GeekSugar

Funny Family-Tech Stories: My Dad Calls His Inbox the "Big Thing"

GeekSugar — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:01:41 -0800

As you already know, my family is a hoot when it comes to embracing technology. My mom recently learned how to make smiley faces in IM, and my dad, well, my dad is still trying to wrap his head around tech terminology. Gotta love the holidays, when anything and everything is free game.

The other night, my dad wanted me to access his inbox on the Internet so he could check his email. And this is how he proceeded to ask me:

Bring up the big thing with all of the stuff in it.

And just like that, I knew exactly what he was talking about. Hilarious!

Funny Family-Tech Stories: My Mom Learns How to Make Happy Faces in IM

GeekSugar — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:55:16 -0800

Last night, I had the pleasure of chatting with my mom over IM, which is always a rare treat that's full of surprises.

After putting a smiley face emoticon at the end of a sentence, she was determined to get in on the smiley-face action, and create one herself. Her first-ever, smiley face emoticon was achieved. And thankfully, I had it all documented in our IM conversation. Great job, mom!

And don't even begin to ask me how she knows what OMG is!

Be sure to post all your hilarious stories in my funny family-tech stories group!

Please Unsubscribe Joyce From Your Internet!

GeekSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:10:09 -0700

Oh, Joyce, aren't you too cute? She wants to be unsubscribed from "your" Internet because hers gets too full all the time.

She does have an email address, so I'm a little confused as to why she didn't just email this in, but then I'm actually not confused at all. It's crystal.

You know that this letter, posted on Neatorama, was totally written by someone's cute mom who's a little less than tech savvy. Is Joyce your mom? Or an awful lot like yours? Then please join our Funny Tech Stories group, and keep posting her letters!

Funny Family-Tech Stories: The Case of "Wiffy"

GeekSugar — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:00:01 -0800

With most of us heading home for the holidays, it's inevitable that there are going to be those hilarious moments with parents and grandparents whenever the subject of computers or the Internet comes up. For instance, whenever my dad wants me to check his email (he's in phase two of checking his own email, I swear), he says "spin up my www." I'm sure we'll all have a lot of stories to share after the holidays, but to get the ball rolling here is a cute one from TeamSugar user GirlC.

The other day my dad called me. "I keep reading about something and I was hoping you could explain it to me," he said. "Let me get the article." I wait while I hear papers being shuffled around."Okay got it. What's wiffy?"
"Wiffy?"
"Yeah, Wiffy. They're talking about it and the Internet and my cellphone."
"Wiffy? Spell it for me," I asked. "W-i-f-i, and there's a dash between the first i and f." After I finished laughing (phone on mute), I let him know it's pronounced, "Why-Feye."

Be sure to post all your hilarious stories in my funny family-tech stories group!
Source

Our First Funny Family Tech Story

GeekSugar — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:42:01 -0800

I seem to be the only person in my family that knows anything about computers - or at least that's what the two to three phone calls a week from distant relatives might suggest. Grandma wants to know how to add paper to the printer, mom wants to know how to add an attachment and dad wants help with Photoshop. It never ends, and every story is funnier than the last. Because family tech stories are inherently funny, I've been challenging you guys to share your stories and Bonne has come through with a couple, deliciously funny situations.

Recently, Bonne's Dad called her saying that his computer wouldn't print. "I walked him through the whole - is it on? Does it have paper? Does it have ink? - type of deal until he brought it over," said Bonne. "I let it sit for about a month before I actually got to looking at it. It turns out that he brought the wrong ink cartridge and tried to jam it in until it 'fit.' Ink is ink, eh?" For more of Bonne's hilarious stories, which include some great ideas for helping non-techies take control of their own computers, just read more

Bonne's mom couldn't figure out the difference between left click and right click - until she put friendly left/right stickers on the mouse. Geeksugar tip: If you have a family member that can't get the right click thing down, consider making stickers like Bonne did for her mom.
Bonne's Grandpa is surprisingly good at the computer, but he uses a magnifying glass to actually read it. He didn't like any of the other programs to help him and prefered the manual method. Geeksugar tip: If your family member has bad eyesight, adjust their computer's layout accordingly.
Bonne's sister is in her twenties and should know the basic of computer uses, but once she was in the process of moving and ended up getting lost. She decided to stop on the side of the road, spend about 30 minutes attaching the PC/moniter/keyboard/mouse together and push the power button. Only to realize that the dang computer wouldn't turn on. She didn't realized that the computer needed to be plugged in to some type of power supply. Geeksugar tip: If your sister is anything like Bonne's tell her about geeksugar!

