fact
In 1987, an engineer used a new computer program “rwall” to send a message to his university server. Instead, the program broadcasted the message to every user on the internet—including the Pentagon.
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Masako Wakamiya is a Japanese woman who on noticing the lack of fun game apps for senior citizens learnt coding at the age of 81 and created her own app, Hinadan, inspired by a Japanese doll festival. She holds seminars and workshops to educate elderly about the benefits of technology.
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Times change. We all know that, but in the past, we’ve had a bit more time to get used to those changes before something new comes down the pike.
For the past decade, our world and technology have been changing so fast and so often that it can seem like a whirlwind – and these 12 things that have gone all but obsolete are the proof in the pudding.
Printing out your route from Mapquest before leaving the house.
Seems like there was one year where every car was guaranteed to have a Mapquest printout on the right front passenger seat.
And somehow mapquest was always wrong. Even if by just one street.
I remember 25 years ago getting on a plane and realized I forgot some important paperwork in the car.
The flight attendant let me get off the plane and I ran through the terminal and out to the parking lot to my car to retrieve it.
Then quickly ran back in, zipped past the security screener, out onto the tarmac and climbed up the stairs to the plane.
It was a rather small airport so it took less than 5 minutes. But I doubt I’d be allowed to do that today.
Email has almost gone full circle in terms of usefulness in communication… (edit: personal communication, i.e. not work/professional/school. I clarifyed that at the end, but some responses suggest that point was missed)
2000: Email is common, but it’s not something people check very often. Easy way to disseminate information to a lot of people at once, but not great if you want/need instant feedback.
2010: Everyone has email and smartphones are becoming the norm, so everyone has email access at all times. With the limitations of SMS, is a popular and efficient way to do group conversions.
2020: Social media and dedicated messaging platforms have taken over, email is little but a vast wasteland of spam, so people stop paying attention it and don’t check it very often.
Waiting for your loved ones at the GATE rather than the luggage pickup.
I think low security is even overstating how bad it was.
My airport had 2 guys with those handheld metal detectors they casually waved and often times they just waved kids under 10 through.
Anyone could walk down to the gate with you without a ticket.
Rewinding movies when you’re done watching them.
BE KIND, REWIND
Teen magazines (Tiger Beat, M, Mad…) that you could take posters out of and hang in your room.
Blowing into video games to fix them.
Buying a stack of blank Cd’s so you can make your own custom mixes.
Using Yahoo to search for things.
Or repeatedly signing up for 15 free hours of AOL using a spoofed credit card number and a fake name.
T9 texting.
Having the keys memorized so you could text like Matt Damon in “The Departed”.
Switching to channel 3 to play video games.
Not freaking out when someone calls you out of nowhere.
Or comes by your place without messaging first.
It’s so, so crazy to think about our changing world in these terms.
Is this what getting old is like? I guess I’m there!
The post Things That Would Have Seemed Normal in 2000, But Would Be Pretty Strange Today appeared first on UberFacts.
It’s odd to think just how much has changed in the past twenty years. If you’re over a certain age, it’s strange to think how long ago the year 2000 was, if we’re being honest.
Between the rapidly shifting state of the world and the constantly updating of how we use the internet and technology, there are more than a few things that were normal 20 years ago – and are now completely obsolete.
Long phone calls with your crush (after 8pm cause it was free then).
Just having a limited number of minutes and text messages you could use in a month.
In HS I texted my friend during class, complaining about how the bag of chips I’d bought at the vending machine was mostly air. After school she said “If you ever cost me 10 cents for something so stupid again I’m going to kill you.”
Lol! If I wanted to know lyrics I’d have to sit with my tape player if I owned the cassette and/or recorded off the radio, and play, write it down, rewind, make corrections, rinse, repeat.
It was a little better when I was in middle school and CD players were more popular. My parents got me one for Xmas 1998. CDs were easier to track back and forward so writing lyrics was less tedious. God, if kids these days knew that I/we did that…
they’d probably try to bully me cause they’re all little Tik Tok jerks now.
Waiting for the internet to connect. Yelling at someone in the house for being on the phone when you can’t connect.
I kept a folder of music lyrics that I ripped out of Dolly/Girlfriend magazines. Also loved reading the booklet inside the CD of all the lyrics.
Recording songs off the radio to make a personal mix tape. Always got annoyed at the DJ for talking over the end of the song.
I have a vivid memory from around 2000 of being at a fine dining restaurant with my family and my grandmother casually smoking a cigarette and ashing into a crystal ashtray and nobody batting an eye.
Today I think you’d get arrested for smoking in a restaurant, at the very least you’d get kicked out by the manager
Not having a cell phone.
Having a few quarters on you instead. Oh, and a beeper.
Saying dot com at the end of everything because it was cool to do so.
Woah dude, that’s so sweet. it’s the bomb dot com!
expedia DOT CooOOOOOOOOMMMMMmmm jingle, but just applied to any .com.
Struggling to find a clean .mp3 file of that new hot song to burn onto your cd, meticulously kept in a binder with its peers.
