Many people will be taking advantage of the advantagous technology pricing on this extended shopping weekend and purchasing new computers, peripherals, phones, etc.

Many of those people will have problems. Problems installing, problems using, and problems integrating their new purchases with their existing problems.

Many of these people will turn to Internet resources for help.

Before you do, read this. It will save you and others a lot of heartache. Written by the venerable Eric S. Raymond, a well known hacker and developer, it will teach you how to ask for help from those more knowledgable and experienced. In essence, the rules are as follows -

• help yourself as much as you can with basic research and troubleshooting.
• Give detailed and relevant information when asking.
• Be polite.

Realize however, that while sticking to these three rules will help, this FAQ will give you some very clear direction, including examples of questions that will elicit ire or simply be ignored. Those truly skilled in technology are an odd bunch, and it helps to understand them when seeking their help.

This entry was posted on November 25, 2006 - ד' כסלו תשס"ז at 12:04 am and is filed under product, tech, wetware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.