Re: [WinMac] RE: Cost/functionality analysis

CHoogendyk@aol.com
Sat, 16 Jan 1999 09:47:03 EST

In a message dated 1/11/99 10:56:32 PM, expresso@snip.net writes:

>>Dan, this is maybe THE best example I have *ever* seen of Wintel techie
>>attitude (aka 'Computer Support') = screw the user, we know what's best
>>for you.
>
> Well, who is better qualified to support a computer: An artist; or an
>Electrical Engineer with 23 years experience in this biz?
>
>P.S.: I was part of a team that built an Altair 8800 in December, 1975...
>Serial Number 007.

Sorry, I can't let that one go by.

If the artist has better people skills and reasonably good technical skills,
then she might be better suited to support the people who use the computers
(you don't support a computer). Perhaps the engineer (if he can't start
thinking of people as significant components of the overall system, and
respecting them as individuals) should sit in a back room, not interact with
people, and just follow orders fixing computers. Some people are best suited
to that role.

In the years I've spent supporting and teaching graphic artists, working as a
manager of customer support, and supporting users in a variety of other roles,
including MIS manager of an important software company, one of the most
important things I learned was to treat everyone with respect. I don't just
mean the people who who are level with or above you in your organization's
heirarchy. A secretary or shipping clerk working on a computer is more
important than the computer they are working on. They are the ones who get the
work done. The computer is just a tool, and it only works well if it serves
the person who has to use it. A computer support person or technician is
essentially a servant to these people who have to get the work of the company
done.

If a service technician brusqely walks in and deals competently with a
computer while treating the person using the computer as an idiot who doesn't
know what he's doing, then that service technician is ill suited to that job.

My two cents.

Chris Hoogendyk
Network Specialist (and servant to the workers at the library)
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
UMass Amherst

President and Owner of Coherent Graphics from 1987-1989.
a Linotronic Service Bureau on Long Island.

Manager of Customer Support for Laserpoint Software 1990-1994.
the leading developer of Package Design Workstations.

MIS Manager of Specular International 1995-1997.
developers of Infini-D and other 3D graphics software.

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sat Jan 16 1999 - 06:52:10 PST