SON!! I broke the computer!!

[runnernda]

Hehe, we should compare sizes. I mean collection sizes, sheesh .

Usually, people in "art" schools are pompous and stupid little shits that consider any form of random paint brush wiggling art.

To stay on topic tho, I truly feel sorry for the guys working at tech support and such. I know I wouldn't be able to take it, since I'm extremely intolerant of stupidity.
The only stupidity I put up with is my family's. I recently reinstalled Windows on my mom's PC, put 7 in, cuz, y'know, it's 7, and guess what? She managed to download some crap, that, from what I can tell, damaged her graphics card's BIOS, now the only thing that can boot is Win7, not even the oldest and lamest version of Linux I could find, and that, without installing the ATI drivers, cuz once I do, it just ruins everything. And just 2 days before the incident, I told her not to download ANYTHING without asking ME first, but noooo.
BTW, the PC's a laptop.

Anyways, been thru most of what you guys said, and I think the problem is stupidity, as always, people don't even TRY to understand how PCs work or what they're doing on them on a daily basis.

Our RAM collections might be comparable, but were we to compare sizes the other way, you'd totally have me beat...at least, I hope so since I'm a girl.

And tell me about it with the art students. Some of them are okay, but others just don't understand that some things CAN'T BE FIXED.

"I have to present my portfolio tomorrow!"
"Well, maybe you should have backed up your portfolio...and spilling coffee on your computer isn't helping."

"Where are all my files?
"You asked for a fresh image on your hard drive...we told you that would erase everything."
"I didn't think my files would go away!"

Honestly, this school accepts real winners.


And working at Tech Support isn't so bad. Sometimes I want to HULK SMASH someone, but other times it's nice. I get paid to play with computers!

 

[Legendsmith]

i have Avast, Spybot- Search and Destroy, and Norton. i feel pretty safe.

Norton. i feel pretty safe.

Norton. i feel safe.

Norton. feel safe.

Norton. safe.

No.
Uninstall Norton. Keep Avast and Spybot S&D

why?

At the moment all Norton is doing is slowing down your computer.
It's not good to run two anti-viruses in parallel, they can interfere with each other
Avast (Or possibly Spybot S&D) can already do everything Norton can, Faster.

 

[chris89300]

Our RAM collections might be comparable, but were we to compare sizes the other way, you'd totally have me beat...at least, I hope so since I'm a girl.

And tell me about it with the art students. Some of them are okay, but others just don't understand that some things CAN'T BE FIXED.

"I have to present my portfolio tomorrow!"
"Well, maybe you should have backed up your portfolio...and spilling coffee on your computer isn't helping."

"Where are all my files?
"You asked for a fresh image on your hard drive...we told you that would erase everything."
"I didn't think my files would go away!"

Honestly, this school accepts real winners.


And working at Tech Support isn't so bad. Sometimes I want to HULK SMASH someone, but other times it's nice. I get paid to play with computers!

I'm not asian, so yeah, I'd totally pwn you regarding sizes, tho I'd prefer having boobs than a dick, would be a lot more fun .

Well, my ex's friend was ok too, if I'd want a one nighter (she was one of the hottest girls I've ever seen in my entire life, awesome body), too bad I wasn't single ... and too bad she was so braindead ... plus she had a twin sister which was into networking or some other computer related stuff ... I am in no way making up ANY of this, if I would be the regretful/emo/gothic/insert-shitty-"subculture"-here kind of guy, I would have killed myself for not boning them.

Haha, my step-dad was a lot worse, the guy managed to spill every concieveble drink on his poor laptops, from beer, to whiskey, even wine FFS, I can't tell you how sticky the keys get after half of bottle of wine in the keyboard.

Back to the subject at hand, they're too "special" to be concerned about such insignificant things as "comprehension"
I might be in for a disappointment, but what exactly did the guy think a fresh image meant?

Off-topic, but here's a question for the ladies: How come a lot of chicks are into the "artist" kind of guys? Not that I have something against art, but most guys that dare call themselves "artists" are actually stupid twats that don't know squat about art and don't do anything except whine. Don't get me wrong, I sometimes "whine" too, but in my case, it's a lot more aggressive (it's actually a better mean of taking out huge amounts of pressure without having to repair/replace random stuff in your house).

