Providing tech support to your parents (in-laws count, too) over the phone is … a cross to bear. I mean that almost literally: you want to do it, you accept that you should do it, you even think it will be swell if you help them through their difficulty, but it’s not a pleasant stroll through the city (“He said he was the King of Tech Support! Let him solve this <\/i>problem, if he can!”). Walking a very non-technical person through a problem on the phone, no screen in front of you, without the same software installed, explaining how to click on an icon for a context menu or how to do a Ctrl-Alt-Del or where to find that application we just ran three times before … is like wading through peanut butter in a blizzard. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with chopsticks and one hand tied behind your back and the other one wearing an oven mitt. It’s like … well, it’s not the most efficient operation ni the world.<\/p>\n
Last night it was the in-laws, and, miracle of miracles, I was able to actually fix the problem (the stupid vsmon-goes-crazy <\/i>bug with the free version of ZoneAlarm). It took most of the evening, and running a full virus-scan was the fastest and most efficient part of the show. But I managed to solve it (huzzah!), aided by their having a new machine that I installed at Christmas (rather than a six or seven year old 5\/166 that’s been tinkered with multiple times and still runs Win98, like some, ahem, folks I know).<\/p>\n
Next time I go out there, though, I need to document some things they should be doing regularly, as well as test out some sort of remote screen-sharing solution.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong — it is something I want <\/i>to do (especially since I talked them into much of the hi-tech stuff they’re into), and I know it’s a duty I should <\/i>do. Really. But if my voice sounds a little strained sometimes, or a strange noise comes over the phone line that might be static or might be the powdering of tooth enamel — well, I guess they can consider it payback for the frustration I <\/i>caused them <\/i>as a kid … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Providing tech support to your parents (in-laws count, too) over the phone is … a cross to bear. 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