Hey /g/, whats the worst mistake you made on a computer or any device? We aren't perfect obviously, but there are some really dumb things we did at some point.
I'll start:
>>Be me
>>Install bumblebee and primusrun on Ubuntu for steam
>>accidentally sudo apt remove bumblebee on both
>>fuck up the system so bad i had to get it restored
>>mfw 1 yr of programming work down the drain
extra points for hardware related issues or Ubuntu/Debian systems
>>45407559
My laptop key got popped out and instead of putting it back I threw it out.
I was a dumb kid.
>>45407581
I had my F11 key pop out on accident once, and I left it sitting next to my computer. My dog ended up getting to it and I found it later in his bowl, partially chewed up.
Even today, I dun fuck up.
>>45407559
Forgot to clean the dust out of the front air vents on my PC at a time when I was doing a lot of gaming. by time the computer started having issues, it was already too late. I lost a motherboard, a power supply, and a hard drive to overheating.
>Be me
>Installing Linux for the first time. Age 14, circa 2005.
>Didn't bother to read the parted manpage.
>Ended up deleting all existing partitions
>No backups
>Lost years of short stories
>>45407633
My cousin had a computer like what you mentioned. He was one of those hardcore gamers that had a monster system and needed the max amount of venting possible for it. After like 3 years of having it, not even cleaning the vents, the CPU got so hot we actually found melted plastic at the bottom of the case.
We figured it was some Lego he accidentally dropped in there because of his brother, but we still don't know to this day.
Installed Windows ME.
>>45407559
The fuck up was not backing up.
>>45407559
>accidentally sudo apt remove bumblebee on both
You'd still be able to get your files, not like it screwed your filesystem retard
>>45407729
Was a newfag to ubuntu back then, and I knew I could get to the files, but didn't have the knowledge then how to.
Im not sure but:
Bought an i5 4690 instead of 4690 to my B85m motherboard
>>45407559
1996, tech support instructed me to "deltree windows" on my win95 box before I knew anything about computers. Seeing a blinking DOS C: prompt was terrifying.
I've never had any big incidents with PCs.
The worst thing I've ever done was flip the red switch behind the PSU to switch it from 115V to 220V.
PC didn't turn back on for days.
gave my grandpa a stroke showing him that scary face maze game thing. it was the last thing he ever saw
>Be in middle school
>Teacher asked me to set up her laptop
>Installed 3 antiviruses and 2 permission controllers
>Didn't know what x86 and x64 was so I got some of each installer
>Wouldn't even boot
Another thing that still haunts me:
>>be me
>>be me 8 yrs ago
>>looking for free games because was a poorfag
>>found legit looking site that had "free games"
>>entered email address and stuff
>>got a ton of emails later for porno, diet pills
>>mum got angry and told me to email them back
>>only got more
>>computer then got infected by one of the emails
>>mfw my greed costed me 1 computer and email address
>messing with my GS3
>experiencing some digitizer issues
>"maybe I can take the LCD off and switch it with my dad's so he'll buy himself a new one and I'll have a working screen"
>take apart the whole phone fine
>get to the LCD
>prying the bare LCD off the phone
>hit lock button on accident to see the screen kick on
>no sooner than 3 seconds pass when a small corner of the LCD cracks and the whole screen goes dead
>retrieve old flip phone from closet and cry
>>45407905
>hit lock button on accident to see the screen kick on
what the fuck
>>45407559
>Hey /g/, whats the worst mistake you made on a computer or any device?
Visited /g/.
>>45407835
>>45407921
I'm alpha and left the battery in to make sure the screen was still working before I removed the LCD
>>45407559
A bit more programming related but okay
>programming a graphics engine with C++ and OpenGL
>started using vectors instead of arrays
>started reading into more data storing methods C++ has
>see Deque is faster and has more features than Vector
>sounds good
>change every std::vector with std::deque
>make some niftier sorting algorithms
>compile
>slow as shit
>graphics look horrid
>terminal emulator starts fucking up, no regular characters, some weird UTF 8 shit I've never seen
>commands don't work
>scared as shit
>computer crashes
>realize std::deque allocates it's memory exponentially by what it already contains every loop run
Never use library functions without reading the source code.
