IamA Computer Repair tech. Just when I've seen it all, there's more. AMA!

[Linkisdoomed]

Hello everyone! I'm a computer repair technician based in Lawrence, Kansas. I have been with FFR for over 10 years, and I've earned several years of experience working with computers, and around 5 years in repairs and troubleshooting. I've given people good news and bad news about their computers on everything from popped capacitors, viruses and corrupt data, to full data loss, viruses encrypting the drive, and broken hardware.

My worst story comes from a time when I was working at a local shop, and a customer brought in their computer for diagnostics. The machine failed to power on, and if it did, it had drive corruption issues, so the drive would need replaced. The biggest issue with the machine is that it was absolutely covered in pet piss. Since it was a biological contaminant, and I didn't have the chemicals to clean such a mess, I simply called the customer and let them know that it was unacceptable for me to work on the machine in this condition.

In recent times, I've started learning various web programming languages via CodeCademy, W3Schools, reading O'Reilly references, and asking those who know more than me. If you're interested, head over to CodeCademy and take the tutorials. They're a great way, but not the only way, to dive in and see if it's something you like.

Victoria had no idea we existed, so I couldn't get her to come do my AMA for me, which means there's no filter for this AMA. Ask me anything!

[choof]

have you ever used the dd tool backwards

[mrpreggers]

you barely get any recognition for designing r^3 how does that make you feel

when I was like 12 our computer took a dump on us and geek squad charged us $300 to do a system restore is this what you do????

do you go through the shit in people's computers or do you have integrity?

how are you?

[choof]

have you ever told a customer that they have more problems than they really do, or that they have more problems than they originally thought, and offered to fix it for a higher price

would you ever leave a backdoor on someone's computer if you were asked to

[Linkisdoomed]

Originally Posted by choof

have you ever used the dd tool backwards

No?

Originally Posted by mrpreggers

you barely get any recognition for designing r^3 how does that make you feel

when I was like 12 our computer took a dump on us and geek squad charged us $300 to do a system restore is this what you do????

do you go through the shit in people's computers or do you have integrity?

how are you?

I put a lot of time into the design of it, and it barely got recognized. I am disappoint FFR. But really though, I'm glad that I can show people I did something cool once. I merely orchestrated the skin by crowdsourcing what members thought looked good. I wanted to give back to the community when constructing the design, and I figured the best way to do that was to build something the community could be proud of. I'm glad the design is being used. Shout out to the talented Velocity and the amazing work he does for this community.

Yes, this is sort of what I do. G33k Sq4d can suck a big one though. Labor and repairs aren't cheap, but depending on the work being done, $300 doesn't sound unreasonable.

As far as what I do, I respect people's privacy. At any point in time, it'd be piss easy for me to lift any kind of information from your drive, but it's satisfying to know at the end of the day that I can look somebody in the eye and tell them I have no idea what's on their drive.

I'm quite well. I'm currently unemployed, taking some time between jobs to relax and catch up on some projects. I figured now would be a good time to drop by the forum and say hello again. ^_^

Originally Posted by choof

have you ever told a customer that they have more problems than they really do, or that they have more problems than they originally thought, and offered to fix it for a higher price

would you ever leave a backdoor on someone's computer if you were asked to

Oh Jesus yes. If you're a dick to me or have pissed me off in the past, I'll definitely sell you something you don't need or add a charge or two to your order. If you're a generally nice and understanding customer, you'll have my sympathies, because let's face it, nobody wants to be without their computer these days. I know it's frustrating, and I understand your whole life is on your machine, but PLEASE back your data up. Stick it on a series of flash drives, upload it to the cloud, put it on an external hard drive. Just do something so that you can access your data while your machine is in the shop. You may think it won't happen to you, but you never know what tomorrow brings.

I wouldn't leave a backdoor in any machine. I'm anti-surveillance and being the big brother kinda freaks me out. I get my kicks by learning about those kinds of things, but never actually going and doing them for fear that I'd lose my freedom over it. I did hear a tale of a technician who took over my spot after I'd left the shop who had installed a bitcoin miner on several customer machines. The other techs found out when the customers came back in complaining that their machines were still running slow, which got the original technician fired. Sucker!