What Do People in the IT Field Do for Side Jobs? 1405
Flagg0204 asks: "Growing up in a primarily white collar household I wasn't exposed to 'side-jobs' until I met my girlfriend whose family was mostly blue collar. This got me to thinking. What do people in the IT field do for side jobs? Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, mechanic, these fields have many opportunities for a little extra cash on the side. What are some IT/IS side jobs that Slashdot readers do for extra money?"
what I do on my day job (Score:3, Funny)
Obvious answer... (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't it obvious (Score:5, Funny)
The moment they know you're in I.T. everyone in your family, and all your mother's friends, want you to fix their PCs.
Gigalo (Score:5, Funny)
You mean aside from... (Score:4, Funny)
here we go again (Score:1, Funny)
3) Profit!
Prostitution (Score:5, Funny)
Blacksmith (Score:5, Funny)
Throughout my years as a Unix admin, I have been a working blacksmith and woodworker in exotic woods. Recently I have branched into selling BDSM gear and sex toys, but that's beside the point.
I suspect many IT workers have a more artistic/creative outlet, whether it earns them any money or not. Its amazing how theraputic hammering hot metal is after a day dealing with computers and their users.
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:4, Funny)
Deliver Pizza / Wardrive (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Isn't it obvious (Score:4, Funny)
One evening, after fixing a computer, my friends were taking me to restaurant and we passed a homeless man with a "Will work for food" sign . . .
He shoulda been an underemployed software guy.
IT side jobs (Score:3, Funny)
opps, no, wait a minute. Thats my IT job
I work for the IRS (Score:3, Funny)
Fixing computeres.... (Score:2, Funny)
Fixing my parents computer, for food
Fixing my girlfriends computer, or else!
Re:Gigalo (Score:2, Funny)
So ... you hire out as a sleeping pill substitute? Cool.
Re:Isn't it obvious (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't know grandmothers required electricity.
Moonshine (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nothing (Score:2, Funny)
My side job (Score:2, Funny)
maintenance... (Score:3, Funny)
Damnit, shut up! (Score:5, Funny)
Erm, I mean, this is a horrible idea, all of the IT people I know lose lots and lots of money playing poker online.
Re:I give back to the community (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Blacksmith (Score:3, Funny)
I just get hot and hammer on the users, but hey, whatever works for you.
KFG
Re:Isn't it obvious (Score:5, Funny)
This is obviously an early example of nanatechnology.
One word: (Score:5, Funny)
embezzlement
(in case my boss is watching, I'm j/k)
(if he's not, contact me for more info.)
CTRL-F (Score:3, Funny)
What the hell?
Re:Isn't it obvious (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isn't it obvious (Score:5, Funny)
I have absolutely no idea why I remember that...
Re:I work for the IRS (Score:2, Funny)
warning it's a slippery slope (Score:1, Funny)
Drug dealer/farner? (Score:2, Funny)
Only joking....heh.
Re:what I do on my day job (Score:3, Funny)
Good strategy - everyone knows that the best way to make some money off
Want to join a Free Pyramid Scheme [pyramidschemealert.org]? Click here!!
Good @ Lots of Jobs (Score:2, Funny)
Well, I run this little 'Blog... (Score:1, Funny)
That's "Aytch-Tee-Tee-Pee-Colon-Slash-Slash-Slashdot-Dot- Org".
Re:What do I do? POKER! (Score:5, Funny)
My place, Wednesday's.. most people bring $200-$300 with them.
Its an *easy* game...
Pimp the wife.. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:tutoring (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Blacksmith (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obvious answer... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:And on this point... (Score:5, Funny)
Me:Ok whats on the screen.
Them: Some box thing.
Me: ok what does the message say in the box.
Them: I dont know.
Me: Can you read it to me?
Them: It says something about windows.
Me: OK what does it say about windows.
Them: Something about Internet being Shut down.
Me: Were you on the internet when the problem happened?
Them: (defensive) NO!
Me: Was anything changed since it worked last?
Them: NO! CAN YOU COME OVER HERE AND LOOK AT IT?