>>45407559
>win98 era
>be reinstalling for some reason I don't remember
>fdisk fuck year I got this
>delete partition and reboot without making new partition
>windows install won't detect harddrive not even for fdisk to set a new partition
>go to best buy or some shit and buy rhel
>discover the horror of the winmodem
and that was my first dance with linux
There was a time when I thought I could turn my PS3 into a Linux system using a thumbdrive when my computer broke down. It turns out I needed to do a whole bunch more to make it into a linux system than I anticipated.
I tried to make it work but ended up fucking up the insides of the PS3 with my attempt for a complete factory wipe all the way to the base model of it.
>>45407559
Your biggest mistake is that you could have easily retrieved your data, idiot.
>working on a server
>need to get a chroot set up
>bork the etc in the chroot
>sudo rm -rf /etc instead of sudo rm -rf etc/.
>ohfuck.jpg
>cloud server
>"Hey boss, got to bring down this server for a sec to finish up the chroot"
>"sure go for it anon"
>shut down server
>detach drive mount it on another server running the same sort of stuff
>cp the /etc/ from that server to the wrecked server
>move drive back boot it back up
>finish the chroot
>no one is the wisers
>next week someone 777's /etc on a test machine
>freaking out because he will lose all weeks work
>Don't worry bro I got this
>hero.jpg
>>45407722
He could have just used a live cd to get his data.
>be me
>pretty young, no job
>save change around 9 years ago
>buy ipod classic 5th gen with said change
>own for 8 years
>out with friends one night, forgot it in my car
>go back, it was so fucking cold
>won't do shit
>ikilledmybaby.jpg
>nomore.mp3
Something felt so wrong when I went back to get it, it's true you feel your loved ones go...
tilted my computer to mess with wires behind it
it slipped, fell and wouldn't turn back on
checked connections
checked all the boards
nothing was wrong and i started to freak...
til i noticed the power supply switch turned itself off
>>45407559
How were you that fucking stupid?
I mean, even if you haven't been backing up it's simple.
login without GUI. Get your fucking files. THEN reinstall.
I threw a packet of soy sauce at a customer worst mistake of my life
>build computer first-time with my dad as a college thing
>few months in
>computer is having problems
>bluescreen bluescreen bluescreen
>programs randomly crashing
>think it's a virus and go through multiple virus removal programs: no change and nothing found except "not a virus.exe" which I got rid of
>even have a friend who's more of a techie than me look at it and he can't pin it down to one thing
>get new RAM: doesn't work (more later)
>friend tries putting RAM in when I went to take a shit, breaks the RAM clips on the MOBO (got pretty upset)
>get new MOBO: doesn't work
>bring it in to a specialist because I'm about ready to toss this homebuilt PC out a fucking window and I'm almost 200 dollars out of new parts
>"Oh hey it was bad RAM and bad Windows 7 installment, I got you new RAM and Windows 7 that will be 190 dollars"
>300 fucking dollars later it works perfectly fine to this fucking day because this idiot didn't quite put the RAM in all the way when he changed it out
>mfw
At least I know viral programs and troubleshooting like the skin of my dick
>>45408098
topkek
>>45408148
wat
>>45408064
Was the HDD kill?
>>45408049
Pretty clever.
I remember I was building my current rig and I put watercooling in it. I ended up leaving it open while I was in the bathroom, which was fine until my brother took a pair of scissors to the tubing and cut them. It wasn't activated with the water and everything yet, but it was a pain to cut again.
>at my cousins house as a kid
>messing around on his computer
>"yo check this out"
>go into msdos
>put in a bunch of commands that I watched my brother do on his computer
>"Damn where did you learn all this"
>-shrug- just good I guess
>format his computer
>oops
>go home before his dad gets back
>bought a G500s
Ruined mah day
>>45407559
>2 months old laptop needs bios update because of video issues
>Flash program tells me to plug in the charger so it connect it to the laptop
>Start the flashing of the bios
>Get something to eat
>Come back in room and laptop screen is black
>Try to boot it
>No power
>Charger not connected to a wall outlet
>laptop is kill
>>45408217
Yea, just bought a sansa clip today & I already have an SD card. I'll fix it one day but for now it remains kill
>>45408355
woops
>clean motherboard with toothbrush
>motherboard never worked again
>>45407905
you know that you can buy new screens, right?
also >>45407921
I remember my friend and I as kids were online and we found this ad for dietary pills. Being curious, we pressed on one, only to be scammed.
