which_chick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
which_chick) wrote2009-07-25 02:07 pm
which_chick) wrote2009-07-25 02:07 pm
(no subject)
I had hoped that once I got rid of the damn internet, I would not be stuck fixing computers for other people anymore. I was aware that my hope was stupid and unlikely and ultimately doomed to failure, but still I hoped. (I haven't yet figured out how to shut off the hope feature. It pops up like that bubble help in XP...) I would probably hate fixing computers for other people a bit less if I wasn't stuck fixing them to a standard of frailty that I personally find annoying as all hell.
It's like the system is set up for normal people to fail.
Hazel is in her early nineties. Three years ago, she bought a Compaq computer. She bought it new. It did not come with a Windows XP disk. It came with Windows XP pre-installed. According to Compaq, she was supposed to make her own Windows XP disks once she got the computer. However, the handout materials (gone) that came with the computer did not make this clear enough because no disks were made.
Last weekend, her hard drive failed to the point where the hard drive didn't detect on boot -- no heads or cylinders or sectors. The hard drive was dead, dead, dead. I cracked the case, wrote down the drive numbers, went online, and bought her a new hard drive. It cost me fifty-odd bucks for a new hard drive, including shipping. I couldn't get an exact match on the hard drive, so I went with the same manufacturer, next-gen, and that was close enough to work. Go me! (This is a level of technical expertise that is beyond Hazel and all of her family.)
I installed the new hard drive, a matter of installing four screws and clicking it into place, then sticking on two shaped connectors to the appropriate places. It's not like I could even screw up the connector part. The new hard drive did not come with an operating system pre-installed on it. (That would have cost a lot more, money that Hazel doesn't really have.)
Now, I had handy a Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade disk. Said Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade disk required from me a valid previous Windows OS disk (95, 98, ME, 2000, whatever) to convince it to install on a blank hard drive. Hazel's previous computer before the Compaq was a Gateway and, while she still *had* the install disks for that, they would not install on her Compaq nor would the Windows 98 disk from the Gateway install kit work for the Windows XP Home Edition upgrade disk's check because Gateway fucks the disks with their own shit. Fortunately for us all, I have a valid and functional Windows 98 CD from somewhere and *that* made the Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade happy enough to install. (Note that I am not approaching this problem with the resources of an average computer user. I have more resources than normal people. Normal people would be stuck, here, without an operating system.)
Am I a software pirate? Probably, if you ask Microsoft. I'm reasonably certain that the XP version I installed on Hazel's new hard drive was installed on some other hard drive somewhere else in the world. Possibly even *gasp* more than once. However, Hazel once bought a legitimate copy of Windows XP. It was on her Compaq computer. She DID HAVE A LEGIT COPY THAT SHE BOUGHT. Now, she did not know how to get it off of her Compaq computer and Compaq did not give her disks OR a fucking product authorization code. Is that her fault? If Compaq had given her a lousy ten cent disk in a paper envelope with an auth code, there would be no software piracy, here. Hell, if Microsoft had insisted that system buyers get real disks for the OS that they've purchased, there would be no software piracy going on here. (It's like they want people to fail.)
Instead, these companies figure that a ninety-odd year old woman with very little technical fluency is going to be able to create her own disks to reload or repair an operating system. If you laid out a stack of disks in front of Hazel (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft NT 4.0) and asked her to choose which one was the operating system that she's been using for the last three years, she would not be able to make the correct selection. How is she supposed to make her own freaking backup disks? Companies that act like this, I have no sympathy for them. If Hazel had never legitimately purchased a copy of XP, I would not be quick to install a copy of XP on her empty hard drive. However, she DID purchase a legit copy of the software. If you ask me, I'm simply fixing what Compaq and Microsoft did incorrectly by failing to provide her with a backup of the product she bought.
So, XP is installed on the puter. It boots into XP. It's only been three hours, too. So. I'm all done now, right?
(Hollow laughter)
Oh, fuck no.
XP has multiple updates that have to be installed once the base OS is in place. There are security updates and stuff. -- All done.
The OS comes without any antivirus. Little old ladies who fill out online survey shit need antivirus software. -- Done.
Internet Explorer has updates that need to be installed so that she can update the operating system. Also, she needs the icon removed from the menu and desktop so that she's forced to use Firefox instead. -- Done.
The sound needs to be fixed. -- Done.
The printer needs to be installed and I'll have to get drivers for that from somewhere. (I have tabled this until later. I don't give a shit if the printer works or not.)
Her email needs to be configured so that it works -- this will require a fucking phone call to fucking Frontier Communications wherein I have to convince them to give me Hazel's username and password, neither of which she remembers. -- Done.
