gifts from frenemies

[low_delta]

My mom was having computer trouble. Her five-year-old computer was prohibitively slow. I put $100 into it, and upgraded the RAM from 256 MB to 2 GB. It helped, but not as much as one might have hoped. A friend of hers bought her a new laptop computer. If he'd asked, she would have said no, but he didn't, so she got it and we determined to make the best of it. First I had to spend a couple of long evenings over there getting it set up. Adding antivirus software, setting up her e-mail, getting her files transferred over, all that. I told her we could connect it to her old monitor and keyboard, since she doesn't like the small keyboard, and it doesn't fit on her keyboard tray at the proper typing height. Well, we couldn't do that, because her keyboard doesn't have a USB plug, and she didn't want to spend the $35 or whatever to buy a new keyboard, especially after spending a similar amount on a new mouse. She decided to leave the old computer set up for the grandkids. And then her old printer/scanner doesn't have an upgrade to Windows 7, and she really doesn't want to spend the kind of money it takes to buy a new one of those, especially when the one she's got works fine. So when she wants to print something, she has to transfer the file to her old computer using a card reader, and and print it from there. Except that she can hardly figure out how to do that, since she's computer illiterate.

So this brand spanking new computer is either going to cost her a lot of money she wouldn't have had to spend if she'd kept using her old one, or it's just a pain in the ass. But the guy thinks he did her a huge favor. I suppose it's only a matter of time before the old one crapped out completely, so this puts her ahead of the game, but still...

People, if you want to give someone a gift they can use, please work with them to give them the best solution. Don't just grant them something, and expect them to be thrilled. I mean, you want to get your money's worth out of your gift, too, right?

Comments

[emschin.livejournal.com]

And he didn't even ask what she would want or
ANYTHING?

Sounds like he was thinking of himself as great benefactor, rather than what she wanted and needed.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

And he's a control freak.

[lacachet.livejournal.com]

I suppose she/you wouldn't want to ask him to return it? Just wondering--

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

It was several weeks before we reached the point of realizing all my hard work wasn't yielding the dividends we'd hoped for.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Stick it in a corner and use it when you need to, I guess. It's really hard to feel good about anything like that, because it never seems like a gift.

There's no way to stop someone from doing these things they think are nice but are more trouble than they're worth.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

It is a nicer computer. It's faster, and Win7 is more pleasant to use. Even the smaller screen is not a big deal. But the keyboard is, and the printer.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

That's cool at least.

[matanai.livejournal.com]

Jeez... computers are so different that you really need to ask the person you are buying for what they want.

I would love a laptop at this point, but if I didn't have a computer, or I had a shitty one - I'd want a gaming desktop and I would be pissed off if I got a laptop.

Nate's dad loves those shitty touch-screens that have the actual computer built into it, behind the screen... hard to explain but they're garbage. I would never buy him one because I hate them with a passion, but he doesn't want any other kind. So when we were looking for one for last Christmas, as much as it pained us, we had to look for one of those shitty comp-in-monitor things. Then his mom bought a different one than what we said... and the software was horrible and it "broke" within a few months. :P
Whatever.

Do you think you could explain wireless to her? If she sets up a wireless router she won't need to use any card readers or anything. Just drag and drop on the network.

more to the point...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Do you think you could explain wireless routers to me? But seriously, I've tried networking, but this is XP to Win7. I only got our XP to Vista networked half-assedly. I didn't even want to try with this one. But now that she must transfer files to print, I should give it a shot.

PITA

Re: more to the point...

[(Anonymous)]

Hehe... well I've never used Windows 7 so I don't know how different it would be. Most routers even wireless you could just plug and go, but if you run into network issues then it gets super complicated. You could hard-wire them together but I know even less about getting that to work. I just know we have three computers and a laptop, a router and a wireless router and we share files from them all with normally no issue.
But having a printer, then you run into more issues... I guess the easiest would just be sticking with the usb stick and go back and forth. :|

Re: more to the point...

[matanai.livejournal.com]

And... that reply was me, forgot to log in

Re: more to the point...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I've never had much luck networking. The best I've done is that our laptop can see our two desktops, but the desktops can't see any other computers. If I get get my mom's to do that, it would probably be easier than what she's trying to do now. I'll give it a shot. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and it will work.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

When you give someone something as important as a computer it's essential to know what their needs are. If they don't already have one, maybe not as much, but even then....
People who THINK they know what's good for you, just don't way too often. Maybe she should tell the guy to gift her with a new keyboard and printer also.
:/

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Exactly. She did get a hint his direction, about not having a printer, so we'll see what happens.