Tech guy

We're up here at the Attila family homestead north of New York City, where we return every year for Thanksgiving. And when we return, I immediately turn into the tech guy. Because in my family no one has any clue technologically.

A few months ago, there was an amusing thread in a computer forum I frequent. A forum member was complaining that his father really doesn't know anything about computers but thinks he does. A long fight ensued between father and son, with father (according to son, the forum member) totally "borking" the computer. (As an aside, one of my continuing grievances against Arlen Specter is that he actively participated in creating the term used in the computer field to mean "screwing up.") So the guy was complaining about his father, and others were chiming in. One member then posted what I thought was a very sensible idea -- that he realized his mother wasn't computer-savvy, and he simply made sure that each of the several times a year he visited, he updated and fixed her computer. No complaints. That's just the way it is.

So that's what I do. Several times a year, I update and fix my parents' computer. Today, I installed Windows XP Service Pack 2, updated anti-virus files ("Mom, your anti-virus files are five months old!"), and ran anti-spyware software.

Look, my parents have done a lot for me over the years. This is not a big deal. Happy Thanksgiving.