frankie's Journal: Please Don't Support Your Family!

In every article about malware, there are dozens of comments from tech people like us who drive themselves crazy doing gratis malware cleanup for family, friends, neighbors, etc. If this applies to you, it is time to stop. YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM, not the solution.

By alleviating the symptoms, you are prolonging the disease. You are CAUSING people to continue muddling along the same old path, again and again. There is only one way out:

Charge professional rates for all Windows support, no exceptions.

Make this clear to everyone in your tech support social circle. If enough fellow geeks adopt this simple credo of "tough love", the computer world gets better for EVERYONE.

p.s. I also offer a carrot instead of the stick: free support and installation for [my favored platform]. It forces me to really know my stuff, and set things up right the first time.

Think globally, act locally.

You insolent clod

[Safety Cap]

I will not risk jeopardizing getting a scarlet letter to Sunday Bunch just because you want to punish the lUsers... :P