Experiences with non-techies

[soup]

"IT'S A FLOWER!" "Yes, dad...a PICTURE of a flower. Put two and two together."

 

 

Sounds like a smart-arsy thing to whinge about, he said it was a flower when it is really a picture of a flower hur hur!  FFS Lighten up.

 

Shades of Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."

[daniellearmouth]

Sounds like a smart-arsy thing to whinge about, he said it was a flower when it is really a picture of a flower hur hur!  FFS Lighten up.

 

Shades of Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."

 

I want to point out that he used an iPhone before it.

 

The Gallery icon on iOS was a picture of a flower. It's fundamentally the same.

It also helps that the icon on Samsung phones has a white border around it, sort of like a photo taken with a Polaroid, thus making the connection stronger.

 

Again, semantics.

[soup]

Again, semantics.

Again, smart-arsy.

 

Look up Luke's mum's thoughts on parents and technology.

[FireofDestruction]

my dad, said having lots of emails in your inbox causes your computer to slow down....i turned and looked at him with a blank expression and when he was out of hearing range burst out laughing

[jayctech]

My school's filters are WAY too easy to bypass. all you have to do is open up the command prompt (yes, its not blocked), ping the website you want to go to, and then enter the IP into the address bar.

Ha. The tricks I know now that I'm a techie that I didn't know when I was in school. It's occurred to me I could probably have taken over the school network with my current knowledge. My school especially didn't have anyone particularly knowledgeable about tech working there. In fact, it was a sixth former (British lingo, think highschool is the American equiv) that was actually doing the true maintenance.

[soup]

sixth former (British lingo, think highschool is the American equiv) t

 Say 12th~13th grade about 17~18 years old, (Does 13th grade still exist;or is it a varies by State thing ? ).

 

Personal:-

I was 16 when I started sixth year (sixth form [thirteenth grade]) soon 17 though, birthday was 13th Sept started sixth year on August 29th

[Guest andyysplash]

Just noticed this today - our school has put Radeon 5450s in all of the computers in the IT department. Previously they ran on integrated graphics from the Pentiums inside (not sure which gen, but graphics were around HD2000 or HD3000). Either way the 5450s are about the same as HD3000 graphics and cost £30 each. That's somewhere between £600 and £900 for one room. Not to mention that the monitors are VGA only 1280x1024 so it's not like they upgraded to a digital connector standard or anything.

 

Literal waste of money. On the plus side the music department is meant to be getting new computers. Originally iMacs (CoreAudio and Logic are better than ASIO on top of Windows' audio stack and then Cubase) but now probably just 'beefier' Windows machines. The new guy will want something decent since he said our department looks like his 5 years ago (and I agree), but the technicians and our head of Ex Arts (a drama teacher) will probably curbstomp us and we'll end up with slightly faster Pentiums and 2GB RAM to replace the old Core 2 Duos and 2GB RAM. Really we need decent i3s or basic i5s and 4GB. And 1080p monitors for the hell of it. They're currently 1050p janky resolution. 16:10 though which is quite nice for Cubase considering the vertical real estate needed.

[Ekpyrosis]

-snip-

[Jakeman797]

Friends wanting to buy laptops instead of desktops, because they think that it is cheaper cuz it's smaller

[BOT Edward]

My school's filters are WAY too easy to bypass. all you have to do is open up the command prompt (yes, its not blocked), ping the website you want to go to, and then enter the IP into the address bar.

 

Blocking the domain name instead of adding an exception to DNS. GG shitty school techs

[EJ993]

Just noticed this today - our school has put Radeon 5450s in all of the computers in the IT department. Previously they ran on integrated graphics from the Pentiums inside (not sure which gen, but graphics were around HD2000 or HD3000). Either way the 5450s are about the same as HD3000 graphics and cost £30 each. That's somewhere between £600 and £900 for one room. Not to mention that the monitors are VGA only 1280x1024 so it's not like they upgraded to a digital connector standard or anything.

 

Literal waste of money. On the plus side the music department is meant to be getting new computers. Originally iMacs (CoreAudio and Logic are better than ASIO on top of Windows' audio stack and then Cubase) but now probably just 'beefier' Windows machines. The new guy will want something decent since he said our department looks like his 5 years ago (and I agree), but the technicians and our head of Ex Arts (a drama teacher) will probably curbstomp us and we'll end up with slightly faster Pentiums and 2GB RAM to replace the old Core 2 Duos and 2GB RAM. Really we need decent i3s or basic i5s and 4GB. And 1080p monitors for the hell of it. They're currently 1050p janky resolution. 16:10 though which is quite nice for Cubase considering the vertical real estate needed.

