Was I Sucky #98548?

[gunsage]

Yeah...I think just about everyone here's asked that same question. There have been times in the past, though few in number, where I've been sucky. I'm typically more passive than anything. This is more of a was I sucky to a family member rather than to an employee. Here's the deal. My mother-in-law has become quite the child lately. Well, I say lately...in reality, it's existed and gotten festeringly worse since she finally divorced that asshole husband of hers.

How so? She got married when she was 18. Now, I'm not trying to turn marriage age into a debate. If you've really found someone you love, that is excellent and I'm happy for you, really. :) This comes into play, however, because that means he's...

- Her only sexual experience...that we know of. She may have cheated on him while he was in the army.
- The father of her children and her husband for MANY years. This man was psychologically and physically abusive to her and her daughters. She was nothing but a doormat for aaaaaalllll those years.

It's only natural that she wants to go about getting an education and get back on the dating scene. I applaud her for that. Unfortunately, that has come at the expense of attention to her youngest daughter, who's failing miserably in high school. Further, she's (daughter again) been more or less a trained monkey, as my mother-in-law won't get off her ass for a second to help out with the chores (living with grandfather, free ride).

Now, the purpose of this "prank" was not out of malice, but just plain sillyness. From time to time, our coworkers joke around with each other much in the same light, which is exactly why we keep our machines locked! :p In any case, she had her laptop out, completely unsecure, and decided to go out with her boyfriend of the month, which seriously grosses her daughters out (my wife included, obviously). She put, yet again, the youngest sister in charge of doing a bazillion friggin' chores.

My response? I waited until she left and then proceeded to rename a number of her shortcuts under the guise that I was "tuning up her computer." :) Of course, that's only half true. I actually DID beef up her computer a bit by adjusting the virtual memory, disabling various things in msconfig, disabling certain unneeded services, making the preference performance over quality, etc. Therefore, yes, while I was quite silly in renaming a few of the shortcuts (Microsoft Word to wr0dpadd, Internet Explorer to INTARWEB!!!1!!111), it was nothing malicious.

About a day later, she calls me FREAKING OUT because all of this was changed. Several times she repeated ye olde addage "I'm not angry, but..." and yet sounding VERY angry over and over again. I couldn't understand what was the big deal, especially since the classes she was taking were over, essentially, COMP100 stuff anyway, so then the following happened...

Me: "Okay okay...calm down."
MIL: "Look, it's just...I mean...WHAT IS THIS...It says wh...wh...wr0dpadd? I just need to type a document for my school!"
Me: "I understand that. Look, it's still Microsoft Word. If you click on it-"
MIL: "BUT IT'S NOT RIGHT!"
Me: "I know. I was just messing-"
MIL: "Look, I'm not mad, it's just...sigh..."
Me: "Well, in order to change the shortcut back, you click once on the text, then-"
MIL: "I ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO THAT!!"

At this point I more or less shut up, let her talk, then hung up. I can't understand if it was an issue of she was just mad that I messed with her computer without her permission (likely) or if it was a matter of "I WANNA BE AS PISSY AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE I'M A GODDAMN'D TWO YEAR OLD!!!" Anyway...what do you guys think? Was I an ass? Do you think it was a matter of me interfering with her personal property or what?

[cactus]

:lol: I just find that hilarious! And not sucky at all, if she's competent enough to change the names on the shortcuts back her self. (And she said she is, so...)
Of course, people are different, but..she must understand that it was done with a humorous intention?

And yes, this is why you always lock your computer before leaving it (we call it "fishing" - you know, opposite of fixing? :p Fiancé works in computer support..I know some pretty eat fishing tricks :D ).

[Pedersen]

I suppose in a similar vein comes one of my own stories. First, everybody knows that screensavers are exe files with a different extension, right?

Well, we had someone who was an absolute waste of flesh. We knew she played solitaire a lot, but couldn't ever prove it.

So, I changed her shortcuts one day. Updated the link to solitaire to run the Marquee screen saver, and made sure the icon was kept with the solitaire icon. Then set the preferences for Marquee so that whenever it was run, the text would read "Get back to work!"

