[geeks] request for assistance

[Michael Parson]

On Wed, 16 Oct 2013, Andrew Jones wrote:

> Devoid of context, it is offensive to ask for customarily-paid
> services for free.  I could help, I choose not to, and I offer both a
> viable alternative and an explanation.

Well, she's a friend of mine.  I often do IT-type work for friends and
family for free.  The quality of the work I provide is often superior to
what most people know how to get on their own outside of me (Geek-squad,
other rent-a-geek type services, etc.)

This list is a community, and I feel that at least a few of the people
in here I would qualify as friends of mine and I thought I'd reach out
to this community.  Yes, she does run a theatre in an expensive zip
code, but it's all run from donations and good will.  She didn't pay for
any of the equipment I outlined, it was all donated, including Linksys
donating the router directly.  She's not a rich woman and this theater
doesn't run any profits, it's more of a community outreach project and
is a a huge labor of love for her.

If you don't want to help, that's fine, but others seem to be willing to.

I, for one, am never offended when someone asks for help, only when it is
demanded of me.  I don't believe I made any demands.

-- 
Michael Parson
Austin, TX
KF5LGQ

> On 10/16/2013 05:07 PM, hike wrote:
>> Quite a strange response.  If you can't help, don't make things worse.  It
>> is good to help people who ask for help--without regard for their perceived
>> status.  In all likelihood, the young lady would appreciate the needed
>> help.  (It is quite evident that the requester in Austin would.)
>>   Sometimes, "good will" is the difference between life and death; success
>> and failure; etc.--that is, one can never have enough "good will" from
>> others.
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 4:45 PM, Andrew Jones <andrew at jones.ec> wrote:
>> 
>>> If she can afford to operate a theatre in the single most expensive zip
>>> code in America, she can probably afford to pay a small business IT firm 
>>> to
>>> handle things.
>>> 
>>> I don't understand why this attitude is so common about IT services
>>> specifically.  I wouldn't ask my stylist friends to do my hair for free,
>>> much less do I expect them to beg mailing lists to find a third party to 
>>> do
>>> it.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 10/16/2013 04:08 PM, Michael Parson wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I have a friend in NYC that is not very technical, but needs some tech
>>>> work that I can't work through remotely.
>>>> 
>>>> She's in Manhattan, Tribeca area, Church and Franklin.
>>>> 
>>>> Basically, she runs a theater down there that has been having problems
>>>> with people breaking in.  For some reason, the building owners won't let
>>>> her run a hard-wired internet connection.
>>>> 
>>>> She's gathered what she believes is everything she needs, she just
>>>> doesn't have the skills to set it up up herself.
>>>> 
>>>> She has a network-connected security camera system (ethernet only, no
>>>> Wifi), a Linksys WRT-54GS2 (not sure which revision, but she's insisted
>>>> it's NOT a 1.5 which can't run dd-wrt), and a MiFi device of some sort.
>>>> 
>>>> She needs someone who can do a factory reset on the MiFi device and
>>>> reconfigure it with some reasonable Wi-Fi security, flash dd-wrt onto
>>>> the Linksys and configure it into bridge mode so the security system can
>>>> be connected to over the Internet.
>>>> 
>>>> All told, I wouldn't expect this to take too long, but it's not
>>>> something I can easily do from Austin.
>>>> 
>>>> So... would anyone be willing to help her out?  There's no money in
>>>> it, but you get that grand sense of good will that you've helped out
>>>> someone. :)
>>>> 
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