Being your own IT person still sucks
Last week, my wife's Dell Inspiron decided to stop printing to our wireless HP all-in-one. It was apparently a problem with the spooler, whatever that is. At that point, I had two choices: leave it alone and hope for a miracle, or fix it and perform some upgrades I'd been putting off.
Let me back up and explain something. I hate working on my wife's computer. Whatever I do inevitably screws something up, it takes way longer than I would like, and well, let's just say, my wife is impatient when it comes to technology.
It's OK for a doctor or dentist to poke and prod her, but when I poke or prod her computer, she acts as if I do it for the pure sadistic enjoyment of screwing up her peaceful existence.
OK, maybe that's a bit much. To be honest, I used to act the exact same way when the IT people where I used to work upgraded my computer. What goes around comes around, right?
Anyway, the first step was giving PC-cillan the boot--since its license had expired and I wasn't 100 percent enamored with it--and installing Kaspersky Internet Security. I'd already made the switch on my Sony Vaio notebook and it seems to be performing well. Then I upgraded Windows XP to Service Pack 3 and Internet Explorer to version 7.
Lastly, I set my wife up with a Gmail account and added it to Outlook. This is something she had actually asked for. I did a little exploration into POP versus IMAP and decided the IMAP functionality was far superior, so I went with that.
While I was at it, I fixed a couple of things that had been bogging down her system.
When all that was done, the spooler problem had magically disappeared, probably from rebooting the system 16 times. I ran a few tests and everything seemed to be running fine. The service had taken the better part of a day and night, but I felt like it was time well spent.
My wife didn't exactly see it that way. When I showed her the IMAP Gmail on Outlook, she balked, saying it was too complicated. I tried to recover by showing her IE7's new tab function, but she wasn't impressed. To each her own, I thought. So I made the Gmail change and gave the computer back to her.
The following evening I was greeted with a litany of complaints from my wife: the system's slow, I can't get on my favorite Web sites, I'm getting duplicate email messages, Outlook takes forever to load, etc. She stopped short of blasting me for screwing up her computer, but I could tell she was just dying to say it. I could see it in her eyes.
So the next day I spent the morning fixing all the glitches and issues that the modifications (and my screw-ups, I admit) had left behind. I haven't heard any complaints since, but I'm still holding my breath.
As you know from a previous column, I hate being my own IT manager. Half the comments I got on that column were from the Apple faithful who insisted that, if I just made the switch to Macs, all my troubles would magically melt away. Everything just works, right?
Well, my only experience with Apple, to date, has been with an iPod Nano I received as a promotional gift a couple of years ago. It felt good to finally become a part of the 21st century and own something Apple.
The first thing I did was rip all my CDs into iTunes, which I spent countless hours doing. Over the next few months, I bought about $100 worth of songs off iTunes, as well.
But when we recently installed an MP3 audio server, I found that it would take a miracle to copy all my iTunes files onto the server. Yes, I know there are programs that do that, but the first one I tried failed and I got frustrated. In any case, the official story from the server manufacturer is that they're not supposed to support it, so they were no help. I still haven't gotten it done.
Since most of the files are from my own CDs that I paid for, and I paid a buck a song for the rest, this just seems ludicrous.
I should also add that my iPod has crashed or locked up or whatever they call it in Apple land numerous times. And I still can't figure out why, after about a year, it just decided to stop being able to play songs randomly.
In terms of the problems and headaches I've had with the iPod and iTunes, considering that they serve a single function, I'd rate them just as problematic as PCs, which serve numerous functions that are far more critical to my business and personal life.
So, excuse me if I don't just give in and make a wholesale switch to Apple.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that my experience is generic or that anyone else should feel like I do. I am aware that Apple computers are probably less complex than their Wintel counterparts for many, if not most, applications. I also think that, since Steve Jobs returned to Apple, its products are remarkably innovative.
