Pimping

I decided to pimp my mad computer skillz on craigslist.org to see if I could speed the funds flowing into my DSLR camera fund. Last night, I had my first 'side job'.

A guy emailed me saying he was having problems with his computer; he's on a satelliet link to the net, and running without firewall. He thought it was probably virus and spyware related. Cool, I deal with that all day long.

So I got to the guy's place at 9pm and set to work on his computer. After two hours (and three cans of room-temperature "Milwaulkee's Best" (beggars can't be choosers!)) it was still broken. The software tools I had were able to remove a ton of spyware, and probably a dozen viruses and backdoor files. But I think his problem is more with the operating system dying than with viruses and spyware (Windows ME has a long history of doing that to people). I told him I'd do some research and see what the next course should be...either reinstall WinME (*shudder*) or format the drive and install Win98SE (my preference. It's older than ME, but far far superior). I've dealt with his particular model of HP before, and they're pretty annoying. They seem to be specifically designed for *only* XP or *only* ME, so drivers for other OSs don't even exist. Thanks HP.

Hopefully I'll be able to get it figured out and get paid, bringing the new shiny camera a bit closer to home.