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Fixing Macs door to door

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Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#191

Post by wkat4242 »

busterarm wrote: post #167
wkat4242 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm if you're fixing PCs as I did you don't end up working for meth-toothed people :P Maybe not the most attractive people no, but regular middle-class people at the very least. Especially when you were fixing macs which were even more premium priced here in Europe back then than they are now. I fixed all sorts of stuff but I would not have marginalised clients. I guess it's also why I didn't get such offers :P I did…

Comment OP here. Most of the people who were my clients were artist types who moved to the public transportation fringes of Brooklyn where rent was the cheapest (at that time). They were barely skating by and usually had pretty roachy apartments. A large percentage of these folks were very into drug use... in a way that it hindered achieving the goals that they moved to NY to accomplish. I took on these clients speci…

Ahh I see. When I was young, Holland was in a very different place. Much less income equality so almost everyone was middle class and pretty respectable.

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#192

Post by alienthrowaway »

lozf wrote: post #182
thelittleone wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found same on laptop of an insurance company CFO. Had to ignore it.

Yup, C-level execs changing file extensions from .avi to .xls etc. lol.

I found a stash of porn in C:\Windows\System22 - it caught my attention because I figured it had to be some malware.

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#193

Post by rainonmoon »

lannisterstark wrote: post #179
wnolens wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did window cleaning in the 2000s and went inside many rich folks homes. It was my favorite part of the job. But I had a much different experience. They were kind, more humanizing than middle class housewives, and very proud of their homes which were often fully custom to their spec. Most had built a successful business. Perhaps my curiosity went a long way to flatter them, or they saw themselves in me - young and h…

>They were kind, more humanizing than middle class housewives Honestly most "rich rich" people I've come across are like that. Most "snobby" rich people are not honestly that rich at all, comparatively, or are very new money etc. (think of "dude who sold their startup for 20 million").

An ex worked in luxury travel. She said you could always tell rich-rich from newly rich immediately. The first group would shop for value and look for experiences. Money was like water for them, plentiful but unexceptional. The latter would just hit everything with the biggest number next to it.

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#194

Post by scho3000 »

Surprised to see Wiha mentioned here. The founder lived with his family in my hometown and my mother worked in his household back in the 60s at the age of 14/15. Definitely different times back then!

Edit: Did not follow Wiha and didn’t know that it became this big! When reading it, I only remembered stories of my mother how she took care of the children and was totally blown away to have such a personal connection from a seemingly unrelated story.

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#195

Post by KRAKRISMOTT »

Nextgrid wrote: post #178
smith7018 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also did this in the 2000s and while it was fun to peer into their lives, the amount of porn I was forced to see on elderly people's machines was... not great. Especially during those rare occurrences where they wanted to watch what I was doing to "learn how to use the computer." Just awkward all around.

Had a similar experience. Long ago when I was younger and poorer I offered IT support on my country's equivalent of Craigslist. Fairly well-off elderly chap wanted me to fix his laptop - was an underpowered machine that somehow got Vista installed on it (but no graphics drivers, so everything was in 640x480) so was unusably slow. Now the proper answer to that would be to just tell him to buy a new computer, but I did…

Did you remember to disable the open ssh server and NAT hole puncher after you finished with installation?

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#197

Post by Nextgrid »

KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #195
Nextgrid wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had a similar experience. Long ago when I was younger and poorer I offered IT support on my country's equivalent of Craigslist. Fairly well-off elderly chap wanted me to fix his laptop - was an underpowered machine that somehow got Vista installed on it (but no graphics drivers, so everything was in 640x480) so was unusably slow. Now the proper answer to that would be to just tell him to buy a new computer, but I did…

Did you remember to disable the open ssh server and NAT hole puncher after you finished with installation?

Pretty sure the script made his machine SSH back to one of mine rather than open ports.

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#199

Post by FireBeyond »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #87
KennyBlanken wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a PSA (not trying to harp on parent commenter, just taking their comment as an opportunity to soapbox) but never, ever, every go into a room or building that is getting smokey from something burning. It's how you N+1 the casualty/death count in a fire. Unlike the heroes in films and movies, you don't have Plot Armor. It is incredibly common that people think they can just go back in holding their breath or stay…

Firefighter here. I will walk into a burning building if I'm wearing bunker gear, breathing from a working SCBA, carrying a Halligan or axe so I can chop my way back out if I have to, and my buddy is with me carrying a hose squirting water. Lots of water. Said hose must be attached to a BRT (big red truck) on the other end so that when I can't see shit and my air alarm starts beeping we can crawl along by feeling sai…

> crawl along by feeling said hose

Smooth bump bump, back to the pump!

But yep, absolutely. We will risk a lot, in a calculated manner, for savable life. And I will not send my guys interior on a confirmed empty defensive fire.

Re: Fixing Macs door to door

#200

Post by FireBeyond »

wnolens wrote: post #129
KennyBlanken wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a PSA (not trying to harp on parent commenter, just taking their comment as an opportunity to soapbox) but never, ever, every go into a room or building that is getting smokey from something burning. It's how you N+1 the casualty/death count in a fire. Unlike the heroes in films and movies, you don't have Plot Armor. It is incredibly common that people think they can just go back in holding their breath or stay…

> It is incredibly common that people think they can just go back in holding their breath or stay low or cover their mouth with their clothing like in hollywood Thanks, I had the slight impression that this was true and now feel incredibly stupid.

Yeah, as another firefighter, please don't. That often ends tragically, a t-shirt or towel will do nothing to stop smoke particulates.
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