7" tablet device and connected it to his car wiring harness, and it WORKS! He then cut a slot in his dash and plasti-molded a shelf/tray device to hold it in place. He uses it as a GPS/google maps device. The man is NOT dumb. But he cannot save a downloaded file attachment, and remember the directory path to save his soul. We have Word/Excel/Powerpoint directories on his machine, and I have shown him this NUMEROUS times; I have written it down; but he'll still call that someone sent him an "important document" that just "disappeared" from his computer. He just saves docs in whatever directory he last worked it...or he'll download & save to whatever the machine offers. It's usually in his Windows tmp folder. Not sure how it got there, as I've set his Thunderbird and Firefox software to default save to the "Downloads" directory. Somehow he tinkers with it and changes it, but denies any knowledge of doing that. By itself, I'd believe that Windows could be a culprit, but previously working passwords also cease to work on his computer. I know this because I kept a list of all HIS passwords to important sites, like e-mail accounts, google, etc... He'll call and tell me "e-mail isn't working", so I'll login & investigate; sure enough, it isn't....because the password was changed. At first I thought maybe he was being hacked...but then I noticed the frequency of the "hacks" and that it was all his accounts/websites, instead of an isolated 1 or 2. So I bought him a "password keeper" notebook (I thought of KeePassX, or something similar, but I'm not convinced he couldn't defeat that also, and it would make it harder for me to help him) and went through all his accounts/passwords with him, verifying things worked, and writing them down in the book with him. He was instructed, do NOT change your passwords because you can't remember them....LOOK THEM UP in this book, and you'll be fine. Shortly thereafter, he called to tell me that he was no longer receiving "important e-mails" that he was expecting. I assumed the password fiasco was repeating itself, but after tedious investigation, his passwords were intact. I started checking his POP and IMAP accounts individually (he has 3....1 for personal e-mail, 1 for "business", and google e-mail), as he often mixes & matches those accounts, paying no attention to which one he sends from. After checking all webmail accounts, spam filters, junk mail folders, etc... I could find nothing wrong?! I'm a bit OCD, so I couldn't let it rest...I started to comb through his browser history, based on dates he said things started to happen. Sure enough, after MUCH investigation, there it was.......the man was creating NEW e-mail accounts to send/receive e-mail when he couldn't remember his password (and the password book wasn't handy?). That's how his mind thinks...."I can't remember my password for this account....and the password book is at home...but I need to send this now....and Jim said not to change passwords anymore, because it 'breaks' my Thunderbird settings......hmmmm.....I'll just create another e-mail account and send it with that....yes, Jim didn't say anything about that, and it solves my problem right now, so that's what I'll do!" After 15+ years, I'm starting to suspect that he's just passive-aggressive and doesn't like me nearly as much as I like him. I'm just too worn out to troubleshoot that theory... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Your post about your F-i-L is as interesting as the Lillian stories! I think we all try and help people like that who never seem to get it. If we're lucky, we can call it quits and let someone else have the "joy" of trying to help. Of course you can't do that with a relative. I have a sister-in-law like that. For some unknown reason, her son bought her a Kindle. The woman never turned on the computer when her husband was alive and when he died, she didn't have a clue how to turn it on or what the password was. She also has no internet access because she doesn't own a computer. Her son knows this. I'm not sure what he expected her to do with the Kindle. It now sits unused probably in the box. I was thinking of bringing it to my home and loading some books on it for her to read but then thought she'd be calling me daily with questions. I've never used a Kindle so I'd need to figure it out. I'm not sure I want to tackle this and her problems with it. Example: we had her sign up for a free cellphone because her income is very low. My husband brought the phone home called and got it all set up for her. He took it to her, showed her how to use it and attempted to get her to use this and eventually stop using her $40/month cellphone to save her some $$$. Well she managed to lock the phone, didn't write the password down and now it sits somewhere unable to be used if she hasn't thrown it out. (She did ask him if it was okay to throw away a cellphone.