I have the same situation in my college. We are using old 3:4 aspect ratio monitors for graphic design. I rather bring in my laptop for that

[BURNINGJUNK]

I have a double whammy! Both involve headphones.

 

#1 Before christmas time I had told my grandparent I wanted new headphones. My grandfather said sure. I told him I wanted ATH-M50s (and bookmarked it on his iPad just to be sure) The morning of Christmas he followed through, while unboxing them I overheard my grandfather say to my dad, "Wow I didn't realise how expensive headphones are today" I laughed so hard and told him that these aren't even that expensive ($150 US) and showed him some Sennheisers on Amazon. It turns out the last time he bought headphones was buying some cheapo son things at Walmart.

 

#2 I was in the car with my cousin, I was listening to some music with my M50s. My cousin proceeds to signal me to take them off, he says, "Those are nice beats you have there" OHHH HE WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THE CONVERSATION WE WERE ABOUT TO HAVE! I am not sure if he was just confused, or if Beats is a general term for headphones now. Either way he is now informed on the differences between Beats and actual headphones. 

 

Bonus Round!! I saw an ad on Twitter saying and I quote "Get dad something he'll actually want to wear around his head for father's day" WHAT THE FUFGHHFIHURFH!?? I THOUGH YOU USED THEM TO LISTEN TO AUDIO, NOT USE AS A $500, UNCOMFORTABLE NECKLACE!!

[BentheMuffin]

I have a double whammy! Both involve headphones.

 

#1 Before christmas time I had told my grandparent I wanted new headphones. My grandfather said sure. I told him I wanted ATH-M50s (and bookmarked it on his iPad just to be sure) The morning of Christmas he followed through, while unboxing them I overheard my grandfather say to my dad, "Wow I didn't realise how expensive headphones are today" I laughed so hard and told him that these aren't even that expensive ($150 US) and showed him some Sennheisers on Amazon. It turns out the last time he bought headphones was buying some cheapo son things at Walmart.

 

#2 I was in the car with my cousin, I was listening to some music with my M50s. My cousin proceeds to signal me to take them off, he says, "Those are nice beats you have there" OHHH HE WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THE CONVERSATION WE WERE ABOUT TO HAVE! I am not sure if he was just confused, or if Beats is a general term for headphones now. Either way he is now informed on the differences between Beats and actual headphones. 

 

Bonus Round!! I saw an ad on Twitter saying and I quote "Get dad something he'll actually want to wear around his head for father's day" WHAT THE FUFGHHFIHURFH!?? I THOUGH YOU USED THEM TO LISTEN TO AUDIO, NOT USE AS A $500, UNCOMFORTABLE NECKLACE!!

You don't listen to audio with beats, just white noise that non-techies seem to understand.

[reapersivan]

SO this guy who is trying to get into PCs and stuff because we talk about it at school shows me a very shitty build, sketchy case, A crappy r9 285 2gb an i5 and just a complete mess. I told him it was bad and to learn and he was like "I'll just ask my cousin who works at Fry's to choose and build for me" I said okay and then I was like " how are you supposed to know anything?" he answered "I just learn the names of the parts, that easy"

 

About a week later me and some other guys were talking about some guy's headphones having no bass and that guy who has his Cousin from Fry's reaks out saying "if he has no bass, than how is he supposed to hear enemy footsteps?"

[BURNINGJUNK]

You don't listen to audio with beats, just white noise that non-techies seem to understand.

Not to mention they have no noise blocking at all. Kid a front of the bus listens to Beats. Can clearly make out words at the back.

[nekomata]

I have the same situation in my college. We are using old 3:4 aspect ratio monitors for graphic design. I rather bring in my laptop for that

3:4? First time I've heard that ratio

[APersonWithABrokenChair]

3:4? First time I've heard that ratio

I think me ment 4:3

[Ruostunut kokis]

I think me ment 4:3

Either it was flipped 90°, or people are already starting to forget that ancient monitor aspect ratio. Some people still use it though... Like me, but it's 5:4 (1280 x 1024)

[Ceatra]

About a week later me and some other guys were talking about some guy's headphones having no bass and that guy who has his Cousin from Fry's reaks out saying "if he has no bass, than how is he supposed to hear enemy footsteps?"

