Idiot of the Day XII

I've had a hard go of it lately with my laptop. I've been overworking it and I blew out the hard drive. No big deal, just take it into the Apple store and get it replaced. Well, if only it had been that uneventful. After getting the new hard drive, I sat there for a little bit longer to reinstall some software and make sure I didn't run into any problems with licensing and all that usual computer crap. That is when the fun started.

First, the guy on the left showed up with a Mac laptop circa 1998. Damn it was old. Anyway, he was having troubles with his battery, Internet and processing. So the same Apple Genius who is helping me fires up the guy's laptop and starts going through some basic questions. Turns out the guy is ice and open about, "Well, I'm really having trouble running Limewire and getting movies and music off the Internet."

Let me just say, that is not the way to open the conversation. I'm not going to get into the morality/legality of stealing music off the Interwebs. I do it all the time, and I'm fine with it. But it's the way you go about it that is bad.

Simply put (and the Apple guy gave him the near death stare when saying it), "Limewire is the worst possible thing you could do to your computer. You need to get that off there, now." And he's not saying that just as an Apple employee. I used to use Limewire, until I read more on it and found out how it completely fucks your machine to all hell.

As the Apple guy was helping him, up sidles the girl on the right. And wouldn't you know it, she's having trouble using the Internet and her computer crashing all the time. Apple guy fires up her laptop, and before he even gets into his "Have you tried turning it on?" speech, Limewire automatically logs in and starts trying to download the some Rascal Flats album. "You see? It's just sitting there not doing anything. I can't get it to download anything."

I thought the Apple guy was going to gouge out his eyes with a USB cord. He stopped both of them and said, "Look, I get it, and trust me, I get some of my music on the sly as well. But you can't keep doing this. Limewire, the way it's built, will destroy your machine and you'll be in tech support hell for years if something bad happens." A little dramatic, yes, but the point needed to be made.

He even gave them some helpful tips on how to better steal music off the web (hint, it starts and ends with the word torrent). What a nice guy.

So the lesson of the day: Come up with better excuses to get techies to fix things, people. Moments like this are funny, but when it's you, you won't like it when strangers are right next to you and pay attention. And have a blog to make fun of you about your idiocy.