No, I never did hear a word of complaint :)

[FuzzyKitten99]

I suppose in a similar vein comes one of my own stories. First, everybody knows that screensavers are exe files with a different extension, right?

Well, we had someone who was an absolute waste of flesh. We knew she played solitaire a lot, but couldn't ever prove it.

So, I changed her shortcuts one day. Updated the link to solitaire to run the Marquee screen saver, and made sure the icon was kept with the solitaire icon. Then set the preferences for Marquee so that whenever it was run, the text would read "Get back to work!"

No, I never did hear a word of complaint :)

:roll::roll::roll:
OMF-G!!! That is TOO funny!

I have done the screenshot-as-wallpaper prank to my husband. You should have heard the hissy fit he threw when he couldn't get into the came he was intending to play.

[gunsage]

I'm glad no one thinks I'm sucky about that, but I suppose in her eyes I was. In retrospect, no, I probably shouldn't have messed with her personal property. I think the main reason I personally started to get frustrated with her was she called me up freaking out...for what? Honestly, I expected one of the following...

- "Very funny, Sage. Get your ass over here and change it back."
- "Why would you do that? Is this supposed to be funny?"
- "Please don't mess with my computer again, okay?"

Seriously, one of those would've been fine. And I could've understood her frustration if she DIDN'T know how to turn it back. Yes, then I would've felt bad and definitely helped her out. No, she knew how to change it back and from what I can tell, more or less called up to bitch. Oh, but..."She wasn't mad." :confused: This also reminds me of something one of my former coworkers did (yes he's moved on, but God he was awesome).

We have a CSR who REALLY wants to be a tier 3. And I mean really really. He's a nice guy, but not very motivated nor computer savvy. He sees us sitting around with very little queue and automatically assumes our job is easy. Anyway, my former coworker told me a story about how one time he left his computer unlocked, so he went over and changed his mouse to left-handed controls. :roll:

The best part was he never really said anything about it...he just kind of assumed it did that after a while and would change back. :lol: On a side note, my youngest sister-in-law (the slave) and I had the following conversation the other day...

Me: "You know, I really just don't understand why she was so angry. It was funny, though...I'm liable to go over and change her desktop to a giant cock or something."
YSIL: "Yeah, no...you won't be able to. She's set a password!"
Me: "...And?"
YSIL: "Well, not even I know what it is."
Me: "Very good. And meanwhile, I'll simply go in and set a CMOS user password so that then SHE won't be able to get in." :roll:
Wife: "Please don't." :mad:
Me: "Oh fine..." :rolleyes:

:lol:

[Bright_Star]

You shouldn't have done that no matter if YOU thought it was funny. That's considered harrasment or even bullying.
Being funny is when you crack a joke or send a humerous e-mail. What you did is considered tampering & you're lucky she didn't have you arrested. You're being a bully & if you don't think you are then you had better look up the word in the dictionary.
What you did was cruel.

[marasbaras]

Maybe I'm not as nice as the other folks around here. But my reaction would be:

DON'T MESS WITH MY COMPUTER YOU STUPID PUKE.

Everyone who knows me knows that's how I feel. And, they don't.

Regarding setting the CMOS password ... buddy, you need to find a new sense of humor. 'Cause that's just not funny. It's just, as BrightStar put it, cruel.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I often change the background on my dad's computer to some goofy puppy or kitty picture, then leave a window open so he doesn't see it until he starts doing stuff. Never messed with his icons, though (hmmm....:devil:)

I think she totally overreacted...obviously she was able to figure out what was what, correct? Then again, some people can't handle harmless practical jokes...:shrug:

[gunsage]

Now this is interesting. I expected that at some point there would be people on the other end of the spectrum, but to this extreme?

You shouldn't have done that no matter if YOU thought it was funny. That's considered harrasment or even bullying.
Being funny is when you crack a joke or send a humerous e-mail. What you did is considered tampering & you're lucky she didn't have you arrested. You're being a bully & if you don't think you are then you had better look up the word in the dictionary.
What you did was cruel.

