At 11:14 PM 5/5/98 +0100, you wrote:
>When I call Tech Support I will have made some attempts to check the
>obvious, gather evidence, and solve the problem. In particular :
>
>I'll have checked the 'bleeding obvious' - that it's plugged in, that I
>am running the program I think I am running, etc
Ah, but you are (especially for mainstream stuff) reasonably rare. The
average I-bought-my-computer-at-circuit-city-and-got-a-free-hair-dryer
idiot has done none of that. Most likely, he's tripped over the power cord
and unplugged it, or tried to install a pirated game that had a virus and
his hd is toast or...
Which does, I agree, present a problem for those of us who *do* know what
we're doing. There's nothing I hate more than having some nitwit read the
manual to me. (Unless, of course, I'm calling because I don't have the
manual.)
Dunno if there's a solution. I try to find a knowledgeable support person
for software/hardware I use a lot and make sure they know who I am and that
I'm not a git.
>I'll be sitting in front of my machine with a 'scope, logic analyser,
>software debugger, etc at the ready
"you're out there, man, like f***ing pluto." 8^)
>IBM are better than most, at least for providing parts/manuals. They may
>claim that a machine never existed (IBM UK told be there was 'no such
>thing as a PC-jr'), but they can often find all sorts of things given a
>part number or forms number.
IBM does seem to be pretty good. I requested info about a couple of
"PC-Radio's" I picked up, and got back a lot of info (albeit badly
formatted. 8^)
>Sending in bug reports (and even better, fixes) for ancient products is
>great fun :-).
I would think calling would be better still. 8^)
>> And DON'T COPY ANY SOFTWARE. I don't even care if it was made by a
>> criminal, it gives you no right to do the same.
Yep. Fastest way to put a company out of business is to steal their
product. Hmmm... Anyone want a copy of Microsoft Office? 8^) (JUST
KIDDING!!!)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California
http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Wed May 06 1998 - 21:35:44 BST