PAX East kicks off on March 6th. It seems as though the East coast is in the midst of some kind of winter Armageddon but let’s be honest, it’s not like any of us were gonna go outside anyway. I just want to drink hot chocolate and play games all weekend. It was announced yesterday that one of those games will be Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, Acquisitions Inc. is returning to Boston on March 8th at 1:30 pm in the main theater. Here’s the blurb from the official site.
“Our heroes arrive in Baldur’s Gate only to find that something foul is afoot. They must discover the secret evil that smolders in the shadows before the great city turns against them. Join us as Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik, Scott Kurtz, and Patrick Rothfuss team up with Dungeon Master Chris Perkins to once again turn peril into profit.”
Wait, what do they mean by “the city turns against them”?
Hmmm. Jim does not like the sound of this.
I had to do some work on my son’s computer last week after he told me it was running slow. It did not take long to discover that it was full of fucking spyware bullshit. He had toolbars and ads popping up all over the place. It turns out he had been downloading minecraft skins and I discovered I had failed to teach him some basic internet literacy stuff. I knew he was playing Minecraft and watching Youtube but of course he was also trying to get mods and skins. I explained that his computer was full of garbage and malicious software and I spent a good chunk of the night just trying to clean it. He felt super bad and I actually found him crying in his room later that evening.
I explained that I was not mad at him and that it was not his fault. I had failed to teach him how to navigate some of this stuff. I also told him that these programs are designed to trick you into installing them and that full grown adults end up with computers full of this junk. I asked him what he was trying to get and he told me he wanted a Minecraft mod called OptiFine. We sat down together and tried to find a download link for it. When the page popped up I snapped this picture.
Now to you and I this isn’t that difficult. We know that the buttons are traps and the text is actually a link to the file we want. But try and imagine what this looks like to a ten year old raised on iPads and Windows 8. It’s a minefield and when I looked at it with him I realised I had not really prepared him to navigate it. So we talked about finding the right link for the file you're after. We also talked about paying attention during the installation process. I explained that many times these programs will try and install extra stuff you don’t want and if you are not paying attention you can end up with all sorts of junk on your computer.
In the end I turned on some parental controls and explained that from now on, when he wants to download something we should do it together. I’d still let him do it and work out how to install the mods on his own but I’d like to be there in case he needs help. I remember when we got our first computer I was in High School. I’d played around with Apple computers in school but this was a real PC (a 486!) and it was in our house. Now my folks had no idea how to use this thing so it was sort of up to me to figure it out. I had Tycho to help me but for the most part it was just me learning as I went. Gabe is 10 now and I think he’s starting to realize just how powerful his computer is and everything it gives him access to. It’s not just a Minecraft box. He’s looking up information about space, programming and games. On one hand I’m so excited for him because I remember that feeling. On the other hand, I still remember my very first Netscape search was for “boobs”.
-Gabe out