"Cruel?" Changing the names of shortcuts is cruel? That's a new one for me. I could understand if she knew NOTHING about computers, but as I've stated, that's not the case. In fact, she often flaunts that she knows XYZ about computers. Even when I was still going to school for programming she'd do this. Often I'd smirk and just walk away, but other times I'd ask her simple OS questions and she'd give me the deer in headlights. :lol:

In concerns to tampering, initially I got on her computer to tune it up. That much is true. Then I decided I would have a little fun with the shortcuts. As I stated before, nothing malicious. If I really wanted to be terrible, there were plenty of things I could've done...

- Deleted all of her shortcuts.
- Formatted.
- Changed the path of all of her shorcuts.

The funny thing is she's had the education that even if I had done 1 or 3, it would have been a hassle and definitely I'd have been due for an earful, but she would have known how to fix it. Considering the bullying/harassment/arrested comments, perhaps this has been done to you before? :p Sorry, never heard of someone getting arrested for getting on their mother-in-law's computer and changing the text of "Microsoft Word" to "wr0dpadd." Next!

Maybe I'm not as nice as the other folks around here. But my reaction would be:

DON'T MESS WITH MY COMPUTER YOU STUPID PUKE.

Everyone who knows me knows that's how I feel. And, they don't.

Regarding setting the CMOS password ... buddy, you need to find a new sense of humor. 'Cause that's just not funny. It's just, as BrightStar put it, cruel.

Not understanding the cruel comment yet again. I do understand the "DON'T MESS WITH MY COMPUTER YOU STUPID PUKE" comment. After all, it was a prank. I don't recall someone going "Hey, you know what'd totally be funny? Yeah, prank me!" in seriousness...ever. By the way, since she lives just around the corner, if I'd ever done anything as malicious as changing her CMOS, yeah, I could just go around the corner, laughing my ass off, and fix it.

And while we're at it (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bully)...quarrelsome? Maybe. Habitually badgering and intimidating? Not even close. For starters, I don't believe I'd be trusted in ANY customer service position if that was the case. Secondly, I strongly suggest you read my initial comment so as to understand what would even compell me to act in such a way to begin with. I'm not saying she deserved it, but as I stated, it was a harmless prank (at least in my opinion) and I felt she got out of control over it.

[Crazeyal]

There's two differant issues here. One is trust, the other is confrontation. IF someone doesn't have a sense of humor, don't pull jokes on them. You mentioned some pretty terrible stuff (abuse, child endangerment) and then set about righting it by.. renaming files??

Comon, one has NOTHING to do with the other.

That aside, a joke is a joke. Either she doesn't get it, or she'll be a good sport about it. You should have simply laughed at her and hung up.

[gunsage]

The sad part is me, my wife, my MIL, her sisters, etc. often do play pranks on each other. That's why I really couldn't understand why she reacted the way she did. Also, I wasn't trying to set right what she did. I was frustrated because, yet again, she's leaving the youngest to do alllllll the chores she most likely promised the grandfather she'd do, only to go out with for some sex. :rolleyes: Is she entitled to go out and have a good time? Of course. I have a problem with...

- Her acting childish.
- Her pushing all chores onto the sister.
- Her utter snobbishness when it comes to education and general "wisdom."

And honestly, I was very ready to laugh at her several times, but with the way she was saying things, I was more worried that something was legimitimately wrong. Then I was concerned as to why she was so freaked out. Once I hung up, I shook my head, then laughed for a while.

[symposes]

If someone changed the names of my shortcuts... and i noticed... i would get a kick out of it, then change them back and go on with my life.
And no, I dont like it when people use my computer without asking first. Yes there are exceptions. like, the more you know about computers, the less you gotta ask me.

Or if my computer is sitting on my desk, and im sitting across from it at another table playing xbox...
Yea, i know thats weird, but hey... heh

[Broomjockey]

You shouldn't have done that no matter if YOU thought it was funny. That's considered harrasment or even bullying.
Being funny is when you crack a joke or send a humerous e-mail. What you did is considered tampering & you're lucky she didn't have you arrested. You're being a bully & if you don't think you are then you had better look up the word in the dictionary.
What you did was cruel.

