I don't know why I let it annoy me, but it does. I regularly get emails requesting help (some in a very demanding tone) from people who are apparently utterly clueless and incompetent. They're almost always from India, Korea, or occasionally somewhere else in South/East Asia or even more occasionally Eastern Europe.
The emails always read something like this:
Hi, I am ,
I am working on project using . I have . Plz help me. Plz send me urgently.
No problem description at all. It's not "I'm trying to do X with Y, and when I to Z here's what happens and heres what I expected/wanted to happen". These people seem to have absolutely no idea where to start or what to do.
They apparently google a processor type or OS name and find my name. Today's example: I spent a few weeks about 5 years ago playing with Linux on an Intel IXP425 eval board. I apparently posted a question about JFFS somewhere. Now I get an email from some guy in India that says "I am trying to use IXP425 and have problem. Plz help me."
Are these some sort of weird internet-scam/phishing expeditions, or are they really embedded systems engineers and students who know absolutely nothing about embedded systems and even less about how/where to get technical information and help?
Some of them have state quite clearly that they are design engineers who have been assigned a project by their employers, and yet they appear to have absolutely no idea what to do. So, they send e-mails to almost randomly selected strangers asking for step-by-step instructions on how to do their work.
Sometimes I ignore them, sometime I send a link to ESR's "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" page. Maybe I should send them a consulting quote at $150 an hour, pre-pay only, paypal accepted.
There. I know that's not going to change anything, but I feel better.