"No i will not fix your computer."

That is what my shirt said that I wore to work today. My wife bought it for me because I all too often have people ask me to 'fix' their computer in some way... much to my annoyance. Its not that I don't like computers... obviously I like something about it since I constantly tinker with mine. Its just that I don't like messing with other people's computers. But I digress...

Within 5 seconds of my boss entering the office (yes, I beat him in) he reads my shirt and says "Oh yea, my computer at home has been really slow. Can you maybe look at it sometime this week?" I shit you not... he read the shirt that plainly says I won't mess with his computer... then proceeds to ask me to fix his computer. I can only assume that he thinks that rule does not apply to him, because I've been his own personal Tech Support for the past 3 years i've worked for him. I remind him that the computer in question is an older model, which was not top of the line 3 years ago when I bought it for him (he paid, but i had to actually buy/setup the computer). My initial thought was that he is comparing this older machine to his nice, new(er), 6 month old laptop. I told him this. He said that is not the case. I dropped the subject for the time being.

So, seeing as I didn't have much to do this afternoon, I head over to his house to check out this 'slow' computer. Nothing seems amiss. No massive amounts of adware/malware. No viruses. Just an older computer with 512MB of RAM. (For those not in the tech arena, that was the bare minimum for Windows XP at least 2 years ago... the current minimum is around 1GB). So my opinion is that there is nothing wrong with the computer, and suggest to my boss that he may want to upgrade the RAM. This is the part that really gets me going. As I tell him this, he rebuffs my explanation and says that is not the case. He says its slower than it used to be. He says he installed Norton Internet Security suite (against my advice) and that this program must be the reason for the slowdown. So I tell him to uninstall it and find out. I should have known better... because i know that within the week he will be asking me to go back to his house and uninstall NIS for him, because he can't figure it out.

I just don't understand why someone asks for my opinion... and then dismisses it without question. I'm not saying i'm an expert (far from it). But I obviously have a little more knowledge/understanding of computers than he does, considering he asks me to hold his hand installing the simplest of applications. Of course, he never asks for help of guidance when installing stupid ass applications that are of questionable validity (Plaxo, i'm lookin at you!).

And this, is an abrupt end to this entry... yes, i suck at writing... hence the blog... i obviously need practice.