Also, there were the pay-to-play in game currency "code generators" they had. Those always sucked.
tar -cvf *.cpp *.hpp Makefile
I made this mistake a couple of weeks ago. I now use Git for everything and commit any time I so much as think about archiving my sources.
Also, deleting a Linux partition while forgetting that that's where my master boot record was located.
>>45408409
You didn't have toothpaste on it did you? Toothpaste is abrasive.
>>45408409
>toothbrush
Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?
>>45407559
The fuckup was not using version control software
The fuckup was not fixing your system without some crappy restore function
>play wow
>let it destroy my life
>stop playing
>rebuild
>play wow again
>it destroys my life again
>stopped playing
>still rebuilding life
That, friends, is why I no longer play ANY computer games. I am too weak.
I am just some filthy casual that plays a couple game of Black Ops 2 a day or something.
>>45407559
When I was 12 I tried installing Ubuntu from a CD-RW and the Live Disc feature wouldn't work so I figured yea I'll just install it. I got a grub-rescue prompt and panicked. My dad brought my PC to best buy and Geek Squad told me I had a broken Hard drive and CD drive. I knew all I needed was a format I just didn't know about Gparted and shit. 200 bucks later and an asswippin' I was scared of Linux. I was happy with my Vista.
>>45408455
Wrong board m80
>>>/v/
>>45408455
Yes, yes you are a filthy casual
>>>/tv/
>>45408455
Just go to reddit.
>>45408098
Why does thee power supply turn itself off every time I move the tower 1 inch? I never touch the damn switch.
>>45408455
>play ultima online from 1999 to 2009/ 20 hours per day
>27 now and NEET AS FUCK
>trying to make up all that lost time...
>self learning C++ for game development
Swapped my Chinkpad screen without taking out the battery. Now theres a nice pair of cables running below the keyboard that shouldnt be there.
Whats worse is there wasnt a real reason to swap it to begin with.
>>45407559
Didn't eat my pride and get a php dev position during the pre2k boom. I could have, and I just couldn't do it. Big mistake. Could have bankrolled my education, travel, retirement, instead of only taking jobs that used technologies I liked.
>>45408049
>next week someone 777's /etc on a test machine
>freaking out because he will lose all weeks work
>Don't worry bro I got this
>hero.jpg
I don't get it
>>45408431
no, I think the static electricity destroyed it
>>45408441
wut
>be me
>playing Xbox 360
>want some Microsoft Points so I can buy DLC
>search for ways to get free Microsoft Points
>find a website
>wants me to log in with my Windows Live ID
>think that I can just quickly change my password if this turns out to be a scam
>enter my Windows Live details and hit log in
>nothing happens
>go to change my Windows Live password
>it's too late
>mums credit card is attached to my Windows Live account
>scammers make a transaction using my mums credit card
>have to call Microsoft and they refund the transaction and lock the account on Xbox.
RIP my old Xbox Live account. I had just finished One Shot One Kill on veteran on CoD4 earlier that day as well.
>>45408570
At least you learned.
>>45407559
set up new linux workstation, spending hours installing shit and configuring
three weeks vacation, come back, forgot password
-.-
>>45408570
Almost had that happen to mine until I realized later it was a fraud. This was with Sony's PS3 though.
>>45408570
Why would you buy Xbox 360 in the first place?
>>45408588
And booting in single user mode didn't work because?
>>45408538
>be me xDDD
>ok no
>3 years ago
>building v2 of my rig with updated ivy bridge and shit
>z77 pro3 from asrock
>pretty good, worked for 2 years until I decided to change
>while building it
>I accidentally the atx holes with eatx holes
>don't ask how, even if there's the backplate I managed to fuck up
>try to pull out the mobo from the case
>one screw (the center one) still in place
>north bridge plastic heatsink pops off
>jesus christ.jpg
>starts sweating like a piece of butter inside a microwave
>carefull snatch that thing on again
>suddenly became religious: christian, buddhist, indhu e vafanghul
>starts praying with every possible object I could find
>boot pc for the first time
>works well and has worked well up to a year ago until I changed system
Who said AsRock is low tier?
>
>>45408570
Typical Xbot
>>45408475
>>45408492
>>45408509
shit dude...
>>45408455
>>45408598
Because I was 14 and it's what all the cool 14 year olds were doing.
