RSS FeedWed 2 Jul 2008
Are you the only one that uses your computer or do you share it with other members of your household? If you are the only user of that machine, how do you feel about letting other people use it? While I have several computers, I am the only one who uses them and am very comfortable with this. Besides, doesn’t PC stand for “personal computer”?
I am going to keep this post short because I just want to ask the thoughts and opinions of my readers on this issue. I sometimes think I should maybe be more open and willing to let other people use my computer, but at other times don’t know why I would want to.
Personally, I don’t usually even let people use my computers to check their email or Facebook or things of that sort. Maybe I’m selfish, or possessive, or some other adjective that I can’t think of at the present moment. On the other hand, this might be an extremely common occurrence and might be completely normal. I am just wondering the situations, opinions, etc of my readers.
Leave your thoughts in the comment section. Perhaps I will revisit this topic in the future weighing some pros and cons of different mindsets and give those who respond some credit for their thoughts and some link-love.
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I am not a fan of other people using my computer. I have my machine configured a very particular way, and that’s the way I expect it to stay. To see people download crap to my desktop (stuff goes into C:\Downloads\ and nothing else, dammit!) or change my default browser from Opera to something else (be it StupidFox or Internet Destroyer) does little to put me in a chipper mood.
Of course, this is also the same reason I don’t touch other people’s computer. To see the desktop covered with icons and the Start Menu cascade for two or three screens is enough to make me question the intelligence of any person … regardless of how much I may respect them beforehand.
To that end, I bought Reiko her own notebook this past weekend so that she wouldn’t keep fiddling with my own. She has a desktop, but prefers a little bit of mobility.
Am I also overly possessive, or worried that my wife might one day crack my ultra-secret password and discover my encrypted Partition o’Porn? Yes and no. I don’t like people modifying something that I’ve come to rely on to communicate and solve problems. It’s no different than a golfer that refuses to lend their clubs, or a doctor that doesn’t want to share a stethoscope
That said … does anyone else have a secret Partition o’Porn? Mine’s encrypted with a 192-bit AES encryption algorithm and a 23 character password made up of a French family name, a letter in the Greek alphabet, and a number less than a thousand … with an exclamation mark and asterisk thrown in for good measure
I agree - I don’t like other people using my PC or laptop either. I think it’s primarily due to the fact that I have my PCs configured the way I want to use them, and don’t want other people “tainting” them or messing up the configuration of my various applications.
At home, I have a separate PC that my wife/kids use, and it serves a two-fold purpose - it keeps them off my computer, and it keeps them out of my office
I hate it when other people use my computer. I worry about what they might download, for starters. I also hate having to log into Yahoo again.
Once my cookies got deleted, and that was a pain because I had to remember all my passwords again…
I also worry about windows with my projects getting closed, and I also like my privacy. Like, when someone pops up on IM, I don’t need the question, “Who’s that?”
That’s just for starters…
Thank you all for your responses. I really enjoyed reading them and am glad to hear that I’m not the only one who feels this way. If you are reading this and haven’t commented yet, more viewpoints are welcome!
Sometimes when friends or relatives are at your place and don’t have their pc with them it is nice to beable to let them check e-mails or other things if they need to just to be the nice person. Sharing is the appropriate thing to do. If you have more than one pc set a visitor site up in one area so they can use it and it hardly effects you at all and you come off being the nice guy versus the selfish dude.