10-09-2011, 01:06 AM
I too have a client in similar circumstances. She's 90, lives in my subdivision and is a recent cancer and stroke survivor. She worries about, and apologizes for, having trouble speaking and remembering things, She calls me for a number of things - telephone answering device doesn't work, dropped and broke the TV remote and got a new one but needed it programmed, and, occasionally, a computer problem. Yesterday it was that she couldn't get into Facebook or her email - turned out it was nothing but an uppercase letter written in her notes when the PW used a lower case. She called her son to ask how she connects to the Internet as he bought her a netbook with 3g rather than cable or DSL. He seemed glad I was helping her out.
Long story short, she had an old Dell desktop and didn't want it and, as things go some days, I was at the Humane Society animal shelter that afternoon to fix a network issue (I work for them pro bono) and they asked if there was a way to put a second computer in the vet's surgery. I called Betty, my client, and asked if she'd donate her old Dell to the Humane Society and she agreed, so I picked it up and brought it home. I replaced (would you believe it) an original 4GB drive that was transferred into the Dell from her previous computer by her son, apparently when he bought it for her years ago) with a 60GB Apple IDE I had laying around and found a couple sticks of RAM. Spent the evening installing Windows XP and 117 updates, but it's ready to go to the shelter on Tuesday. I'll contribute an Ethernet switch but may have to find a flat panel monitor as the CRT she gave me will be too large for the space available. Hopefully the 60 GB will be enough HDD as it's just used as a terminal, mostly.
Some times things just work out.
Now she wants to know if I'll repaint her front sidewalk…
Long story short, she had an old Dell desktop and didn't want it and, as things go some days, I was at the Humane Society animal shelter that afternoon to fix a network issue (I work for them pro bono) and they asked if there was a way to put a second computer in the vet's surgery. I called Betty, my client, and asked if she'd donate her old Dell to the Humane Society and she agreed, so I picked it up and brought it home. I replaced (would you believe it) an original 4GB drive that was transferred into the Dell from her previous computer by her son, apparently when he bought it for her years ago) with a 60GB Apple IDE I had laying around and found a couple sticks of RAM. Spent the evening installing Windows XP and 117 updates, but it's ready to go to the shelter on Tuesday. I'll contribute an Ethernet switch but may have to find a flat panel monitor as the CRT she gave me will be too large for the space available. Hopefully the 60 GB will be enough HDD as it's just used as a terminal, mostly.
Some times things just work out.
Now she wants to know if I'll repaint her front sidewalk…