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 In my binary universe there are two kinds of people - those who think like computers and those who do not. If we are talking about older folks the ones who think like computers have probably worked with them for half a century. Speaking personally I did my first programming in 1968, have worked with mainframes, timesharing, early microcomputers, DOS, Windows, Linux...a lot of it doesn't apply anymore but I do understand how a computer works. There aren't many of us though. Most people my age got a computer less than 10 years ago. All they know is Facebook and email. Folks who think like computers understand printer drivers, networks, upgrade procedures,security. They know nothing happens to a computer without a reason. They don't worry that they'll be hacked all the time. They don't GET hacked by opening an email attachment. Their favorite password is not 123456. Folks who think like computers have to pick up the pieces for those who don't. Fortunately there are a lot more younger folks who have experience and know that things just don't spontaneously go south with your PC. Not normally at least. Folks who think like computers come here to vent because there are kindred spirits here who also get driven nuts by friends and family who don't think like computers. Maybe one day when AI is king computers themselves will think like computers. The concept of HAL doesn't scare me when I think of all the havoc he could wreak on those who don't think the way he does. Nuff said. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 The problem, as I've stated many times here and there, is that when the home computer was first introduced, marketing departments of major manufacturers (Commodore, Radio Shack, IBM, Dell, etc.) did everything possible to reach the broadest swath of the consumer market. They knew they could not sustain their businesses by catering to the nerds only. The way they did this was to market personal computers just like they was fancy televisions. Everyone born since the 1930s knows how to turn on a TV. The technical aspects of television broadcast and hardware were never a needed thing for the users of TV. Now, here comes the personal computer being marketed to the general public (TV users). People started buying these very technical devices and bringing them into their homes. They usually only learned the very basics of operating these machines. Those of us who delved deeper were few and far between in comparison to the vast majority of PC owners; this holds true even today. Then folks were told about this fabulous new thing called the Internet. You could easily connect up your computer to your phone line (giving the illusion to most non-technical folks that it worked just like their telephones) and interact with folks from all over the world. You could email, search, visit interesting websites, etc. No one ever told the regular everyday folks about the hazards and ugliness that was even then infecting the Internet. So, one day Aunt Myrtle gets an email from some friend of hers from Romania who she met on Yahoo Games. There's an attachment in the email with a little .exe extension on it. Auntie clicks on it. And why not, neither her television nor telephone ever caused her any problems in her life. Nothing except poor quality content and prank callers ever affected her TV or phone. And VOILA! Like magic the nasty outside world suddenly made an appearance in her knitting room where she sat in front of her little computer. All her family photos and emails were deleted and her operating system was corrupted to the point that her little computer wouldn't even turn on anymore. What's Auntie to do? Well, when you have a TV issue, you call the TV repairman. When you have a phone issue, you call the phone company repairman. When your little computer has a problem, you call the store that sold it to you. They in turn tell you that they don't do service calls. Auntie has to call a computer technician. Some pimply-faced 20 year old dweeb from a local shop comes by in his beat up Volkswagen and tells Auntie the bad news... $300 worth of bad news. Auntie is flabbergasted. For many folks, this is still the case. Few really know or understand the threats arrayed against them each time they turn on that little computer. They still think emails are private. They still think their browsing history is private. They don't understand or feel any need to backup anything on their little computers. They still click on attachments, visit naughty sites online, and run no (or never update) antivirus apps. And they'll never learn not to do these things for the same reason they never learned about vestigial sideband transmissions ( analog method of modulating the carrier wave in TV) or dual-tone modulated frequencies (DTMF - touch tone dialing method in telephones). It is what it is. And don't expect it to get better. It will most definitely get worse as technology advances, a la IoT (Internet of Things). Folks just don't give a pile of feces how things work. They wouldn't know a TCP/IP packet if it walked up and bit them in the ascii. They just want their things to work. It's the nature of the beastie, I'm afraid. