question for Russ "without horns or teeth"

Gregg:

Outstanding!

What an informative post! Thanks a million for correctly and meticulously diagnosing my PC problem from afar.

You are correct on all counts:

My PC at home is sick (browser kowtow's to the unwonderful KWE when kwu.edu is summoned) but my two PCs at work appear to be fine and dandy (entering kwu.edu always brings up the authentic Kansas Wesleyan University, not that other entity).

LOL.

Now.... I have a decision to make:

- Should I pay the computer geek $85 an hour for Lawd knows how many hours are needed to fix the sickie home PC, or .....

- Should I just buy one of those new Dell Optiplex PCs or.........

- Should I simply buy you a round-trip airline ticket from wherever you are to come to Washington, DC to maybe fix for me what you have correctly diagnosed?

Nah...... I think I will call the computer guy.

Nice looking out. Mucho obligado.

Merci, again.

 

What... this surprises you?

Seriously... thirty years (er... well... 28+, to be more precise) I've been doing this. Three long decades... longer than some posters here have even been alive. I can figure out what's wrong with a computer or a network or a telephone system or most other things technical or which have electricity flowing through them whether I'm in the same room with them or they're on the other side of the planet... and on a three-day drunk, to boot, if need be (just kidding... I'm a purely social drinker and barely even that... and I haven't been legally or clinically "drunk" since... lemmee think... maybe around 1986, I think it was... something like that).

Sadly, it's (computer/telephony/technical stuff) the absolutely only thing about which I may occasionally write around here that not a single person here (or pretty much anywhere else, for that matter) can poke holes in. Of that I'm certain. I'm something between an amateur dabbler and a bush-league pseudo-wanna'-be-expert on nearly anything and everything else that I might write about around here; but, godasmywitness, I'm as good at what I do for a living as any person alive (or possibly even any person dead, too... er... well... you know... compared with back when they were alive, that is). And I say that with all the arrogance and self-aggrandizement that I can possibly muster... and with the absolute certainty that it's provably true!

That said, I'm sick to death of it! Honestly... there are times -- like this week and last, for example -- when I sometimes think that if I sit down at another computer keyboard to diagnose or fix something, I'm gonna' open a freakin' vein. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd get to this point in my life and be so unbelievably tired of what I do; and so desperate -- I mean truly desperate -- for a really meaningful career change... something where I can really help people who normally either couldn't afford someone like me, or who wouldn't normally even be in the same world and, therefore, wouuld be unlikely to even happen to stumble across me so they could even ask for help. I ignored two very specific callings in my youth that are hounding me today with an intensity I never imagined possible.

And I'm as afraid today to pursue them as I was then.

Maybe that's, at least in part, why I hang around here so much... tryin' to screw-up a certain courage.

Ugh. True confession time, eh? What were we talking about again?

Wait!

Save your money!

What... you're impressed that I can diagnose it so accurately, but you're afraid to ask me what, specifically, you can do, yourself (and for FREE), to fix the problem?

Plus, by not having me help you here, you're depriving other readers of learning cool computer stuff that they should know and which could help them in the same way it would help you.

But I'm not gonna' do it in this anti-russ thread (though I'm happy that we've managed to turn it into something more positive).

I'll start a new thread in the "Off-topic Discussions" area. Fortunately, it'll be easy 'cause I answer questions like this via email alot and already have a boilerplate thingy that I can just copy and paste into the posting... at least as a place to start. Then I can just customize it a bit, which would take just minutes. When I find a little more time sometime today I'll get to it.

Watch for it.

And, again, keep your money in your pocket. This ain't brain surgery. That $85/hour geek wouldn't be doing anything that you can't do yourself with the right instruction from a $130/hour geek like me. You can do it... especially the way I tend to (over)explain it... in my own anally-retentive (but always well-intentioned, of course) way.

Stand by...