Microsoft previews bevy of new features coming to Windows 10

[Ttaskmaster]

he's saying he has the luxury of being able to afford not to have to do the work himself - so can pay someone else to have the hassle on his behalf.

Yes, and I've had people do just this - Mister Wiper, who drove 40 miles and paid £30 to have me change the windscreen wipers he knows damn well how to do himself. Were he not a good friend, I'd have "suddenly been called to an emergency job" just before his arrival, instead of just taking the mickey mercilessly.
Same for his POWER checks - We do ours weekly on the Fleet vehicles, yet he "pays the mechanic do all that"... just once a year when he takes it in for MoT!!

I'm also accused of being someone who can't stop fiddling with stuff... as in, I get something new and go through the setup, config side and so on. Apparently I should just skip all that and when it goes wrong take it to The Tech Guys in the shop and pay them to fix it...
^ This is the exact same attitude I get with vehicle owners, except that many more people seem willing to learn how to sort out the basics of their PC, phone, etc.

[wazzickle]

W10 user here, very happy so far, found that the things I need to customize are reasonably easy to customize. Technical proficiency ~ medium, much greater than the average PC user but much less than the average hexian. Tried linux briefly, couldn't get it to work, mostly because I'm used to everything being graphical, but I'm intending to learn coding so will have to get down with linux at some point I expect.

A good analogy to the car as well would be EULAs. Some of the Ts&Cs we sign are unintelligible to the average reader and far too long. I've never read a single one nor have any desire to. Could I be signing my life away? I have a decent amount of faith that the powers that be prevent some Ts&Cs from being possible, and a good amount of sense not to give up control of my computer to a random, untrusted company, so I, along with probably 90%+ of other users, don't bother reading it. Should I be?

[Xlucine]

Great tool for me, but still don't see my wife shifting anything with it.

Would be more interested in getting an impact wrench like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AEG-97135-S.../dp/B004PZG59G

But still wouldn't want to keep it in the boot.

More breaker bar is available:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sealey-AK73...dp/B000R9ZB76/
It's long & thin, so doesn't take up any appreciable boot space. A meter of breaker bar means a lot of torque - the tube spanner normally included in car's spare wheel kits is normally ~1', so with this bar you only need 1/3rd the strength. Any able-bodied person should be able to easily remove a wheel with that bar, if they can't then the wheel nuts are over-tightened - this is the kind of thing you ought to check when you check spare tyre pressure, tool kit completeness etc.

[DanceswithUnix]

Years ago I used to get my car back from having new tyres fitted, and go around loosening off and re-tightening the wheel nuts on a nice sunny afternoon with the benefit of long breaker bars and no time pressure so that if I did break down then in the cold and wet with a short wrench and some choice swearing I knew the nuts weren't over tightened and the wheel would come off.

But things change, and frankly I never bother these days. Sorry, these days having tools like that in the boot seems like always wearing a condom "just in case"

[Saracen]

i think your last point misunderstood his sentence - he's not saying not do the work because he can't afford to, he's saying he has the luxury of being able to afford not to have to do the work himself - so can pay someone else to have the hassle on his behalf.

I wasn't directly referring to me, but yes, that's more or less the point. I was reacting to the comment I quoted, which was

I just don't see why people would waste money (often a lot of money) on having someone else do either what it takes them a few moments of Googling and DIYing, or worse what they already can and have done for themselves.

But it's not just about money, but about the subjective nature of whether it's a 'waste', and for that matter what "a lot" is.

Ttaskmaster, I had new tyres fitted today. I could have done it myself, but without access to the correct equipment, it would have been a long, grinding job. Nobody in their right mind, with any option, does that job themselves unless they have access to the equipment. Tomorrow, I'm having new front brake pads and disks fitted. I know I can do the job myself, having done it many times in the past, starting over 40 years ago.

BUT .... I chose not to. Why? Because at my age, I've no inclination to freeze my butt off doing it. Unlike many years ago, when I quite enjoyed tinkering with cars it offers me NO satisfaction at all these days. And because I can earn enough in the time it takes to pay for it, without freezing my tush off.

There is no sense in which I'm "wasting" money. it's a utilitarian decision, that says it's worth a couple of hundred quid to have a job that needs doing done for me, bearing in mind that coupke of hundred quid includes parts I'd still have to pay for if I did it myself, and VAT.

Also, I'm not using a 'dial-a-mate' mechanic and asking for a favour, but a small, local and utterly reliable ciomoany I've been using for 20+ years.

The point, Ttaskmaster, is that different people have different personal circumstances, different perspectives on the valye of a given sum of money, different levels of personal health and fitness. And age, of course.

In the couple of hours it'd take me to do that job ..... assuming nothing went wrong .... even if I don't work to earn the m8ney to pay for it, it's STILL worth it, still not a waste, to pay someone to do it for me.

And by the way, my mechanic could spend his time fixing his computer problems and doing his accounts, but he doesn't. He spends his time fixing cars, and pays someone else (like me) to fix his computers and do his accounts.

[Ttaskmaster]

But it's not just about money, but about the subjective nature of whether it's a 'waste', and for that matter what "a lot" is.

To some extent, I do get that, but it's typically the domain of 'The Rich', ie the new money upper-ish middle classers who think flashing the cash and having people service you makes you one of Them, ie the properly rich who understand the value of money and take pride in being able to do things for themselves... which is often how they ended up being rich in the first place. That and being so rich means they have nothing interesting left to do, so take a real interest in such things.

Nobody in their right mind, with any option, does that job themselves unless they have access to the equipment.