Having burnt CDs from your friends with no writing on them but you know what songs are on it because you recognize CD just from its color
Using AOL.
No one else will tell me when I have mail.
My car got broken into and they stole my stereo and binders of burnt CDs. I was more mad about the CDs because I could buy a new stereo but it’s a pain in the ass to burn dozens of CDs again.
I hope those thieves enjoyed a lot of prog rock.
I’m feeling especially decrepit now, how about you?
What would you put on this list? Do you miss it?
Tell us about it in the comments!
The post People Share Things That Have Become Obsolete Since the Year 2000 appeared first on UberFacts.
Barring any significant scientific advancements, none of us alive today are going to be around in 500 years. That doesn’t mean we can’t harbor some curiosity about whether or not our planet will look the same for our descendents, or different?
If it’s going to look different, how will it look different? It can be a crazy thing to consider, and not just from a technology point of view, either.
Image Credit: Pexels
500 years ago, after all, the world barely resembles the one we see all around us today. It was in the midst of a small Ice Age, and a period of vast European exploration and discovery.
When looking ahead several centuries, it’s hard to say for sure, largely because we remain unsure how the relationship between humans and the natural world is going to develop. We’ve been leaving our mark on the Earth since the Neolithic Age, manipulating the evolution of domestic plants and animal species, transforming the landscape, and of course, burning fossil fuels to our heart’s consent.
We’ve altered the planet’s climate, which continues to change and affect everything around us. Carbon dioxide levels are up to 412 parts per million as of the end of 2019, and global temperatures and sea levels are also on the rise.
Our planet is warming, and scientists have been warning for decades that natural disasters, food shortages, and other catastrophic events will eventually lead to social unrest, mass migration, and increased conflict.
Will the 26th century humans be dealing with the fallout of our lack of action? Or will they be looking back and thanking us for changing course while there was still time?
Image Credit: Pexels
Technology will surely continue to advance, and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku predicts that, by then, humans will be a civilization that’s learned to harness the entire sum of a planet’s energy. That means they would be able to use any clean energy technology we’ve imagined, and probably some that we haven’t.
Other theoretical futurists disagree, citing political and economic forces being likely to thwart any real steps toward progress.
Machine learning will be AMAZING, though. Stephen Hawking weighed in, proposing that by the year 2600, we would be publishing theoretical physics papers every 10 seconds. Moore’s Law says computer speed and complexity double every 18 months, so some of this work would surely be done by machines, without assistance.
Chew on that for a minute.
Other ideas include the average human lifespan stretching to 140 years, and that the digital storage of human personalities will let humans achieve a sort of immortality. We’ll be farming oceans, traveling in starships, and living on the moon and on Mars while robots take on the great frontiers.
Image Credit: Pexels
If any or all of that sounds pretty cool to you, I suggest you start calling your representatives today and pushing for action on climate change.
Otherwise we’re just going to be fighting over land and food instead of living on Mars.
And you’ve gotta agree that one of those things sounds way cooler than the other.
The post Futurists Weigh In on What Our World Might Look Like in 500 Years appeared first on UberFacts.
Whether you love them or hate them, fireworks are here to stay. Too many people fall into the “love” camp on this one – anyone without dogs or little kids, or who can wear earplugs if they need to, basically – and they really are a dazzling, fun way to celebrate any ol’ thing.
You might be curious how they work, though, or how we came up with exploding pretty things in the first place – and if so, we’ve got some fun info for you below.
Firecrackers are a form of fireworks that are smaller and simpler. They’ve been around for hundreds of years, and consist of black powder (gunpowder) in a tight paper tube, and a fuse used to light it.
Image Credit: iStock
Gunpowder contains charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate, though the powder used in fireworks may have aluminum, too, to brighten the explosion.
A sparkler burns over a longer period of time, producing bright and showery lights, and contains different compounds – fuel, an oxidizer, iron or steel powder, and a binder.
Image Credit: Pexels
The fuel is generally charcoal and sulfur, and potassium nitrate is the most common oxidizer. The binder is sugar or starch, and then the whole thing is mixed with water and dipped onto a wire – voila! a sparkler.
To create the bright, shimmering sparks in both firecrackers and sparklers, aluminum, iron, steel, zinc, and magnesium are used, because when the metal fakes heat up they shine incandescently. Different chemicals can be added to create the different colors that make us ooh and ahh.
The large fireworks that you see at displays on the 4th of July or at sporting events are called aerial fireworks, and they’re made up of a shell. A shell has four parts – a container, stars, a bursting charge, and a fuse.
Image Credit: Pexels
Below the shell is a small cylinder that contains the lifting charge to get it off the ground.
The shell is launched from a mortar, like a short, steel pipe with black powder to lift it into the air.
When it launches the shell, it lights the fuse, which burns until the shell reaches the desired altitude before it explodes.
Image Credit: iStock
There are more complicated shells, called multi-break shells, that burst in two or three phases to create different colors or compositions or brighter or softer light. Some of the crackle, or whistle, etc. They’re basically shells within shells, each ignited by a separate fuse, or perhaps set up so that the bursting of one shell ignites the next one and so on.