>>45408598
This. You could simply get Wii and play your childish games. Or you could get the damn ps3 and play the japanese shit or other exclusives. And finally, PC master race.
>>45407634
Good riddance.
>>45408570
We all got scammed in some gaming-related event in our childhood at least once, mate, at least we have learned from it.
the one and ONLY time ii posted a facebook pic of girl that i banged on /b some anon told me to stop posting pictures of her and then the next day she had blocked me on facebook
how did she find out it was me????
im still spooked
>>45408635
>hey 'b' here is this chick I banged
>how did she know it was me?!!
>>45408635
you can trace the facebook profile from the image name/url or the exif data
You can guess the rest
now toss that moeshit trash away
>>45407559
>>>mfw 1 yr of programming work down the drain
you dumb retard
just re-download an ubuntu live CD, boot it, and copy the files off of your hard drive on to a flash drive
all your work is saved, tada
alternatively, chroots
>>45408635
You used the filename from facebook that identifies the id of the account the picture belongs to, as well as your account.
Fucking up my dad's entire computer by accidentally OCing the CPU(GPU?). I don't even remember how I did it but it was some sort of automatic overclocking software.
>>45408671
jesus fucking christ im stupid.. i wonder how many people know im a creep now
>>45408649
I would asume the average woman has had 10x more sex than the man shes currently fucking so I wouldnt worry about that. This anon just had bad luck.
>>45408702
All of them.
>>45408702
youre mom
lost my iron kiteshield to an armor trimmer
>Be horny 13 year old
>Search for child pornography on Google
>be about 14
>have budget sony ericsson k3...something
>be epic hacker on se-nse forums
>flash it with a load of custom menu's/patches and shit (os was mainly XML for the menus, easy to customize)
>one day decide to remove simlock
>accidentaly drop phone in the prcess
>battery falls out while writing directly to boot memory
>thing is bricked
>about 4 weeks of allowance gone
Either that or installing kazaa
>>45408703
try like X100
is the filename thing really true when i reverse image search fb pics i get nothing and this girl is bretty dumb and has a lot of dumb friends
>>45408773
kazaa lol
>>45408566
sorry, missed a word, recursively. if you do it to a cloud server it bork ssh and sudo so they were not able to do anything on that server. I fixed it the same way I fixed the deleted etc
>>45408761
You fucked up
>>45408761
lel, youre on the fbi watchlist for life now
>>45408861
Here, have a superior version.
>>45408627
>We all got scammed in some gaming-related event in our childhood at least once, mate
Even all of our grandfathers lost money to filthy fucking carneys at a fair. Children are easy money.
>>45408761
I did this too, when I was eleven
>why do all these 'teen' websites not have anyone under 18 that's stupid
>knew that cp was illegal but somehow didn't make the connection between that and it not being on the internet
>google it several times, eventually give up
>>45408761
why would you do that?
>>45408900
>>45408861
Pretty sure most of us did stupid shit like that back in the late 90s and early 00s though...
Have issue with audio system on pc.... horrid buzz on speakers... Research test system. On another system all same gear and cables.... No issue. Think I have grounding loop on pc or crappy board layout and picking up noise. Buy new rig same fucking issue... Flip my shit try different USB cable with ferrite cores no issue. But a new rig for nothing...
>>45408761
kek'd
>>45408951
Lel, thanks anon
>guy on rusescape says if you change your password to 'money' youll get 50mil
>do it
I cried like a bitch and I was only level 40 or something.
>Be young teenager 6 years ago
>First build, on my birthday
>AMD Athlon x2
>OEM proc
>No hsf
>"It must not need one"
>why is it smoking like that
>Babies first rma
>>45408959
I was young and stupid.
>>45408839
ah, lol
Not installing gentoo right away
>>45408064
Did you try it again when it had warmed up?
>>45408046
This.
>>45408236
Sounds like the kind of person that would take scissors to a lamp cord and electrocute himself.
>>45409125
I tried fucking everything
kept fucking around with windows
>go on runescape and tell kids to change their password to "money" to get a shitton of money
>reap the benefits and steal accounts
Like taking candy from a baby
I did feel a little bad about it though I probably upset some nice people
>>45407559
>be a young teen
>Google for "kiddy porn" because I wanted to see girls closer to my age
>only find some child modelling websites
>weeks later a relative is on my computer
>types "k" into Google and gets that search autofilled
>shrug and blame it on my dad
Nothing ever happened but this could've gone really wrong for my dad.