Bass does improve the sound of footsteps..... I think

[jayctech]

Bonus Round!! I saw an ad on Twitter saying and I quote "Get dad something he'll actually want to wear around his head for father's day" WHAT THE FUFGHHFIHURFH!?? I THOUGH YOU USED THEM TO LISTEN TO AUDIO, NOT USE AS A $500, UNCOMFORTABLE NECKLACE!!

You're incorrect... Fashion accessories are what they are..

[Speedbird]

You're incorrect... Fashion accessories are what they are..

Beats are fashion accessories. ATH-M50s are actual headphones.

[DigitalHermit]

Beats are fashion accessories. ATH-M50s are actual headphones.

 

and then there's this

 

Fake Beats (my roommate's... got one off a sidewalk vendor for ~3USD... he bought it for fun...)... just in case the legit ones didn't sound and feel cheap enough...

[Speedbird]

and then there's this

-snip-

Fake Beats (my roommate's... got one off a sidewalk vendor for ~3USD... he bought it for fun...)... just in case the legit ones didn't sound and feel cheap enough...

Still sound better than real Beats.

[Darkman]

Still sound better than real Beats.

A bunch of people in my grade wear off brand and fake beats then like 2 have actual beats. It hurts my ears and eyes to see them.

[You_are_a_cunt]

So this gem is so fresh I can still feel the awkward

 

 

Last night, at around 1AM my mom calls me; since I play WoW (unfortunately, I feel a distinct need to have no life right now) I was wide awake, mid-raid. Call rejected.

1:05AM - mom calls again. call rejected

1:15AM - mom calls for the third time. for heaven sake, woman, I'm "sleeping" (mom does not agree with all-nighters even though I'm a grownup at this point) I unwillingly answer to get all this sorted so I can get back to my game.

After the obligatory "why the hell are you calling the at 1 in the morning?!" she tells me that she needs urgent help, since her computer won't cooperate (it's a 10-or-so year old single-core AMD rig with DDR-400! running Whinedoes EggsPee). She then proceeds to ask me to come over and fix it. She lives 150km away (~100miles). I don't have a car. First train that way is at 6:30 AM and I'm supposed to be at work at 7 AM. No go.

Thankfully I had an emergency plan, since I'm well aware of the degree of non-techieness my mother is capable of (until last year she had a Nokia 3310. you get the idea)

I ask her if the PC is on and if it's connected to the internet. It is.

I tell her to go on the desktop and look for the spot on the wallpaper that says "IF I EVER NEED TO ACCESS PC REMOTELY, OPEN THIS" (I had set up everything just for scenarios like these, making it as idiot-proof as I could). It was just a shortcut to Team Viewer. BUT WAIT, mom decided to "clean" the desktop and she had moved/deleted the shortcut.

10 minutes later she finally manages to open Team Viewer from the start menu. I kid you not, it took the woman 10 minutes (at this point I'm not even sure we're related).

What had happened:

My mom gets ALOT of e-mail from her sister/my aunt, who isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to NOT opening malware-ridden e-mails. Mom still uses Yahoo! Mail, because she doesn't want to switch to GMail like any sane person would do.

Anyway, she had opened a few of the e-mail my aunt sent her last week and somehow managed to catch some nasty bugs. Malware, spyware, adware, it was all there.

Keep in mind that this machine is old as hell and a potato is faster than it.

I had installed Malwarebytes just in case, since I knew something like this was bound to happen. After about an hour and a half of scanning, everything seemed to be sorted. At this point it was around 3:30AM. I was getting tired and annoyed, but everything was sorted.

I call mom, tell her it's done and she can resume whatever she was doing. I jump into bed and try to get some sleep, since I was due to get up in less than 3 hours so I could get to work.

4-fracking-AM my mom calls. AGAIN. Starts complaining that I didn't do anything and told her it was fixed.

I tell her to open Team Viewer again. Lo and behold, firefox pops up on my screen. she had been downloading crap from my aunt's e-mail again, because it was "funny".

At this point I was getting mad. Told mom to go to bed while I fix shit. First thing's first, I block my aunt's e-mail address. She never has anything important to say anyway, so no loss there.

Malwarebytes again. By the time it was done I was supposed to get up and make myself some breakfast.

Now I'm at my 6th coffee since I got to work and I haven't eaten since yesterday's lunch.

 

I hate my family.