I mean, do they REALLY find the twats smarter than the average Joe?
Oh BTW, from what the teachers in that school taught the poor bastards, an artist IS supposed to "suffer for their work" or something. Seriously, the chick wasted our time telling us how it was so true and whatnot, and what from I could tell, she was really buying into that bullshit.

Who in their right fucking mind would want to suffer while working, as if the boredom of work isn't enough? I mean hey, I've got huge back problems because of one of my jobs and a lot of random accidents, and I sure wouldn't want them to get worse just because some asshole's telling me they should ... Who's with me on the non-retard train? lol

 

[TheColdHeart]

My dad's remedy to ANY computer based problem...press Ctrl Alt Delete. He doesnt know what it does or anything, he thinks just pressing them...solves things. If it doesn't, bash them harder and yell.

Once he even said "The computer is fucked again, and when I try Ctrl Alt Delete...this fucking window keeps opening! What the hell is 'Task Manager', why arent things closing!"

He moved Spybot Search and Destroy into the 'games' folder as it "sounded like one of my stupid games" even though I have never used that computer.

Another thing I hate is, he asks me for help, fine. But then complains I use the mouse and keyboard "too fast" so he can't follow what I'm doing on screen then gets arsey when I explain no matter how fast or slow I do it, he still wouldn't understand.

 

[chris89300]

Oh, and for the Norton related questions: It's a piece of crap, uses more resources than malware, if you need an antivirus, get one of the many free solutions out there, they're usually a lot more efficient, even if not perfect, since perfection doesn't exist, and even if it did, we all have different definitions of it.

If you want total control over "what your PC does", get a suite like ZoneAlarm (There might be better options, but I never tried any, since ZoneAlarm was pretty good, and last time I used a suite was something like 4 years ago.), tho, a control-freak-configured suite is most often more trouble than it's worth, unless you've got a pretty shitty machine.

 

[MasterWhatever]

Its so odd to hear when people have no idea about computers still. It boggles the mind.

 

[Brandon237]

As soon as I read the title, I was reminded of this:

Spoiler

OT: I don't have to deal with these kind of problems very much because my dad is pretty tech literate, my Mother and Sister on the other hand...

When I went to Japan for a week, they had no internet for most of the week because they didn't know how to restart the router.

Holy cow, you've summed up the story of my helpful life. This is the one reason my mom just doesn't do computers, she won't click anything.

Oh, and add the *randomly right-click* option to the flow-chart, if you are photoshop literate, because that also works.

Computers =

1% knowledge
99% reading

 

[chris89300]

My dad's remedy to ANY computer based problem...press Ctrl Alt Delete. He doesnt know what it does or anything, he thinks just pressing them...solves things. If it doesn't, bash them harder and yell.

Once he even said "The computer is fucked again, and when I try Ctrl Alt Delete...this fucking window keeps opening! What the hell is 'Task Manager', why arent things closing!"

He moved Spybot Search and Destroy into the 'games' folder as it "sounded like one of my stupid games" even though I have never used that computer.

Another thing I hate is, he asks me for help, fine. But then complains I use the mouse and keyboard "too fast" so he can't follow what I'm doing on screen then gets arsey when I explain no matter how fast or slow I do it, he still wouldn't understand.

Dude, I have the same problem with my uncle (good thing we only see each other once a year, tops).
Whenever I show him how to something, he tells me to slow down, but at least he doesn't complain, he just asks nicely.

There's still one pretty weird thing tho, usually, when we talk about PCs, he listens to me VERY carefully, but he never takes the time to talk to me before bringing it in to a repair shop or a friend (he lives 2000 kms (1250 miles)away, so maybe it's because I'm too far away, but still) ... because somehow, after all the problems I've solved, his "computer doctors" buddies are still more qualified, because they got some diplomas that say they know how to open Microsoft Word and Excel ...


PS: Dunno why, tho, sometimes, it helps when the PC's lagging like hell for apparently no solid reason. I dunno why, never looked into it, maybe it's got something to do with process priorities, but it does help sometimes, even if it's pretty rare ...

