atw: Maintaining your own PC (Was: meltdowns...)

I'm with Damian on this. It should be possible for most of us TWs to
maintain a PC for a few years with only basic maintenance and upgrades. Of
course some of us will have special requirements and there will be the odd
horror story such as Steve's, but MS Office, FrameMaker, Author IT,
Acrobat, Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro and Firefox are not demanding
applications.

"Hardware always needs upgrading"--I used my previous non-bleeding-edge
Dell PC for five years, but I'd have felt I had my money's worth out of it
even if it had conked out after four years. The only forced hardware
upgrade was some extra memory when I eventually changed to XP from Windows
98.

Storage capacity--how does anyone manage to run out of disk space on a work
PC these days?

Stuart

austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 22/12/2006 08:55:08 AM:

> Damian Forlani-Brennan: On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:45:26 +0800,  you wrote:
> > Personally I am afraid I had difficulty sympathising with Steve's
recent
> > meltdown.
> >
> > I fail to understand how anyone could not have acquired a decent
operational
> > PC and lasted for 15 years as a technical writer.
> >
> > Yes hardware can fail, but if you don't buy bleeding edge hardware you
can
> > go for redundancy and buld yourself two close to current technology PCs
for
> > the price of one.   At today's prices you can get a pair of very good
pre-
> > dual processor desktops or one very decent dual processor laptop for
around
> > $1400.  With two sets of identical hardware you can just swap over the
hard
> > drive if anything goes wrong on your main desktop and you are straight
back
> > to work.
> >
>
> Have you really been doing all this for 15 years ?   Love to know what
> machines made all this possible over all that time.
>
> Revisiting some of this detail:
>
> Rule 1: Hardware always needs upgrading, even if it's only in the storage
> capacity and RAM requirements (software is more bloated, jobs are more
complex
> and legacy documents grow and grow).     I don't think you'd be
recommending
> we all should have been working with memory and disk capacities of 15
years
> ago or even ten years ago...   check and see how much things have changed
in
> that time.
>
> Your cheap dual processor machine today is tomorrow's boat anchor.
(well,
> hardly even that, these days -- not heavy enough.)
>
> Rule 2:   Software and operating systems count for more than hardware
unless
> you're into some really groovy graphics or high drama maths.  And they
cost
> more. So what you might think you're saving today on hardware is being
spent
> on software to run on it.      At today's prices, you can need to pay as
much
> as a laptop costs for an upgrade of software to allow you to meet
customer
> requirements for varied output formats, data handling etc.
>
> [BTW I wouldn't opt for redundant hardware -- just loads of storage and
> "redundant" virtual machines is a much cheaper option, anyway, as long as
you
> have the free time and patience to set them up. ]
>
>
> All of this while working on contract rates, paying your own super, your
own
> workers' comp, holding off the bank because the lousy buggers haven't
paid you
> on time even though they're contracted for periodic payments on the
knocker,
> and stuffing around with the stupid BAS forms every month, and having to
pay
> heavier tax  And THEN the bloody hardware fails and the service people
want to
> argue about what might have caused it and whether it's a hardware fault
anyway
> (could be the software or the operating system or the way you handle the
> machine).  And on top of that, the backup hard disk you bought at the
same
> time is starting to show the same faults as your main one.    (Well it
would,
> wouldn't it, if it has about the same MTBF rate and you bought it atabout
the
> same time? ).  Top of that, the buggers you're doing the job for, who
somehow
> think it's reasonable to put a code freeze on the project one day and
demand
> full documentation ready for packaging the next, have forgotten the
little
> matters such as providing you with proper specs for the docs they want,
proper
> access to SMEs, proper briefing notes on use cases for the software so
you
> have real examples to give to users and a few other miscellaneous odds
and
> ends, and they just want you to whip up all the docco now and have it
ready
> for delivery by the end of the week because their budget's run out.
Looks
> likely now they're going to terminate any contract you had ASAP and it's
two
> weeks before Xmas and you know damn well there's no-one at work in
January,
> that managers only start thinking about contracting techwriters for the
new
> year after they've lined up all the other contracts in February, so
you're
> looking at a prospect of a March-April start to a working year, aka 3
months
> of potential unemployment with bugger all chance of getting the dole from
a
> government that amongst other things, considers one day a week work
> constitutes grounds for classifying people as  "employed" and thinks
people
> who work on contract must be getting paid really well and shouldn't need
> protection from unfair dismissal or any of that nonsense like holidays,
sick
> pay etc...   And all this for at best, possibly $60 an hour  but
> often a good deal
> less, when you find the only work on offer is for a lower rate than the
rate
> you started working at 15 years ago. Of course, if they breach the
contract,
> you can take them to court, spend about $8000 - $10000 of the money you
didn't
> get on legal costs, wait nervously for 4 years through insulting
negotiations
> and you might even come out on top at the end of that, get at least some
of
> your money for the time unemployed, and then promptly have to pay out a
huge
> wack of tax on it at the very top marginal rate, and start all over
again.
>
> Welcome to the real world of tech writing, Damian.   Hope you last as
long as
> Steve did..
>
> > Or you get yourself a name brand laptop with a gold service warranty
and
> > they come out and fix any problem at your desk within hours.
> >
>
> Ah yes.    The simple life.     Saw something like that once.    Bloke
who ran
> the company was called Jody something...     Whatever happened to Jody ?
>
> --Peter M
>
>
>
>
>
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