The different patterns are created by the arrangement of pellets inside the shell. If you space the pellets equally in a circle, you’ll see a set of small explosions equally spaced in a circle. Basically, whatever you want to see in the sky, you create it in the shell with the pellets, then place explosive charges in order to blow them outward into a large figure.
Image Credit: Pexels
I’m kind of surprised that things are a bit simpler than I figured, but I suppose that’s the way with most things, once you pry the lid off.
Even so, I’m not going to be making my own fireworks anytime soon – best to sit back and enjoy, and leave the explodey things to the experts, don’t you think?
The post This is How Fireworks Really Work appeared first on UberFacts.
I finally sold my old car recently and decided to buy a new one.
It was a pretty interesting process and I asked all kinds of friends and family members their opinions about different makes and models.
I finally made an informed decision and it’s all good. BUT, I do wish that I had some mechanic friends out there, because these guys and gals really know their stuff.
Here is some good car advice from folks on AskReddit that could help you out next time you’re looking for a new car.
“Import mechanic here. STAY AWAY FROM MINI!!
If someone offers to give you one for free, take it and get $100 scrap price for it!”
“Suzuki belongs in the decent brands. Good value for money, cheap to fix, easy to work on, but not as full featured as others.
My wife had a 2011 swift that did 200,000km with zero issues and we now have a Vitara turbo that has been nothing short of fantastic as well, a few of my friends have had swifts that I’ve worked on/services as well and they can take a flogging.”
“Buy a Honda or Toyota or their luxury counterparts, Acura or Lexus.”
“When I was deployed to Afghanistan we had this little FOB truck that was a right hand drive Diesel Toyota Hilux that we drove for transporting stuff around the base as it was more practical than an MRAP.
We beat the absolute piss out of that thing. We never serviced it and it drove almost exclusively off road or on dirt roads. Didn’t give us so much as a hiccup.”
“Avoid chrysler/dodge/jeep/ram like the plague.
Avoid german cars unless you have lots of $$$
After that it gets a little more open for interpretation and depends on what kind of vehicle you are looking for. That said, you can never go wrong choosing a Toyota.”
“I’ve seen three silverados in my family go over 350,000 miles.
We even pulled the engine out of a 77 silverado with 377,000 miles that we had and put it in an 85 blazer we rebuilt from the frame up.
Those engines could take a grenade and keep running.”
“The majority of my family is mechanics and they always say “never buy a Dodge!” Two work for an auto parts store and says they’re the ones they get the most calls for, about parts and repairs.
My family has VWs and we all love them. The older ones tend to be built better though, but we find they’re good quality.”
“Fiat/Chrysler is pretty much the bottom of the barrel, with GM not far behind. These brands can be ok if you are trying to get a performance car such as the Charger SRT Hellcat or the C8 Corvette, however for normal cars they are pretty much the worst
European car brand like Mercedes, BMW, and Volkswagen are ok, but expensive to buy and VERY expensive to repair.
Toyota, Honda, and Mazda are all usually pretty good.
Ford is ok as well. Less reliable than the Japanese competitors, but generally cheaper to buy.”
“Stay away from Mini Coopers, Land Rovers, and Lotuses.
Those have to be the WORST for reliability and maintenance.
As for good ones to buy, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo, Chevrolet, and Toyota are some of the best for maintenance, repairs and reliability.”
“Mazdas are above average in reliability and are champions of fuel efficient gasoline engines.
I’ve never met anyone who has one who doesn’t like theirs, and most single daily-driver car people I’ve talked to who’ve owned one have permanently
converted to the brand.”
“Buy a Honda or Toyota.
Absolutely never touch anything German beyond a luxury lease from new. If you need a truck to do local heavy load work, buy a Ford.
Long haul towing type work, Cummins Dodge with a stick shift. That’s about it.”
“BUY A TOYOTA.
My dad was a mechanic for 30 years. Mostly BMW He was an ASE master tech. The dealership he worked for also owned a Toyota dealer.
The year before he retired he got me, my sister, and my mother a heavily discounted Toyota corolla because quote “he never wanted to fix a car again”.
They run forever, have long warranties, and are cheap to fix. Yes they’re boring… But they run forever.”
“I will preface this with all manufacturers make bad models. There are always lemons and there is always those few cars that make it 500,000 miles because everyone on the assembly line was sober that day. Also, even the best built car can be made unreliable if basic maintenance is ignored.
Import cars like Mercs, Audi, Land Rover, BMW, etc. They are great to drive and are awesome so long as you are leasing them. If they break, it is someone else’s problem and I assure you it generally will be an expensive problem. European cars are a very different school of thought from design to assembly to repair.
Hell, BMW has a few models with alternators that are cooled with engine coolant that is as hot as the engine. The VW beetle requires you to basically pull the front bumper off for an alternator replacement.
The Mini (a rebadged BMW) is 10 gallons of crap in a 5 gallon pail. It is hard to work on, expensive to repair, and completely designed with input from Satan himself.