Deep end, much? Not harrasment. That's a continuing pattern of behaviour. This appears to have been a one-off. Bully? He was asked to tune the computer, he didn't force his way on there. He didn't demand access, or threaten violence, or any such. How exactly is it bullying? And arrested? I doubt they'd even be able to get a mischief charge out of it. Yeah, call up the police and go "I want this man arrested! HE CHANGED THE NAMES OF MY ICONS! ...No, they're all there. No, they work. No, I can change the name back. About 20 seconds, why? Whadda you mean I'm being ticketed for non-emergency use of 911?" I think before you start tossing words around like that, YOU should look up their meanings.

And for the record, not only are there more ways to be funny than cracking jokes or sending humorous emails. In fact, most of those "humorous" emails bloody well suck. And they're old. It doesn't take a sense of humour to click on "forward to all." You remind me of that one Sgt. from Good Morning Vietnam.

Regarding setting the CMOS password ... buddy, you need to find a new sense of humor. 'Cause that's just not funny. It's just, as BrightStar put it, cruel.

This particular one, yes, might be cruel.

[Bright_Star]

You can spin that around to make it look like you did no harm & fool yourself into thinking that you're the most wonderfull person on the planet but what you did was wrong.
I would never do what you did.

[Broomjockey]

You can spin that around to make it look like you did no harm & fool yourself into thinking that you're the most wonderfull person on the planet but what you did was wrong.
I would never do what you did.

You might never do what he did, but does that excuse such a vehement attack on another member? And I don't see him claiming to be a wonderful person, much less most wonderful on the planet. And it did no lasting harm. It was something he or she could fix in about 20 seconds. It's quite possibly the most simple thing to fix on a computer.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I personally would have found that pretty funny.

However, not everybody is as fun-loving like myself, and as the poster above me mentioned, it could have been seen as messing around with the one thing that's hers and something she has control of.

OP may be sucky, but only a little bit. I certainly wouldn't classify this as harassment, as there does not seem to be a pattern here .

[Gravekeeper]

If it was my personal computer? I'd probably strangle you as its personal, has a lot of my work on it and I don't appreciate people messing with it.

If it was my work computer? I wouldn't care. It would be annoying. But I'd just fix it and go about my day. I'd probably tell you to get bent at some point during the day though. ;p

But no, I don't think its funny, honestly. Funny is changing the desktop to something questionable, changing the mouse controls to left handed, pulling the old desktop = wallpaper trick or changing the start up noise to the sound track of wild orgy porn. All of which serve the purpose ( prank ) but are easy to fix. Renaming all the shortcuts means she has to rename em all back which is annoying and time consuming depending on how many you renamed.

Just my 2 cents. -.-

[Bright_Star]

What may seem amusing & harmless to one person may be percieved as harrasment to somebody else. It's not the INTENT that you need to be concerned with, it's the PERCEPTION of the deed that's relevant.

[Ree]

Bright_Star, while I think your reaction is a little strong for this situation, obviously there must be some reason why you have taken such offense to this prank.
The fact remains that we don't attack each other.
A simple, "That was not a nice trick and, yes, as a matter of fact, you were sucky" was sufficient without getting into character attacks and accusing Gunsage of bullying.
In my opinion, what he did wasn't even close to that.

Gunsage, you asked the question, "Was I sucky?"

Bright_Star gave you an answer. If you don't like it, then don't ask a leading question in the first place. I suspect the "Was I sucky" was just rhetorical, and you expected everyone to high five and tell you how hilarious the prank was, and that your annoying MIL is just a shrew with no sense of humor.

If it was my computer that you messed with, I would be really ticked, and I actually have a great sense of humor and enjoy a good prank.
I don't know...there's just something about messing with a person's computer that doesn't seem right.

The thing is, what you did was reversible, and by your account, she was able to fix it herself.

You are more puzzled by her reaction than anything else, it seems.

We don't really know the woman, and we only have your description of things to go on, so it's pretty hard to come up with an answer. We can only guess.
I think you, yourself will have to dig deeper to come up with a reason why she reacted as she did to what you saw as a silly prank.

