what scares you about your parents' computer

[Fuzzy Dice]

So i'm home (ie - at my parents' place instead of mine) for the weekend, and with nothing much else to do, i've been puttering around on their computer.

Now, it's not a bad system, per se. I made them buy a minitower with a 1.2 amd in it last summer, i sacrificed some ram and an old hard drive - it runs just fine (though installing was a bitch...wish i had a webcam here, i'd crack the case and snap a few pics).

But have you ever come home and discovered that your parents have become just comp literate enough to download programs loaded with spyware? that and they like their 17" montor in 800x600 for some god awful reason. I want, very much to clean the system up, but have learned in the past that if i change anything, it will scare them. Literally - OH NO something is different!

I guess the question is: What scares you about your parents' computer?

be it: how old, how misused, the fact that they don't understand that you have to physically clean the insides every here and there?

[Kyle]

I did a spyware search on my girlfriends computer and it came up with 375 items.....about the same with my parents, but thats because my little sis is on that one as well, my mom is ok with computers

[beowulf437]

In my case its the kids downloading the spyware, porn dailers, and ad ware.

[Fuzzy Dice]

Originally posted by Kyle
..spyware search...375 items........ .

Wow. :eek:

The most I'd ever seen was 165 on a buddy's comp, one he shares with his gf. mostly his fault though.

And beowulf....i hadn't even thought of that...it's got to be rough keeping a system running smooth with kids having access to it too. My youngest sibling is 20, and we're all out and about, and my parents are in that age bracket that mostly don't use comps for anything but Word. Even that scares my mom sometimes.

" [Fuzzy], how do i save to a disk?"

Heh, at least they're trying now.

[wolfpac181]

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! I got that beat hands down!

1000+ spyware components on my parents computer:eek:

My mum and youngest brother are fairly computer smart. But the step-dad and other bro are about as dumb as can be with it. Downloading stupid shit like Bonsai Buddy, trying to play DVD's in a CD-rom, and lame shit like that. Funny thing is, They act like they KNOW something about it.


my mom's a fucking riot too... she calls me up with the wildest of questions:

"how do I hack into my co-workers computer???" or "how can I keep my IP invisible over the net?"

haha, I gave up asking what she's really doing.

[Kyle]

Originally posted by wolfpac181

1000+ spyware components on my parents computer:eek:


Yay....my god that's scary, i would have freaked if i would have seen that


and n/p =)

[wolfpac181]

thanks

[SOC]

STOCKING SAYS ::

My mum is amazing. She's a little old white-haired old lady, but she knows that she prefers HTML to Dreamweaver (it makes more sence to her), even though she blew up my computer a couple of years ago - all is forgiven - how she blew it up I don't know!

Cheers Mum ;)

[wolfpac181]

Originally posted by SOC
STOCKING SAYS ::

My mum is amazing. She's a little old white-haired old lady, but she knows that she prefers HTML to Dreamweaver (it makes more sence to her), even though she blew up my computer a couple of years ago - all is forgiven - how she blew it up I don't know!

Cheers Mum ;)


Prolly trying to warm up a cheese sandwich in the ZIP drive:)

I think it's kool that she's still chugging along and learning stuff. I kinda take a lot of joy seeing older people still learning and trying thier hardest when it comes to computers

[Fuzzy Dice]

that'd be neat. i remember the first time mom walked in and i had my comp in pieces on my floor. PRICELESS. looked like she shat her drawers. (cuz, you know, they helped me buy my first comp).

[Shaneus]

3 (and counting) pr0n/internet diallers... my dad was all like "omg wtf 1902 numbers on our phone bill!", so I went "haha omg ROFL pr0n dialler u lamer"
Needless to say, he STFU lol.

[utopian]

The fact that it's the only one that works at the moment.

[angel_b]

Where the hell do those porn diallers come from? Are they downloaded with other programs? My daughter got one on her computer, and copped a $140 call on her phone bill. She's currently doing battle with AAPT. :mad:

[kré]

Originally posted by Shaneus
3 (and counting) pr0n/internet diallers... my dad was all like "omg wtf 1902 numbers on our phone bill!", so I went "haha omg ROFL pr0n dialler u lamer"
Needless to say, he STFU lol.

omgrooftiles! http://www.crayonline.com/smilies/rofl.gif

[oracle]

My mum wanted to know why her computer was running so slowly. A quick check of the registry revealed that there were over 35 executables running at startup!

[gingermeatboy]

Originally posted by Kyle
I did a spyware search .....

what exactly is the best way to search for spyware? I'm pretty certain i'll have some on mine, I think I've got rid of most of it though!

[Maestro]

Originally posted by gingermeatboy
what exactly is the best way to search for spyware? I'm pretty certain i'll have some on mine, I think I've got rid of most of it though! Ad-aware. (http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10045910.html)

[Spingo]

Originally posted by SOC
but she knows that she prefers HTML to Dreamweaver

Is that like saying that I prefer animals to cats? :p

I don't worry about my parents. My dad is a geek too, and my parents have just as many PC's as I do.

I do remember Bussie doing a spyware sweep and picking up 400+ components when we moved into the ZHouse...

[hazza]

the pron dialers definatly... and the forward emails she gets


"blah blah delete this its a virus "EXPLORER.EXE""

[jmello]

they don't have one:eek:

[geggle]

Originally posted by jmello
they don't have one:eek: ...and that is a good thing. Trust me. ;)

[pliskin]

what scares me is my mum has about 3 extra toolbars on internet explorer. 1 is linked to LOP.com, another is gator affilliated and the 3rd is from some company i have not heard of. when i offered to get rid of them for her she was dumbfounded. " y the hell would i want u to do that. i use those things all the time!" was her reply. oh well .

[Jaz]

Mum's machine isnt too bad. Only a bit of spyware found. Nothing scary here though.

My friend was surprised to find pr0n on his dads laptop.

[annie]

what scares me about my parents computer is that its mine too :'(

[Princess]

My mum is just about as cluey as me... i was asking her the other day about the best way to do some stuff in MS Publisher (cause i hate the pgm) which was roooly cool.. dad can type a letter, provided he has three days and my sis is still learning that the box sitting in the corner of the family room is a c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r. (she's doing IT 2 in Yr11!)

i've just about convinced mum that we need a new printer and that we need to clean up the old computer to make it run a little quicker. (You can make a coffee in the time it takes to open Word!) seriously!

theyre not too bad.... i just hope i can take the little puter with me when i move out, otherwise i'll be lost.. :(

[Al]

Webshots is the spawn of satan.

[plext]

The fact that they sent it all the way over here for me to fix.

No, I'm not kidding.

[rascuache]

the fact that they have all these things that are built in that are useful for them and none of them are used....i build them computers and a system and all they bloody use is word and IE

they're all macs so there isnt too much of worry about virus's pron diallers and this spyware shit.

[mysterious-dr-x]

Originally posted by annie
what scares me about my parents computer is that its mine too :'(

what she said.

[Asmodeus]

oh god, i looked through my parents computer becuase they complained it was running real slow, well, no wonder, they had their system tray filled with so much shit, it went all teh way over to teh start button.

[no_dice]

The fact that I installed MSN on it and taught them how to use it when I moved out.

Sample conversation when I return home from work:

Mom: "Hello?"
Mom: "Hello??"
Mom: "You there?"
Mom: "HELLLOOOOOO"
Mom: "doo dee doo"
Mom: "yo?"
Mom: "HAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLOOOOO?"
Mom: "You there?"
Mom: "Come here and talk to your mom"
Mom: "Fine then, I'm going to bed"
Mom: "..........."
Mom: "Hello?"


Hah