For US, as much as they can be called US, domestic brands to definitely avoid in my book is Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler. The parent company has been bought and sold more than a prostitute. I think Fiat owns them this week.
The QC is lacking and automatic transmission issues abound (The RAM trucks come to mind), electrical issues(generally body control modules), and engine longevity have been and continue to remain an issue. The reliability that they may have had in the 90’s and early 2000’s is a distant memory.
Chevy isn’t doing so great and neither is Ford. Everyone’s stuff is getting more difficult to work on and requiring more and more special tools and software.
Nissans have been going downhill but the CVT transmission is problematic.
Subaru is kind of in between like/dislike for me. The boxer engine is nice but overhauling it can be a bit cramped. The good news it that they made it relatively easy to remove/install.
If you want to look at reliable manufacturers I would argue for Japanese and Korean vehicles. Kia is getting good, though sometimes the replacement parts cost can be a bit expensive. Hyundai has gotten much better. Toyota is pretty solid although the initial cost is higher. Honda is pretty solid too.”
“Worked at a dealership for 10 years, only cars I ever seen with 400,000+ miles were mid 90s Honda civics, seen a GMC diesel truck with like 379,000 miles one time, and everyone in shop was amazed at that, but everything else was max 250,000 or so.”
How about you?
Do you have any good advice you can give us about cars?
If so, please share it with us in the comments. Thanks!
The post Mechanics Weigh in on the Good and the Bad When It Comes to Car Companies appeared first on UberFacts.
Buying a new car (or a used one that’s new to you) is a very complicated process.
You have your personal opinions about what makes and models you like and no matter how much research you do, you’re gonna find conflicting information about everything.
That’s why we’re in luck today! Because we’re gonna hear from people who work on cars for a living about what we should be looking for when we look for a new ride.
Let’s get educated by folks on AskReddit users.
“My honest answer is that any car is good only thing you have to respect is your wallet. For example you buy a used Echo for 2k you know every part on an Echo is a bargain even a used engine/transmission. So you can have a certain Piece of Mind
Now problem is with cars that seem “Not High Maintenance” but are actually super high maintenance cars such as the Toyota Prius/Mini Coopers/fiats/Smarts and or any Hybrid/Electric because they’re sold as low maintenance reliable cars but parts on those are extremely expensive. Buying those cars 2nd hand is close to insanity.
Another quote told by a 30 Year mechanic. If you don’t have money for the new car you have less for the older car. Cars lose value, parts don’t and in some cases even gain value.”
“My dad is an auto mechanic and advocates Toyotas and Hondas for your standard commuter.
We took great care of my 97’ Camry, ran her up to 380,000 miles and still sold for $1,700 due to good maintenance and upkeep.”
“For trucks and SUVs I’dd say go with ford though the Tacoma is on par with the ford ranger. The worst car ive ever seen is a fiat or mini vehicle. This includes anything made by fiat. Like dodge Chrysler and jeep for example.
If you want a good car go with Toyota or Honda. Chevy has been going downhill in the truck department for awhile but their traverse is a decent vehicle. Ford cars suck royally this includes their mustangs.
While car companies vary widely in dependability and efficiency the main factor to a car lasting is taking care of it but, even then its not a guarantee that some vehicles will last.”
“I have 235,000 miles on my 2003 Hyundai Elantra so far.
It’s starting to rust and I’ve replaced the clutch three times, but I still get 30 mpg on the highway.”
“Avoid Jeep/Dodge/Chrysler, Land Rover, Mini, BMW, Mercedes.
Hit and Miss: Ford, Chevy
Solid, Toyota, Subaru (although if buying used ask about the head gasket they do go bad), Nissan is usually good too.”
“My dad was a good hobby mechanic, as well as a race car driver, and the only company he DESPISED was Fiat.
He loved Mazda, and would drive one whenever he had the choice.”
“I’m a mechanic and I’ll drive anything. You can’t go wrong with a Toyota or a Honda, boring as hell but they’ll run forever. I always tell people to look into repair costs and service fees.
Anything uncommon like rear engine or really tiny cars are probably going to be expensive to repair like the mini also sold by BMW and that stands for “bring money with you”.”
“Stay away from the Nissan Rogue, Murano and Kicks. All of them are hot garbage. The CVTs on those are unreliable, needs constant maintenance, and even with maintenance it will die on you when you need it the most. F*ck Nissan!
Also run from any Jeep. Jeeps are worst than the Nissan Rogue. Parts are expensive, and it will be always at the shop, always. Even brand new! Dont fall for “Wranglers are the best”. All Jeeps are bad. Youve been warned!
Finally, dont get any BMW. Yeah youll find some very cheap and from recent years, there is a reason for that.
Need something cheap and reliable? Get a Kia Rio or Forte
Need something more fancy and reliable? Toyota all the way.”
“Unless it’s a division or exact company of Toyota, Honda, Mazda or Ford. Stay the hell away from it.
You’re asking for nothing but problems.”
“A few of my good friends are mechanics.
The vehicles that roll into the shop the least: Nissan and Toyota. Toyotas will rust to sh*t fairly quickly, but they’ll stay intact mechanically. Nissan are the best currently, I guess.
