Worst kind of mean.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

What sort of person sets a nursing home resident's desktop wallpaper to an image of a particularly cryptic dialog that looks just like an active window? A window that looks like something said resident would really want to close but obviously can't? Would it be the same sort of person that ties cans to a dog's tail for fun?

I hate people sometimes .. I really do ..

Comments

[jecook]

I could see pulling that stunt on co-workers or someone you didn't like, but the elderly? that's as bad as peeing on a puppy.

[pisceandreamer.livejournal.com]

I was thinking exactly the same thing - lots of former coworkers I would LOVE to do that to. But someone's grandma or granddad? Hell, it's bad enough to be in a nursing home, but to screw with their computer on top of it is just wrong.

[toxico.livejournal.com]

I used to go into Best Buy, Circuit City and the like, and snapshot the desktop, Set as Background, rearrange icons, rinse and repeat until it was a confusing jumble of identical icons.

But to a senior citizen? I think I'd abstain.

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Does that mean i'm a horrid person for laughing when i read this?

I wouldn't actually laugh if i saw it in person, i don't think, but it hit my funny bone to read about.

[liakela.livejournal.com]

Ditto!

[turningallblue.livejournal.com]

I wish I could be one of those people going "The elderly? Oh hell no, that's just wrong!" but honestly, I've met some really bitchy old people who probably deserved it.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Well, the person on whom this particular prank was perpetrated was a bit confused and flustered, but even in the face of the frustration was quite polite, so I can't imagine her doing anything to provoke a stunt like that.

But it's not just mean to the person in the nursing home. It's also mean to the tech support line she immediately turns around and calls in response ..

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

What's a nursing home *resident* doing with a computer? Am I just that out of it? (I'm still amazed *schools* have them.)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Depends on the place. Some of them are more like hotel rooms - you can do everything there you do at home, but you can also order in food if you don't feel like cooking, have someone to do your laundry and fluff your pillows once a day, and have maintenance and emergency medical care a button-push away.

About the only thing they don't have is family on tap, although there's social activity rooms and schedules. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't have at least dialup from most rooms/apartments, and with the Grey Wave discovering MMORPGs, I can see more and more silver surfers refusing to be put into any retirement home that doesn't come with broadband.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Hells teeth! That sounds like somewhere I'd want to stay!

[codecattx.livejournal.com]

Not have family on tap?

My stepmother's mother lives seven blocks from my father and stepmother in her "senior's assisted living facility".

She has kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids on tap.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Ugh, my ex did something like that before.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

It was probably their grandchildren. God knows how happy I am to now be living 2000+ miles from mine. Tech support hell you aren't getting the catharsis of a paycheck for.

(And, for the record, mine won't pay for antivirus updates (or download AVG), won't pay for broadband, are on dialup, and won't do windows updates, because it costs them money to tie up the phone. Now these are the people who paid for a home in Florida and a van without any debt. They can afford it.)

[canray.livejournal.com]

Depends on the elderly person.

Some old Geeks, the First Skool Hackers, would probably chuckle and enjoy that sort of "Youthful Tomfoolery". And plan a rebuttal.

But if it's for a "I want to go on the Intra-Web Thingie to look up that nice Grand Theft Auto game for the Nintendo X-Station that I'm thinking of getting my 8-Year Old Grandson!" type, then, ya, very mean.

'Course, could also be a mean, crotchity old bastard that beats people with their cane as well...

All is relative.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Second category.

Not that I will ever darken the door of a nursing home (at least not unless it has reserved motorcycle parking and will let me out for road trips when the weather is nice, and AFAIK those don't exist), but if this had happened to me, the perpetrator would be begging for mercy in about a day. LOL (I'm already old enough that a lot of kids assume, mistakenly and often rather amusingly, that I'm like most people my age with regard to tech skills.)

From what she told me, I'm about 90% sure it was one of the staff. Some of the people who work in these homes are mean SOB's, either by nature or driven to it by being around residents of the third category all day. Jacking with residents' machines is the least of what some of them do on a regular basis ..

[codecattx.livejournal.com]

Note my comment above.

But take a look at this - http://www.bucknerretirement.org/ These places are getting more like swank hotels every day.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Want to bet that was some Old School first gen hacker, making sure no-one else messed with the computer...