>>45409279
>>shrug and blame it on my dad
>>45407559
>be me, 6 year old
>mom lets me use her computer when i ask but don't put games or anything on it so i would get bored and don't ask for it anymore
>start having fun touching random things
>somehow i get into the boot configs,
>somehow i put password on the boot
>next day, come back from school she is mad as hell, couldn't log into the computer and lost a day of work
>i type the password(her name) while crying and rubbing my sore ass
Didn't mess with computer again until at least 14 years old, i got scarred man, i never seen her that angry
>>45409292
How did she lose a day of work if you knew the password?
>>45408570
My fucking brother did that shit to some faggot who bought hey arnold movies on my shit.
All because of cool "castle crashers' hacks
>>45409319
because i went to school at 7am and came back at 5pm...
>>45409337
oh, I didn't read one of the lines.
>>45407559
>C:\Windows\System\ del *.*
came into lab on weekend
server room was especially cold so I turned off half of the chiller units
many hours later I finish my upgrade and I go home
I forget to turn the chillers back on
next day the techs say I destroyed about $30K of hard drives due to overheating
I feel pretty stupid
soon after development staff not allowed to work alone on weekends
which leads to less unpaid OT for me
>>45408625
Building a PC is difficult.
>>45407559
>logged as root
>want to delete all files from current folder
>accidentally put a slash
>rm /*
>mfw
>mfw
Luckily not too many.
>Change format of harddrive from ntfs to raw
>Ohboyherewego.jpg
I dont even want to continue, bottom line I didnt know what the fuck I was doing. The devastation was quite something
>School USB
>Didn't back it up
>It stops being recognized, bricked
>Lose everything
Learned the motto "If you want to keep it, back it up" that day. Until...
>Spend a night doing some creative writing
>In a bought of hyperfocus, write some amazing shit for about 7 hours straight.
>week later reformat my harddrive
>finally got my dual boot lubuntu/win 7 with everything where I want it
>restore all of my backups
>forgot to grab the file
>try 3 different methods to restore the file
>its gone
Its like burning a painting after youre halfway done with it. Kill me.
>heavily invest myself worlds.com back in 2000
that is all
>>45409546
how do you accidentally put a slash? isn't it a shift key in all layouts?
>>45409642
Both forward and backward slashes do not require a shift key on the US and ISO layouts.
>>45409661
uuuh, bad call man
>>45409688
And why is that?
>had been mining potcoin for the longest time and had made bank on it before (like $400 for little effort)
>got new SSD, wiped old for storage
>realize my potcoin wallet is on it with like 27k
>restored it, still corrupt
>fuck
Lost out on an easy gig selling them on ebay which I could have made another $800.
Felt so fucking stupid
Nothing too major. Maybe when I tried to clean my G700 with rubbing alcohol and ruined it but that was just a minor enough mistake that only cost me like $70 to replace (though the G700s uses noticeably shittier software which still pisses me off) I did accidentally wipe one of my main storage drives when reinstalling Windows as well and accidentally picked the wrong drive, might have been able to recover some but I just couldn't give a shit.
Wasn't really my mistake but I remember when I was a lot younger my dad built my PC for me and accidentally screwed a screw in the wrong place somehow (still not really sure how he did it) that shorted the motherboard so badly that it burned a huge hole into it and ruined it. Stank my room up with an awful smell for a while too.
>>45407559
>be 10
>Windows 3.11
>Screwing around in display settings on dads computer
>Set it to CGA graphics
>Screen is nothing but garbled graphics
>panic and reboot
>graphics are still fucked
>>45407956
So what I'm hearing is, you only needed one std::deque but instead you had like 50?
>>45409429
I blame the idiots that gave you access to the server room without training more than I blame you.
>>45409140
>implying this would happen
It doesn't
>>45409909
This
>be me
>be literally 12 yo
>think its good idea to build pc
>never even owned a computer before
>ended up spending ~3k of my parents money
>crashes everywhere, nobody know how to fix them
>grow up to be apple user
>>45409958
>>grow up to be apple user
Why am I not surprised
I corrupted 3 TB of my most important data, some of it was lost for ever. I still suffer from it years later
>you will never run an alert with reb
