Most embarrassing thing you did on a computer

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Managed to blow out a motherboard by connecting the USB header to the optical audio header.
Bricked a brand new hard drive because i was too cheap to buy a HDD dock and decided to just use an external hard drive as a caddy. When trying to eject the drive, it was gripped tightly in the rails, applied some force and it shot out and smacked against the wall. The drive was pretty much dead.
 
I mean, if we talk in relativity and not the objective level of embarrassment in retrospect.. Probably when I was like 6 or 7, I hadn't yet become very good with the Windows 98 computer we had. And my mom had set a screensaver that she had installed off one of those After Dark CDs. (the winged toaster) I remember sitting at the desk and watching the screensaver. At some point I shuffled around in my seat trying to get comfortable and bumped into the mouse (not really knowing what or how a screensaver worked yet) and then the screen briefly went blank and returned to the desktop. And all my small child brain could think is that I just "broke" the computer. And I was afraid was going to get in trouble if I couldn't get the screensaver to come back. It's really quite tragic. I remember crying and working up the courage to go in the other room and confess to what happened. IIRC at first my mom was at first already mentally on board to expect the worst and parent me over something I did wrong, coming into the room crying and hardly understandable. Having her follow me into the computer room to explain what happened. Just for her to go "oh", and explain what a screensaver is and assure me that I didn't mess anything up.

But the real shit?

Getting lured for full rune in Runescape 2 in 2005 after having had put in virtual child labor for what felt like months. And while that was an important lesson that protected me for the most part afterwards, I still ended up getting trade window scammed via social engineering like 2 years later and feeling that same embarrassment. Never fell for armor trimming though. Despite being initially only F2P. I didn't even know the trimmed armors you would see in F2P came from clue scrolls that were members-only.
 
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lolcow yoghurt said:
I used laptops exclusively for years and one day I had to work on a desktop.

I went to the Taskbar, then Settings to adjust the screen brightness.
Click to expand...
It's actually supported on modern HDMI/DisplayPort monitors. At least on Linux with KDE I get brightness control for my monitor right in the taskbar, though not sure if Windows can do it as well without third-party utilities.
 
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Started deep-cleaning my keyboard without unplugging it. At some point I accidentally hit or held a key combo that made my computer bring itself to a screeching halt trying to open several dozen instances of Kontakt of all things.
 
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I had a myspace for about a year in the late 2000s.

Worth it for the goth pussy but I'm glad that shit disappeared.
 
verymuchawful said:
I mean, if we talk in relativity and not the objective level of embarrassment in retrospect.. Probably when I was like 6 or 7, I hadn't yet become very good with the Windows 98 computer we had. And my mom had set a screensaver that she had installed off one of those After Dark CDs. (the winged toaster) I remember sitting at the desk and watching the screensaver. At some point I shuffled around in my seat trying to get comfortable and bumped into the mouse (not really knowing what or how a screensaver worked yet) and then the screen briefly went blank and returned to the desktop. And all my small child brain could think is that I just "broke" the computer. And I was afraid was going to get in trouble if I couldn't get the screensaver to come back. It's really quite tragic. I remember crying and working up the courage to go in the other room and confess to what happened. IIRC at first my mom was at first already mentally on board to expect the worst and parent me over something I did wrong, coming into the room crying and hardly understandable. Having her follow me into the computer room to explain what happened. Just for her to go "oh", and explain what a screensaver is and assure me that I didn't mess anything up.

But the real shit?

Getting lured for full rune in Runescape 2 in 2005 after having had put in virtual child labor for what felt like months. And while that was an important lesson that protected me for the most part afterwards, I still ended up getting trade window scammed via social engineering like 2 years later and feeling that same embarrassment. Never fell for armor trimming though. Despite being initially only F2P. I didn't even know the trimmed armors you would see in F2P came from clue scrolls that were members-only.
Click to expand...
as a parent this made me want to hug you, you were such a sweet kid! hopefully my son doesn't cry like a bitch when he gets banned for typing obscenities like that other poster did though, way to disappoint your ancestors.
 
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One of the first things I did in the course of trying to scrub all the bloatware off my top-of-the-line Packard Bell Windows 95 PC (which came pre-loaded with bullshit games and Crayola software configured to run at startup and ask me to insert the disc) was to delete system 32 (among other things). It ended up being a crash course in OS reinstallation I rewarded myself for by playing Journeyman Project for what was probably twenty hours straight. When I subsequently got a new tower with Windows 98, I was gobsmacked by how much less bullshit came installed; and realized the employees of the store selling the previous tower had filled up the C drive with random software they’d had laying around to justify the premium package price (it came with a 50 CD case of random games such as Flight Simulator, Tuneland with Howie Mandel, Jump Start 2nd Grade, and stuff like Encarta 96).
 
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When I was a kid, I was looking up porn on my grandparent's Windows XP machine. Somehow got ransomware that locked the computer down unless I paid the hackers money. I think my grandparent's had to take it to a tech support shop, wipe the hard drive, reinstall the OS, and buy anti virus.

People are nostalgic for Windows XP, but the security was fucking shit. I don't miss it.
 
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