Does your mom think net surfing is a type of sport and your grandma thinks a computer virus is an actual bug? Let us know all your geekilarious family tech stories so we can share experiences and get a good laugh! Click on Funny Family Tech Stories to submit your own memorable family tech tale!

Outrageous Family Tech Stories

GeekSugar — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:47:56 -0800

I try to be as patient as I can with my family concerning computer help and setting up gadgets - after all, my parents graduated from college when they didn't have to use computers. To be honest, neither one of them is terrible, and aside from a few networking issues, their office runs pretty smooth. Such was not the case for the first boss I had out of college. He would call me up in the middle of the day while traveling and literally ask me to log in to his e-mail because he "couldn't get it when he was away from his computer." Aye, gosh!

New geeksugar Group: Funny Family Tech Stories

GeekSugar — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 11:05:42 -0800

My dad still calls his e-mail his "www" and my sister calls me at least once a week in a terror because she can't seem to pick up a wireless connection. While some family tech stories are terribly annoying - others are downright funny.

More Seniors Are Taking the Plunge Into Tech

GeekSugar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:17:24 -0800

I may have a game-loving gramps, but he doesn't really venture into the Internet without a little assistance. I'll cut him a break since he's in his eighties, but a recent study shows that more and more seniors are taking the plunge into Facebook, blogs, and tech in general than ever before. Stats show that the senior population (age 65 and over) that uses the Internet has tripled since 2005.

Back in the day, it used to be nearly impossible for the older set to get a handle on tech, but it seems that as times progress and technology is a little easier to grasp, senior citizens aren't afraid to jump in and get their feet wet online. Even if your dad still needs help with his WiFi, you can give him props for at least having an email address. Do the seniors in your life use technology? Share your hilarious family stories with us in our Funny Tech Stories group, or brag about how quickly they got the hang of Twitter below!

Geeky Girl We Love: Mia Kim - Part Deux

GeekSugar — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:15:49 -0700

Last month we featured some of the cutest geeky couples and bachelors in the blogoshere, which left many of you wondering - what about the women? Fear not my fine friends, we were just saving the best for last. March is Women's History Month so I figured there was no better way to celebrate than to highlight some of the smartest, most creative and successful women on the internet.

This is part two in a series of two interviews with Mia Kim, the founder and editor-in-chief of Popgadget, a lifestyle magazine that embraces technology as a regular and essential part of women's lives. Not only do I look up to her as a leader in the geeky girls movement, but I'm inspired by her business savvy and natural chicness. For part two, read more

Yesterday, Mia shared some of her background and hobbies, which include cooking and not programming a Commodore 64.

Geeksugar: Any funny stories about being a blogger?
Mia: The funniest thing about being a blogger is that you develop real relationships with other bloggers- but you rarely meet in person even if you IM, email all the time and become good friends. At this year's CES, Popgadget had a three person team: me, Stuart Memo from Glasgow, and Evan Hosie who's in California. Our first night there, we were meeting in the hotel lobby, and despite the fact that we were colleagues who knew each other pretty well, we all walked around and around the hotel passing each other because we'd never seen each other. We kept circling each other until Evan called and said, "I think you're standing right in front of me."

Geeksugar: How many blogs are in your RSS reader?
Mia: Yikes, it's over 350. But I have to admit that there are only about 20 that I read every single day. The others get a weekly scan and yet I'm still constantly looking for new feeds.

Geeksugar: Describe a typical day at work for you.
Mia: I just can't do the 15-hour "blogger in their underwear" routine anymore. I was feeling like I wasn't a part of the human race anymore so I break up my work day, make sure I do other things like eat and walk the dogs.

Mornings are rough because I'm a terrible sleeper and have probably been up half the night but I always want to get to email straight away and check on Popgadget posts and start IM chats with the other writers. Then I'm in research mode for a few hours- reading everything in sight. Pop Life Media (the umbrella that publishes Popgadget and Babygadget) also has another side, new media consulting, so I need to set aside a few hours for working with clients and coordinating that work. We don't have a publicist so I'm on the phone a lot, talking to companies and to news people. We also don't have a full-time tech person, so I'm often doing the troubleshooting of the site. We had a server crash a few weeks ago, and after we migrated, I was working on getting the site back up for about a week straight. Never been so tired or stressed in my life.