Me: I'll be right over
So I go over because they have messed up VNC somehow and I cannot connect to the computer, and the error is something to the effect of
Your document has been sent to the printer
|OK|
Or my personal favorite, is when some issue happens and we get a bunch of calls about it, so we send out a net message asking everyone to please not call about the issue we already are working on it... Invariably 5-10 people will call immediately either stating that they have an error on thier computer what do they do, or they ask about the message and what do we want them to do about it.
READ IT DAMNIT. ITS IN ENGLISH, YOU MORON!
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:3, Funny)
Screw you, I'm doing my own thing. Of course that makes my wife kinda mad sometimes when she wants to go shopping and I'm all surly cause I dont wanna go, Guess thats why I havent gotten any in a few weeks maybe its been months, with all this porn I lose track.
Re:Gameses! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:5, Funny)
Try this . . . (Score:3, Funny)
2. Open source it
3. ???
4. Profit !!!
Now, ain't that easy?
Re:Isn't it obvious (Score:5, Funny)
Then they'll either be happy with the stability, or so annoyed that they'll never bother you again.
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:5, Funny)
Transvestite Cabaret Dancer (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Gameses! (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps he already has his side job lined up and is looking to create some openings in the IT field...
Re:I work for the IRS (Score:2, Funny)
Business model (Score:1, Funny)
Step 2.
Step 3. Profit
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:5, Funny)
I only charge one relative, but he's a second cousin that is convinced he can make more money in the market if he has an even faster connection. He is currently using cable internet because they said it was up to 5 times faster than local DSL, ignoring that he can't get that speed during the hours the market trades, and when he heard that the cable speeds tend to be faster early in the morning (like 4 A.M.), he decided to start trading on forign exchanges, even though he knows next to nothing about the companies involved, because he's that convinced the extra speed somehow matters. He hears a distorted explanation of resetting MTU's in the Windows registry for faster access systems, from one of his clueless friends, and I get another call. Him, I charge for calls.
Getting people to read important messages (Score:5, Funny)
One year they clamped down and started only letting math/science people log in. I was sitting in the lab working one day, shortly after this policy was instituted. To give people fair warning, I wrote the following message on the white board:
PLEASE READ (<-- in HUGE letters)
There is a new policy in place where only people
on the ACLUsers list can login in this lab. You
are on this list if you are enrolled in a math or
science class in this building.
You could not possibly miss this sign. And yet, over the course of the few hours I was there, I saw countless people exhibit the following behavior:
It's tempting to conclude from this story (as I did at the time) that most people are just ignorant and lazy. I think that the more useful lesson is: you'll never get people to pay attention to something by asking them to. Writing "PLEASE READ" is a futile effort. You have to make them WANT to read the sign; people read things because they WANT to, not because they SHOULD.
A much better strategy would have been to change the heading from "PLEASE READ" to "CAN'T LOG IN?"
I evangelicalize Apple (Score:4, Funny)
Neighbor: I want to buy a new computer!
Me: Buy a Mac.
Neighbor: But...
Me: If you buy a Windows based PC you get one FREE call then I charge you 125USD/hr like I do all my clients. But if you buy a Mac you can call me anytime.
Neighbor: Well I saw this Dell.
Me: CHING! You owe me 125USD starting... now.
The only time I've seen this happen... (Score:2, Funny)
[Me] *company* K12, *insert name here* speaking
[Him] My computer is freezing at the 'starting Windows' screen
[Me] Have you done anything to the computer recently? This is one of the network workstations?
[Him] Yes- I was just surfing the web
[Me] The only time I've ever seen this happening is when the customers were looking at gay porn. Would you happen to be doing that or should I file a problem report?
[Him] Ummm... I'm going to try a few things and I'll call you back if I'm still having the problem.
[Me] All right, thank you...
Hehe- Too classic.
Confessions of a True Spammer (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Best way to make side money... (Score:1, Funny)
You can then eat those babies.
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine those guys doing side jobs for their families . . .
