Like cars, having a knack for fixing computers is a curse.  Everyone you know that finds out you know stuff about computers will constantly ask you for help and personal trips to their house.  I don’t mind fixing computers when there is nothing really wrong.  I went to my Aunt’s last night for instance and helped her set up her brand new compaq computer with Vista.  This wasn’t bad at all I just plugged a few things in, showed her how to use her digital camera and printer, installed firefox and a few extensions and setup some bookmarks for her to use.  Not bad.

The real trouble cases are the ones of people who have had their computer for a year or two and have managed to get it so full of spyware that they can’t even use it.  I just think, if you can’t even use your computer, how do you expect me to fix it?

Even worse are the people who want you to “fix” their 10 year old dinosaurs.  Lady, Microsoft doesn’t even support windows 95 anymore, why should I?  Okay, I’ll take a look at it.  Wow, a K6 233 with built on ethernet, I guess it really was top of the line when you bought it.  That doesn’t help you now.  Go buy something worth my time.

The worst part of all is the people that think my time and gas aren’t worth anything to me.  If I drive 30 miles roundtrip to your house to fix your computer, I at the very least expect compensation for gas.  This can come in the form of free food.  I don’t mind fixing your computer but, I do have other things to do and I am a poor college student.

Overall, I like being helpful to people, especially friends and family and I won’t confront anyone about it, I’ll just help them as much as I can, it can just be really frustrating to be pulled in so many directions at once.