Computer-Building Old Men
Aparently, there is an underclass of old men who make supplemental living by building computers in my area.
I’ve discovered their existence during the attempts to sell my machine. They would call me and ask about the components, software, hardware, with diligence that can only be seen in people who lived through the Great Depression. Like the magi from some fantasy land, they would authoritatively tell me that the 300W power supply is “yesterday’s technology” and I need at least a 350W one.
At first I was surprised. Around the third phone call from one of them I started to entertain myself.
- Hello, you have that computer for sale?
- Yes, I do. It’s a great workstation with a processor able to handle floating point calculations.
- What … processor is in it?
- It’s an AMD Coolon.
- [under his breath] … AMD Coolon … What about memory?
- Half a gig of Pyrex, the best.
- [under his breath] … Pyrex … OK …
- Are you writing this down? Because I can send you a spec sheet.
- No, no, it’s quite allright. I build computers, you see.
- What kind of computers?
- Any kind, really. Workstations, desktops. Will you take $200 for your computer?
- No.
- What will you take?
- $500.
- That’s too much, isn’t it?
- Not too much if you want to handle floating point calculations and have a php hadware module.
- Ok, thank you. [Click!]
These old men say proudly, “I build computers”. Sadly, they piece together different components as if they were Lego’s. After all, there’s nothing complicated about installing memory, ROM drives, PCI and AGP cards.
I’ve seen one old guy trying to sell a PII with three sticks of RAM and an ISA 14.4 modem. This other old man was peddling 4-year-old Dell Optiplex lease releases to other old men at VFW Halls at $700 apiece. All computers come standard with a Miner (the game) shortcut on the desktop.
Sadly, the overall lack of any kind of knowledge beyond sticking a RAM module in and doing a fresh install of Windows, is cheating the customers of awesome computer-related experience. After all, all they wanted is to have properly configured email so they would receive pictures of their grandkids from North Carolina or California.
I know of couple of these guys. They used to do the same thing with lawnmowers. A blade, a spark plug, Brigs & Stratton, 4 wheels, pull cord… they are just leggo parts. Get a mower from the dump, swap some parts, clean it up, sell it for $75. They figured out that at the same margin percenateg their cashflow is higher with PC’s.
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