If you’re into computer science or information technology, you’ve no-doubt been unwittingly signed up as the tech support go-to guy for your entire family. In many cases, the same goes for your circle of friends and neighbours. Sometimes it’s an easy way to make quick money, but it can be a hassle. There are a few things you should bring with you to every housecall to make your job that much easier:

The first is a Knoppix live cd or equivalent, these come in handy for all sorts of tasks, especially when the machine is wrecked up really badly.

The second is a USB flash drive full of common utilities, the tech support equivalent of a cartoon doctor’s little bag with a red cross on it. Here’s a list of portable applications that could help you out in the field.

1. ClamWin portable – the portable Windows version of ClamAV. Scan your client’s PC and remember the number of infections you find, so you can tell your friends later.
2. Recuva – a utility for restoring things that were accidentally deleted. It’s safer to have it on your flash drive than to try to go to the website and try to download it onto your clients’ machine.
3. SIW – System Information for Windows. SIW lets you quickly get all of the information about a system that you could ever want. Especially useful for figuring out the specific devices in a system without opening the case up. Also be aware that it has some password- and key-recovery features, which you may want to be careful with.
4. Portable Firefox and 7Zip – Your client’s browser may be crippled and unusable, this is the most common problem I’m asked to help with. 7Zip doesn’t hurt to have, in case you need to get into archives that aren’t supported by the system.

If you come prepared, you’ll be done and out of your neighbour’s musky, cigarette smoke-filled house in no time.

AllSnap is a freeware system tray app that makes all top-level windows snap to screen and window edges. It has a few other handy features, like the ability to constrain windows to the visible screen space, so they won’t be dragged off the edge. It’s handy if you want your messenger windows nestled up beside your browser and dreamweaver windows, for example. It helps make the “tile windows” command a little snazzier.

The Conet Project is a collection of recorded “numbers station” transmissions. If you want to get freaked out, spend some time reading about these numbers stations, and listening to the Conet Project (which you can download for free at the above link, or from Archive.org.

The Numbers Stations Wikipedia article has a link to a cool story that involves the use of numbers stations, it’s a very interesting read: http://www.myspystory.com/intro.html

Some NForce4 Vista drivers came out over the reading break, and I applied them (as an optional Windows Update) when I got back to school on Monday. I didn’t get around to rebooting until last night, at which point the SATA drivers were actually installed.
When I sat down this morning, a tray notification informed me that my previously-activated copy of Windows Vista had DEACTIVATED due to a hardware change. That was weird, but I went to reactivate it and it said my key was in use. I know there had been reports of a bug like this, and even an optional update that patches the problem, but I thought that was only for pre-activated OEM copies of Vista.
Being at school without a phone or Skype, I used their support chat thing. It gave me only 2 days to reactivate, and I wasn’t about to wait for an email or reply post. Hilariously, the very-sketchy chat applet wasn’t even a Microsoft product. I was hoping for a modified version of their web messenger or something.
I logged on with a fake name, just for fun. Here are some highlights:

{Sharmila} Thank you for choosing Microsoft Windows Vista Chat Support. My name is Sharmila Rajinikanth Selvaraj A M. May I address you as Rob?
{Rob Banks} yes, good morning

Sharmila Rajinikanth Selvaraj A M was very friendly, but we hit a snag along the way with semantics:
{Sharmila} Please go to desktop
{Rob Banks} i’m at my desktop…
{Sharmila} [3/7/2007 10:17:39 AM]
{Sharmila} Fine Rob, then in the “search pane” type “slui 4″ without quotes.
{Rob Banks} I don’t think i have a search pane on my desktop…
{Rob Banks} nevermind, i did it in the start menu
{Rob Banks} it says “find available phone nubmers for activation”
{Sharmila} [3/7/2007 10:20:39 AM]
{Sharmila} Sorry Rob, Please click on Pearl button and type “slui 4″ without quotes.
{Rob Banks} i assume you mean the start button, i did that and a “windows activation” window came up
{Sharmila} [3/7/2007 10:22:12 AM]
{Sharmila} Rob, How do I understand “window came up’?
{Rob Banks} i typed slui 4 successfully and the “windows activation” window is on my screen now

slui.exe with quick little switches was good thinking, considering lots of people have to do this over the phone. The chat made it hurt a lot less when it came time to exchange our 54-digit activation and confirmation code numbers.

{Sharmila} I’m going to call the Activation Department for you now. It could take 5 to 6 minutes to check every possible avenue for a resolution. If you need to step away from the computer for a few minutes while I’m researching on it, please feel free to do so.
{Rob Banks} I’ll be kicking it at my computer, let me know when you’re ready.
{Sharmila} [3/7/2007 10:35:15 AM]
{Sharmila} Thank you for the detailed information. Please give me 3 to 4 minutes while I research this issue. Your patience and co-operation is highly appreciated.
{Rob Banks} no problem, sharmila, i’m having a great time

I seriously was.

{Rob Banks} I’m still waiting for my “confirmation ID”
{Sharmila} [3/7/2007 10:43:07 AM]
{Sharmila} Rob, I am here now with the confirmation id.
{Rob Banks} party on, what is it

We put on Dan the Automator’s “Bombay the Hard Way” album in celebration of outsourced tech support, and people around me were trading stories of their phone support experiences. The MS activation guys have always been cool to talk to, I recently used Skype to phone-activate Office 2003 on my mom’s PC.

{Sharmila} Rob, please try to activate with this new confirmation id and you can activate the product without any error, right.
{Rob Banks} it says “windows explorer has stopped working”, is this expected?

No joke..

{Rob Banks} i tried it again and it said activation successful
{Rob Banks} no issueeeessssss

I had way too much fun with that. Sharmila was really nice, it’s embarrassing when you phone a place and a clearly-eastindian person tells you their name is Randy.