I kill people on the side (Score:3, Funny)
I chase my 21 month old around in little circles.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:5, Funny)
That's what fixing my families' computers feels like anymore - they don't update their virus protection, they open anything that they get in their email, they don't plug their computers into surge protectors, and then they wonder why we dread their phone calls. Every time we make the drive to their house (nine hours away if the weather is good and my toddler is very cooperative, thirteen if the above conditions are not met), we end up working on their computers. We have friends down there that they could call that would gladly come work on their computers at the first sign of trouble for the price of a home-cooked meal, but they try to fix it themselves, hose it up even more (like doing a parallel install of an older version of Windows 98 just because someone gave them the disk, then not understanding why all their apps cease to work) and then wait until we travel home for a visit to tell us their computer isn't working, but fail to mention things like the parallel install or the lightning striking their house after they decided to put the surge protector on their washing machine instead of leaving it on the computer. They also fail to mention that it's not working before we start the drive down so that we can pack parts from the graveyard, so it ends up either costing us money to buy them parts or they complain about the cost of computer parts when we make them buy the replacements.
My attitude toward the whole thing would probably be helped if my mother didn't keep telling me how much she hates the computer I gave her for Christmas last year. All the hardware was failing on her old computer, so I gave her and her partner both refurbished computers for Christmas. All I hear is how much she hates the damned thing.
If I treated my plumber like that, he would never come to my house again, no matter how much I paid him.
OK, I can end my rant now. I would probably be calmer about it except that we just got back from a trip there - we were working on their computers until a half hour before we left to drive back.
Re:SIDE JOB: Volunteering for Human Rights (Score:3, Funny)
We, the authors of the CIA World Fact Book, were under the mistaken belief that it was the People's Republic Of China (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geo
We've got a small favor to ask - can you state that Palestine and Israel are in fact several thousand miles apart, and thereby ending one Middle East conflict? Oh, and the Department of Defence would like to know if you could move Iraq and Afganistan to a more temperate climate, and prefeably to somewhere where the transport costs are lower.
We have also liaised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan pn your behalf, and report that the translation the speaker was looking for in that awkward silence was "idiot."
Thanks.
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:3, Funny)
So you're saying... (Score:1, Funny)
At least you've got some balance there.
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:4, Funny)
For example, my Dad is a lawyer and a damn good one. I fix his computer for free no questions asked. When some big bad corporate bully comes picking on me for no apparent reason (aka a big overcharge on a bill or a denied insurance claim), I turn my dad on them, think of it as an M1A1 Abrams handling the big bad bully...in the end it all works out I think
Re:well, I fight fires. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:3, Funny)
hehe, I always wonder where proctologists come from, because who in their right mind would choose a career where you would be constantly required to peer at and finger poke the arseholes of strangers?
Good lord, they must be even more demented than dentists!
Re:Porn cleaner ... (Score:2, Funny)
Can you say "uncomfortable?"
Easy solution for that.
Turn the kid on to Linux, give him the URL for knoppix or one of the other live linux distros.
Then he can boot to linux for his porn viewing needs and his mom won't have to be embarrased by any of the porn entries in nannysitter's logs.
Everybody wins.
Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is.. (Score:5, Funny)
Him: "Uh, you wanna come over and take a look at my PC."
Me: "Why? Whats Up?"
Him: "I think I have another PEBKAC on my PC again."
Me: "Were you looking at email from people you didnt know and opening attachments?"
Him: "I can't remember. Just come over and take a look"
Me: "Sounds like a PEBKAC issue."
Him: "That is what I'm thinking too."
This does not apply to me... (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Nothing (Score:3, Funny)
Re:WHY you don't fix the family PC (Score:3, Funny)
This is the worst part about doing 'freebees' for friends and family. You are liable for anything they think you might have caused over the next few weeks.
My favorite one is a friend of mind who is utterly clueless when it comes to PC's and a klutz to boot. He will invite me over to do his tech support and then suggest solutions to his problems to me. "Hey do you think my Unreal Tournament is broken because you installed that adaware thing?".... Or even better yet, last week he calls me up because he couldn't figure out why his monitor wasn't working...he had kicked the plug out while installing a new mouse and not had not noticed until I told him to check the power cord....then 5 minutes later he calls back telling me his sound isn't working. I tell him to check the plug and sure enough he knocked that loose plugging the monitor back in.
This person makes over 100K a year in a sales job. 0_o I took up the wrong profession.
I confess... (Score:1, Funny)