The ones they see the most are Ford and GM, as well as pretty much anything from Europe.”
“They’re all nuts and bolts. And they all break eventually.
As far as repairs. Anything German is probably gonna be your most expensive. Followed by Chrysler/fiat. And Toyota. Toyota has a reputation of being reliable but that’s mostly because people in my experience who have Toyota’s tend to maintain them.
I’ve worked as a mechanic in a lot of different dealerships. KIA/Hyundai have a reputation of being unreliable but also look at the demographics they cater to. They typically don’t do a lot of maintenance. Land Rover has a bad reputation of being unreliable too.”
“Jaguars are notoriously unreliable mechanically, but I guess if you can afford a Jag you don’t really care about how much you have to pay your garage.”
“Toyotas are awesome- but keep is to the cars, not the suvs or trucks so much except those older trucks with lwtters and numbers for names. Good stuff. A toyota avalon from the early 2000s will last a lifeime with basic maintinence.
A corolla or camry is economical AF, but some were built annoyingly so you habe to drop half the front wnd to replace certain engine parts.
Homda accord is a lifeline until it rusts out from underneath you, starting at the rear wheel wells.
The 1990-95ford escorts had a joint thing with Mazda, so their engines are practically bulletproof. Hold onto thwm.
Jeeps ARE trash EXCEPT the inline 6 4.0 motors. Worth fixing but watch out for a cracked block. Resellers can hide them.
Dodges are pretty bogus except the magnum motors. I have a 6cyl 3.9 that is no slouch and headed to 300k.
The single best motor you can get is a a straight 6 out of old nissans … Think they are called Jz2fe or something like that. They are the perfect engines. If you find one in a junkyard, grab it. Dont pass it up. …”
“My first car was a Honda accord with 120k miles that I bought from my uncle who bought it from my other uncle who bought it brand new.
That f*cking car, in 6 months, had the distributor cap blow up, needed a new windshield, and about 6 other expensive things before blowing a god d*mn head gasket on my way to work one morning. After that I financed the most reliable seeming car I could afford–a Mazda protégé.
Holy f*ck did I love that car and did it love me. I moved to a city where I didn’t need a car, so I sold it to a friend who got several thousand miles out of her and made a tribute on Facebook after she died. I’ve since moved back to a car-driving city.
Bought two more mazdas and loved the sh*t out of both. I’ve driven every vehicle you can imagine, from a 40s international truck to a ’92 3/4 ton chevy to my partner’s lifted Tacoma to a yaris to a 90s altima. I currently drive a Mazda3 and will honestly never buy anything else for a daily driver until the day they stop making manuals.
The single most underrated cars out there as far as I’m concerned.”
How about you?
Do you have any good advice about which car companies are good and which ones are bad?
If so, please talk to us in the comments. Thanks!
The post Mechanics Talk About Which Car Companies to Avoid and Which Ones to Look Into appeared first on UberFacts.
Any job that involves working with customers is bound to come part and parcel with awkward moments. People are weird, people are coming from all sorts of walks of life, and if people need something from you, there’s no telling what kind of attitude you’re going to encounter.
People who work at stores like Verizon, Cricket, or Apple, though, have the sometimes awkward, always interesting bonus of having access to people’s private devices, though, and they’ve got some pretty good stories out of it.
I used to be a Specialist at an Apple Store. My favorite story was when I was asked to help out this grizzled taxi driver whose Mac was “slow.” His ENTIRE desktop was covered in naked jpgs of young-to-underage-looking nude asian women.
The driver absolutely did not give a shit that I was seeing all this. All traces of shame left this man years ago (along with many of his teeth). He had no concept of using folders to store his porn, or to organize them in iPhoto. Just covered his desktop in loose icons that were layers thick.
He also showed me the machete he keeps in his coat, because he’s been held up multiple times.
I work at a phone dealer so I deal with the same problem. Lots of ass cracks, only one dick, tons of confused faces. However..
I went to wipe one phone one day and it had a picture of my best friend from junior high as the wallpaper. I haven’t seen or talked to him in like 7 years as I’m in a different city and we pretty much lost touch due to different interests etc. I was completely shocked seeing as I was there all day and did not see him and he must not of seen me.
I mean, everyone has a dick or an a$$crack to put on a phone. I had one best friend and there he was on the phone that I happened to stumble across to wipe.
I still haven’t gotten in touch with him to tell him how oddly coincidental that was. Maybe this will happen again and I will see him at a ping pong show in Bangkok in 25 years. Who knows.
Came in one morning to see the opening manager kind of freaking out. I was the opening inventory guy, so there wasn’t really anyone else there other than him and I. He tells me to check out the Genius Room (where the techs work on shit). I walk over, open the door.
The entire place is flooded. Turns out the movie theatre upstairs had an issue with their waste water. A few hundred gallons of literal shit water rained down in the room where all the customer’s exposed electronics are.
Management’s plan for this clusterf*ck?
Have employees clean it up, throw out damaged parts and test all the customer equipment. If the customers computer was hosed, replace it and tell them we couldn’t repair it. If it worked, give it back to them and say nothing. They put notes on the repairs in the system to replace the computer if it ever came back, for any reason.
They then thought it would be ok to send back all the affected parts, without even notifying the receiving warehouse of the fact these parts were covered in waste water.
One of the dozens of reasons I hated working for that company.
Likely too late, but I’ve been on the other side of the fence. I had a DVD in my laptop that was an “instructional” video… I was trying to learn some new moves to please my (then) boyfriend.
It’s just my laptop so I leave the DVD in there for days, and one day my computer suddenly shuts off and a puff of smoke appears. Well that can’t be good.
When I take it in they say they have to send it out to get fixed (under warranty). I forgot the DVD was still in there. I return a week later and this poor girl brings out my laptop, goes through the whole boot up thing to make sure it works and then at the very end hands me an envelope and whispers “I believe there was a movie in there as well so this is your property”.
I just said “YUP, there was”. And hightailed it out of there. So embarrassed.
It was just a typical Sunday afternoon at the Apple Store. Busy as hell, kids running around, and way too many people demanding my help all at the same time. I was helping someone with something, when suddenly, I hear a sound that sounds like nails on a chalkboard… No. Louder.
My ears had never heard such an unpleasant noise in my life.The whole store – probably 200 people, went from deafening to silent in a second.
I turned around to see what was happening when I see an old man who looked like he was in a WWI trench in his youth, screeching in on a walker with no tennis balls, with his back at about a 90 degree angle.
He ever so slowly made his was to the back of the store at the genius bar. The effect was so permanent it left two trail marks in the custom stone floors from the cutting of his walker legs.
Obviously, this man had to leave, which he did. Only to come back a few days later – welcomed by the same horror and silence.
I decided I needed to see what was going on. So I excused myself and walked to the corner of the genius bar where this man was stationed. He had a white iMac that seemed to be in the process of a data transfer drop off. Okay, normal enough. As I walk by to go into the back I capture a glance at his finder tab – only to find 267GB of the most well categorized pornography I’ve ever seen.
I mean thinks like ratings with stars, actor tags, genre EVERYTHING.
A few days later, the man vanished. Never to be seen again.
The other night we got “Nick Caged”.
Every iPad in the store had a different wallpaper photo of that bastard.
Can’t be unseen.
Another old couple comes in for a personal setup. They’d already bought their iPad but wanted to come back and have me show them a quick session. Okay.
So I’m going through all the main features of the iPad when I end up with “and here’s safari” where I press the safari icon. What opens up is something like “HORNYMILFCOUGARSXXX.THISISAVIRUS.COM” with some cougar squirting on the camera. I immediately closed it and ended with “well, it seems you’re well acquainted with safari”. They said nothing.
One day I was browsing /r/cringe on my iPod and came across a post about a neo-Nazi. In the comments someone linked to the guy’s profile on a weird Nazi forum. I clicked through some of his posts there just out of curiosity to see what kind of shit was there.
Soon after that, my home button quit working so I had to take in my iPod for a replacement.
Some poor Apple employee probably had to see 30+ pages of crazy Nazi fringe material in my Safari history.
Some kid projectile vomited on an iPad.
Someone had to literally wipe that.
I worked as a specialist in a Flagship store in NYC for about a year. Every night we actually physically wiped down every product with alcohol wipes so that they would be sanitary the next day. I sh%t you not when I say we wore rubber gloves to do this.
The amount of people we had come into the store; many of which were homeless or just plain dirty was astounding. The white keyboards on the desktops weren’t always white by the end of the day.
And on the ipads, you could actually see the layout of the keyboard because of all the finger prints on the screen.
This couple in their late 60’s comes in on a really busy day. I was showing them iPads and such. The man was looking around on Safari – but he was looking up really, REALLY, weird shit. Things like Yucca Valley nuclear sites, the Al Queada homepage – just weird shit.
So anyways, he tells me he wants a 64GB Black Verizon iPad. Well shit, we sold every single one and that was the only one we didn’t have. He was pretty pissed off because he exclaimed he called in ahead of time. I think what happened was the person on phones assumed we had it and didn’t check. So for some reason he insists on calling the store to ask her again, as if that would make them magically appear. Well, too bad, because there are 16 people in the line ahead of him and only one girl on phones (typical weekend). So after awhile I just sell him a different one and go on my way. About 20 minutes later hes still on the phone so he WALKS INTO THE BACK, through the cracked door, THROUGH THE BACK OF HOUSE, and ends up standing behind the girl on phones chair – breathing over her shoulder, without anyone noticing (phone still to ear).
It was crazy, the manager saw and almost didn’t know what to do except say, “uhm, sorry, you really can’t be back here”.
I work at Geek Squad, and as bad a reputation as some of these stores have I think we have a pretty good confident group.