 

[acklumos]

Well, my pc got wrecked for the fifth or sixth time becuase my parents don't understand that Spysweeper is the worst security program known to man and my brother doesn't understand that you aren't supposed to download everything thats says "click here to download." Now, I had just recently started using Steam, so after they fix it, they tell my mom that Steam is a program that downloads virus's and pornography.

/facepalm

You have no idea how long it took me to convince them that I wasn't downloading porn.

 

[chris89300]

As soon as I read the title, I was reminded of this:

Spoiler

OT: I don't have to deal with these kind of problems very much because my dad is pretty tech literate, my Mother and Sister on the other hand...

When I went to Japan for a week, they had no internet for most of the week because they didn't know how to restart the router.

Holy cow, you've summed up the story of my helpful life. This is the one reason my mom just doesn't do computers, she won't click anything.

Oh, and add the *randomly right-click* option to the flow-chart, if you are photoshop literate, because that also works.

Computers =

1% knowledge
99% reading

Correction, 1% knowledge, 19% logic, and 80% reading.

Wow, I can actually add 1+19+80, I must be a nerd ... rofl (drunk nerd ... yeah, kinda)

 

[Brandon237]

As soon as I read the title, I was reminded of this:

Spoiler

OT: I don't have to deal with these kind of problems very much because my dad is pretty tech literate, my Mother and Sister on the other hand...

When I went to Japan for a week, they had no internet for most of the week because they didn't know how to restart the router.

Holy cow, you've summed up the story of my helpful life. This is the one reason my mom just doesn't do computers, she won't click anything.

Oh, and add the *randomly right-click* option to the flow-chart, if you are photoshop literate, because that also works.

Computers =

1% knowledge
99% reading

Correction, 1% knowledge, 19% logic, and 80% reading.

Wow, I can actually add 1+19+80, I must be a nerd ... rofl (drunk nerd ... yeah, kinda)

Okay, I suppose. Although I am worried if this world has come to the point where actually choosing to press a button that can do no harm is considered logic as opposed to, looking. *Stares at father fumbling with computer* Okay, maybe you have a point.

It surprises me how people who are normally so intelligent become such wrecks when faced with a basic webpage. I say we roll in the government sponsored education programs...

 

[chris89300]

Intelligence is irrelevant, they just have to USE their brains instead of letting them rot to complete stupidity ...

 

[Wicky_42]

I have no idea how she manages it, but my mum has a magical ability to kill computers - seriously, they just seem to choke and dies. She's on her third now, and I set it up myself so with some luck it'll last better, lol.. Of course, every time that there's a problem it was my fault, even if I'd been out of the house since it was last used. And of course, I would be the only one with an idea of how to fix it. Joyous times!

 

[Ironic Pirate]

As soon as I read the title, I was reminded of this:

Spoiler

OT: I don't have to deal with these kind of problems very much because my dad is pretty tech literate, my Mother and Sister on the other hand...

When I went to Japan for a week, they had no internet for most of the week because they didn't know how to restart the router.

That's what I thought of too, but ten seconds on google couldn't find it, so I got bored.

 

[Wicky_42]

My dad's remedy to ANY computer based problem...press Ctrl Alt Delete. He doesnt know what it does or anything, he thinks just pressing them...solves things. If it doesn't, bash them harder and yell.

Once he even said "The computer is fucked again, and when I try Ctrl Alt Delete...this fucking window keeps opening! What the hell is 'Task Manager', why arent things closing!"

He moved Spybot Search and Destroy into the 'games' folder as it "sounded like one of my stupid games" even though I have never used that computer.

Another thing I hate is, he asks me for help, fine. But then complains I use the mouse and keyboard "too fast" so he can't follow what I'm doing on screen then gets arsey when I explain no matter how fast or slow I do it, he still wouldn't understand.

God, my Dad does that as well - he reckons I 'click around too fast' and cause more problems than I solve. Well, I've not caused any problems and I've solved plenty - that's like an infinite success to failure ratio, right?

