Survey: Nearly 40 Percent of Computer Users Curse at their PCs (Some Do Much Worse)
Survey: Nearly 40 Percent of Computer Users Curse at their PCs (Some Do Much Worse)
Posted 02/09/2011 at 8:57am
| by Paul Lilly
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Security firm Avira published the results of a recent consumer survey that sheds some light on the abuse computers users inflict on their PCs. We're not talking about malware, mind you, but actual physical and verbal abuse directed towards our machine servants that we sometimes have a love/hate relationship with. Out of 14,000 polled, 39 percent admitted to cursing or yelling at their disobedient PC out loud.
What we gather from that tidbit is not everyone's being honest, lest we're led to believe 41 percent truly have never shouted like a sailor at their PC in times of dismay.
We're less shocked that 9 percent admitted to getting into fisticuffs with their computer, or worse yet, beating it with a baseball bat or other object. And 3 percent said they've actually picked up their PC and thrown it to the ground WWE style or against a desk or other piece of furniture.
"It is true that we tried to have some fun with this question of the month since it was December and traditionally many people are online shopping with some experiencing problems if a PC stops working or if they cannot access a website at the appropriate time," said Elisabeth Rothbart, PR Manager, Avira. "I think the funny aspect to this question is that an equal number of people curse at their PC vs. being nice to them. There is probably some anger management factoid in the results some place, but we’ll worry about the PC side of things. I don’t recommend violence of any sort toward computers or anything else, but I can relate to the feelings of frustration."
Have you ever screamed obscenities at your PC? Have you ever caused it physical arm, such as lighting it on fire perhaps? Come clean in the comments section below!
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jpmurph1
February 10, 2011 at 5:17pm
i never curse at my pc, i very softly whisper to it that if it contiues this bad behavior, i am going to take it apart
armada439
February 09, 2011 at 3:16pm
Never curse at my pc, its bad luck. I do curse at software on the pc, but never at the hardware itself :)
Tenhawk
February 09, 2011 at 11:32am
39 percent of people admit to cursing at their computer...
This just in : 61 percent of people LIE to pollsters.
praetor_alpha
February 09, 2011 at 10:25am
Whenever I watch online video, or play a game with unskippable ads (I'm looking at you, Borderlands), I will habitually (80+%) flip them off. I later figure out how to remove game ads for the games in question (often going into the game data folders, and removing the video files for the logos).
When I got StarCraft 2, it got to about 50% installed, then the shitty unreliable power decided to have one of it's half second hiccups. I dropped the loudest F bomb; I'm pretty sure that the people living upstairs heard something. Thankfully, it started installing again and completed without any incidents whatsoever.
My recent delimma with my graphics card has led to some interesting patterns, alternating between encouragement, praise, and FU.
Blaze589
February 09, 2011 at 10:18am
No. There was a time when I did; back in 2001-2005 when I had a 1.2Ghz Celeron PC. I've down right had my computer down right freeze whilst in the midst of an essay. Thankfully things have gotten a lot better with faster CPUs.
violian
February 09, 2011 at 11:40am
I was going to post the same thing until I saw your comment. I had a 1.0GHz Celeron running Windows Millennium back in 2000, and I remembered breaking the keyboard one time. Paid $1200 for that piece of garbage. $1200 back then is worth $1612 in 2011 dollars. It literally froze up every 30 minutes and gave the blue screen of death from just browsing the internet.
Caboose
February 09, 2011 at 1:12pm
I blame one specific component that you both shared. The Intel Celery CPU. I'd say that a lot of your issues started there.
Bennethon
February 09, 2011 at 10:08am
My PC is about the only thing that I feel comfortable being beligerantly hostile towards.
ShyLinuxGuy
February 09, 2011 at 10:06am
I've never sworn at my computer either. Running Ubuntu, it's as smooth as it can be. There are a few snag-ups, but for the most part, it just works. However, I find that I communicate with the computer as a habit sometimes.
Even back in the day when I was using XP (6th-7th grade), I haven't found a need to swear at my computer because I control the computer, it doesn't (or didn't) control me.
D1stinct
February 09, 2011 at 9:32am
Title: "Computers Curse at their PC's?"
Do they curse at each other over the network... or is this only in a virtual environment?
On a serious note, I'm not surprised one bit! I've personally never cursed at my PC, mainly because I know how to use it... although; I sigh everytime I have to open iTunes...