That said, the real point of the post is this: I don't know if it's just me, but lately I've been afraid that, when I die and my life passes before my eyes, all I'll see is all the time I wasted screwing around with computers and other gadgets. And that scares me.
Steve Tobak is managing partner of Invisor Consulting LLC. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
Only reason i suggest this, is because I'm the same way. I'm the IT guy at my job, and at home, and after a few years of just being constantly surrounded by screens i realized that my motivation to be happy was being drowned out by the numbness that fixing the constant problems with computers provides. Now I ski all winter and spend all of my summer at the beach doing random things (top of the list being Kiteboarding, check it out) and when I go into work, I can day dream about it while my fingers keep busy on a keyboard...
-adam
A lot of your internet problems would "melt away" as you say if you switched to Firefox, it's a safer, superior browser. All IE7 seems to be able to do is copy it and claim 7-year-old innovations as their own "new" thing.
But I know what you're saying, you have a change-ophobe who will panic if the browser doesn't look the same. My mom was the same, but I purged IE from her sight and now she's used to Firefox, and i don't have to worry about her browser at least.
You think being your home IT person is bad, try being IT for family members you don't live with!
Let your editor know too.
Thanks,
Steve Tobak
Enamored:
1 : to inflame with love ?usually used in the passive with of
2 : to cause to feel a strong or excessive interest or fascination ?usually used in the passive with of or with
Thanks,
Steve Tobak
My wife is one of those people who are not interseted in computers until after you show her how SHE can benefit from it (and so long as it is easy). My wife is very visually orientated so I've documented things with images for more complex tasks and sat down for training with her after the kids are in bed.
It all comes down to the "customer's perception".
I have also called "executive priviledges" a couple times, such as saying "we will now use Firefox, because it's more secure." and remove the links to and defaults of Internet Exlorer (ver 6 at that time).
I've told her, "If I die, buy a Mac" but secretly I'm training my son to move her to Linux instead ;) He's six, so I'll have to hold on for a little while!
The good thing is now before I present anything to the user at work, I put it through the "wife check". If I think she'll understand it then it's ready for the user.
I personally use a Mac and I'm a fanboy to a certain extent, but I'm an electrical engineer and so I'm pragmatic and I like things to work. My Mac doesn't always work and I've had numerous crashes. The Mac isn't perfect and Leopard still has some glitches even after the 10.5.3 update (Airport is still somewhat touchy on my Macbook Pro). However, I do spend a lot less time troubleshooting my Mac compared to my fiance's mom's Vista PC. Computers are complicated and will always have problems, but if I could switch my fiance's mom to a Mac just so I can spend LESS time troubleshooting, I would.
Steve Tobak
As far as the Apptel comment, it's more about the OS then the processor when it comes to the problems I'm seeing on a daily basis, and I support both platforms day in and day out.
I currently live in NY, but I moved around the US a lot over the past few years and I still get calls from people in FL and VA asking for computer help.
Thank god for Remote Assistance! Otherwise, I'd have to try to talk them through the process... I don't have enough patience when I have to break it down so far that I'm telling the person to "make sure you click the left mouse button, not the right." Ugh!
BTW, I recently switched to a Mac as my home computer. Loving it!!!!
- by gsmiller88 June 2, 2008 10:00 AM PDT
- Unfortunately your wife sounds like she doesn't like much of anything, especially change, so simply switching her to a Mac probably wouldn't be that successful. Sure you wouldn't have as many things to fix, but you would have to constantly hear her nag how it is different and how she liked the way this or that worked in Windows. That being said, not all Apple products are created equal. I have a Mac with both Leopard and Windows XP installed on it and I cringe at the thought of having to use Apple software on Windows. Safari and iTunes are slow, QuickTime works when it wants to, and Software Update doesn't even work. I can say I have never encountered any of those problems on the Mac side (except with QuickTime, which only plays about a third of the media you throw at it). So unfortunately this is just a problem that our type must live with.
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