A Computer in a Computer !?



  • My brother has a small office with a couple of employees, all non-computer literate, but all of whom do their jobs on computers. They know just enough to follow their routine, but (usually) stop dead in their tracks if they accidentally click on the wrong thing and something pops up that they didn't expect.

    Due to some recent violent thunderstorms, several of his machines blew out (along with the UPS/surge protectors to which they were attached). Until the new equipment arrives, they're a little short of hardware, so I lent him my iMac. It has all the usual iMac software, including Office-for-the-Mac, plus the Mac version of Office (Numbers, ...) as well. I installed all his apps on a dedicated VM, and set it up that when it powers up, it auto logs in to a restricted account, and fires up the VM (full screen) which gives them the network login prompt to which they're accustomed, and after login fires up their applications. When it's full screen, it looks (almost) exactly like one of their PCs.

    It took about 2 days until someone accidentally iconized the VM and found themselves on the Mac desktop. The account was non-root, and had everything disabled that could be disabled, so they couldn't do any damage. They didn't see any of their icons on the desktop and they didn't understand what the dock was, but they recognized the icons for Word and Excel. So they fired up what they thought were the apps on their PC, and got stumped when presented with the file dialog because they didn't recognize the file Mac system.

    I was finally able to explain it to my brother after about 30 minutes (he's good at what he does, but knows not much in the way of computers, and had trouble grasping the (V) in VM). The office staff couldn't understand no matter what we told them.

    *sigh*



  •  TRWTF is that you said "non-computer literate", shouldn't that be "computer illiterate"?  Just messing around. Actually I have run into a similar situation. I had remote desktop setup to log into a computer running terminal services for my brother, so he could surf the net on IE, on Windows, on a machine where he had an account super locked down. I didn't log out of my computer, which was a stupid thing, because some how, he managed to minimize the window and crash firefox (by going to myspace), repeatedly and and thus removed all my crashed sessions so I could not recover my tabs. The worst part is, he denied he ever used it, despite the fact I showed him he had not only been to his myspace, but saved the login information on my browser. It's like if someone left their magazines with their name and keys in your car after spilling milkshakes everywhere and told you "I was never in there"



  • @helpfulcorn said:

    removed all my crashed sessions so I could not recover my tabs
    I use this thing called "bookmarks"...</obligatory>



  •  @helpfulcorn said:

    firefox

     

    There's your problem! The proper way to browse the web is to drag your taskbar to the top of the screen and run multiple instances of IE6. It works just as well.



  • @helpfulcorn said:

     TRWTF is that you said "non-computer literate", shouldn't that be "computer illiterate"? 

    Heh, I wrote this pretty late last night (I'm at work before 7AM), and at that hour, [i]I'm[/i] illiterate in [i]all[/i] things ;)



  • I just read the title and thought imediate that it would be about something like this http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/index.jsp . For some strange reaso, VM's didn't come to my mind.



  • @Hitsuji said:

    I just read the title and thought imediate that it would be about something like this http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/index.jsp

    How is that even comparable to what Snoofie was saying?  He loaned his Mac until new machines were purchased and he ran a VM because the software needed Windows to run.

     

    @Hitsuji said:

    For some strange reaso, VM's didn't come to my mind.

    Yes, that would require critical thinking abilities. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Hitsuji said:

    I just read the title and thought imediate that it would be about something like this http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/index.jsp

    How is that even comparable to what Snoofie was saying?  He loaned his Mac until new machines were purchased and he ran a VM because the software needed Windows to run.

     

    My reading of Hitsiji's post was he though that before reading the contents of Snoofie's post.  It's simply a mildy humorous statement predicated on an ambiguous title.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Hitsuji said:

    I just read the title and thought imediate that it would be about something like this http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/index.jsp

    How is that even comparable to what Snoofie was saying?  He loaned his Mac until new machines were purchased and he ran a VM because the software needed Windows to run.

     

    @Hitsuji said:

    For some strange reaso, VM's didn't come to my mind.

    Yes, that would require critical thinking abilities. 

     

    Do you talk to people this way in person, in your daily life?  If so I pray to work with you one day



  • @pig_vomit said:

    Do you talk to people this way in person, in your daily life?  If so I pray to work with you one day

     

    Ahhh good, we needed a new Internet Tough Guy.



  • @pig_vomit said:

    Do you talk to people this way in person, in your daily life?  If so I pray to work with you one day




  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @pig_vomit said:

    Do you talk to people this way in person, in your daily life?  If so I pray to work with you one day


     

    How's Sarah?



  • @pig_vomit said:

    How's Sarah?
    Most people know better than to quote a large image.



  • @pig_vomit said:

    How's Sarah?

    Errr..  the wife of the fictional character my nick comes from?



  •  Well Morbs, DogmaBites was right. I was, as I had stated in the post, just on about the title.



