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Off topic: What is a "technical guy"?
Thread poster: Tom in London
TechStyle
TechStyle  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:15
Technical jobs Sep 13, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

My question is: if you're a Windows user and you **do** need a technical guy, do you actually know what he does?

[Edited at 2015-09-13 14:07 GMT]


If you knew that, you'd be halfway to being able to do it yourself...

Driver problems
Viruses
Data/file system corruption
Password resets
Backups and data recovery

In short, if something doesn't work, or you need it changed. Digging up an old example: "Office 2000 fails to install with error 2343". (That's an error that means Office has detected a trace of Lotus Notes present, and hates rival products so refuses to install. How many Windows users do you think can resolve that one for themselves?)

Or you want some extra RAM fitted, move to a bigger/faster hard drive, replace your graphics card? Most of these aren't Windows specific, either: I've added RAM and better drives to several of my Macs.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:15
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
So have I Sep 13, 2015

James Sutherland wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

My question is: if you're a Windows user and you **do** need a technical guy, do you actually know what he does?

[Edited at 2015-09-13 14:07 GMT]


If you knew that, you'd be halfway to being able to do it yourself...

Driver problems
Viruses
Data/file system corruption
Password resets
Backups and data recovery

In short, if something doesn't work, or you need it changed. Digging up an old example: "Office 2000 fails to install with error 2343". (That's an error that means Office has detected a trace of Lotus Notes present, and hates rival products so refuses to install. How many Windows users do you think can resolve that one for themselves?)

Or you want some extra RAM fitted, move to a bigger/faster hard drive, replace your graphics card? Most of these aren't Windows specific, either: I've added RAM and better drives to several of my Macs.


So have I. You don't need a "technical guy" for that.

My point is that many Windows users seem to need regular attendance from a "technical guy" they know and who they call on regularly, for things that seem to mainly relate to persistent, repeatedly occurring problems with the Windows operating system itself that require those users to always have the availability of this "technical guy" on the end of the phone, who physically comes to their premises and gets access to their computer, and "fixes" it - but then something else goes wrong.

[Edited at 2015-09-13 23:29 GMT]


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Tom Sep 14, 2015

Tom in London wrote:
My point is that many Windows users seem to need regular attendance from a "technical guy" they know and who they call on regularly, for things that seem to mainly relate to persistent, repeatedly occurring problems with the Windows operating system itself that require those users to always have the availability of this "technical guy" on the end of the phone, who physically comes to their premises and gets access to their computer, and "fixes" it - but then something else goes wrong.


I think some users are just not as tech-savvy as that.

For such users, smart phones and tablets must be heaven, because the entire phone/tablet is replaced once a year or once every two years, and although the new phone/tablet has the same operating system on it, it works slightly differently, and they have to relearn how to do the most basic tasks, but once they've acclimatised to the new device, they have no further problems. With a computer, people tend to want the new computer to work exactly like their previous computers, and that requires tweaking... and tweaking breaks things.

Perhaps we are all the "tech guy" for someone else who is less tech-savvy than us (a family member or neighbour who is an occasional user or a "home" user of the computer, as opposed to power users like us).




[Edited at 2015-09-14 06:16 GMT]


 
Michael Wetzel
Michael Wetzel  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:15
German to English
not an issue Sep 14, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

My point is that many Windows users seem to need regular attendance from a "technical guy" they know and who they call on regularly, for things that seem to mainly relate to persistent, repeatedly occurring problems with the Windows operating system itself that require those users to always have the availability of this "technical guy" on the end of the phone, who physically comes to their premises and gets access to their computer, and "fixes" it - but then something else goes wrong.

[Edited at 2015-09-13 23:29 GMT]


I've never used a Mac, so maybe I'm missing something, but I am not particularly computer-savvy and do not regularly have any kinds of problems with my PC and never have any problems that I can't fix myself after a little help from Google. Are you sure your friend wasn't trying to sell you a Mac?

I think that is why a lot of people have reacted to your question the way they did: You basically asked: Assuming that PCs are inferior junk, should I buy one and what is it like working with the dishonest shyster IT-guys who help you when you have troubles with your inferior junk? (PS: If you use a PC that is not inferior junk or you do not enlist the help of a dishonest IT-guy, please don't answer this question.)