Geeksugar: Who do you think are the top 5 sexiest male geeks in the world?
Mia:

Grant Achatz- the chef-owner of Alinea in Chicago. He'd make you dinner, 22nd century style: vaporized cocktails, lobster in the form of edible paper, and an exploding souffle for dessert.
Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress. I'm surprised he's not a bigger tech celeb because who doesn't love a 22-year old genius with a hot property, but he's a soft-spoken, thoughtful guy who'd probably shy away from all that. I'd put him on the cover of Tech Teen Beat.
Masi Oka, who plays Hiro on Heroes. He may not have superpowers, but he's a real-life CGI effects artist, so he could just fake it. And maybe he'd give you some Heroes' spoilers.
Douglas Krone, the owner/founder of Dynamism.com , which imports the most amazing computers and gadgets from Japan about a million years before we'll see them here. I consider myself an early adopter but anytime I see Douglas he's got a phone that does, like, satellite communications with Mars Rover, and is also a high-def video camera and personal MRI scanner.
Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and writer of The Singularity is Near. I believe we are all spiritual beings, I do, but I have doubts and dark moments, and during those times I'd love for Kurzweil to preach to me about how in 500 years, I'll be sitting around with my family and my dogs, in our cyborg bodies, with our holographically assisted brains, and we'll still, essentially, be ourselves. And in 500 years, finally, we will really be driving flying cars. Wouldn't you want to be there too?

Geeksugar: Who do you think are the top 5 sexiest female geeks in the world?

Gina Trapani, of lifehacker.com. Lifehacker is the site I wish I'd created and Gina just seems like the type of woman I'd love to be friends with. I can just imagine our PC vs Mac conversations over french fries and highly caffeinated drinks in a Brooklyn diner. Sadly, I really can.
Molly Wood, from CNET. At CES this year, I was a bit under the weather and kept complaining that we weren't seeing anything interesting. Then Stuart told me that he spotted Molly Wood at some event and I spent the rest of CES trying to find her so I could casually tell her that she's my favorite podcaster and that I get a thrill every time she mentions Popgadget.
Katherine Moriwaki, of personaldebris.com , who is an interactive artist and new media lecturer. She writes for Popgadget and is a good friend, but I'm in awe of how much she knows about technology, and she's the most uncompromising person I know. She and her husband Jonah Brucker-Cohen are THE tech geek supercouple as far as I'm concerned.
Katie Salen game designer and director of the Design Tech program at Parson's School of Design. She's one of the most engaging speakers I've ever encountered. She's so good that when she came to speak at a class I was teaching, my students had so much fun, it completely changed the chemistry of the class for the rest of the semester.
Rebecca K. Rowe, whose first novel Forbidden Cargo blends hard sci-fi about genetic engineering with politics and lots of action. It's the antithesis to the the unicorn and space princess type type book that so many people tend to associate with women science fiction/fantasy writers.

Geeksugar: Name a blogger you admire and tell us why.
Joseph Stirt of Book of Joe. Joe, unlike so many bloggers, doesn't play the blog game at all, meaning he doesn't just read blogs and link his favorite posts. His posts are about books and art and things he encounters offline. He says he reads no blogs at all and I believe him. That's what makes him a great blogger.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about being called a “geek”?
Mia: I don't mind being called a geek at all. I don't think it means what it used to-bringing to mind someone of questionable social skills and even more questionable grooming. Being a geek is just about being enthusiastic, about really loving something and needing to talk about it, write about it.

Geeksugar: What is the geekiest thing about yourself?
Mia: My friends know it drives me crazy knowing that their virus definitions are three years old and they've got porn pop-ups all over their screen from some site they "accidentally" visited, so I do a complete tech checkup whenever I go over to their houses. After that, I can relax.

Geeksugar: What is your goal for the site?
Mia: It amazes how far we've come and now we're at a point when we're talking to big media companies and investors and trying to figure out the next step to help us grow into a bigger network of sites providing innovative content for women. We are also planning a lot of things outside of the blogs- we want to be a lifestyle brand.

Geeksugar: What else is up in the Popgadget world?
Mia: We just launched our email, which is weekly, and will have all kinds of content that isn't on the site, and will have exclusive discounts and giveaways. We'll be giving away some very cool things and saving some of our best stories for the email. And it's free so people should sign up.

The Week in Geek

GeekSugar — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:00:30 -0800

Another week breezed by, with tech quizzes, fancy chairs, and funny family stories galore. Check out my slideshow for this week's greatest hits!

View Slideshow ›