while shopping at Wal-Mart.... (HUMOR)

[Guest duir66]

I was passing the electronics dept. when I came upon the Wal-Mart X-Mas promo on display, an HP 2GHz Cele' with WinXP NOT LOCKED DOWN WHATSOEVER!!!!!

 

Immediately the cantankerous side of my mind started racing. "Hmmm!" I thought to myself, "I bet that if I came back at 1 or 2AM I could put Mandrake on here without anyone even noticing."

 

Every so often that completely immature side of me kicks in - the one I thought I left in High School - buried and forgotten. But this idea did make it out of my mouth. I turned to my wife and told her about my dastardly notion. Of course she echoed the same immediate "NO!" that had just rattled through my own mind just moments before.

 

Of course we both kind of giggled at just how bad I could actually be when I put my mind to it and just how hilarious it would be for some poor unsuspecting would-be-customer to ask one of those "ever-knowledgeable" Wal-Mart employees "Where's Windows?!!"

 

I can say that only because I used to work in the Electronics Dept. at Wal-Mart and I know that the majority of their employees are typically very-computer illiterate.

 

I am by no means advocating that people even attempt this. This could easily qualify as vandalism and the big W never minds prosecuting those types. It was just one of those funny "what if" moments that I wanted to share with all of you.

[mtweidmann]

Question is how long would it take them to notice in the first place. :)

[Pzatch]

I can tell you now. NEVER. I set up my machine to duel boot and made kde and my old win98 look as close to each other as possible. My buddy (WM employ) came over hopped on the computer cruised the net, played quake3 for and hour and checked his email. Never once did he notice untill he tried to shut it down.

LMAO

He's trying out Mandrake 9 on his computer now.

[Ixthusdan]

Hey, I like this concept! Do users really know the name of the os they are using? As long as it works, they do not care. Your story shows that.

[SteamCat]

I can tell you now. NEVER. I set up my machine to duel boot and made kde and my old win98 look as close to each other as possible. My buddy (WM employ) came over hopped on the computer cruised the net, played quake3 for and hour and checked his email. Never once did he notice untill he tried to shut it down.

LMAO

He's trying out Mandrake 9 on his computer now.

 

This sounds like a major M$ FUD killer. :)

 

Imagine the promotion that could be gained by documenting and spreading stories like this. :)

[Guest duir66]

Like I said, I didn't actually do it - it was just a fleeting malicious thought that ran through my head.

 

I just thought that it would be an absolutely funny thing to do because most of their people would never be able to get it off of the HD much less understand what it was they were looking at in the first place.

 

and they probably wouldn't care as long as it sells computers...but that's the Wal-Mart way.

 

 

:lol:

[Cannonfodder]

you've been reading too much 2600, haven't you? :P

[Guest duir66]

2600? Had to ask ezroller what that was. Can't say I have but it sounds like something I'd like. I used to love hearing Biafra's Spoken Word LPs about disrupting the status quo, etc. As a teenager I even had deviant thoughts about hijacking comm. satellites and moving their orbits just far enough so that they'd be lost to the uplink. Should I be seeking psycho-therapy maybe???

 

But yeah, this would be a nice thing to do. Having played with Lycoris I can say that most users wouldn't notice or even care after they did realize that it wasn't Winderz. The next couple of years are going to get interesting indeed (selling pre-installed Linux computers that is) if Wal-Mart doesn't get paid off first by M$.

 

Maybe user groups should have a side-by-side comparison at your next open house.

 

WAIT!!! If it were possible to use this site and others like it to push for a global linux open house day, linked with inet, vid cam etc..., that would be some great PR that the various Distros can't afford. I'm going to have to think about this.

[tube013]

could always just bring in a cd of knoppix, and boot it up and leave it.. that would probably freak them out enough... plus no harm done, as it runs off the cd, and would only cost you the cost of 1 blank.

[Cannonfodder]

There ya are! http://www.2600.com/

 

If you have a local borders they often have the mag. It's ok though. Some of the hacks are kinda fantasy or very short on info. On the other hand I'm not the one taking the risks :wink:

[Guest duir66]

could always just bring in a cd of knoppix, and boot it up and leave it.. that would probably freak them out enough... plus no harm done, as it runs off the cd, and would only cost you the cost of 1 blank.

 

A bit of playful conformity you could say. Your right, it would take them about 30min to an hour to figure it out - maybe!

 

I like it. I might actual do this..., well maybe. It is a rather good solution. One could even do this at Circuit City or Best Buy. They'd probably just leave it in - :lol:

 

I don't mean to speculate but what if one day knoppix was placed on the tray of thousands of showroom computers all over. That does not quite qualify as permanent vandalism - just a relatively harmless prank. Hmm!

 

Thanks for the link cannonfodder. 8)

[Cannonfodder]

Don't forget about video survellence.. you would be surprised what people will do to pursue this...

[Guest duir66]

Yes. Wal-Mart does have video survellence. Especially during X-Mas holidays. But I think that they usually are looking for people putting things in their pockets. As I said at the beginning. re-formatting a HD could amount to vandalism. Which is why I certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to do it.

 

Just running the 'badday.exe" on it would be a scream in itself.

 

When I worked there they used the security program called "Full Armor" to prevent things like this. From what I could see, this demo box didn't have anything like that on it. I guess they finally realized that they didn't need to pay the site license and that all you had to do was just re-install the OS and it would fix what ever problems people had caused.

 

But to give you an idea about how little retail knows (or at least used to know) about computers: One day back in `96 I was booting up the PCs for the beginning of work day. One of the all-in-one ASTs had power but no display. I tried again but nothing. Then I noticed that the cabinet that the mobo sat in was slightly ajar in the back. On closer examination, I saw that the screws that secured the cabinet still had pieces of plastic around them but were no longer securing the cabinet to the chassis. At that point I got my Dept. manager who was absolutely computer illiterate. We went back and slid the cabinet out and found that someone had taken the 75MHz Pentium out of the socket right there on the show room floor. (Like I said, "back in `96").

 

This thing was obviously raided by someone who knew exactly what they were doing. Never found who did it though. It was more than likely not an inside job because of the force they used to open it in the first place - an employee would have probably used a screwdriver - but nevertheless, whodathunk?

[ezroller]

you and that badday.exe...next time it goes on my box man...its war.

[Guest duir66]

How dare you make such an accusation!! WTF are you talking about? Henry did that to you. I would never do such a thing.

 

I..., I..., I couldn't help but try to egg on a war between the two of you. :lol: The day that happened it looked like you were going to pick one on him anyway.

 

A war with you I could deal with. But Henry & Andy, sir, are the war masters. They had a war once. Andy won by hacking Henry's registry so that he could only have a pink background. :lol: Henry never could figure that one out and cried Uncle. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to hook him up with that pink iMac last Friday.

 

Just don't put badday on your mom's computer. She'd flip - no pun intended. :lol: