Experiences with non-techies

[WkdPaul]

You should've gone all the way and made linux look like windows... (for maximum confusion)

even better, install linux with a Windows skin on THEIR computers!!! *evil laugh*

[soup]

even better, install linux with a Windows skin on THEIR computers!!! *evil laugh*

Or even better use a screenshot of their desktop as their wallpaper and untick "show desktop icons".  They will spend ages clicking on the images of the desktop icons wondering why nothing happens.  For added evilness pretend ignorance when they ask you to "fix it" and let them pay a small fortune to a computer fixing company to fix this.

  This does require unwatched access to their computer but no doubt this could be arranged.

[cocochubu]

im only gonna give you a small part of the list just for time sake. it is very sad all these things actually happened. my main concern is the lack of common sense in this world like read labels and is it plugged in and turned on. hope you enjoy the stories

 

1.helping my cousin and my friend find a good gaming computer at low price. every time they see one i say... its an a3 processor no. Pentium 2 is to outdated and slow for anything. it doesn't have good graphics. it only has 1 GB of memory. just save me the pain and let me build one with decent components. if it costs $350 dollars or less its most likely going to be terrible for everything including gaming. why does that have old ribbon cables from the 90s.

 

2.if you see smoke coming out of the computer turn it off and don't turn it back on and wait till you see flames. (sadly that is a true story)

 

3.constantly telling my dad that if he wants his computer to run GET RID OF AVG!!!!!!!!!! as well as the other antivirus software but mainly avg

 

4.at drama club after school teaching the back stage people who have been there two years longer then me how to use the sound board. why isnt it working? its not plugged in. why isnt it still working? did you flip the power switch into the on position. why is there no sound? turn up the master. why is there still no sound? did you turn up the volume on the speakers and plug the speaker cables in.

i never used a sound board before and only looked at it for 10 seconds and used common sense

 

5.my friend who isnt very good with amp size asking "will this guitar amp be loud enough for playing at a small bar"? my response was "its a 1000 watt marshal half stack never put that in any kind of small room"

 

 

[Ceatra]

He's 14.

 

I know! ....14yrold "cause its cool!"

[MDPS]

Like dis if yu cri evrytiem fo' ur noe it al freins :,(

[MDPS]

Aka an Apple product?  

Might as well have been but no it was third-party and running Windows 7.

[MDPS]

[Ceatra]

[MDPS]

  = What those PC World employees look like when hiding from someone who actually knows their tech.

[WkdPaul]

people that don't understand you can't pause while playing online games ... here I'm specifically thinking about my wife! lol

[Chugle]

You can get both with an AltoWorks... 1.0L inline 3 with an intercoler and turbo... (the upcoming Alto Turbo RS is sexy as faq too)

Funny joke .

[DigitalHermit]

Funny joke .

 

I'm guessing you're not a fan of tiny cars....

[lucky74dog]

Brother, "I wanna join anonymous, so show me how to hack with their tools!" -14 year old

 

Me, "Hold on I have to install the new AMD driver for ya."  *installs it*

 

Brother, "Now show me how to hack!"

 

Me, *brings up the command prompt, and use the ipconfig crap to shut off his ability to connect to the internet without reconfiguring it, so his internet wouldn't work."

 

Brother, "You dick!  I can't go online now!" 

 

Me, *shrugs and walks away*

 

Now screaming 14 year old brother, "Why is my computer restarting?!  What did you do? Unhack me plz!"

 

Do note he's never properly installed a driver in his life...I'm just shaking my head like wtf dumb ass?!  AMD is restarting your computer for the sake of the damn driver.  I didn't tell him though.  

He's 14? And acts like that? Was he dropped on his head as a small child?

[Fgtfv567]

My friends always install sh*ts (cleaning software that actually harms) in my laptop, they're trying to make my laptop slower and make me frustrated (they do this for fun, because I fix my laptop by myself, it makes me stressed out fixing it).

I had no choice, installed Linux to my laptop..... So they can't install sh*t again, they know nothing about Linux. I'll take this as my advantage :3

Did you not put a password on your laptop?

[Fgtfv567]

It was a display put together by employees, and I think they set the prices too. Not corporate. As long as the manufacturer gets their share of the profits Best Buy gets to set the price as high as they want with the manufacturer setting the minimum.