Indeed - Requiring specialist kit, often prohibitively expensive, is what I consider a good reason for hiring someone who is in a better position to do it.

Because at my age, I've no inclination to freeze my butt off doing it.

Age/condition also quite valid reasons.

Unlike many years ago, when I quite enjoyed tinkering with cars it offers me NO satisfaction at all these days.

Washing up or dusting the house offers me no satisfaction, but I don't hire a maid... because I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself and it's not difficult.
And yet, people apply that mentality to things like basic car maintenance...and that's how I see a lot of these people, who I thankfully don't depend upon for my living but who keep my friends in stupidly expensive graphics cards... more money than sense, paying stupid amounts of money for an oil top-up or a bulb change, even to the point of freezing their butts off as they lean over and watch me (and not for the first time) do exactly what they could have done themselves.
Seriously, you're paying me £30 to do that, when the skillset for filling a kettle is no different?
Then, to top it all off, they keep that kettle so shiny and descaled it's like new, same as the oven which they manually scrub all the horrid greasy cack off, yet whine about getting a dab of oil on one knuckle from topping the car up?

And so back to the point - Apparently one needs basic knowledge and skills to operate a PC, but seemingly people don't want to learn and just expect it to work... but when Microsoft decide to auto-update everything, because people are like this, those who know better than Microsoft complain and blame them...

And by the way, my mechanic could spend his time fixing his computer problems and doing his accounts, but he doesn't. He spends his time fixing cars, and pays someone else (like me) to fix his computers and do his accounts.

My mechanic taught me everything I know about building a PC and overclocking... which ain't much, because I didn't want to overclock, but it was fun to play with. But his girlfriend does his accounts, as he's too busy fiddling with cars or computers and forgets to invoice people!

[Saracen]

To some extent, I do get that, but it's typically the domain of 'The Rich', ie the new money upper-ish middle classers who think flashing the cash and having people service you makes you one of Them, ie the properly rich who understand the value of money and take pride in being able to do things for themselves... which is often how they ended up being rich in the first place. That and being so rich means they have nothing interesting left to do, so take a real interest in such things.

....

Washing up or dusting the house offers me no satisfaction, but I don't hire a maid... because I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself and it's not difficult.
And yet, people apply that mentality to things like basic car maintenance...and that's how I see a lot of these people, who I thankfully don't depend upon for my living but who keep my friends in stupidly expensive graphics cards... more money than sense, paying stupid amounts of money for an oil top-up or a bulb change, even to the point of freezing their butts off as they lean over and watch me (and not for the first time) do exactly what they could have done themselves.
Seriously, you're paying me £30 to do that, when the skillset for filling a kettle is no different?
Then, to top it all off, they keep that kettle so shiny and descaled it's like new, same as the oven which they manually scrub all the horrid greasy cack off, yet whine about getting a dab of oil on one knuckle from topping the car up?

I guess we're judging by different standards here. Which means things like "so rich that" can have very different meanings.

I'm not "rich", but nor am I scrimping and scraping to eat. A LARGE part of that is having paid off the mortgage some years ago, which means zero rent and zero mortgage repayments. As that constitutes a very large part of the majority of people's incomes, not having any 'roof over head' costs means my actual disposable income goes much further than the average person. If the "average" person earns £26k, they'll have about £1740 a month after default basic deductions. It's not excessive, by any means, for people to be paying £1000/month in rent or mortgage, and it doesn't but you that much. Not here, anyway.

So I'm not cash rich, but am sitting on outright ownership of an asset worth, well, quite a bit. But its value to me is "roof over head" and the cash value is utterly immaterial unless/until I sell, then I either have to start paying rent, or buy somewhere else .... or start sleeping in doorways.

So, I don't have housing costs. I also don't have holiday costs. Firstly, I've already been to most places I want to go to, but also for both health reasons and family circumstances, I don't want to be too far from home. So, no holiday costs. That, of course, is a decision everybody could take, but most people, understandably, consider a good holiday (of whatever type rocks their boat) a high priority, so choose to spend quite a lot, often thousands a year, on their holiday (s).

Next, again for several reasons, we rarely eat out and VERY rarely get a takeaway. Most people do both fairly regulary, and that really adds up.

So, on top of not having housing costs, our value judgements as above mean we choose not to spend a lot on food, etc, or holidays, meaning a fairly modest cash income gies a long way, and that therefore, paying soneone to do jobs I find thoroughly unpleasant is not a push.

Am I rich? No, but am at an age when most property owners have paid the finance off long ago. And, to someone just starting out, owning your own decent-sized house outright probably looks like "so rich". But drill down a bit and you'll likely find that they spend money on booze (teetotal here), cigarettes (lifetime non-smoker here), holidays, takeaways or eating out, and it adds up to rather a lot.

I don't spend on those, but I do pay for hard, physically demanding or unpleasant jobs to be done for me not because I'm incapable of doing the job (like changing my car brakes), but because for me, not having to do those jobs means :-

- avoiding physically hard or unpleasant tasks, and
- having more time to do other things.

The "other things" could be paying work, as discussed in earlier threads, or it could be relaxing, reading a book, playing a musical instrument, watching TV, or whatever the individual chooses to do. It's all about how you value your time, and what you choose to spend on what.

[Saracen]

Thread was closed in error. On my last post, I was having lots of browser problems, with the (Android)on-screen KB appearing and disappearing, and the screen jumping all over the place .... which makes it tricky typing on a virtual keyboard.

So, ummm .... ooops.

Re-opened.