Compter repair
Recently my computer broke. It was turning itself off, and after it had done this a few times (with decreasing times between), I realised that the power supply was getting very hot. I could more or less tell that it was the power supply fan that was causing this, but I wasn’t 100% sure about how to go about fixing this.
So, my parents get a guy called Andrew to sort it out. He seems a nice guy - he reinstalled our pc back in the Windows ME days (yes, Windows ME :’( ), and apparently he know runs ubuntu on one of his machines. Anyway, he orders a new fan for us, and then fits it a few days later when it arrives. Now, when I say fit it, it wasn’t as simple as slipping it back where the old one went; the new fan was slightly larger than the old one, so making it fit correctly involved cutting and filing at bits of plastic.
Now, I would like to be able to fix my pc myself, and I would be relatively comfortable replacing a hard drive, RAM, graphics card, cd drives or even the main fan. But the power supply is one of those rally tricky things. It is very specific to the case - not standardised at all. I guess it would be within my range now (having seen the powe rsupply removed and refitted), to fit a whole new power supply, but I wouldn’t have a clue about how to do all the messing about to fit a whole fan.
Well, I’ve been saying I would like to be able to sort out my pcs myself. Partly, this is for the feeling of control over those pesky machines, but more importantly it would save us money. We paid Andrew £40 (which he probably deserved after all that filing) - but, it makes me wonder - should I try and get a job in computing? He did mention that he knows people in London who are getting paid £500 a day for php programming. £500 A DAY FOR PHP!! Surely that must the exception rather than the rule. If not, perhaps I should brush up on my php skills…
Its forth rembmering though, I’m going to be rather picky when its come to computing jobs. I would prefer to use exclusively free software, and most of the time, that is not an option. I certainy would not want to develop propreitary software! Which is why I was thinking Physics would be the best for me, but still, £500 a day!?
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Penguinator:
I work at a physics lab, and while they do have a red hat enterprise cluster that I use a thin client on for e-mail and desktop work, they use a ton of proprietary National Instruments stuff for control and data collection, and proprietary IDL and other things. Though it’s definitly more open source than some places.
12 July 2008, 4:59 pmBen Webb:
Hmmmm, interesting comment. I guess its going to vary from place to place. I think it would still be easier for me to avoid propreitary software in a physics job than in a computing job. Also, I was talking to one of the physics guys at Liverpool University, and he was saying that all the CERN software was for scientific linux (not 100% that none of it was proprietary though).
12 July 2008, 6:22 pmKassim:
Have you thought about dealing in hardware? I am nearly 16 and work part time in a computer fixing shop, and I don’t have to deal with software that much, except when installing winD0z3.
When did you start coding? I need to start…
13 July 2008, 9:42 amBen Webb:
Yeah, I’ve thought about it, but like I say, the hardware isn’t really my strong point. The other problem is that I wouldn’t really want to touch windows. I’ve been coding for a few years now, done bits of stuff in various languages. I haven’t done much for a while - I hope to find a free software project to hack on over the summer.
13 July 2008, 10:40 amAnonymous:
Barristers get more money. Particularly the ones that pwn proprietary arse. Like me. In the future. And then I’ll get in the house of Lords by the age of 30, marry a hot princess, kill the royal family, become king, take the down the government and the moarchy and then everyone will run Free Software and be able to fix their own PCs in a wonderful isle of Libertopia.
13 July 2008, 10:47 pmidde:
that was me by the way.
13 July 2008, 10:48 pm