Then again, I do get a bit impatient with older machines - I'm too used to my quad core, or maybe my computer's just magically faster running than everyone else's, but if opening the My Computer window's taking over a minute then there's something wrong with the machine, not with the number of mouse clicks I'm making per minute (and opening control panel *at the same time!!!!* won't be impacting performance at all, even if the computer's that fucked, lol)

 

[Archemetis]

I get the usual sort of bullshit.

'Firefox is putting viruses on the computer!'

'No, Dad, it isn't.'

OR!

'World of Warcraft is putting viruses on the computer!'

'Yeah, dad, I'm sure one of the biggest games developer's business plan is to cripple all the computers that their games are installed on...'

'You've got to restart the computer after unplugging the internet for a few seconds.'

'No, dad, you don't.'

'You know just about as little about computers as I do, don't you give me that shit!'

'True, dad, but none of your friends build computers with their bare hands for a living, so I think I'm still on the top in the grand scheme of things...'

Not like my mum, she's actually rational about it.
She knows nothing about the computer, so she doesn't use it.
Problem solved.

Then there's my brother.
The amount of times I've had to photoshop his friends faces onto photos of gay couples while sitting back and watching everyone praise my brothers 'shooping' skills...
I'm a cartoonist, God-damnit! this shit is beneath me!

 

[DoctorWhat]

My parents are wonderful. My dad's been messing with computers for almost 40 years now. He started by building his own from the individual parts. He's shown me some circuit diagrams he drew. And he's kept up. He's fluent in at least 6 programming languages now, and he's a leader in his field. He knows his stuff, and we can often have a great, seemingly-cryptic converation about new software that we both have.

I'm self-taught, having grown up with computers all around me (my dad built my first from spare parts. then I built my next with him. I can now literally gut a computer blindfolded and put it back together). The only things I haven't learned myself Excel commands and programming, mostly because I never need them.

My mam is fairly competent, as she also worked in the computer field. Thing is, she hasn't really kept up as much. She's used to Win95/98/2000, and she can get around in XP, but Vista and 7 annoy her. She asks for my help with organising iTunes occasionally, but that's about it.

My nine-year old brother is the only one still learning really, and we've taught him how not to fuck up his computer, so his only problems are his childish tendencies to smear chocolate on the keys.

I'm basically the tech consultant for the whole neighbourhood, having set up most of the WiFi networks and any new computers that come in. If I happen to be passing by with not much to do, I'll sometimes pop in to give the computer a boost and make sure they haven't screwed up.

 

[KP Shadow]

praise my brothers 'shooping' skills...

Your brother can fire lazers out of his mouth? AWESOME!!

OT: Just today, I had to help my mother delete an entire folder of images. When I told her to press the "delete" key, she pressed backspace. Otherwise, we rarely encounter any problems that a quick Trend Micro security scan or closing out a few windows can't fix

 

[Clueless Hero]

My sister installed "Smiley Central" or something like that, where you get free "smiley's".
Needless to say, we got tonnes of viruses on our computer, and I got the blame because I use it the most.

This happens to me so damn much.

"Hey Mom, just bought a new games on Steam, here's the money to cover it"
"WE'VE PROBABLY GOT A MILLION VIRUSES NOT BECAUSE OF YOU GO DELETE IT RIGHT NOW YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW A COMPUTE WORKS RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE"

Seriously. Even the occasional lag or hiccup of the computer they interpret as a virus. And then promptly blame me for it.

 

[feather240]

My sister installed "Smiley Central" or something like that, where you get free "smiley's".
Needless to say, we got tonnes of viruses on our computer, and I got the blame because I use it the most.

Who does that?

Managed to get rid of the viruses, but if I hadn't, I would have had to pay for a new computer. Even though I told them countless times it was my sisters fault. [/rage]

Dude... Damn. Good thing you got rid of them though. What did you use?

I used Avast. I think that's what it's called, it was really effective.

AAAAAAARRRRH! Avast matees! Thar be trojans on the horizon!
Prepare the chest and sweep the HDdecks AAAAARRH!
Virus Ho cap'n!
Move to the Chest matees! move it to the chest!

"Look, there be some damsels off the port bow!" "Argh, they be Trojans, open fire!" "Yarr!"

(Just killed three Trojans with the help of Google, ctrl+alt+delete, and Avast. It's my Flotilla of adventure!)