Weirdest thing I have seen was a man using the display computers as an internet cafe machine to bid on a car on eBay and getting annoyed because they reset every 10 or so minutes so as to stop this type of tomfoolery. But after three identical complaints I walked over and opened up the same exact eBay auction for the car and told him he would never outbid me because I have the p/w to keep the computer working ( not exactly true )
He shot me a very disturbed and confused look and exited the store after 2 hours of trying to purchase some old car off of eBay.
But as for porn I had a girl come in with a webpage open and say there is something wrong with my desktop background. When we closed the webpage there was an open folder of approximately 200+ photos she was submitting to Playboy and Penthouse. I really hope they got published. They were well shot and she was absolutely gorgeous.
She totally knew what she was doing and I am pretty sure she liked our reactions.
I worked at Vodafone, I have had to deal with:
A man corrupted a brand new laptop within an hour of purchase from viewing bestiality sites
I made a woman cry because we worked out that her phone bill was higher because her husband was cheating on her. Sad.
Dozens of moisture damaged phones. After checking them for faults then casually being informed they had been pissed on.
Probably three times a week “lads” showing me their girlfriend naked.
And finally my favorite after 6 years of service…. a girl filling up her phone memory full with self porn and then offering to pay an employee to sit for about an hour to transfer them all to another phone (years before easy sync etc)
I don’t work at an Apple Store, but I’ve been selling phones for 4 years. People have all kinds of weird sh%t on their phones.
I once had this girl who kept coming back with issues, and every single time both screens on her phone would have wallpapers of her f*cking. I’m not even joking. It was a keybo, and had one little screen and one big one. Do the f*ckees know?
If you’re going to ask me to fix your browser, please don’t leave the porn open
One time I had to back up this woman’s phone (she was probably about 50) to one of the store computers. She had about 5 videos of some guy who was definitely drunk singing and doing hula-hoops
A lot of nudes. Everyone has nudes. I have nudes. You have nudes. I don’t want to see your nudes though.
This isn’t really weird, but I think that the 13-year-olds who password protect their phones and their “kissing my boytoy” wallpapers are hilarious. They always seem so cheeky.
Not an apple employee, but I wiped data on phones for ModusLink, and saw between 300-350 phones a day. While I occasionally saw nudes, the vast majority of pictures were of two things.
In 2nd place, babies…usually newborns. Sometimes they were with their mother who had clearly just delivered them and I felt strange, like I was in the room on this very intimate event.
But in 1st place by a mile, was pictures of pets. People fill their phones with pictures of their pets doing the most mundane shit. One phone in particular belonged housed at least 200 photos of the same cat just sitting there in the same pose (or lack thereof) not doing sh%t, just sitting there.
As it turns out, people really like cats…who would’ve guessed?
Some guy who we have never caught comes in every other week or so and puts nic cage’s face on every iPad and iPad Mini in the store…
I don’t know who he is and I hate him for making my job harder…
But damn I respect him.
I mean, I figured most of the answers would have to with porn, but sheesh. Come on, people.
If you’ve worked somewhere like this, share your own best story with us in the comments!
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Every job has it’s oddities, I suppose, and sometimes, those could maybe be viewed as perks.
If you’re someone who works for a cell phone company, in a store all day where a lot of your time is spent repairing or troubleshooting customer’s phones, it’s a blessing and a curse to be able to see what’s on them.
These 18 employees are scrolling and telling about the weirdest thing they ever encountered on a customer’s phone.
one more – a male elementary school teacher who was also a nudist. wanted to learn how to bookmark pages in safari – so i click on safari and its a picture of him skinny dipping into a lake.
no big deal, i close that window and open a new one…
SAME PICTURE. IT WAS HIS HOMEPAGE!
Former employee here. Did data transfers a bit, and it’s remarkable the amount of people (not young, mind you) have naked pics of themselves in their iPhoto library. We weren’t supposed go through them, and we didn’t, unless the customer explicitly stated they wanted us to check and make sure every photo transferred. Keep that crap in a separate folder so your friends/children don’t see it.
Once had someone from a site similar to suicide girls come in, and was big on promoting herself and showing off her photos.
And then there was always the random wife who found their husbands porn stash after a transfer and wanted to accuse us of putting it there.
Genius here, once had to get a disk out of a failed optical drive.
Old Grannies, Young Panties IV
My old room-mate was a genius…
He offered to sync some lady’s photostream to her phone… as he did… pictures started popping up from her husband’s photo album of him fucking all these other women…
left in tears…. he called me all bummed… felt so bad.
Worked in several different positions at an apple store. All the demo products are on a schedule and wipe every time they restart. Though I have seen people add their business as the homepage. Also seen people pull up that product at best buy or another site.
Since working as a tech I’ve seen a lot of porn, a lot of it self made. Weirdest was a picture on this girls desktop of her on a dog cage wearing only a dog collar.
Weird interaction with the guy who kept asking me how to go to porn sites without getting on their mailing lists. Another with the middle aged guy who had a problem importing pictures, some of them were of him with other guys. (He had the decency to cover my eyes and say “you’re too young to see this”)
Or the guy who swore his phone was broken because he couldn’t stream his porn. (Sorry man, that site uses flash. Was not a good enough explanation)
Worked at best buy and I got a picture of this girl’s boyfriend’s dick over text while I was transferring her contacts.
