Starting again

[Outcoded]

Bet ya all thought I was dead eh?

To cut a long story short, life had a few changes since I got bored with IT. Now I'm kinda in need of a way to make some money, and in an area where it's impossible to find a good tech, so I thought I might go back to it.

I've been out of the IT game for about 4 years, so I need to update my skills on all the stuff I've missed out on (Vista, 64 bit hardware, ZX spectrums). Short of getting a job at PC World, and letting them train me up to sell Packard Bells to morons, what's the best way to be doing this?

Thinking UK-centric, I know the days of £50ph calls are gone the same way as a decent PC costing over a grand. What's the going rate these days? Is it still hourly, or are people tending towards fixed price repairs?

Oh, and my copy of Partitionmagic 5 is getting a bit dusty - what are the technicians tools of the minute software wise?

Thanks people, and a happy Christmas!

[Platypus]

Good to see you Outcoded - but I hadn't thought you were dead!

I'll leave it to UK members to comment on the current state of the IT industry there...

[NooNoo]

Funnily enough they only seem to employ morons... the reason I am still self employed is because I am "overqualified" for jobs that I apply for (Part time).

Vista isn't that different - same stuff just in different places with one or two nice features (restore from image in ultimate for example).

Most of the customers I deal with still have 4 year old machines, so you aren't missing anything. Acronis has overtaken Ghost in the imagaing department and does partitioning as well.

Comodo is the best free firewall for Vista
AVast and AVG are still around as is memtest86+ and mhdd.

For £15 you can get a usb to IDE/SATA/2.5" adapter cable - makes backup and search and destroy much easier.

There is some pretty nasty spyware out there at the moment - people don't want to format, so unpicking machines takes hours and is where most of my time is spent.

Welcome back and I hope you find what you are looking for.

[Guts3d]

Funnily enough they only seem to employ morons...


So true, some of my co-workers are astonished each day when the sun makes an appearance, and are equally amazed it sets. ( I figured all of that out weeks ago...)