Maybe she saw it as a lack of respect. Perhaps she found the silly little file renaming as an insult to her intelligence or felt you were making fun of her.
Maybe she just didn't like having the files renamed without her permission.
Who knows? :shrug:

[Primer]

Sucky? perhaps a little, but I'll bet she never leaves her machine unlocked again.
Back in the dark ages in college, I was taking a FORTRAN class, and I forgot and left my account open. A friend of mine saw that and thought he'd teach me a lesson, and added a huge splash page reminding me to log off, when I first logged on. Was I pissed? yes, because I did not know how to remove it. Did I ever forget to log off again? Nope, not ever.

[BlaqueKatt]

It's not the INTENT that you need to be concerned with, it's the PERCEPTION of the deed that's relevant.


and just how is ANYONE supposed to know how someone else is going to perceive something?


If I send someone flowers to be nice and they are a paranoid schitzphrenic and perceive it as a threat should I be arrested for their perception? Even if I didn't know they were terrified of flowers?

what if I perceive your words on my computer screen to be a threat-it's the perception that's relevant right?

[Broomjockey]

What may seem amusing & harmless to one person may be percieved as harrasment to somebody else. It's not the INTENT that you need to be concerned with, it's the PERCEPTION of the deed that's relevant.

I'd like to clarify that I don't think this was a particularly funny prank, but again, you're the one who said "Look up the terms." And you didn't. Make sure you have your definitions correct. By it's very nature, harassment is a repeated pattern of behaviour that continues after a person has been asked to stop. It doesn't matter what he did, if he only does it once it cannot be construed as harassment. If he did it a second time, then yes, it would in fact become harassment, as he has been told to not do it again. If you're going to accuse memebers of illegal activity, please make sure it actually applies.

[Ree]

what if I perceive your words on my computer screen to be a threat-it's the perception that's relevant right?
OK...let's play nice and be civil, guys.

This thread is not going to turn into a debate about whether Bright-Star was right or wrong in what she said.

That is NOT the topic of the thread.

I believe the title is, "Was I Sucky #98548?"

So, in your opinion...was Gunsage sucky?

[blas]

I've always been a firm believer that people with no sense of humor shouldn't have pranks played on them. Because there's nothing you or anyone can do to GET them to have one.

[Gravekeeper]

I've always been a firm believer that people with no sense of humor shouldn't have pranks played on them. Because there's nothing you or anyone can do to GET them to have one.

You also don't know if they have your sense of humour. What you find funny, they may not. There's a difference between a funny prank and a malicious one and not everyone agrees on which is which as this thread is clearly demonstrating.

The op's prank is a good example. He thinks its funny, as do some people in the thread. I thought it was kind of ill thought out and annoying rather then funny ( No offense, gunsage ). Does that mean I have no sense of humour? Of course not. Just that mine is different.

I'd say the bottom line is more that you shouldn't play pranks on people that you don't know well enough to know how they'll react to it. Which is how this played out me thinks as gunsage was clearly surprised by her reaction even though his intentions obviously weren't malicious.

[Bright_Star]

ok..I think I took what happened more strongly than what I should have BUT to ME it's not nice. It was a little on the naughty side.
& as for your orginal question on if you were being sucky...let's say yeah & leave it at that.
I sure as heck didn't mean to ruffle any feathers.

[FuzzyKitten99]

At my last call center job, you could guarantee that your background and other settings would be changed (nice they allowed you to really personalize your station tho!) if you left your desk without locking your computer (ctrl alt del) and someone, including and especially managers walked by and saw it. A gentle reminder to lock your station before leaving for more than 30 seconds, lol!

And pranks aren't intended to be nice. That is why they are called 'pranks'.

[aniwahya]

I think given the same situation I would have chosen a different route to take in order to give her a prank response.
Something I'm not clear on is did she ask you to "spruce up" the comp or did you see it unlocked and decide to optimize it? There were contradictory statements regarding this, and it makes a difference if you mess with someone's comp in a joking "dude wtf are you stupid? log out/pw lock your comp so some jackass like me doesnt do this to you, again" way than messing with someones comp who has given you temporary access/permission in order to do a favor for them. jackass being used in general here, NOT meant specifically btw.

I hope that in the future you consider her reaction this time before playing any more pranks on her, and if I were you I would apologize (sincerely) next time I saw her, then never bring it up again. The apology being that you truly had no bad intention, but seeing as it truly did bother her you're sorry and will not do it again type thing.