The next time you go back do you think you can take a pic of it, spec sheet, and other stuff on the PC?

[Boink]

I'm tempted to go into the nearest Best Buy, ask for a gaming computer, play dumb until they ask me if I want to check out, and then go into full techie rant mode as to why it wouldn't work. Recorded for the internet's viewing pleasure of course. 

[MDPS]

The next time you go back do you think you can take a pic of it, spec sheet, and other stuff on the PC?

Definitely but that best buy is a 30 minute - 1 hour drive from my house so don't go there often. I will get that for you in a couple months when I actually go back though.

[Fgtfv567]

I'm tempted to go into the nearest Best Buy, ask for a gaming computer, play dumb until they ask me if I want to check out, and then go into full techie rant mode as to why it wouldn't work. Recorded for the internet's viewing pleasure of course. 

Actually, at my nearest Best Buy, they JUST started carrying gaming desktops around. Like, so recently, they only have one. Anyways,

 

The one they had was an iBuyPower PC: i5-4460 on the stock cooler, 1x 8GB bare looking RAM, B85 Gigabyte motherboard, 750 Ti, Some grey 400W PSU (that looks like one of those chinese knockoffs I visually yelled about a few pages back), 1TB HDD, no SSD, FOR 800 DOLLARS.

 

They had it hooked up to a 21:9 2560 x 1080p monitor, BUT FOR WHATEVER REASON, Windows maxed out at 1920 x 1080p, so everything was stretched out beyond belief. I suspect they didn't install any new drivers, but that's not as bad as the cable management. They absolutely did not route the PSU cables behind the mobo tray, like others (and me) would. Instead, they just tied the whole stack of cables straight to HDD shelf. Night night airflow!

[MDPS]

"If it has a window, and they see the techie stuff inside, they MUST think its high tech guys! Lets go ahead and get that athlon + LGA 775 motherboard up there. They won't notice anything wrong."

[Fgtfv567]

"If it has a window, and they see the techie stuff inside, they MUST think its high tech guys! Lets go ahead and get that athlon + LGA 775 motherboard up there. They won't notice anything wrong."

Stick a Strix cooler on a GT 610 and charge them triple! HA!

[MDPS]

Better yet! For those of them that know a little bit more about the parts, lets put in 4 sticks of DDR2 1333 256MB RAM and say its 32GB!

[Akolyte]

  = What those PC World employees look like when hiding from someone who actually knows their tech.

I think they do actually know their tech.  But, they write about topics that cause popularity or they have a sort of clickbait-ey scheme because they want more views and in turn more money.  

I just think its a bad business model to go by, they could just make money and also provide good information about things.  Not just get paid by manufacterers or companies to write good about their products. 

 

Did you not put a password on your laptop?

He probably does.  But considering how easy Windows logins screens are to hack.  You can use a tool or even if you are a real smarty-pants you can exploit something like sticky keys to break in.  

Linux isn't more secure than Windows.  Its just more customization and linux is generally, these days.  Designed for servers primarily which makes them by default a little more secure.  With stuff like not running as root by default.  On all my servers, I only have one that runs Windows which is for game servers and it always has a standard user account, and an admin account with a password.   Meaning people who hack into the server or even admin it can't actually do anything over the given permissions.  Not only that but I never use powershell so I disable running scripts on it.  Although powershell is useful its still not being used on my server and so I disable it.  This prevents people from attempting to run scripts to bypass UAC. 

 

Essentially, a password on Windows doesn't matter.  The most important thing in this context is permissions.  If someone doesn't have permissions they can't do anything.  A password is part of that but a login password isn't really going to prevent someone from gaining access to the operating system.   Someone can still gain a 'golden ticket' with a login password.  They can't if the filesystem is encrypted and the permissions aren't available like what is a available on Linux by default. 

[Fgtfv567]

Better yet! For those of them that know a little bit more about the parts, lets put in 4 sticks of DDR2 1333 256MB RAM and say its 32GB!

And let's void his/her warranty should that guy try to open up the case! That'll fuck em up!

[DigitalHermit]

And let's void his/her warranty should that guy try to open up the case! That'll fuck em up!

This practice is so common here...

[DimasRMDO]

You have some dck friends,

I think we all have at least 1 :3

 

Did you not put a password on your laptop?

I did, but my friends have a damn good eyes. Even when I type very fast they can still figure out my password.....