Dr. Mom

[Broomjockey]

Okay, some of you may have remembered back when I was putting my computer together, I mentioned my mother, who among other faults, uses magnetic screwdrivers to put computers together.

Well, I've a new tale for you. I'm back at my parents for a few days, with my laptop. She managed to forget the password she's got on her wireless router, meaning I have to use an ethernet cable to hook in to her router. That in itself is bad enough. But last night, as I was getting ready to pack it in for the night, I close my laptop, putting it into stand-by mode. Mom then orders me to unplug the ethernet cable. Upon forcing a reason out of her, I get this gem.

"People can come in and get on your computer."

Me: If people are in the house, we've got bigger issues than someone getting on my computer.

Mom: No, not people in the house. People hack in from outside.

...That's right. She's worried about people hacking in from outside, through the router, and into my laptop, which was on stand-by.

[PepperElf]

fears about hacking can get pretty ... interesting....

like the guy who didn't want me to unplug the desktop from the phone line, to use it on my computer.... because he thought a virus would somehow come up and hang out in the phone cord and then infect the desktop.

[Bright_Star]

My brother once told me that the government can "see" into your house through the PC monitor! When I tried explaining to him how that's impossible he wouldn't listen to me!

[Impetrix]

Do NOT get me started about my mother and her security concerns. Granted, I'm actually fairly certain she has a relatively high functioning case of paranoid schizophrenia (I still have the call saved from when a cop called because she reported a family of imaginary illegal immigrants living in her garage... not to mention the armed men my dad, her ex, sent to her house to scare her at night... hoo boy. Plus the mental-illness grade disorganization (I'm talking *complete* floor and surface coverage of a 2000-odd sq. ft. house, with small exceptions for walkways, with random crap) and general assumption that everyone is out to get her. Meep.).

But, yeah, she's the sort not to leave a computer on when it's not used, so the hackers can't get to it. She's also convinced of other weird tech-things, like, say, shutting a laptop lid is horribly horribly bad for it if it's still on, or that she can't have her cell phone on when it's roaming because she's getting charged even when it's idle....

Currently, she's on a cruise, and is trying to get 'work' 'done' while she's there, except her new computer isn't working. Or, rather, the password I put on the administrator account doesn't work. I think she may have changed it while drunk, but I don't know. We've been playing voicemail tag since a.) I don't always have my cell with me and I'm *not* answering at 2 am and b.) she's sure she'd be charged if she left her cell on while it's roaming. Soooo, she's getting increasingly pissed off, and I have to go back to her house soon since she gets back tomorrow night. (College student, home for holidays) Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah......

[Geek King]

. Plus the mental-illness grade disorganization (I'm talking *complete* floor and surface coverage of a 2000-odd sq. ft. house, with small exceptions for walkways, with random crap) and general assumption that everyone is out to get her. Meep.).

Off topic, but important.

Impetrix, what you are describing here is classic symptoms of Hoarding Disorder. Please get your Mom help. Eventually, she [or her mind, anyway] will turn against you, and it will be almost impossible to help her. Google the term "Hoarding Disorder" to get information on how to help her.

[Shabo]

All I could think of after reading the OP was...



That one still makes me crack up.

[Broomjockey]

What's funny about that is I actually teased her about "Oh, and maybe they'll overload my hard drive and blow it up!" And she replied "No, that was dial-up."

...

[Impetrix]

Off topic, but important.

Impetrix, what you are describing here is classic symptoms of Hoarding Disorder. Please get your Mom help. Eventually, she [or her mind, anyway] will turn against you, and it will be almost impossible to help her. Google the term "Hoarding Disorder" to get information on how to help her.

Yeeeeeeah, I've tried suggesting she get help in about twenty thousand different ways since I was old enough to realize how abnormal our lives really were. Unfortunately, she responds quite, quite negatively, as you can imagine, and there's no one else to give me backup on any of it (I'm an only child, she's divorced, she hates her only sister who has 'turned the rest of the family against her', and she hasn't really made any friends in her area). I've kinda resigned to the fact that I can't make her get better and I'm best off just getting by.