  • @helpfulcorn said:

    The worst part is, he denied he ever used it, despite the fact I showed him he had not only been to his myspace, but saved the login information on my browser

     

    Well, maybe if his myspace account gets "Hacked", you can deny doing that too. >;-)



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Hitsuji said:

    I just read the title and thought imediate that it would be about something like this http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/index.jsp

    How is that even comparable to what Snoofie was saying?  He loaned his Mac until new machines were purchased and he ran a VM because the software needed Windows to run.

     

    @Hitsuji said:

    For some strange reaso, VM's didn't come to my mind.

    Yes, that would require critical thinking abilities. 



    Forget everything you know about the OP. Read the title. JUST the title.
    A Computer in a Computer !?

    Why is it so difficult to understand how that can be interpreted literally? In fact, it actually makes more sense to be referring to an actual computer inside a computer (based purely on the title), since a VM creates a "virtual environment", not an actual "computer".



  • @silenceisdefeat said:

    Why is it so difficult to understand how that can be interpreted literally? In fact, it actually makes more sense to be referring to an actual computer inside a computer (based purely on the title), since a VM creates a "virtual environment", not an actual "computer".

    I understand that it can be interpreted literally.  However, to jump to the conclusion that someone would have a small form-factor computer in another computer is just idiotic.  Hell, it wouldn't even be a WTF in and of itself -- there are definitely scenarios where having a smaller computer in a larger one would make sense.

     

    Since you and everyone else seem intent on dragging this goddamn argument out, so be it.  I suppose it would have made sense to you if I had made a comment like "I only read the first word of the title and thought it must be a post about free candy!  I mean, 'A' could definitely be the start of many sentences and who doesn't love free candy?"  Seriously, it was a pointless, braindead comment that barely even made sense within the context of the fucking title. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    that someone would have a small form-factor computer in another computer is just idiotic.

    @morbiuswilters said:

    there are definitely scenarios where having a smaller computer in a larger one would make sense.

    Contradiction much?



  • @silenceisdefeat said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    However, to jump to the conclusion that [X], is just idiotic.

    @morbiuswilters said:

    there are definitely scenarios where having a smaller computer in a larger one would make sense.

    Contradiction much?

     

    FTFY.

    No contradiction.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    a small form-factor computer in another computer is just idiotic. 
    We definitely wouldn't want that on this site.

    EDIT: yeah, I misinterpreted too.

     

    For all it's worth (not much, I know), I thought "hardware inside hardware" too.

    I mean,

    The image “http://www.via.com.tw/en/images/products/embedded/artigo/artigoWeb_24-1_04.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The ARTiGO is an extremely ultra compact system that can be installed into a standard 5.25" desktop drive bay. Adding a mini PC within a Desktop PC.

     

    That's weird. Potentially useful perhaps, but weird.

    Much more WTFy than the original OP IMO.



  • @dhromed said:

    FTFY.

     

    In order to be "fixed" it would have to be broken. The post was written exactly as it was intended. Yes, it was misleading. That was the point.



  • @silenceisdefeat said:

    The post was written exactly as it was intended. Yes, it was misleading. That was the point.
     

    So you purposely wrote a confusing post for a reaction?

    You realize that is called 'trolling' right?



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @silenceisdefeat said:

    The post was written exactly as it was intended. Yes, it was misleading. That was the point.
     

    So you purposely wrote a confusing post for a reaction?

    You realize that is called 'trolling' right?


    A troll? On MY internet?

    THIS CANNOT BE.



  • @silenceisdefeat said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    that someone would have a small form-factor computer in another computer is just idiotic.

    @morbiuswilters said:

    there are definitely scenarios where having a smaller computer in a larger one would make sense.

    Contradiction much?

    Dhromed is right, it's not a contradiction.  I figured 3rd grade reading comprehension would be enough to understand what I was saying, but I'm no longer shocked by the stupidity of the people on this site. 



  • @Zecc said:

    For all it's worth (not much, I know), I thought "hardware inside hardware" too.

    I mean,

    The ARTiGO is an extremely ultra compact system that can be installed into a standard 5.25" desktop drive bay. Adding a mini PC within a Desktop PC.

     

    That's weird. Potentially useful perhaps, but weird.

    Much more WTFy than the original OP IMO.

    I wonder if the old "OrangePC" hardware would qualify as a computer in a computer. It was basically a "PC" on a daughter-board, which you basically put into a Mac, so you had something more than just emulation: you could run DOS / Windows on its own hardware. And without having to switch the entire Mac into a crappy arch like x86. ;)


  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Dhromed is right,

    While I thank you for the kudos, I believe Mr. Silenceisdefeat was referring to his own post not being wrong, him likely purposefully (yet without cause! Irony! Or a failed attempt at irony -- double meta-irony!) quoting you, shall we say, selectively.



  • @Hitsuji said:

    I just read the title and thought imediate that it would be about something like this http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/index.jsp . For some strange reaso, VM's didn't come to my mind.

     

    I was thinking the same thing.


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