If anyone knows how to speed iTunes up on a decent Windows 7 PC let me know!
jnwoll
February 09, 2011 at 10:38am
what sort of time frame are you aiming for? Mine opens visually in less than 2 seconds. Music access takes 5-7 seconds. My iTunes is installed on my SSD drive so the cached image of the database comes up very quickly. However, the database is on a SATA drive and therefore has to "spin up" to access 92GB of music. Now, if your database is massive that might be an issue. IDE hard drive? Latest BIOS to make sure SATA drives are being accessed properly?
neo_mouse
February 09, 2011 at 9:32am
F*ck every peice of tech i own i have had some choice 4 letter words for them. i love all tech and i hate all tech.
DJSPIN80
February 09, 2011 at 9:11am
I've never sworn nor cursed my Macbook Pro. It does what I need it to do, it does it well. Even in development tasks, it's reliable and stable. I've ran multiple terminal instances, TextMate and Chrome for Rails development, not a problem. Running XCode isn't a problem either.
My PC on the other hand, has received its fair share of curse words. When nVidia writes crappy drivers, I find myself swearing at the computer. Windows receives 90% of my cursing - from general slowness, registry issues, and over all maintenance costs (defragging et al). Visual Studio and SQL Server eat up system resources. So yeah, Windows gets a LOT of choice words from me.
Caboose
February 09, 2011 at 1:10pm
Until there is a hardware failure in your macbook and you have to take the entire thing apart to replace one component, or find that its soldered to the motherboard. Or then there's paying a helluva lot more than you would for a PC of same specs.
A properly maintained Windows PC will perform properly for many years with minimal issue. Most maintenance tasks can be automated to run after hours so as not to affect your daily tasks. Also outfitting the system with enough RAM and HDD space, along with an appropriate CPU will also ensure that your system runs optimally for the tasks in which you're throwing at it. I have no issues running Visual Studio on an Intel Core2Duo E6550 (stock speeds) with 4GB DDR2-800 and Win7 Pro 64bit. My PC at home is an AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE w/8GB DDR3-1333 and Win7 Ultimate 64bit and I do video editing on that machine just fine.
Yes, certain apps can be more resource intensive as others. Heck, I've seen Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere bring high-end dual quad-core xeon systems with enough RAM that you could run a computer just on the memory, to a grinding halt.
The majority of issues that I've come across are user generated, with some caused by bad hardware or poor drivers (I'm looking at you nVidia),
DJSPIN80
February 09, 2011 at 1:33pm
"Until there is a hardware failure in your macbook and you have to take the entire thing apart to replace one component, or find that its soldered to the motherboard. Or then there's paying a helluva lot more than you would for a PC of same specs."
I just swapped the HDD on my Macbook Pro to a hybrid drive. Soon, I'll swap it again for a 128GB SSD. I've yet to encounter major hardware failure on my Macbook Pro as well as my Windows 7 PC. It's not the hardware I curse out, it's Windows.
"A properly maintained Windows PC will perform properly for many years with minimal issue. Most maintenance tasks can be automated to run after hours so as not to affect your daily tasks."
Sure, I can run many of these tasks after hours - that's not my problem. From the get-go, a Windows PC costs me in terms of time. I run Disk Cleanup and Defrag at night. Then, I have to clean my registry every so often to keep the registry lean. Since my Win7 PC is a development box; I run Visual Studio, SQL Server (Express or Developer Edition), and a host of other tools (like Redgate tools). A properly maintained PC is harder when you've got gigabytes of tools to deal with.
"The majority of issues that I've come across are user generated, with some caused by bad hardware or poor drivers (I'm looking at you nVidia),"
As I said, never had I had problems with hardware. If hardware fails, I replace it. Done. Do you know why I adore my macbook pro so much? OS X never gives me problems. Windows has issues - regardless of your status as a user. Sure, Macs are expensive and have specs that are often behind the PC world - but you get an OS that's married to the hardware. It's efficient, it's fast and it's well-built (plus it's a UNIX kernel!).
Ghok
February 09, 2011 at 1:10pm
I'd agree with you ten years ago, but I haven't had a major Windows problem since XP. If I do, it's generally when Windows treats me like a dumbass, blocking me from doing things because it assumes I don't know what I'm doing. I've used a Macbook only on occasion, so I can't really compare the two.
DJSPIN80
February 09, 2011 at 10:02am
Take "you" can't spelling self back to school.
I write code for both platforms, so both machines are necessary. I love building PC's as much as the next guy, I just hate Windows. Windows is NOT a PC, Windows is Windows. A Mac uses PC components as well, yet it does PC better than Microsoft. I'll hate on Windows as much as I want and no, I will not take my "hate mail" to MacLife.
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