She's actually a lot better now that I'm no longer a financial burden and she's largely worked through all the issues left behind by my grandfather (who died my junior year of high school... I'm about to graduate after 5 years of college, and who she was the sole caretaker of as he withered away from lung cancer since my frosh year (yes, that was an INCREDIBLY bad idea, which she actually recognizes.)) 'Better' doesn't mean 'good', but part of her issues stem from her own health issues (ie, she had non-hodgkin's lymphoma back when she was college age, no immune system, hep C from a transfusion in the 80s, alcoholism which probably doesn't help the liver problems from aforementioned hep C, and she's actually seeing a doctor for the first time in years since she apparently has breast cancer), and she's growing more frail every year, so there's really not much gain from causing her the pain of a confrontation at this point.

So, uh, I'll probably just clean up the mess myself in a couple years.

(Oh, and I'm adopted, meaning I didn't inherit any of her risk factors... she had a hysterectomy around college age, too)

(Also, sorry for the thread hijack, guys.)

[protege]

My grandfather was like that--several of the farm outbuildings were filled with junk; everything from a box of 1940s Ford hubcaps, to wooden carriage wheels. Sadly though, most of that stuff went to the junkman. Too bad, since those hubcaps would have looked sweet hanging on my garage walls What was left, mainly tools, eventually found their way into my workshops. In fact, 2 days after his funeral, we loaded up the station wagon *twice* with things, followed by 3 additional trips with the junk man's truck.

Getting back on topic...too many people freak out about computer security. It's not helped by the media who tend to focus on only one point, and ignore everything else. Y2K was just one example--they went nuts over this. Several articles claimed that it was going to "wipe out" all our data, causing planes to fall out of the sky, etc.

With that said, I have a firewall built into my router, and a software one on my computer. Do I get hit? Nope--most hackers go after major companies, not little networks with 2 computers on them

[CorDarei]

Okay, some of you may have remembered back when I was putting my computer together, I mentioned my mother, who among other faults, uses magnetic screwdrivers to put computers together.

what's wrong w/ using magnetic screwdrivers? if you're trying to screw something in that's hard to reach, it's much easier if the screw stays attached to the screwdriver. And i've never had a problem w/ that low level of a magnet on any computer part i've installed. (it may affect floppy disks tho... but who keeps magnets around those anyway? :P)

[Broomjockey]

what's wrong w/ using magnetic screwdrivers? if you're trying to screw something in that's hard to reach, it's much easier if the screw stays attached to the screwdriver.

a) She was not using weak magnetic ones. These were the ones that would pick up dropped screws. From a distance.
b) She was not using it in hard to reach places, but on easily accessibly spots to screw in hard drives, motherboards, and grapics cards.

[Shabo]

what's wrong w/ using magnetic screwdrivers? if you're trying to screw something in that's hard to reach, it's much easier if the screw stays attached to the screwdriver. And i've never had a problem w/ that low level of a magnet on any computer part i've installed. (it may affect floppy disks tho... but who keeps magnets around those anyway? :P)

As long as you don't use the magnetic screwdrivers on the HDD, you should be fine. Or if it's a brand new HDD install, you can do it because you're going to be formatting the drive anyway. And yes, it is such a low level magnet that it shouldn't be a problem, but I only use them if I absolutely have to.

In addition, I heard on the radio that HP will do business support, like patches, fixes, whatever you need, over the phone or remotely, even if the computer is turned off. Does anyone know more about this? I'd like to know how they are going to apply patches to the computer while it is not powered on. Will they remotely power the computer on? (Does this sound like a potential security problem to anyone else?) Will they queue the network to install the patch the next time the computer turns on? Did the marketing execs make a big mistake with the ad? Sounds sketchy to me.

[Rapscallion]

In addition, I heard on the radio that HP will do business support, like patches, fixes, whatever you need, over the phone or remotely, even if the computer is turned off. Does anyone know more about this?

Sounds to me like clueless journos creating copy, or misunderstanding what they were told.

Rapscallion

[Broomjockey]

I'm betting that it's the last two. Either queued patch, or marketing FUBAR. That, or they've installed a BIOS option, that as long as it's plugged in, they can send a signal to wake up the BIOS. Sort of how you can set it that if your computer's asleep, the spacebar can wake it up. Only way less secure.

[Shabo]

Wow, Raps, that was fast.

It is possible to remotely power on a system... but that is just asking for some big security breaches, IMO. Nothing is truly secure from a really good hacker, and they're getting better all the time.

Dangit BroomJ, you're fast too!