It's 1 PM. I should be done around4 PM 2 PM. I started at about 10 AM. I've rebooted about six times. I've had to have two legit copies of MS operating systems. I've had to know what to do all along. I brought along my laptop to entertain myself during the exceedingly unentertaining portions of this program. This is not something that the computer companies and Microsoft want normal people to be able to do.
And so I hate them. On the other hand, my work here is done.
Off you go, little lamb!
It's like the system is set up for normal people to fail.
Hazel is in her early nineties. Three years ago, she bought a Compaq computer. She bought it new. It did not come with a Windows XP disk. It came with Windows XP pre-installed. According to Compaq, she was supposed to make her own Windows XP disks once she got the computer. However, the handout materials (gone) that came with the computer did not make this clear enough because no disks were made.
Last weekend, her hard drive failed to the point where the hard drive didn't detect on boot -- no heads or cylinders or sectors. The hard drive was dead, dead, dead. I cracked the case, wrote down the drive numbers, went online, and bought her a new hard drive. It cost me fifty-odd bucks for a new hard drive, including shipping. I couldn't get an exact match on the hard drive, so I went with the same manufacturer, next-gen, and that was close enough to work. Go me! (This is a level of technical expertise that is beyond Hazel and all of her family.)
I installed the new hard drive, a matter of installing four screws and clicking it into place, then sticking on two shaped connectors to the appropriate places. It's not like I could even screw up the connector part. The new hard drive did not come with an operating system pre-installed on it. (That would have cost a lot more, money that Hazel doesn't really have.)
Now, I had handy a Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade disk. Said Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade disk required from me a valid previous Windows OS disk (95, 98, ME, 2000, whatever) to convince it to install on a blank hard drive. Hazel's previous computer before the Compaq was a Gateway and, while she still *had* the install disks for that, they would not install on her Compaq nor would the Windows 98 disk from the Gateway install kit work for the Windows XP Home Edition upgrade disk's check because Gateway fucks the disks with their own shit. Fortunately for us all, I have a valid and functional Windows 98 CD from somewhere and *that* made the Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade happy enough to install. (Note that I am not approaching this problem with the resources of an average computer user. I have more resources than normal people. Normal people would be stuck, here, without an operating system.)
Am I a software pirate? Probably, if you ask Microsoft. I'm reasonably certain that the XP version I installed on Hazel's new hard drive was installed on some other hard drive somewhere else in the world. Possibly even *gasp* more than once. However, Hazel once bought a legitimate copy of Windows XP. It was on her Compaq computer. She DID HAVE A LEGIT COPY THAT SHE BOUGHT. Now, she did not know how to get it off of her Compaq computer and Compaq did not give her disks OR a fucking product authorization code. Is that her fault? If Compaq had given her a lousy ten cent disk in a paper envelope with an auth code, there would be no software piracy, here. Hell, if Microsoft had insisted that system buyers get real disks for the OS that they've purchased, there would be no software piracy going on here. (It's like they want people to fail.)
Instead, these companies figure that a ninety-odd year old woman with very little technical fluency is going to be able to create her own disks to reload or repair an operating system. If you laid out a stack of disks in front of Hazel (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft NT 4.0) and asked her to choose which one was the operating system that she's been using for the last three years, she would not be able to make the correct selection. How is she supposed to make her own freaking backup disks? Companies that act like this, I have no sympathy for them. If Hazel had never legitimately purchased a copy of XP, I would not be quick to install a copy of XP on her empty hard drive. However, she DID purchase a legit copy of the software. If you ask me, I'm simply fixing what Compaq and Microsoft did incorrectly by failing to provide her with a backup of the product she bought.
So, XP is installed on the puter. It boots into XP. It's only been three hours, too. So. I'm all done now, right?
(Hollow laughter)
Oh, fuck no.
XP has multiple updates that have to be installed once the base OS is in place. There are security updates and stuff. -- All done.
The OS comes without any antivirus. Little old ladies who fill out online survey shit need antivirus software. -- Done.
Internet Explorer has updates that need to be installed so that she can update the operating system. Also, she needs the icon removed from the menu and desktop so that she's forced to use Firefox instead. -- Done.
The sound needs to be fixed. -- Done.
The printer needs to be installed and I'll have to get drivers for that from somewhere. (I have tabled this until later. I don't give a shit if the printer works or not.)
Her email needs to be configured so that it works -- this will require a fucking phone call to fucking Frontier Communications wherein I have to convince them to give me Hazel's username and password, neither of which she remembers. -- Done.
It's 1 PM. I should be done around
And so I hate them. On the other hand, my work here is done.
Off you go, little lamb!