She wouldn’t stop apologizing.
Not Apple, but Verizon.
People would leave their phones and go to do other shopping while we transferred data and such.
I had a co-worker who had 100% accuracy when guessing if someone would have naked pictures of themselves.
It became a game fairly quickly.
I work at an apple store! We see a lot of weird shit. Once when I was a specialist, I went to go demo an iPad mini to someone.
Turn on the screen and BAM, penis as the lock screen wallpaper. They did not end up buying the iPad mini.
Once, one of the Experts had a guy come in wanting help with an iMovie project. Not exactly part of their expertise, but Expert (female) wanted to help and no Family Room people were available so she said sure. The guy had 5 hours worth of home made porn that he wanted to edit together into his own home porno.
Another Genius told me that he had a guy come in for his iPad because his data wasn’t working anymore. After a bunch of troubleshooting, it seems the problem lay with his carrier and his outstanding $6000+ bill he had in going over his data limits. What was he doing with all his data? All the gay porn.
And of course, all the obligatory dick, vag and boob pics of SOs while they are standing right there.
I worked as a specialist and was good friends with some people at the genius bar. One time a mother came to pick up her daughters laptop from the genius bar after a data transfer from her old computer.
When the genius’s brought the computer out from the back room she rudely insisted that she goes through the computer while still at the genius bar to make sure everything was transferred.
They started going through the photos and the mother stumbled upon a photo album of a her daughter with 3 or 4 other girls in a lesbian orgy. She immediately closed the computer and left the apple store in tears.
I don’t work in an apple store, but I went through the iMessages on one of the store iPhones.
Someone was sending really nasty, mean texts to someone they obviously didn’t like with an anonymous number.
If you’re going to be an asshole, at least own up to it.
I’ve got some Apple store stories.
I used to be a Genius for a few years and a man came in with a non-functioning iPhone. When I asked him what was wrong he said “I don’t know man, just woke up and it won’t turn on.” Upon further questioning it came up that he had been drinking the night before, and it might have had something to do with his problem.
I started to check for liquid damage thinking he might have spilled a drink on it inadvertently, and that’s when the stench hit me…(as a side note, you need to get your face really close to the phone to look at the liquid damage sensors in an iPhone). What I had only now began to smell was the odor of stale piss.
This dude had somehow soaked his phone in urine and gave it to me to try to get replaced. Needless to say he did not get a new phone. Ruined my day.
I manage a Cricket store. Had a guy come in to pay a bill, turns out I was in the same clinic with him in Virginia a few years back when I was ill. I lingered by the iPhones as he left and he just said, deadpan: “oh hey bruh you might want to wipe that man, I Googled the word “nutsack” on there.”
He was at that phone for 10 seconds, tops. No pictures, he just said hello, walked over to the phone, Googled the word “nutsack” and closed the screen and walked away.
Former employee. A girl brought in her own laptop because it was running real slow. Hard drive was basically full with all sorts of animal porn.
This girl was like 16 years old, we live in a pretty wealthy area outside New York City. When she returned to pick up the computer, she brought her mother with her. One of those real snooty upper class types.
My friend was actually the genius that worked on her computer and he originally planned to be straight with this girl and tell her she had way too much porn on the ol’ iBook, but with mommy dearest around he just had to tell her that there were “a lot of pictures on the hard drive” along with other issues.
Not at Apple, but I work for Sprint. Some guy managed to take a picture of himself without his shirt on with a store phone. He didn’t send it, he took it. Somehow we didn’t notice, but I know it was taken there because the rest of the store was in the background
I’ve seen some weird shit before.
One time someone FaceTimed one of the iPads I was cleaning. Another specialist and I answered it. It was a very large hispanic lady with a shirt not quite covering all of her belly. i informed her that she called a demo iPad (someone clearly logged in with their Apple ID). She asked if we still wanted to talk. We didn’t.
Also, various people who don’t belong on demo backgrounds.
I used to work as a specialist in a mall store. One time a man came in, and said that the internet wasn’t working on his phone.
So I said the ol’ “Let’s find out together” line, and I open the dude’s phone. The guy was like a 60-ish aged white guy, I’m a late 20s-aged gal…
I open his Safari, and go to a website. He just didn’t know how to do it. Then he asks me how to search, and the ONLY thing in his history is “interracial porn.”
I looked at his Asian wife, looked at him, he looked at me, and it was the longest 10 seconds of all of our lives.
creative of 7 years, recently promoted to full time customer. my job was to train old people how to use macs, one hour at a time. one lady in particular comes to mind, her husband had recently passed so she came in weekly for lessons, but also maybe to make her mind off things?
A few weeks in a row however, she would bring up iphoto and find a picture of her late husband and start crying. this happened for a few weeks – until one week it was pictures of her and her husband naked in bed – but someone else was taking pictures.
This time it was tears of joy as she explained that it was her SON TAKING THE PICTURES because he thought they looked beautiful.
I am rolling!
I’m also checking the histories and photos on my phone. Just in case.
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