Comments on: Being your own IT person still sucks

Once again, I'm reminded just why doing a few supposedly simple fixes and upgrades can entangle even relatively computer savvy folks.

[henebry]

I'm an Apple fanboy, but I won't pretend I don't ever run into technical glitches with my machines. And I feel just as you do about the task of serving as the family's tech support guy.

[georgi0u]

Go and by a 12meter kite for kiteboarding, or a surfboard, or a set of skis. Then go take a lesson or two. Then live your life.

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

[Kev Orng]

IE7's new tab function... isn't that the feature developed by the Opera browser in 2001 and adopted by Firefox in 02 and Safari in 03?

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!

[rcdpryde]

Can I just point out that you should be calling it Apptel as Apples now use the same Intel based chipsets as PC's. Therefore any issues caused by Intel will be common to both Apples and Windows based machines.

[ddsherwood]

Hey Steve Tobak you're enamored "of" something not "with" something, enamored is passive.
Let your editor know too.

[stobak]

I'll take full credit for the grammar; blog posts are rarely edited.

Thanks,
Steve Tobak

[stobak]

I don't know why, but I actually decided to look it up. According to M-W, it can be used either way, depending on the meaning. In this case, you may be right, but it appears that the word is being used more and more with "with" over time, right or wrong.
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

[Zsoldier]

If you are IT proficient and your family members are not, it does not matter whether they use a Mac or PC. It's inevitable that they will come to you w/ some kind of problem, be it simple or complicated. I use both at home, my wife has some issues w/ her mac. The upside to the mac is it tends to be quicker at booting up and resuming from standby. (Newer hardware will probably do that)

[mhinnewyork]

I feel your pain.

[dragonbite]

I go through the same thing at home and yes, it is very frustrating. "...OK, maybe that's a bit much...." (actually, it probably isn't ;) )

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.

[jvacierto]

I also feel your pain. I am the IT guy for both my family and my fiance's family and it seems like every time I go to my fiance's family's place, her mom always has some computer problem I have to solve. It definitely takes away time I could be spending with my fiance.

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.

[wilson350z]

As someone that has switched to Mac and has had an iPod both on Mac and PC I can attest to the fact that iPods work much better on Macs (what a surprise). My iPod used to freeze up constantly (2-3 times a week) and I though it was because I had and 80GB with 70GB of music, but once I got a Mac and reformatted my iPod to the Mac format I haven't had a problem since (swiched 0ct 2007). I'm not saying that everyone that has a PC and an iPod should switch, but I really think Apple should get their act together since many of my friends have had similar issue. Also one other note regarding iTunes that I tell everyone new to iTunes. Make sure to switch your format to MP3 and if you are not to worried about space 320 Kbps. With MP3 you can be sure the cd's you rip will play anywhere and 320 Kbps just sounds so much better.

[tashman]

Steve take it from an IT Person, don't ever fix something or change anything that the user didn't ask you to do. That is the only thing you did wrong. As for the spool error, this is usually your firewall getting confused so the first thing you did (replacing the firewall) probably fixed it.

[tashman]

Steve take it from an IT Person, don't ever fix something or change anything that the user didn't ask you to do. That is the only thing you did wrong. As for the spool error, this is usually your firewall getting confused so the first thing you did (replacing the firewall) probably fixed it.

[Rezabe]

would you please let those Cnet programmers know that this comment system in your site just make me sick! again and again I post my comment and it just says the comment failed and all those precious line I wrote are gone for ever!

[stobak]

Done. Thanks for letting me know and sorry about that.

Steve Tobak

[miketheitguy]

I can definitely relate to this article because I'm the IT guy all day at work and feel like I am on call 24/7 for my family tech support. Though comparing an iPod Nano to any Mac isn't a fair apple to apple comparison (pun intended). In fact, my kids and I rarely have problems with our iPods. Also, I am both a PC and a Mac user and have recently switched my kids to an iMac because of all the havoc they would reak on their PC, no matter hard tight I would lock it down. My wife isn't as hard on her PC as the kids were on thiers, but her Windows based machine still needs more maintenance then our Macs. Just a fact.

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.

[StrongBrad247]

I totally feel for ya! I'm a Mac and a PC IT guy and I can't go anywhere without someone asking me a question. When I visit my parents, my wife heads to the living room with my ma as my father will drag me into the office to fix another computer problem. :-) Oh well... at least we get a free dinner out of it!

[laxmanchip]

I feel your pain!

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!

[sanjayb]

Not only am I the IT guy in our family but I also handle my sister's small business. Shouldn't I get paid for that? :-) Whenever I have to confront a computer problem, I just think of how long it should take and then double it! Chances are something isn't going to work right once.
BTW, I recently switched to a Mac as my home computer. Loving it!!!!

[gsmiller88]

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.