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 And that is why there are people like us who enjoy working on computers...I am sure most families have a cousin or niece/nephew who knows about computers that tend to be their "go to" computer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 (edited) And while we were discussing this topic, my neighbor Charlie (who gave me my neat little Toshiba netbook) came by with his friend Wayne. Wayne wants some advice on how to sign up for Netflix, install a Roku box and what he needs to do to back up his data on his PC. Charlie brought him here because he knew I could help out. Charlie has cancer. Wayne has been driving him in every week for his radiation treatments. What else could I say but 'yes?' Edited January 25, 2017 by raymac46 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 To be fair, I don't mind working on computers. And truth be told, I actually ENJOY sharing the knowledge and teaching others how to do things, even if I had to scrap for that info and piece it together. I LOVE learning new things (I'm a seeker), and I like sharing that knowledge with others (I'm altruistic, by nature), but I DETEST repeatedly addressing the same issues, over and over. It's like rowing with one oar....a big circle....and in my mind, it would be better to sit in that one place, with no progress whatsoever, than to row in a circle and exert yourself to get back to the very same place you started. I don't mind mistakes, as mistakes lead to knowledge. I'm not a perfectionist, as I make mistakes every day. But anyone who knows me in the real world has heard my say, AT LEAST once if not more often "let's not repeat the same mistake; let's find some new mistakes to make". And taking my own advice, I do believe the F-I-L will be getting a new Macbook for christmas. I know NOTHING about them, but others in the family own Apple products and are quite fond of repeating the Apple fanboi philosophies. Perhaps they'll have better luck teaching him things in the "Apple Way". It's a no-lose proposition for me. He'll either adapt to Apple's superior way of doing things, or it'll wipe the smugness right out of those family members' thinly-disguised "helpful" comments. Either way, he's no worse off; and either way, I WIN?! he, he, he... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Either way, he's no worse off; and either way, I WIN?! he, he, he... Well that was my thinking before Lillian got an iPad or my back neighbor started having troubles connecting his HP printer to an iMac. It's a computer isn't it? Actually if you know Linux it isn't that hard to fix Macs you know. Besides a lot of problems are O/S agnostic like network issues. Just sayin'.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Either way, he's no worse off; and either way, I WIN?! he, he, he... Well that was my thinking before Lillian got an iPad or my back neighbor started having troubles connecting his HP printer to an iMac. It's a computer isn't it? Actually if you know Linux it isn't that hard to fix Macs you know. Besides a lot of problems are O/S agnostic like network issues. Just sayin'.... You're prolly right...and I could prolly figure it out...so don't blow my cover Ray! Besides, I'm thinking that the smug Apple fanbois whose IT experience consists of advising him to "just get a Mac", should have to step to the plate and help him learn "how" to use that Mac. Again...I win! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Over the years I have been given a shed full of PC's Mac's and Apple puters. They without exception have arrived here after the donor has shelled out big bucks for a new one as the previous one has gone kaput . wont work . or just too darn full with carp for the mem or HD to cope at anything more than a snails pace . With very few exceptions I have gotten all these puters to work again ,sometimes very efficiently .The PC that is now in use cost the guy 1375euro and was only 4yrs old when he abandoned it to my shed . All I had to do was insert a live distro and then I was in . I think it was antix. Had a good laugh around the files and then installed Slackware . and moved his carp out . Sometimes the PC's have been hacked ,then I just slapped an ISO in the opt/drive and got a brand new pc for such little effort . The generation now starting at school will be a little more computer savvy . but as mentioned before there will always be dweebs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Picking over the PC cadavers and resurrecting them used to be a lot more fun when you were getting a solid 4-5 year old desktop that could be upgraded if needed. These days I usually see a clapped out 7 year old laptop that isn't worth it. A notable exception is the Toshiba NB-305 netbook I got from neighbor Charlie. That one has a true 64 bit 2nd gen Atom CPU. It always ran like a dog with Windows Starter. Putting in a $50 SSD and installing a real O/S like MX-16 made a huge difference. I even got to use the old 250 GB HDD as a backup drive for my data. Win-Win. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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