It's the Holidays for Them, Too

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and along with the festivities and family gatherings comes one tradition that affects certain people more than others. Christmas cookies? Nope. Caroling? Not quite. Putting up decorations? Getting colder. Watching It's A Wonderful Life? Not on your life.

Give up?

Every holiday, everywhere in the world, people come together. And (almost) every family has one person they turn to for questions about technology -- be it computers, DVD players, cell phones... the questions are there. It could be a thirteen year-old, or he or she could be in their thirties. They may be an IT manager, or they could just have an intuitive grasp of technology. Chances are good, though, that they've experienced a situation similar to the following.

Family comes to visit from out of town for the holidays, and moments after everyone sits down by the fire, cousin Jimmy pulls out a laptop and says to the sole technologically-savy family member "So, I've been having problems x, y, and z -- can you fix them for me?"

Whomever that unlucky individual handed the laptop is, the situation is unescapable. They can't say no, or THEY (not the family member with the technological problem) are the one who comes across as unreasonable. "It'll only take a few minutes -- it shouldn't be that hard -- I just don't understand it, and you're a whiz at this kind of stuff..." the list of responses is never-ending. And does anyone else in the family stick up for the tech-whiz kid? Nope -- it might be them with the next problem -- they may even be about to spring their own chore on the poor sod, or they may have a problem in the future, so they wouldn't dare be hypocritical and suggest that it's the holidays, and whiz-kid might not want to work on computers, but spend time with the family.

What had seconds earlier looked like an afternoon of spending time with family quickly turns into "my holiday as Mr. Gadget." While everyone else is eating, drinking and laughing, that one person is stuck fixing problems that have been stacking up since September (but haven't been pressing enough to necessitate a trip into the local tech shop, or a call to a technician). And why shouldn't the family member be anything less than thrilled to fix all of these problems during the holidays? And for a mere 'thanks,' and a pat on the back? Taking the computer in to get it worked on certainly would have been costly at Best Buy -- but the family 'technician' would be more than happy to spend hours working on it for free, right? Let's assume that your average whiz kid (or adult, as the situation may be) is presented with on average, 2-3 'cases' to look at per holiday... anything from updating software to setting up a new computer. Also assume that Best Buy's Geek Squad is the industry norm. At their current prices:

• System Tune-up: keeps computer running well, resolves speed issues 
• $99.99 (walk-in price) 
• Operating System & Software Repair: get most up-to-date software 
• $29.99 - $129.99 (walk-in price) 
• In-home Support: up to 90 minutes per visit 
• $49.99 per visit 

It'd be weird to ask for payment from family members for "just this one little problem..." but man, at those prices, if we did... we'd be able to slip those payments in an envelope and pay off our holiday shopping bills before the clock struck twelve on New Year's Eve!

If you're the whiz kid stuck in one of these situations, the last thing you want is to have to download a bunch of programs -- especially if you're on some painfully slow connection. My advice: bring a USB drive with you, packed with all of the up-to-date essentials you may need. However, if you can, make it so it's never even an issue. And if you're on the other side -- please, remember this one plea from whiz-kids everywhere:

Nerds need holidays too!