[geeks] request for assistance

[Andrew Jones]

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.


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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