Re: [Hampshire] I Feel Guilty...!

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On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 at 02:49:12PM +0000, Jacqui Caren wrote:
> Adam Trickett wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >A friend asked me to help him set up his mother-in-laws computer so she
> >could read email. I often help friends and family for free but I refuse to
> >touch stolen software and I encourage the use of open source software
> >whenever practical.
>
> I suggest what is most appropriate and often offer alternatives.
> FOSS is (to me) one option and not the only one.

That's how I try and do things.

> >Todays question was how to set up Microsoft Outlook.
>
> I always think it odd that people assume you know everything about
> computers because you are in "IT" :-)

Ironic isn't it. In the past I've always been helpful, but of late
I'm trying to wean myself out of doing Microsoft support for them.

> > I said quite honestly
> >that I couldn't recommend it in any shape or form, and more importantly
> >I've never actually set it up, and only use it at work because I'm forced
> >to.
>
> I have to use various MUA to test MIME message compatibility.
> Do you know that different versions of outlook's MIME structure are
> incompatible with each other and only outlook express comes close
> to accepting RFC compliant MIME encoded content?
>
> Outlook 2003 does not accept full MIME headers and the scrubbed headers
> have to be in a certain order otherwise the message headers and
> mime structure appears as the message body.
>
> "Effing heap of crap" comes to mind everytime I deal with outlook.

Lookout is another word that comes to mind. It's one of the two apps that
Microsoft should junk and that would save them so much grief with
spam and viruses... the other being IE.

> Thanks to Outlook doing message parses at load, you can be infected
> at the point of downloading a message - you no longer have to even
> open a message - just pull it from a IMAP/POP server and he presto
> your PC is no longer yours to command!
>
> If even Gartner (a pro-MS shop) issues guidance to avoid outlook like
> the plague why whould anyone with even one brain cell consider using it?

I know...

> >I now feel guilty for not helping, he didn't want to install anything else
> >- which I would have offered to help with. He feels that he must use
> >Microsoft Outlook as it came with that from Dell and as everyone uses it,
> >it must be the best? He trusts me enough to ask for my advice but not
> >enough to actually follow through.
>
> I have customers like that - free advice is often seen as being worth
> what people pay for it. Also he does not see a greater benfit over the
> cost of installing and learning to use new software. When his machine
> comes back from a repair centre with all of his email.photos etc wiped,
> charge him for both your advice and time! Perhaps then he will see the
> value!

I have a friend who charges ?60 a fix. I'll offer free open source advice,
if it's windows, go see my friend - take your cheque book with you. I feel
bad, but I can't continue to support products I don't use anymore, don't like
and can't recommend in any shape or form.

> >I'd happily give him The OpenCD but I know that wouldn't help either... By
> >not helping I've driven him deeper into the Microsoft tar pit, but he
> >really doesn't want to be helped out, which I feel bad about as he is a
> >nice chap.
>
> Even with family, people who wil NOT heed my advice and do stupid things
> (such as sign up to AOL) get put to the bottom of the todo pile and stay
> there.
>
> You cannot help them all - and some folks seem to be determined to dig
> a pit and climb into it - don't let them pull you in!

True, I just don't like to watch, it's in my nature to try and help...

--
Adam Trickett
Overton, HANTS, UK

"We must get users past their misunderstandings of uptime. A reboot
doesn't mean that anything broke, there is no hardware or software
corrective action taken, so there wasn't any real downtime."
-- overheard in an MS strategy meeting