Why do geeks think all computers belong to THEM?

[baby_mouse]

I just had a long time friend jump up and down with enthusiasm that he wanted to show me a video on Youtube, but instead of just telling me how to find it he took over the driving seat (I thought he was going to show me something really whizzy and tech, but NO, youtube) logged me out, created a new account for himself on my laptop and used that to access youtube thru firefox! Just to see a video!!!

I could have done all that!

There have been OTHER occasions. Once one of my numerous geek friends happily re-partitioned my directories without asking while I was out at the shops... He was all a-grin when I came back...

[Mobius]

1. Well in his defense.

Anyone that uses IE is doomed for a horrible end.
So props to him for the Firefox upgrade.
Sometimes I find it horribly irritating the amount of time it take for someone to type what I am saying and to know what video is the right one.
It just saves so much time.
I do find what you posted funny though, as I KNOW I am guilty of this behavior.
I will try to be more sensitive to computer "lay people" in the future.
That repartitioning of your directories was really uncalled for there.
You know where they are and have your own system of organization. Now how the frak are you supposed to find anything?

[baby_mouse]

2. I was already using Firefox!

He had no reason to make a new account for himself!

[Mobius]

9. New account?

Firefox is the browser.
I thought he created the new account for YouTube.
And yeah that would really piss me off too.

[baby_mouse]

12. New account for the machine itself.

i.e., a new log-in account for MY. LAPTOP.

Considering it, he may have thought he was being polite and respecting my privacy or something.

[Mobius]

13. oh now that's bad

that is very bad.
How ape shit do you think he would have went if you did that on his know it all comp?

[baby_mouse]

14. I really don't know.

MY guess is one of two things, him stomping and saying "Thaas STUPE" or... not even noticing. I think he thought keeping his activity separate from my account was somehow cleaner. Which would be cool if he asked, and was using my little beast for some major project jointly with me, but for SHOWING ME A VIDEO???

I love him to bits, BUT.

He really does seem to think that puters are somehow public. Just by definition. I'm not the only person he does this sort of thing to...

You can't stop him! He buggers about with screensavers, cookies, virus checkers ("oh that's no good you want this one"....tap tap tap cruddy freeware V-checker suddenly installed "Ta DAAA") ... It's all I can do sometimes to stop him fecking around with the BIOS.

[Mobius]

15. I HATE people that mess with my security settings

or try to tell me theirs is the best.
Someone has been trying to shove this goddammed avg crap down my throat for over a year.
I'm sorry but I have a privacy suite that is much better that any of that crap.
The thing about those freeware V checkers is that they always tell you there are these horrible horrible things on your comp , and lots of them, so you buy their crap.

[Cannikin]

8. Give props for taking it upon themselves to upgrade a browser?

Edit to tone down my knee-jerk rant:

If anyone does that to my computer without checking with me, there will be harsh words exchanged. I don't care if they think they know whats best. Pass along the advice. Let me decide if I want to change browsers. Don't push your 'superior' computer wisdom on me. That would irritate me more than...someone needlessly touching my screen with their fingers. :mad:

If you're too impatient to explain where a video is, and feel the need to push them out of the way to do it yourself, then that would tell me that the person needs to improve their interpersonal skills...its not the fault of the 'lay person' aka average computer user.

A corporate computer is one thing. Its company property and I.T. has every right to make any changes they feel are needed, but my personal pc is a whole other story.

I'm hearing the theme from the "Nick Burns" sketches on SNL.

MOOOOVE!

[Mobius]

10. only as a replacement to IE

I am kind of a dork with lacking interpersonal skills.
Didn't say I wasn't
I would never "push" anyone either :eyeroll:

[billyskank]

3. That's just rude.

Your laptop is your property. He had no right to do that.

[DarkTirade]

4. These aren't very good geeks then.

Geeks respect other people's digital space. These guys obviously don't.

[Deja Q]

6. Some of us try when possible, and the good ones don't do what best buy did

which is to collect music and porn from peoples' computers, or pirate diagnostic software. How their geek squad is still in business is anyone's guess. It shows all those billboards about integrity being lies, but those billboards are aimed at small businesses too...

And geek squad tells people upfront that they are not responsible for lost data if they have to reformat, which they more often do than any real troubleshooting because it's faster. Nobody wants thinking, just whatever is fastest. And that isn't always bright either.

[baby_mouse]

11. It's always the really smart ones, too!

I don't know what it is.

There was another one who just decided one day to download a whole load of stuff while I was in the kitchen. He switched off the virus checker to get stuff installed quicker!

[Deja Q]

5. We have quotas to face and sadly some users aren't as fast. Perspectives, y'all, perspectives.

If it's rudeness, it's inadvertent. But we have our own issues to contend with too. :(

Also, End User policies at companies say "Save to network drives only", "IT is not responsible for data not on the local computer", et cetera. We inform users to save data at every opportunity and they don't listen.

It's damn tragic if we tend to "butt in". It's damn tragic when they do lose data.


Some of us try as often as we can to work with the users, but management doesn't care. They only want to contain costs. Everybody has to follow the rules.

[NJmaverick]

7. As an IT guy, I can tell you many computer geeks are really out there

one common trait that many of them have, is being a control freak. Perhaps that's why they prefer working with computers instead of people.

[DS1]

16. ohh. your laptop

heh, that's not a geek, it's a douchebag