Source
r/talesfromtechsupport•
polyfeux

Resurrecting the dead is never a good bargain

About myself: I'm a 24 years old Jr. Sysadmin (Computer Science Expert for System Integration) studying Business Information Systems and being quite addicted to r/TFTS and r/sysadmin.

My Brother-in-Law is getting self-employed (switching from employed) and asked me about giving him some advice for the needed IT-infrastructure of his future office.

We had a nice meeting (he paid lunch) talking about websites, email-domains, Microsoft Sharepoint / Office365, possible laptop-models (I suggested a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330 (with Win 7 Pro) as a budget solution & still being mobile) and some other IT-related questions. Afterwards he promised to get in touch with me when things are getting more serious.

That was end of February '14 and I had not received any email from him since then - until end of April. It turned out, he hadn't thought about what it meant to be self-employed: to have to organize everything himself (e.g. "I need flyers - damnit, I guess I have to look after an advertising expert because my (non-existing) secretary has non in her desk!") and to have a kind of a good "financial cushion" (so he shouldn't have to choose always the cheapest solution).

Acutally there was one sentence that made me cringe in his email (translated from german):

I finally made a good bargain in a roundabout way by buying a second-hand Acer Laptop, unfortunately with "Vista" - but the price was just right.

I honestly did not know what to reply on this. Everytime I saw his email in my inbox I was just speechless about this... simple-mindedness. Eventually I wrote him 5 days ago and intentionally did not mention the laptop:

Hey, I'm glad you started your new business and I hope everything runs well.

Feel free to meet discussing your ideas for a website.

Better translation of my email:

I am looking forward meeting you to brainstorm about the website.

/-- Update! --/

He answered having trouble with his laptop.

Posted May 27, 2014, 6:50 PM UTC · edited

5219
DArtist51•

Does family ever actually listen?

7
callm3fusionRTFM...nah•

no.

9
DArtist51•

Exactly.

2
keddrenHave you tried setting it on fire?•

Feel free to meet discussing your ideas for a website.

No mention of with whom to meet. Clever OP.

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

Hehe, English is not my first language and I actually wrote him

I am looking forward meeting you to brainstorm about the website.

Just edited it.

Honestly I think/hope he just buys the first cheap build-your-own-website-kit while searching on Google, just because it's cheap.

2
KrutoniumI seriously think you live here. - /u/Airz23 to /u/Krutonium•

Like Wix?

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

Nah, cheaper.

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KrutoniumI seriously think you live here. - /u/Airz23 to /u/Krutonium•

000webhost?

1
wrdlbrmft•

My Brother-in-Law is getting self-employed (switching from employed) and asked me about giving him some advice for the needed IT-infrastructure of his future office.

Does anybody else see a problem here...

I think i found it...

Brother-in-Law

4
grendusapt-get install flair•

Nothing wrong with helping family with their business, but when it comes to actually working in a family business make sure you have the boundaries laid out with sharply drawn lines! The last thing you want is to get roped into spending all your free time doing IT for him pro-bono and catching blame for all the damage done by technically-illiterate decisions.

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

make sure you have the boundaries laid out with sharply drawn lines

Exactly this came always to my mind while thinking about working with/for my brother-in-law.

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

Just received his answer today (and burst out laughing):

Hey,

MaydayMaydayMayday !!!

I installed Windows 7 on my Acer but it does not fit at all.

Popups which try sell me strange stuff on the internet and I get some kind of virusalarm. The computer graphic seems bad... and I have not time to fix this junk.

My offer: I'll bring you this laptop for a "luxury-pimp-my-compi-event" [sic!] and I hope 50 Euro are fine for you. Money is still a problem.

You've got time this weekend? - I'll phone you.

Regards

I honestly do not know if I should raise the fee to 75 Euro as punishment or just take the 50 Euro (or 50 Euro + Glenlivet 15J Whiskey). But actually I do not have any more spare time this weekend, so I'll keep an eye on how he will react since this seems urgent to him.

2
grendusapt-get install flair•

Here's a question: what is he going to be using the laptop for? If he doesn't absolutely require Windows only software (even Office can be run from the cloud now), I'd take the 50 euros, wipe the hard drive, and install Ubuntu. It'd probably be safer anyways, he sounds like the type to open questionable emails.

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

If it would be that simple, I would have already recommended something like this. But I guess he is just to computer illiterate to get along with Ubuntu and I still think there might be a chance, he could eventually need a real Windows for job-specific software (social care sector).

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Kn33gr0W•

Ok I have to ask, whats wrong with Vista? My gf's computer still uses it and I don't have any issues with it. We don't use it for much, web browsing, email, and I use putty for work sometimes. I also use it to burn videos to DVD and handbrake to convert. The thing is a champ.

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

If you bought it, when Vista was still up-to-date - fine with me. But at the present time, where even Windows 7 isn't the current OS anymore, thinking of installing Vista to any computer is just stupid.

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Kn33gr0W•

Yeah it came on the computer when she bought it. I've always heard people complaining about it but just haven't ever had any issues with it myself.

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polyfeuxOPBut you tried turning it off and on again, ..right?•

Mostly because UAC is an overkill and the new GUI was in Windows 7 more accepted than in Vista.

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