And my computer also kept asking me to install Windows 10, but being the technical genius that I am, I decided not to click on the link to install it. That solution has worked very well so far.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:15
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Wrong Sep 14, 2015

I think you ought to re-read my original post, and my follow-ups. I did not ask anything like the question you attribute to me.

Michael Wetzel wrote:

You basically asked: Assuming that PCs are inferior junk, should I buy one and what is it like working with the dishonest shyster IT-guys who help you when you have troubles with your inferior junk?


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:15
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Tweak Sep 14, 2015

Samuel Murray wrote:

... and tweaking breaks things.



What kind of tweaks are you talking about? Hardware or software?


 
TechStyle
TechStyle  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:15
Will the technical guy please stand up? Sep 14, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

So have I. You don't need a "technical guy" for that.

My point is that many Windows users seem to need regular attendance from a "technical guy" they know and who they call on regularly, for things that seem to mainly relate to persistent, repeatedly occurring problems with the Windows operating system itself that require those users to always have the availability of this "technical guy" on the end of the phone, who physically comes to their premises and gets access to their computer, and "fixes" it - but then something else goes wrong.

[Edited at 2015-09-13 23:29 GMT]


I think the problem there is you're overestimating the average user - in your case, you are a technical guy, without having thought of it as such. How many of the people on this forum do you think would feel comfortable replacing RAM or hard drives for themselves? Or, of course, installing Windows on a Mac - something else I took in stride as a Mac "tech guy" in the past.

Having done it as a minor side-job for a while, yes, it's more common on Windows, but there certainly were Mac issues too (can't print to the network printer, email not working, etc) - things I'd fix for myself on either platform, you'd presumably take in stride on OS X, but a lot of people just have to phone for help. In your case, it seems you've never needed a separate tech guy - until now, when the context-specific answer is "it's the guy who would install Windows on your Mac for you".

It's easy to take for granted: being an international department, some of the laptops I was helping with were in French or German, but I never thought about that until seeing a monoglot colleague stumped, saying something like "what the hell's a Datei and where's the File menu gone?" - at which point, I suppose he'd have had to bring in a "languages guy" to help, probably a bilingual student (who would probably be stumped and thinking "of course Datei means file in German, but what the hell's a DHCP server?"). I did think about the language aspect a whole lot more when it was a Japanese one, though...


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:15
French to English
no qualms here Sep 14, 2015

I have no qualms about saying that I work with Windows, I have a tech guy and I don't know what he does.

He's a sweet guy I happen to share an office with (along with a couple of other translators). He is a software developer but is highly hardware-savvy too. When I get a problem he comes and clicks and sorts it out, usually in less time than it takes me to make him a cup of tea. To thank him, I bring generous slices of my famous cheesecake (Nigel Slater's actually!).

... See more
I have no qualms about saying that I work with Windows, I have a tech guy and I don't know what he does.

He's a sweet guy I happen to share an office with (along with a couple of other translators). He is a software developer but is highly hardware-savvy too. When I get a problem he comes and clicks and sorts it out, usually in less time than it takes me to make him a cup of tea. To thank him, I bring generous slices of my famous cheesecake (Nigel Slater's actually!).

I have often accused my tech guy of planting new problems in my computer. He laughs and accuses me of putting something addictive in my cheesecake.

Once he put a fake virus in my computer and apparently the look on my face the next time I turned my computer on was priceless and well worth the mega-sulk I then treated him to.

I'm sure he'd enjoy a trip to London to check your computer out, Tom .
Collapse


 
Charlie Bavington
Charlie Bavington  Identity Verified
Local time: 08:15
French to English
Nonetheless... Sep 14, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

I think you ought to re-read my original post, and my follow-ups. I did not ask anything like the question you attribute to me.

Michael Wetzel wrote:

You basically asked: Assuming that PCs are inferior junk, should I buy one and what is it like working with the dishonest shyster IT-guys who help you when you have troubles with your inferior junk?


... that is a reasonable interpretation of the original question in light of your subsequent responses. If you don't wish to create that impression, try changing your tone; you're supposed to be a talented craftsman of polished English after all. You've had many valid explanations for the situation with Windows users who do indeed struggle technically.

If you don't want to use Windows, don't bloody use it and stop wasting our time.


 
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