[gunsage]

Okay, now that I've read over everything, here's what I have to say (darn me and my not responding to stuff on Sunday :p ). Harassment? Bullying? I still have to say that these are strong words and I don't really see how they apply to me. I personally thought it was a harmless prank, but because of how she reacted, I thought maybe I'd share it on here to see what you guys thought, just in case. I can see how it's more annoying than humorous. I can also see how she didn't want her personal property messed with.

Again, another reason I pranked her PC (sounds like a show in the making) is because we all prank each other. I'm one of the few people in all families (my mother's side, father's side, my wife's mother's side, father's side, etc.) that is actually in IT, which is why I choose to prank in that manner. By the way, setting up a CMOS password indicates one of many things.

1. I'm actually willing to lock her out of her laptop, just because I can.
2. She would be at my mercy because she doesn't know anything about CMOS jumpers or anything like that.
3. She'd go absolutely ballistic because not only is it something terrible to find, but chances are she'd be just then sitting down to write up some sort of 15 page report or something, then I'd feel terrible.

Ah, but there are a few things to remember. While I'm not available all the time, my cell phone is always by me. People know better than to call at work, but I really don't think she'd care, nor would I expect her to, if I did something like that. Second, let's assume I was available and she didn't want to troubleshoot over the phone (likely she'd be a pretty nasty SC and I apologize in advance if she ever calls you for support). I literally live one mile away. That's not even a whole song on the radio for me.

Finally, no, I'm not malicious enough to go through with actually putting a CMOS password on someone's computer. I wasn't intending this thread to turn into such a ruckus. BTW, Windows Key + L is what I often use to lock the machine. Honestly, with the advice I've been given, I'm more compelled to ask her directly why she was so angry, because I still don't get it.

[digilight]

Honestly, I don't think it was sucky. I actually thought it was funny and just changed my shortcut to word to read "Da MS Word Thingie".

I can see why she may be pissed. Some people are scared of computers, if it doesn't seem right then it must be broken. But to me it was funny (but then I'm a whee bit twisted).

I would love to do that to my mother in laws computer, but she is only in town for a few days a month and her roomate would freak out and I would have to go over there and fix it (hell the TV somehow gets the input selector changed and we have to walk her thru how to change it, 1 button on the remote).

and remember, its not like you Goatse'd her or something :) Now that might be sucky!

[aniwahya]

Actually in reading Dips post I think it would be a lot funnier to change the names of icons on your computer and then casually observe the next person who tries to find something on your desktop.
"Dude WTF! Where's Word?"
"It's there."
"Where tho?"
"Right in front of you."
"It is not! Just tell me where it is."
"It's the one with the W icon (cant remember what words icon is so =p if im wrong)."
"No its not! Thats 'Wr0dpadd'!"
:devil:

[karath]

ok, this may be an indication that i spend too much time on the comp, but that was not sucky. (ps, this is also an indication that i should look at the new posts more carefully, can't believe i missed this one!)

Seriously, they changed the NAMES OF THE ICONS. The icon's image is still fine (I never read the names of my icons, even if its not my computer; they're always the same), the icon still fulfills its purpose...and even computer-illiterate people can fix the effects of the prank easily. I would be sure to remember to prank the person back, (especially if I was in gunsage's family) but seriously, changing the names of the icon is a harmless prank, especially if you consider the THOUSANDS of harsher prank choices that gunsage had available. Hell, I personally would be more pissed if someone if someone changed my desktop than if they'd changed my icons, but still....personally speaking, the reaction(s) to the prank were far more serious than a 30 second quick-fix should have warranted.

[iradney]

Quite honestly? I think she over-reacted. It's not like you screenshot her desktop, hid the icons and the start bar! You just renamed her shortcuts. And not even in a way that she would've be able to figure out which is which.

Shoot, my Mom, who is nearly 60, would have a giggle at it, and then change it back. All these over the top accusations of harrassment and bullying are, IMO, over the top and ludicrous. He didn't fiddle in her registry (boy that sounds dirty), he didn't delete any of her system files...

In my opinion, I thought it was hilarious, and not sucky at all.